Book of Common Prayer

88 The song of the psalm, to the sons of Korah, to victory on Mahalath, for to answer the learning of Heman, (the) Ezrahite. Lord God of mine health; I cried in day and night before thee. (The song of the psalm, for the sons of Korah, to victory on Mahalath, to answer the teaching of Heman, the Ezrahite. Lord God of my salvation; I have cried day and night before thee.)

² My prayer enter before thy sight (Let my prayer come before thee); bow down thine ear to my prayer.

³ For my soul is [full-]filled with evils; and my life nighed to hell. (For my soul is filled full of evils; and my life came near to Sheol, that is, the land of the dead/and my life nighed to the grave.)

⁴ I am guessed with them that go down into the pit; I am made as a man without help,

⁵ and free among dead men. As men wounded sleeping in sepulchres, of which men none (thou) is mindful (of) after; and they be put away from thine hand. (and free among the dead. Like the slain who sleep in tombs, or graves, of whom there is no one thou remembereth any more; yea, they all be cut off from thy help, or thy care.)

⁶ They have put me in the lower pit; in dark places, and in the shadow of death.

⁷ Thy strong vengeance is confirmed on me (Thy fury hath raged against me); and thou hast brought in all thy waves on me.

⁸ Thou hast made far from me my known; they have set me (an) abomination to themselves. I am taken (in), and I went not out; (Thou hast taken all my friends far away from me; thou hast made me an abomination to them. I am enclosed, and I cannot go out;)

⁹ mine eyes were sick for poverty [mine eyes (were) (en)feebled for mis-ease]. Lord, I cried to thee; all day I spreaded abroad mine hands to thee. (my eyes have been weakened from suffering. Lord, I cried to thee; and every day I spread abroad my hands to thee.)

¹⁰ Whether thou shalt do marvels to dead men; either leeches shall raise (them up), and they shall acknowledge to thee? (Shalt thou do marvellous deeds for the dead? or shall physicians raise them up, and then they shall praise thee?)

¹¹ Whether any man in sepulchre shall tell thy mercy; and thy truth in perdition? (Shall any man in the tomb, or in the grave, tell of thy love? or in perdition, tell of thy faithfulness?)

¹² Whether thy marvels shall be known in darknesses; and thy rightfulness in the land of forgetting? (Shall thy marvellous deeds be known in the dark places? or thy righteousness in the land of the forgotten?/in the land of oblivion?)

¹³ And, Lord, I cried to thee; and early my prayer shall before come to thee. (But, Lord, I cried to thee; and every morning my prayer hath come before thee.)

¹⁴ Lord, why puttest thou away my prayer; thou turnest away thy face from me? (Lord, why puttest thou me away? why rejectest me? why turnest thou away thy face from me?)

¹⁵ I am poor, and in travails from my youth; soothly I am enhanced, and I am made low, and troubled. (I am poor, and have had troubles from my youth; truly I am abased, and greatly troubled.)

¹⁶ Thy wraths passed on me; and thy dreads troubled me. (Thy rages have swept over me/Thy anger hath come upon me; and thy terrors have made me afraid.)

¹⁷ They (en)compassed me as water all day; they (en)compassed me (al)together. (They surrounded me like water all day long; they have completely surrounded me.)

¹⁸ Thou madest far from me a friend and neighbour; and my known from wretchedness. (Thou hast taken my friends and my neighbours far away from me; and now wretchedness is my only companion.)

91 He that dwelleth in the help of the highest God; shall dwell in the protection of God of heaven. (He who dwelleth in the shelter of the Most High God, shall live under the protection of the God of heaven.)

² He shall say to the Lord, Thou art mine up-taker, and my refuge; my God, I shall hope in him. (He shall say to the Lord, Thou art my defender, and my refuge; my God, I trust in thee.)

³ For he delivered me from the snare of hunters; and from a sharp word. (For he shall save me from the hunter’s snare; and from a sharp word.)

⁴ With his shoulders he shall make shadow to thee; and thou shalt have hope under his feathers. His truth shall (en)compass thee with a shield; (With his feathers he shall make a shadow for thee; and thou shalt have hope under his wings. His faithfulness shall surround thee like a shield.)

⁵ thou shalt not dread of the night’s dread. Of an arrow flying in the day, (Thou shalt not fear the terror in the night; nor an arrow flying in the day.)

⁶ of a goblin going in darknesses; of assailing, and of a midday fiend. (Nor the pestilence going in darkness; nor the assailing of the plague at midday.)

⁷ A thousand shall fall down from thy side, and ten thousand from thy right side; forsooth it shall not nigh to thee. (A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right side; but it shall not come even close to thee.)

⁸ Nevertheless thou shalt behold with thine eyes; and thou shalt see the yielding of sinners. (Nevertheless thou shalt see with thine eyes; yea, thou shalt see the punishment of the sinners.)

⁹ For thou, Lord, art mine hope; thou hast set thine help (to be the) alder-Highest. (For thou hast made the Lord to be thy hope; yea, the Most High to be thy help.)

¹⁰ Evil shall not come to thee; and a scourge shall not (come) nigh to thy tabernacle.

¹¹ For God hath commanded to his angels of thee; that they keep thee in all thy ways. (For God hath commanded his angels to be all around thee; so that they keep thee safe on all thy ways.)

¹² They shall bear thee in the hands; lest peradventure thou hurt thy foot at a stone. (They shall lift thee up with their hands; lest thou hurt thy foot on a stone.)

¹³ Thou shalt go upon a snake, and a cockatrice; and thou shalt defoul a lion, and a dragon (and thou shalt trample upon a lion, and a dragon).

¹⁴ (For God saith,) For he hoped in me, I shall deliver him (For God saith, Because he loved me, I shall save him); I shall defend him, for he knew my name.

¹⁵ He cried to me, and I shall hear him; I am with him in tribulation; I shall deliver him, and I shall glorify him. (When he crieth to me, I shall answer him; I shall be with him in all his troubles; I shall rescue him, and I shall honour him.)

¹⁶ I shall [ful]fill him with the length of days; and I shall show mine health to him. (I shall fulfill him with length of days, that is, with a long life; and I shall give my salvation, or my deliverance, to him/and I shall save him.)

92 The psalm of song, in the day of sabbath. It is good to acknowledge to the Lord; and to sing to thy name, thou Highest. (The psalm of the song, on the sabbath day. It is good to give thanks to the Lord; and to sing unto thy name, O Most High.)

² To show early thy mercy; and thy truth by night. (To declare thy love in the morning; and thy faithfulness every night.)

³ In a psaltery of ten cords; with song in harp. (On a lute with ten strings; and with a song on the harp.)

⁴ For thou, Lord, hast delighted me in (the works of) thy making; and I shall make full out joy in the works of thine hands. (For thou, Lord, hast delighted me with thy deeds, or thy acts; and I shall rejoice over the works of thy hands.)

⁵ Lord, thy works be magnified greatly; thy thoughts be made full deep. (Lord, thy works be truly great; thy thoughts be so very deep!)

⁶ An unwise man shall not know; and a fool shall not understand these things. (But this is what the ignorant do not know; and what the foolish do not understand.)

⁷ When sinners come forth, as hay; and all they appear, that work wickedness. That they perish into the world of world; (That even though the sinners come forth like hay, or like grass, and that those who do evil prosper; they shall all utterly perish forever.)

⁸ forsooth thou, Lord, art the Highest, [into] without end. (But thou, Lord, art the Most High, forever.)

⁹ For lo! Lord, thine enemies, for lo! thine enemies shall perish; and all they shall be scattered that work wickedness (and all who do evil shall be destroyed).

¹⁰ And mine horn shall be raised as an unicorn; and mine eld (age shall be) in plenteous mercy. (But my head shall be raised up, like the horn of a wild ox; and I shall be richly anointed with oil.)

¹¹ And mine eye despised mine enemies; and when wicked men rise against me, mine ear shall hear (their downfall). (And my eyes shall see my heart’s desire for my enemies/And my eyes shall see the defeat of my enemies; and my ears shall hear the downfall of the wicked people who rise up against me.)

¹² A just man shall flower as a palm tree; he shall be multiplied as a cedar of Lebanon. (The righteous shall flourish like the palm trees; they shall be multiplied like the cedars of Lebanon.)

¹³ Men planted in the house of the Lord; shall flower in the porches of the house of our God. (Those who be planted in the House of the Lord; shall flourish in the courtyards of the House of our God.)

¹⁴ Yet they shall be multiplied in plenteous eld (age); and they shall be suffering well. (They shall be granted a plentiful old age; and they shall be strong, and vigorous/and they shall be prosperous, and flourishing.)

¹⁵ That they tell, that our Lord God is rightful; and no wickedness is in him. (And they shall declare that the Lord our God is righteous; and there is no wickedness in him.)

12 Therefore the Lord sent Nathan to David; and when he had come to David, he said to him, Answer thou a doom to me (Give thou to me your judgement on this); two men were in one city; one man was rich, and the tother was poor.

² The rich man had full many sheep, and oxen;

³ and the poor man had utterly nothing, except one little sheep, which he had bought, and nourished, and which had waxed at him, (and) with his sons, and ate together (with them) of his bread, and drank of his cup, and slept in his bosom; and it was as a daughter to him. (and the poor man had utterly nothing, except one little lamb, which he had bought, and nourished, and which had grown up with him, and with his sons, and together with them ate his food, and drank from his cup, and slept in his bosom; yea, it was like a daughter to him.)

⁴ But when a pilgrim came to this rich man, he spared to take of his own sheep and oxen, that he should make a feast to that pilgrim, that came to him; and he took the sheep of the poor man, and prepared meats to the man that came to him. (But when a visitor came to the rich man, he would not take his own sheep and oxen to make a feast for that visitor, who came to him; but instead he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared food for the man who came to him.)

⁵ Certainly David was full wroth with indignation against that man, and he said to Nathan, (As) The Lord liveth, for the man that did this thing is the son of death, that is, is worthy of death, for the hideousness of the deed;

⁶ he shall yield the sheep into fourfold, for he did this word, and spared not. (he shall give him four sheep, for he did this thing, and yet could care less.)

⁷ And Nathan said to David, Thou art that man, that hast done this thing. The Lord God of Israel saith these things, I anointed thee into king on Israel (I anointed thee king upon Israel), and I delivered thee from the hand of Saul,

⁸ and I gave to thee the house of thy lord, and the wives of thy lord in(to) thy bosom, and I gave to thee the house of Israel, and of Judah; and if these things be little, I shall add to thee much greater things (and if these things were too little, I would have added much greater things for thee).

⁹ Why therefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord, that thou didest evils in my sight? Thou hast killed by sword Uriah (the) Hittite, and thou hast taken his wife into wife to thee, and thou hast slain him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. (And so why hast thou despised the word of the Lord, so that thou didest evils in my sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and thou hast taken his wife for thy wife, and thou hast killed him by the sword of the Ammonites.)

¹⁰ Wherefore a sword shall not go away from thine house till into without end; for thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah (the) Hittite, that she should be thy wife.

¹¹ Therefore the Lord saith these things, Lo! I shall raise on thee evil (out) of thine house, and I shall take thy wives in thine eyes, and I shall give to thy neighbour, and he shall sleep with thy wives in the eyes of this sun. (And so the Lord saith these things, Lo! I shall raise up evil against thee from thy own house, and I shall take thy wives from before thee, and I shall give them to thy neighbour, or to another man, and he shall sleep with thy wives in broad daylight.)

¹² For thou hast done (thy sin) privily; forsooth I shall do this word in the sight of all Israel, and in the sight of this sun. (Yea, thou hast done thy sin in secret; but I shall do this thing before all Israel, and in broad daylight.)

¹³ And David said to Nathan, I have sinned to the Lord. And Nathan said to David, Also the Lord hath turned away thy sin; thou shalt not die. (And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord hath turned away thy sin; thou shalt not die.)

¹⁴ Nevertheless for thou hast made [the] enemies to blaspheme the name of the Lord, for this word the child that is born to thee shall die by death (because of this, the child who is born to thee shall die).

²¹ And when these things were filled [Soothly these things fulfilled], Paul purposed in spirit, after that Macedonia was passed and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, and said, For after that I shall be there, it behooveth me also to see Rome [saying, For after that I shall be there, it behooveth me to see also Rome].

²² And he sent into Macedonia two men, that ministered to him, Timothy, and Erastus, and he dwelled [he dwelt] for a time in Asia.

²³ And a great troubling was made in that day, of the way of the Lord. [Therefore there was made in that day a troubling not least, in the way of the Lord.]

²⁴ For a man, Demetrius by name, a worker in silver, made silver houses to Diana, and gave to craftsmen much winning;^[a]

²⁵ which he called together [and] them that were such manner workmen [whom he called together, and them that were such manner workmen], and said, Men, ye know that of this craft winning is to us;

²⁶ and ye see and hear, that this Paul counseleth and turneth away much people, not only of Ephesus, but almost of all Asia, and said, that they be not gods, that be made with hands.^[b]

²⁷ And not only this part shall be in peril to us, to come into reproof, but also the temple of the great Diana shall be acounted into nought [shall be counted into nought]; yea, and the majesty of her shall begin to be destroyed [but and the majesty of her shall be destroyed], whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.

²⁸ When these things were heard, they were filled with ire, and cried, and said, Great is the Diana of the Ephesians. [These things heard, they be full-filled with ire, and cried, saying, Great the Diana of Ephesians.]

²⁹ And the city was filled with confusion, and they made an assault with one will into the theatre [the theatre, or common beholding place], and took Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, fellows of Paul.

³⁰ And when Paul would have entered into the people, the disciples suffered not.

³¹ And also some of the princes of Asia, that were his friends, sent to him, and prayed [praying], that he should not give himself into the theatre.

³² And other men cried other thing [Soothly other men cried other things]; for the church was confused, and many knew not for what cause they were come together.

³³ But of the people they drew away one Alexander, while Jews putted him forth [Soothly of the company they withdrew some man Alexander, Jews putting him]. And Alexander asked with his hand silence, and would yield a reason to the people.

³⁴ And as they knew that he was a Jew, one voice of all men was made, crying as by twain hours [crying as by two hours], Great is Diana of Ephesians.

³⁵ And when the scribe, that is, a town clerk, had ceased the people, he said, Men of Ephesus, what man is he, that knoweth not, that the city of Ephesians is the worshipper of the great Diana, and of the child of Jupiter?

³⁶ Therefore when it may not be gainsaid to these things, it behooveth you to be ceased [Therefore when it may not be against-said to these things, it behooveth you to be ceased, or assuaged], and to do nothing follily;

³⁷ for ye have brought these men, neither sacrilegers, neither blaspheming your goddess.

³⁸ That if Demetrius, and the workmen that be with him, have cause against any man, there be courts, and dooms, and judges; accuse they each other. [That if Demetrius, and the workmen that be with him, have cause against any man, coming together of dooms be done, and proconsuls, or justices, be; accuse they them together.]

³⁹ If ye seek aught of any other thing, it may be absolved in the lawful church. [If ye seek aught of any other thing, it may be assoiled in the lawful church.]

⁴⁰ For why we be in peril to be reproved of this day's dissension, since no man is guilty, of whom we be able to yield reason of this running together. [For why and we be in peril to be reproved of this day's sedition, or dissension, since no man is guilty, of whom we may yield reason of this running together.]

⁴¹ And when he had said this thing, he let the people go. [And when he had said this thing, he left, or delivered, the church.]

¹⁴ And he coming to his disciples, saw a great company about them, and [the] scribes disputing with them [and scribes asking with them].

¹⁵ And at once [And anon] all the people seeing Jesus, was astonished, and they dreaded; and they running [to,] greeted him.

¹⁶ And he asked them, What dispute ye among you [What seek ye among you]?

¹⁷ And one of the company answered, and said, Master, I have brought to thee my son, that hath a dumb spirit;

¹⁸ and where ever he taketh him, he hurtleth him down, and he foameth, and beateth together with teeth, and waxeth dry. And I said to thy disciples, that they should cast him out, and they might not.

¹⁹ And he answered to them, and said, A! thou generation out of belief^[a], how long shall I be among you, how long shall I suffer you? Bring ye him to me.

²⁰ And they brought him [to]. And when he had seen him, at once [anon] the spirit troubled him; and he was thrown down to the ground, and wallowed, and foamed [and he cast down into the earth, was wallowed foaming].

²¹ And he asked his father, How long is it, since this hath befallen to him [How much time is it, since this thing befelled to him]? And he said, From childhood;

²² and oft he hath put him into the fire, and into water, to destroy him^[b]; but if thou mayest any thing, help us, and have mercy on us.

²³ And Jesus said to him, If thou mayest believe, all things be possible to a man that believeth.

²⁴ And at once [And anon] the father of the child cried with tears, and said, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

²⁵ And when Jesus had seen the people running together, he menaced the unclean spirit, and said to him [saying to him], Thou deaf and dumb spirit, I command thee, go out from him, and enter no more into him.

²⁶ And he crying, and much wrenching him, went out from him; and he was made as dead, so that many said, that he was dead.

²⁷ And Jesus held his hand, and lifted him up; and he rose.

²⁸ And when he had entered into an house, his disciples asked him privily, Why might not we cast him out?

²⁹ And he said to them, This kind in nothing may go out [This kind may not go out in any thing], but in prayer and fasting.