Book of Common Prayer
Israel from Moses to David
Psalm 78
1 A contemplative song of Asaph.
Listen, my people, to my teaching.
Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable.
I will utter perplexing sayings from of old,
3 which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
telling to the next generation the praises of Adonai
and His strength and the wonders He has done.
5 For He established a testimony in Jacob
and ordained Torah in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers to teach their children,
6 so that the next generation might know,
even the children yet to be born:
they will arise and tell their children.
7 Then they will put their trust in God,
not forgetting the works of God,
but keeping His mitzvot.
8 So they will not be like their fathers—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not prepare its heart,
whose spirit was not loyal to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim were archers armed with bows,
yet they turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to walk in His Torah.
11 They forgot His deeds
and His wonders that He had shown them.
12 He did miracles in front of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Zoan.
13 He split the sea and led them through,
and He made the water stand like a wall.
14 By day He led them with a cloud
and all night with a light of fire.
15 He split apart rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.
16 So He brought streams out of a rock,
and made waters flow down like rivers.[a]
17 Yet they added more sinning against Him,
rebelling against Elyon in the desert.
18 They put God to the test in their heart
by demanding food for their craving.
19 Then they spoke against God, saying,
“Can God set a table in the wilderness?
20 See, He struck the rock,
waters gushed out, streams overflowed.
But can He give bread?
Will He provide meat for His people?”
21 When Adonai heard, He was angry.
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
and fury also rose against Israel.
22 For they did not believe in God
or trust in His salvation.
23 Yet He commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and rained down manna upon them to eat,
and gave them grain of heaven.[b]
25 Man did eat the bread of angels.
He sent them abundant provision.
26 He loosed the east wind in the skies,
and by His power He drove the south wind.
27 He rained meat upon them like dust,
and winged fowl like sand of the seas.
28 And He let it fall amidst their camp,
all around their tents.
29 So they ate and were very full—
for He gave them their desire.
30 No longer a stranger from their desire,
while their food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them
and slew the stoutest of them,
and struck down young men of Israel.
32 Despite all this they sinned still more,
and did not trust in His wonders.
33 So He ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.
34 But when He slew them,
then they sought Him, and turned back,
and desired God eagerly.
35 Then they remembered that God was their Rock
and El Elyon their Redeemer.
36 But they flattered Him with their mouth
and kept lying to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him,
nor were they faithful to His covenant.
38 But He is compassionate,
forgives iniquity and does not destroy.
Yes, many times He restrains His anger,
and does not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they are but flesh,
a passing breath that never returns.
40 How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness,
and grieved Him in the desert!
41 Again and again they tested God,
and pained the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His hand—
the day He redeemed them from the foe,
43 when He displayed His signs in Egypt
and His wonders in the plain of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers into blood,
so they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent on them flies to devour them,
and frogs to devastate them,
46 and gave their crops to the grasshopper,
and their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycamore trees with frost,
48 and gave over their cattle to the hail,
and their flocks to fiery bolts.
49 He sent on them the fury of His anger
—wrath and indignation and trouble—
a band of evil angels.
50 He cleared a path for His anger.
He spared not their soul from death,
but gave their life over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 But He brought His people out like sheep,
and led them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them to safety, so they did not fear,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 Then He brought them to His holy territory,
to the mountain His right hand had gotten.
55 He drove out nations before them,
and allotted them an inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and rebelled against El Elyon,
and did not keep His decrees.
57 Like their fathers they turned and were treacherous.
They turned aside like a faulty bow.
58 For they provoked Him
with their high places,
so they aroused His jealousy
with their graven images.
59 God heard and was furious,
and He greatly detested Israel.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent He pitched among men.
61 He gave up His strength into captivity,
and His glory into the adversary’s hand.
62 He gave His people over to the sword,
when He was angry at His inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
and their virgins had no wedding songs.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
as a warrior shaking off wine.
66 He beat back His foes,
putting them to lasting scorn.
67 Then He detested Joseph’s tent
and chose not the tribe of Ephraim.
68 Instead He chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loved.
69 He built His Sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that He established forever.
70 He also chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds,
71 from following nursing ewes.
He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people,
and Israel His inheritance.
72 So He shepherded them with the integrity of His heart,
and led them with His skillful hands.
Joseph Reveals Himself
45 Now Joseph could no longer restrain himself in front of all those who were standing by him, so he cried out, “Get everyone away from me!” So no one stood with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 But he gave his voice to weeping so that the Egyptians heard, and Pharaoh’s household heard. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” And his brothers were unable to answer him because they were terrified at his presence.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near me.” So they came near. “I’m Joseph, your brother—the one you sold to Egypt,” he said. 5 “So now, don’t be grieved and don’t be angry in your own eyes that you sold me here—since it was for preserving life that God sent me here before you. 6 For there has been two years of famine in the land, and there will be five more years yet with no plowing or harvesting. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to ensure a remnant in the land and to keep you alive for a great escape. 8 So now, it wasn’t you, you didn’t send me here, but God! And He made me as a father to Pharaoh, lord over his whole house and ruler over the entire land of Egypt.
9 “Go up quickly to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son, Joseph: God has made me lord over all Egypt. Come down to me. Don’t delay. 10 Then you’ll live in the land of Goshen, and be close to me, you and your children and your children’s children, your flocks and your cattle, and everything that belongs to you. 11 I’ll provide food for you there—for the famine will last another five years—otherwise you’ll lose everything, you and your household, and everything that belongs to you.’ 12 And look, you and my brother Benjamin can see with your own eyes that it’s my mouth that’s speaking to you. 13 You must tell my father about all my honor in Egypt, and about all that you’ve seen. And you must quickly bring my father down here.”
14 Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept while Benjamin wept upon his neck, 15 and he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. Finally after this, his brothers talked with him.
32 But I want you to be free from cares. An unmarried man cares about the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord; 33 but the married man cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife— 34 and he is divided. The unmarried woman, as well as the virgin, cares about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But the married woman cares about the things of the world—how she may please her husband. 35 Now I say this for your own benefit—not to put a restraint on you, but to promote proper and constant service to the Lord without distraction.
36 But if any man thinks that he is behaving inappropriately toward his virgin, if the time is ripe and it is meant to be, let him do what he decides. He does not sin. Let them marry. 37 But he who stands firm in his heart—who has no pressure, but has power over his own will and has so determined in his own heart to keep her a virgin—he will do well. 38 So then both he who marries the virgin does well, and he who doesn’t marry her does better.
39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is free to be married to anyone she wishes—only in the Lord. [a] 40 But in my judgment she is happier if she stays as she is—and I also think that I have the Ruach Elohim.
Responding to Rejection
6 Now Yeshua went out from there, and He comes to His hometown, and His disciples follow Him. 2 When Shabbat came, He began to teach in the synagogue. Many listeners were amazed, saying, “Where did this fellow get these things? What’s this wisdom given to Him? Such miracles are done by His hands! 3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Miriam, and the brother of Jacob and Joseph and Judah and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.
4 Then Yeshua began saying to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own house.” 5 He was not able to do any miracle, except that He laid hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He was astonished because of their unbelief.[a] And He was going around among the villages teaching.
7 Yeshua summoned the Twelve, and He began to send them out two by two. And He gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He directed them to take nothing for the journey except a walking stick—no bread, no bag, no copper coin in their belt— 9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two shirts.[b]
10 He was also telling them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that place. 11 And whatever place will not receive you or listen to you, as you leave from there, shake the dust off the bottom of your feet as a witness against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent, 13 and they were driving out many demons and anointing with oil many who were sick and healing them.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.