Book of Common Prayer
33 He turned[a] streams into a desert,
springs of water into arid land,
34 and a fruitful land into a barren place,[b]
because of the sin of its inhabitants.
35 As for his people,[c] he turned[d] a desert into a pool of water,
and a dry land into springs of water.
36 He allowed the hungry to settle there,
and they established a city in which to live.
37 They cultivated[e] fields,
and planted vineyards,
which yielded a harvest of fruit.[f]
38 He blessed[g] them so that they became very numerous.
He would not allow their cattle to decrease in number.[h]
39 As for their enemies,[i] they decreased in number and were beaten down,
because of painful distress[j] and suffering.
40 He would pour[k] contempt upon princes,
and he made them wander in a wasteland with no road.
41 Yet he protected[l] the needy from oppression,
and cared for his families like a flock of sheep.
42 When the godly see this, they rejoice,
and every sinner[m] shuts his mouth.
43 Whoever is wise, let him take note of these things.
Let them consider the Lord’s acts of loyal love.
Psalm 108[n]
A song, a psalm of David.
108 I am determined,[o] O God.
I will sing and praise you with my whole heart.[p]
2 Awake, O stringed instrument and harp.
I will wake up at dawn.[q]
3 I will give you thanks before the nations, O Lord.
I will sing praises to you before foreigners.[r]
4 For your loyal love extends beyond the sky,[s]
and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.
5 Rise up[t] above the sky, O God.
May your splendor cover the whole earth.[u]
6 Deliver by your power[v] and answer me,
so that the ones you love may be safe.[w]
7 God has spoken in his sanctuary:[x]
“I will triumph! I will parcel out Shechem;
the Valley of Sukkoth I will measure off.[y]
8 Gilead belongs to me,
as does Manasseh.[z]
Ephraim is my helmet,[aa]
Judah my royal scepter.[ab]
9 Moab is my washbasin.[ac]
I will make Edom serve me.[ad]
I will shout in triumph over Philistia.”
10 Who will lead me into the fortified city?
Who will bring me to Edom?[ae]
11 Have you not rejected us, O God?
O God, you do not go into battle with our armies.
12 Give us help against the enemy,
for any help men might offer is futile.[af]
13 By God’s power we will conquer;[ag]
he will trample down[ah] our enemies.
Psalm 33[a]
33 You godly ones, shout for joy because of the Lord!
It is appropriate for the morally upright to offer him praise.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the harp.
Sing to him to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument.
3 Sing to him a new song.[b]
Play skillfully as you shout out your praises to him.[c]
4 For the Lord’s decrees[d] are just,[e]
and everything he does is fair.[f]
5 He promotes[g] equity and justice;
the Lord’s faithfulness extends throughout the earth.[h]
6 By the Lord’s decree[i] the heavens were made,
and by the breath[j] of his mouth all the starry hosts.
7 He piles up the water of the sea;[k]
he puts the oceans[l] in storehouses.
8 Let the whole earth fear[m] the Lord.
Let all who live in the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spoke, and it[n] came into existence.
He issued the decree,[o] and it stood firm.
10 The Lord frustrates[p] the decisions of the nations;
he nullifies the plans[q] of the peoples.
11 The Lord’s decisions stand forever;
his plans abide throughout the ages.[r]
12 How blessed[s] is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen to be his special possession.[t]
13 The Lord watches[u] from heaven;
he sees all people.[v]
14 From the place where he lives he looks carefully
at all the earth’s inhabitants.
15 He is the one who forms every human heart,[w]
and takes note of all their actions.
16 No king is delivered by his vast army;
a warrior is not saved by his great might.
17 A horse disappoints those who trust in it for victory;[x]
despite its great strength, it cannot deliver.
18 Look, the Lord takes notice of his loyal followers,[y]
those who wait for him to demonstrate his faithfulness[z]
19 by saving their lives from death[aa]
and sustaining them during times of famine.[ab]
20 We[ac] wait for the Lord;
he is our deliverer[ad] and shield.[ae]
21 For our hearts rejoice in him,
for we trust in his holy name.
22 May we experience your faithfulness, O Lord,[af]
for[ag] we wait for you.
The Return to Bethel
35 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once[a] to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”[b] 2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you.[c] Purify yourselves and change your clothes.[d] 3 Let us go up at once[e] to Bethel. Then I will make[f] an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress[g] and has been with me wherever I went.”[h]
4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession[i] and the rings that were in their ears.[j] Jacob buried them[k] under the oak[l] near Shechem 5 and they started on their journey.[m] The surrounding cities were afraid of God,[n] and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.
6 Jacob and all those who were with him arrived at Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan.[o] 7 He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel[p] because there God had revealed himself[q] to him when he was fleeing from his brother. 8 (Deborah,[r] Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named[s] Oak of Weeping.)[t]
9 God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan Aram and blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but your name will no longer be called Jacob; Israel will be your name.” So God named him Israel.[u] 11 Then God said to him, “I am the Sovereign God.[v] Be fruitful and multiply! A nation—even a company of nations—will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants![w] 12 The land I gave[x] to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. To your descendants[y] I will also give this land.” 13 Then God went up from the place[z] where he spoke with him. 14 So Jacob set up a sacred stone pillar in the place where God spoke with him.[aa] He poured out a drink offering on it, and then he poured oil on it.[ab] 15 Jacob named the place[ac] where God spoke with him Bethel.[ad]
16 They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away,[ae] Rachel went into labor[af]—and her labor was hard. 17 When her labor was at its hardest,[ag] the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you are having another son.”[ah] 18 With her dying breath,[ai] she named him Ben Oni.[aj] But his father called him Benjamin instead.[ak] 19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).[al] 20 Jacob set up a marker[am] over her grave; it is[an] the Marker of Rachel’s Grave to this day.
God Is Love, So We Must Love One Another
11 For[a] this is the gospel[b] message[c] that you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another,[d] 12 not like Cain[e] who was of the evil one and brutally[f] murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.
13 Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters,[g] if the world hates you.[h] 14 We know that[i] we have crossed over[j] from death to life[k] because[l] we love our fellow Christians.[m] The one who does not love remains in death.[n] 15 Everyone who hates his fellow Christian[o] is a murderer,[p] and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing[q] in him. 16 We have come to know love by this:[r] that Jesus[s] laid down[t] his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. 17 But whoever has the world’s possessions[u] and sees his fellow Christian[v] in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God[w] reside[x] in such a person?[y]
18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth.[z]
The Death of Lazarus
11 Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived.[a] 2 (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil[b] and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)[c] 3 So the sisters sent a message[d] to Jesus,[e] “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.” 4 When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death,[f] but to God’s glory,[g] so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”[h] 5 (Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.)[i]
6 So when he heard that Lazarus[j] was sick, he remained in the place where he was for two more days. 7 Then after this, he said to his disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”[k] 8 The disciples replied,[l] “Rabbi, the Jewish leaders[m] were just now trying[n] to stone you to death! Are[o] you going there again?” 9 Jesus replied,[p] “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks around in the daytime, he does not stumble,[q] because he sees the light of this world.[r] 10 But if anyone walks around at night,[s] he stumbles,[t] because the light is not in him.”
11 After he said this, he added,[u] “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.[v] But I am going there to awaken him.” 12 Then the disciples replied,[w] “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 (Now Jesus had been talking about[x] his death, but they[y] thought he had been talking about real sleep.)[z]
14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and I am glad[aa] for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe.[ab] But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas (called Didymus[ac])[ad] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go too, so that we may die with him.”[ae]
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