Book of Common Prayer
40 To the Overseer. -- A Psalm of David. I have diligently expected Jehovah, And He inclineth to me, and heareth my cry,
2 And He doth cause me to come up From a pit of desolation -- from mire of mud, And He raiseth up on a rock my feet, He is establishing my steps.
3 And He putteth in my mouth a new song, `Praise to our God.' Many do see and fear, and trust in Jehovah.
4 O the happiness of the man Who hath made Jehovah his trust, And hath not turned unto the proud, And those turning aside to lies.
5 Much hast Thou done, Jehovah my God; Thy wonders and Thy thoughts toward us, There is none to arrange unto Thee, I declare and speak: They have been more than to be numbered.
6 Sacrifice and present Thou hast not desired, Ears Thou hast prepared for me, Burnt and sin-offering Thou hast not asked.
7 Then said I, `Lo, I have come,' In the roll of the book it is written of me,
8 To do Thy pleasure, my God, I have delighted, And Thy law [is] within my heart.
9 I have proclaimed tidings of righteousness In the great assembly, lo, my lips I restrain not, O Jehovah, Thou hast known.
10 Thy righteousness I have not concealed In the midst of my heart, Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation I have told, I have not hidden Thy kindness and Thy truth, To the great assembly.
11 Thou, O Jehovah, restrainest not Thy mercies from me, Thy kindness and Thy truth do continually keep me.
12 For compassed me have evils innumerable, Overtaken me have mine iniquities, And I have not been able to see; They have been more than the hairs of my head, And my heart hath forsaken me.
13 Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me, O Jehovah, for my help make haste.
14 They are ashamed and confounded together, Who are seeking my soul to destroy it, They are turned backward, And are ashamed, who are desiring my evil.
15 They are desolate because of their shame, Who are saying to me, `Aha, aha.'
16 All seeking Thee rejoice and are glad in Thee, Those loving Thy salvation say continually, `Jehovah is magnified.'
17 And I [am] poor and needy, The Lord doth devise for me. My help and my deliverer [art] Thou, O my God, tarry Thou not.
54 To the Overseer with stringed instruments. -- An instruction, by David, in the coming in of the Ziphim, and they say to Saul, `Is not David hiding himself with us?' O God, by Thy name save me, and by Thy might judge me.
2 O God, hear my prayer, Give ear to the sayings of my mouth,
3 For strangers have risen up against me And terrible ones have sought my soul, They have not set God before them. Selah.
4 Lo, God [is] a helper to me, The Lord [is] with those supporting my soul,
5 Turn back doth the evil thing to mine enemies, In Thy truth cut them off.
6 With a free will-offering I sacrifice to Thee, I thank Thy name, O Jehovah, for [it is] good,
7 For, from all adversity He delivered me, And on mine enemies hath mine eye looked!
51 To the Overseer. -- A Psalm of David, in the coming inn unto him of Nathan the prophet, when he hath gone in unto Bath-Sheba. Favour me, O God, according to Thy kindness, According to the abundance of Thy mercies, Blot out my transgressions.
2 Thoroughly wash me from mine iniquity, And from my sin cleanse me,
3 For my transgressions I do know, And my sin [is] before me continually.
4 Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, And done the evil thing in Thine eyes, So that Thou art righteous in Thy words, Thou art pure in Thy judging.
5 Lo, in iniquity I have been brought forth, And in sin doth my mother conceive me.
6 Lo, truth Thou hast desired in the inward parts, And in the hidden part Wisdom Thou causest me to know.
7 Thou cleansest me with hyssop and I am clean, Washest me, and than snow I am whiter.
8 Thou causest me to hear joy and gladness, Thou makest joyful bones Thou hast bruised.
9 Hide Thy face from my sin. And all mine iniquities blot out.
10 A clean heart prepare for me, O God, And a right spirit renew within me.
11 Cast me not forth from Thy presence, And Thy Holy Spirit take not from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, And a willing spirit doth sustain me.
13 I teach transgressors Thy ways, And sinners unto Thee do return.
14 Deliver me from blood, O God, God of my salvation, My tongue singeth of Thy righteousness.
15 O Lord, my lips thou dost open, And my mouth declareth Thy praise.
16 For Thou desirest not sacrifice, or I give [it], Burnt-offering Thou acceptest not.
17 The sacrifices of God [are] a broken spirit, A heart broken and bruised, O God, Thou dost not despise.
18 Do good in Thy good pleasure with Zion, Thou dost build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then Thou desirest sacrifices of righteousness, Burnt-offering, and whole burnt-offering, Then they offer bullocks on thine altar!
2 And it cometh to pass, in the month of Nisan, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, wine [is] before him, and I lift up the wine, and give to the king, and I had not been sad before him;
2 and the king saith to me, `Wherefore [is] thy face sad, and thou not sick? this is nothing except sadness of heart;' and I fear very much,
3 and say to the king, `Let the king to the age live! wherefore should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of the graves of my fathers, [is] a waste, and its gates have been consumed with fire?'
4 And the king saith to me, `For what art thou seeking?' and I pray unto the God of the heavens,
5 and say to the king, `If to the king [it be] good, and if thy servant be pleasing before thee, that thou send me unto Judah, unto the city of the graves of my fathers, and I built it.'
6 And the king saith to me (and the queen is sitting near him), `How long is thy journey? and when dost thou return?' and it is good before the king, and he sendeth me away, and I set to him a time.
7 And I say to the king, `If to the king [it be] good, letters let be given to me for the governors beyond the River, that they let me pass over till that I come in unto Judah:
8 and a letter unto Asaph, keeper of the paradise that the king hath, that he give to me trees for beams [for] the gates of the palace that the house hath, and for the wall of the city, and for the house into which I enter;' and the king giveth to me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
9 And I come in unto the governors beyond the River, and give to them the letters of the king; and the king sendeth with me heads of a force, and horsemen;
10 and Sanballat the Horonite heareth, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and it is evil to them -- a great evil -- that a man hath come in to seek good for the sons of Israel.
11 And I come in unto Jerusalem, and I am there three days,
12 and I rise by night, I and a few men with me, and have not declared to a man what my God is giving unto my heart to do for Jerusalem, and there is no beast with me except the beast on which I am riding.
13 And I go out through the gate of the valley by night, and unto the front of the fountain of the dragon, and unto the gate of the dunghill, and I am measuring about the walls of Jerusalem, that are broken down, and its gates consumed with fire.
14 And I pass over unto the gate of the fountain, and unto the pool of the king, and there is no place for the beast under me to pass over,
15 and I am going up through the brook by night, and am measuring about the wall, and turn back, and come in through the gate of the valley, and turn back.
16 And the prefects have not known whither I have gone, and what I am doing; and to the Jews, and to the priests, and to the freemen, and to the prefects, and to the rest of those doing the work, hitherto I have not declared [it];
17 and I say unto them, `Ye are seeing the evil that we are in, in that Jerusalem [is] waste, and its gates have been burnt with fire; come and we build the wall of Jerusalem, and we are not any more a reproach.'
18 And I declare to them the hand of my God that is good upon me, and also the words of the king that he said to me, and they say, `Let us rise, and we have built;' and they strengthen their hands for good.
19 And Sanballat the Horonite heareth, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, and they mock at us, and despise us, and say, `What [is] this thing that ye are doing? against the king are ye rebelling?'
20 And I return them word, and say to them, `The God of the heavens -- He doth give prosperity to us, and we His servants rise and have built; and to you there is no portion, and right, and memorial in Jerusalem.'
12 And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and lo, a great earthquake came, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood,
13 and the stars of the heaven fell to the earth -- as a fig-tree doth cast her winter figs, by a great wind being shaken --
14 and heaven departed as a scroll rolled up, and every mountain and island -- out of their places they were moved;
15 and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich, and the chiefs of thousands, and the mighty, and every servant, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains,
16 and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, `Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of Him who is sitting upon the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb,'
17 because come did the great day of His anger, and who is able to stand?
7 And after these things I saw four messengers, standing upon the four corners of the land, holding the four winds of the land, that the wind may not blow upon the land, nor upon the sea, nor upon any tree;
2 and I saw another messenger going up from the rising of the sun, having a seal of the living God, and he did cry with a great voice to the four messengers, to whom it was given to injure the land and the sea, saying,
3 `Do not injure the land, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we may seal the servants of our God upon their foreheads.'
4 And I heard the number of those sealed, (144 thousands were sealed out of all the tribes of the sons of Israel):
24 Another simile he set before them, saying: `The reign of the heavens was likened to a man sowing good seed in his field,
25 and, while men are sleeping, his enemy came and sowed darnel in the midst of the wheat, and went away,
26 and when the herb sprang up, and yielded fruit, then appeared also the darnel.
27 `And the servants of the householder, having come near, said to him, Sir, good seed didst thou not sow in thy field? whence then hath it the darnel?
28 And he saith to them, A man, an enemy, did this; and the servants said to him, Wilt thou, then, [that] having gone away we may gather it up?
29 `And he said, No, lest -- gathering up the darnel -- ye root up with it the wheat,
30 suffer both to grow together till the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the darnel, and bind it in bundles, to burn it, and the wheat gather up into my storehouse.'