Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 78
A maskil[a] of Asaph.
78 Listen, my people, to my teaching;
tilt your ears toward the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a proverb.
I’ll declare riddles from days long gone—
3 ones that we’ve heard and learned about,
ones that our ancestors told us.
4 We won’t hide them from their descendants;
we’ll tell the next generation
all about the praise due the Lord and his strength—
the wondrous works God has done.
5 He established a law for Jacob
and set up Instruction for Israel,
ordering our ancestors
to teach them to their children.
6 This is so that the next generation
and children not yet born will know these things,
and so they can rise up and tell their children
7 to put their hope in God—
never forgetting God’s deeds,
but keeping God’s commandments—
8 and so that they won’t become like their ancestors:
a rebellious, stubborn generation,
a generation whose heart wasn’t set firm
and whose spirit wasn’t faithful to God.
9 The children of Ephraim, armed with bows,
retreated on the day of battle.
10 They didn’t keep God’s covenant;
they refused to walk in his Instruction.
11 They forgot God’s deeds
as well as the wondrous works he showed them.
12 But God performed wonders in their ancestors’ presence—
in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 God split the sea and led them through,
making the waters stand up like a wall.
14 God led them with the cloud by day;
by the lightning all through the night.
15 God split rocks open in the wilderness,
gave them plenty to drink—
as if from the deep itself!
16 God made streams flow from the rock,
made water run like rivers.
17 But they continued to sin against God,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 They tested God in their hearts,
demanded food for their stomachs.
19 They spoke against God!
“Can God set a dinner table in the wilderness?” they asked.
20 “True, God struck the rock
and water gushed and streams flowed,
but can he give bread too?
Can he provide meat for his people?”
21 When the Lord heard this, he became furious.
A fire was ignited against Jacob;
wrath also burned against Israel
22 because they had no faith in God,
because they didn’t trust his saving power.
23 God gave orders to the skies above,
opened heaven’s doors,
24 and rained manna on them so they could eat.
He gave them the very grain of heaven!
25 Each person ate the bread of the powerful ones;[b]
God sent provisions to satisfy them.
26 God set the east wind moving across the skies
and drove the south wind by his strength.
27 He rained meat on them as if it were dust in the air;
he rained as many birds as the sand on the seashore!
28 God brought the birds down in the center of their camp,
all around their dwellings.
29 So they ate and were completely satisfied;
God gave them exactly what they had craved.
30 But they didn’t stop craving—
even with the food still in their mouths!
31 So God’s anger came up against them:
he killed the most hearty of them;
he cut down Israel’s youth in their prime.
32 But in spite of all that, they kept sinning
and had no faith in God’s wondrous works.
33 So God brought their days to an end,
like a puff of air,
and their years in total ruin.
34 But whenever God killed them, they went after him!
They would turn and earnestly search for God.
35 They would remember that God was their rock,
that the Most High was their redeemer.
36 But they were just flattering him with lip service.
They were lying to him with their tongues.
37 Their hearts weren’t firmly set on him;
they weren’t faithful to his covenant.
38 But God, being compassionate,
kept forgiving their sins,
kept avoiding destruction;
he took back his anger so many times,
wouldn’t stir up all his wrath!
39 God kept remembering that they were just flesh,
just breath that passes and doesn’t come back.
40 How often they rebelled against God in the wilderness
and distressed him in the desert!
41 Time and time again they tested God,
provoking the holy one of Israel.
42 They didn’t remember God’s power—
the day when he saved them from the enemy;
43 how God performed his signs in Egypt,
his marvelous works in the field of Zoan.
44 God turned their rivers into blood;
they couldn’t drink from their own streams.
45 God sent swarms against them to eat them up,
frogs to destroy them.
46 God handed over their crops to caterpillars,
their land’s produce to locusts.
47 God killed their vines with hail,
their sycamore trees with frost.
48 God delivered their cattle over to disease,[c]
their herds to plagues.
49 God unleashed his burning anger against them—
fury, indignation, distress,
a troop of evil messengers.
50 God blazed a path for his wrath.
He didn’t save them from death,
but delivered their lives over to disease.
51 God struck down all of Egypt’s oldest males;
in Ham’s tents, he struck their pride and joy.
52 God led his own people out like sheep,
guiding them like a flock in the wilderness.
53 God led them in safety—they were not afraid!
But the sea engulfed their enemies!
54 God brought them to his holy territory,
to the mountain that his own strong hand had acquired.
55 God drove out the nations before them
and apportioned property for them;
he settled Israel’s tribes in their tents.
56 But they tested and defied the Most High God;
they didn’t pay attention to his warnings.
57 They turned away, became faithless just like their ancestors;
they twisted away like a defective bow.
58 They angered God with their many shrines;
they angered him with their idols.
59 God heard and became enraged;
he rejected Israel utterly.
60 God abandoned the sanctuary at Shiloh,
the tent where he had lived with humans.
61 God let his power be held captive,
let his glory go to the enemy’s hand.
62 God delivered his people up to the sword;
he was enraged at his own possession.
63 Fire devoured his young men,
and his young women had no wedding songs.
64 God’s priests were killed by the sword,
and his widows couldn’t even cry.
65 But then my Lord woke up—
as if he’d been sleeping!
Like a warrior shaking off wine,
66 God beat back his foes;
he made them an everlasting disgrace.
67 God rejected the tent of Joseph
and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 Instead, he chose the tribe of Judah,
the mountain of Zion, which he loves.
69 God built his sanctuary like the highest heaven
and like the earth, which he established forever.
70 And God chose David, his servant,
taking him from the sheepfolds.
71 God brought him from shepherding nursing ewes
to shepherd his people Jacob,
to shepherd his inheritance, Israel.
72 David shepherded them with a heart of integrity;
he led them with the skill of his hands.
Isaac and Rebekah visit Gerar
26 When a famine gripped the land, a different one from the first famine that occurred in Abraham’s time, Isaac set out toward Gerar and toward King Abimelech of the Philistines. 2 The Lord appeared to him and said, “Don’t go down to Egypt but settle temporarily in the land that I will show you. 3 Stay in this land as an immigrant, and I will be with you and bless you because I will give all of these lands to you and your descendants. I will keep my word, which I gave to your father Abraham. 4 I will give you as many descendants as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all of these lands. All of the nations of the earth will be blessed because of your descendants. 5 I will do this because Abraham obeyed me and kept my orders, my commandments, my statutes, and my instructions.”
6 So Isaac lived in Gerar.
Isaac’s treaty with the Philistines
12 Isaac planted grain in that land and reaped one hundred shearim[a] that year because the Lord had blessed him. 13 Isaac grew richer and richer until he was extremely wealthy. 14 He had livestock, both flocks and cattle, and many servants. As a result, the Philistines envied him. 15 The Philistines closed up and filled with dirt all of the wells that his father’s servants had dug during his father Abraham’s lifetime. 16 Abimelech said to Isaac, “Move away from us because you have become too powerful among us.”
17 So Isaac moved away from there, camped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there. 18 Isaac dug out again the wells that were dug during the lifetime of his father Abraham. The Philistines had closed them up after Abraham’s death. Isaac gave them the same names his father had given them. 19 Isaac’s servants dug wells in the valley and found a well there with fresh water. 20 Isaac’s shepherds argued with Gerar’s shepherds, each claiming, “This is our water.” So Isaac named the well Esek[b] because they quarreled with him. 21 They dug another well and argued about it too, so he named it Sitnah.[c] 22 He left there and dug another well, but they didn’t argue about it, so he named it Rehoboth[d] and said, “Now the Lord has made an open space for us and has made us fertile in the land.”
23 Then he went up from Gerar to Beer-sheba. 24 The Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Don’t be afraid because I am with you. I will bless you, and I will give you many children for my servant Abraham’s sake.” 25 So Isaac built an altar there and worshipped in the Lord’s name. Isaac pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well.
26 But Abimelech set out toward him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his ally and Phicol the commander of his forces. 27 Isaac said to him, “Why have you come after me? You resented me and sent me away from you.”
28 They said, “We now see that the Lord was with you. We propose that there be a formal agreement between us and that we draw up a treaty[e] with you: 29 you must not treat us badly since we haven’t harmed you and since we have treated you well at all times. Then we will send you away peacefully, for you are now blessed by the Lord.” 30 Isaac prepared a banquet for them, and they ate and drank. 31 They got up early in the morning, and they gave each other their word. Isaac sent them off, and they left peacefully.
32 That day Isaac’s servants informed him about the well that they had been digging and said to him, “We found water.” 33 He called it Shibah;[f] therefore, the city’s name has been Beer-sheba[g] until today.
Closing greeting and blessing
17 Rely on your leaders and defer to them, because they watch over your whole being as people who are going to be held responsible for you. They need to be able to do this with pleasure and not with complaints about you, because that wouldn’t help you. 18 Pray for us. We’re sure that we have a good conscience, and we want to do the right thing in every way. 19 I’m particularly asking you to do this so that I can be returned to you quickly.
20 May the God of peace,
who brought back the great shepherd of the sheep,
our Lord Jesus,
from the dead by the blood of the eternal covenant,
21 equip you with every good thing to do his will,
by developing in us what pleases him through Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory forever and always. Amen.
22 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to put up with this message of encouragement, since I’ve only written a short letter to you! 23 You should know that our brother Timothy has been set free. If he comes soon, we will travel together to see you.
24 Greet your leaders and all of God’s holy people. The group from Italy greets you.
25 May grace be with all of you.
Pharisees test Jesus
53 They each went to their own homes, 8 1 And Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he returned to the temple. All the people gathered around him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The legal experts and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery. Placing her in the center of the group, 4 they said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone women like this. What do you say?” 6 They said this to test him, because they wanted a reason to bring an accusation against him. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger.
7 They continued to question him, so he stood up and replied, “Whoever hasn’t sinned should throw the first stone.” 8 Bending down again, he wrote on the ground. 9 Those who heard him went away, one by one, beginning with the elders. Finally, only Jesus and the woman were left in the middle of the crowd.
10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Is there no one to condemn you?”
11 She said, “No one, sir.”[a]
Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, don’t sin anymore.”[b]
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible