Book of Common Prayer
78 (Maskil of Asaph.) Give ear, O my people, to my torah; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a mashal; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 Which we have heard and known, and Avoteinu have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their banim, recounting to the dor acharon the tehillot Hashem, and His power, and His nifla’ot (wonderful works) that He hath done.
5 For He established edut in Ya’akov, set torah in Yisroel, which He commanded Avoteinu, that they should make them known to their banim;
6 So that the dor acharon might know them, even the banim which should be born; who should arise and recount them to their banim;
7 That they might put their confidence in Elohim, and not forget the ma’allei El (works of G-d), but keep His mitzvot;
8 And might not be as their Avot, a dor sorer u’moreh (stubborn and rebellious generation); a generation that set not its lev aright, and whose ruach was not faithful to G-d.
9 The Bnei Ephrayim, being armed, and shooting keshet (the bows), turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the Brit Elohim, and refused to walk in His torah;
11 And forgot His works, and His nifla’ot (wonders) that He had shown them.
12 Peleh (marvellous things) did He in the sight of their avot, in Eretz Mitzrayim, in the sadeh (area) of Tzoan.
13 He divided the yam, and caused them to pass through; and He made the mayim to stand like a heap.
14 In the daytime also He led them with an anan, and all the lailah with an ohr of eish.
15 He split the rocks in the midbar, and gave them drink as out of the great tehomot.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused mayim to run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking Elyon in the wilderness.
18 And they tested G-d by their lev by demanding ochel for their lust.
19 And they spoke against Elohim; they said, Can G-d spread a shulchan in the midbar?
20 Behold, He struck the Tzur, that the mayim gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can He give lechem also? Can He provide meat for His people?
21 Therefore Hashem heard this, and was in wrath; so an eish was kindled against Ya’akov, and anger also came up against Yisroel;
22 Because they believed not in Elohim, and trusted not in His Yeshuah (salvation);
23 Though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the daletei Shomayim (doors of heaven),
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the bread of Shomayim [see Yn 6:31 OJBC].
25 Ish did eat the bread of angels; He sent them lechem to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow from Shomayim; and by His oz He brought in the south wind.
27 He rained meat also upon them like aphar, and winged fowls like the chol (sand) of the sea;
28 And He let it fall in the midst of their machaneh, all around their mishkenot (habitations).
29 So they did eat, and were well filled; for He gave them their own ta’avah (evil desire).
30 They were not estranged from their ta’avah. But while their food was yet in their mouths,
31 The Af Elohim (wrath of G-d) came upon them, and slaughtered the stoutest of them, and cut down the bochurim of Yisroel.
32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not in His nifla’ot (wondrous works).
33 Therefore their yamim did He consume in hevel (futility, vanity) and their shanim in terror.
34 When He slaughtered them, then they sought Him; and they returned and inquired diligently after G-d.
35 And they remembered that Elohim was their Tzur, and the El Elyon their Go’el (Redeemer).
36 Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their leshon.
37 For their lev was not right with Him, neither were they faithful in His Brit.
38 But He, being full of compassion, made kapporah for their avon and destroyed them not; and He many times turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they were but basar; a ruach (wind) that passeth away, and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they provoke Him in the midbar, and grieve Him in the desert!
41 Again and again they turned back and tested G-d, and imposed limits on Kadosh Yisroel.
42 They remembered not His Yad (Hand, Power), nor the yom (day) when He redeemed them from the enemy.
43 How He had wrought His otot in Mitzrayim, and His mofetim in the area of Tzoan.
44 And had turned their rivers into dahm; and their streams, that they could not drink.
45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them; and tzfarde’a (frogs), which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their crop unto the grasshopper, and their produce unto the arbeh (locust).
47 He destroyed their gefen with barad (hail), and their fig trees with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the barad (hail), and their livestock herds to hot thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them His charon af, evrah (wrath), and za’am (indignation), and tzarah, by sending malachim ra’im among them.
50 He made a way for His anger; He spared not their nefesh from mavet (death), but gave their beasts over to the dever (plague);
51 And struck all the bechor in Mitzrayim; the reshit (first fruit) of their strength in the ohalim of Cham;
52 But made His own people to go forth like tzon, and guided them in the midbar like an eder (flock).
53 And He led them in safety, so that they had no terror; but the yam overwhelmed their oyevim.
54 And He brought them to His gevul kadosh (His holy border), even to this Har, which His Yamin had purchased.
55 He cast out the Goyim also before them, and divided by measure a nachalah for them, and made the Shivtei Yisroel to dwell in their ohalim.
56 Yet they tested and provoked Elohim Elyon, and were not shomer over His edot;
57 But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their avot; they turned like a treacherous keshet.
58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their pesilim.
59 When Elohim heard this, He was in wrath, and greatly abhorred Yisroel;
60 So that He forsook the Mishkan of Shiloh, the Ohel which He placed among adam (men);
61 And delivered His oz (strength) into captivity, and His tiferet into the hand of the enemy.
62 He gave His people over also unto the cherev; and was in wrath with His nachalah.
63 The eish consumed their bochurim; and their betulot had no wedding celebration.
64 Their kohanim fell by the cherev; and their almanot made no lamentation.
65 Then Adonoi awaked as one from sleep, and like a gibbor that shouteth from yayin.
66 And He struck down His enemies behind; He put them to cherpat olam (perpetual reproach).
67 Moreover He rejected the Ohel Yosef, and chose not the Shevet Ephrayim;
68 But chose the Shevet Yehudah, Har Tziyon which He loved.
69 And He built His Mikdash like heavenly heights, like Eretz which He hath established l’olam.
70 He chose Dovid also His Eved, and took him from the mikhle’ot tzon (sheepfolds);
71 From following the nursing ewes He brought him to shepherd Ya’akov His people, and Yisroel His nachalah.
72 So he shepherded them according to the tohm (integrity, guilelessness) of his lev; and led them by the skillfulness of his hands.
7 Then Yerubaal, who is Gid’on, and kol haAm that were with him, rose up early and encamped by Ein Charod; so that the Machaneh Midyan was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
2 And Hashem said unto Gid’on, The people that are with thee are too rav (many) for Me to give Midyan into their hands, lest Yisroel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, Mine own yad hath saved me.
3 Now therefore go to, proclaim in the oznei haAm, saying, Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Har HaGil‘ad. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.
4 And Hashem said unto Gid’on, HaAm are yet too many; bring them down unto the mayim, and I will sift them for thee there; and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.
5 So he brought down haAm unto the mayim; and Hashem said unto Gid’on, Every one that laps the mayim with his leshon, as a kelev laps, him shalt thou separate by himself; likewise every one that kneels down upon his knees to drink.
6 And the number of the ones lapping, putting their yad to their mouth, were three hundred ish; but all the rest of haAm kneeled down upon their knees to drink mayim.
7 And Hashem said unto Gid’on, By the three hundred ish that lapped will I save you, and deliver Midyan into thine yad; and let all the other people go every ish unto his makom (place, home).
8 So the [retained] people took provision in their yad, and their shofarot; and he sent kol ish Yisroel every ish unto his ohel, but retained those three hundred haIsh; and the Machaneh Midyan was below him in the valley.
9 And it came to pass the same lailah, that Hashem said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the Machaneh; for I have delivered it into thine yad.
10 But if thou fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy eved down to the machaneh;
11 And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the machaneh. Then he went down with Phurah his eved unto the outposts of the armed men that were in the machaneh.
12 And Midyan and Amalek and kol Bnei Kedem lay along in the valley like arbeh for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the chol (sand) on the seashore for multitude.
13 And when Gid’on arrived, hinei, there was an ish that told a chalom unto his re’a, and said, Hinei, I dreamed a chalom, and, hinei, a round loaf of lechem se’orim tumbled into the Machaneh Midyan, and came unto an ohel, and struck it that it fell, and overturned it, that the ohel collapsed.
14 And his re’a answered and said, This is nothing else but the cherev Gid’on ben Yoash, an ish Yisroel; for into his yad hath HaElohim delivered Midyan, and kol hamachaneh.
15 And it was so, when Gid’on heard the telling of the chalom, and the shever (breaking [of a dream, i.e., its interpretation]) thereof, that he worshiped, and returned into the machaneh Yisroel, and said, Arise; for Hashem hath delivered into your yad the Machaneh Midyan.
16 And he divided the three hundred haIsh into three companies, and he put a shofar in every man’s yad, with empty jars, and torches within the jars.
17 And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise; and, hinei, when I come to the edge of the machaneh, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do.
18 When I blow the shofar, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the shofarot also on every side of all the machaneh, and say, "For Hashem, and for Gid’on."
3 Now Kefa and Yochanan were going up to the Beis Hamikdash at the hour of tefillah, the ninth hour (three o’clock in the afternoon). [TEHILLIM 55:17]
2 And a certain ish, an ish (pisei’ach from the womb of his em), was being carried and they were putting him bederech klal (usually) yom yom at the sha’ar of the Beis Hamikdash, the one being called the Sha’ar Hatiferet, in order to beg for tzedakah from the ones entering into the Beis Hamikdash.
3 When the ish pisei’ach (lame man) saw Kefa and Yochanan being about to enter into the Beis Hamikdash, he began begging them for tzedakah.
4 But Kefa, as did Yochanan, gazed at him, saying, "Look at us!"
5 And the ish pisei’ach was paying heed to them, expecting to receive something from them.
6 And Kefa said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give to you. In ha-Shem of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach Yehoshua of Natzeret, get up and walk!"
7 And having grasped him by the yad yamin, Kefa lifted him up, and immediately the man’s feet and ankles were strengthened.
8 And leaping up, he stood and was walking around, and he entered with them into the Beis Hamikdash, walking and leaping and shouting "Baruch Hashem!" [YESHAYAH 35:6]
9 And all the people saw him walking and shouting, "Baruch Hashem!"
10 And they recognized him, that he was the one sitting at the Sha’ar Hatiferet (Beautiful Gate) of the Beis Hamikdash begging for tzedakah; and they were mishpoyel (standing in awe) and amazement at what had happened to him.
11 Now while Kefa and Yochanan were being held by him, all the people ran together to them at the Portico which is called Ulam Sh’lomo, and the people were utterly astonished.
19 And this is the solemn edut (testimony) of Yochanan, when those of Yehudah sent kohanim and L’viim from Yerushalayim to him that they might ask him, Mi atah? (Who are you?).
20 Yochanan made hoda’a (confession, admission)‖he did not fail to make hoda’a‖and said clearly, I am not the [Rebbe,] Melech HaMoshiach.
21 And they asked Yochanan, What, then? Are you Eliyahu HaNavi? And Yochanan says, I am not. Are you the Navi? (DEVARIM 18:15,18) And he answered, Lo (No).
22 They said then to him, Mi atah? That we may give a teshuvah (answer) to the ones who sent us. What do you say about yourself?
23 Yochanan said, I am a KOL KOREY BAMIDBAR, make straight the DERECH HASHEM! (YESHAYAH 40:3, TARGUM HASHIVIM), as Yeshayah HaNavi said.
24 And the ones that had been sent were of the Perushim.
25 And the Perushim asked Yochanan, If you are not the [Rebbe,] Melech HaMoshiach nor Eliyahu nor the Navi, then why do you administer the mikveh mayim’s tevilah?
26 Yochanan answered the Perushim, I give a tevilah in a mikveh mayim; among you is standing one of whom you do not have da’as.
27 Hu HaBah (he who comes, i.e., the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach who is coming into the Olam Hazeh), that is, He who comes after me, is one that I am not worthy even to untie the thong of his sandal.
28 These events took place in Beit-Anyah (Bethany), beyond the Yarden River, which Yochanan was using as a mikveh mayim in which to administer the tevilah.
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