Book of Common Prayer
89 (A maskil of Eitan the Ezrachi). I will sing of the mercies of Hashem olam; with my mouth will I make known Thy emunah (faithfulness) to dor vador.
2 (3) For I have said, Chesed shall be built up olam; Thy emunah (faithfulness) shalt Thou establish in Shomayim itself.
3 (4) I have made a Brit with My Bechir (Chosen one), I have sworn unto Dovid Avdi,
4 (5) Thy Zera will I establish ad olam, and build up thy kisse to dor vador. Selah.
5 (6) And Shomayim shall praise Thy wonders, O Hashem; Thy emunah (faithfulness) also in the Kahal Kedoshim.
6 (7) For who in the heavens can be compared unto Hashem? Who among the bnei elim can be likened unto Hashem?
7 (8) G-d is greatly to be feared in the sod Kedoshim (council of the holy ones), and is awesome over all them that are around Him.
8 (9) Hashem Elohei Tzva’os, who is like Thee, O Mighty One, Hashem? Thy emunah also surrounds Thee!
9 (10) Thou rulest the raging of the yam; when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them [see Mk 4:41].
10 (11) Thou hast broken Rachav in pieces, as one that is slain; Thou hast scattered Thine oyevim with Thy strong Zero’a.
11 (12) Shomayim are Thine, Eretz also is Thine; as for the tevel (world) and the fulness thereof, Thou hast founded them.
12 (13) The tzafon (north) and the yamin (south) Thou hast created them; Tavor and Chermon shall sing for joy in Thy Shem.
13 (14) Thou hast a mighty Zero’a; strong is Thy Yad, and exalted is Thy Yamin.
14 (15) Tzedek and mishpat are the foundation of Thy kisse; chesed and emes shall go before Thy face.
15 (16) Ashrei is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, Hashem, in the ohr (light) of Thy countenance.
16 (17) In Thy Shem shall they rejoice kol hayom; and in Thy tzedakah shall they be exalted.
17 (18) For Thou art the tiferet (splendor, glory) of their strength; and in Thy favor our keren shall be exalted.
18 (19) For Hashem is our mogen; and the Kadosh Yisroel is Malkeinu (our king).
19 (20) Then Thou spoke in chazon (vision) to Thy chasidim, and saidst, I have laid ezer (help) upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
20 (21) I have found Dovid Avdi; with My shemen kadosh (holy oil) meshachtiv (I anointed him);
21 (22) With whom My yad shall be established; Mine zero’a also shall strengthen him.
22 (23) The oyev (enemy) shall not ensnare him; nor the ben avlah (son of wickedness) afflict him.
23 (24) And I will beat down his tzar before his face, and strike down them that hate him.
24 (25) But My emunah (faithfulness) and My chesed shall be with him; and in My Shem shall his keren be exalted.
25 (26) I will set his yad also upon the yam, and his yamin upon the neharot (rivers).
26 (27) He shall cry out unto Me, Thou art Avi, Eli, and the Tzur of my Yeshuah (salvation) [Mt 16:16].
27 (28) Also I will make him My Bechor, elyon (most exalted) of the Malkhei Aretz.
28 (29) My chesed will I be shomer over for him forevermore, and My Brit shall stand unfailing with him.
29 (30) His zera also will I make to endure forever, and his kisse as the days of Shomayim.
30 (31) If his banim forsake My torah, walk not in My mishpatim,
31 (32) If they violate My chukkot, and are not shomer over My mitzvot;
32 (33) Then will I visit their peysha with shevet (rod), and their avon (iniquity) with stripes.
33 (34) Nevertheless My chesed will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer My emunah (faithfulness) to fail.
34 (35) My Brit will I not violate, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My lips.
35 (36) Once have I sworn by My Kodesh; I will not lie unto Dovid.
36 (37) His zera shall endure l’olam, and his kisse as the shemesh before Me.
37 (38) It shall be established olam as the yarei’ach, and as an ed ne’eman (a faithful witness) in the heavens. Selah.
38 (39) But Thou hast cast off [mem-alef-samech, see same word Psalm 118:22] and abhorred, Thou hast been in wrath with Thine Moshiach.
39 (40) Thou hast made void the Brit of Thy eved; Thou hast profaned his nezer (diadem) to the ground.
40 (41) Thou hast broken down all his gederot (hedges); Thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin.
41 (42) All that pass by the derech plunder him; he is a cherpah (reproach) to his shchenim [Mt 27:39].
42 (43) Thou hast exalted the yamin of his adversaries; Thou hast made all his oyevim to rejoice.
43 (44) Thou hast also turned back the edge of his cherev, and hast not made him to stand in the milchamah.
44 (45) Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his kisse down to the ground.
45 (46) The days of his youth hast thou shortened; Thou hast covered him with bushah (shame). Selah.
46 (47) How long, Hashem? Wilt Thou hide Thyself lanetzach (forever)? Shall Thy wrath burn like eish?
47 (48) Remember how short my time is. For what vanity hast Thou created kol bnei adam?
48 (49) What gever is he that liveth, and shall not see mavet? Shall he deliver his nefesh from the yad Sheol (power of Sheol)? Selah.
49 (50) Adonoi, where are Thy former lovingkindnesses, which Thou didst swear unto Dovid in Thy emunah?
50 (51) Remember, Adonoi, the reproach of Thy avadim; how I do bear in my kheyk (bosom) the reproach of all rabbim amim (many peoples);
51 (52) Wherewith Thine oyevim have reproached, Hashem; wherewith they have reproached the ikkevot (footsteps) of Thine Moshiach.
52 (53) Baruch Hashem l’olam. Omein and Omein.
2 I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the matzor (rampart), and will watch to see what Hashem will speak in me, and what He shall answer to my tokhakhah (complaint).
2 And Hashem answered me, and said, Write the chazon, and make it plain upon tablets, so that a herald may run with it.
3 For the chazon is yet for a mo’ed (an appointed time); it speaks of HaKetz (the End), and does not lie; though it tarry, wait for him [Moshiach— see Sanhedrin 97b]; because he will surely come, and will not tarry.
4 Hinei, his nashamah which is puffed up is not upright in him; but the tzaddik shall live by his emunah. [Bereshis 15:6]
9 Hoy (Woe) to him that coveteth an evil gain for his bais, that he may set his ken (nest) on high, that he may be delivered from the power of ruin!
10 Thy counsel hast brought shame to thy bais by cutting off amim rabbim and hast sinned against thy nashamah.
11 For the even (stone) shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
12 Hoy (Woe) to him that buildeth a town with [shefach] dahm, and foundeth a city by iniquity!
13 Hinei, is it not from Hashem Tzva’os that the people shall labor only to feed the eish, and the people shall weary themselves in vain?
14 For the earth shall be filled with the da’as of the kavod Hashem, as the waters cover the yam.
15 Hoy (Woe) unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, pressing thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!
16 Thou art filled with shame instead of kavod; drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered; the kos of Hashem’s right hand shall be turned against thee, and utter shame shall be on thy kavod.
17 For the chamas of the Levanon shall cover thee, and the decimation of animals, by which you terrorized them, because of [shefach] dahm, and for the chamas eretz, and to the city, and all that dwell therein.
18 What profiteth the pesel (graven image) that the maker thereof hath shaped it; the molten image, and moreh sheker, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb elilim (idols)?
19 Hoy (woe) unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb even (stone), Arise, it shall teach! Hinei, it is laid over with zahav and kesef, and there is no ruach at all in it.
20 But Hashem is in His Heikhal Kodesh; let kol ha’aretz keep silence before Him.
14 What is the revach (gain, profit), my Achim b’Moshiach, if anyone claims to have emunah but does not have ma’asim (deeds)? Surely not such "emunah" is able to bring him to Yeshu’at Eloheinu?
15 If an Ach b’Moshiach or an Achot b’Moshiach is dressed in shmattes (tatters) and lacking "lechem chukeinu" ("our daily bread," Mt.6:11)
16 and anyone of you says to them, "Go in shalom! Be warmed and fed!" but you do not give to them the physical necessities, what is the revach (profit)?
17 So also Emunah, if alongside it there is not in its company Ma’asim, is by itself niftar (deceased, dead).
18 But someone will say, "You have emunah and I have ma’asim." You make known to me the Hisgalus haSod (the revelation of the mystery) of your emunah without your ma’asim, and I’ll show you, Chaver, from my ma’asim, the Emunah.
19 So you’re impressed with yourselves that with your emunah you can recite the kri’at Shema, nu? O you do so well...why, even the shedim have your da’as and emunah! But they shudder! [DEVARIM 6:4]
20 Are you willing to have da’as, O hollow man, that Emunah unharnessed to Ma’asim, stands idle?
21 Avraham Avinu, was he not YITZDAK IM HASHEM (justified with G-d) by his ma’asim when he performed the akedah (binding) and offered up Yitzchak Bno (Isaac his son) upon the mizbe’ach? [BERESHIS 22:9,12]
22 Hinei! While Avraham Avinu’s Emunah was working, working right alongside was Avraham Avinu’s Ma’asim, and by Ma’asim the emunah was made shleimah!
23 And the Kitvei Hakodesh was fulfilled, Avraham Avinu V’HE’EMIN BA’HASHEM VAYACHSHEVE’HA LO TZEDAKAH ("believed Hashem and it was accounted to him for righteousness," BERESHIS 15:6). He was even called "Ohev Hashem" ("Friend of G-d"). [BERESHIS 15:6; YESHAYAH 41:8; DIVREY HAYOMIM BAIS 20:7]
24 You see that from Ma’asim [of Emunah] a man is YITZDAK IM HASHEM and not from [sterilely unpartnered] “Emunah” alone. [i.e., mere intellectual assent]
25 And likewise also Rachav the Zonah—was she not made YITZDAK IM HASHEM from Ma’asim, having received the messengers and having sent them out a different way?
26 For just as the guf (body) without the neshamah is niftar (deceased, dead), so also is Emunah without Ma’asim.
19 Now there was a certain oisher (rich man). He was dressed in purple and fine linen, and yom yom (daily) he feasted sumptuosly and every day for him was to make a simcha. [YECHEZKEL 16:49]
20 And there was a certain ish oni (poor man) covered with sores, Elazar by name, who had been laid at the oisher’s sha’ar (gate).
21 And the ish oni Elazar longed to fill his mogen (stomach) with what fell from the oisher’s tish. But even the kelevim (dogs) were coming and licking the sores of the ish oni (poor man).
22 And it came to pass that Elazar died, and he was carried away by the malachim to the tish at the kheyk (bosom) of Avraham Avinu. And then the oisher (rich man) died also, and he was buried.
23 And lifting up his eynayim in Sheol, where he was in the torments of agony, he sees Avraham Avinu off in the distance and Elazar at tish at his kheyk (bosom).
24 And he called, Avraham Avinu! Chaneni na and send Elazar that he may dip the tip of his finger into the mayim and cool my tongue, because I am in torment in this moked (fire). [YESHAYAH 66:24]
25 But Avraham Avinu said, Beni, have zikaron (recollection) that you received your tov in the span of your days, and Elazar likewise received the ra’ah. But now he is given nechamah (comfort) here, but you, yisurim (sufferings, torments). [TEHILLIM 17:14]
26 And, in addition to all these things, there has been fixed between us and you a tehom gedolah (a great abyss, chasm), so that the ones wishing to come over from here to you are not able, neither from there to us may they cross over.
27 And the oisher said, I ask you then, Avraham Avinu, that you may send Elazar to the bais of Avi,
28 for I have chamesh achim (five brothers) that he may warn them, lest also they may come to this place of yisurim (torments).
29 But Avraham Avinu says, They have Moshe Rabbeinu and the Neviim. Let them listen to them.
30 But the oisher said, Lo (no), Avraham Avinu, but if someone from the Mesim should go to them, they will make teshuva.
31 But Avraham said to him, If Moshe Rabbeinu and the Neviim they do not listen to, neither if someone should make his Techiyah from the Mesim should they be persuaded.
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