Book of Common Prayer
140 O Lord, deliver me from evil men. Preserve me from the violent, 2 who plot and stir up trouble all day long. 3 Their words sting like poisonous snakes. 4 Keep me out of their power. Preserve me from their violence, for they are plotting against me. 5 These proud men have set a trap to catch me, a noose to yank me up and leave me dangling in the air; they wait in ambush with a net to throw over and hold me helpless in its meshes.
6-8 O Jehovah, my Lord and Savior, my God and my shield—hear me as I pray! Don’t let these wicked men succeed; don’t let them prosper and be proud. 9 Let their plots boomerang! Let them be destroyed by the very evil they have planned for me. 10 Let burning coals fall down upon their heads, or throw them into the fire or into deep pits from which they can’t escape.
11 Don’t let liars prosper here in our land; quickly punish them. 12 But the Lord will surely help those they persecute; he will maintain the rights of the poor. 13 Surely the godly are thanking you, for they shall live in your presence.
142 1-2 How I plead with God, how I implore his mercy, pouring out my troubles before him. 3 For I am overwhelmed and desperate, and you alone know which way I ought to turn to miss the traps my enemies have set for me. 4 (There’s one—just over there to the right!) No one gives me a passing thought. No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me. 5 Then I prayed to Jehovah. “Lord,” I pled, “you are my only place of refuge. Only you can keep me safe.
6 “Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. 7 Bring me out of prison so that I can thank you. The godly will rejoice with me for all your help.”
141 Quick, Lord, answer me—for I have prayed. Listen when I cry to you for help! 2 Regard my prayer as my evening sacrifice and as incense wafting up to you.
3 Help me, Lord, to keep my mouth shut and my lips sealed. 4 Take away my lust for evil things; don’t let me want to be with sinners, doing what they do, sharing their delicacies. 5 Let the godly smite me! It will be a kindness! If they reprove me, it is medicine! Don’t let me refuse it. But I am in constant prayer against the wicked and their deeds. 6-7 When their leaders are condemned, and their bones are strewn across the ground,[a] then these men will finally listen to me and know that I am trying to help them.
8 I look to you for help, O Lord God. You are my refuge. Don’t let them slay me. 9 Keep me out of their traps. 10 Let them fall into their own snares, while I escape.
143 Hear my prayer, O Lord; answer my plea because you are faithful to your promises.[a] 2 Don’t bring me to trial! For as compared with you, no one is perfect.
3 My enemies chased and caught me. They have knocked me to the ground. They force me to live in the darkness like those in the grave. 4 I am losing all hope; I am paralyzed with fear.
5 I remember the glorious miracles you did in days of long ago. 6 I reach out for you. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain. 7 Come quickly, Lord, and answer me, for my depression deepens; don’t turn away from me or I shall die. 8 Let me see your kindness to me in the morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for my prayer is sincere. 9 Save me from my enemies. O Lord, I run to you to hide me. 10 Help me to do your will, for you are my God. Lead me in good paths, for your Spirit is good.
11 Lord, saving me will bring glory to your name. Bring me out of all this trouble because you are true to your promises. 12 And because you are loving and kind to me, cut off all my enemies and destroy those who are trying to harm me; for I am your servant.
3 One day Naomi said to Ruth, “My dear, isn’t it time that I try to find a husband for you and get you happily married again? 2 The man I’m thinking of is Boaz! He has been so kind to us and is a close relative. I happen to know that he will be winnowing barley tonight out on the threshing floor. 3 Now do what I tell you—bathe and put on some perfume and some nice clothes and go on down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him see you until he has finished his supper. 4 Notice where he lies down to sleep; then go and lift the cover off his feet and lie down there, and he will tell you what to do concerning marriage.”
5 And Ruth replied, “All right. I’ll do whatever you say.”
6-7 So she went down to the threshing floor that night and followed her mother-in-law’s instructions. After Boaz had finished a good meal, he lay down very contentedly beside a heap of grain and went to sleep. Then Ruth came quietly and lifted the covering off his feet and lay there. 8 Suddenly, around midnight, he wakened and sat up, startled. There was a woman lying at his feet!
9 “Who are you?” he demanded.
“It’s I, sir—Ruth,” she replied. “Make me your wife according to God’s law, for you are my close relative.”
10 “Thank God for a girl like you!” he exclaimed. “For you are being even kinder to Naomi now than before. Naturally you’d prefer a younger man, even though poor. But you have put aside your personal desires. 11 Now don’t worry about a thing, my child; I’ll handle all the details, for everyone knows what a wonderful person you are. 12 But there is one problem. It’s true that I am a close relative, but there is someone else who is more closely related to you than I am. 13 Stay here tonight, and in the morning I’ll talk to him, and if he will marry you, fine; let him do his duty; but if he won’t, then I will, I swear by Jehovah; lie down until the morning.”
14 So she lay at his feet until the morning and was up early, before daybreak, for he had said to her, “Don’t let it be known that a woman was here at the threshing floor.”
15-18 “Bring your shawl,” he told her. Then he tied up a bushel and a half of barley in it as a present for her mother-in-law and laid it on her back. Then she returned to the city.
“Well, what happened, dear?” Naomi asked her when she arrived home. She told Naomi everything and gave her the barley from Boaz, and mentioned his remark that she mustn’t go home without a present.
Then Naomi said to her, “Just be patient until we hear what happens, for Boaz won’t rest until he has followed through on this. He’ll settle it today.”
4 It is God himself, in his mercy, who has given us this wonderful work of telling his Good News to others,[a] and so we never give up. 2 We do not try to trick people into believing—we are not interested in fooling anyone. We never try to get anyone to believe that the Bible teaches what it doesn’t. All such shameful methods we forego. We stand in the presence of God as we speak and so we tell the truth, as all who know us will agree.
3 If the Good News we preach is hidden to anyone, it is hidden from the one who is on the road to eternal death. 4 Satan, who is the god of this evil world, has made him blind, unable to see the glorious light of the Gospel that is shining upon him or to understand the amazing message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is God.[b] 5 We don’t go around preaching about ourselves but about Christ Jesus as Lord. All we say of ourselves is that we are your slaves because of what Jesus has done for us. 6 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made us understand that it is the brightness of his glory that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But this precious treasure—this light and power that now shine within us[c]—is held in a perishable container, that is, in our weak bodies. Everyone can see that the glorious power within must be from God and is not our own.
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. 9 We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. 10 These bodies of ours are constantly facing death just as Jesus did; so it is clear to all that it is only the living Christ within who keeps us safe.[d]
11 Yes, we live under constant danger to our lives because we serve the Lord, but this gives us constant opportunities to show forth the power of Jesus Christ within our dying bodies. 12 Because of our preaching we face death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you.
38 “The law of Moses says, ‘If a man gouges out another’s eye, he must pay with his own eye. If a tooth gets knocked out, knock out the tooth[a] of the one who did it.’ 39 But I say: Don’t resist violence! If you are slapped on one cheek, turn the other too. 40 If you are ordered to court, and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat too. 41 If the military demand that you carry their gear for a mile, carry it two. 42 Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.
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The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.