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Psalm 70

Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

To the leader. Of David, for the memorial offering.
¹ Be pleased, O God, to deliver me.
   O Lord, make haste to help me!
² Let those be put to shame and confusion
   who seek my life.
Let those be turned back and brought to dishonour
   who desire to hurt me.
³ Let those who say, ‘Aha, Aha!’
   turn back because of their shame.

⁴ Let all who seek you
   rejoice and be glad in you.
Let those who love your salvation
   say evermore, ‘God is great!’
⁵ But I am poor and needy;
   hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
   O Lord, do not delay!

Psalm 71

Prayer for Lifelong Protection and Help

¹ In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
   let me never be put to shame.
² In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
   incline your ear to me and save me.
³ Be to me a rock of refuge,
   a strong fortress,^* to save me,
   for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴ Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
   from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
⁵ For you, O Lord, are my hope,
   my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
⁶ Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
   it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.

⁷ I have been like a portent to many,
   but you are my strong refuge.
⁸ My mouth is filled with your praise,
   and with your glory all day long.
⁹ Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
   do not forsake me when my strength is spent.
¹⁰ For my enemies speak concerning me,
   and those who watch for my life consult together.
¹¹ They say, ‘Pursue and seize that person
   whom God has forsaken,
   for there is no one to deliver.’

¹² O God, do not be far from me;
   O my God, make haste to help me!
¹³ Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
   let those who seek to hurt me
   be covered with scorn and disgrace.
¹⁴ But I will hope continually,
   and will praise you yet more and more.
¹⁵ My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
   of your deeds of salvation all day long,
   though their number is past my knowledge.
¹⁶ I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God,
   I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.

¹⁷ O God, from my youth you have taught me,
   and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
¹⁸ So even to old age and grey hairs,
   O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might
   to all the generations to come.^*
Your power ¹⁹and your righteousness, O God,
   reach the high heavens.

You who have done great things,
   O God, who is like you?
²⁰ You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
   will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
   you will bring me up again.
²¹ You will increase my honour,
   and comfort me once again.

²² I will also praise you with the harp
   for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
   O Holy One of Israel.
²³ My lips will shout for joy
   when I sing praises to you;
   my soul also, which you have rescued.
²⁴ All day long my tongue will talk of your righteous help,
for those who tried to do me harm
   have been put to shame, and disgraced.

Sarah’s Death and Burial

23Sarah lived for one hundred and twenty-seven years; this was the length of Sarah’s life. ²And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. ³Abraham rose up from beside his dead, and said to the Hittites, ⁴‘I am a stranger and an alien residing among you; give me property among you for a burying-place, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.’ ⁵The Hittites answered Abraham, ⁶‘Hear us, my lord; you are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places; none of us will withhold from you any burial ground for burying your dead.’ ⁷Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. ⁸He said to them, ‘If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me Ephron son of Zohar, ⁹so that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as a possession for a burying-place.’ ¹⁰Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, ¹¹‘No, my lord, hear me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it; in the presence of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.’ ¹²Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. ¹³He said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, ‘If you only will listen to me! I will give the price of the field; accept it from me, so that I may bury my dead there.’ ¹⁴Ephron answered Abraham, ¹⁵‘My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver—what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.’ ¹⁶Abraham agreed with Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants.

17 So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, passed ¹⁸to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, in the presence of all who went in at the gate of his city. ¹⁹After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. ²⁰The field and the cave that is in it passed from the Hittites into Abraham’s possession as a burying-place.

32 And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— ³³who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. ³⁶Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two,^* they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— ³⁸of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

39 Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰since God had provided something better so that they would not, without us, be made perfect.

The Example of Jesus

12Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,^* and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of^* the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

The Words of Eternal Life

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ ⁶¹But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? ⁶²Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? ⁶³It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. ⁶⁵And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’

66 Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. ⁶⁷So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ ⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’^{* 70}Jesus answered them, ‘Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.’ ⁷¹He was speaking of Judas son of Simon Iscariot,^* for he, though one of the twelve, was going to betray him.