Book of Common Prayer
Praise to Yahweh for His Work on Behalf of Israel
105 Give thanks to Yahweh; proclaim his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples.
2 Sing to him; sing praises concerning him;
tell of all his wonderful works.
3 Boast about his holy name.
Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.
4 Make supplication to Yahweh and his might;
seek his face continually.
5 Remember his wonders that he has done,
his signs and the judgments of his mouth,
6 O offspring of Abraham his servant,
you descendants[a] of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is Yahweh our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word that he commanded
for a thousand generations,
9 that he made with Abraham,
and by his oath swore to Isaac.
10 He then confirmed it to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the allotment that is your[b] inheritance.”
12 When they were few in number[c]—
a trifle—and were sojourners in it,
13 and they wandered about among the nations,[d]
from one kingdom to another people,
14 he allowed no one to oppress them,
and he rebuked kings on account of them,
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones,
nor harm my prophets.”
16 Then he called for a famine upon the land;
he broke every supply[e] of bread.
17 He sent a man on ahead of them;
Joseph was sold as a slave.
18 They clamped[f] his feet in fetters.[g]
His neck[h] went into irons.[i]
19 Until the time his word came about,
the word of Yahweh tested[j] him.
20 The king sent and he freed him;
the ruler of the peoples sent and let him loose.
21 He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions,
22 to obligate[k] his officials as he saw fit[l]
and teach his elders wisdom.
23 Then Israel came to Egypt,
and Jacob was a sojourner in the land of Ham.
24 And he[m] made his people very fruitful.
He also made them[n] stronger than their[o] enemies.
25 He turned their heart to hate his people,
to deal deceitfully against his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses,
together with Aaron whom he had chosen.
27 They set before them the words concerning his signs
and portents in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made it dark,
and they did not rebel against his words.
29 He turned their waters into blood
and it killed their fish.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and there came flies
and gnats throughout all their territory.[p]
32 He gave hail for their rains
and the fire of lightning in their land.
33 And he struck their vines and fig trees,
and shattered the trees of their territory.
34 He spoke and there came locusts
and young locusts without number.
35 And they ate up all the vegetation in their land,
and they ate up the fruit of their ground.
36 And he struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the first of all their virility.
37 Then he brought them out with silver and gold,
and there was none among his tribes who stumbled.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed,
because the fear of them[q] had fallen upon them.
39 He spread out a cloud for a covering,
and fire to give light at night.
40 They[r] asked, and he brought quail,
and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock and waters flowed;
they coursed[s] through the dry places like a river.
42 For he remembered his holy promise;[t]
he remembered Abraham his servant.
43 And so he brought out his people with joy,
his chosen ones with rejoicing.
44 And he gave to them the lands of the nations,
and they inherited the labor of the peoples,
45 so that they might observe his statutes,
and keep his laws.
Praise Yah.[u]
Confirming the Covenant
24 And to Moses he said, “Go up to Yahweh—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel—and you will worship at a distance. 2 And Moses alone[a] will come near to Yahweh, and they will not come near, and the people will not go up with him.”
3 And Moses came, and he told the people all the words of Yahweh and all the regulations. And all the people answered with one voice, and they said, “All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do.”
4 And Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh, and he rose early in the morning, and he built an altar at the base of the mountain and set up twelve memorial stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men from the Israelites,[b] and they offered burnt offerings, and they sacrificed sacrifices as fellowship offerings to Yahweh using bulls. 6 And Moses took half of the blood, and he put it in bowls, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the scroll of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will listen.”[c] 8 And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and he said, “Look, the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
9 And Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel went up. 10 And they saw the God of Israel, and what was under his feet was like sapphire tile work and like the very heavens for clearness. 11 And toward the leaders of the Israelites[d] he did not stretch out his hand, and they beheld God, and they ate, and they drank.
The Start of Forty Days and Nights on Mount Sinai
12 And Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone and the law and the commandments that I have written to instruct them.” 13 And Moses got up, and Joshua, his assistant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.
14 And to the elders he said, “Wait for us here until we return to you. And look, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute[e] will bring it to you.”
15 And Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16 And the glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days, and he called to Moses on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud. 17 And the appearance of the glory of Yahweh was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain to the eyes of[f] the Israelites.[g] 18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and he went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
8 Beware lest anyone take you captive[a] through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition[b], according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ, 9 because in him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you are filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority, 11 in whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, by the removal of the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which also you were raised together with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And although you were dead[c][d] in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 having destroyed the certificate of indebtedness in ordinances against us, which was hostile to us, and removed it out of the way by[e] nailing it to the cross. 15 When he[f] had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a display of them in public, triumphing over them by it.[g]
Do Not Be Judged by Human Religious Rules
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with reference to eating or[h] drinking or participation in a feast or a new moon or a Sabbath, 17 which are a shadow of what is to come, but the reality is Christ. 18 Let no one condemn you, taking pleasure in humility and the worship of angels, going into detail about the things which he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by the ligaments and sinews, grows with the growth of God.
20 If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as if living in the world? 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,” 22 which things are all meant for destruction by consuming according to human commandments and teachings, 23 which things although they have[i],[j] to be sure, an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and unsparing treatment of the body, do not have any value[k] against the indulgence of the flesh.
Public Ministry in Galilee
12 Now when he[a] heard that John had been arrested,[b] he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth, he went and[c] lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 in order that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled, who said,
15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
toward the sea,[d] on the other side of the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles[e]—
16 the people who sit in darkness
have seen a great light,
and the ones who sit in the land and shadow of death,
a light has dawned on them.”[f]
17 From that time on, Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near.”
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