Book of Common Prayer
78 (Maskil of Asaph.) Give ear, O my people, to my torah; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a mashal; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 Which we have heard and known, and Avoteinu have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their banim, recounting to the dor acharon the tehillot Hashem, and His power, and His nifla’ot (wonderful works) that He hath done.
5 For He established edut in Ya’akov, set torah in Yisroel, which He commanded Avoteinu, that they should make them known to their banim;
6 So that the dor acharon might know them, even the banim which should be born; who should arise and recount them to their banim;
7 That they might put their confidence in Elohim, and not forget the ma’allei El (works of G-d), but keep His mitzvot;
8 And might not be as their Avot, a dor sorer u’moreh (stubborn and rebellious generation); a generation that set not its lev aright, and whose ruach was not faithful to G-d.
9 The Bnei Ephrayim, being armed, and shooting keshet (the bows), turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the Brit Elohim, and refused to walk in His torah;
11 And forgot His works, and His nifla’ot (wonders) that He had shown them.
12 Peleh (marvellous things) did He in the sight of their avot, in Eretz Mitzrayim, in the sadeh (area) of Tzoan.
13 He divided the yam, and caused them to pass through; and He made the mayim to stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime also He led them with an anan, and all the lailah with an ohr of eish.
15 He split the rocks in the midbar, and gave them drink as out of the great tehomot.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused mayim to run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking Elyon in the wilderness.
18 And they tested G-d by their lev by demanding ochel for their lust.
19 And they spoke against Elohim; they said, Can G-d spread a shulchan in the midbar?
20 Behold, He struck the Tzur, that the mayim gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can He give lechem also? Can He provide meat for His people?
21 Therefore Hashem heard this, and was in wrath; so an eish was kindled against Ya’akov, and anger also came up against Yisroel;
22 Because they believed not in Elohim, and trusted not in His Yeshuah (salvation);
23 Though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the daletei Shomayim (doors of heaven),
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the bread of Shomayim [see Yn 6:31 OJBC].
25 Ish did eat the bread of angels; He sent them lechem to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow from Shomayim; and by His oz He brought in the south wind.
27 He rained meat also upon them like aphar, and winged fowls like the chol (sand) of the sea;
28 And He let it fall in the midst of their machaneh, all around their mishkenot (habitations).
29 So they did eat, and were well filled; for He gave them their own ta’avah (evil desire).
30 They were not estranged from their ta’avah. But while their food was yet in their mouths,
31 The Af Elohim (wrath of G-d) came upon them, and slaughtered the stoutest of them, and cut down the bochurim of Yisroel.
32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not in His nifla’ot (wondrous works).
33 Therefore their yamim did He consume in hevel (futility, vanity) and their shanim in terror.
34 When He slaughtered them, then they sought Him; and they returned and inquired diligently after G-d.
35 And they remembered that Elohim was their Tzur, and the El Elyon their Go’el (Redeemer).
36 Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their leshon.
37 For their lev was not right with Him, neither were they faithful in His Brit.
38 But He, being full of compassion, made kapporah for their avon and destroyed them not; and He many times turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they were but basar; a ruach (wind) that passeth away, and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they provoke Him in the midbar, and grieve Him in the desert!
41 Again and again they turned back and tested G-d, and imposed limits on Kadosh Yisroel.
42 They remembered not His Yad (Hand, Power), nor the yom (day) when He redeemed them from the enemy.
43 How He had wrought His otot in Mitzrayim, and His mofetim in the area of Tzoan.
44 And had turned their rivers into dahm; and their streams, that they could not drink.
45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them; and tzfarde’a (frogs), which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their crop unto the grasshopper, and their produce unto the arbeh (locust).
47 He destroyed their gefen with barad (hail), and their fig trees with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the barad (hail), and their livestock herds to hot thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them His charon af, evrah (wrath), and za’am (indignation), and tzarah, by sending malachim ra’im among them.
50 He made a way for His anger; He spared not their nefesh from mavet (death), but gave their beasts over to the dever (plague);
51 And struck all the bechor in Mitzrayim; the reshit (first fruit) of their strength in the ohalim of Cham;
52 But made His own people to go forth like tzon, and guided them in the midbar like an eder (flock).
53 And He led them in safety, so that they had no terror; but the yam overwhelmed their oyevim.
54 And He brought them to His gevul kadosh (His holy border), even to this Har, which His Yamin had purchased.
55 He cast out the Goyim also before them, and divided by measure a nachalah for them, and made the Shivtei Yisroel to dwell in their ohalim.
56 Yet they tested and provoked Elohim Elyon, and were not shomer over His edot;
57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their avot; they turned like a treacherous keshet.
58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their pesilim.
59 When Elohim heard this, He was in wrath, and greatly abhorred Yisroel;
60 So that He forsook the Mishkan of Shiloh, the Ohel which He placed among adam (men);
61 And delivered His oz (strength) into captivity, and His tiferet into the hand of the enemy.
62 He gave His people over also unto the cherev; and was in wrath with His nachalah.
63 The eish consumed their bochurim; and their betulot had no wedding celebration.
64 Their kohanim fell by the cherev; and their almanot made no lamentation.
65 Then Adonoi awaked as one from sleep, and like a gibbor that shouteth from yayin.
66 And He struck down His enemies behind; He put them to cherpat olam (perpetual reproach).
67 Moreover He rejected the Ohel Yosef, and chose not the Shevet Ephrayim;
68 But chose the Shevet Yehudah, Har Tziyon which He loved.
69 And He built His Mikdash like heavenly heights, like Eretz which He hath established l’olam.
70 He chose Dovid also His Eved, and took him from the mikhle’ot tzon (sheepfolds);
71 From following the nursing ewes He brought him to shepherd Ya’akov His people, and Yisroel His nachalah.
72 So he shepherded them according to the tohm (integrity, guilelessness) of his lev; and led them by the skillfulness of his hands.
21 And the man Elkanah, and all his bais, went up to offer unto Hashem the zevach hayamim (sacrifice of the days), and his neder (vow).
22 But Channah went not up; for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before Hashem, and there abide forever.
23 And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only Hashem make good (establish) His devar. So the isha stayed, and nursed her ben until she weaned him.
24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, and one ephah of flour, and a skin of yayin, and brought him unto the Bais Hashem in Shiloh; and the child was young.
25 And they slaughtered a bull, and brought the child to Eli.
26 And she said, Oh adoni, as thy nefesh liveth, adoni, I am the isha that stood by thee here, davening unto Hashem.
27 For this child I davened; and Hashem hath given me my petition which I asked of Him;
28 Therefore also I make him one lent to Hashem; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to Hashem. And he worshiped Hashem there.
2 And Channah davened, and said, My lev rejoiceth in Hashem, mine keren is exalted in Hashem; my mouth is opened wide over mine oyevim; because I rejoice with simchah in Thy Yeshuah (Salvation).
2 There is none kadosh like Hashem; for there is none besides Thee; neither is there any Tzur like Eloheinu.
3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not atak (insolence) come out of your mouth; for Hashem is El De’ot (a G-d -who intensively knows), and by Him alilot (actions) are weighed.
4 Keshet gibborim are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with chayil (strength).
5 They that were full have hired out themselves for lechem; and they that were hungry are such no more; so that the barren hath born shivah; and she that hath rabbat banim withers in grief.
6 Hashem bringeth mot, and maketh chayyim; He bringeth down to Sheol, and raiseth up.
7 Hashem maketh poor, and bringeth oisher; He bringeth low, and lifteth up.
8 He raiseth up the dal (poor) out of the aphar (dust), and lifteth up the evyon (needy) from the dunghill, to seat them among nedivim (nobles), and to make them inherit the kisse kavod; for the pillars of the earth belong to Hashem, and He hath set the tevel (world) upon them.
9 He is shomer over the feet of His chasidim, and the resha’im shall be silenced in choshech; for by ko’ach shall no ish prevail.
10 Those striving against Hashem shall be shattered; out of Shomayim shall He thunder upon him [the contentious]; Hashem shall judge the afsei eretz (ends of the earth); and He shall give oz (strength) unto His Melech, and exalt the keren (horn, power) of His Moshiach.
11 And Elkanah went to Ramah to his bais. And the na’ar was mesharet (minister) unto Hashem under Eli HaKohen.
15 And at this time, having stood up, Kefa, in the midst of the Achim b’Moshiach (there were 120 persons in the place)
16 —Said, "Achim b’Moshiach, the Kitvei Hakodesh had to be fulfilled, which the Ruach Hakodesh foretold through the peh of Dovid Hamelech concerning Yehudah, who became a guide to the ones arresting Yehoshua.
17 "For he had been numbered among us, and he received his ministry in the Messianic avodas kodesh of the Moshiach’s Shlichim.
18 (Now this man, therefore, acquired a sadeh out of the sachar [reward] of his peysha and, having fallen headlong, he plotst [burst] open in the middle and all the inward parts of him were poured out.
19 And this became known to all the ones inhabiting Yerushalayim, so that the sadeh [field] became known in their language as 'Akeldama’‖that is 'Sadeh of Dahm.')
20 "For it has been written in the Sefer Tehillim, "TEHI the place of him NESHAMMAH (one being deserted)... V’AL YEHI YOSHEV" ("May his place be deserted and let him not be the one dwelling in it": TEHILLIM 69:26) and "PEKUDATO YIKACH ACHER" ("his place of leadership may another take". TEHILLIM 109:8)
21 "It is necessary, therefore, that one of the anashim who accompanied us during all the time in which Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Adoneinu Yehoshua went in and went out among us,
22 "Beginning from the tevilah of teshuva of Yochanan until the day when Moshiach was taken up from us—one of these should become Eidus (Witness) with us to the Techiyas HaMoshiach."
23 And they put forward two anashim, Yosef Bar-Sabba, also called Justus, and Mattityahu.
24 And having davened, they said, "Adonoi, you have da’as of the levavot of Kol B’nei Adam. Therefore, show which of these two is your bechirah [1Sm 14:41]
25 "To take the place of this avodas kodesh ministry and Shlichus from which Yehudah turned aside to go to his own place."
26 And they drew lots, and the lot fell to Mattityahu, and he was numbered with the Achad Asar of Moshiach’s Shlichim. [T.N. Lukas wrote this work around 63 C.E., near the time of his awaiting the first hearing of Rav Sha’ul before Nero in Rome.]
19 And the Sofrim and the Rashei Hakohenim sought to lay their hands upon him in the same hour, but they were afraid of HaAm Yisroel, for they knew that he spoke this mashal (parable) against them.
20 And having watched carefully, they sent spies pretending themselves to be tzaddikim, that they might catch him in his dvar, so as to deliver him to the rulers and the manhigim under the Moshel (Governor).
21 And they set a she’elah (question) before him, saying, Rabbi, we have daas that you speak beemes in the shiurim you say and you show no deference toward anyone, but on the basis of HaEmes you give torah about HaDerech Hashem.
22 Is it mutar for us to pay tax to Caesar or not?
23 But having noticed the ORMAH (cunning, craftiness, BERESHIS 3:1) in their manner, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach said to them,
24 Show me a denarius. Whose demut (likeness) has it? And whose inscription? And they said, Caesar’s.
25 And he said to them, Then give the things of Caesar to Caesar and the things of Hashem to Hashem.
26 And they were not able to catch him in his dvar before the people and, having been mishpoyel (marveled) at his teshuva (answer), they were silent.
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