Book of Common Prayer
1 ¶ O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples.
2 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him; speak of all his wondrous works.
3 Glory in his holy name; let the heart of those that seek the LORD rejoice.
4 Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his face continually.
5 Remember his marvellous works that he has done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth,
6 O ye seed of Abraham his slave, ye sons of Jacob his chosen.
7 He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
8 ¶ He has remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded for a thousand generations,
9 which covenant he made with Abraham and his oath unto Isaac
10 and confirmed the same unto Jacob by decree, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant:
11 Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance,
12 when they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.
13 When they went from nation to nation from one kingdom to another people,
14 he suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he chastened kings for their sakes:
15 Saying, Touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm.
16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land; he broke the whole staff of bread.
17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a slave,
18 whose feet they hurt with fetters; his soul was laid in iron.
19 Until the time that his word came, the spoken word of the LORD purified him.
20 The king sent and loosed him, the ruler of the people let him go free.
21 He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance:
22 To bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his elders wisdom.
23 Afterwards Israel entered into Egypt, and Jacob was a stranger in the land of Ham.
24 And he increased his people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies.
25 ¶ He turned their heart to hate his people to think evil against his slaves.
26 He sent Moses his slave and Aaron whom he had chosen.
27 He put the words of his signs in them and his wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made it dark, and they did not rebel against his word.
29 He turned their waters into blood and slew their fish.
30 Their land brought forth frogs in abundance in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke, and swarms of flies and lice came within all their borders.
32 He turned their rain into hail, into flaming fire in their land.
33 He smote their vines also and their fig trees and broke the trees within their borders.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came and caterpillars without number,
35 and ate up all the grass in their land and devoured the fruit of their ground.
36 He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength.
37 And he brought them forth with silver and gold, and there was not one sick person among their tribes.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them fell upon them.
39 He spread a cloud for a covering and fire to give light in the night.
40 The people asked, and he brought quails and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places and became a river.
42 For he remembered his holy word with Abraham his slave.
43 And he brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with singing
44 and gave them the lands of the Gentiles, and they inherited the labour of the nations,
45 that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws. Halelu-JAH.
8 ¶ And it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel.
2 Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abiah; they were judges in Beersheba.
3 And his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after greed, receiving bribes and perverting that which is right.
4 ¶ Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel in Ramah
5 and said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons do not walk in thy ways; therefore make us a king to judge us like all the Gentiles.
6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them.
8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, with which they have forsaken me and served other gods, so they also do unto thee.
9 Now, therefore, hearken unto their voice; however first protest solemnly against them by declaring unto them the rights of the king that shall reign over them.
10 And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked him for a king.
11 And he said, This will be the right of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and some shall run before his chariot.
12 And he will appoint captains over thousands and captains over fifties and will set them to plough his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and the munitions of his chariots.
13 And he will take your daughters to be confectioneries and to be cooks and to be bakers.
14 And he will take your fields and your vineyards and your good oliveyards and give them to his slaves.
15 And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards to give to his officers and to his slaves.
16 And he will take your menslaves and your maidslaves and your good young men and your asses and do his work with them.
17 He will also take the tenth of your sheep, and finally ye shall be his slaves.
18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you, and the LORD will not hear you in that day.
19 Nevertheless, the people refused to hear the voice of Samuel, and they said, No, but we will have a king over us
20 that we also may be like all the Gentiles and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.
21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD.
22 And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and place a king over them. Then Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go each one unto his city.
15 Then all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as the face of an angel.
7 ¶ Then the prince of the priests said, Are these things so?
2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
3 and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land which I shall show thee.
4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans and dwelt in Haran; and from there, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, in which ye now dwell.
5 And he gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
6 And God spoke thus, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into slavery and mistreat them four hundred years.
7 And the Gentiles unto whom they shall be in slavery I will judge, said God; and after that they shall come forth and serve me in this place.
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him
10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions and gave him grace and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great tribulation, and our fathers found no sustenance.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was wheat in Egypt, he sent our fathers the first time.
13 And in the second Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s lineage was made known unto Pharaoh.
14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob unto him and all his kindred, seventy-five souls.
15 So Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers,
16 who were carried over into Shechem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor of Shechem.
24 And there was also a contention among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.
25 Then he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those that exercise authority upon them are called well-doers.
26 But ye shall not be so, but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is prince, as he that doth serve.
27 For who is greater, he that sits at the table or he that serves? Is it not he that sits at the table? But I am among you as he that serves.
28 But ye are those who have continued with me in my temptations.
29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom as my Father has appointed unto me;
30 that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
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