Book of Common Prayer
106 Praise Yahweh!
Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good,
for his loving kindness endures forever.
2 Who can utter the mighty acts of Yahweh,
or fully declare all his praise?
3 Blessed are those who keep justice.
Blessed is one who does what is right at all times.
4 Remember me, Yahweh, with the favor that you show to your people.
Visit me with your salvation,
5 that I may see the prosperity of your chosen,
that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,
that I may glory with your inheritance.
6 We have sinned with our fathers.
We have committed iniquity.
We have done wickedly.
7 Our fathers didn’t understand your wonders in Egypt.
They didn’t remember the multitude of your loving kindnesses,
but were rebellious at the sea, even at the Red Sea.
8 Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake,
that he might make his mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up;
so he led them through the depths, as through a desert.
10 He saved them from the hand of him who hated them,
and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11 The waters covered their adversaries.
There was not one of them left.
12 Then they believed his words.
They sang his praise.
13 They soon forgot his works.
They didn’t wait for his counsel,
14 but gave in to craving in the desert,
and tested God in the wasteland.
15 He gave them their request,
but sent leanness into their soul.
16 They envied Moses also in the camp,
and Aaron, Yahweh’s saint.
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,
and covered the company of Abiram.
18 A fire was kindled in their company.
The flame burned up the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb,
and worshiped a molten image.
20 Thus they exchanged their glory
for an image of a bull that eats grass.
21 They forgot God, their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wondrous works in the land of Ham,
and awesome things by the Red Sea.
23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them,
had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach,
to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t destroy them.
24 Yes, they despised the pleasant land.
They didn’t believe his word,
25 but murmured in their tents,
and didn’t listen to Yahweh’s voice.
26 Therefore he swore to them
that he would overthrow them in the wilderness,
27 that he would overthrow their offspring among the nations,
and scatter them in the lands.
28 They joined themselves also to Baal Peor,
and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds.
The plague broke in on them.
30 Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment,
so the plague was stopped.
31 That was credited to him for righteousness,
for all generations to come.
32 They angered him also at the waters of Meribah,
so that Moses was troubled for their sakes;
33 because they were rebellious against his spirit,
he spoke rashly with his lips.
34 They didn’t destroy the peoples,
as Yahweh commanded them,
35 but mixed themselves with the nations,
and learned their works.
36 They served their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood,
even the blood of their sons and of their daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
The land was polluted with blood.
39 Thus they were defiled with their works,
and prostituted themselves in their deeds.
40 Therefore Yahweh burned with anger against his people.
He abhorred his inheritance.
41 He gave them into the hand of the nations.
Those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies also oppressed them.
They were brought into subjection under their hand.
43 He rescued them many times,
but they were rebellious in their counsel,
and were brought low in their iniquity.
44 Nevertheless he regarded their distress,
when he heard their cry.
45 He remembered for them his covenant,
and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
46 He made them also to be pitied
by all those who carried them captive.
47 Save us, Yahweh, our God,
gather us from among the nations,
to give thanks to your holy name,
to triumph in your praise!
48 Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,
from everlasting even to everlasting!
Let all the people say, “Amen.”
Praise Yah!
22 The children of Israel traveled, and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho. 2 Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. 3 Moab was very afraid of the people, because they were many. Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. 4 Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this multitude will lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.”
Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. 5 He sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, “Behold, there is a people who came out of Egypt. Behold, they cover the surface of the earth, and they are staying opposite me. 6 Please come now therefore, and curse this people for me; for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall prevail, that we may strike them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”
7 The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand. They came to Balaam, and spoke to him the words of Balak.
8 He said to them, “Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as Yahweh shall speak to me.” The princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.
9 God came to Balaam, and said, “Who are these men with you?”
10 Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has said to me, 11 ‘Behold, the people that has come out of Egypt covers the surface of the earth. Now, come curse them for me. Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them out.’”
12 God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
13 Balaam rose up in the morning, and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your land; for Yahweh refuses to permit me to go with you.”
14 The princes of Moab rose up, and they went to Balak, and said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.”
15 Balak again sent princes, more, and more honorable than they. 16 They came to Balaam, and said to him, “Balak the son of Zippor says, ‘Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me, 17 for I will promote you to very great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Please come therefore, and curse this people for me.’”
18 Balaam answered the servants of Balak, “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can’t go beyond the word of Yahweh my God, to do less or more. 19 Now therefore please stay here tonight as well, that I may know what else Yahweh will speak to me.”
20 God came to Balaam at night, and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise up, go with them; but only the word which I speak to you, that you shall do.”
21 Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.
12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. 18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. 20 For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Jesus entered into the temple of God and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’(A) but you have made it a den of robbers!”(B)
14 The lame and the blind came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?”
Jesus said to them, “Yes. Did you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of children and nursing babies, you have perfected praise’?”(C)
17 He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and camped there.
18 Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!”
Immediately the fig tree withered away.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree immediately wither away?”
21 Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it would be done. 22 All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
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