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Book of Common Prayer

Daily Old and New Testament readings based on the Book of Common Prayer.
Duration: 861 days
International Standard Version (ISV)
Version
Psalm 105

Thanksgiving for God’s Deliverance

105 Give thanks to the Lord,
    call on his name,
        and make his deeds known among the people.
Sing to him! Praise him!
    Declare all his awesome deeds!
Exult in his holy name;
    let all[a] those who seek the Lord rejoice!
Seek the Lord and his strength;
    seek his face continually.
Remember his awesome deeds that he has done,
    his wonders and the judgments he declared.
You descendants of Abraham, his servant,
    You children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

He is the Lord our God;
    his judgments extend to the entire earth.
He remembers his eternal covenant—
    every promise he made[b] for a thousand generations,
like the covenant he made[c] with Abraham,
    and his promise to Isaac.
10 He presented it to Jacob as a decree,
    to Israel as an everlasting covenant.
11 He said: “I will give Canaan to you
    as the allotted portion that is your inheritance.”

12 When the Hebrews[d] were few in number—so very few—
    and were sojourners in it,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
    from one kingdom to another.[e]
14 He did not allow anyone to oppress them,
    or any kings to reprove them.
15 “Don’t touch my anointed
    or hurt my prophets!”

16 He declared a famine on the land;
    destroying the entire food supply.[f]
17 He sent a man before them—
    Joseph, who had been sold as a slave.
18 They bound his feet with fetters
    and placed an iron collar on his neck,[g]
19 until the time his prediction came true,
    as the word of the Lord refined him.
20 He sent a king who released him,
    a ruler of people who set him free.
21 He made him the master over his household,
    the manager of all his possessions—
22 to discipline his rulers at will
    and make his elders wise.

23 Then Israel came to Egypt;
    indeed, Jacob lived in the land of Ham.[h]

24 He caused his people to multiply greatly;
    and be more numerous than their enemies.
25 He caused them[i] to hate his people
    and to deceive his servants.
26 He sent his servant Moses, along with Aaron,
    whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them,
    his wonders in the land of Ham.[j]

28 He sent darkness, and it became dark.
    Did they not rebel against[k] his words?
29 He turned their water into blood,
    so that the fish died.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs
    even to the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke,
    and a swarm of insects invaded their land.[l]

32 He sent hail instead of rain,
    and lightning throughout their land.
33 It destroyed their vines and their figs,
    breaking trees throughout their country.[m]
34 Then he commanded the locust to come—
    grasshoppers without number.
35 They consumed every green plant in their land,
    and devoured the fruit of their soil.
36 He struck down every firstborn in their land,
    the first fruits of all their progeny.

37 Then he brought Israel[n] out with silver and gold,
    and no one among his tribes stumbled.
38 The Egyptians rejoiced when they left,
    because fear of Israel[o] descended on them.
39 He spread out a cloud for a cover,
    and fire for light at night.
40 Israel[p] asked, and quail came;
    food from heaven satisfied them.
41 He opened a rock, and water gushed out
    flowing like a river in the desert.

42 Indeed, he remembered his sacred promise
    to his servant Abraham.
43 He led his people out with gladness,
    his chosen ones with shouts of joy.
44 He gave to them the land of nations;
    they inherited the labor of other[q] people
45 so they might keep his statutes
    and observe his laws.
        Hallelujah!

Hosea 5:8-6:6

“Sound the trumpet in Gibeah,
    and the alarm in Ramah.
Cry out at Beth-aven
    Go out,[a] Benjamin!
Ephraim will be desolate
    when it is rebuked.
I have made known among the tribes of Israel
    what will surely come about.
10 The princes of Judah have become
    like those who move boundary markers:
        I will pour out my anger on them like water.
11 Ephraim is crushed,
    broken by judgment,
        because he[b] willingly pursued idols.[c]
12 Therefore I will consume[d] Ephraim like a moth,
    and the house of Judah as rottenness consumes.
13 When Ephraim examined his illness
    and Judah his injury,
then Ephraim went to Assyria,
    and inquired of the great king;
but he could not cure you
    nor heal your injury.
14 Therefore I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
    and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I—even I—will tear them[e] to pieces,
    and then I will leave.
I will take them[f] away,
    and there will be no rescue.

15 “I will leave and go back to my place
    until they admit their offense
        and seek my face.
When affliction comes to them,
    they will eagerly seek me.”

A Call for Israel to Repent

“Come, let us return to the Lord;
    even though he has torn us,[g]
        he will heal us.
Even though he has wounded us,
    he will bind our wounds.[h]
After two days, he will restore us to life,
    on the third day he will raise us up,
        and we will live in his presence.
Let us know,
    let us pursue knowledge of the Lord;
        his coming is as certain as the dawn.
He will come to us like the rain,
    like the autumn and spring rains come on the earth.

“What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
    What am I to do with you, Judah?
Your love is like a morning rain cloud—
    it passes away like the morning dew.
Therefore I cut them[i] to pieces by the prophets,
    killing them by the words from my mouth.
        The verdict against you shines like a beacon.
For it is love that I seek,
    and not sacrifice;
        knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Acts 21:27-36

27 When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, seeing Paul[a] in the Temple, stirred up a large crowd. They grabbed Paul,[b] 28 yelling, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere to turn against our people, the Law, and this place. More than that, he has even brought Greeks into the Temple and desecrated this Holy Place.” 29 For they had earlier seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and assumed that Paul had taken him into the Temple. 30 The whole city was in chaos. The people rushed together, grabbed Paul, dragged him out of the Temple, and at once the doors were sealed shut.

31 The crowd[c] was trying to kill Paul[d] when a report reached the tribune of the cohort[e] that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 Immediately the tribune[f] took some soldiers and officers and ran down to the crowd.[g] When the people[h] saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the tribune came up, grabbed Paul,[i] and ordered him to be tied up with two chains. He then asked who Paul[j] was and what he had done. 34 Some of the crowd shouted this and some that. Since the tribune[k] couldn’t learn the facts due to the confusion, he ordered Paul[l] to be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul[m] got to the steps, he had to be carried by the soldiers because the mob had become so violent. 36 The crowd of people kept following him and shouting, “Kill him!”

Luke 6:1-11

Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath(A)

One time Jesus[a] was walking through some grain fields on a Sabbath.[b] His disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what isn’t lawful on Sabbath days?”[c]

Jesus answered them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions became hungry? How was it that he went into the house of God, took the Bread of the Presence and ate it, which was not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat, and then gave some of it to his companions?”

Then he told them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus Heals a Man with a Paralyzed Hand(B)

Once, on another Sabbath, Jesus[d] went into a synagogue and began teaching. A man whose right hand was paralyzed was there. The scribes and the Pharisees were watching Jesus[e] closely to see[f] whether he would heal on the Sabbath, in order to find a way of accusing him of doing something wrong. But Jesus[g] knew what they were thinking. So he told the man with the paralyzed hand, “Get up, and stand in the middle of the synagogue.”[h] So he got up and stood there.

Then Jesus asked them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath, to save a life or to destroy it?”

10 He looked around at all of them and then told the man,[i] “Hold out your hand.” The man[j] did so, and his hand was restored to health. 11 The others were furious[k] and began to discuss with each other what they could do to Jesus.

International Standard Version (ISV)

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