Eleventh Kathisma

Psalm 77

Give heed, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in para bles; I will utter riddles from the beginning. What great things we heard, and have known them, and our fathers told us: they were not hidden from their sons in another generation; they declared the praises of the Lord and his powers, and his wonders, which He did. And He raised up a testimony in Jacob, and set up a law in Israel: what great things He commanded our fathers, to tell them to their children; that another generation might know them, even sons yet to be born, to stand up and make them known to their sons: that they might set up their hope in God, and forget not his works, but keep his commandments: that they might not be as their fathers, a perverse and provoking generation, a generation that corrected not their hearts, and their spirits were not steadfast with God. The sons of Ephraim, bending the bow and shooting, were turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the commandments of God, and delighted not to walk in his law. And they forgot his benefits, and his wonders, which He showed them: the wonders He did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, on the plain of Tanis. He divided the sea, and led them through it; he made the waters stand as in a bottle. And He guided them with a cloud by day, and all night with a light of fire. He clove a rock in the desert, and gave them to drink as in a great deep; and He drew water from the rock, and made waters flow down like rivers. And they added yet more to their sins against him, they provoked the Most High in a waterless place; and they tempted God in their hearts, to beg food for their spirits. And they spake against God, and said, Is God able to prepare a table in the desert? Because He smote the rock, and waters ran out, and torrents overflowed: will He be able to give bread, or prepare a table for his people? Wherefore God heard and disregarded, and a fire was kindled in Jacob, and wrath came upon Israel: for they believed not in God, neither did they trust in his salvation. And He commanded clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven; and rained upon them manna to eat, and gave them heavenly bread. Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food until they were filled. And He raised up the south wind from heaven, and by his power brought the southwest wind: and He rained flesh upon them like dust, and feathered birds like the sands of the sea. And they fell in the midst of their camp, round about their dwellings. And they ate and were exceeding filled, and He brought them their desire. They were not deprived of their desire, but with their food still in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon them, and killed the fattest of them, and overthrew the elect of Israel. In all this they sinned yet more, and believed not his wonders: and their days are vanished in vanity, and their years in haste. When He was killing them, then they sought him and turned back, rising up early unto God; and they remembered that God was their Helper, and that God the Most High was their Redeemer. And they loved him with their mouth, but with their tongue they lied to him: for their heart was not right with him, nor were they steadfast in his covenant. But He is compassionate, and forgiveth their sins, and shall not destroy them, and many a time shall He turn his anger away, and shall not burn them all up in his wrath. And He remembered that they are flesh: a spirit going and not returning, how often they provoked him in the desert, they enraged him in a waterless land. And they turned back, and tempted God, and vexed the Holy One of Israel. And they remembered not his hand, in the day when He delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. How He set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders on the plain of Tanis. And He turned into blood their rivers and their showers, that they might not drink. He sent upon them the dog-fly, and it ate them up, and the frog, and it destroyed them. And He gave their fruit to mildew, and their labor to the locust. He killed their vineyards with hail, and their mulberry trees with frost: and He gave to the hail their cattle, and their possessions to the fire. He sent upon them the wrath of his anger, anger and wrath and affliction, sending evil angels among them. He made a way for the path of his wrath: and He spared not their spirits from death, and their cattle He shut up in death: and He smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, the first-fruit of all their labors in the tents of Ham. And He took away his people like sheep, and led them like a flock through the desert, and He guided them with hope, and they feared not, but the sea cov ered their enemies: and He brought them to the mountain of his sanctuary, the mountain He obtained with his right hand. And He cast out the nations from before them, and by lot gave them the land by a line of division, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. And they tempted and provoked God the Most High, and they kept not his testimonies: and they turned back, and cast aside the covenant, like their fathers, and turned themselves into a crooked bow. And they enraged him in their hills, and in their graven images they vexed him. God heard and disregarded, and despised Israel exceedingly, and rejected the tabernacle of Shiloh, his tabernacle where He dwelt among men; and He delivered their strength into cap tivity, and their beauty into the hands of the enemy. And He consigned his people to the sword, and disregarded his inheritance. Fire devoured their young men, and their virgins were not mourned; their priests fell by the sword, and their widows were not lamented; and the Lord awoke as one sleeping, like a strong man drunk with wine: and He smote his enemies in the rear, He gave them everlasting reproach. And He rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, and the tribe of Ephraim He chose not: but He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loved; and He built like a unicorn his sanctuary, in the land He founded for ever. And He chose David his servant, and took him from his flocks of sheep: from behind the teeming sheep He received him, to feed Jacob his servant, and Israel his inheritance; and he fed them in the innocence of his heart, and in the understanding of his hands hath he guided them.

Psalm 78

O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance; they profaned thy holy temple, they set up Jerusalem as a storehouse of fruit. They gave the bodies of thy servants to be food for the birds of the air, the flesh of thy Saints to the beasts of the earth. They poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them. We are become a reproach to our neighbors, scorn and derision to them round about us. How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry till the end? shall thy zeal burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name: for they have devoured Jacob, and have made his place desolate. Remember thou not our former transgressions: let thy compassion speedily come before us, O Lord, for we are become exceeding poor. Help us, O God our Saviour, for the sake of the glory of thy name. O God, deliver us, and cleanse our sins, for thy name’s sake: lest at any time they should say among the nations: Where is their God? And let be known among the nations before our eyes, the vengeance for the blood shed of thy servants. Let the sighing of the fet tered come in before thee: according to the greatness of thine arm, do thou possess the sons of them that are slain. Render to our neighbors seven times over into their bosom the reproach werewith they reproached thee, O Lord. But we thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, will confess thee, O God, for ever; from generation to generation we will declare thy praise.

Psalm 79

O Shepherd of Israel, attend, thou that guidest Joseph like a sheep. Thou that sittest upon the Cherubim, appear before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasses; arouse thy power, and come to save us. O God, convert us, and make thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. O Lord God of Powers, how long shalt thou be angry with the prayer of thy servant? Thou shalt feed us with the bread of tears, and shalt give us to drink tears in measure. Thou hast made us a contradiction to our neigh bors, and our enemies scoffed at us. O Lord God of Powers, convert us, and make thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. A vineyard hast thou brought out of Egypt, and thou hast cast out the nations, and hast planted it. Thou hast made a way before it, and hast planted its roots, and the land was filled. Its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God: thou hast stretched out its vines to the sea, and even unto the river its shoots.

Psalm 80

Rejoice unto God our Helper, shout unto the God of Jacob: take a psalm and bring the timbrel, the pleasant psaltery with the harp. Blow upon the trumpet at the new moon, upon the well-celebrated day of our feast: for this is a commandment to Israel, a judgment of the God of Jacob. This He set as a testimony in Joseph, when he went out from the Land of Egypt: he heard a tongue which he knew not. He turned away from burdens his back, his hands in the basket did serve. In tribulations didst thou call upon me, and I delivered thee: I heard thee in the secret storm: I tried thee at the water of strife. Hear, O my people, and I shall testify unto thee; O Israel, if thou hadst hearkened to me: there shall not be in thee any new god, nei ther shalt thou worship a strange god. For I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it. And my people heard not my voice, and Israel heeded me not: and I let them go in the inventions of their hearts, and they went about in their inventions. But if my people had heard me, if Israel had walked in my ways, even in that hour I would have humbled their enemies, and against their oppressors I would have put forth my hand. The enemies of God lied to him, but their time shall be for ever. And He fed them from the fat of wheat, and with honey out of the rock He filled them.

Psalm 81

God standeth in the congregation of gods; in the midst shall He judge gods. How long will ye judge unrigh teously, and accept the presence of sinners? Judge the orphan and the needy; to the humble and the poor do justice: redeem the needy and the poor; out of the hand of the sinner deliver him. They have not known nor understood; they walk about in darkness: let all the foundations of the earth be moved. I have said, Ye all are gods, and all the sons of the Most High; but as men ye die, and as one of the princes ye fall. Arise, O God, judge thou the earth, for thou shalt inherit among all the nations.

Psalm 82

O God, who shall be likened unto thee? be not silent, neither be still, O God. For behold, thine enemies made a sound, and those that hated thee lifted up the head. Willingly they devised evil against thy people, and took counsel against thy Saints. They said: Come and let us destroy them out of the nation, and let the name of Israel be remembered no more. For they took counsel together with one accord, and against thy covenant they covenanted: the tents of the Edomites and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarenes, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, the Philistines and the inhabitants of Tyre: even Assur came with them; they became helpers of the children of Lot. Do unto them as to Midian and to Sisera, as to Jabin at the brook of Kishon. They were destroyed at Endor; they became like the dung of the earth. Make their princes like Oreb and like Zeeb; like Zebee and like Zalmunna, all their princes, who said: Let us take for our inheritance the sanctuary of God. O God, make them like a wheel, like the stubble in the face of the wind. Like a fire burning up the woods, like a flame con suming the mountains: so shalt thou persecute them with thy tempest, and trouble them in thy wrath. Fill their faces with dishonor, and they shall seek thy name, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and troubled for ever, and let them be disgraced and perish. And let them know that thy name is Lord, that thou alone art Most High over all the earth.

Psalm 83

How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts; my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the turtle-dove a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; unto ages of ages shall they praise thee. Blessed is the man whose succor is from thee, in whose heart he hath disposed to ascend to the vale of weeping, to the place which he hath set, for the Law-giver shall give a blessing. They shall go from strength to strength; the God of gods shall be seen in Zion. O Lord God of Hosts, hearken unto my prayer; give heed, O God of Jacob. Behold, O God our Defender, and look upon the face of thine anointed. For better is one day in thy courts than a thousand. I have elected to be an outcast in the house of my God rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners. For the Lord God loveth mercy and truth, He shall give grace and glory. The Lord shall not deprive of good things them that walk in innocence. O Lord God of Hosts, blessed is the man that hopeth in thee.

Psalm 84

Thou wast well-pleased, O Lord, with thy land; thou hast turned back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the transgression of thy people; thou hast covered all their sin. Thou hast calmed all thy wrath; thou hast turned back from the wrath of thy displeasure. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and turn thy displeasure away from us. Wilt thou be wroth with us for ever? or wilt thou extend thy wrath from generation to generation? O God, thou shalt turn and quicken us, and thy people shall be glad in thee. Show us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what the Lord God will speak concerning me, for He shall speak peace to his people, and to his Saints, and to them that turn their heart unto him. Yet his salvation is nigh to them that fear him, that glory may abide in our land. Mercy and truth are met together; righ teousness and peace have kissed. Truth hath sprung out of the earth; and righteousness hath shone down from heaven. For the Lord shall give goodness, and our land shall give her fruit. Righteousness shall go before him, and He shall set his steps in the way.