Book of Common Prayer
To the chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David: to bring to remembrance.
70 Make haste, O God, to deliver me; Jehovah, [hasten] to my help.
2 Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion that seek after my soul; let them be turned backward and confounded that take pleasure in mine adversity;
3 Let them turn back because of their shame that say, Aha! Aha!
4 Let all those that seek thee be glad and rejoice in thee, and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified!
5 But I am afflicted and needy: make haste unto me, O God. Thou art my help and my deliverer: O Jehovah, make no delay.
71 In thee, Jehovah, do I trust: let me never be ashamed.
2 Deliver me in thy righteousness, and rescue me; incline thine ear unto me, and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.
4 My God, rescue me out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 For thou art my hope, O Lord Jehovah, my confidence from my youth.
6 On thee have I been stayed from the womb; from the bowels of my mother thou didst draw me forth: my praise shall be continually of thee.
7 I have been as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.
8 My mouth shall be filled with thy praise, with thy glory, all the day.
9 Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.
10 For mine enemies speak against me, and they that watch for my soul consult together,
11 Saying, God hath forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver.
12 O God, be not far from me; my God, hasten to my help.
13 Let them be ashamed, let them be consumed, that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.
14 But as for me, I will hope continually, and will praise thee yet more and more.
15 My mouth shall declare thy righteousness, [and] thy salvation all the day: for I know not the numbers [thereof].
16 I will go in the might of the Lord Jehovah; I will recall thy righteousness, thine alone.
17 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I proclaimed thy marvellous works:
18 Now also, when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not, until I have proclaimed thine arm unto [this] generation, thy might to every one that is to come.
19 And thy righteousness, O God, reacheth on high, thou who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee?
20 Thou, who hast shewn us many and sore troubles, wilt revive us again, and wilt bring us up again from the depths of the earth;
21 Thou wilt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.
22 I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, my God; unto thee will I sing psalms with the harp, thou holy One of Israel.
23 My lips shall exult when I sing psalms unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
24 My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day; for they shall be ashamed, for they shall be brought to confusion, that seek my hurt.
An instruction: of Asaph.
74 Why, O God, hast thou cast off for ever? [why] doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thine assembly, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed [to be] the portion of thine inheritance, this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy steps unto the perpetual desolations: everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed.
4 Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy place of assembly; they set up their signs [for] signs.
5 [A man] was known as he could lift up axes in the thicket of trees;
6 And now they break down its carved work altogether, with hatchets and hammers.
7 They have set on fire thy sanctuary, they have profaned the habitation of thy name to the ground.
8 They said in their heart, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all God's places of assembly in the land.
9 We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy contemn thy name for ever?
11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, and thy right hand? [pluck it] out of thy bosom: consume [them].
12 But God is my king of old, accomplishing deliverances in the midst of the earth.
13 *Thou* didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters:
14 *Thou* didst break in pieces the heads of leviathan, thou gavest him to be meat to those that people the desert.
15 *Thou* didst cleave fountain and torrent, *thou* driedst up ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine; *thou* hast prepared the moon and the sun:
17 *Thou* hast set all the borders of the earth; summer and winter—*thou* didst form them.
18 Remember this, that an enemy hath reproached Jehovah, and a foolish people have contemned thy name.
19 Give not up the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast; forget not the troop of thine afflicted for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the dwellings of violence.
21 Oh let not the oppressed one return ashamed; let the afflicted and needy praise thy name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day;
23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries: the tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually.
7 And after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkijah,
2 the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,
3 the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,
4 the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,
5 the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest,
6 —this Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which Jehovah the God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of Jehovah his God upon him.
7 (And there went up [some] of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the doorkeepers, and the Nethinim, to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.)
8 And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.
9 For upon the first of the first month the project of going up from Babylon was determined on, and on the first of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.
10 For Ezra had directed his heart to seek the law of Jehovah and to do it, and to teach in Israel the statutes and the ordinances.
11 And this is the copy of the letter that king Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a scribe of the words of the commandments of Jehovah, and of his statutes to Israel:
12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, an accomplished scribe of the law of the God of the heavens, and so forth.
13 I have given orders that all they of the people of Israel, and of their priests and the Levites, in my realm, who are disposed to go to Jerusalem, go with thee.
14 Because thou art sent by the king, and by his seven counsellors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thy hand;
15 and to carry the silver and gold which the king and his counsellors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose habitation is at Jerusalem,
16 and all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, besides the voluntary offering of the people, and of the priests, who offer willingly for the house of their God which is at Jerusalem.
17 Therefore thou shalt buy diligently with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their oblations and their drink-offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is at Jerusalem.
18 And whatever shall seem good to thee and to thy brethren to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do according to the will of your God.
19 And the vessels that have been given thee for the service of the house of thy God, deliver before the God of Jerusalem.
20 And whatever more shall be needful for the house of thy God which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house.
21 And I, I Artaxerxes the king, do give orders to all the treasurers that are beyond the river, that whatever Ezra the priest and scribe of the law of the God of the heavens shall require of you, it be done diligently,
22 unto a hundred talents of silver, and to a hundred measures of wheat, and to a hundred baths of wine, and to a hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing [how much].
23 Whatever is commanded by the God of the heavens, let it be carefully done for the house of the God of the heavens; for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?
24 Also we inform you, as regards all the priests and Levites, singers, doorkeepers, Nethinim, and ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, tax, and toll upon them.
25 And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, which is in thy hand, set magistrates and judges who may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye him that knows [them] not.
26 And whosoever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed diligently upon him, whether unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.
14 And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing upon mount Zion, and with him a hundred [and] forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father written upon their foreheads.
2 And I heard a voice out of the heaven as a voice of many waters, and as a voice of great thunder. And the voice which I heard [was] as of harp-singers harping with their harps;
3 and they sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song save the hundred [and] forty-four thousand who were bought from the earth.
4 These are they who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins: these are they who follow the Lamb wheresoever it goes. These have been bought from men [as] first-fruits to God and to the Lamb:
5 and in their mouths was no lie found; [for] they are blameless.
6 And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having [the] everlasting glad tidings to announce to those settled on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people,
7 saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and do homage to him who has made the heaven and the earth and the sea and fountains of waters.
8 And another, a second, angel followed, saying, Great Babylon has fallen, has fallen, which of the wine of the fury of her fornication has made all nations drink.
9 And another, a third, angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any one do homage to the beast and its image, and receive a mark upon his forehead or upon his hand,
10 he also shall drink of the wine of the fury of God prepared unmixed in the cup of his wrath, and he shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb.
11 And the smoke of their torment goes up to ages of ages, and they have no respite day and night who do homage to the beast and to its image, and if any one receive the mark of its name.
12 Here is the endurance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
13 And I heard a voice out of the heaven saying, Write, Blessed the dead who die in [the] Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow with them.
14 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,
2 and said to his servants, This is John the baptist: *he* is risen from the dead, and because of this these works of power display their force in him.
3 For Herod had seized John, and had bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias the wife of Philip his brother.
4 For John said to him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
5 And [while] desiring to kill him, he feared the crowd, because they held him for a prophet.
6 But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod;
7 whereupon he promised with oath to give her whatsoever she should ask.
8 But she, being set on by her mother, says, Give me here upon a dish the head of John the baptist.
9 And the king was grieved; but on account of the oaths, and those lying at table with [him], he commanded [it] to be given.
10 And he sent and beheaded John in the prison;
11 and his head was brought upon a dish, and was given to the damsel, and she carried [it] to her mother.
12 And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and came and brought word to Jesus.
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