Book of Common Prayer
MEM מ
97 O how I love Your Torah!
It is my meditation all day.
98 Your mitzvot make me wiser than my enemies
—for they are mine forever.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
for Your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I have gained more understanding than all my elders,
for I have kept Your precepts.
101 I kept my feet from every evil way,
in order to follow Your word.
102 I do not turn away from Your rulings,
for You Yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet is Your word to my taste—
yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 From Your precepts I get discernment,
therefore I hate every false way.
NUN נ
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.[a]
106 I have sworn and confirmed
to observe Your righteous rulings.
107 I am severely afflicted.
Keep me alive, Adonai, according to Your word.
108 Please accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, Adonai,
and teach me Your rulings.
109 My soul is continually in danger,
yet I have not forgotten Your Torah.
110 The wicked have set a snare for me,
yet I did not stray from Your precepts.
111 Your testimonies I have as a heritage
forever, for they are my heart’s joy.
112 I turned my heart to do Your decrees,
forever, to the very end.
SAMECH ס
113 I hate double-minded ones,
but Your Torah I love.
114 You are my hiding place and my shield
—in Your word I hope.
115 Away from me, evildoers,
so I may keep the mitzvot of my God!
116 Sustain me according to Your word, so I may live,
and let me not be ashamed of my hope.
117 Support me and I will be saved,
and study Your decrees continually.
118 You despise all who wander from Your decrees,
for their deceitfulness is in vain.
119 All the wicked of the earth You remove like dross.
Therefore I love Your testimonies.
120 My flesh shudders for fear of You,
and I am in awe of Your judgments.
Hear O Israel
Psalm 81
1 For the music director, on the Gittite lyre, of Asaph.
2 Sing for joy to God our strength,
shout to the God of Jacob!
3 Lift up a song and sound a tambourine,
a sweet lyre with a harp.
4 Blow the shofar at the New Moon,
at the full moon for the day of our festival.
5 For it is a decree for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
6 He set it up as a testimony in Joseph,
when He went throughout the land of Egypt,
I heard a language I did not understand.
7 “I relieved his shoulder of the burden,
his hands were set free from the basket.
8 You called out in trouble, and I rescued you.
I answered you from the hiding place of thunder.
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
9 Hear, My people, I will admonish you—
if you would listen to Me, O Israel!
10 Let there be no foreign god among you,
and you shall not worship any alien god.
11 I am Adonai your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
12 But My people did not listen to My voice.
Israel was not willing to be Mine.
13 So I gave them over
to the stubbornness of their heart,
to walk in their own counsels.
14 Oh that My people would listen to Me,
that Israel would walk in My ways!
15 I would soon subdue their enemies,
and turn My hand against their foes.
16 Those who hate Adonai would cringe before Him—
their time of doom would be forever.
17 But you would be fed with the finest wheat,
with honey out of a rock would I satisfy you.”
A Rebuke for Unjust Judges
Psalm 82
1 A psalm of Asaph.
God takes His stand in the assembly of God.
He judges among the ‘gods’:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the poor and fatherless.
Be just to the afflicted and destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and needy.
Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know nothing;
they understand nothing—
they walk about in darkness.
All of earth’s foundations are shaken.
6 I said: ‘You are ‘gods’,
and you are all sons of Elyon,[a]
7 yet you will die like men,
and will fall like any of the princes.’”
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth!
For You possess all the nations.
The King Honors Mordecai
6 That night sleep deserted the king, so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign, be brought in and read before the king. 2 It was found recorded there that Mordecai had revealed that Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs who guarded the door, had conspired to kill King Ahasuerus.
3 The king asked, “What honor or recognition has been shown to Mordecai for this?”
The king’s servants that attended him replied, “Nothing has been done for him.”
4 The king said, “Who is in the courtyard?” Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
5 The king’s servants answered, “Haman is standing in the courtyard.”
The king said, “Let him come in.”
6 When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for a man whom the king desires to honor?”
Now Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king desire to honor rather than me?” 7 So Haman replied, “For the man whom the king desires to honor, 8 let them bring a royal robe that the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on his head. 9 Then let the robe and the horse be placed into the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes. Let them clothe the man whom the king desires to honor and parade him on horseback through the city streets, proclaiming, ‘This is what is done for a man the king desires to honor!’”
10 The king said to Haman, “Go quickly! Take the robe and the horse, just as you suggested, for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate! Do not neglect anything that you recommended.”
11 So Haman took the robe and the horse, robed Mordecai, and paraded him through the city streets, proclaiming: “This is what is done for the man whom the king desires to honor.” 12 Afterwards, Mordecai then returned to the king’s gate, but Haman rushed to his home, grief-stricken and with his head covered.
13 Haman recounted to his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had happened to him. His advisers and his wife Zeresh said to him, “Since Mordecai, before whom you have begun your downfall, is of Jewish descent, you won’t be able to stand against him. In fact, you will certainly fall before him!” 14 While they were still talking with him, the king’s eunuchs came and hurried Haman along to the banquet Esther had prepared.
19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul traveled through the upper region and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples 2 and said to them, “Did you receive the Ruach ha-Kodesh when you believed?”
They replied to him, “No, we’ve never even heard that there is a Ruach ha-Kodesh.
3 He said, “Into what were you immersed?”
They said, “Into John’s immersion.”
4 Paul said, “John immersed with an immersion of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the One coming after him—that is, in Yeshua.”
5 When they heard this, they were immersed in the name of the Lord Yeshua. 6 And when Paul laid hands upon them, the Ruach ha-Kodesh came upon them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 In all, there were about twelve men.
God’s Power Displayed in Ephesus
8 Paul went into the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, debating and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when they were hardening and refusing to believe, speaking evil of the Way before the whole group, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, debating daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia[a] heard the word of the Lord—Jewish as well as Greek people.
Temptation in the Wilderness
4 Yeshua, now filled with the Ruach ha-Kodesh, returned from the Jordan. He was led by the Ruach in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tested by the devil. Now He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry.
3 The devil said to Him, “If You are Ben-Elohim, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Yeshua answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”[a]
5 And leading Him up, the devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in an instant. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I’ll give to You all this authority along with its glory, because it has been handed over to me and I can give it to anyone I wish. 7 Therefore, if you will worship before me, all this shall be Yours.”
8 But answering, Yeshua told him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship Adonai your God, and Him only shall you serve.’”[b]
9 Then he brought Yeshua to Jerusalem and placed Him on the highest point of the Temple. He said to Him, “If You are Ben-Elohim, throw Yourself down from here. 10 For it is written,
‘He will command His angels concerning you,
to guard you,’[c]
11 and ‘upon their hands they will lift you up,
so that you may not strike your foot against a stone.’”[d]
12 But answering, Yeshua said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put Adonai your God to the test.’” [e] 13 And when the devil had completed every test, he departed from Him until another occasion.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.