Book of Common Prayer

87 A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite.

² O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.

³ Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.

⁴ For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.

⁵ I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,

⁶ Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cast off from thy hand.

⁷ They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.

⁸ Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.

⁹ Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:

¹⁰ My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.

¹¹ Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?

¹² Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?

¹³ Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?

¹⁴ But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.

¹⁵ Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?

¹⁶ I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.

¹⁷ Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.

¹⁸ They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.

¹⁹ Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.

90 The praise of a canticle for David. He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.

² He shall say to the Lord: Thou art my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.

³ For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.

⁴ He will overshadow thee with his shoulders: and under his wings thou shalt trust.

⁵ His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night.

⁶ Of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.

⁷ A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.

⁸ But thou shalt consider with thy eyes: and shalt see the reward of the wicked.

⁹ Because thou, O Lord, art my hope: thou hast made the most High thy refuge.

¹⁰ There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling.

¹¹ For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways.

¹² In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

¹³ Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.

¹⁴ Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he hath known my name.

¹⁵ He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.

¹⁶ I will fill him with length of days; and I will shew him my salvation.

136 Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: when we remembered Sion:

² On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments.

³ For there they that led us into captivity required of us the words of songs. And they that carried us away, said: Sing ye to us a hymn of the songs of Sion.

⁴ How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?

⁵ If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.

⁶ Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee: If I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy.

⁷ Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem: Who say: Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

⁸ O daughter of Babylon, miserable: blessed shall he be who shall repay thee thy payment which thou hast paid us.

⁹ Blessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock.

⁹ Proclaim ye this among the nations: prepare war, rouse up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.

¹⁰ Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.

¹¹ Break forth, and come, all ye nations, from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down.

¹² Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about.

¹³ Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is multiplied.

¹⁴ Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.

¹⁵ The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.

¹⁶ And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

¹⁷ And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion my holy mountain: and Jerusalem shall be holy and strangers shall pass through it no more.

2 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with respect of persons.

² For if there shall come into your assembly a man having a golden ring, in fine apparel, and there shall come in also a poor man in mean attire,

³ And you have respect to him that is clothed with the fine apparel, and shall say to him: Sit thou here well; but say to the poor man: Stand thou there, or sit under my footstool:

⁴ Do you not judge within yourselves, and are become judges of unjust thoughts?

⁵ Hearken, my dearest brethren: hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?

⁶ But you have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you by might? and do not they draw you before the judgment seats?

⁷ Do not they blaspheme the good name that is invoked upon you?

⁸ If then you fulfill the royal law, according to the scriptures, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; you do well.

⁹ But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, being reproved by the law as transgressors.

¹⁰ And whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all.

¹¹ For he that said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, said also, Thou shalt not kill. Now if thou do not commit adultery, but shalt kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

¹² So speak ye, and so do, as being to be judged by the law of liberty.

¹³ For judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy. And mercy exalteth itself above judgment.

¹⁰ He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater: and he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in that which is greater.

¹¹ If then you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon; who will trust you with that which is the true?

¹² And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's; who will give you that which is your own?

¹³ No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

¹⁵ And he said to them: You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts; for that which is high to men, is an abomination before God.

¹⁶ The law and the prophets were until John; from that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every one useth violence towards it.

¹⁷ And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fall.

¹⁸ Every one that putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and he that marrieth her that is put away from her husband, committeth adultery.