Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 118

Thanksgiving for Victory

Psalm 145

Praising God’s Greatness

A hymn of David.

Hezekiah’s Illness and Recovery

20 In those days^(A) Hezekiah became terminally ill.^(B) The prophet Isaiah^(C) son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Set your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”^(D)

² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall^(E) and prayed to the Lord, ³ “Please, Lord, remember^(F) how I have walked before you faithfully and wholeheartedly and have done what pleases you.”^[a](G) And Hezekiah wept bitterly.^(H)

⁴ Isaiah had not yet gone out of the inner courtyard when the word of the Lord came to him: ⁵ “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader^(I) of my people, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer;^(J) I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the Lord’s temple. ⁶ I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the grasp of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’”^(K)

⁷ Then Isaiah said, “Bring a lump of pressed figs.” So they brought it and applied it to his infected skin, and he recovered.^(L)

⁸ Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What is the sign^(M) that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the Lord’s temple on the third day?”

⁹ Isaiah said, “This is the sign^(N) to you from the Lord that he will do what he has promised: Should the shadow go ahead ten steps or go back ten steps?”

¹⁰ Then Hezekiah answered, “It’s easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. No, let the shadow go back ten steps.” ¹¹ So the prophet Isaiah called out to the Lord, and he brought the shadow^[b] back the ten steps it had descended on the stairway of Ahaz.^[c](O)

Hezekiah’s Folly

¹² At that time^(P) Merodach-baladan^[d] son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah since he heard that he had been sick. ¹³ Hezekiah listened to the letters and showed the envoys his whole treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil—and his armory, and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his palace and in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.^(Q)

¹⁴ Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?”

Hezekiah replied, “They came from a distant country, from Babylon.”

¹⁵ Isaiah asked, “What have they seen in your palace?”

Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything in my palace. There isn’t anything in my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: ¹⁷ ‘Look, the days are coming when everything in your palace and all that your predecessors have stored up until today will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left,’^(R) says the Lord. ¹⁸ ‘Some of your descendants—who come from you, whom you father—will be taken away,^(S) and they will become eunuchs^[e] in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”^(T)

¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,”^(U) for he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security during my lifetime?”

Hezekiah’s Death

²⁰ The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign, along with all his might and how he made the pool^(V) and the tunnel and brought water into the city,^(W) are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.^{(X) 21} Hezekiah rested with his ancestors, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.^(Y)

James Martyred and Peter Jailed

12 About that time King Herod violently attacked some who belonged to the church, ² and he executed James,^(A) John’s brother, with the sword. ³ When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.^{(B) 4} After the arrest, he put him in prison and assigned four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover. ⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him.

Peter Rescued

⁶ When Herod was about to bring him out for trial, that very night Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison. ⁷ Suddenly an angel of the Lord^(C) appeared, and a light shone in the cell. Striking Peter on the side, he woke him up and said, “Quick, get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists.^{(D) 8} “Get dressed,” the angel told him, “and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Wrap your cloak around you,” he told him, “and follow me.” ⁹ So he went out and followed, and he did not know that what the angel did was really happening, but he thought he was seeing a vision.^{(E) 10} After they passed the first and second guards, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went outside and passed one street, and suddenly the angel left him.^(F)

¹¹ When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected.”^{(G) 12} As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was called Mark,^(H) where many had assembled and were praying. ¹³ He knocked at the door of the outer gate, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴ She recognized Peter’s voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the outer gate.

¹⁵ “You’re out of your mind!” they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true, and they said, “It’s his angel.”^{(I) 16} Peter, however, kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were amazed.

¹⁷ Motioning to them with his hand^(J) to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Tell these things to James^(K) and the brothers,” he said, and he left and went to another place.

A Widow’s Son Raised to Life

¹¹ Afterward he was on his way to a town called Nain. His disciples and a large crowd were traveling with him. ¹² Just as he neared the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow.^(A) A large crowd from the town was also with her. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her^(B) and said, “Don’t weep.” ¹⁴ Then he came up and touched the open coffin, and the pallbearers stopped. And he said, “Young man, I tell you, get up!”^(C)

¹⁵ The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.^{(D) 16} Then fear^[a] came over everyone,^(E) and they glorified God,^(F) saying, “A great prophet has risen among us,”^(G) and “God has visited^[b] his people.”^{(H) 17} This report about him went throughout Judea and all the vicinity.