Book of Common Prayer
40 (40:2)(For the one directing, Of Dovid. Mizmor) I waited patiently for Hashem; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 (3) Hashem brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 (4) And He hath put a shir chadash in my mouth, even tehillah (hymn of praise) unto Eloheinu; many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Hashem.
4 (5) Ashrei is that man that maketh Hashem his trust, and looketh not to the proud ones, nor such as turn aside to lies (false g-ds).
5 (6) Many, O Hashem Elohai, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward; they cannot be recounted unto Thee; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
6 (7) Zevach and minchah Thou didst not desire; mine ears hast Thou pierced [cf Psa 22:17]; olah (burnt offering) and chata’ah (sin offering) hast Thou not required.
7 (8) Then said I, Hinei, I come; in the megillat sefer it is written of me [cf MJ 10:5-7],
8 (9) I delight to do Thy will, O Elohai; yea, Thy torah is within my heart.
9 (10) I have preached tzedek in the kahal rav (great congregation); hinei, I have not restrained my lips, O Hashem, Thou knowest.
10 (11) I have not hid thy tzedek within my lev; I have declared Thy emunah (faithfulness) and Thy teshuah (salvation); I have not concealed Thy chesed and Thy emes from the kahal rav.
11 (12) Withhold not Thou thy rachamim from me, O Hashem; let Thy chesed and Thy emes continually preserve me.
12 (13) For innumerable evils have compassed me about; mine avonot (iniquities) have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head; therefore my lev faileth me.
13 (14) Be pleased, O Hashem, to deliver me; O Hashem, make haste to help me.
14 (15) Let them be ashamed and mutually confounded that seek after my nefesh to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
15 (16) Let them be appalled because of their boshet (shame) that say unto me, Aha, aha.
16 (17) Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee; let such as love Thy teshuah say continually, Hashem be magnified.
17 (18) But I am poor and needy; yet Adonoi thinketh upon me; Thou art my ezer and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O Elohai.
54 (For the director. With stringed instruments. A maskil. For Dovid, when the Ziphim came and said to Sha’ul, Dovid is in hiding among us.) Hoshieini (save me), O Elohim, by Shimecha, and vindicate me by Thy gevurah (might, power).
2 (4) Hear my tefillah, O Elohim; give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 (5) For zarim (strangers) are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my nefesh; they have not set Elohim before them. Selah.
4 (6) Hinei, Elohim is mine Ozer (helper); Adonoi is with them that uphold my nefesh.
5 (7) He shall recompense the rah (evil) unto mine enemies; in Thy emes cut them off.
6 (8) I will sacrifice a nedavah (freewill offering) unto Thee; I will praise Shimecha, Hashem; for it is tov (good).
7 (9) For He hath delivered me out of all my tzoros; and mine eye hath looked in triumph upon mine oyevim (enemies.)
51 (For the one directing. Mizmor Dovid. When Natan HaNavi confronted him after he went into Bat- Sheva—2Sm. 11:2) Have mercy upon me, O Elohim, according to Thy chesed; according unto the multitude of Thy rachamim blot out my peysha’im (transgressions, rebellions).
2 (4) Wash me thoroughly from mine avon (iniquity), and cleanse me from my chattat (sin).
3 (5) For I acknowledge my peysha’im (transgressions, rebellions); and my chattat (sin) is ever before me.
4 (6) Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done the rah in Thy sight; that Thou mightest be found just when Thou speakest, and be blameless when Thou judgest.
5 (7) Surely, I was brought forth in avon; and in chet did immi conceive me [i.e., I was a sinner from conception].
6 (8) Surely Thou desirest emes in the inward parts; and in the inmost place Thou shalt make me to know chochmah.
7 (9) Purge me with ezov (hyssop), and I shall be tahor; wash me, and I shall be whiter than sheleg (snow).
8 (10) Make me to hear sasson and simchah; that the atzmot which Thou hast broken may rejoice.
9 (11) Hide Thy face from my chatta’im, and blot out all mine avonot.
10 (12) Create in me a lev tahor, O Elohim; and renew a ruach nekhon (steadfast spirit [i.e., regeneration Ezek 36:26; Yn 3:3,6]) within me.
11 (13) Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Ruach Hakodesh from me.
12 (14) Restore unto me the sasson of Thy salvation; and uphold me with a ruach nedivah (a willing spirit; see Jer 31:31-34).
13 (15) Then will I teach poshe’im (transgressors) Thy drakhim; and chatta’im (sinners) shall be converted [have a spiritual turnaround; see Isa 6:10] unto Thee.
14 (16) Save me from damim (bloodguiltiness), O Elohim, Thou Elohei Teshuati; and my leshon shall sing aloud of Thy tzedakah.
15 (17) Adonoi, open Thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Thy tehillah (praise).
16 (18) For Thou desirest not zevach (sacrifice); else would I give it; Thou delightest not in olah (burnt offering).
17 (19) The zivkhei Elohim are a ruach nishbarah (broken spirit); a broken and contrite lev, O Elohim, Thou wilt not despise.
18 (20) Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Tziyon; build Thou the chomot Yerushalayim.
19 (21) Then shalt Thou be pleased with zivkhei tzedek (true sacrifices, sacrifices of righteousness), with olah (burnt offering) and whole burnt offering; then shall they offer parim (bulls) upon Thine Mizbe’ach. [T.N. This Psalm, Ps 51, teaches the doctrine of Chet Kadmon from which comes the seminal corrupting human condition necessitating hitkhadshut for all fallen Bnei Adam]
2 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artachshasta HaMelech, that yayin was before him; and I took up the yayin, and gave it unto HaMelech. Now I had not been previously sad in his presence.
2 Wherefore HaMelech said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not choleh (sick)? This is nothing else but ro’ah lev. Then I was very much afraid,
3 And said unto HaMelech, HaMelech l’olam yicheyeh. Why should not my countenance look sad, when HaIr, the Bais Kivrot Avotai, lieth in ruins, and the gates thereof are consumed with eish?
4 Then HaMelech said unto me, For what dost Thou make request? So I davened to Elohei HaShomayim.
5 And I said unto HaMelech, If it please HaMelech, and if thy eved have found favor in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Yehudah, unto the Ir Kivrot Avotai, that I may rebuild her.
6 And HaMelech said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall thy journey be, and when wilt thou return? So it pleased HaMelech to send me; and I set for him a zman.
7 Moreover I said unto HaMelech, If it please HaMelech, let iggrot be given me to the governors Beyond the River, that they may provide me safe conduct till I come into Yehudah;
8 And an iggeret unto Asaph the Shomer of the forest of HaMelech, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress by the Beis, and for the Chomat HaIr, and for the bais that I shall occupy. And HaMelech granted me, according to the Yad Elohai Hatovah upon me.
9 Then I came to the governors Beyond the River [Euphrates], and gave them the Iggrot HaMelech. Now HaMelech had sent captains of the army and parashim (a troop of horsemen) with me.
10 When Sanvalat the Choroni, and Toviyah the eved (official), the Ammoni, heard of it, it grieved them with a ra’ah gedolah that there was come an adam to seek the welfare of the Bnei Yisroel.
11 So I came to Yerushalayim; was there 3 yamim.
12 And I arose in the lailah, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what Elohai had put in my lev to do for Yerushalayim; neither was there any mount with me, save the mount that I rode upon.
13 And I went out by lailah by the Valley Gate, even before the Dragon’s Spring, and to the Dung Gate [3:13], and made inspection of the Chomat Yerushalayim, which had been broken down, and the gates thereof that were consumed with eish.
14 Then I went on to the Fountain Gate, and to the King’s Pool [Pool of Shiloah], but there was no place for the mount that was under me to pass.
15 Then went I up in the lailah by way of the valley, and viewed the Chomah (Wall), and turned back, and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned.
16 And the officials knew not where I went, or what I did; neither as yet to the Yehudim, nor to the Kohanim, nor to the Nobles, nor to the Rulers, nor to the rest that were to do the melachah (work) had I said anything.
17 Then said I unto them, Ye see hara’ah (the trouble) that we are in, how Yerushalayim lieth in ruins, and the gates thereof are burned with eish; come, and let us rebuild the Chomat Yerushalayim, that we suffer derision no more.
18 Then I told them of the Yad Elohai Hatovah which was upon me; as also the Divrei HaMelech that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and rebuild. So they strengthened their hands in tovah (in the good).
19 But when Sanvalat the Choroni, and Toviyah the eved (official), the Ammoni, and Geshem the Arab, heard it, they laughed at us in mockery, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? Against HaMelech will you be moredim (ones rebelling)?
20 Then answered I them, and said unto them, Elohei HaShomayim, He will give us success; therefore we His avadim will arise and rebuild; but ye have no chelek (allotted portion), nor tzadakah (right), nor zikaron b’Yerushalayim (history to commemorate in Jerusalem).
12 And I saw when he opened the chotam hashishi (sixth seal), a great earthquake occurred and the shemesh (sun) became shakhor (black) as sackcloth made of hair and the whole levanah (moon) became like dahm. [Ps 97:4; Isa 29:6; Ezek 38:19; Isa 50:3]
13 And the kokhavim (stars) of Shomayim fell to ha’aretz (the earth), as an etz te’enah (fig tree) casts off its unripe figs when being shaken by a great wind. [YESHAYAH 34:4]
14 And Shomayim split apart as a megillah scroll being rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. [TEHILLIM 46:2; YESHAYAH 54:10; YIRMEYAH 4:24; YECHEZKEL 38:20; NACHUM 1:5]
15 And the melachim (kings) of ha’aretz (the earth) and the gedolim (great ones) and the military leaders and the oishirim (rich men) and the strong men and all avadim (slaves) and Bnei Chorin (freedmen) hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. [YESHAYAH 2:10,19,21]
16 And they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One sitting on the Kes (Throne) and from the za’am (wrath, anger, 16:1f) of the SEH (Lamb, SHEMOT 12:3; YESHAYAH 53:7 Moshiach), [HOSHEA 10:8]
17 Because the Yom HaGadol, the Yom HaZa’am, the Great Day of Their Wrath has come, and who is able to stand? [Joel 1:15; 2:1,2,11,31; Zeph 1:14,15; Nah 1:6; Mal 3:2]
7 After this I saw arba’ah malachim (angels) taking their stand on the arbah pinot ha’aretz (the four corners of the earth), holding the four winds of ha’aretz (the earth) so that wind should not blow on ha’aretz (the earth) nor on the yam (sea) nor on any etz (tree). [YESHAYAH 11:12; YIRMEYAH 49:36; YECHEZKEL 37:9; DANIEL 7:2; ZECHARYAH 6:5]
2 And I saw another malach (angel) coming up from the rising of the shemesh (sun), having a chotam (seal) of the Elohim Chayyim (Living G-d), and he cried with a kol gadol (loud voice) to the four malachim (angels). These were the malachim to whom it was given to harm ha’aretz (the earth) and hayam (the sea),
3 Saying, Do not harm ha’aretz (the earth) nor hayam (the sea) nor haetzim (the trees), until we have marked with the chotam (seal) the avadim (servants) of Eloheinu upon their metsakhim (foreheads). [YECHEZKEL 9:4]
4 And I heard the mispar (number) of the ones having been sealed, 144,000, having been marked with the chotam (seal) from kol shivtei Bnei Yisroel (every tribe of the Sons of Israel),
24 Another mashal Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach placed before them, saying, The Malchut HaShomayim is like a man sowing zera tov (good seed) in his field.
25 But while men slept, his oyev (enemy) came and oversowed weeds in between the wheat and went away.
26 But when the wheat sprouted and produced pri, then the weeds also appeared.
27 So the servants of the Baal Bayit said to him, Adoneinu, did you not sow zera tov (good seed) in your field? How then does it have weeds?
28 And he said to them, An oyev did this. So the servants say to him, Do you want us to go and pull them all?
29 But he says, No, lest gathering the weeds you should uproot the wheat together with them.
30 Permit both to grow together until the Katzir (harvest); and in time of the Katzir, I will say to the kotzerim, Collect first the weeds, and bind them into bundles to burn them. But the wheat gather into my storehouse.
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