Book of Common Prayer
106 Praise Hashem! O give thanks unto Hashem; for He is tov; for His chesed endureth l’olam.
2 Who can speak of the gevurot (mighty acts) of Hashem? Who can show forth all His tehillah (praise)?
3 Ashrei (happy, blessed) are they who are shomrei mishpat, and he that doeth tzedakah at all times.
4 Remember me, Hashem, with the favor that Thou bearest unto Thy people; O visit me with Thy Yeshuah (salvation);
5 That I may see the good of Bechireicha (Thy chosen ones), that I may rejoice in the simchah of Thy nation, that I may glory with Thine nachalah (the people of Thy inheritance).
6 We have sinned with Avoteinu, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.
7 Avoteinu had no seichal concerning Thy nifla’ot (wonders) in Mitzrayim; they remembered not the multitude of Thy mercies but provoked Him at the yam, even at the Yam Suf.
8 Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of Shmo, that He might make His gevu’rot (mighty power) to be known.
9 He rebuked the Yam Suf also, and it dried up; so He led them through the tehomot, as through the midbar.
10 And He saved them from the yad of him that hated them, and He acted to make the go’el redemption from the yad of the oyev (enemy).
11 And the mayim covered their enemies; there was not echad (one) of them left surviving.
12 Then believed they in His Devarim; they sang His tehillah.
13 Then they hurried, they forgot His ma’asim; they waited not for His etzah (counsel, advice, wisdom);
14 But lusted exceedingly in the midbar, and tempted G-d in the desert.
15 And He gave them their she’elah (request); but sent leanness into their nefesh.
16 They envied Moshe also in the machaneh, and Aharon the kadosh Hashem (Aaron the holy one of Hashem).
17 Eretz opened and swallowed up Datan and covered over the Adat Aviram (the company of Aviram).
18 And an eish was kindled in their edah (assembly); the flame burned up the resha’im.
19 They made an egel (a calf) in Chorev, and worshiped a massekhah (molden image).
20 Thus they exchanged their kavod for a tavnit shor (likeness of an ox) that eateth esev (grass).
21 They forgot G-d their Moshi’a, Who had done gedolot in Mitzrayim;
22 Nifla’ot (wondrous works) in Eretz Cham, and nora’ot (awesome things) by the Yam Suf.
23 Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moshe His bechir (chosen one) stood before Him in the peretz (breach), to turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy them.
24 Then they despised the eretz chemdah (desirable land); they believed not His Devar;
25 But murmured in their ohalim, and paid heed not unto the kol (voice) of Hashem.
26 Therefore [in oath] He lifted up His yad against them, that He would overthrow them in the midbar;
27 To make their zera fall also among the Goyim, and to scatter them among the aratzot (lands).
28 They joined themselves also unto Ba’al-Pe’or, and ate the zivkhei mesim (sacrifices offered to the dead).
29 Thus they provoked Him to anger with their inventions; and the magefah (plague) broke out among them.
30 Then stood up Pinchas, and interposed; and so the magefah (plague) was halted.
31 And that was counted unto him for tzedakah l’dor vador ad olam.
32 They angered Him also at the waters of Merivah, so that it went ill with Moshe on their account;
33 Because they provoked His Ruach [Hakodesh] and he [Moshe] spoke unadvisedly with his sfatayim (lips).
34 They did not destroy the amim (peoples), as Hashem commanded them;
35 But they mingled with the Goyim, and learned their ma’asim (works, customs).
36 And they served their atzabim (idols); which were a mokesh (snare) unto them.
37 And, they sacrificed their banim and their banot unto shedim (demons),
38 And they shed dahm naki (innocent blood), even the dahm of their banim and of their banot, whom they sacrificed unto the atzabei Kena’an (idols of Canaan); and HaAretz was polluted with blood-guilt.
39 Thus they made themselves tameh with their own ma’asim, and went awhoring with their own inventions.
40 Therefore was the wrath of Hashem kindled against His people, insomuch that He abhorred His own nachalah.
41 And He gave them into the yad Goyim; and they that hated them ruled over them.
42 Their oyevim also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their yad.
43 Many times did He deliver them; but they provoked Him with their etzah (counsel), and so perished in their avon (iniquity).
44 Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, when He heard their rinnah (cry of grief);
45 And He remembered for their sake His Brit, and relented according to the multitude of His chasadim (lovingkindnesses).
46 He made them also to be pitied with rachamim by all those that carried them away as captives.
47 Hoshieini (save us), Hashem Eloheinu, and gather us from among the Goyim, to give thanks unto Thy Shem Kadosh, and to glory in Thy tehillah (praise).
48 Baruch Hashem Elohei Yisroel min haOlam v’ad haOlam; and let kol HaAm say, Omein. Praise Hashem!
21 Menasheh was twelve years old when he began to reign as melech, and reigned fifty and five years in Yerushalayim. And shem immo was Cheftzi-Vah.
2 And he did that which was rah in the eyes of Hashem, after the to’avot of the Goyim, whom Hashem drove out before the Bnei Yisroel.
3 For he built up again the [idolatrous] high places which Chizkiyah aviv had destroyed; and he reared up mizbechot for Ba’al, and made Asherah, as did Ach’av Melech Yisroel; and bowed down in worship to kol Tzava HaShomayim, and served them.
4 And he built mizbechot in the Beis Hashem, of which Hashem said, In Yerushalayim will I put Shmi (My Name).
5 And he built mizbechot for kol Tzava HaShomayim in the two khatzerot (courtyards) of the Beis Hashem.
6 And he made bno pass through the eish, and practiced sorcery, and witchcraft, and dealt with familiar spirits [i.e., he consulted mediums] and spiritists; he wrought much rah in the eyes of Hashem, to provoke Him to anger.
7 And he set a pesel HaAsherah he had made in the Beis [Hashem] of which Hashem said to Dovid, and to Sh’lomo bno, In this Beis, and in Yerushalayim, which I have chosen out of all Shivtei Yisroel, will I put Shmi (My Name) l’olam;
8 Neither will I make the regel Yisroel move any more out of ha’adamah (the land) which I gave their avot; only if they will be shomer to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the torah that avdi Moshe commanded them.
9 But they paid heed not; and Menasheh seduced them to do rah more than did the Goyim whom Hashem destroyed before the Bnei Yisroel.
10 And Hashem spoke by His avadim the Nevi’im, saying,
11 Because Menasheh Melech Yehudah hath done these to’avot, hath done wickedly more than all that HaEmori did, which were before him, hath made Yehudah also to sin with his gillulim (idols);
12 Therefore thus saith Hashem Elohei Yisroel, Hineni, I am bringing such ra’ah upon Yerushalayim and Yehudah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his oznayim shall tingle.
13 And I will stretch over Yerushalayim the measuring line of Shomron, and the plumbline of the Bais Ach’av; and I will wipe Yerushalayim as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
14 And I will forsake the She’erit of Mine nachalah, and deliver them into the yad of their oyevim; and they shall become a prey and a plunder to all their oyevim;
15 Because they have done that which was rah (evil) in My eyes, and have provoked Me to anger, since the day their avot came forth out of Mitzrayim, even unto this day.
16 Moreover Menasheh was guilty of much shefach dahm of the innocent, till he had filled Yerushalayim from one end to another; besides his chattot wherewith he caused Yehudah to commit sin, in doing that which was rah in the eyes of Hashem.
17 Now the rest of the acts of Menasheh, and all that he did, and his chattot that he sinned, are they not written in the Sefer Divrei HaYamim L’Malkhei Yehudah?
18 And Menasheh slept with his avot, and was buried in the gan of his own Bais, in the gan of Uzza; and Amon bno reigned as melech in his place.
14 Therefore, my chaverim, flee from avodah zarah.
15 I speak as to thinking men; you judge what I say.
16 The Kos HaBracha (Cup of Blessing) over which we say the Bracha, is it not a [Mizbe’ach] sharing and deveykus participation in the Korban Pesach death and kapporah of Moshiach? The matzoh which we break, is this not a sharing and a deveykus participation in the Guf HaMoshiach?
17 Because the matzoh is echad, we, many as we are, are one body, one new humanity, for we all partake of the matzoh echad.
18 Observe Yisroel according to the basar. Are not the ones eating the korbanot (sacrifices) partakers of the Mizbe’ach (altar VAYIKRA 7:6, 14, 15)?
19 What then am I saying? That a sacrifice to an elil (idol) is anything or that an idol is anything?
20 No, the things which they sacrifice, YIZB’CHU LASHEDIM LO ELOHIM ("They sacrificed to demons which were not G-d" DEVARIM 32:17; TEHILLIM 106:37). Now I do not want you to become sharers with the shedim (demons). [VAYIKRA 17:7; DEVARIM 32:17; TEHILLIM 106:37]
21 You are not able to drink from the Kos of Hashem and also from the Kos HaShedim; you are not able to partake of the shulchan of Hashem and the shulchan of shedim (demons).
22 Or is it that you would move Hashem to kinah (jealousy) [DEVARIM 32:21]? We don’t think we are stronger than He, do we? [DEVARIM 32:16; MELACHIM ALEF 14:22; TEHILLIM 78:58; YIRMEYAH 44:8; KOHELET 6:10; YESHAYAH 45:9]
23 “All things are lawful”? But not all things are beneficial; “All things are lawful”? But not all things edify [6:12].
24 Let no one seek his own benefit but the benefit of the other.
25 Everything being sold in a meat market eat without raising qualms of matzpun (conscience).
26 For LAHASHEM HA’ARETZ UMELOAH ("The earth is the L-rd’s and the fullness thereof" TEHILLIM 24:1; 50:12; 89:11; SHEMOT 9:29; 19:5; IYOV 41:11; TEHILLIM 50:12).
27 If anyone of the Apikorosim invites you and you want to go, eat everything being set before you without raising qualms of matzpun (conscience).
28 But if anyone should say to you, ‘Zeh nizbach l’elil!’ (‘This is sacrificed to an idol!’), do not eat out of consideration for that man who informed you and because of matzpun (conscience).
29 But I speak not about your matzpun but about the matzpun of the other man, for why is my cherut (freedom) brought into mishpat (judgment) by another’s matzpun (conscience)?
30 If I partake with Birkat Hamazon (grace after meals), why am I blamed for what I give todah (thanks) for?
31 Whether, therefore, you eat or you drink or whatever you do, do all things to the kavod (glory) of Hashem. [ZECHARYAH 14:21]
32 Be without michshol both to Yehudim and to Yevanim and to the Kehillah of Hashem,
33 even as I also please Bnei Adam in all things, not seeking my own advantage but that of the many, that they may be brought to Yeshu’at Eloheinu.
11 Become imitators of me as I also am an imitator of Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach.
28 And when Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach came to the other side of the lake, in the land of the people of Gadara, he was met by two men possessed by shedim (demons); these men were coming out of the kevarim (tombs) of the burial caves and were so dangerous no one could pass by on that road.
29 And they screamed, saying, Mah lanu valach, Ben HaElohim? (What to us and to you, Ben HaElohim? T.N. i.e., What business do you have with us, Ben HaElohim) Have you come here to torture us before the time [of the Yom HaDin, the Day of Judgment]?
30 Now there was feeding far away from them a large herd of chazirim (swine).
31 And the shedim begged him, saying, If you cast us out, send us into the herd of chazirim.
32 And Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach said to them, Go away! So the shedim, coming out, went away into the chazirim. And, hinei, all the herd of chazirim rushed down the bank into the lake, and they perished in the water.
33 And the herdsmen of the chazirim fled, and, having gone away into the town, they told the whole story of what had happened to the men possessed by shedim.
34 And hinei! The whole town came out to meet Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach. And seeing him, they begged him to depart from their area.
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