Book of Common Prayer
For the Chief Musician, with the flutes. A Psalm by David.
5 Give ear to my words, Yahweh.
Consider my meditation.
2 Listen to the voice of my cry, my King and my God,
for I pray to you.
3 Yahweh, in the morning you will hear my voice.
In the morning I will lay my requests before you, and will watch expectantly.
4 For you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness.
Evil can’t live with you.
5 The arrogant will not stand in your sight.
You hate all workers of iniquity.
6 You will destroy those who speak lies.
Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness I will come into your house.
I will bow toward your holy temple in reverence of you.
8 Lead me, Yahweh, in your righteousness because of my enemies.
Make your way straight before my face.
9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth.
Their heart is destruction.
Their throat is an open tomb.
They flatter with their tongue.
10 Hold them guilty, God.
Let them fall by their own counsels.
Thrust them out in the multitude of their transgressions,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all those who take refuge in you rejoice.
Let them always shout for joy, because you defend them.
Let them also who love your name be joyful in you.
12 For you will bless the righteous.
Yahweh, you will surround him with favor as with a shield.
For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, upon the eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm by David.
6 Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your anger,
neither discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint.
Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
3 My soul is also in great anguish.
But you, Yahweh—how long?
4 Return, Yahweh. Deliver my soul,
and save me for your loving kindness’ sake.
5 For in death there is no memory of you.
In Sheol,[a] who shall give you thanks?
6 I am weary with my groaning.
Every night I flood my bed.
I drench my couch with my tears.
7 My eye wastes away because of grief.
It grows old because of all my adversaries.
8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity,
for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.
9 Yahweh has heard my supplication.
Yahweh accepts my prayer.
10 May all my enemies be ashamed and dismayed.
They shall turn back, they shall be disgraced suddenly.
10 Why do you stand far off, Yahweh?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 In arrogance, the wicked hunt down the weak.
They are caught in the schemes that they devise.
3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s cravings.
He blesses the greedy and condemns Yahweh.
4 The wicked, in the pride of his face,
has no room in his thoughts for God.
5 His ways are prosperous at all times.
He is arrogant, and your laws are far from his sight.
As for all his adversaries, he sneers at them.
6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be shaken.
For generations I shall have no trouble.”
7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression.
Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
8 He lies in wait near the villages.
From ambushes, he murders the innocent.
His eyes are secretly set against the helpless.
9 He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush.
He lies in wait to catch the helpless.
He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net.
10 The helpless are crushed.
They collapse.
They fall under his strength.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten.
He hides his face.
He will never see it.”
12 Arise, Yahweh!
God, lift up your hand!
Don’t forget the helpless.
13 Why does the wicked person condemn God,
and say in his heart, “God won’t call me into account”?
14 But you do see trouble and grief.
You consider it to take it into your hand.
You help the victim and the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked.
As for the evil man, seek out his wickedness until you find none.
16 Yahweh is King forever and ever!
The nations will perish out of his land.
17 Yahweh, you have heard the desire of the humble.
You will prepare their heart.
You will cause your ear to hear,
18 to judge the fatherless and the oppressed,
that man who is of the earth may terrify no more.
For the Chief Musician. By David.
11 In Yahweh, I take refuge.
How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?
2 For, behold, the wicked bend their bows.
They set their arrows on the strings,
that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?
4 Yahweh is in his holy temple.
Yahweh is on his throne in heaven.
His eyes observe.
His eyes examine the children of men.
5 Yahweh examines the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked and him who loves violence.
6 On the wicked he will rain blazing coals;
fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For Yahweh is righteous.
He loves righteousness.
The upright shall see his face.
3 Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, 3 but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’”
4 The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t really die, 5 for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate. Then she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too. 7 Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves. 8 They heard Yahweh God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.
9 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
11 God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 Yahweh God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
you are cursed above all livestock,
and above every animal of the field.
You shall go on your belly
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will bruise your head,
and you will bruise his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth.
You will bear children in pain.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to your wife’s voice,
and have eaten from the tree,
about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’
the ground is cursed for your sake.
You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.
18 It will yield thorns and thistles to you;
and you will eat the herb of the field.
19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your face until you return to the ground,
for you were taken out of it.
For you are dust,
and you shall return to dust.”
20 The man called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living. 21 Yahweh God made garments of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.
22 Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—” 23 Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim[a] at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
2 Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation—which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders, by various works of power, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will?
5 For he didn’t subject the world to come, of which we speak, to angels. 6 But one has somewhere testified, saying,
“What is man, that you think of him?
Or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels.
You crowned him with glory and honor.[a]
8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”(A)
For in that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we don’t yet see all things subjected to him. 9 But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone.
10 For it became him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
19 This is John’s testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
20 He declared, and didn’t deny, but he declared, “I am not the Christ.”
21 They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
22 They said therefore to him, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’(A) as Isaiah the prophet said.”
24 The ones who had been sent were from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”
26 John answered them, “I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don’t know. 27 He is the one who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to loosen.” 28 These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
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