Book of Common Prayer
To the chief Musician. On stringed instruments: an instruction. Of David.
55 Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.
2 Attend unto me, and answer me: I wander about in my plaint, and I moan aloud,
3 Because of the voice of the enemy; because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in anger they persecute me.
4 My heart is writhing within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.
6 And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away, and be at rest;
7 Behold, I would flee afar off, I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah;
8 I would hasten my escape from the stormy wind, from the tempest.
9 Swallow [them] up, Lord; divide their tongue: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof; and iniquity and mischief are in the midst of it.
11 Perversities are in the midst thereof; and oppression and deceit depart not from its streets.
12 For it is not an enemy that hath reproached me—then could I have borne it; neither is it he that hateth me that hath magnified [himself] against me—then would I have hidden myself from him;
13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, mine intimate, my familiar friend. …
14 We who held sweet intercourse together. To the house of God we walked amid the throng.
15 Let death seize upon them, let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is in their dwellings, in their midst.
16 As for me, unto God will I call; and Jehovah will save me.
17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray and moan aloud; and he will hear my voice.
18 He hath redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me: for there were many about me.
19 God will hear, and afflict them: he that is seated of old, (Selah) … because there is no change in them, and they fear not God.
20 He hath put forth his hands against such as are at peace with him; he hath profaned his covenant.
21 Smooth were the milky [words] of his mouth, but his heart was war; his words were softer than oil, yet are they drawn swords.
22 Cast thy burden upon Jehovah, and *he* will sustain thee: he will never suffer the righteous to be moved.
23 And thou, O God, wilt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. But as for me, I will confide in thee.
[A Psalm] of David.
138 I will give thee thanks with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing psalms of thee.
2 I will bow down toward the temple of thy holiness, and celebrate thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth; for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
3 In the day when I called thou answeredst me; thou didst encourage me with strength in my soul.
4 All the kings of the earth shall celebrate thee, Jehovah, when they have heard the words of thy mouth;
5 And they shall sing in the ways of Jehovah, for great is the glory of Jehovah.
6 For Jehovah is high; but he looketh upon the lowly, and the proud he knoweth afar off.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou wilt stretch forth thy hand against the anger of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.
8 Jehovah will perfect what concerneth me: thy loving-kindness, O Jehovah, [endureth] for ever; forsake not the works of thine own hands.
To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
139 Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known [me].
2 *Thou* knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off;
3 Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways;
4 For there is not yet a word on my tongue, [but] lo, O Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether.
5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me.
6 O knowledge too wonderful for me! it is high, I cannot [attain] unto it.
7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? and whither flee from thy presence?
8 If I ascend up into the heavens thou art there; or if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou [art there];
9 [If] I take the wings of the dawn [and] dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
11 And if I say, Surely darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night;
12 Even darkness hideth not from thee, and the night shineth as the day: the darkness is as the light.
13 For thou hast possessed my reins; thou didst cover me in my mother's womb.
14 I will praise thee, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made. Marvellous are thy works; and [that] my soul knoweth right well.
15 My bones were not hidden from thee when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth.
16 Thine eyes did see my unformed substance, and in thy book all [my members] were written; [during many] days were they fashioned, when [as yet] there was none of them.
17 But how precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
18 [If] I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee.
19 Oh that thou wouldest slay the wicked, O +God! And ye men of blood, depart from me.
20 For they speak of thee wickedly, they take [thy name] in vain, thine enemies.
21 Do not I hate them, O Jehovah, that hate thee? and do not I loathe them that rise up against thee?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I account them mine enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts;
8 If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for a higher than the high is watching, and there are higher than they.
9 Moreover the earth is every way profitable: the king [himself] is dependent upon the field.
10 He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This also is vanity.
11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and what profit is there to the owner thereof, except the beholding [of them] with his eyes?
12 The sleep of the labourer is sweet, whether he have eaten little or much; but the fulness of the rich doth not suffer him to sleep.
13 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt;
14 or those riches perish by some evil circumstance, and if he have begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand.
15 As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he go away again as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand.
16 And this also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came so doth he go away, and what profit hath he, in having laboured for the wind?
17 All his days also he eateth in darkness, and hath much vexation, and sickness, and irritation.
18 Behold what I have seen good and comely: [it is] to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labour wherewith [man] laboureth under the sun, all the days of his life which God hath given him: for that is his portion.
19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and power to eat thereof, and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labour: that is a gift of God.
20 For he will not much remember the days of his life, because God answereth [him] with the joy of his heart.
23 But before faith came, we were guarded under law, shut up to faith [which was] about to be revealed.
24 So that the law has been our tutor up to Christ, that we might be justified on the principle of faith.
25 But, faith having come, we are no longer under a tutor;
26 for ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For ye, as many as have been baptised unto Christ, have put on Christ.
28 There is no Jew nor Greek; there is no bondman nor freeman; there is no male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus:
29 but if *ye* [are] of Christ, then ye are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise.
4 Now I say, As long as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a bondman, though he be lord of all;
2 but he is under guardians and stewards until the period fixed by the father.
3 So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the principles of the world;
4 but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law,
5 that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship.
6 But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7 So thou art no longer bondman, but son; but if son, heir also through God.
8 But then indeed, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods;
9 but now, knowing God, but rather being known by God, how do ye turn again to the weak and beggarly principles to which ye desire to be again anew in bondage?
10 Ye observe days and months and times and years.
11 I am afraid of you, lest indeed I have laboured in vain as to you.
15 Then the scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem come up to Jesus, saying,
2 Why do thy disciples transgress what has been delivered by the ancients? for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.
3 But he answering said to them, Why do *ye* also transgress the commandment of God on account of your traditional teaching?
4 For God commanded saying, Honour father and mother; and, He that speaks ill of father or mother, let him die the death.
5 But *ye* say, Whosoever shall say to his father or mother, It is a gift, whatsoever [it be] by which [received] from me thou wouldest be profited:
6 and he shall in no wise honour his father or his mother; and ye have made void the commandment of God on account of your traditional teaching.
7 Hypocrites! well has Esaias prophesied about you, saying,
8 This people honour me with the lips, but their heart is far away from me;
9 but in vain do they worship me, teaching [as] teachings commandments of men.
10 And having called to [him] the crowd, he said to them, Hear and understand:
11 Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man; but what goes forth out of the mouth, this defiles the man.
12 Then his disciples, coming up, said to him, Dost thou know that the Pharisees, having heard this word, have been offended?
13 But he answering said, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.
14 Leave them alone; they are blind leaders of blind: but if blind lead blind, both will fall into a ditch.
15 And Peter answering said to him, Expound to us this parable.
16 But he said, Are *ye* also still without intelligence?
17 Do ye not yet apprehend, that everything that enters into the mouth finds its way into the belly, and is cast forth into the draught?
18 but the things which go forth out of the mouth come out of the heart, and those defile man.
19 For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnessings, blasphemies;
20 these are the things which defile man; but the eating with unwashen hands does not defile man.
Public Domain (Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted?)