Deuteronomy 4:25-5:33
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
God’s Fidelity and Love. 25 (A)When you have children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, should you then act corruptly by fashioning an idol in the form of anything, and by this evil done in his sight provoke the Lord, your God, 26 I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you, that you shall all quickly perish from the land which you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You shall not live in it for any length of time but shall be utterly wiped out.(B) 27 The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and there shall remain but a handful of you among the nations to which the Lord will drive you. 28 There you shall serve gods that are works of human hands, of wood and stone, gods which can neither see nor hear, neither eat nor smell.(C) 29 Yet when you seek the Lord, your God, from there, you shall indeed find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.(D) 30 In your distress, when all these things shall have come upon you, you shall finally return to the Lord, your God, and listen to his voice. 31 Since the Lord, your God, is a merciful God, he will not abandon or destroy you, nor forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.(E)
32 Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created humankind upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? 33 Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?(F) 34 Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders,(G) by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 35 All this you were allowed to see that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other.(H) 36 Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard him speaking out of the fire. 37 For love of your ancestors he chose their descendants after them and by his presence and great power led you out of Egypt, 38 dispossessing before you nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to give their land to you as a heritage, as it is today. 39 This is why you must now acknowledge, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other.(I) 40 And you must keep his statutes and commandments which I command you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you forever.(J)
Cities of Refuge. 41 (K)Then Moses set apart three cities in the region east of the Jordan, 42 to which a homicide might flee who killed a neighbor unintentionally, where there had been no hatred previously, so that the killer might flee to one of these cities and live: 43 Bezer in the wilderness, in the region of the plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
II. Second Address
A. The Lord’s Covenant with Israel
Introduction. 44 This is the law[a] which Moses set before the Israelites.(L) 45 These are the decrees, and the statutes and ordinances[b] which Moses proclaimed to the Israelites after they came out of Egypt,(M) 46 (N)beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses and the Israelites defeated after they came out of Egypt.(O) 47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og, king of Bashan, as well—the land of these two kings of the Amorites in the region beyond the Jordan to the east: 48 from Aroer on the edge of the Wadi Arnon to Mount Sion[c] (that is, Hermon) 49 and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan to the east, as far as the Arabah Sea[d] under the slopes of Pisgah.
Chapter 5
The Covenant at Horeb. 1 Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances which I proclaim in your hearing this day, that you may learn them and take care to observe them.(P) 2 The Lord, our God, made a covenant with us at Horeb; 3 not with our ancestors[e] did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, all of us who are alive here this day. 4 (Q)Face to face, the Lord spoke with you on the mountain from the midst of the fire,(R) 5 while I was standing between the Lord and you at that time, to announce to you these words of the Lord, since you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain:
The Decalogue. 6 (S)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,(T) out of the house of slavery. 7 (U)You shall not have other gods beside me. 8 You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; 9 [f]you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous[g] God, bringing punishment for their parents’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation, 10 but showing love down to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
11 You shall not invoke the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.(V) For the Lord will not leave unpunished anyone who invokes his name in vain.
12 (W)Observe the sabbath day—keep it holy, as the Lord, your God, commanded you. 13 Six days you may labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God. You shall not do any work, either you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey or any work animal, or the resident alien within your gates, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. 15 Remember that you too were once slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord, your God, brought you out from there with a strong hand and outstretched arm. That is why the Lord, your God, has commanded you to observe the sabbath day.
16 (X)Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord, your God, has commanded you, that you may have a long life and that you may prosper in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
18 (Z)You shall not commit adultery.
19 (AA)You shall not steal.
20 (AB)You shall not bear dishonest witness against your neighbor.
21 (AC)You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
You shall not desire your neighbor’s house or field, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Moses as Mediator. 22 These words the Lord spoke with a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire and the dense black cloud, and added no more. He inscribed them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.(AD) 23 But when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, you came near to me, all your tribal heads and elders, 24 and said, “The Lord, our God, has indeed let us see his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the midst of the fire.(AE) Today we have found out that God may speak to a mortal and that person may still live. 25 Now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord, our God, any more, we shall die.(AF) 26 For what mortal has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of fire, as we have, and lived? 27 You go closer and listen to all that the Lord, our God, will say, and then tell us what the Lord, our God, tells you; we will listen and obey.”(AG)
28 The Lord heard your words as you were speaking to me and said to me, I have heard the words these people have spoken to you, which are all well said.(AH) 29 Would that they might always be of such a mind, to fear me and to keep all my commandments! Then they and their descendants would prosper forever. 30 Go, tell them: Return to your tents. 31 Then you stand here near me and I will give you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances; you must teach them, that they may observe them in the land I am giving them to possess.(AI)
32 Be careful, therefore, to do as the Lord, your God, has commanded you, not turning aside to the right or to the left, 33 but following exactly the way that the Lord, your God, commanded you that you may live and prosper, and may have long life in the land which you are to possess.(AJ)
Notas al pie
- 4:44 Law: Hebrew torah, meaning “instruction,” “law,” “teaching”; the standard translation “law” comes from the influence of the Septuagint’s nomos, “law,” and the extensive legislation in Ex 20–Nm 10.
- 4:45 Statutes and ordinances: terms referring to the legal corpus in 12:1–26:19.
- 4:48 Sion: another name for Mount Hermon, besides those mentioned in 3:9 (to be distinguished from the Mount Zion of Jerusalem).
- 4:49 The Arabah Sea: the Dead Sea, cf. 3:17.
- 5:3 Not with our ancestors: in fact, the covenant was made with the ancestors, but these had died out during the “forty” years. The covenant is considered to be ongoing—for Israel in Moab and beyond.
- 5:9–10 Israel is confronted with a choice, to “love” or to “hate” the Lord, and with the consequences of each choice. “Wickedness” works destruction not only on those who do it but also down the generations, in a sort of ripple effect. Yet, if Israel keeps the commandments, they will experience the Lord’s hesed (“love”) down to the thousandth generation. Thus the Lord’s merciful love is disproportionate to the evil results of iniquity (“down to the third and fourth generation”). To the thousandth generation: lit., “to thousands”; cf. 7:9.
- 5:9 Jealous: see note on 4:24.
- 5:17 Kill: see note on Ex 20:13.
Psalm 89:19-53
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
19 Truly the Lord is our shield,
the Holy One of Israel, our king!(A)
III
20 Then you spoke in vision;(B)
to your faithful ones you said:
“I have set a leader over the warriors;
I have raised up a chosen one from the people.
21 I have chosen David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him.
22 My hand will be with him;(C)
my arm will make him strong.
23 No enemy shall outwit him,
nor shall the wicked defeat him.
24 I will crush his foes before him,
strike down those who hate him.
25 My faithfulness and mercy will be with him;
through my name his horn will be exalted.
26 [a]I will set his hand upon the sea,
his right hand upon the rivers.
27 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my father,(D)
my God, the Rock of my salvation!’
28 I myself make him the firstborn,
Most High[b] over the kings of the earth.
29 Forever I will maintain my mercy for him;(E)
my covenant with him stands firm.
30 I will establish his dynasty forever,
his throne as the days of the heavens.
31 If his descendants forsake my teaching,(F)
do not follow my decrees,
32 If they fail to observe my statutes,
do not keep my commandments,
33 I will punish their crime with a rod
and their guilt with blows.
34 But I will not take my mercy from him,
nor will I betray my bond of faithfulness.(G)
35 I will not violate my covenant;
the promise of my lips I will not alter.(H)
36 By my holiness I swore once for all:(I)
I will never be false to David.
37 [c]His dynasty will continue forever,(J)
his throne, like the sun before me.
38 Like the moon it will stand eternal,
forever firm like the sky!”
Selah
B
IV
39 But now you have rejected and spurned,(K)
been enraged at your anointed.
40 You renounced the covenant with your servant,
defiled his crown in the dust.
41 You broke down all city walls,(L)
left his strongholds in ruins.
42 All who pass through seize plunder;
his neighbors deride him.
43 You have exalted the right hand of his foes,
have gladdened all his enemies.(M)
44 You turned back his sharp sword,
did not support him in battle.
45 You brought to an end his splendor,
hurled his throne to the ground.
46 You cut short the days of his youth,
covered him with shame.
Selah
V
47 How long, Lord? Will you hide forever?
Must your wrath smolder like fire?(N)
48 Remember how brief life is,
how frail the sons of man you have created!(O)
49 What is man, that he should live and not see death?
Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?(P)
Selah
VI
50 Where are your former mercies, Lord,
that you swore to David in your faithfulness?
51 Remember, Lord, the insults to your servants,
how I have borne in my bosom the slander of the nations.(Q)
52 Your enemies, Lord, insult;
they insult each step of your anointed.
53 [d]Blessed be the Lord forever! Amen and amen!(R)
Notas al pie
- 89:26 The sea…the rivers: geographically the limits of the Davidic empire (the Mediterranean and the Euphrates); mythologically, the traditional forces of chaos. See note on Ps 89:11.
- 89:28 Most High: a divine title, which is here extended to David as God’s own king, cf. Ps 2:7–9; Is 9:5. As God rules over the members of the heavenly council (Ps 89:6–9), so David, God’s surrogate, rules over earthly kings.
- 89:37–38 Like the sun before me…like the sky: as enduring as the heavenly lights, cf. Ps 89:2–5 and Ps 72:5, 17.
- 89:53 The doxology at the end of the third book of the Psalms; it is not part of Ps 89.
Acts 21:1-16
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 21
Arrival at Tyre. 1 [a]When we had taken leave of them we set sail, made a straight run for Cos, and on the next day for Rhodes, and from there to Patara. 2 Finding a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went on board and put out to sea. 3 We caught sight of Cyprus but passed by it on our left and sailed on toward Syria and put in at Tyre where the ship was to unload cargo. 4 There we sought out the disciples and stayed for a week. They kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to embark for Jerusalem. 5 At the end of our stay we left and resumed our journey. All of them, women and children included, escorted us out of the city, and after kneeling on the beach to pray, 6 we bade farewell to one another. Then we boarded the ship, and they returned home.
Arrival at Ptolemais and Caesarea. 7 We continued the voyage and came from Tyre to Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed a day with them. 8 On the next day we resumed the trip and came to Caesarea, where we went to the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the Seven,[b] and stayed with him.(A) 9 He had four virgin daughters gifted with prophecy. 10 We had been there several days when a prophet named Agabus[c] came down from Judea. 11 (B)He came up to us, took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, “Thus says the holy Spirit: This is the way the Jews will bind the owner of this belt in Jerusalem, and they will hand him over to the Gentiles.”[d] 12 When we heard this, we and the local residents begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? I am prepared not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 (C)Since he would not be dissuaded we let the matter rest, saying,(D) “The Lord’s will be done.”[e]
Paul and James in Jerusalem. 15 After these days we made preparations for our journey, then went up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea came along to lead us to the house of Mnason, a Cypriot, a disciple of long standing, with whom we were to stay.
Read full chapterNotas al pie
- 21:1–18 The third “we-section” of Acts (see note on Acts 16:10–17).
- 21:8 One of the Seven: see note on Acts 6:2–4.
- 21:10 Agabus: mentioned in Acts 11:28 as the prophet who predicted the famine that occurred when Claudius was emperor.
- 21:11 The symbolic act of Agabus recalls those of Old Testament prophets. Compare Is 20:2; Ez 4:1; Jer 13:1.
- 21:14 The Christian disciples’ attitude reflects that of Jesus (see Lk 22:42).
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.