Book of Common Prayer

18 To victory, the word of the Lord to David; which spake the words of this song, in the day in which the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul; and he said: Lord, my strength, I shall love thee; (To victory, the word of the Lord to David; who spoke the words of this song, on the day in which the Lord rescued him from the power of all his enemies, and from the power of Saul; and he said, O Lord, my strength, I shall love thee;)^[a]

² the Lord is my steadfastness, and my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is mine helper; and I shall hope in him. My defender, and the horn of mine health; and mine up-taker (My God is my helper; and I shall trust him. My defender, and the horn of my salvation, or of my deliverance; and my rescuer).

³ I shall praise, and inwardly call the Lord; and I shall be safe from mine enemies. (I shall praise him, and I shall call on the Lord; and I shall be saved from my enemies.)

⁴ The sorrows of death (en)compassed me; and the strands of wickedness have troubled me. (The sorrows of death surrounded me; and the streams of wickedness have flowed over me.)

⁵ The sorrows of hell (en)compassed me; the snares of death before-occupied me. (The sorrows of Sheol, or of the land of the dead, surrounded me./The sorrows of the grave surrounded me; the snares of death were set for me.)

⁶ In my tribulation I inwardly called the Lord; and I cried to my God. And he heard my voice from his holy temple; and my cry in his sight entered into his ears. (In my trouble I called to the Lord; yea, I cried to my God. And he heard my voice in his holy Temple; yea, my cry came before him, and entered into his ears.)

⁷ The earth was moved (al)together, and trembled greatly; the foundaments of hills were troubled together, and moved together, for he was wroth to them. (The earth was altogether shaken, and greatly trembled; the foundations of the mountains were altogether troubled, and altogether shaken, for he was angry.)

⁸ Smoke went up in the ire of the Lord, and fire burnt out from his face; coals were kindled of him. (Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire came out of his mouth; and coals were kindled by it.)

⁹ He bowed down (the) heavens, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.

¹⁰ And he ascended on cherubim, and flew; he flew over the pens of winds. (And he went up on cherubim, and flew; yea, he flew upon the wings of the wind.)

¹¹ And he setted darknesses his hiding place, his tabernacle in his compass; and dark water was in the clouds of the air. (And he made the darkness his hiding place; and the clouds of the heavens, which were filled with water, surrounded him.)

¹² Full clear clouds passed in his sight; hail and the coals of fire.

¹³ And the Lord thundered from heaven; and the highest gave his voice, hail and coals of fire. (And the Lord thundered from the heavens; yea, the Most High sent forth his voice, and hail, and coals of fire.)

¹⁴ And he sent his arrows, and destroyed those men; he multiplied lightnings, and troubled those men.

¹⁵ And the wells of waters appeared; and the foundaments of the earth were showed. Lord, of thy blaming; of the breathing of the spirit of thine ire. (And the seabed appeared; and the foundations of the earth were uncovered. Yea, by the Lord’s rebuke; by the blast of the breath from his nostrils.)

¹⁶ He sent from the highest place, and took me; and he took me from many waters. (He reached down from the highest place, and took hold of me; yea, he took me out of the deep waters.)

¹⁷ He delivered me from my strongest enemies; and from them that hated me, for they were comforted on me. (He rescued me from my strongest enemies; yea, from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.)

¹⁸ They came before me in the day of my torment; and the Lord was made my defender.

¹⁹ And he led out me into breadth; he made me safe, for he would me. (And he led me out into an open place; he saved me, for he delighted in me.)

²⁰ And the Lord shall yield to me by my rightfulness; and he shall yield to me by the cleanness of mine hands. (And the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; he rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands.)

²¹ For I (have) kept the ways of the Lord; and I did not (go away) unfaithfully from my God.

²² For all his dooms be in my sight; and I putted not away from me his rightfulnesses. (For all his laws were before me; and I did not go away from his commands.)

²³ And I shall be unwemmed with him; and I shall keep me from my wickedness. (And I was without blemish, or without fault, before him; for I have kept myself from my own wickedness.)

²⁴ And the Lord shall yield to me by my rightfulness; and by the cleanness of mine hands in the sight of his eyes. (And so the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; and according to the cleanness of my hands before him.)

²⁵ With the holy, thou shalt be holy; and with an innocent man, thou shalt be innocent. (With the holy, O Lord, thou shalt be holy; and with the innocent, thou shalt be innocent.)

²⁶ And with a chosen man, thou shalt be chosen; and with a wayward man, thou shalt be wayward. (And with the chosen, thou shalt be chosen; but to the wicked, thou shalt be vengeful, or punishing.)

²⁷ For thou shalt make safe a meek people; and thou shalt make meek the eyes of proud men. (And thou shalt save, or help, the poor; but thou shalt humble those who be high in their own eyes/but thou shalt look with contempt upon the proud.)

²⁸ For thou, Lord, lightenest my lantern; my God, lighten thou my darknesses. (For thou, Lord, brightenest my lantern; my God, thou lightest up my darknesses.)

²⁹ For by thee I shall be delivered from temptation; and in my God I shall go over the wall. (For I shall be rescued, or saved, from temptation by thee; and by my God/and with God’s help, I shall go over the wall.)

³⁰ My God, his way is undefouled; the speeches of the Lord be examined by fire; he is [the] defender of all men hoping in him. (My God, his way is undefiled; the words of the Lord be assayed by fire, that is, they be tried and tested, and found to be true; he is the defender of all who put their trust in him.)

³¹ For why, who is God, except the Lord? either who is God, except our God? (For who else is God, except the Lord? yea, who else is God, except our God?)

³² God that hath girded me with virtue; and hath set my way unwemmed. (God who hath girded me with strength; and hath made my way without blemish, or without fault.)

³³ Which made perfect my feet as the feet of harts; and ordaining me on high things. (Who made my feet like the feet of harts; and hath ordained me upon the high places.)

³⁴ Which teacheth mine hands to battle; and thou hast set mine arms as a brazen bow. (Who teacheth my hands in battle; and now my arms can break a bronze bow.)

³⁵ And thou hast given to me the covering of thine health; and thy right hand hath up-taken me (And thou hast given me the covering of thy salvation, or thy deliverance; and thy right hand hath taken me up). And thy chastising amended me into the end; and that chastising of thee shall teach me.

³⁶ Thou alargedest my paces under me; and my steps be not made unsteadfast. (Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; and my feet have not slipped, or stumbled.)

³⁷ I shall pursue mine enemies, and I shall take (hold of) them; and I shall not turn (again) till they fail (and I shall not return until they fall).

³⁸ I shall all-break them, and they shall not be able to stand; they shall fall under my feet.

³⁹ And thou hast girded me with virtue to battle; and thou hast overturned under me men rising against me. (And thou hast girded me with strength for the battle; and thou hast put beneath me those who rose up against me.)

⁴⁰ And thou hast given mine enemies aback to me; and thou hast destroyed men hating me/and thou hast destroyed them that hated me. (And thou hast given me the backs of my enemies; and I have destroyed those who hated me.)

⁴¹ They cried, and none there was that made them safe; they cried to the Lord, and he heard not them. (They cried, but there was no one to save them; they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.)

⁴² And I shall all-break them, as dust before the face of the wind; I shall do them away, as the clay of streets. (And I broke them all in pieces, so that they became like the dust in the wind; I did them away, and trampled them underfoot, like the clay in the streets.)

⁴³ Thou shalt deliver me from [the] against-sayings of the people; thou shalt set me into the head of folks. The people, which I knew not, hath served me; (Thou delivered me from the gainsaying of the people; thou put me as the head of the nations. The people, whom I knew not, now serve me.)

⁴⁴ in the hearing of ear it obeyed to me. Alien sons lied (down) to me, (The sons of foreigners, or of strangers, now bow down to me; and after hearing me speak, they obey me.)

⁴⁵ alien sons waxed eld; and (went) crooked from thy paths. (The courage of the sons of foreigners, or of strangers, faded away; and they slunk out of their strongholds together.)

⁴⁶ The Lord liveth, and my God be blessed; and the God of mine health be enhanced. (The Lord liveth, and blessed is my God; let the God of my salvation be exalted!)

⁴⁷ God, that givest vengeances to me, and makest subject peoples under me; (O God, who givest vengeance to me, and makest the nations subject under me;)

⁴⁸ thou art my deliverer from my wrathful enemies. And thou shalt enhance me from them, that rise against me; thou shalt deliver me from a wicked man. (thou art my deliverer from all my enemies. And thou hast raised me up over those who rose up against me; thou hast rescued me from violent men.)

⁴⁹ Therefore, Lord, I shall acknowledge to thee among nations; and I shall say psalm to thy name. (And so, Lord, I shall praise thee before the nations; and I shall sing to thy name.)

⁵⁰ Magnifying the healths of his king; and doing mercy to his christ David, and to his seed till into the world. (He who giveth victories to his king; who showeth love to his anointed king, yea, to David, and to his children, or his descendants, forever.)

³¹ Thou, king, sawest, and lo! as one great image (Thou, king, sawest, lo! one great image, or one large figure); that image was great, and high in stature, and stood before thee, and the looking thereof was fearedful.

³² The head of this image was of best gold, but the breast and arms were of silver; certainly the womb and thighs were of brass, (The head of this figure was made of the best gold, and the chest and the arms were made of silver; the belly and the thighs were made of bronze,)

³³ but the legs were of iron; forsooth some part of the feet was of iron, some was of earth. (and the legs were made of iron; and a part of the feet was made of iron, and a part was made of clay.)

³⁴ Thou sawest thus, till a stone was cut down (out) of the hill, without hands, and smote the image in the iron feet thereof and earthen, and all-brake those. (Thou sawest it so, until a stone was cut down from the hill, without the use of any hands, and it struck the figure on its iron and clay feet, and broke them all in pieces.)

³⁵ Then the iron, tilestone, either earthen vessel, brass, silver, and gold, were all-broken (al)together, and driven as into a dead spark of a large summer hall, that be ravished of wind, and no place is found to those; forsooth the stone, that smote the image, was made a great hill, and filled all earth. (Then the iron, the tilestone, or the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, were all broken in pieces, and driven like dead sparks on a threshing floor in the summer, that be carried away by the wind, and there is no place where they can be found; and then the stone, that struck the figure, was made into a great mountain, and it filled all the earth.)

³⁶ This is the dream. Also, thou king, we shall say before thee the interpreting thereof. (That is the dream. And, O king, now we shall tell thee its interpretation.)

³⁷ Thou art king of kings, and God of heaven gave to thee realm, strength, and empire, and glory; (Thou art king of kings, and the God of heaven gave thee a kingdom, and power, and empire, and glory;)

³⁸ and he gave in(to) thine hand all things in which the sons of men, and the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air dwell, and ordained all things under thy lordship; therefore thou art the golden head.

³⁹ And another realm less than thou shall rise after thee; and the third realm, another of brass, that shall have the empire of all earth. (And after thee, another kingdom less than thou, shall rise up; and then the third kingdom, one of bronze, that shall have rule over all the earth.)

⁴⁰ And the fourth realm shall be as iron; as iron maketh less, and maketh tame all things, so it shall make less, and shall all-break all these realms. (And the fourth kingdom shall be like iron; and like iron shattereth, or breaketh in pieces, and maketh everything tame, or subdueth all things, so it shall make less, and shall all-break all these kingdoms.)

⁴¹ Forsooth that thou sawest a part of the feet, and fingers, (or toes,) of earth, [or clay,] of a potter, and a part of iron, the realm shall be parted (And that thou sawest that a part of the feet, and the toes, was made of the clay of a potter, and a part was made of iron, the kingdom shall be divided); which nevertheless shall rise (up out) of the planting of (the) iron, by that that thou sawest iron mingled with a tilestone of clay,

⁴² and the toes of the feet, in part of iron, and in part of earth, in part the realm shall be firm, and in part broken. (and like the toes of the feet, were in part made of iron, and in part made of clay, so the kingdom in part shall be firm, or shall be strong, and in part it shall be broken, or shall be weak.)

⁴³ Forsooth that thou sawest iron mingled with a tilestone of clay, soothly those shall be mingled together with man’s seed; but those shall not cleave to themselves, as iron may not be meddled with tilestone. (And that thou sawest iron mingled with clay, truly people shall mix their seed together, that is, they shall intermarry; but they shall not cleave long to each other, just like iron cannot successfully be mixed with clay.)

⁴⁴ Forsooth in the days of those realms, (the) God of heaven shall raise (up) a realm, that shall not be destroyed without end, and his realm shall not be given to another people; it shall make less, and (shall) waste all these realms, and it shall stand without end,

⁴⁵ by this that thou sawest, that a stone was cut down (out) of the hill, without hands, and made less, [or brake,] the tilestone, and the iron, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold (by this that thou sawest, that a stone was cut down from the hill, without the use of any hands, and broke the clay, and the iron, and the bronze, and the silver, and the gold). [The] Great God hath showed to the king what things shall come afterward; and the dream is true, and the interpreting thereof is faithful.

⁴⁶ Then king Nebuchadnezzar fell down on his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded sacrifices and incense to be brought, that those should be sacrificed to him (so that they could be sacrificed to him).

⁴⁷ Therefore the king spake, and said to Daniel, Verily your God is God of gods, and Lord of kings, that showeth mysteries, for thou mightest open this sacrament, (or hid truth). (And so the king spoke, and said to Daniel, Truly your God is God of gods, and Lord of kings, who revealeth mysteries, for thou could open this secret, or this hidden truth.)

⁴⁸ Then the king raised (up) Daniel on high, and gave many gifts and great to him (and gave him many great gifts); and ordained him prince and prefect, either chief justice, over all the provinces of Babylon, and master over all the wise men of Babylon.

⁴⁹ Forsooth Daniel asked of the king, and (he) ordained Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over all the works of the province of Babylon; but Daniel himself was in the gates of the king (but Daniel himself was at the king’s court).

¹⁸ My little sons, the last hour is; and as ye have heard, that antichrist cometh, now many antichrists be made; wherefore we know [whereof we know], that it is the last hour.

¹⁹ They went forth from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they had dwelt with us; but that they be known, that they be not all of us [but that they be known, that they be not of us].

²⁰ But ye have anointing of the Holy Ghost, and know all things. [But ye have unction of the Holy Ghost, and know all things.]

²¹ I wrote not to you, as to men that know not the truth, but as to men that know it, and for each lying is not of truth.

²² Who is a liar, but this that denieth that Jesus is not Christ? This is antichrist, that denieth the Father, and the Son.

²³ For each that denieth the Son, hath not the Father; but he that acknowledgeth the Son, hath also the Father.

²⁴ That thing that ye heard at the beginning, dwell it in you [That thing that ye heard from the beginning, dwell in you]; for if that thing dwelleth in you [for if it shall dwell in you], which ye heard at the beginning, [and] ye shall dwell in the Son and in the Father.

²⁵ And this is the promise, that he promised to us everlasting life.

²⁶ I wrote these things to you, of them that deceive you,

²⁷ and that the anointing which ye received of him, dwell in you. And ye have not need, that any man teach you, but as his anointing teacheth you of all things, and it is true, and it is not lying; and as he taught you, dwell ye in him.

²⁸ And now, ye little sons, dwell ye in him, that when he shall appear, we have trust, and be not confounded of him in his coming.

²⁹ If ye know that he is just, know ye that also each that doeth rightwiseness, is born of him.

3 In the fifteen year of the empire of Tiberius, the emperor, when Pilate of Pontii governed Judaea, and Herod was prince of Galilee, and Philip, his brother, was prince of Ituraea, and of the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias was prince of Abilene,

² under the princes of priests Annas and Caiaphas, the word of the Lord was made on [upon] John, the son of Zacharias, in desert.

³ And he came into all the country of Jordan, and preached [preaching] baptism of penance into remission of sins.

⁴ As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias, the prophet, The voice of a crier in desert [The voice of one crying in desert], Make ye ready the way of the Lord, make ye his paths right.

⁵ Each valley shall be full-filled, and every hill and little hill shall be made low; and depraved things shall be into dressed things, and sharp things into plain ways; [Each valley shall be filled, and each mountain and little hill shall be made low; and shrewd things shall be into dressed things, and sharp things into plain ways;]

⁶ and every flesh [and each flesh] shall see the health of God.

⁷ Therefore he said to the people, which went out to be baptized of him, Kindlings of adders, who showed to you to flee from the wrath to coming?^[a]

⁸ Therefore do ye worthy fruits of penance, and begin ye not to say, We have a father Abraham; for I say to you, that God is mighty to raise of these stones the sons of Abraham [soothly I say to you, God is mighty of these stones to raise the sons of Abraham].

⁹ And now an ax is set [is put] to the root of the tree; and therefore every tree that maketh not good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire [shall be cut down, and sent into the fire].

¹⁰ And the people asked him, and said [saying], What then shall we do?

¹¹ He answered, and said to them [Soothly he answering said to them], He that hath two coats, give he to him that hath none; and he that hath meats, do in like manner.

¹² And [the] publicans came to be baptized; and they said to him, Master, what shall we do?

¹³ And he said to them, Do ye nothing more, than that that is ordained to you.

¹⁴ And [the] knights asked him, and said, What shall also we do [Forsooth and the knights asked him, saying, What shall and we do]? And he said to them, Smite ye wrongfully no man, neither make ye false challenge, and be ye satisfied with your wages [and be satisfied with your wages].