Book of Common Prayer
Israel’s Rebelliousness and the Lord’s Deliverances.
106 Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
For His mercy and lovingkindness endure forever!(A)
2
Who can put into words the mighty deeds of the Lord?
Or who can proclaim all His praise [that is due Him]?
3
Blessed are those who observe justice [by honoring God’s precepts],
Who practice righteousness at all times.
4
Remember me, O Lord, when You favor Your people.
Visit me with Your salvation [when You rescue them],
5
That I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,
That I may glory with Your inheritance.
6
We have sinned like our fathers;
We have committed iniquity, we have behaved wickedly.(B)
7
Our fathers in Egypt did not understand nor appreciate Your miracles;
They did not remember the abundance of Your mercies nor imprint Your lovingkindnesses on their hearts,
But they were rebellious at the sea, at the [a]Red Sea.(C)
8
Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake,
That He might make His [supreme] power known.
9
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;
And He led them through the depths as through a pasture.(D)
10
So He saved them from the hand of the one that hated them,
And redeemed them from the hand of the [Egyptian] enemy.(E)
11
And the waters covered their adversaries;
Not one of them was left.(F)
12
Then Israel believed in [the validity of] His words;
They sang His praise.
13
But they quickly forgot His works;
They did not [patiently] wait for His counsel and purpose [to be revealed regarding them],
14
But lusted intensely in the wilderness
And tempted God [with their insistent desires] in the desert.(G)
15
So He gave them their request,
But sent a wasting disease among them.(H)
16
They envied Moses in the camp,
And Aaron [the high priest], the holy one of the Lord,(I)
17
Therefore the earth opened and swallowed Dathan,
And engulfed the company of Abiram.(J)
18
And a fire broke out in their company;
The flame consumed the wicked.(K)
19
They made a calf in Horeb (Sinai)
And worshiped a cast image.(L)
20
Thus they exchanged [the true God who was] their glory
For the image of an ox that eats grass.
21
They forgot God their Savior,
Who had done such great things in Egypt,
22
Wonders in the land of Ham,
Awesome things at the Red Sea.
23
Therefore He said He would destroy them,
[And He would have done so] had not Moses, His chosen one, stepped into the gap before Him,
To turn away His wrath from destroying them.(M)
24
Then they despised the pleasant land [of Canaan];
They did not believe in His word nor rely on it,
25
But they sulked and complained in their tents;
They did not listen to the voice of the Lord.
26
Therefore He lifted up His hand [swearing] to them,
That He would cause them to fall in the wilderness,
27
And that He would cast out their descendants among the nations
And scatter them in the lands [of the earth].
28
They joined themselves also to [the idol] Baal of Peor,
And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
29
Thus they provoked Him to anger with their practices,
And a plague broke out among them.
30
Then Phinehas [the priest] stood up and [b]interceded,
And so the plague was halted.(N)
31
And that was credited to him for righteousness,
To all generations forever.
32
They provoked Him to anger at the waters of [c]Meribah,
So that it went hard with Moses on their account;(O)
33
Because they were rebellious against His Spirit,
Moses spoke recklessly with his lips.
34
They did not destroy the [pagan] peoples [in Canaan],
As the Lord commanded them,
35
But they mingled with the [idolatrous] nations
And learned their ways,
36
And served their idols,
Which became a [dreadful] snare to them.
37
They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons(P)
38
And shed innocent blood,
Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with their blood.
39
In this way they became unclean in their practices;
They played the prostitute in their own deeds [by giving their worship, which belongs to God alone, to other “gods”].
40
Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against His people
And He detested His own [d]inheritance.(Q)
41
He gave them into the hands of the nations,
And those who hated them ruled over them.
42
Their enemies also oppressed them,
And they were subdued under the [powerful] hand of their enemies.
43
Many times He rescued them;
But they were rebellious in their counsel,
And sank down in their wickedness.
44
Nevertheless He looked [sympathetically] at their distress
When He heard their cry;
45
And He remembered His covenant for their sake,
And relented [rescinding their sentence] according to the greatness of His lovingkindness [when they cried out to Him],
46
He also made them objects of compassion
Among those who had carried them away captive.(R)
47
Save us, O Lord our God,
And gather us from among the nations,
That we may give thanks to Your holy name
And glory in praising You.
48
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
From everlasting even to everlasting.
And let all the people say, “Amen.”
Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)(S)
The Nations Will Be Judged
3 “For behold, in those [climactic] days and at that time,
When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
2
I will gather together all the [Gentile] nations [that were hostile to My people]
And bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat (the Lord has judged).
And there I will deal with them and enter into judgment with them there
For [their treatment of] My people, My inheritance, Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations,
And [because] they have encroached on My land and divided it up.
9
Proclaim this among the [pagan] nations:
Prepare a war! Stir up the mighty men!
Let all the men of war come near, let them come up!
10
Beat your plowshares into swords
And your pruning hooks into spears;
Let the weak say, “I am strong!”(A)
11
Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations,
And gather yourselves there;
Bring down, O Lord, Your mighty ones (Your warriors).
12
Let the nations be stirred [to action]
And come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
For there I will sit to judge and punish
All the surrounding nations.
13
Put in the sickle [of judgment], for the harvest is ripe;
Come, tread [the grapes], for the wine press is full;
The vats overflow, for the wickedness [of the people] is great.(B)
14
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision (judgment)!
For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision [when judgment is executed].(C)
15
The sun and the moon grow dark
And the stars lose their brightness.
16
The Lord thunders and roars from Zion
And utters His voice from Jerusalem [in judgment of His enemies],
And the heavens and the earth tremble and shudder;
But the Lord is a refuge for His people
And a stronghold [of protection] to the children of Israel.(D)
17
Then you will know and understand fully that I am the Lord your God,
Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem will be holy,
And strangers [who do not belong] will no longer pass through it.
A Living Hope, and a Sure Salvation
1 Peter, an apostle (special messenger, personally chosen representative) of Jesus Christ,
To those [elect—both Jewish and Gentile believers] who live as exiles, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia [Minor], and Bithynia, who are chosen(A) 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace [that special sense of spiritual well-being] be yours in increasing abundance [as you walk closely with God].(B)
3 Blessed [gratefully praised and adored] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant and boundless mercy has caused us to be born again [that is, to be reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose] to an ever-living hope and confident assurance through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,(C) 4 [born anew] into an inheritance which is imperishable [beyond the reach of change] and undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected and shielded by the power of God through your faith for salvation that is ready to be revealed [for you] in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice greatly, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith, which is much more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested and purified by fire, may be found to result in [your] praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not even see Him now, you believe and trust in Him and you greatly rejoice and delight with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 receiving as the result [the outcome, the consummation] of your faith, the salvation of [a]your souls.
10 Regarding this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace [of God] that was intended for you, searched carefully and inquired [about this future way of salvation], 11 seeking to find out what person or what time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He foretold the sufferings of Christ and the glories [destined] to follow. 12 It was revealed to them that their services [their prophecies regarding grace] were not [meant] for themselves and their time, but for you, in these things [the death, resurrection, and glorification of Jesus Christ] which have now been told to you by those who preached the gospel to you by the [power of the] Holy Spirit [who was] sent from heaven. Into these things even the angels long to look.
Concerning Divorce
19 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, He left Galilee and went into the part of Judea that is beyond the Jordan; 2 and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.
3 And Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” 4 He replied, “Have you never read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined inseparably to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?(A) 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 7 The Pharisees said to Him, “Why then did Moses command us to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”(B) 8 He said to them, “Because your hearts were hard and stubborn Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery[a].”
10 The disciples said to Jesus, “If the relationship of a man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.” 11 But He said to them, “Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom [the capacity to receive] it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been born that way from their mother’s womb [making them incapable of consummating a marriage]; and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men [for royal service]; and there are eunuchs who have [b]made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”
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