Daily Office

The Lord of hosts says:

Execute true judgments. Show kindness and mercy to each other. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the resident foreigner or the poor. Let none of you devise evil against another in your hearts.

¹O come, let us sing to the Lord; *
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.

²Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, *
and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.

³For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.

⁴In his hand are all the corners of the earth, *
and the strength of the hills is his also.

⁵The sea is his, and he made it; *
and his hands prepared the dry land.

⁶O come, let us worship and bow down, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

⁷For he is the Lord our God, *
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

¹¹Be not far from me, for trouble is near, *
and there is none to help.

¹²Many young bulls encircle me; *
strong bulls of Bashan surround me.

¹³They open wide their jaws at me, *
like a ravening and a roaring lion.

¹⁴I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; *
my heart within my breast is melting wax.

¹⁵My mouth is dried out like a pot-sherd; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; *
and you have laid me in the dust of the grave.

¹⁶Packs of dogs close me in, and gangs of evildoers circle around me; *
they pierce my hands and my feet; *
I can count all my bones.

¹⁷They stare and gloat over me; *
they divide my garments among them; *
they cast lots for my clothing.

¹⁸Be not far away, O Lord; *
you are my strength; hasten to help me.

¹⁹Save me from the sword, *
my life from the power of the dog.

¹So Pilate then took Jesus and flogged him. ²The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment. ³They kept saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and they kept slapping him.

⁴Then Pilate went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him.”

⁵Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the man!”

⁶When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify!”

Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him.”

⁷The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”

⁸When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid. ⁹He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰Pilate therefore said to him, “Aren’t you speaking to me? Don’t you know that I have power to release you and have power to crucify you?”

¹¹Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin.”

¹²At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you aren’t Caesar’s friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!”

¹³When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgement seat at a place called “The Pavement”, but in Hebrew, “Gabbatha.” ¹⁴Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”

¹⁵They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!”

Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”

The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”

¹⁶So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away. ¹⁷He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called “The Place of a Skull”, which is called in Hebrew, “Golgotha”, ¹⁸where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle. ¹⁹Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” ²⁰Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. ²¹The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘he said, “I am King of the Jews.” ’ ”

²²Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

²³Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top throughout. ²⁴Then they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says,

“They parted my garments amongst them.
    They cast lots for my clothing.”

Therefore the soldiers did these things.

²⁵But standing by Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” ²⁷Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

²⁸After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty!” ²⁹Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth. ³⁰When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

³¹Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation Day, so that the bodies wouldn’t remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. ³²Therefore the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him; ³³but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they didn’t break his legs. ³⁴However, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. ³⁵He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you may believe. ³⁶For these things happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “A bone of him will not be broken.” ³⁷Again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they pierced.”