Bel has bent down, Nebo is stooping;
their images have come to belong to creatures, to animals.
The things carried by you are loaded as a burden for weary ones;
they’ve stooped, they’ve bent down together.
They couldn’t save the burden;
they themselves have gone into captivity.
Listen to me, Ya’aqob’s household,
all the remainder of Yisra’el’s household,
Who’ve been loaded from birth,
who’ve been carried from the womb.
Even until old age I will be the one;
even until grey-headedness
I will be the one who will bear. I’m the one who made,
I’m the one who carries; I’m the one who bears, and I will save.
To whom can you compare me so I should be similar,
or liken me so we are comparable?
People who lavish gold from a purse,
or weigh out silver by the rod,
Hire a smith so he may make it into a god
to which they may fall down, bow low.
They carry it on their shoulder, bear it,
so they can set it down in its position and it can stand;
from its place it won’t move away.
Yes, someone can cry out to it, but it doesn’t answer;
it doesn’t deliver him from the pressure on him.

Keep this in mind, be strong,
bring it back to mind, you rebels,
Keep in mind earlier events of old,
because I am God and there is no other.
I am God and there is none like me,
telling of the outcome from the beginning,
And from beforehand things that haven’t been done,
saying ‘My counsel will arise, all I want I shall do’,
Calling from the east a shriek,
from a far country the person in my counsel.
I both spoke and will also bring it about;
I formed and will also do it.
Listen to me, you sturdy of mind,
you who are far away from faithfulness.
I have brought faithfulness near; it’s not far away,
and my deliverance won’t delay.
I shall put deliverance in Tsiyyon,
my magnificence for Yisra’el.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Lord God,
your feed us with the living bread from heaven.
You renew our faith
increase our hope
and strengthen our love.
Teach us to hunger for Christ
who is the true and living bread
and live by every word that comes from your mouth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Because Yahweh has said this,
the creator of the heavens, he is God,
the former of the earth and its maker
– he established it, he did not create it an emptiness,
he formed it for inhabiting:

‘I am Yahweh
and there is no other.
It was not in hiddenness that I spoke,
in a place in a dark country.
I didn’t say to Ya’aqob’s offspring,
“Enquire of me in emptiness.”

I am Yahweh, speaking of faithfulness,
telling of what is right.
Gather, come, draw near together,
escapees of the nations.
The people who carry their wooden images have not acknowledged,
the people who plead with a god who does not deliver.
Tell out, bring near,
yes, consult together.
Who let people hear of this beforehand,
told about it of old?
Was it not I, Yahweh? –
and there was no other God apart from me,
The faithful God and deliverer;
there’s none except me.
Turn your faces to me and find deliverance,
all the ends of the earth,
because I am God and there’s no other.
By myself I’ve sworn,
faithfulness has gone out from my mouth,
a word that will not turn back:
To me every knee will bend,
every tongue swear.
“Only in Yahweh (of me it is said)
are faithful acts and vigour.”’
To him they will come and be shamed,
all who rage at him.
In Yahweh all Yisra’el’s offspring
will be faithful and will exult.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

Yahweh has said this:
‘Misrayim’s (Egypt’s) toil, Kush’s profit,
the Seba’ites, people of stature,
Will pass over to you and be yours;
they’ll follow behind you.
They’ll pass over in fetters and bow low to you,
to you they’ll make their plea:
“God is in you only,
and there’s no other, no God.
Certainly you’re the God who hides,
God of Yisra’el who delivers.”

They are shamed, yes, they are disgraced,
all of them at once, they have gone in disgrace,
the people who craft forms.
Yisra’el has found deliverance in Yahweh,
everlasting deliverance.
You will not be shamed,
you will not be disgraced, to everlasting ages.’

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Hey, you who argue with the one who forms him,
a pot with earthen pots.
Can clay say to the one who forms it,
‘What do you do?’,
or can the thing you make say, ‘It has no handles’?
Hey, you who say to a father, ‘What do you beget?’
or to a woman, ‘What do you give birth to?’
Yahweh has said this –
Yisra’el’s sacred one and the one who forms it:
‘Ask me about things to come for my children –
you can give me orders about the work of my hands.
I’m the one who made the earth
and created humanity upon it.
I – my hands stretched out the heavens,
I ordered their entire army.
I’m the one who aroused him in faithfulness
and level all his ways.
He’s the one who will build up my town
and send off my exiles,
Not for payment, not for a bribe’,
Yahweh of Armies has said.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

Yahweh, your restorer, has said this
– your former from the womb:
‘I am Yahweh,
maker of everything,
Who stretched out the heavens on my own,
spread out the earth of myself,
Who contravenes the signs of soothsayers,
makes fools of diviners,
Turns the smart back,
makes idiocy of their knowledge,
Implements his servant’s word,
fulfils his envoys’ plan –
Who says of Yerushalaim, “It will be inhabited”,
and of Yehudah’s towns, “They’ll be built up”,
and “I will raise its wastes”,
Who says to the deep,
“Be wasted – I shall dry up your rivers”,
Who says to Koresh [Cyrus], “My shepherd,
he’ll fulfil my every want”,
By saying of Yerushalaim,
“It will be built up”,
and to the palace, “Be founded.”’

Yahweh has said this to his anointed, to Koresh,
‘The one whom I took by the right hand,
Putting down nations before him,
undoing the hips of kings,
Opening doors before him,
so that gateways might not shut:
I will go before you and level walls;
I will break up copper doors,
cut up iron bars.
I will give you dark treasuries
and hidden hoards,
In order that you may acknowledge that I am Yahweh;
Yisra’el’s God is the one who calls you by your name.
For the sake of my servant Ya’aqob,
Yisra’el my chosen,
I called you by your name,
I designate you though you haven’t acknowledged me.
I am Yahweh and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I put the belt on you, though you have not acknowledged me,
in order that people may acknowledge,
from the rise of the sun and from the setting,
That there is none apart from me,
I am Yahweh and there is no other,
Forming light and creating dark,
making well-being and creating bad fortune.
I am Yahweh,
doing all these things.’

Rain, heavens above;
skies are to pour down faithfulness.
Earth is to open so that deliverance may fruit,
faithfulness is to burst out all at once;
I Yahweh have created it.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.

St Columba

Yahweh, Yisra’el’s King, has said this,
your restorer, Yahweh of Armies:
‘I am first and I am last;
apart from me there is no God.
Who is like me? – he must call out,
tell and lay it out for me.
Who let people hear of coming events from of old?
– they must tell us what will happen.
Don’t fear or take fright,
I let you hear of it in time past, and told of it, didn’t I?
And you’re my witnesses: is there a God apart from me?
– but there is no Rock, I don’t acknowledge one.’

People who form an image – all of them are emptiness,
and the objects of their delight are no use.
They are their witnesses – they don’t see and they don’t acknowledge,
in order that they may be shamed.
Who forms a god or casts an image
so that it may be of no use?
There, all his associates will be shamed;
craftworkers are but human.
If all of them collect together and stand up,
they’ll be afraid, shamed, together.
A craftworker in metal with a cutter
works in the fire.
He forms it with hammers,
works it with his energetic arm.
Should he get hungry, he’d have no energy;
should he not drink water, he’d be faint.
A craftworker in wood stretches a line,
outlines it with a chalk.
He makes it with squares,
outlines it with a compass.
He makes it in the image of a person,
with the majesty of a human being, to live at home.
In cutting himself cedars,
getting ilex or oak,
He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest,
plants a pine so the rain may make it grow,

So it may be fuel for someone,
and he takes some of them and gets warm.
He both lights it and bakes bread,
and also makes a god and bows down to it.
He makes an image and prostrates himself to it,
while half of it he burns in the middle of the fire.
Over the half of it he eats meat,
he makes a roast and is full.
He also gets warm and says,
‘Ah, I’m warm, I see a flame.’
The remainder of it he makes into a god, into his image,
to which he will kneel down and bow low.
He will plead with it and say,
‘Rescue me, because you’re my god.’
They don’t acknowledge,
they don’t understand,
Because their eyes are smeared so they don’t see,
their minds so they don’t discern.
He doesn’t bring back to his mind,
there’s no knowledge nor understanding to say,
‘Half of it I burned in the middle of the fire,
also I baked bread on the coals.
I roasted meat and ate,
and the rest of it I’ll make into an offence.
I’ll kneel down to a lump of wood’ –
feeder on earth!
A deluded mind has directed him,
and he can’t rescue himself.
He can’t say,
‘Isn’t it a falsehood in my hand?’

Be mindful of these things, Ya’aqob,
Yisra’el, because you’re my servant.
I formed you as a servant, you’re mine;
Yisra’el, there is to be no forgetting.
I’m wiping away your rebellions like a cloud,
your wrongdoings like a thundercloud.
Turn back to me,
because I’m restoring you.

Resound, heavens, because Yahweh has acted;
shout, depths of the earth.
Break out in sound, mountains,
forest and every tree in it.
Because Yahweh is restoring Ya’aqob,
and will show his majesty in Yisra’el.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

But it’s not me you’ve called on, Ya’aqob,
because you’ve been weary of me, Yisra’el.
You haven’t brought me sheep as your whole offerings,
nor honoured me with your sacrifices.
I haven’t made you serve me with an offering,
nor made you weary with incense.
You haven’t gained me cane with silver,
nor soaked me with the fat of your sacrifices.
Actually you have made me serve with your wrongdoings,
wearied me with your wayward acts.

I, I’m the one, who wipes away your rebellions for my sake,
and your wrongdoings I will not keep in mind.
Remind me; let’s enter into judgement together
– you give an account, so you may prove to be in the right.
Your first ancestor – he did wrong,
and your interpreters – they rebelled against me.
So I treated the sacred officials as ordinary,
give Ya’aqob to being devoted, Yisra’el to taunts.

But now listen, Ya’aqob my servant,
Yisra’el whom I chose.
Yahweh your maker has said this,
your former from the womb, who will help you:
Don’t be afraid, my servant Ya’aqob,
Yeshurun whom I chose.
Because I shall pour water on the thirsty,
streams on the dry ground.
I shall pour my spirit on your offspring,
my blessing on those who go out from you.
They’ll grow like a grassy tamarisk,
like willows by water channels.
One will say, ‘I am Yahweh’s’,
one will call out in Yahweh’s name.
One will write on his hand ‘Yahweh’s’,
take as his name ‘Yisra’el’.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Teach us, good Lord,
to serve thee as thou deservest;
to give and not to count the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for any reward,
save that of knowing that we do thy will,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen

St Ignatius

Yahweh has said this,
your restorer, Yisra’el’s sacred one:
‘For your sake I am sending to Babel,
and I shall take down all of them as fugitives,
the Kasdites into their boats with a shout.
I am Yahweh, your sacred one,
Yisra’el’s creator, your King.’
Yahweh has said this,
the one who made a way in the sea,
A path in vigorous water,
who took out chariot and horse,
force and vigorous one, altogether.
(They lie down, they don’t get up;
they were extinguished, they went out like a wick):

Don’t be mindful of the earlier events,
don’t consider previous events.
Here am I, doing something new;
now it is to grow – you will acknowledge it, won’t you?
Yes, I shall make a way in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert.
The animals of the wild will honour me,
jackals and ostriches,
Because I’m giving water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
To give drink to my people, my chosen,
the people that I formed for myself;

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Grant, Lord,
that we may hold to you without parting,
worship you without wearying,
serve you without failing;
faithfully seek you,
happily find you,
and forever possess you,
the only God,blessed now and for ever.
Amen

St Anselm

Take out the people that is blind though it has eyes,
those who are deaf though they have ears.

All the nations must collect together,
the peoples must gather.
Who among them could tell of this,
could let us hear of the earlier events?
They must give their witnesses so they may prove right,
so people may listen and say, ‘It’s true.’

You’re my witnesses (Yahweh’s declaration), and my servant whom I chose,
In order that you may acknowledge and trust in me,
and understand that I am the one.
Before me no god was formed,
and after me there will be none.
I myself, I am Yahweh,
and apart from me there’s no deliverer.
I’m the one who told of it and delivered;
I let you hear, and there was no stranger among you.
And you’re my witnesses (Yahweh’s declaration);
I am God.
Yes, from this day I’m the one,
and there is no one rescues from my hand;
I act, and who can make it go back?

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.

Thomas More (c.1478-1535)

But now Yahweh has said this,
your creator, Ya’aqob,
your former, Yisra’el:
‘Don’t be afraid, because I’m restoring you;
I call you by name, you’re mine.
When you pass through water, I’ll be with you,
and through rivers, they won’t overwhelm you.
When you go in the middle of fire you won’t burn,
and into flames, they won’t consume you.
Because I am Yahweh your God,
Yisra’el’s sacred one, your deliverer.
I gave Misrayim as your ransom,
Kush and Seba in place of you.
Because you were valuable in my eyes;
you were honoured and I myself was loyal to you,
So that I would give people in place of you,
nations in place of your life.
Don’t be afraid, because I’ll be with you.
From the east I shall bring your offspring,
from the west I shall gather you.
I shall say to the north, “Give”,
and to the south, “Don’t restrain.
Bring my sons from far away,
my daughters from the end of the earth,
Everyone called in my name and for my splendour,
whom I created, formed, yes made.”’

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union,
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

For your mercy and your truth’s sake

Amen.

—St. Francis of Assisi