Book of Common Prayer

This is a special song that Ethan the Ezrahite wrote.

God's special love^[a]

God's covenant with David

A sad song

Jacob blesses his sons

49 Then Jacob called for all his sons. He said, ‘Come here to me. Then I can tell you what will happen to you, in future years. ² You sons of Jacob, come together now and listen to your father, Israel.’^[a]

Reuben

³ Jacob said, ‘Reuben you are my firstborn son. You were born first, when I was a strong young man. Of all my sons, you are the most famous and the strongest.

⁴ Yet you are as wild as the sea. You had sex with your father's slave wife. This bad thing brought me shame. So you will not become great.^[b]

Simeon and Levi

⁵ Simeon and Levi are brothers. They use their swords as weapons to destroy people.^[c]

⁶ I will not join them when they decide to do bad things. I will not meet with them. They have killed people when they are angry. They have hurt animals because it makes them happy.

⁷ Their anger is so strong that God will curse them. Their anger makes them do cruel things. So God will curse them. I will make your descendants separate from one another. They will live all over the country of Israel.

Judah

⁸ Judah, your brothers will praise you. You will win against your enemies. Your father's sons will bend down towards the ground in front of you.

⁹ Judah is like a young lion who has eaten good food. He has eaten what he killed and now he rests. Nobody would want to try and wake him up!

¹⁰ Judah's descendants will always rule as king. They will continue to hold the stick and the sceptre that show the king's authority. They will do that until the man comes who truly has that authority. People from all nations will obey that king.^[d]

¹¹ Judah will tie his young donkey to a vine. It will be a vine that has the best grapes. He will wash his clothes in the red wine that is made from those grapes.^[e]

¹² His eyes will become red because he drinks so much wine. His teeth will become white because he drinks so much milk.^[f]

Zebulun

¹³ Zebulun will live by the shore of the sea. His town will be a safe place for ships to stay. His land will go as far as Sidon.

Issachar

¹⁴ Issachar is like a strong donkey that is lying down between two of its bags.

¹⁵ He will see that he has a good place to live, with good land. Then he will agree to work hard. He will work like a slave for other people.^[g]

Dan

¹⁶ Dan will be a ruler for his people. His descendants will be equal with the other tribes of Israel.^[h]

¹⁷ He will be small and dangerous, like a snake that lies beside the road. He will be like a snake that bites the legs of horses so that the riders fall off.

¹⁸ I trust you to save me from trouble, Lord.^[i]

Gad

¹⁹ Robbers will attack Gad, but he will fight back against them.

Asher

²⁰ Asher will have much good food. It will be good enough for kings to eat.

Naphtali

²¹ Naphtali is like a deer that runs freely and gives birth to beautiful babies.

Joseph

²² Joseph is like a vine that has lots of fruit. It grows near a well and its branches go over a wall.^[j]

²³ His enemies will be angry with him. They will attack him with arrows. ²⁴ But he will hold his own bow strongly. He will shoot his arrows well. The Mighty One of Jacob will give Joseph strength. God, who is Israel's Shepherd and Rock, will help him.^[k]

²⁵ The Almighty God, the God of your father, will help you and he will bless you. He will give you rain that comes from the sky above. He will give you springs of water from below the ground. He will cause you to have many descendants. That is how God will bless you.

²⁶ The blessings that I, your father, give to you are great! They are greater than any good things that the old mountains or hills can give to you. They are special blessings for you, Joseph, because you are the leader of your brothers.

Benjamin

²⁷ Benjamin is like a hungry wolf. He kills an animal and eats it in the morning. In the evening, he gives what remains to his people.’^[l]

²⁸ All these are ancestors of the 12 tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He told each of his sons what was right for them and their descendants.^[m]

¹⁴ So, my friends, keep away from idols. Do not worship them. ¹⁵ You are people who think carefully about things. So think about what I am saying to you. ¹⁶ When we eat the Lord's Supper together, we remember that Christ died on our behalf. We thank God for the wine that we drink from the cup. In that way, we remember that we all belong to Christ because of his blood. We also break the bread and we eat it together. In that way, we remember that we all belong to Christ because of his body that died on the cross. ¹⁷ We are many people, but all of us eat part of the same loaf of bread. That shows that we are one group of people. We belong together because Christ died on our behalf.

¹⁸ Think about Israel's people. They eat part of the animals that the priests offer on the altar as a sacrifice. This shows that they share together in the sacrifice. ¹⁹ So think about food that people offer to idols as a sacrifice. I am not saying that the idols are real gods. The food that people offer to them is not special food. ²⁰ But the people who offer food to idols are worshipping demons. They are not worshipping God when they do that. I do not want you to share in what they do to worship demons. ²¹ If you drink anything from the cup of demons, you can not then drink wine from the Lord's cup. If you share a meal with demons, you can not also share in the Lord's meal.

²² If we do things like that, we will cause the Lord to be angry. We should worship only him. You know that we are not stronger than he is!

²³ Some of you may say, ‘We are free to do anything that we want to do!’ But not everything is good for you to do. You may say, ‘We are free to do anything!’ But not everything helps you to be strong as a believer. ²⁴ Do not think about the things that will help you. Instead, each of you should think about what will help other people.

²⁵ You can eat any meat that people sell in the market. Do not ask questions about the meat. Do not cause your thoughts to have trouble. ²⁶ The Bible says this: ‘The earth, and everything in it, belongs to the Lord.’^[a]

²⁷ People who do not believe in Christ may ask you to eat a meal with them. Agree to go to his home, if you want to. Then you should eat whatever food they give to you. Do not ask questions about the food. Do not cause your thoughts to have trouble. ²⁸ But someone there may say to you, ‘They offered this food to an idol.’ If someone tells you that, do not eat the food. It might cause trouble to the thoughts of the person who told you. ²⁹ It may not cause your own thoughts to have trouble. But the other person may not be sure if it is right to eat that kind of food.

Perhaps you will say, ‘Why should another person's thoughts decide what is right for me? I am free to do what I want. ³⁰ I thank God for my food before I eat it. If I do that, nobody should say that it is wrong for me to eat it.’

³¹ Whatever you are doing, show that God is great. When you eat anything, or you drink anything, do it all in a way that praises God. ³² Do not cause problems for other people. Whether they are Jews or Gentiles, or people who belong to God's church, live in a way that does not cause problems for them. ³³ Copy my example. Whatever I do, I try to make other people happy. I do not try to do what will help me. Instead, I want to help other people. I live in that way so that God will save many people.

11 Copy my example, in the same way that I copy Christ's example.

Jesus travels out of Israel

²⁴ Jesus left that place. He went away to the region around Tyre. He went into a house. He did not want anyone to know that he was there. But it was not possible to keep this a secret. ²⁵ Immediately, a certain woman heard that he was there. This woman had a daughter who had a bad spirit in her. The woman came to Jesus and she went down on her knees by his feet. ²⁶ She was not a Jew. Her family was from Phoenicia in the country of Syria. She asked Jesus to make the bad spirit go out of her daughter.

²⁷ Jesus said to the woman, ‘First, the children must eat all that they want. It is not right to take food from the children and then throw it to the dogs.’

²⁸ The woman replied, ‘Yes, sir. That is true. But small pieces of food drop while the children eat. And the dogs under the table eat those pieces.’

²⁹ ‘That is a good answer,’ Jesus replied. ‘Now the bad spirit has left your daughter. You may go.’

³⁰ The woman went to her home. She saw her child, who was lying on the bed. The bad spirit had left the girl.

Jesus makes a man well again

³¹ Then Jesus went away from Tyre. He travelled through the city of Sidon. Then he went towards Lake Galilee. He was in the region called ‘The ten cities’.

³² Some people brought a man to Jesus. This man could not hear anything and he could not speak clearly. The people asked Jesus to put his hand on the man.

³³ Jesus led the man away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spat on his hands and touched the man's tongue. ³⁴ Jesus looked up towards heaven. He cried with a low, sad sound. Then he said to the man, ‘Ephphatha!’ That means, ‘Become open!’ ³⁵ When Jesus said this, the man started to hear. Also, his tongue was able to move properly so that he could speak clearly.

³⁶ Jesus told the people that they must not tell anyone about this. But every time Jesus asked them not to say anything, they spoke even more about it. ³⁷ The people were very surprised about everything that Jesus did. They said, ‘Jesus has done everything well. If people cannot hear, Jesus makes them able to hear. If people cannot speak, Jesus makes them able to speak.’