Book of Common Prayer
1 ¶ O come, let us bring joy unto the LORD; let us sing with joy unto the rock of our saving health.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and sing unto him with joy.
3 For the LORD is a great God and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
7 ¶ For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice,
8 harden not your heart, as in the provocation and as in the day of trials in the wilderness
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.
10 Forty years long I was grieved with this generation and said, It is a people that err from the heart, who have not known my ways;
11 unto whom I swore in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.
A Prayer of the poor in spirit, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the LORD.
1 ¶ Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.
2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as in a hearth.
4 My heart is smitten and withered like grass so that I forget to eat my bread.
5 By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin.
6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert.
7 I watch and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
8 My enemies reproach me all the day, and those that are mad against me are sworn against me.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping,
10 because of thine indignation and thy wrath; for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down.
11 My days are like a shadow that declines, and I am withered like grass.
12 ¶ But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever and thy remembrance unto all generations.
13 Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion; for the time to favour her, the set time, is come.
14 For thy slaves love her stones and have compassion on the dust thereof.
15 So the Gentiles shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory
16 because the LORD shall have built up Zion, and he shall be seen in his glory.
17 He shall have regarded the prayer of those who are alone and destitute and not despised their prayer.
18 This shall be written for the generation to come, and the people who shall be created shall praise JAH.
19 For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from the heavens the LORD beheld the earth
20 to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death,
21 that they might declare the name of the LORD in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem,
22 when the people are gathered together as one and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
23 ¶ He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
24 I said, O my God, do not cut me off in the midst of my days; thy years are from generation to generation.
25 Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed:
27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
28 The sons of thy slaves shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.
1 ¶ O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good; for his mercy endures for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy
3 and gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
4 They wandered lost in the wilderness, alone and out of the way; they found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
9 For he satisfies the soul that is destitute and fills the hungry soul with goodness.
10 ¶ Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in irons,
11 because they rebelled against the words of God and condemned the counsel of the most High:
12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was no one to help.
13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their bonds asunder.
15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
16 For he has broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron asunder.
17 ¶ The fools, because of the way of their rebellion, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near unto the gates of death.
19 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
20 He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their graves.
21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
22 And let them offer the sacrifices of praise and publish his works with singing.
23 ¶ Those that go down to the sea in ships that do work in many waters,
24 these have seen the works of the LORD and his wonders in the deep.
25 For he commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves.
26 They mount up to the heavens; they go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble.
27 They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, and all of their knowledge is of no avail.
28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivers them out of their afflictions.
29 He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still.
30 Then they are glad because they are at rest; so he brings them into the haven of his will.
31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
2 ¶ And a man of the house of Levi went and took to wife a daughter of Levi,
2 who conceived and gave birth to a son, and seeing that he was beautiful, she hid him three months.
3 And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes and daubed it with slime and with pitch and put the child in it, and she laid it in the reeds by the river’s brink.
4 And his sister stood afar off to see what would happen to him.
5 ¶ And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and walking with her maidens along by the river’s side, she saw the ark among the reeds; she sent her maid to bring it.
6 And when she had opened it, she saw the child, and, behold, the babe wept. And having compassion on him, she said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children.
7 Then his sister said unto Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for thee?
8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.
9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it.
10 And when the child grew, she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, for she said, Because I drew him out of the water.
11 ¶ And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens, and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren.
12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
13 And when he went out the next day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together, and he said to him that did the wrong, Why smitest thou thy fellow?
14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Doest thou intend to kill me as thou killed the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, Surely this thing is known.
15 Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.
16 ¶ Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters who came and drew water to fill the troughs to water their father’s sheep.
17 But the pastors came and drove them away. Then Moses stood up and defended them and watered their sheep.
18 And when they returned unto Reuel, their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon today?
19 And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the pastors and also drew water enough for us and watered the sheep.
20 And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? Why is it that ye have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.
21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man; and he gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter.
22 And she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershon, for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.
27 ¶ Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.
28 And God did set certain ones in the congregation: {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that faculties, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
29 Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? do all have faculties?
30 Do all have gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?
31 But earnestly pursue the best gifts, and yet I show unto you a more excellent way.
13 ¶ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profits me nothing.
2 And six days afterwards Jesus took Peter and James and John, and separated them apart by themselves unto a high mountain; and he was transfigured before them.
3 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them.
4 And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.
5 Then Peter answering, said unto Jesus, Master, it shall be good for us to remain here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for thee, and another for Moses, and another for Elijah.
6 For he knew not what he was saying, for he was beside himself.
7 And a cloud came that overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son; hear ye him.
8 And suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one any more, except Jesus only with themselves.
9 And as they came down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one what things they had seen until the Son of man was risen from the dead.
10 And they kept the word within themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should be.
11 And they asked him, saying, Why do the scribes say that Elijah must first come?
12 And he answered and told them, Elijah verily shall come first and restore all things and how it is written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things and be esteemed as nothing.
13 But I say unto you, That Elijah has indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they wished, as it is written of him.
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