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Book of Common Prayer

Daily Old and New Testament readings based on the Book of Common Prayer.
Duration: 861 days
World English Bible (WEB)
Version
Psalm 80

For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm by Asaph.

80 Hear us, Shepherd of Israel,
    you who lead Joseph like a flock,
    you who sit above the cherubim, shine out.
Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up your might!
    Come to save us!
Turn us again, God.
    Cause your face to shine,
    and we will be saved.

Yahweh God of Armies,
    how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
    and given them tears to drink in large measure.
You make us a source of contention to our neighbors.
    Our enemies laugh among themselves.
Turn us again, God of Armies.
    Cause your face to shine,
    and we will be saved.

You brought a vine out of Egypt.
    You drove out the nations, and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it.
    It took deep root, and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shadow.
    Its boughs were like God’s cedars.
11 It sent out its branches to the sea,
    its shoots to the River.
12 Why have you broken down its walls,
    so that all those who pass by the way pluck it?
13 The boar out of the wood ravages it.
    The wild animals of the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies.
    Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,
15 the stock which your right hand planted,
    the branch that you made strong for yourself.
16 It’s burned with fire.
    It’s cut down.
    They perish at your rebuke.
17 Let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
    on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.
18 So we will not turn away from you.
    Revive us, and we will call on your name.
19 Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies.
    Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.

Psalm 77

For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm by Asaph.

77 My cry goes to God!
    Indeed, I cry to God for help,
    and for him to listen to me.
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord.
    My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired.
    My soul refused to be comforted.
I remember God, and I groan.
    I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.

You hold my eyelids open.
    I am so troubled that I can’t speak.
I have considered the days of old,
    the years of ancient times.
I remember my song in the night.
    I consider in my own heart;
    my spirit diligently inquires:
“Will the Lord reject us forever?
    Will he be favorable no more?
Has his loving kindness vanished forever?
    Does his promise fail for generations?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
    Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah.
10 Then I thought, “I will appeal to this:
    the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
11 I will remember Yah’s deeds;
    for I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will also meditate on all your work,
    and consider your doings.
13 Your way, God, is in the sanctuary.
    What god is great like God?
14 You are the God who does wonders.
    You have made your strength known among the peoples.
15 You have redeemed your people with your arm,
    the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
16 The waters saw you, God.
    The waters saw you, and they writhed.
    The depths also convulsed.
17 The clouds poured out water.
    The skies resounded with thunder.
    Your arrows also flashed around.
18 The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind.
    The lightnings lit up the world.
    The earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way was through the sea,
    your paths through the great waters.
    Your footsteps were not known.
20 You led your people like a flock,
    by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

Psalm 79

A Psalm by Asaph.

79 God, the nations have come into your inheritance.
    They have defiled your holy temple.
    They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky,
    the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.
They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem.
    There was no one to bury them.
We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
    a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
How long, Yahweh?
    Will you be angry forever?
    Will your jealousy burn like fire?
Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you,
    on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name,
for they have devoured Jacob,
    and destroyed his homeland.
Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us.
    Let your tender mercies speedily meet us,
    for we are in desperate need.
Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
    Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
    Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes,
    that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.
11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you.
    According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.
12 Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom
    their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
13 So we, your people and sheep of your pasture,
    will give you thanks forever.
    We will praise you forever, to all generations.

Leviticus 25:35-55

35 “‘If your brother has become poor, and his hand can’t support himself among you, then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like an alien and a temporary resident. 36 Take no interest from him or profit; but fear your God, that your brother may live among you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

39 “‘If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him to serve as a slave. 40 As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. 43 You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.

44 “‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. 45 Moreover, of the children of the aliens who live among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property. 46 You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession. Of them you may take your slaves forever, but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.

47 “‘If an alien or temporary resident with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, 48 after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49 or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. 50 He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; he shall be with him according to the time of a hired servant. 51 If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. 52 If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption. 53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him. He shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. 54 If he isn’t redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee: he and his children with him. 55 For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.

Colossians 1:9-14

For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, 11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, 13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, 14 in whom we have our redemption,[a] the forgiveness of our sins.

Matthew 13:1-16

13 On that day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside. Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat and sat; and all the multitude stood on the beach. He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow. As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them. Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn’t have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth. When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away. Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them. Others fell on good soil and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

10 The disciples came, and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

11 He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them. 12 For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever doesn’t have, from him will be taken away even that which he has. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don’t see, and hearing, they don’t hear, neither do they understand. 14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says,

‘By hearing you will hear,
    and will in no way understand;
Seeing you will see,
    and will in no way perceive;
15 for this people’s heart has grown callous,
    their ears are dull of hearing,
    and they have closed their eyes;
or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their heart,
and would turn again,
    and I would heal them.’(A)

16 “But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.

World English Bible (WEB)

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