Book of Common Prayer
78 Hear my doctrine, O my people. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will declare high sentences of old
3 which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; but to the generation to come we will show the praise of the LORD, His power also, and His wonderful works that He has done.
5 How He established a testimony in Jacob and ordained a Law in Israel. Which He commanded our fathers that they should teach their children,
6 so that the posterity might know it and the children which should be born should stand up and declare it to their children.
7 So that they might set their hope on God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments.
8 So that they not be as their fathers (a disobedient and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God).
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and shooting with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the Covenant of God, but refused to walk in His Law,
11 and forgot His acts and His wonderful works that He had shown them.
12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt (in the field of Zoan).
13 He divided the sea and led them through. He also made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 Also, in the daytime, He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink, as with the great depths.
16 He also brought floods out of the stony rock, making the waters descend like the rivers.
17 But, they still sinned against Him and provoked the Highest in the wilderness
18 and tempted God in their hearts, requiring food for their lust.
19 They also spoke against God, saying, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20 “Behold, He struck the rock so that the water gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can He also give bread, or prepare flesh for His people?”
21 Therefore, the LORD heard and was angry, and the fire was kindled in Jacob; and wrath also came upon Israel
22 because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His help.
23 Still, He had commanded the clouds above, and had opened the doors of Heaven,
24 and had rained down manna upon them to eat and had given them of the wheat of Heaven.
25 Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food enough.
26 He caused the east wind to pass in the sky; and through His power He brought in the south wind.
27 He also rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the sea.
28 And He made it fall in the midst of their camp, all around their habitations.
29 So they ate and were well-filled; for He gave them their desire.
30 They were not turned from their lusts. The food was still in their mouths
31 when the wrath of God came upon them and slew the strongest of them and struck down the chosen men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they still sinned and did not believe His wondrous works.
33 Therefore, He ended their days in futility, and their years in dismay.
34 And when He slew them, they sought Him; and they returned and sought God earnestly.
35 And they remembered that God was their strength, and the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 But they flattered Him with their mouth and lied to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not upright with Him; nor were they faithful in His Covenant.
38 Yet, He, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; but oftentimes called back His anger and did not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again.
40 How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert?
41 Indeed, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered neither His hand nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy
43 nor Him Who set His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan.
44 Who turned their rivers into blood, and their floods, so that they could not drink.
45 He sent a swarm of flies among them which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them.
46 He also gave their fruits to the caterpillar, and their labor to the grasshopper.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their wild fig trees with the hailstone.
48 He also gave their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to the thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, indignation and wrath, and troubled them by sending out evil angels.
50 He made a path for His anger. He did not spare their soul from death but gave their life to the pestilence.
51 He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, even the beginning of their strength, in the tabernacles of Ham.
52 But, He made His people go out like sheep and led them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 Indeed, He carried them out safely, and they did not fear; and the sea covered their enemies.
54 And He brought them to the borders of His Sanctuary, to this Mountain which His right hand purchased.
55 He also cast out the heathen before them and caused them to fall to the lot of His inheritance; and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tabernacles.
56 Yet, they tempted and provoked the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies.
57 But they turned back and dealt falsely, like their fathers. They turned like a deceitful bow.
58 And they provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to wrath with their graven images.
59 God heard this and was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;
60 so that He abandoned the habitation of Shiloh, the Tabernacle where He dwelt among men,
61 and delivered His power into captivity, and His beauty into the enemy’s hand.
62 And He gave up His people to the sword and was angry with His inheritance.
63 The fire devoured their chosen men, and their maids were not praised.
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows did not lament.
65 But the LORD awakened, as one out of sleep, as a strong man who cries out after wine,
66 and drove His enemies backwards and put them to a perpetual shame.
67 Yet, He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 But He chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which He loved.
69 And He built His Sanctuary as a high palace, like the Earth, which He established forever.
70 He also chose David, His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 Even from behind the ewes with young. He brought him to feed His people in Jacob, and His inheritance in Israel.
72 So, he fed them according to the simplicity of his heart and guided them by the discretion of his hands. A Psalm committed to Asaph
5 And on the third day, Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the court of the king’s palace within, in front of the king’s rooms. And the king sat upon his royal throne, in the king’s palace, opposite the gate of the house.
2 And when the king saw Esther the Queen standing in the court, she found favor in his sight. And the king held out the golden scepter that was in his hand. So, Esther drew near and touched the top of the scepter.
3 Then the king said to her, “What’s wrong, Queen Esther? And what is your request? It shall be given to you, even up to half of the kingdom.”
4 Then Esther said, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come this day to the banquet that I have prepared for him.”
5 And the king said, “Bring Haman quickly, so that he may do as Esther has said.” So, the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
6 And the king said to Esther at the banquet of wine, “What is your petition, so that it may be given to you? And what is your request? It shall be performed even up to half of the kingdom.”
7 Then Esther answered, “My petition, and my request is:
8 If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to give me my petition, and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them; and I will do as the king says tomorrow.”
9 Then, that same day, Haman went out joyful and with a glad heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and that he did not stand or move for him, then Haman was full of indignation at Mordecai.
10 Nevertheless, Haman controlled himself. And when he came home, he sent for his friends and Zeresh, his wife.
11 And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the promotions the king had given him, and how that he had set him above the princes and servants of the king.
12 Haman also said, “Even Esther the Queen let no man except me come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared. And tomorrow she has called us to her again.
13 But all this is unsatisfying as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”
14 Then Zeresh, his wife, and all his friends said to him, “Let them make a hanging tree 75 feet high, and tomorrow ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then you shall go joyfully with the king to the banquet.” And that pleased Haman. So, he had the hanging tree made.
12 Now when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up with one mind against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,
13 saying, “This fellow persuades man to worship God differently than the Law appoints.”
14 And as Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrong, or an evil deed, O Jews, I would, according to reason, tolerate you.
15 “But if it is a question of words and names, and of your Law, resolve it yourselves. For I will be no judge of those things.”
16 And he drove them from the judgment seat.
17 Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. But Gallio cared nothing about those things.
18 And after Paul had remained there a good while longer (and shaved his head in Cenchrea - for he had made a vow) he left the brothers and sailed into Syria with Priscilla and Aquila.
19 Then he came to Ephesus and left them there. And he entered into the synagogue and disputed with the Jews,
20 who asked him to stay a longer time with them. But he would not consent,
21 and bid them farewell, saying, “I must keep this feast that comes, in Jerusalem. But I will return to you again, God willing.” So, he sailed from Ephesus.
22 And when he came down to Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem. And after he had greeted the church, he went down to Antioch.
23 And after he had remained there a while, he left, and went through the countries of Galatia and Phrygia successively, strengthening all the disciples.
24 And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, came to Ephesus (an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures).
25 This man was instructed in the way of the Lord. And, being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord but knew only of the baptism of John.
26 And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. Whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him aside, and explained the way of God more perfectly to him.
27 And when he intended to go into Achaia, the brothers (exhorting him) wrote to the disciples to receive him. And after he had come there, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace.
28 For he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, with great vehemence, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
15 As the people waited expectantly, and everyone wondered in their hearts whether John was the Christ,
16 John answered, and said to them all, “Indeed, I baptize you with water! But One stronger than me comes, Whose sandals I am not worthy to unloose! He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire!
17 “His fan is in His hand, and He will make clean his floor, and will gather the wheat into His barn. But the chaff He will burn up with fire that never shall be quenched!”
18 Then, exhorting with many other things, he preached to the people.
19 But when Herod the Tetrarch was rebuked by him (for Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done),
20 he added this above all: that he shut up John in prison.
21 Now it happened that as all the people were baptized, and as Jesus was baptized and prayed, the heaven was opened.
22 And the Holy Ghost came down in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him. And there was a voice from Heaven, saying, “You are My beloved Son. In You I am well pleased.”
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