Book of Common Prayer

The Lord is King!^[a]

Sing a new song!^[a]

David wrote this song when he made the Philistine king think that he was crazy. He wanted the king to send him away.^[a]

God is great!^[b]

The people turn away from their sins

10 Ezra continued to pray, in front of God's temple. He was asking God to forgive his people's sins. He was weeping, and he was bending down low to the ground. While he was doing that, a big crowd of Israelite people came around him. There were men, women and children. They were also weeping loudly. ² Then Shecaniah spoke to Ezra. Shecaniah was Jehiel's son, a descendant of Elam.

Shecaniah said, ‘We have not been faithful to our God. We have married foreign women from the nations who live near us. But Israel may still hope that God will forgive us. ³ We will make an agreement with our God. We will agree to send away these foreign women and their children. As our leader, you have told us we must do this. The people who respect our God's commands say the same thing. Now we want to do what God's law says is right. ⁴ Get up now! You must do something about this. We will help you, so you must be brave!’

⁵ So Ezra got up. He told the leaders of the priests, the Levites and all Israel's people to make a strong promise. They all promised God that they would do what they had said. ⁶ Then Ezra went away from the front of God's temple. He went to the room of Eliashib's son, Jehohanan. While Ezra stayed there, he did not eat any food or drink any water. He was still very sad because the people had not been faithful to God.

⁷ They wrote a message and they sent it to all the people in Jerusalem and the other towns in Judah. It said that all the Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon must come to Jerusalem. ⁸ If they did not arrive in three days, they would lose everything that belonged to them. They would no longer be part of the Israelite people. That is what the leaders and officers had decided should happen.

⁹ All the men from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin reached Jerusalem in three days.^[a] It was the 20th day of the ninth month. All the people sat in the yard in front of God's temple. Their bodies were shaking because they were afraid. It was also raining.

¹⁰ Then Ezra the priest stood up. He said to the people, ‘You have not been faithful to your God. You have married foreign wives. You have caused the whole nation of Israel to be guilty. ¹¹ Now you must agree to obey the Lord, the God that your ancestors worshipped. Turn away from your sins and do the things that please him. Make yourselves separate from the foreign people who live near you. Send away your foreign wives.’

¹² All the people spoke with a loud voice. They said, ‘You are right. We will do as you say. ¹³ But we are many people and we cannot continue to stand here in the heavy rain. We will need more than one or two days to do what we must do. There are many of us who have done this bad sin. ¹⁴ So please let our officers decide what to do on behalf of us all. People who have married foreign wives should come here on certain days. People from each town should come on the right day, together with the leaders and judges from that town. In this way, we can make things right. Then our God will not be angry with us any longer.’

¹⁵ Only four men did not agree with this. They were Asahel's son, Jonathan, Tikvah's son, Jahzeiah, as well as Meshullam and Shabbethai, the Levite.

¹⁶ So the Jews who had returned from Babylon did what they had agreed to do. Ezra the priest chose family leaders for each clan. He wrote down their names. The leaders met together to decide what to do. They started on the first day of the tenth month. ¹⁷ They finished on the first day of the first month of the new year.

Paul tells Felix his own story

¹⁰ Then Felix raised his hand towards Paul to show that he should speak. So Paul said to Felix, ‘I know that you have judged the people in this region for many years. So now I am happy to tell you everything. ¹¹ I went to Jerusalem less than 12 days ago. You can check that that is true. I went there to worship God. ¹² When the Jews saw me in the temple, I was not arguing with anyone. I was not causing trouble among Jewish people in their meeting places. Nor did I cause problems in any other places in Jerusalem. ¹³ They have said bad things against me. But they cannot show you that these things are true. ¹⁴ What I do agree is this: I worship the same God that our Jewish ancestors worshipped. But I do this in the Way that Jesus has taught us. These men say that this is not the right way. But I believe in all God's Law that Moses wrote for us. I also believe in the messages that God's prophets have written in the Bible. ¹⁵ I also trust God like these men do. Like them, I believe that people will become alive again after death. God will do this for all people, both good people and bad people. ¹⁶ Because of that, I always try to do what is right. I do not want to do anything bad against God or against other people.

¹⁷ I had not been to Jerusalem for several years. Now I returned there with a gift of some money. I brought it to give to poor people who are Jews, like me. I also wanted to offer sacrifices to God. ¹⁸ I was doing this in the yard of the temple when these men found me. I had obeyed all the rules to make myself clean in front of God. There was no crowd with me. Nobody was arguing or fighting because of me. ¹⁹ But there were some Jews there who had come from Asia. They are the people who caused the trouble. Maybe they have something bad to say against me. They themselves should come here to speak to you about it. ²⁰ Or these men here should tell you what wrong thing I have done. I stood in front of the meeting of the Jewish leaders and they asked me questions. ²¹ When I stood there, I shouted, “I believe that dead people will rise and they will live again. That is the reason why you are judging me today.” They may think that is a wrong thing that I did.’

¹² Then Jesus said to the man who had asked him to the meal, ‘When you give a meal at midday or in the evening, do not ask your friends to come. Do not ask your brothers or your family. And do not ask the rich people that live near you to come. If you do, they will later ask you to eat at their house. This will pay you for the meal that you gave to them. ¹³ Instead, when you prepare a big meal, you should ask the poor people to come. Ask people that have lost an arm or a leg. Ask people that cannot walk very well, and people that cannot see. ¹⁴ Then God will make you happy. Those people cannot pay you for the meal you have given to them. Instead, God will pay you, on the day when he makes good people become alive again.’

A story about a big meal

¹⁵ The people who were sitting at the meal heard what Jesus said. One of them said to Jesus, ‘One day, there will be a big meal in the kingdom of God. How happy are those people who will eat together at that big meal.’

¹⁶ Jesus told this story to him: ‘One day an important man prepared a big meal.^[a] He asked many people to come to eat in his house. ¹⁷ When the meal was ready, he sent his servant out to tell those people, “Come now, the meal is ready for you.” ¹⁸ But then each person gave a reason why he could not come to the meal. The first man said, “I have bought a field, so I must go out and see it. Please say that I am sorry. Tell your master that I cannot come to his meal.” ¹⁹ The next man said, “I have bought five pairs of oxen. So I am just going out to see if they work well together. Please say that I am sorry. Tell your master that I cannot come to his meal.” ²⁰ The third man said, “I have just married a wife. That is why I cannot come to the meal.” 

²¹ The servant went back to his master. He told him what everyone had said. Then the master of the house was very angry. “Go out quickly to every street in the town,” he said to his servant. “Bring the poor people here. Bring those that have lost an arm or a leg. And bring those that cannot walk well, and those that cannot see.” ²² The servant did that. Then he came back to his master. “Sir,” he said, “I have asked all those people to come to your meal. But there are still some places at the table.” ²³ The master spoke to his servant again. “Go to the roads and fields outside the town, and look for people there. Command them all to come here, so that my house will be full. ²⁴ But I tell you this. None of the people that I asked at the beginning will eat any of my food.” ’