Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 78[a]
A New Beginning in Zion and David
1 A maskil of Asaph.
I
Attend, my people, to my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable,[b]
unfold the puzzling events of the past.(A)
3 What we have heard and know;
things our ancestors have recounted to us.(B)
4 We do not keep them from our children;
we recount them to the next generation,
The praiseworthy deeds of the Lord and his strength,
the wonders that he performed.(C)
5 God made a decree in Jacob,
established a law in Israel:(D)
Which he commanded our ancestors,
they were to teach their children;
6 That the next generation might come to know,
children yet to be born.(E)
In turn they were to recount them to their children,
7 that they too might put their confidence in God,
And not forget God’s deeds,
but keep his commandments.
8 They were not to be like their ancestors,
a rebellious and defiant generation,(F)
A generation whose heart was not constant,(G)
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The ranks of Ephraimite archers,[c]
retreated on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant;
they refused to walk according to his law.
11 They forgot his deeds,
the wonders that he had shown them.
II
A
12 In the sight of their ancestors God did wonders,
in the land of Egypt, the plain of Zoan.[d](H)
13 He split the sea and led them across,(I)
making the waters stand like walls.(J)
14 He led them with a cloud by day,
all night with the light of fire.(K)
15 He split rocks in the desert,
gave water to drink, abundant as the deeps of the sea.(L)
16 He made streams flow from crags,
caused rivers of water to flow down.
B
17 But they went on sinning against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.(M)
18 They tested God in their hearts,
demanding the food they craved.(N)
19 They spoke against God, and said,
“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?(O)
20 True, when he struck the rock,
water gushed forth,
the wadies flooded.
But can he also give bread,
or provide meat to his people?”
C
21 The Lord heard and grew angry;(P)
fire blazed up against Jacob;
anger flared up against Israel.
22 For they did not believe in God,
did not trust in his saving power.
23 [e]So he commanded the clouds above;
and opened the doors of heaven.
24 God rained manna upon them for food;
grain from heaven he gave them.(Q)
25 Man ate the bread of the angels;[f]
food he sent in abundance.
26 He stirred up the east wind in the skies;
by his might God brought on the south wind.
27 He rained meat upon them like dust,
winged fowl like the sands of the sea,
28 They fell down in the midst of their camp,
all round their dwellings.
29 They ate and were well filled;
he gave them what they had craved.
30 But while they still wanted more,
and the food was still in their mouths,
31 God’s anger flared up against them,
and he made a slaughter of their strongest,
laying low the youth of Israel.(R)
32 In spite of all this they went on sinning,
they did not believe in his wonders.
D
33 God ended their days abruptly,
their years in sudden death.
34 When he slew them, they began to seek him;
they again looked for God.(S)
35 They remembered[g] that God was their rock,
God Most High, their redeemer.
36 But they deceived him with their mouths,
lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their hearts were not constant toward him;
they were not faithful to his covenant.(T)
38 [h]But God being compassionate forgave their sin;
he did not utterly destroy them.
Time and again he turned back his anger,
unwilling to unleash all his rage.(U)
39 He remembered that they were flesh,
a breath that passes on and does not return.
III
A
40 How often they rebelled against God in the wilderness,
grieved him in the wasteland.
41 Again and again they tested God,
provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power,
the day he redeemed them from the foe,(V)
43 [i]When he performed his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the plain of Zoan.(W)
44 God turned their rivers to blood;
their streams they could not drink.
45 He sent swarms of insects that devoured them,(X)
frogs that destroyed them.
46 He gave their harvest to the caterpillar,
the fruits of their labor to the locust.
47 He killed their vines with hail,(Y)
their sycamores with frost.
48 He exposed their cattle to plague,
their flocks to pestilence.(Z)
49 He let loose against them the heat of his anger,
wrath, fury, and distress,
a band of deadly messengers.
50 He cleared a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death,
but delivered their animals to the plague.
51 He struck all the firstborn of Egypt,(AA)
the first fruits of their vigor in the tents of Ham.
52 Then God led forth his people like sheep,
guided them like a flock through the wilderness.(AB)
53 He led them on secure and unafraid,
while the sea enveloped their enemies.(AC)
54 And he brought them to his holy mountain,
the hill his right hand had won.(AD)
55 He drove out the nations before them,
allotted them as their inherited portion,
and settled in their tents the tribes of Israel.
B
56 But they tested and rebelled against God Most High,
his decrees they did not observe.
57 They turned disloyal, faithless like their ancestors;
they proved false like a slack bow.
58 They enraged him with their high places,
and with their idols provoked him[j] to jealous anger.(AE)
C
59 God heard and grew angry;
he rejected Israel completely.
60 He forsook the shrine at Shiloh,[k](AF)
the tent he set up among human beings.
61 He gave up his might into captivity,
his glorious ark into the hands of the foe.(AG)
62 God delivered his people to the sword;
he was enraged against his heritage.
63 Fire consumed their young men;
their young women heard no wedding songs.(AH)
64 Their priests fell by the sword;
their widows made no lamentation.
D
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a warrior shouting from the effects of wine.
66 He put his foes to flight;
everlasting shame he dealt them.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph,
chose not the tribe of Ephraim.
68 [l]God chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which he loved.(AI)
69 He built his shrine like the heavens,
like the earth which he founded forever.
70 He chose David his servant,
took him from the sheepfolds.(AJ)
71 From tending ewes God brought him,
to shepherd Jacob, his people,
Israel, his heritage.(AK)
72 He shepherded them with a pure heart;
with skilled hands he guided them.
Chapter 11
Discontent of the People. 1 Now the people complained bitterly in the hearing of the Lord;(A) and when he heard it his wrath flared up, so that the Lord’s fire burned among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp. 2 But when the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died out. 3 Hence that place was called Taberah,[a] because there the fire of the Lord burned among them.
4 The riffraff among them were so greedy for meat that even the Israelites lamented again,(B) “If only we had meat for food! 5 We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now we are famished; we have nothing to look forward to but this manna.”(C)
7 (D)Manna was like coriander seed[b] and had the appearance of bdellium. 8 When they had gone about and gathered it up, the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves, with a rich creamy taste. 9 At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell.(E)
10 When Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents, so that the Lord became very angry, he was grieved. 11 “Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the Lord. “Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people? 12 Was it I who conceived all this people? or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my breast, like a nurse carrying an infant, to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers? 13 Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are crying to me, ‘Give us meat for our food.’ 14 I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me. 15 If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face my distress.”
The Seventy Elders. 16 Then the Lord said to Moses: Assemble for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be elders and authorities among the people, and bring them to the tent of meeting. When they are in place beside you, 17 I will come down and speak with you there. I will also take some of the spirit that is on you and will confer it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you. You will then not have to bear it by yourself.
18 To the people, however, you shall say: “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, when you shall have meat to eat. For in the hearing of the Lord you have cried, ‘If only we had meat for food! Oh, how well off we were in Egypt!’ Therefore the Lord will give you meat to eat, 19 and you will eat it, not for one day, or two days, or five, or ten, or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your very nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have rejected the Lord who is in your midst, and in his presence you have cried, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”
21 But Moses said, “The people around me include six hundred thousand soldiers; yet you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month.’ 22 Can enough sheep and cattle be slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” 23 The Lord answered Moses: Is this beyond the Lord’s reach? You shall see now whether or not what I have said to you takes place.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: for Jew first, and then Greek.(A) 17 For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith;[a] as it is written, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.”(B)
Punishment of Idolaters. 18 [b]The wrath[c] of God[d] is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness(C) of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them.(D) 20 Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.(E) As a result, they have no excuse; 21 for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened.(F) 22 While claiming to be wise,(G) they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.(H)
24 Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts[e] for the mutual degradation of their bodies.(I) 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.(J)
22 (A)As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed with grief.
Payment of the Temple Tax.[a] 24 (B)When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax[b] approached Peter and said, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” 25 “Yes,” he said.[c] When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?” 26 [d]When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then the subjects are exempt. 27 But that we may not offend them,[e] go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you.”
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.