Book of Common Prayer

119 In my trouble I cried to the Lord: and he heard me.

² O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, and a deceitful tongue.

³ What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added to thee, to a deceitful tongue?

⁴ The sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals that lay waste.

⁵ Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of cedar:

⁶ My soul hath been long a sojourner.

⁷ With them that hated peace I was peaceable: when I spoke to them they fought against me without cause.

12 Unto the end, a psalm for David. How long, O Lord, wilt thou forget me unto the end? how long dost thou turn away thy face from me?

² How long shall I take counsels in my soul, sorrow in my heart all the day?

³ How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

⁴ Consider, and hear me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes that I never sleep in death:

⁵ Lest at any time my enemy say: I have prevailed against him. They that trouble me will rejoice when I am moved:

⁶ But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation: I will sing to the Lord, who giveth me good things: yea I will sing to the name of the Lord the most high.

13 Unto the end, a psalm for David. The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God, They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways: there is none that doth good, no not one.

² The Lord hath looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God.

³ They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre: with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.

⁴ Shall not all they know that work iniquity, who devour my people as they eat bread?

⁵ They have not called upon the Lord: there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear.

⁶ For the Lord is in the just generation: you have confounded the counsel of the poor man, but the Lord is his hope.

⁷ Who shall give out of Sion the salvation of Israel? when the Lord shall have turned away the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad.

14 A psalm of David. Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? or who shall rest in thy holy hill?

² He that walketh without blemish, and worketh justice:

³ He that speaketh truth in his heart, who hath not used deceit in his tongue: Nor hath done evil to his neighbour: nor taken up a reproach against his neighbours.

⁴ In his sight the malignant is brought to nothing: but he glorifieth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his neighbour, and deceiveth not;

⁵ He that hath not put out his money to usury, nor taken bribes against the innocent: He that doth these things shall not be moved for ever.

¹² Thus saith the Lord: As if a shepherd should get out of the lion's mouth two legs, or the tip of the ear: so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria, in a piece of a bed, and in the couch of Damascus.

¹³ Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord the God of hosts:

¹⁴ That in the day when I shall begin to visit the transgressions of Israel, I will visit upon him, and upon the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altars shall be cut off, and shall fall to the ground.

¹⁵ And I will strike the winter house with the summer house: and the houses of ivory shall perish, and many houses shall be destroyed, saith the Lord.

4 Hear this word, ye fat kine that are in the mountains of Samaria: you that oppress the needy, and crush the poor: that say to your masters: Bring, and we will drink.

² The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, that lo, the days shall come upon you, when they shall lift you up on pikes, and what shall remain of you in boiling pots.

³ And you shall go out at the breaches one over against the other, and you shall be cast forth into Armon, saith the Lord.

⁴ Come ye to Bethel, and do wickedly: to Galgal, and multiply transgressions: and bring in the morning your victims, your tithes in three days.

⁵ And offer a sacrifice of praise with leaven: and call free offerings, and proclaim it: for so you would do, O children of Israel, saith the Lord God.

3 Behold this second epistle I write to you, my dearly beloved, in which I stir up by way of admonition your sincere mind:

² That you may be mindful of those words which I told you before from the holy prophets, and of your apostles, of the precepts of the Lord and Saviour.

³ Knowing this first, that in the last days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

⁴ Saying: Where is his promise or his coming? for since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

⁵ For this they are wilfully ignorant of, that the heavens were before, and the earth out of water, and through water, consisting by the word of God.

⁶ Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

⁷ But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of the ungodly men.

⁸ But of this one thing be not ignorant, my beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹ The Lord delayeth not his promise, as some imagine, but dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance.

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up.

²³ And when he was come into the temple, there came to him, as he was teaching, the chief priests and ancients of the people, saying: By what authority dost thou these things? and who hath given thee this authority?

²⁴ Jesus answering, said to them: I also will ask you one word, which if you shall tell me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁵ The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven or from men? But they thought within themselves, saying:

²⁶ If we shall say, from heaven, he will say to us: Why then did you not believe him? But if we shall say, from men, we are afraid of the multitude: for all held John as a prophet.

²⁷ And answering Jesus, they said: We know not. He also said to them: Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁸ But what think you? A certain man had two sons; and coming to the first, he said: Son, go work to day in my vineyard.

²⁹ And he answering, said: I will not. But afterwards, being moved with repentance, he went.

³⁰ And coming to the other, he said in like manner. And he answering, said: I go, Sir; and he went not.

³¹ Which of the two did the father's will? They say to him: The first. Jesus saith to them: Amen I say to you, that the publicans and the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you.

³² For John came to you in the way of justice, and you did not believe him. But the publicans and the harlots believed him: but you, seeing it, did not even afterwards repent, that you might believe him.