Book of Common Prayer

A contemplation by Ethan, the Ezrahite.

¹⁰ It will happen, when you tell this people all these words, and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity?’ or ‘What is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’ ¹¹ then you shall tell them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ says Yahweh, ‘and have walked after other gods, have served them, have worshiped them, have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. ¹² You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me. ¹³ Therefore I will cast you out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

¹⁴ “Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that it will no more be said, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’ ¹⁵ but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.’ I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶ “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says Yahweh, “and they will fish them up. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷ For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face. Their iniquity isn’t concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

7 Or don’t you know, brothers^[a] (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? ² For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. ³ So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. ⁴ Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God. ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death. ⁶ But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

⁷ What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”^{(A) 8} But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. ⁹ I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. ¹⁰ The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death; ¹¹ for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. ¹² Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good.

6 After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias. ² A great multitude followed him, because they saw his signs which he did on those who were sick. ³ Jesus went up into the mountain, and he sat there with his disciples. ⁴ Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. ⁵ Jesus therefore, lifting up his eyes and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?” ⁶ He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

⁷ Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii^[a] worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may receive a little.”

⁸ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, ⁹ “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many?”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in that place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. ¹¹ Jesus took the loaves, and having given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were sitting down, likewise also of the fish as much as they desired. ¹² When they were filled, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces which are left over, that nothing be lost.” ¹³ So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten. ¹⁴ When therefore the people saw the sign which Jesus did, they said, “This is truly the prophet who comes into the world.” ¹⁵ Jesus therefore, perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself.