Book of Common Prayer
Praise to Yahweh for His Work on Behalf of Israel
105 Give thanks to Yahweh; proclaim his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples.
2 Sing to him; sing praises concerning him;
tell of all his wonderful works.
3 Boast about his holy name.
Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.
4 Make supplication to Yahweh and his might;
seek his face continually.
5 Remember his wonders that he has done,
his signs and the judgments of his mouth,
6 O offspring of Abraham his servant,
you descendants[a] of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is Yahweh our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word that he commanded
for a thousand generations,
9 that he made with Abraham,
and by his oath swore to Isaac.
10 He then confirmed it to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the allotment that is your[b] inheritance.”
12 When they were few in number[c]—
a trifle—and were sojourners in it,
13 and they wandered about among the nations,[d]
from one kingdom to another people,
14 he allowed no one to oppress them,
and he rebuked kings on account of them,
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones,
nor harm my prophets.”
16 Then he called for a famine upon the land;
he broke every supply[e] of bread.
17 He sent a man on ahead of them;
Joseph was sold as a slave.
18 They clamped[f] his feet in fetters.[g]
His neck[h] went into irons.[i]
19 Until the time his word came about,
the word of Yahweh tested[j] him.
20 The king sent and he freed him;
the ruler of the peoples sent and let him loose.
21 He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions,
22 to obligate[k] his officials as he saw fit[l]
and teach his elders wisdom.
23 Then Israel came to Egypt,
and Jacob was a sojourner in the land of Ham.
24 And he[m] made his people very fruitful.
He also made them[n] stronger than their[o] enemies.
25 He turned their heart to hate his people,
to deal deceitfully against his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses,
together with Aaron whom he had chosen.
27 They set before them the words concerning his signs
and portents in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made it dark,
and they did not rebel against his words.
29 He turned their waters into blood
and it killed their fish.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and there came flies
and gnats throughout all their territory.[p]
32 He gave hail for their rains
and the fire of lightning in their land.
33 And he struck their vines and fig trees,
and shattered the trees of their territory.
34 He spoke and there came locusts
and young locusts without number.
35 And they ate up all the vegetation in their land,
and they ate up the fruit of their ground.
36 And he struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the first of all their virility.
37 Then he brought them out with silver and gold,
and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed,
because the fear of them[q] had fallen upon them.
39 He spread out a cloud for a covering,
and fire to give light at night.
40 They[r] asked, and he brought quail,
and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock and waters flowed;
they coursed[s] through the dry places like a river.
42 For he remembered his holy promise;[t]
he remembered Abraham his servant.
43 And so he brought out his people with joy,
his chosen ones with rejoicing.
44 And he gave to them the lands of the nations,
and they inherited the labor of the peoples,
45 so that they might observe his statutes,
and keep his laws.
Praise Yah.[u]
Samson Marries
14 And Samson went down to Timnah, and he saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines. 2 He went up and told his father and mother, and he said, “I saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines; so then, take her for me as a wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a wife among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our[a] people, that you must take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Take her for me because she pleases me.”[b] 4 His father and mother did not know that this was from Yahweh; he was seeking for an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling[c] in Israel.
5 And Samson and his father and mother went down to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah, and suddenly a young lion came roaring to meet him. 6 And the Spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one might tear apart a male kid goat (he was bare-handed).[d] But he did not tell his father and mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked to the woman, and she pleased Samson.[e] 8 And he returned after awhile to marry her,[f] and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and there was a swarm of wild honey bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9 He scraped it out into his hands, and he went on, eating it as he went. And he went to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the body of the lion.
10 His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared there a feast, as young men were accustomed to doing this. 11 When they saw him, they took thirty companions, and they were with him. 12 And Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. If you can fully explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, I will give to you thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments. 13 But if you are unable to explain it to me, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments.” So they said to him, “Tell your riddle; let us hear it.” 14 He said to them,
“From the eater came out food,
From the strong came out sweet.”
But they were unable to explain the riddle for three days.
15 When it was the fourth[g] day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband and tell us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us to rob us?” 16 And Samson’s wife wept before him, and she said, “You must hate me; you do not love me. You told the riddle to my people,[h] but you have not explained it to me.” He said to her, “I have not explained it to my father and mother. Why should I explain it to you?” 17 She wept before him the seven days of their feast; and it happened, because she nagged him, on the seventh day he explained it to her, and she told the riddle to her people.[i] 18 The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
And he said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have found out my riddle.”
19 And the Spirit of Yahweh rushed on him, and he went down to Ashkelon. He killed thirty men from them, and he took their belongings, and he gave festal garments to the ones that explained the riddle. He was angry,[j] and he went up to his father’s house.
15 And as they[a] looked intently at him, all those who were sitting in the Sanhedrin[b] saw his face was like the face of an angel.
Stephen’s Defense
7 And the high priest said, “Is it so concerning these things?” 2 So he said, “Men—brothers and fathers—listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he[c] was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your relatives and come to the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and[d] settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he caused him to move to this land in which you now live. 5 And he did not give him an inheritance in it—not even a footstep[e]—and he promised to give it[f] to him for his possession, and to his descendants after him, although he did not have[g][h] a child. 6 But God spoke like this: ‘His descendants will be foreigners in a foreign land, and they will enslave them and mistreat them[i] four hundred years, 7 and the nation that[j] they will serve as slaves, I will judge,’ God said, ‘and after these things they will come out[k] and will worship me in this place.’[l] 8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac did so with[m] Jacob, and Jacob did so with[n] the twelve patriarchs. 9 And the patriarchs, because they[o] were jealous of Joseph, sold him[p] into Egypt. And God was with him, 10 and rescued him from all his afflictions and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he appointed him ruler over Egypt and all[q] his household. 11 And a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan and great affliction, and our fathers could not find food. 12 So when[r] Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. 13 And on the second visit[s] Joseph was made known to his brothers, and the family of Joseph became known to Pharaoh. 14 So Joseph sent and[t] summoned his father Jacob and all his[u] relatives, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down to Egypt and died, he and our fathers. 16 And they were brought back to Shechem and buried in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
The Disciples and the Harvest
27 And at this point[a] his disciples came, and they were astonished that he was speaking with a woman. However, no one said, “What do you seek?” or “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into the town and said to the people,[b] 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I have ever done! Perhaps this one is the Christ?” 30 They went out from the town and were coming to him.
31 In the meanwhile the disciples were asking him, saying, “Rabbi, eat something!”[c] 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples began to say[d] to one another, “No one brought him anything[e] to eat, did they?”[f] 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is that I do the will of the one who sent me and complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months and the harvest comes’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.[g] 36 The one who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, in order that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together. 37 For in this instance[h] the saying is true, ‘It is one who sows and another who reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have worked, and you have entered into their work.”
The Samaritans and the Savior of the World
39 Now from that town many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything that I have done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they began asking[i] him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word, 42 And they were saying to the woman, “No longer because of what you said[j] do we believe, for we ourselves have heard, and we know that this one is truly the Savior of the world!”
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