Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer of Trust in God[a]
31 I come to you, Lord, for protection;
never let me be defeated.
You are a righteous God;
save me, I pray!
2 Hear me! Save me now!
Be my refuge to protect me;
my defense to save me.
3 You are my refuge and defense;
guide me and lead me as you have promised.
4 Keep me safe from the trap that has been set for me;
shelter me from danger.
5 (A)I place myself in your care.
You will save me, Lord;
you are a faithful God.
6 You hate those who worship false gods,
but I trust in you.
7 I will be glad and rejoice
because of your constant love.
You see my suffering;
you know my trouble.
8 You have not let my enemies capture me;
you have given me freedom to go where I wish.
9 Be merciful to me, Lord,
for I am in trouble;
my eyes are tired from so much crying;
I am completely worn out.
10 I am exhausted by sorrow,
and weeping has shortened my life.
I am weak from all my troubles;[b]
even my bones are wasting away.
11 All my enemies, and especially my neighbors,
treat me with contempt.
Those who know me are afraid of me;
when they see me in the street, they run away.
12 Everyone has forgotten me, as though I were dead;
I am like something thrown away.
13 I hear many enemies whispering;
terror is all around me.
They are making plans against me,
plotting to kill me.
14 But my trust is in you, O Lord;
you are my God.
15 I am always in your care;
save me from my enemies,
from those who persecute me.
16 Look on your servant with kindness;
save me in your constant love.
17 I call to you, Lord;
don't let me be disgraced.
May the wicked be disgraced;
may they go silently down to the world of the dead.
18 Silence those liars—
all the proud and arrogant
who speak with contempt about the righteous.
19 How wonderful are the good things
you keep for those who honor you!
Everyone knows how good you are,
how securely you protect those who trust you.
20 You hide them in the safety of your presence
from the plots of others;
in a safe shelter you hide them
from the insults of their enemies.
21 Praise the Lord!
How wonderfully he showed his love for me
when I was surrounded and attacked!
22 I was afraid and thought
that he had driven me out of his presence.
But he heard my cry,
when I called to him for help.
23 Love the Lord, all his faithful people.
The Lord protects the faithful,
but punishes the proud as they deserve.
24 Be strong, be courageous,
all you that hope in the Lord.
A Prayer for Help[a]
35 Oppose those who oppose me, Lord,
and fight those who fight against me!
2 Take your shield and armor
and come to my rescue.
3 Lift up your spear and war ax
against those who pursue me.
Promise that you will save me.
4 May those who try to kill me
be defeated and disgraced!
May those who plot against me
be turned back and confused!
5 May they be like straw blown by the wind
as the angel of the Lord pursues them!
6 May their path be dark and slippery
while the angel of the Lord strikes them down!
7 Without any reason they laid a trap for me
and dug a deep hole to catch me.
8 But destruction will catch them before they know it;
they will be caught in their own trap
and fall to their destruction!
9 Then I will be glad because of the Lord;
I will be happy because he saved me.
10 With all my heart I will say to the Lord,
“There is no one like you.
You protect the weak from the strong,
the poor from the oppressor.”
11 Evil people testify against me
and accuse me of crimes I know nothing about.
12 They pay me back evil for good,
and I sink in despair.
13 But when they were sick, I dressed in mourning;
I deprived myself of food;
I prayed with my head bowed low,
14 as I would pray for a friend or a brother.
I went around bent over in mourning,
as one who mourns for his mother.
15 But when I was in trouble, they were all glad
and gathered around to make fun of me;
strangers beat me
and kept striking me.
16 Like those who would mock a cripple,[b]
they glared at me with hate.
17 How much longer, Lord, will you just look on?
Rescue me from their attacks;
save my life from these lions!
18 Then I will thank you in the assembly of your people;
I will praise you before them all.
19 (A)Don't let my enemies, those liars,
gloat over my defeat.
Don't let those who hate me for no reason
smirk with delight over my sorrow.
20 They do not speak in a friendly way;
instead they invent all kinds of lies about peace-loving people.
21 They accuse me, shouting,
“We saw what you did!”
22 But you, O Lord, have seen this.
So don't be silent, Lord;
don't keep yourself far away!
23 Rouse yourself, O Lord, and defend me;
rise up, my God, and plead my cause.
24 You are righteous, O Lord, so declare me innocent;
don't let my enemies gloat over me.
25 Don't let them say to themselves,
“We are rid of him!
That's just what we wanted!”
26 May those who gloat over my suffering
be completely defeated and confused;
may those who claim to be better than I am
be covered with shame and disgrace.
27 May those who want to see me acquitted
shout for joy and say again and again,
“How great is the Lord!
He is pleased with the success of his servant.”
28 Then I will proclaim your righteousness,
and I will praise you all day long.
Worship Begins Again
3 By the seventh month the people of Israel were all settled in their towns. Then they all assembled in Jerusalem, 2 (A)and Joshua son of Jehozadak, his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, together with his relatives, rebuilt the altar of the God of Israel, so that they could burn sacrifices on it according to the instructions written in the Law of Moses, the man of God. 3 (B)Even though[a] the returning exiles were afraid of the people who were living in the land, they rebuilt the altar where it had stood before. Then they began once again to burn on it the regular morning and evening sacrifices. 4 (C)They celebrated the Festival of Shelters according to the regulations; each day they offered the sacrifices required for that day; 5 (D)and in addition they offered the regular sacrifices to be burned whole and those to be offered at the New Moon Festival and at all the other regular assemblies at which the Lord is worshiped, as well as all the offerings that were given to the Lord voluntarily. 6 Although the people had not yet started to rebuild the Temple, they began on the first day of the seventh month to burn sacrifices to the Lord.
The Rebuilding of the Temple Begins
7 The people gave money to pay the stonemasons and the carpenters and gave food, drink, and olive oil to be sent to the cities of Tyre and Sidon in exchange for cedar trees from Lebanon, which were to be brought by sea to Joppa. All this was done with the permission of Emperor Cyrus of Persia. 8 So in the second month of the year after they came back to the site of the Temple in Jerusalem, they began work. Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the rest of their people, the priests, and the Levites, in fact all the exiles who had come back to Jerusalem, joined in the work. All the Levites twenty years of age or older were put in charge of the work of rebuilding the Temple. 9 The Levite Jeshua and his sons and relatives, and Kadmiel and his sons (the clan of Hodaviah[b]) joined together in taking charge of the rebuilding of the Temple. (They were helped by the Levites of the clan of Henadad.)
10 (E)When the builders started to lay the foundation of the Temple, the priests in their robes took their places with trumpets in their hands, and the Levites of the clan of Asaph stood there with cymbals. They praised the Lord according to the instructions handed down from the time of King David. 11 (F)They sang the Lord's praises, repeating the refrain:
“The Lord is good, and his love for Israel is eternal.” Everyone shouted with all their might, praising the Lord, because the work on the foundation of the Temple had been started. 12 (G)Many of the older priests, Levites, and heads of clans had seen the first Temple, and as they watched the foundation of this Temple being laid, they cried and wailed. But the others who were there shouted for joy.
13 No one could distinguish between the joyful shouts and the crying, because the noise they made was so loud that it could be heard for miles.
10 (A)If Timothy comes your way, be sure to make him feel welcome among you, because he is working for the Lord, just as I am. 11 No one should look down on him, but you must help him continue his trip in peace, so that he will come back to me; for I am expecting him back with the believers.
12 Now, about brother Apollos. I have often encouraged him to visit you with the other believers, but he is not completely convinced[a] that he should go at this time. When he gets the chance, however, he will go.
Final Words
13 Be alert, stand firm in the faith, be brave, be strong. 14 Do all your work in love.
15 (B)You know about Stephanas and his family; they are the first Christian converts in Achaia and have given themselves to the service of God's people. I beg you, my friends, 16 to follow the leadership of such people as these, and of anyone else who works and serves with them.
17 I am happy about the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus; they have made up for your absence 18 and have cheered me up, just as they cheered you up. Such men as these deserve notice.
19 (C)The churches in the province of Asia send you their greetings; Aquila and Priscilla and the church that meets in their house send warm Christian greetings. 20 All the believers here send greetings.
Greet one another with the kiss of peace.
21 With my own hand I write this: Greetings from Paul.
22 Whoever does not love the Lord—a curse on him!
Marana tha—Our Lord, come!
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.
Jesus and Beelzebul(A)
22 Then some people brought to Jesus a man who was blind and could not talk because he had a demon. Jesus healed the man, so that he was able to talk and see. 23 The crowds were all amazed at what Jesus had done. “Could he be the Son of David?” they asked.
24 (B)When the Pharisees heard this, they replied, “He drives out demons only because their ruler Beelzebul gives him power to do so.”
25 Jesus knew what they were thinking, and so he said to them, “Any country that divides itself into groups which fight each other will not last very long. And any town or family that divides itself into groups which fight each other will fall apart. 26 So if one group is fighting another in Satan's kingdom, this means that it is already divided into groups and will soon fall apart! 27 You say that I drive out demons because Beelzebul gives me the power to do so. Well, then, who gives your followers the power to drive them out? What your own followers do proves that you are wrong! 28 No, it is not Beelzebul, but God's Spirit, who gives me the power to drive out demons, which proves that the Kingdom of God has already come upon you.
29 (C)“No one can break into a strong man's house and take away his belongings unless he first ties up the strong man; then he can plunder his house.
30 (D)“Anyone who is not for me is really against me; anyone who does not help me gather is really scattering. 31 For this reason I tell you: people can be forgiven any sin and any evil thing they say;[a] but whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 (E)Anyone who says something against the Son of Man can be forgiven; but whoever says something against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven—now or ever.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.