Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 105(A)
1 Oh, give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name;
make known His deeds among the peoples.
2 Sing unto Him, sing praises unto Him;
proclaim all His wondrous works.
3 Glory in His holy name;
let the heart rejoice for those who seek the Lord.
4 Seek the Lord and His strength;
seek His presence continuously.
5 Remember His marvelous works that He has done;
His wonders and the judgments from His mouth,
6 O offspring of Abraham, His servant,
O children of Jacob, His chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers His covenant forever,
the word that He commanded, to a thousand generations,
9 that covenant He made with Abraham,
and His oath to Isaac,
10 and confirmed to Jacob as a decree,
and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion of your inheritance.”
12 When they were but a few people in number,
indeed, very few, and strangers in it,
13 when they went from one nation to another,
from one kingdom to another people,
14 He did not permit anyone to do them wrong;
indeed, He reproved kings on their behalf,
15 saying, “Do not touch my anointed ones,
and do no harm to my prophets.”
16 Moreover He called for a famine upon the land;
He broke the whole supply of bread.
17 He sent a man before them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
18 They hurt his feet with fetters;
his neck was put in an iron collar.
19 Until the time that his word came to pass,
the word of the Lord tested him.
20 The king sent and released him;
the ruler of the people let him go free.
21 He made Joseph lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions,
22 to imprison his princes at Joseph’s pleasure
and to teach his elders wisdom.
23 Then Israel came into Egypt,
and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 The Lord increased His people greatly
and made them stronger than their enemies.
25 He turned their hearts to hate His people,
to deal cleverly with His servants.
26 He sent Moses, His servant,
and Aaron whom He had chosen.
27 They showed His signs among them
and wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made the land dark,
and Moses and Aaron did not rebel against His word.
29 He turned their waters into blood
and caused their fish to die.
30 Their land brought forth frogs in abundance,
even in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies
and gnats in all their country.
32 He gave them hail for rain
and flaming lightning in their land.
33 He struck their vines and their fig trees
and shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came,
and caterpillars without number,
35 that devoured all the vegetation in their land,
and ate all the fruit of their ground.
36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the first fruits of all their strength.
37 Then He brought them out with silver and gold,
and no one among their tribes faltered.
38 Egypt was glad when they left,
for the fear of Israel fell upon them.
39 He spread a cloud for a covering,
and fire to give light in the night.
40 The people asked, and He brought quail,
and satisfied them with abundant bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out;
they ran in the desert like a river.
42 For he recalled His holy promise
to Abraham His servant.
43 He brought forth His people with joy,
and His chosen ones with gladness,
44 and gave them the lands of the nations,
and they took possession of the fruitful labor of the people,
45 that they might observe His statutes
and keep His laws.
Praise the Lord!
Israel Demands a King
8 And it came about when Samuel was old, that he installed his sons as judges for Israel. 2 Now the name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second son was Abijah. They were judging in Beersheba. 3 But his sons did not walk in his way, for they followed after unlawful gain, and they took bribes, and they perverted justice.
4 And all the elders of Israel gathered together and they came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now, install for us a king to govern us like all the nations.”
6 But the thing was evil in the eyes of Samuel, because they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in relation to all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but Me they have rejected from reigning over them. 8 Just as all the deeds which they have done to Me, from the day I brought them up from Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken Me and have served other gods, so they are doing also to you now. 9 Now then, obey their voice. Only you will testify against them and proclaim to them the judgment concerning the king who will reign over them.”
10 So Samuel said all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking from him a king. 11 And he said, “This will be the judgment concerning the king who will reign over you: Your sons he will take in order to place them for himself in his chariots and as his horsemen, and they will run before his chariot, 12 and in order to assign for himself captains of thousands and captains of fifties, and to plow his ground, and to gather in his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 And your daughters he will take for perfumers, and cooks, and bakers. 14 And your choicest fields, and vineyards, and olive groves he will take and give them to his servants. 15 And of your seed fields and your vineyards he will take a tenth of their harvest and will give it to his high officials and to his servants. 16 And your menservants and your maidservants, and the best of your young men and asses he will take and make do his work. 17 Your flocks he will take a tenth of, but you will be his for slaves. 18 And you will cry out in that day because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”
19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But surely a king will be over us! 20 So that we also will be like all the nations! And so that our king will govern us, and will go out before us, and will fight our battles.”
21 And after Samuel heard all the words of the people, he spoke them in the hearing of the Lord. 22 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice, and make for them a king.”
So Samuel said to Israel’s fighting men, “Go every man to his city.”
15 All who sat in the Sanhedrin, gazing at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.
Stephen’s Speech
7 Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran, 3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come to the land which I will show you.’[a]
4 “Then he departed from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Harran. When his father died, He removed him from there to this land in which you now live. 5 He gave him no inheritance in it, nor a foothold, and promised to give it to him as a possession and to his descendants after him while he had no child. 6 God spoke in this way, ‘Your descendants shall be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who will enslave them and mistreat them four hundred years.[b] 7 And I will judge the nation to whom they will be enslaved,’[c] said God. ‘After that they shall come out and worship Me in this place.’[d] 8 Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
9 “The patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him, 10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 “Then a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan with great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time. 13 During the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent and called for his father Jacob and all his kindred, seventy-five souls. 15 Then Jacob went down into Egypt. And he and our fathers died, 16 and were carried to Shechem and put in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a price of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.
The Dispute About Greatness
24 There was also rivalry among them concerning which of them was to be counted the greatest. 25 He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors. 26 But you are not so. Instead, let him who is greatest among you be as the younger, and he who rules as he who serves. 27 For who is greater: he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? But I am among you as He who serves. 28 You are those who have continued with Me in My trials. 29 And I appoint to you a kingdom as My Father has appointed one to Me, 30 so that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.