Book of Common Prayer

³ Blessed are those who maintain justice,
who do what is right at all times.
⁴ Remember me, Adonai,
when You show favor to Your people.
Visit me with Your salvation,
⁵ so I may behold the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
exult in the joy of Your nation,
and give praise with Your inheritance.

⁶ We have sinned with our fathers,
we have committed iniquity,
we have acted wickedly.
⁷ Our fathers in Egypt did not ponder Your wonders.
Nor did they remember Your abundant lovingkindness,
but rebelled by the sea—at the Sea of Reeds.
⁸ Yet He saved them for His Name’s sake,
to make His mighty power known.
⁹ He rebuked the Sea of Reeds
and it dried up,
and He led them through the depths as through a wilderness.
¹⁰ So He saved them from the hand of those who hated them,
redeemed them from the enemy’s hand.
¹¹ The waters covered their adversaries—
not one of them was left.
¹² Then they believed His words.
They were singing His praise.

¹³ How quickly they forgot His works,
and would not wait for His counsel!
¹⁴ In the wilderness they craved ravenously,
in the desert they tested God.
¹⁵ So He gave them what they asked for,
but sent a wasting disease among them.
¹⁶ Then they envied Moses in the camp,
and also Aaron, the holy one of Adonai.
¹⁷ The earth opened up, swallowed Dathan,
and covered the company of Abiram.
¹⁸ Also a fire blazed in their company,
a flame consumed the wicked.

¹⁹ They made a calf in Horeb
and worshipped a molten image.
²⁰ Thus they exchanged their glory
for an image of a grass-eating ox.
²¹ They forgot God their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt—
²² miracles in the land of Ham,
awesome things by the Sea of Reeds.
²³ So He commanded their extermination,
had not Moses, His chosen one,
stood in the breach before Him,
to turn His wrath from destroying them.

²⁴ Then they scorned the pleasing land—
they did not trust in His word.
²⁵ Instead, they grumbled in their tents.
They would not listen to Adonai’s voice.
²⁶ Therefore He swore to them
that He would make them fall in the desert,
²⁷ and disperse their offspring among the nations,
and scatter them through the lands.

²⁸ Then they yoked themselves to Baal of Peor,
and ate the sacrifices of dead things.
²⁹ So they provoked Him with their deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
³⁰ But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
so the plague was stopped.
³¹ It was credited to him as righteousness,
from generation to generation forever.

³² By the waters of Meribah they angered Him,
and trouble came on Moses because of them.
³³ For they embittered his spirit
and he spoke rashly with his lips.

³⁴ They did not destroy the peoples,
as Adonai had commanded them.
³⁵ Instead they mingled with the nations
and learned their practices.
³⁶ They worshipped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
³⁷ They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
³⁸ They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and their daughters,
sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
So the land was desecrated with blood.
³⁹ So they defiled themselves by their deeds,
and prostituted themselves by their practices.
⁴⁰ Therefore the anger of Adonai was kindled against His people,
and He abhorred His inheritance.
⁴¹ He handed them to the nations—
those who hated them ruled over them.
⁴² Their enemies oppressed them,
so they were subdued under their hand.
⁴³ Many times He delivered them,
but they kept rebelling deliberately,
and so sank low into their iniquity.
⁴⁴ Yet He saw their distress,
when He heard their cry,
⁴⁵ remembered His covenant to them,^[a]
and relented in the greatness of His mercy.
⁴⁶ He caused them to be pitied
in the presence of all their captors.

⁴⁷ Save us, Adonai our God,
and gather us from the nations,
so we may praise Your holy Name
and triumph in Your praise.
⁴⁸ Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel,
from everlasting even to everlasting!
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Halleluyah!