Book of Common Prayer
A Plea for Personal and National Help
A prayer of one afflicted, when he grows faint
and pours out his lament before Yahweh.[a]
102 O Yahweh, hear my prayer,
and let my cry for help come to you.
2 Do not hide your face from me
in the day of my trouble.
Incline your ear to me.
In the day I call, answer me quickly,
3 for my days vanish in smoke,
and my bones are charred like a hearth.
4 My heart is struck like grass and withers.
Indeed, I forget to eat[b] my bread.
5 Because of the sound of my groaning
my bones[c] cling to my skin.[d]
6 I am like an owl[e] of the wilderness;
I am like a little owl of the ruins.
7 I lie awake and I am
like a lone bird on a roof.
8 All the day my enemies reproach me;
those who mock me swear oaths against me.
9 Indeed, I eat ashes like bread
and mix my drink with tears[f]
10 because of your indignation and anger,
for you have picked me up and thrown me away.
11 My days are like a lengthened shadow,
and I wither like grass.
12 But you, O Yahweh, abide[g] forever,
and your remembrance[h] from generation to generation.[i]
13 You rise up and take pity on Zion,
because it is time to favor it,
for the appointed time has come.
14 Your servants take pleasure in her stones,
and show favor to its dust.
15 Then the nations will fear the name of Yahweh,
and all the kings of the earth your glory.
16 For Yahweh will rebuild Zion;
he will appear in his glory.
17 He will turn his attention to the prayer of the destitute
and will not despise their prayer.
18 Let this be written for the next generation,
so that a people yet to be created may praise Yah,[j]
19 that he looked down from his holy height.
Yahweh looked from heaven over the earth
20 to hear the groaning of the prisoner,
to liberate those destined to die,[k]
21 so that they[l] may make known in Zion the name of Yahweh,
and his praise in Jerusalem,
22 when the peoples assemble,
together with[m] kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.
23 He has broken my strength along the way;
he has cut short my days.
24 I say, “My God, do not carry me off
from my life in the middle of my days.”
Your years continue throughout all generations.
25 Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will endure.
And like a garment they will all wear out,
you will replace them like clothing, and they will be set aside.
27 But you are the same,
and your years do not end.
28 The children of your servants will continue,
and their descendants[n] will be established before you.
Thanksgiving to Yahweh for His of Deliverance
107 Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good,
for his loyal love is forever.
2 Let the redeemed of Yahweh declare[a] it,
those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy
3 and gathered from the lands,
from east and from west, from north and from south.[b]
4 They wandered in the wilderness, in a desert.
They could find no way[c] to a city to inhabit.
5 Hungry and thirsty,
their soul grew faint within them.
6 Then they cried out to Yahweh in their trouble.
He delivered them from their distresses
7 and led them by a straight way
to get to a city to inhabit.
8 Let them give thanks to Yahweh for his loyal love,
and his wonderful deeds for the children of humankind,
9 for he satisfies the longing soul,[d]
and the hungry soul he fills with good.
10 Those who sat in darkness and gloom,
prisoners of misery and iron—
11 because they rebelled against the words of God
and spurned the counsel of the Most High,
12 he therefore humbled their heart with trouble.
They stumbled and there was no helper.
13 Then they called to Yahweh for help in their trouble;
he saved them from their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and gloom,
and tore off their bonds.
15 Let them give thanks to Yahweh for his loyal love
and his wonderful deeds for the children of humankind,
16 for he shatters the doors of bronze,
and cuts through the bars of iron.
17 Fools, because of their rebellious way
and their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorred all food,
and they approached the gates of death.
19 Then they called to Yahweh for help in their trouble.
He saved them from their distresses.
20 He sent his word and healed them,
and he delivered them from their pits.[e]
21 Let them give thanks to Yahweh for his loyal love,
and his wonderful deeds for the children of humankind,
22 and let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and tell of his works with rejoicing.
23 Those who went down to the sea into ships,
doing business on the high seas,[f]
24 they saw the works of Yahweh,
and his wonderful deeds in the deep.
25 For he spoke and raised up a stormy wind,
and it whipped up its waves.
26 They rose to the heavens; they plunged to the depths.
Their soul melted in their calamity.
27 They reeled and staggered like a drunkard,
and they were at their wits’ end.[g]
28 Then they cried out to Yahweh in their trouble,
and he brought them out of their distresses.
29 He made the storm be still
and their waves became calm.
30 Then they were glad because they grew silent,
so he guided them to their desired harbor.
31 Let them give thanks to Yahweh for his loyal love
and his wonderful deeds for the children of humankind,
32 and let them exalt him in the congregation of the people,
and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
20 And Samson’s wife was given to his companion who was his best man.[a]
Samson Defeats the Philistines
15 After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat.[b] He said, “I want to go to my wife’s private room.” But her father would not allow him to enter. 2 Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please, take her instead.”[c] 3 And Samson said to them, “This time, as far as the Philistines are concerned, when I do something evil I am without blame.” 4 And Samson went and captured three hundred foxes, and he took torches. He turned them tail to tail, and he put one torch between two tails. 5 He set fire to the torches and let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and he burned both the stacks[d] of sheaves and the standing grain, up to the vineyards[e] of olive groves. 6 And the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” And the Philistines went up and burned her and her father with fire. 7 Samson said to them, “If you want to behave like this, I swear I will not rest unless I have taken revenge on you.” 8 And he gave them a thorough beating,[f] and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
9 Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah, and they overran Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they said, “To bind Samson; to do to him just as he did to us.” 11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are ruling over us? What is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “Just as they did to me, so I have done to them.” 12 They said to him, “We have come down to bind you and give you over into the hand of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” 13 They said to him, “No, we will only bind you and give you into their hand; we will certainly not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes, and they brought him up from the rock.
14 As he came up to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the Spirit of Yahweh rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has burned with fire, and his bindings melted from his hands. 15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey; he reached down and took it and killed one thousand men with it. 16 And Samson said,
“With the jawbone of the donkey,
heap upon heap;
with the jawbone of the donkey,
I struck dead one thousand men.”
17 And it happened, when he finished speaking he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he called that place Ramath Lehi.[g]
18 And he was very thirsty, and he called to Yahweh and said, “You gave this great victory into the hand of your servant, but now I must die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it; and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he was revived. Thus he called its name The Spring of Ha-Qore,[h] which is at Lehi to this day. 20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
17 “But as the time of the promise that God had made to Abraham was drawing near, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until another king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. 19 This man deceitfully took advantage of our[a] people and[b] mistreated our ancestors, causing them to abandon their infants[c] so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful to God. He[d] was brought up for three months in his[e] father’s house, 21 and when[f] he was abandoned, the daughter of Pharaoh took him up and brought him up as her own son.[g] 22 And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was powerful in his words and deeds.
23 “But when he was forty years old,[h] it entered in his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. 24 And when he[i] saw one of them being unjustly harmed, he defended him[j] and avenged[k] the one who had been oppressed by[l] striking down the Egyptian. 25 And he thought his[m] brothers would understand that God was granting deliverance to them by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day, he made an appearance to them while they[n] were fighting and was attempting to reconcile[o] them in peace, saying, ‘Men and brothers, why are you doing wrong to one another?’ 27 But the one who was doing wrong to his[p] neighbor pushed him aside, saying, ‘Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 You do not want to do away with me the same way[q] you did away with the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’[r] 29 And at this statement, Moses fled and became a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
Return to Galilee
43 And after the two days he departed from there into Galilee. 44 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own homeland. 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, because they[a] had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem at the feast (for they themselves had also come to the feast).
A Royal Official’s Son Is Healed
46 Now he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And there was at Capernaum a certain royal official whose son was sick. 47 This man, when he[b] heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, went to him and asked that he come down and heal his son, for he was about to die. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people[c] see signs and wonders, you will never believe!” 49 The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go, your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he departed.
51 Now as[d] he was going down, his slaves met him, saying that his child was alive. 52 So he inquired from them the hour at which he had gotten better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 So the father knew that it was that[e] same hour at which Jesus said to him, “Your son will live,” and he himself believed, and his whole household. 54 Now this is again a second sign Jesus performed when he[f] came from Judea into Galilee.
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