Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 131
A Song of [a]Ascents. Of David.
1 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in matters too great or in things too wonderful for me.
2 Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me [ceased from fretting].
3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever.
Psalm 132
A Song of [b]Ascents.
1 Lord, [earnestly] remember to David’s credit all his humiliations and hardships and endurance—
2 How he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:
3 Surely I will not enter my dwelling house or get into my bed—
4 I will not permit my eyes to sleep or my eyelids to slumber,
5 Until I have found a place for the Lord, a habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob.(A)
6 Behold, at Ephratah we [first] heard of [the discovered ark]; we found it in the fields of the wood [at Kiriath-jearim].(B)
7 Let us go into His tabernacle; let us worship at His footstool.
8 Arise, O Lord, to Your resting-place, You and the ark [the symbol] of Your strength.
9 Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness (right living and right standing with God); and let Your saints shout for joy!
10 For Your servant David’s sake, turn not away the face of Your anointed and reject not Your own king.
11 The Lord swore to David in truth; He will not turn back from it: One of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.(C)
12 If your children will keep My covenant and My testimony that I shall teach them, their children also shall sit upon your throne forever.
13 For the Lord has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His habitation:
14 This is My resting-place forever [says the Lord]; here will I dwell, for I have desired it.
15 I will surely and abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread.
16 Her priests also will I clothe with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
17 There will I make a horn spring forth and bud for David; I have ordained and prepared a lamp for My anointed [fulfilling the promises of old].(D)
18 His enemies will I clothe with shame, but upon himself shall his crown flourish.
Psalm 133
A Song of [c]Ascents. Of David.
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
2 It is like the precious ointment poured on the head, that ran down on the beard, even the beard of Aaron [the first high priest], that came down upon the collar and skirts of his garments [consecrating the whole body].(E)
3 It is like the dew of [lofty] Mount Hermon and the dew that comes on the hills of Zion; for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, even life forevermore [upon the high and the lowly].
Psalm 134
A Song of [d]Ascents.
1 Behold, bless (affectionately and gratefully praise) the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, [singers] who by night stand in the house of the Lord.(F)
2 Lift up your hands in holiness and to the sanctuary and bless the Lord [affectionately and gratefully praise Him]!
3 The Lord bless you out of Zion, even He Who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 135
1 Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) Praise the name of the Lord; praise Him, O you servants of the Lord!
2 You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God,
3 Praise the Lord! For the Lord is good; sing praises to His name, for He is gracious and lovely!
4 For the Lord has chosen [the descendants of] Jacob for Himself, Israel for His peculiar possession and treasure.(G)
5 For I know that the Lord is great and that our Lord is above all gods.
6 Whatever the Lord pleases, that has He done in the heavens and on earth, in the seas and all deeps—
7 Who causes the vapors to arise from the ends of the earth, Who makes lightnings for the rain, Who brings the wind out of His storehouses;
8 Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast;(H)
9 Who sent signs and wonders into the midst of you, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and all his servants;
10 Who smote nations many and great and slew mighty kings—
11 Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan.
12 [The Lord] gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to Israel His people.
13 Your name, O Lord, endures forever, Your fame, O Lord, throughout all ages.
14 For the Lord will judge and vindicate His people, and He will delay His judgments [manifesting His righteousness and mercy] and take into favor His servants [those who meet His terms of separation unto Him].(I)
15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
16 [Idols] have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not;
17 They have ears, but they hear not, nor is there any breath in their mouths.
18 Those who make [idols] are like them; so is everyone who trusts in and relies on them.(J)
19 Bless (affectionately and gratefully praise) the Lord, O house of Israel; bless the Lord, O house of Aaron [God’s ministers].
20 Bless the Lord, O house of Levi [the dedicated tribe]; you who reverently and worshipfully fear the Lord, bless the Lord [affectionately and gratefully praise Him]!(K)
21 Blessed out of Zion be the Lord, Who dwells [with us] at Jerusalem! Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second rank and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for [the goddess] Asherah, and for all the hosts of the heavens; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel [where Israel’s idolatry began].(A)
5 He put away the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in Judah’s cities and round about Jerusalem—also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations [or twelve signs of the zodiac], and to all the hosts of the heavens.
6 And Josiah brought the Asherah from the house of the Lord to outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron and burned it there, and beat it to dust and cast its dust upon the graves of the common people [who had sacrificed to it].
7 And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes, which were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove [tent] hangings for the Asherah [shrines].
8 And [Josiah] brought all the [idolatrous] priests out of the city of Judah and defiled the high places, where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba [north to south], and broke down the high places both at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city and that which was on one’s left at the city’s gate.
9 However, the priests of the high places were not allowed to sacrifice upon the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren.
10 And Josiah defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], that no man might ever burn there his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.(B)
11 And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had devoted to the sun from the entrance of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the area, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12 And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, [Josiah] pulled down and beat them in pieces, and he [ran and] cast their dust into the brook Kidron.
13 And the king defiled the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abominable [goddess] of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abominable god of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abominable [god] of the Ammonites.
14 He broke in pieces the pillars (images) and cut down the Asherim and replaced them with the bones of men [to defile the places forever].
15 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place Josiah tore down and broke in pieces its stones, beating them to dust, and burned the Asherah.
16 And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs across on the mount, and he sent and brought the bones out of the tombs and burned them upon the altar and defiled it, in fulfillment of the word of the Lord which the man of God prophesied, who predicted these things [about this altar, naming Josiah before he was born].(C)
17 Josiah said, What is that monument I see? The men of the city told him, It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and foretold these things that you have just done against the altar of Bethel.
18 He said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.(D)
19 Also Josiah took away all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger, and he did to them all that he had done in Bethel.
20 He slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars and burned men’s bones upon them [to defile the places forever]. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
21 The king commanded all the people, Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.
22 Surely such a Passover was not held from the days of Israel’s judges, even in all the days of the kings of Israel or Judah.
23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.
24 Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums, the wizards, the teraphim (household gods), the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law written in the book found by Hilkiah the priest in the house of the Lord.
25 There was no king like him before or after [Josiah] who turned to the Lord with all his heart and all his soul and all his might, according to all the Law of Moses.
12 Now about the spiritual gifts (the special endowments of supernatural energy), brethren, I do not want you to be misinformed.
2 You know that when you were heathen, you were led off after idols that could not speak [habitually] as impulse directed and whenever the occasion might arise.
3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking under the power and influence of the [Holy] Spirit of God can [ever] say, Jesus be cursed! And no one can [really] say, Jesus is [my] Lord, except by and under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are distinctive varieties and distributions of endowments (gifts, [a]extraordinary powers distinguishing certain Christians, due to the power of divine grace operating in their souls by the Holy Spirit) and they vary, but the [Holy] Spirit remains the same.
5 And there are distinctive varieties of service and ministration, but it is the same Lord [Who is served].
6 And there are distinctive varieties of operation [of working to accomplish things], but it is the same God Who inspires and energizes them all in all.
7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the [Holy] Spirit [the evidence, the spiritual illumination of the Spirit] for good and profit.
8 To one is given in and through the [Holy] Spirit [the power to speak] a message of wisdom, and to another [the power to express] a word of knowledge and understanding according to the same [Holy] Spirit;
9 To another [[b]wonder-working] faith by the same [Holy] Spirit, to another the extraordinary powers of healing by the one Spirit;
10 To another the working of miracles, to another prophetic insight ([c]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose); to another the ability to discern and distinguish between [the utterances of true] spirits [and false ones], to another various kinds of [unknown] tongues, to another the ability to interpret [such] tongues.
11 All these [gifts, achievements, abilities] are inspired and brought to pass by one and the same [Holy] Spirit, Who apportions to each person individually [exactly] as He chooses.
18 While He was talking this way to them, behold, a ruler entered and, kneeling down, worshiped Him, saying, My daughter has just [a]now died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will come to life.
19 And Jesus got up and accompanied him, with His disciples.
20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment;(A)
21 For she kept saying to herself, If I only touch His garment, I shall be restored to health.
22 Jesus turned around and, seeing her, He said, Take courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well. And at once the woman was restored to health.
23 And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making an uproar and din,
24 He said, Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping. And they laughed and jeered at Him.
25 But when the crowd had been ordered to go outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.
26 And the news about this spread through all that district.
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