Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 78
A maskil by Asaph.
1 Open your ears to my teachings, my people.
Turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth to illustrate points.
I will explain what has been hidden long ago,
3 things that we have heard and known about,
things that our parents have told us.
4 We will not hide them from our children.
We will tell the next generation
about Yahweh’s power and great deeds
and the miraculous things he has done.
5 He established written instructions for Jacob’s people.
He gave his teachings to Israel.
He commanded our ancestors to make them known to their children
6 so that the next generation would know them.
Children yet to be born would learn them.
They will grow up and tell their children
7 to trust Elohim, to remember what he has done,
and to obey his commands.
8 Then they will not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation.
Their hearts were not loyal.
Their spirits were not faithful to El.
9 The men of Ephraim, well-equipped with bows and arrows,
turned and ran on the day of battle.
10 They had not been faithful to Elohim’s promise.[a]
They refused to follow his teachings.
11 They forgot what he had done—
the miracles that he had shown them.
12 In front of their ancestors he performed miracles
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and led them through it.
He made the waters stand up like a wall.
14 He guided them by a cloud during the day
and by a fiery light throughout the night.
15 He split rocks in the desert.
He gave them plenty to drink, an ocean of water.
16 He made streams come out of a rock.
He made the water flow like rivers.
17 They continued to sin against him,
to rebel in the desert against Elyon.
18 They deliberately tested Elohim by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against Elohim by saying,
“Can El prepare a banquet in the desert?
20 True, he did strike a rock,
and water did gush out,
and the streams did overflow.
But can he also give us bread or provide us, his people, with meat?”
21 When Yahweh heard this, he became furious.
His fire burned against Jacob
and his anger flared up at Israel
22 because they did not believe Elohim
or trust him to save them.
23 In spite of that, he commanded the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.
24 He rained manna down on them to eat
and gave them grain from heaven.
25 Humans ate the bread of the mighty ones,
and Elohim sent them plenty of food.
26 He made the east wind blow in the heavens
and guided the south wind with his might.
27 He rained meat down on them like dust,
birds like the sand on the seashore.
28 He made the birds fall in the middle of his camp,
all around his dwelling place.
29 They ate more than enough.
He gave them what they wanted,
30 but they still wanted more.
While the food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of Elohim flared up against them.
He killed their strongest men
and slaughtered the best young men in Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they continued to sin,
and they no longer believed in his miracles.
33 He brought their days to an end like a whisper in the wind.
He brought their years to an end in terror.
34 When he killed some of them, the rest searched for him.
They turned from their sins and eagerly looked for El.
35 They remembered that Elohim was their rock,
that El Elyon was their Go’el.
36 They flattered him with their mouths
and lied to him with their tongues.
37 Their hearts were not loyal to him.
They were not faithful to his promise.
38 But he is compassionate.
He forgave their sin.
He did not destroy them.
He restrained his anger many times.
He did not display all of his fury.
39 He remembered that they were only flesh and blood,
a breeze that blows and does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
How often they caused him grief in the desert!
41 Again and again they tested Elohim,
and they pushed Qedosh Yisrael to the limit.
42 They did not remember his power—
the day he freed them from their oppressor,
43 when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the fields of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers into blood
so that they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent a swarm of flies that bit them
and frogs that ruined them.
46 He gave their crops to grasshoppers
and their produce to locusts.
47 He killed their vines with hail
and their fig trees with frost.
48 He let the hail strike their cattle
and bolts of lightning strike their livestock.
49 He sent his burning anger, rage, fury, and hostility against them.
He sent an army of destroying angels.
50 He cleared a path for his anger.
He did not spare them.
He let the plague take their lives.
51 He slaughtered every firstborn in Egypt,
the ones born in the tents of Ham when their fathers were young.
52 But he led his own people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock through the wilderness.
53 He led them safely.
They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies.
54 He brought them into his holy land,
to this mountain that his power had won.
55 He forced nations out of their way
and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents.
56 They tested Elohim Elyon and rebelled against him.
They did not obey his written instructions.
57 They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors.
They were like arrows shot from a defective bow.
58 They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites.
They made him furious because they worshiped idols.
59 When Elohim heard, he became furious.
He completely rejected Israel.
60 He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh,
the tent where he had lived among humans.
61 He allowed his power to be taken captive
and handed his glory over to an oppressor.
62 He let swords kill his people.
He was furious with those who belonged to him.
63 Fire consumed his best young men,
so his virgins heard no wedding songs.
64 His priests were cut down with swords.
The widows of his priests could not even weep for them.
65 Then Adonay woke up like one who had been sleeping,
like a warrior sobering up from too much wine.
66 He struck his enemies from behind
and disgraced them forever.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph.
He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which he loved.
69 He built his holy place to be like the high heavens,
like the earth which he made to last for a long time.
70 He chose his servant David.
He took him from the sheep pens.
71 He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs
so that David could be the shepherd of the people of Jacob,
of Israel, the people who belonged to Yahweh.
72 With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd.
With skill he guided them.
The Lord’s First Promise to Isaac
26 There was a famine in the land in addition to the earlier one during Abraham’s time. So Isaac went to King Abimelech of the Philistines in Gerar.
2 Yahweh appeared to Isaac and said, “Don’t go to Egypt. Stay where I tell you. 3 Live here in this land for a while, and I will be with you and bless you. I will give all these lands to you and your descendants. I will keep the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and give all these lands to your descendants. Through your descendant all the nations of the earth will be blessed. 5 I will bless you because Abraham obeyed me and completed the duties, commands, laws, and instructions I gave him.” 6 So Isaac lived in Gerar.
12 Isaac planted crops in that land. In that same year he harvested a hundred times as much as he had planted because Yahweh had blessed him. 13 He continued to be successful, becoming very rich. 14 Because he owned so many flocks, herds, and servants, the Philistines became jealous of him. 15 So the Philistines filled in all the wells that his father’s servants had dug during his father Abraham’s lifetime.
16 Finally, Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us! You’ve become more powerful than we are.”
17 So Isaac moved away. He set up his tents in the Gerar Valley and lived there. 18 He dug out the wells that had been dug during his father Abraham’s lifetime. The Philistines had filled them in after Abraham’s death. He gave them the same names that his father had given them.
19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a spring-fed well. 20 The herders from Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herders, claiming, “This water is ours!” So Isaac named the well Esek [Argument], because they had argued with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one too. So Isaac named it Sitnah [Accusation]. 22 He moved on from there and dug another well. They didn’t quarrel over this one. So he named it Rehoboth [Roomy] and said, “Now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will prosper in this land.”
The Lord’s Second Promise to Isaac
23 He went from there to Beersheba. 24 That night Yahweh appeared to Isaac, and said, “I am the Elohim of your father Abraham. Don’t be afraid, because I am with you. I will bless you and increase the number of your descendants for my servant Abraham’s sake.” 25 So Isaac built an altar there and worshiped Yahweh. He also pitched his tent in that place, and his servants dug a well there.
Isaac’s Agreement with Abimelech
26 Abimelech, his friend Ahuzzath, and Phicol, the commander of his army, came from Gerar to see Isaac. 27 Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and sent me away from you?”
28 They answered, “We have seen that Yahweh is with you. So we thought, ‘There should be a solemn agreement between us.’ We’d like to make an agreement with you 29 that you will not harm us, since we have not touched you. We have done only good to you and let you go in peace. Now you are blessed by Yahweh.”
30 Isaac prepared a special dinner for them, and they ate and drank. 31 Early the next morning they exchanged oaths. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left peacefully.
32 That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about a well they had dug. They said to him, “We’ve found water.” 33 So he named it Shibah [Oath]. That is why the name of the city is still Beersheba today.
17 Obey your leaders, and accept their authority. They take care of you because they are responsible for you. Obey them so that they may do this work joyfully and not complain about you. (Causing them to complain would not be to your advantage.)
18 Pray for us. We are sure that our consciences are clear because we want to live honorably in every way. 19 I especially ask for your prayers so that I may come back to you soon.
20 The God of peace brought the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Yeshua, back to life through the blood of an eternal promise.[a] 21 May this God of peace prepare you to do every good thing he wants. May he work in us through Yeshua Christ to do what is pleasing to him. Glory belongs to Yeshua Christ forever. Amen.
Farewell
22 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to listen patiently to my encouraging words. I have written you a short letter. 23 You know that Timothy, our brother, has been freed. If he comes here soon, both of us will visit you.
24 Greet all your leaders and all God’s holy people. Those who are with us from Italy greet you.
25 May God’s good will[b] be with all of you!
53 Then each of them went home.
A Woman Caught in Adultery
8 Yeshua went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early the next morning he returned to the temple courtyard. All the people went to him, so he sat down and began to teach them.
3 The experts in Moses’ Teachings and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of everyone 4 and asked Yeshua, “Teacher, we caught this woman in the act of adultery. 5 In his teachings, Moses ordered us to stone women like this to death. What do you say?” 6 They asked this to test him. They wanted to find a reason to bring charges against him.
Yeshua bent down and used his finger to write on the ground. 7 When they persisted in asking him questions, he straightened up and said, “The person who is sinless should be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he bent down again and continued writing on the ground.
9 One by one, beginning with the older men, the experts in Moses’ Teachings and Pharisees left. Yeshua was left alone with the woman. 10 Then Yeshua straightened up and asked her, “Where did they go? Has anyone condemned you?”
11 The woman answered, “No one, sir.”
Yeshua said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go! From now on don’t sin.”
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.