Book of Common Prayer
The Eternal Faithfulness of the Lord(A)
105 Oh, (B)give thanks to the Lord!
Call upon His name;
(C)Make known His deeds among the peoples!
2 Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
(D)Talk of all His wondrous works!
3 Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!
4 Seek the Lord and His strength;
(E)Seek His face evermore!
5 (F)Remember His marvelous works which He has done,
His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,
6 O seed of Abraham His servant,
You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!
7 He is the Lord our God;
(G)His judgments are in all the earth.
8 He (H)remembers His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
9 (I)The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,
10 And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 Saying, (J)“To you I will give the land of Canaan
As the allotment of your inheritance,”
12 (K)When they were few in number,
Indeed very few, (L)and strangers in it.
13 When they went from one nation to another,
From one kingdom to another people,
14 (M)He permitted no one to do them wrong;
Yes, (N)He rebuked kings for their sakes,
15 Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones,
And do My prophets no harm.”
16 Moreover (O)He called for a famine in the land;
He destroyed all the (P)provision of bread.
17 (Q)He sent a man before them—
Joseph—who (R)was sold as a slave.
18 (S)They hurt his feet with fetters,
[a]He was laid in irons.
19 Until the time that his word came to pass,
(T)The word of the Lord tested him.
20 (U)The king sent and released him,
The ruler of the people let him go free.
21 (V)He made him lord of his house,
And ruler of all his possessions,
22 To [b]bind his princes at his pleasure,
And teach his elders wisdom.
23 (W)Israel also came into Egypt,
And Jacob dwelt (X)in the land of Ham.
24 (Y)He increased His people greatly,
And made them stronger than their enemies.
25 (Z)He turned their heart to hate His people,
To deal craftily with His servants.
26 (AA)He sent Moses His servant,
And Aaron whom He had chosen.
27 They (AB)performed His signs among them,
And wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and made it dark;
And they did not rebel against His word.
29 (AC)He turned their waters into blood,
And killed their fish.
30 (AD)Their land abounded with frogs,
Even in the chambers of their kings.
31 (AE)He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,
And lice in all their territory.
32 (AF)He gave them hail for rain,
And flaming fire in their land.
33 (AG)He struck their vines also, and their fig trees,
And splintered the trees of their territory.
34 (AH)He spoke, and locusts came,
Young locusts without number,
35 And ate up all the vegetation in their land,
And devoured the fruit of their ground.
36 (AI)He also [c]destroyed all the firstborn in their land,
(AJ)The first of all their strength.
37 (AK)He also brought them out with silver and gold,
And there was none feeble among His tribes.
38 (AL)Egypt was glad when they departed,
For the fear of them had fallen upon them.
39 (AM)He spread a cloud for a covering,
And fire to give light in the night.
40 (AN)The people asked, and He brought quail,
And (AO)satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
41 (AP)He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
It ran in the dry places like a river.
42 For He remembered (AQ)His holy promise,
And Abraham His servant.
43 He brought out His people with joy,
His chosen ones with [d]gladness.
44 (AR)He gave them the lands of the [e]Gentiles,
And they inherited the labor of the nations,
45 (AS)That they might observe His statutes
And keep His laws.
[f]Praise the Lord!
Corrupt Priests
2 “And now, O (A)priests, this commandment is for you.
2 (B)If you will not hear,
And if you will not take it to heart,
To give glory to My name,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“I will send a curse upon you,
And I will curse your blessings.
Yes, I have cursed them (C)already,
Because you do not take it to heart.
3 “Behold, I will rebuke your descendants
And spread (D)refuse on your faces,
The refuse of your solemn feasts;
And one will (E)take you away [a]with it.
4 Then you shall know that I have sent this commandment to you,
That My covenant with Levi may continue,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
5 “My(F) covenant was with him, one of life and peace,
And I gave them to him (G)that he might fear Me;
So he feared Me
And was reverent before My name.
6 (H)The[b] law of truth was in his mouth,
And [c]injustice was not found on his lips.
He walked with Me in peace and equity,
And (I)turned many away from iniquity.
7 “For(J) the lips of a priest should keep knowledge,
And people should seek the law from his mouth;
(K)For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
8 But you have departed from the way;
You (L)have caused many to stumble at the law.
(M)You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
9 “Therefore (N)I also have made you contemptible and base
Before all the people,
Because you have not kept My ways
But have shown (O)partiality in the law.”
Treachery of Infidelity
10 (P)Have we not all one Father?
(Q)Has not one God created us?
Why do we deal treacherously with one another
By profaning the covenant of the fathers?
11 Judah has dealt treacherously,
And an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem,
For Judah has (R)profaned
The Lord’s holy institution which He loves:
He has married the daughter of a foreign god.
12 May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob
The man who does this, being [d]awake and aware,
Yet (S)who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!
13 And this is the second thing you do:
You cover the altar of the Lord with tears,
With weeping and crying;
So He does not regard the offering anymore,
Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands.
14 Yet you say, “For what reason?”
Because the Lord has been witness
Between you and (T)the wife of your youth,
With whom you have dealt treacherously;
(U)Yet she is your companion
And your wife by covenant.
15 But (V)did He not make them one,
Having a remnant of the Spirit?
And why one?
He seeks (W)godly offspring.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.
16 “For (X)the Lord God of Israel says
That He hates divorce,
For it covers one’s garment with violence,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
“Therefore take heed to your spirit,
That you do not deal treacherously.”
Do Not Boast About Tomorrow
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow [a]we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? (A)It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, (B)“If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. (C)All such boasting is evil.
17 Therefore, (D)to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Rich Oppressors Will Be Judged
5 Come now, you (E)rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your (F)riches [b]are corrupted, and (G)your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. (H)You have heaped up treasure in the last days. 4 Indeed (I)the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and (J)the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of [c]Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and [d]luxury; you have [e]fattened your hearts [f]as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
The Coming of the Kingdom(A)
20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 (B)nor will they say, [a]‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, (C)the kingdom of God is [b]within you.”
22 Then He said to the disciples, (D)“The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 (E)And they will say to you, [c]‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. 24 (F)For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. 25 (G)But first He must suffer many things and be (H)rejected by this generation. 26 (I)And as it (J)was in the (K)days of (L)Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the (M)day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and (N)destroyed them all. 28 (O)Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but on (P)the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man (Q)is revealed.
31 “In that day, he (R)who is on the housetop, and his [d]goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. 32 (S)Remember Lot’s wife. 33 (T)Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 (U)I tell you, in that night there will be two [e]men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 (V)Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. 36 [f]Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.”
37 And they answered and said to Him, (W)“Where, Lord?”
So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.