Book of Common Prayer
To the chief Musician. On Jonathelem-rechokim. Of David. Michtam; when the Philistines took him in Gath.
56 Be gracious unto me, O God; for man would swallow me up: all the day long fighting he oppresseth me.
2 Mine enemies would swallow [me] up all the day long; for they are many that fight against me haughtily.
3 In the day that I am afraid, I will confide in thee.
4 In God will I praise his word, in God I put my confidence: I will not fear; what can flesh do unto me?
5 All the day long they wrest my words; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves; they mark my steps, because they wait for my soul.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, O God.
8 *Thou* countest my wanderings; put my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
9 Then shall mine enemies return backward in the day when I call: this I know, for God is for me.
10 In God will I praise [his] word; in Jehovah will I praise [his] word.
11 In God have I put my confidence: I will not fear; what can man do unto me?
12 Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render thanks unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death; [wilt thou] not [keep] my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
To the chief Musician. 'Destroy not.' Of David. Michtam; when he fled from Saul in the cave.
57 Be gracious unto me, O God, be gracious unto me; for my soul taketh refuge in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings do I take refuge, until the calamities be overpast.
2 I will call unto God, the Most High; unto God that performeth [all] for me.
3 He will send from the heavens and save me; he hath covered with reproach him that would swallow me up. Selah. God hath sent forth his loving-kindness and his truth.
4 My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down [among] them that breathe out flames, the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
5 Be exalted above the heavens, O God; let thy glory be above all the earth!
6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down: they have digged a pit before me; they are fallen into the midst thereof. Selah.
7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing, yea, I will sing psalms.
8 Awake, my glory; awake, lute and harp: I will wake the dawn.
9 I will give thee thanks among the peoples, O Lord; of thee will I sing psalms among the nations:
10 For thy loving-kindness is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
11 Be exalted above the heavens, O God; let thy glory be above all the earth!
To the chief Musician. 'Destroy not.' Of David. Michtam.
58 Is righteousness indeed silent? Do ye speak it? Do ye judge with equity, ye sons of men?
2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh out the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked go astray from the womb; they err as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: [they are] like the deaf adder which stoppeth her ear;
5 Which doth not hearken to the voice of enchanters, of one charming ever so wisely.
6 O God, break their teeth in their mouth; break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Jehovah.
7 Let them melt away as waters that flow off; when he aimeth his arrows, let them be as blunted:
8 Let them be as a snail that melteth as it passeth away; [like] the untimely birth of a woman, let them not see the sun.
9 Before your pots feel the thorns, green or burning,—they shall be whirled away.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his footsteps in the blood of the wicked:
11 And men shall say, Verily there is fruit for the righteous; verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.
To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
64 Hear, O God, my voice in my plaint; preserve my life from fear of the enemy:
2 Hide me from the secret counsel of evil-doers, from the tumultuous crowd of the workers of iniquity,
3 Who have sharpened their tongue like a sword, [and] have aimed their arrow, a bitter word;
4 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
5 They encourage themselves in an evil matter, they concert to hide snares; they say, Who will see them?
6 They devise iniquities: We have it ready, the plan is diligently sought out. And each one's inward [thought] and heart is deep.
7 But God will shoot an arrow at them: suddenly are they wounded;
8 By their own tongue they are made to fall over one another: all that see them shall flee away.
9 And all men shall fear, and shall declare God's doing; and they shall wisely consider his work.
10 The righteous shall rejoice in Jehovah, and trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.
To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David: a Song.
65 Praise waiteth for thee in silence, O God, in Zion; and unto thee shall the vow be performed.
2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
3 Iniquities have prevailed against me: our transgressions, thou wilt forgive them.
4 Blessed is he whom thou choosest and causest to approach: he shall dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, of thy holy temple.
5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation, thou confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the distant regions of the sea. …
6 Who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with power;
7 Who stilleth the raging of the seas, the raging of their waves, and the tumult of the peoples.
8 And they that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens; thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
9 Thou hast visited the earth, thou hast watered it; thou greatly enrichest it: the river of God is full of water; thou providest their corn, when thou hast so prepared it:
10 Thou dost satiate its furrows, thou smoothest its clods, thou makest it soft with showers; thou blessest the springing thereof.
11 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop fatness:
12 They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness, and the hills are girded with gladness.
13 The meadows are clothed with flocks, and the valleys are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, yea, they sing.
6 And it came to pass when Sanballat, and Tobijah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left in it (though at that time I had not set up the doors in the gates),
2 that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.
3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down. Why should the work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?
4 And they sent to me four times after this sort; and I answered them in the same manner.
5 Then sent Sanballat his servant to me in this manner the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand,
6 in which was written: It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says [it, that] thou and the Jews think to rebel, for which cause thou buildest the wall, and according to these words thou wilt become their king.
7 And thou hast also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning thee at Jerusalem saying, There is a king in Judah! And now it will be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.
8 And I sent to him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.
9 For they all would have made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be slackened from the work, that it be not carried out.—Now therefore strengthen my hands!
10 And I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabeel, who had shut himself up. And he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple; for they are coming to kill thee; even in the night are they coming to kill thee.
11 And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, could go into the temple, and live? I will not go in.
12 And I perceived, and behold, God had not sent him; for he pronounced this prophecy against me; and Tobijah and Sanballat had hired him.
13 Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have wherewith to spread an evil report, that they might reproach me.
14 My God, remember Tobijah and Sanballat according to these their works, and also the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets who would have put me in fear.
15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.
16 And it came to pass that when all our enemies heard [of it], all the nations that were about us were afraid and were much cast down in their own eyes, and they perceived that this work was wrought by our God.
17 Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobijah, and those of Tobijah came to them.
18 For there were many in Judah sworn to him; for he was a son-in-law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.
19 Also they spoke of his good deeds before me, and reported my words to him. [And] Tobijah sent letters to put me in fear.
10 And I saw another strong angel coming down out of the heaven, clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow upon his head, and his countenance as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire,
2 and having in his hand a little opened book. And he set his right foot on the sea, and the left upon the earth,
3 and cried with a loud voice as a lion roars. And when he cried, the seven thunders uttered their own voices.
4 And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write: and I heard a voice out of the heaven saying, Seal the things which the seven thunders have spoken, and write them not.
5 And the angel whom I saw stand on the sea and on the earth lifted up his right hand to the heaven,
6 and swore by him that lives to the ages of ages, who created the heaven and the things that are in it, and the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be no longer delay;
7 but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God also shall be completed, as he has made known the glad tidings to his own bondmen the prophets.
8 And the voice which I heard out of the heaven [was] again speaking with me, and saying, Go, take the little book which is opened in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the earth.
9 And I went to the angel, saying to him to give me the little book. And he says to me, Take and eat it up: and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey.
10 And I took the little book out of the hand of the angel, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth as honey, sweet; and when I had eaten it my belly was made bitter.
11 And it was said to me, Thou must prophesy again as to peoples and nations and tongues and many kings.
36 Then, having dismissed the crowds, he went into the house; and his disciples came to him, saying, Expound to us the parable of the darnel of the field.
37 But he answering said, He that sows the good seed is the Son of man,
38 and the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, but the darnel are the sons of the evil [one];
39 and the enemy who has sowed it is the devil; and the harvest is [the] completion of [the] age, and the harvestmen are angels.
40 As then the darnel is gathered and is burned in the fire, thus it shall be in the completion of the age.
41 The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all offences, and those that practise lawlessness;
42 and they shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
43 Then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that has ears, let him hear.
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