Book of Common Prayer

78 The learning of Asaph. My people, perceive ye my law; bow your ear into the words of my mouth. (The teaching of Asaph. My people, listen ye to my teaching; bow down your ear to the words of my mouth.)

² I shall open my mouth in parables; I shall speak perfect reasons from the beginning (I shall speak perfect reasoning from the old days).

³ How great things have we heard, and we have known those; and our fathers told to us. (What great things we have heard, and we have known; and our fathers told us.)

⁴ Those be not hid from the sons of them; in another generation. And they told the praisings of the Lord, and the virtues of him; and his marvels, which he did. (We will not hide these things from their sons and daughters; yea, from the generations to come. We shall tell out the praises of the Lord, and his strength, or his power; and the marvellous deeds which he did.)

⁵ And he raised witnessing in Jacob; and he setted law in Israel. How great things commanded he to our fathers, to make those known to their sons; (And he raised up a testimony in Jacob; and he set a law in Israel. He commanded to our fathers to make these things known to their sons and daughters;)

⁶ that another generation know. Sons, that shall be born, and shall rise up; shall tell out to their sons. (so that another generation would know them. And so that the sons and daughters who shall be born, shall rise up; and shall tell these things to their sons and daughters.)

⁷ That they set their hope in God, and forget not the works of God; and that they seek his commandments/and that they search his commandments. (So that they put their trust in God, and forget not the works of God; and that they obey his commandments.)

⁸ Lest they be made a shrewd generation; and (one) stirring to wrath, as the fathers of them. A generation that (ad)dressed not his heart; and his spirit was not believed with God. (Lest they be made a depraved, and a rebellious generation; like their fathers. For they were a generation who did not direct their hearts towards him; and their spirits were not steadfast with God, or firmly fixed on God.)

⁹ The sons of Ephraim, bending a bow, and sending arrows; were turned (aback) in the day of battle. (The sons of Ephraim, bending a bow, and sending arrows; turned and ran away on the day of battle.)

¹⁰ They kept not the testament of God; and they would not go in his law. (They kept not the covenant of God; and they would not follow, or obey, his Law.)

¹¹ And they forgat his benificences; and his marvels, which he showed to them. (And they forgot his good gifts; and his marvellous deeds, which he showed to them.)

¹² He did marvels before the fathers of them, in the land of Egypt; in the field of Tanis. (Yea, he did marvellous deeds before their forefathers, in the land of Egypt; on the plain of Zoan.)

¹³ He brake the sea, and led them through it; and he ordained the waters as in a bouget, (or a bottle). (He broke the sea apart, and led them through it; he made the waters to stand up like walls.)

¹⁴ And he led them forth in a cloud of the day; and all night in the lightening of fire. (And he led them forth by a cloud during the day; and all night long by the light of a fire.)

¹⁵ He brake a stone in desert; and he gave water to them as in a much depth. (He broke open a rock in the wilderness; and he gave water to them as if out of the great depths of the ocean.)

¹⁶ And he led water out of the stone; and he led forth waters as floods. (Yea, he brought forth water out of that rock; and it came forth like a river.)

¹⁷ And they putted yet to do sin against him; they excited the high God into ire, in a place without water. (And still they sinned against him; they incited the Most High God to anger, in a place without water.)

¹⁸ And they tempted God in their hearts; that they asked meats to their lives. (And they tempted God in their hearts; by demanding food for their hunger.)

¹⁹ And they spake evil of God; they said, Whether God may make ready a board in desert? (And they spoke evil against God; they said, Can God truly prepare a table for us here in the wilderness?)

²⁰ For he smote a stone, and waters flowed; and streams went out in abundance. Whether also he may give bread; either make ready a board to his people? (For he struck a stone, and waters flowed; yea, streams went out in abundance. But can he also give bread, or food, to us? can he also prepare a table here in the wilderness for his people?)

²¹ Therefore the Lord heard, and delayed; and fire was kindled in Jacob, and the ire of God ascended on Israel. (And so the Lord heard them, and was angry; and fire was kindled against the people of Jacob, yea, God’s anger descended upon the people of Israel.)

²² For they believed not in God; neither hoped in his health. (For they did not believe in God; nor trusted in his salvation, or his deliverance.)

²³ And he commanded to the clouds above; and he opened the gates of heaven. (But then he commanded to the clouds above; and he opened the gates of the heavens.)

²⁴ And he rained to them manna for to eat; and he gave to them bread of heaven. (And he rained down manna for them to eat; yea, he gave them the bread of heaven.)

²⁵ Man ate the bread of angels; he sent to them meats in abundance (he sent them an abundance of food).

²⁶ He turned over the south wind from heaven; and he brought in by his virtue the west wind. (He sent the south wind down from the heavens; and he brought in the west wind by his strength, or his power.)

²⁷ And he rained fleshes as dust on them; and also volatiles feathered, as the gravel of the sea. (And he rained down flesh upon them, like a dust storm; yea, as many feathered fowls as the sand of the sea.)

²⁸ And those felled in the midst of their castles; about the tabernacles of them. (And they fell in the midst of their camp; all about their tents.)

²⁹ And they ate, and were filled greatly, and he brought their desire to them; (And so they ate, and were greatly filled, for he had brought them the desire of their hearts;)

³⁰ they were not defrauded of their desire. Yet their meats were in their mouth; (but their desire, or their yearning, was not yet quenched. And so while the food were yet in their mouths;)

³¹ and the wrath of God ascended on them. And he killed the fat men of them; and he hindered the chosen men of Israel. (God’s anger descended upon them. And he killed their most stout-hearted men; yea, he struck down Israel’s chosen men.)

³² In all these things they sinned yet; and believed not in the marvels of God. (Yet in spite of all these things, they still sinned; and did not believe/and had no faith in God’s marvellous deeds.)

³³ And the days of them failed in vanity; and the years of them failed with haste. (And so he ended their days like a breath; and their years with sudden disaster.)

³⁴ When he killed them, they sought him; and they turned again, and early they came to him. (And after he killed some of them, then they sought him again; and they returned, and they came eagerly to him.)

³⁵ And they bethought (again), that God is the helper of them; and the high God is the again-buyer of them. (And they remembered that God is their helper; and that the Most High God is their redeemer.)

³⁶ And they loved him in their mouth; and with their tongue they lied to him. (And they loved him with their mouths; but with their tongues they still lied to him.)

³⁷ Forsooth the heart of them was not rightful with him; neither they were had faithful in his testament. (And they were not loyal to him in their hearts; nor were they steadfast, or faithful, to obey his covenant.)

³⁸ But he is merciful, and he shall be made merciful to the sins of them; and he shall not destroy them. And he did greatly, to turn away his ire; and he kindled not all his ire. (But he was merciful, and he forgave their sins; and so he did not destroy them. And he had great restraint, and turned away his anger; and he did not kindle, or release, all of his wrath.)

³⁹ And he bethought, that they be flesh; a spirit going, and not turning again. (And he remembered, that they be but flesh; like the wind passing by, and never returning.)

⁴⁰ How oft made they him wroth in desert; they stirred him into ire in a place without water. (How often they made him angry in the wilderness; yea, they stirred him to anger in a place without water.)

⁴¹ And they were turned, and tempted God; and they wrathed the holy of Israel. (Again and again they tempted God; and they angered the Holy One of Israel.)

⁴² They bethought not on his hand; in the day in which he again-bought them from the hand of the troubler. (They did not remember his power; yea, the day when he saved them from the hand of the troubler.)

⁴³ As he setted his signs in Egypt; and his great wonders in the field of Tanis. (How he showed his signs, or his miracles, in Egypt; yea, his great wonders on the plain of Zoan.)

⁴⁴ And he turned the floods of them, and the rains of them, into blood; that they should not drink. (And he turned their rivers, and their rains, into blood; so that they could not drink them.)

⁴⁵ He sent a flesh fly into them, and it ate them; and he sent a paddock, and it lost them. (He sent swarms of flies into them, and they bit them all over; and he sent frogs among them, and they ruined their land.)

⁴⁶ And he gave the fruits of them to rust; and he gave the travails of them to locusts. (And he gave their crops over to mildew; and he gave the produce from their labour over to locusts.)

⁴⁷ And he killed the vines of them with hail; and the (syca)more trees of them with frost.

⁴⁸ And he betook the beasts of them (un)to hail; and the possession(s) of them (un)to fire.

⁴⁹ He sent into them the ire of his indignation; indignation, and ire, and tribulation, sendings-in by evil angels. (He sent into them the anger of his indignation; yea, his indignation, and anger, and trouble, by sending in evil angels among them.)

⁵⁰ He made (a) way to the path of his ire, and he spared not from the death of their lives; and he closed together in death the beasts of them. (He made a way for the path of his anger, and he did not spare their lives from death; but rather he altogether ended them with a pestilence.)

⁵¹ And he smote all the first engendered thing(s) in the land of Egypt [And he smote all the first begotten in the land of Egypt]; the first fruits of all the travail of them in the tabernacles of Ham. (And he struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt; yea, the first fruits of all their travail in the tents of Ham.)

⁵² And he took away his people as sheep; and he led them forth as a flock in desert. (But he took away his own people from there, like sheep; yea, he led them forth like a flock in the wilderness.)

⁵³ And he led them forth in hope, and they dreaded not; and the sea covered the enemies of them. (And he led them forth in hope, and they were not afraid; and the sea covered their enemies.)

⁵⁴ And he brought them into the hill of his hallowing; into the hill which his right hand (had) gat. (And he brought them to his holy hill; to the Mount which his right hand, or his power, had won.)

⁵⁵ And he casted out heathen men from the face of them; and by lot he parted to them the land in a cord of dealing. And he made the lineages of Israel to dwell in the tabernacles of them. (And he threw out the heathen before them; and by lot he parted the land to them with a measuring cord. And he let the tribes of Israel to live in the tents, or the homes, of the heathen.)

⁵⁶ And they tempted, and wrathed the high God; and they kept not his witnessings. (And still they tempted, and angered, the Most High God; and they did not obey his teachings, or his commands.)

⁵⁷ And they turned away themselves, and they kept not covenant; as their fathers, (they) were turned into a shrewd bow. (And they turned themselves away/And they rebelled, and they did not obey the covenant; like their forefathers, they were bent like a crooked bow.)

⁵⁸ They stirred him into ire in their little hills; and they stirred him to indignation in their graven images. (They stirred him to anger with their high places, or their hill shrines; and they stirred him to indignation with their carved images, or their idols.)

⁵⁹ God heard, and forsook; and brought to nought Israel greatly. (God saw and heard all of this; and then he abandoned them, and he brought down Israel into nothing.)

⁶⁰ And he putted away the tabernacle of Shiloh; his tabernacle in which he dwelled among men. (And he deserted his Tabernacle at Shiloh; the Tent in which he lived among his people.)

⁶¹ And he betook the virtue of them into captivity; and the fairness of them into the hands of the enemy. (And he delivered the symbol of his strength, that is, the Ark of the Covenant, into captivity; yea, the symbol of his beauty, or of his glory, into the hands of the enemy.)

⁶² And he closed together his people in sword; and he despised his heritage. (And he altogether ended his people by the sword; and he despised his inheritance.)

⁶³ Fire ate the young men of them; and the virgins of them were not bewailed/were not bewept. (The fire ate up their young men; and their virgins did not bewail them/and their virgins did not weep for them.)

⁶⁴ The priests of them fell down by sword; and the widows of them were not bewept. (Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows did not weep for them.)

⁶⁵ And the Lord was raised, as sleeping; as mighty greatly filled of wine. (Then the Lord was raised up; like one who had been sleeping, like a mighty man excited by wine.)

⁶⁶ And he smote his enemies on the hinder parts; he gave to them everlasting shame. (And he struck his enemies on their back-sides; yea, he gave them up to everlasting shame.)

⁶⁷ And he putted away the tabernacle of Joseph; and he chose not the lineage of Ephraim. (And he rejected the house of Joseph; and he chose not the tribe of Ephraim.)

⁶⁸ But he chose the lineage of Judah; he chose the hill of Zion, which he loved. (But he chose the tribe of Judah; and he chose Mount Zion, which he loved.)

⁶⁹ And he as an unicorn builded his holy place; in the land, which he founded into worlds. (And he built his holy place like his home in heaven/And he built his holy place as high as the heavens; and he founded it like the earth, to last forever.)

⁷⁰ And he chose David his servant, and took him up from the flocks of sheep; (And he chose David to be his servant, and took him away from the flocks of sheep;)

⁷¹ he took him from behind sheep with lambs. To feed Jacob his servant; and Israel his heritage. (yea, he brought him out from following behind the sheep with their lambs, to feed his people Jacob; yea, his inheritance Israel.)

⁷² And he fed them in the innocence of his heart; and he led them forth in the understandings of his hands. (And David fed them from the innocence of his heart; and he led them forth by the skillfulness of his hands.)

²¹ The Lord of hosts, (the) God of Israel, saith these things, Heap ye your burnt sacrifices (on)to your slain sacrifices, and eat ye fleshes.

²² For I spake not with your fathers, and I commanded not to them of the word of burnt sacrifices, and of slain sacrifices, in the day in which I led them out of the land of Egypt. (For I spoke not to your forefathers, and I commanded not to them about burnt sacrifices, and slain sacrifices, on the day when I led them out of the land of Egypt.)

²³ But I commanded this word to them, and I said, Hear ye my voice, and I shall be God to you, and ye shall be a people to me; and go ye in all the way which I commanded to you, that it be well to you. (But I commanded this word to them, and I said, Listen ye to my voice, and I shall be your God, and ye shall be my people; and go ye in all the ways to which I command you, so that it can be well with you.)

²⁴ And they heard not, neither bowed down their ear, but they went in their lusts, and in the shrewdness of their evil heart; and they be made behind, and not before, (But they did not listen to me, nor bowed down their ear, but they went in their lusts, and in the depravity of their own evil hearts; and so they be made behind, and not before,)

²⁵ from the day in which their fathers went out of the land of Egypt till to this day. And I sent to you all my servants (the) prophets, and I rose early by the day, and I sent (yea, I rose up early in the day, and I sent them).

²⁶ And they heard not me, neither bowed down their ear; but they made hard their noll, and wrought worse than the fathers of them. (But they did not listen to me, nor bowed down their ear; but they stiffened their necks, or were stubborn, and did worse than their forefathers.)

²⁷ And thou shalt speak to them all these words, and they shall not hear thee; and thou shalt call them, and they shall not answer to thee. (And thou shalt speak to them all these words, but they shall not listen to thee; and thou shalt call them, but they shall not answer thee.)

²⁸ And thou shalt say to them, This is the folk, that heard not the voice of their Lord God, neither received chastising; faith perished, and is taken away from the mouth of them. (And thou shalt say to them, This is the nation, that did not listen to, or obey, the voice of the Lord their God, nor accepted his discipline, or his correction; truth perished, and is taken away from their mouths.)

²⁹ Clip thine hair, and cast (it) away, and take thou wailing straightly (and take up thou wailing on high places); for the Lord hath cast away, and hath forsaken the generation of his strong vengeance.

³⁰ For the sons of Judah have done evil before mine eyes, saith the Lord; they have set their offendings in the house, in which my name is called to help, that they should defoul that house; (For the people of Judah have done evil before my eyes, saith the Lord; they have put their offences in the House, where my name is called on for help/which is called by my name, so that they would defile that House;)

³¹ and they builded high things in Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that they should burn their sons and their daughters by fire, which things I commanded not, neither thought in mine heart. (and they built the high places, or the hill shrines, of Tophet, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, so that they could burn their sons and their daughters with fire, which things I did not command, nor ever thought of in my heart.)

³² Therefore lo! days come, saith the Lord, and it shall no more be said Tophet, and the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaying; and they shall bury in Tophet, for there is no (other) place. (And so lo! days shall come, saith the Lord, and it shall no more be called Tophet, and the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but, rather, the Valley of Slaughter; and they shall bury them in Tophet, for there is no other place for them.)

³³ And the dead carrion of this people shall be into meat to the birds of heaven, and to the beasts of (the) earth; and none there shall be that shall drive away. (And the dead bodies of these people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, or of the air, and for the beasts of the earth; and there shall be no one who shall scare them away.)

³⁴ And I shall make to cease the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness (And I shall make to cease the sound of joy, and the sound of happiness), and the voice of [the] spouse, and the voice of [the] spousess from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem; for the land shall be in desolation.

¹³ For not by the law is [the] promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be [the] heir of the world, but by the rightwiseness of faith.

¹⁴ For if they that be of the law, be heirs, faith is destroyed, promise is done away.

¹⁵ For the law worketh wrath; for where is no law, there is no trespass, neither is trespassing. [Forsooth the law worketh wrath; soothly where the law is not, neither is prevarication, or trespassing.]

¹⁶ Therefore rightwiseness is of faith, that by grace promise be stable to each seed [that after grace promise be stable, or steadfast, to each seed], not to that seed only that is of the law, but to that that is of the faith of Abraham, which is father of us all.

¹⁷ As it is written, For I have set thee father of many folks, before God to whom thou hast believed. The which God quickeneth dead men [The which quickeneth the dead], and calleth those things that be not, as those that be.

¹⁸ [The] Which Abraham against hope believed into hope, that he should be made father of many folks, as it was said to him [after that it is said to him], Thus shall thy seed be, as the stars of heaven, and as the gravel [and as gravel, or sand,] that is in the brink of the sea.

¹⁹ And he was not made unsteadfast in the belief, neither he beheld his body then nigh dead [neither he beheld his body now nigh dead], when he was almost of an hundred years, nor the womb of Sarah nigh dead.

²⁰ Also in the promise of God he doubted not with untrust; but he was comforted in belief, giving glory to God,

²¹ witting most fully that whatever things God hath promised, he is mighty also to do.

²² Therefore it was areckoned [reckoned] to him to rightwiseness.

²³ And it is not written only for him, that it was areckoned [reckoned] to him to rightwiseness,

²⁴ but also for us, to whom it shall be areckoned [reckoned], that believe in him that raised our Lord Jesus Christ from death [from dead].

²⁵ Which was betaken for our sins, and rose again for our justifying.

³⁷ But in the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood, and cried, and said [saying], If any man thirsteth, come he to me, and drink.

³⁸ He that believeth in me, as the scripture saith, Rivers of quick water shall flow out of his womb [Floods of quick water shall flow of his womb].

³⁹ But he said this thing of the Spirit [Soothly he said this thing of the Holy Ghost], which men that believed in him should take; for the Spirit was not yet given, for Jesus was not yet glorified.

⁴⁰ Therefore of that company, when they had heard these words of him, they said, This is verily a prophet.

⁴¹ Others said, This is Christ. But some said, Whether Christ cometh from Galilee?

⁴² Whether the scripture saith not, that of the seed of David, and of the castle of Bethlehem, where David was, Christ cometh?

⁴³ Therefore dissension was made among the people for him. [And so dissension is made in the company for him.]

⁴⁴ And some of them would have taken him, but no man set hands on him.

⁴⁵ Therefore the ministers came to the bishops and Pharisees, and they said to them, Why brought ye not him?

⁴⁶ The ministers answered, Never man spake so, as this man speaketh.

⁴⁷ Therefore the Pharisees answered to them, Whether ye be deceived also?

⁴⁸ whether any of the princes or of the Pharisees believed in him?

⁴⁹ But this people, that knoweth not the law, be cursed.

⁵⁰ Nicodemus saith to them, he that came to him by night, that was one of them,

⁵¹ Whether our law deemeth a man, but it have first heard of him [no but first it hear of him], and know what he doeth?

⁵² They answered, and said to him, Whether thou art a man of Galilee also [Whether and thou art a man of Galilee]? Seek thou scriptures, and see thou, that a prophet riseth not of Galilee [for a prophet riseth not of Galilee].