Deuteronomy 8-9
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 8
God’s Care. 1 Be careful to observe this whole commandment(A) that I enjoin on you today, that you may live and increase, and may enter in and possess the land which the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how for these forty years the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the wilderness,(B) so as to test you by affliction, to know what was in your heart: to keep his commandments, or not. 3 He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna,(C) a food unknown to you and your ancestors, so you might know that it is not by bread alone[a] that people live, but by all that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord. 4 The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years.(D) 5 So you must know in your heart that, even as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord, your God, disciplines you.(E) 6 Therefore, keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, by walking in his ways and fearing him.
Cautions About Prosperity. 7 (F)For the Lord, your God, is bringing you into a good country, a land with streams of water, with springs and fountains welling up in the hills and valleys, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, of olive trees and of honey, 9 a land where you will always have bread and where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones contain iron and in whose hills you can mine copper. 10 But when you have eaten and are satisfied, you must bless the Lord, your God, for the good land he has given you. 11 (G)Be careful not to forget the Lord, your God, by failing to keep his commandments and ordinances and statutes which I enjoin on you today: 12 lest, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built fine houses and lived in them, 13 and your herds and flocks have increased, your silver and gold has increased, and all your property has increased, 14 you then become haughty of heart and forget the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that house of slavery; 15 he guided you through the vast and terrible wilderness with its saraph[b] serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; he brought forth water for you from the flinty rock(H) 16 and fed you in the wilderness with manna, a food unknown to your ancestors, that he might afflict you and test you, but also make you prosperous in the end. 17 Otherwise, you might say in your heart,(I) “It is my own power and the strength of my own hand that has got me this wealth.” 18 Remember then the Lord, your God, for he is the one who gives you the power to get wealth, by fulfilling, as he has now done, the covenant he swore to your ancestors. 19 But if you do forget the Lord, your God, and go after other gods, serving and bowing down to them,(J) I bear witness to you this day that you will perish utterly. 20 Like the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so shall you too perish for not listening to the voice of the Lord, your God.
Chapter 9
Unmerited Success. 1 Hear, O Israel! You are now about to cross the Jordan to enter in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than yourselves, having large cities fortified to the heavens,(K) 2 the Anakim, a people great and tall.(L) You yourselves know of them and have heard it said of them, “Who can stand up against the Anakim?” 3 Know, then, today that it is the Lord, your God, who will cross over before you as a consuming fire; he it is who will destroy them and subdue them before you, so that you can dispossess and remove them quickly, as the Lord promised you.(M) 4 After the Lord, your God, has driven them out of your way, do not say in your heart, “It is because of my justice the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,(N) and because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord is dispossessing them before me.”[c] 5 No, it is not because of your justice or the integrity of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land; but it is because of their wickedness that the Lord, your God, is dispossessing these nations before you and in order to fulfill the promise he made on oath to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.(O) 6 Know this, therefore: it is not because of your justice that the Lord, your God, is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.(P)
The Golden Calf. 7 Remember and do not forget how you angered the Lord, your God, in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious toward the Lord.(Q) 8 (R)At Horeb you so provoked the Lord that he was angry enough to destroy you,(S) 9 when I had gone up the mountain to receive the stone tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you.(T) Meanwhile I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no food and drank no water. 10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets inscribed, by God’s own finger,(U) with a copy of all the words that the Lord spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11 Then, at the end of the forty days and forty nights, when the Lord had given me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, 12 (V)the Lord said to me, Go down from here now, quickly, for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt are acting corruptly; they have already turned aside from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a molten idol. 13 I have seen now how stiff-necked this people is, the Lord said to me. 14 Let me be, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under the heavens. I will then make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.
15 When I had come down again from the blazing, fiery mountain, with the two tablets of the covenant in both my hands,(W) 16 I saw how you had sinned against the Lord, your God, by making for yourselves a molten calf. You had already turned aside from the way which the Lord had commanded you.(X) 17 I took hold of the two tablets and with both hands cast them from me and broke them before your eyes.(Y) 18 Then, as before, I lay prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no food, I drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed in the sight of the Lord, doing wrong and provoking him.(Z) 19 For I dreaded the fierce anger of the Lord against you: his wrath would destroy you.(AA) Yet once again the Lord listened to me. 20 With Aaron, too, the Lord was deeply angry, and would have destroyed him; but I prayed for Aaron also at that time.(AB) 21 Then, taking the calf, the sinful object you had made, I burnt it and ground it down to powder as fine as dust, which I threw into the wadi that went down the mountainside.(AC)
22 At Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah likewise, you enraged the Lord.(AD) 23 And when the Lord sent you up from Kadesh-barnea saying, Go up and take possession of the land I have given you, you rebelled against this command of the Lord, your God, and would not believe him or listen to his voice.(AE) 24 You have been rebels against the Lord from the day I first knew you.
25 (AF)Those forty days, then, and forty nights, I lay prostrate before the Lord, because he had threatened to destroy you. 26 And I prayed to the Lord and said: O Lord God, do not destroy your people, the heritage you redeemed in your greatness and have brought out of Egypt with your strong hand.(AG) 27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look upon the stubbornness of this people nor upon their wickedness and sin,(AH) 28 lest the land from which you have brought us say, “The Lord was not able to bring them into the land he promised them, and out of hatred for them, he brought them out to let them die in the wilderness.”(AI) 29 They are your people and your heritage, whom you have brought out by your great power and with your outstretched arm.(AJ)
Footnotes
- 8:3 Not by bread alone: Deuteronomic theology puts the good things promised faithful Israel into the context of the Lord’s gratuitous love. As in 6:10–12, the goods of life must be seen as gift. Israel is to seek what really matters; all else will be added (cf. Mt 6:33).
- 8:15 Saraph: see note on Nm 21:6.
- 9:4 Before me: Hebrew reads “before you.”
Psalm 91
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Psalm 91[a]
Security Under God’s Protection
I
1 You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,[b]
who abide in the shade of the Almighty,
2 Say to the Lord, “My refuge and fortress,
my God in whom I trust.”(A)
3 He will rescue you from the fowler’s snare,
from the destroying plague,
4 He will shelter you with his pinions,
and under his wings you may take refuge;(B)
his faithfulness is a protecting shield.
5 You shall not fear the terror of the night
nor the arrow that flies by day,(C)
6 Nor the pestilence that roams in darkness,
nor the plague that ravages at noon.(D)
7 Though a thousand fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
near you it shall not come.
8 You need simply watch;
the punishment of the wicked you will see.(E)
9 Because you have the Lord for your refuge
and have made the Most High your stronghold,
10 No evil shall befall you,
no affliction come near your tent.(F)
11 [c]For he commands his angels with regard to you,(G)
to guard you wherever you go.(H)
12 With their hands they shall support you,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.(I)
13 You can tread upon the asp and the viper,
trample the lion and the dragon.(J)
II
14 Because he clings to me I will deliver him;
because he knows my name I will set him on high.(K)
15 He will call upon me and I will answer;(L)
I will be with him in distress;(M)
I will deliver him and give him honor.
16 With length of days I will satisfy him,
and fill him with my saving power.(N)
Footnotes
- Psalm 91 A prayer of someone who has taken refuge in the Lord, possibly within the Temple (Ps 91:1–2). The psalmist is confident that God’s presence will protect the people in every dangerous situation (Ps 91:3–13). The final verses are an oracle of salvation promising salvation to those who trust in God (Ps 91:14–16).
- 91:1 The shelter of the Most High: basically “hiding place” but in the Psalms a designation for the protected Temple precincts, cf. Ps 27:5; 31:21; 61:5. The shade of the Almighty: lit., “the shadow of the wings of the Almighty,” cf. Ps 17:8; 36:8; 57:2; 63:8. Ps 91:4 makes clear that the shadow is an image of the safety afforded by the outstretched wings of the cherubim in the holy of holies.
- 91:11–12 The words are cited in Lk 4:10–11; Mt 4:6, as Satan tempts Jesus in the desert.
Acts 21:37-22:16
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
37 Just as Paul was about to be taken into the compound, he said to the cohort commander, “May I say something to you?” He replied, “Do you speak Greek? 38 So then you are not the Egyptian[a] who started a revolt some time ago and led the four thousand assassins into the desert?”(A) 39 Paul answered, “I am a Jew, of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city; I request you to permit me to speak to the people.” 40 When he had given his permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people; and when all was quiet he addressed them in Hebrew.[b]
Chapter 22
Paul’s Defense Before the Jerusalem Jews.[c] 1 “My brothers and fathers, listen to what I am about to say to you in my defense.” 2 When they heard him addressing them in Hebrew they became all the more quiet. And he continued, 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.(B) 4 I persecuted this Way to death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison.(C) 5 Even the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify on my behalf. For from them I even received letters to the brothers and set out for Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem in chains for punishment those there as well.
6 “On that journey as I drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me.(D) 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’(E) 8 I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.’(F) 9 My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me.(G) 10 I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?’ The Lord answered me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do.’(H) 11 Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light, I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus.(I)
12 (J)“A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law, and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 came to me and stood there and said, ‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.’ And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him. 14 Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice; 15 for you will be his witness[d] before all to what you have seen and heard. 16 Now, why delay? Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away, calling upon his name.’
Footnotes
- 21:38 The Egyptian: according to the Jewish historian Josephus, an Egyptian gathered a large crowd on the Mount of Olives to witness the destruction of the walls of Jerusalem that would fall at the Egyptian “prophet’s” word. The commotion was put down by the Roman authorities and the Egyptian escaped, but only after thousands had been killed. Four thousand assassins: literally, sicarii. According to Josephus, these were political nationalists who removed their opponents by assassination with a short dagger, called in Latin a sica.
- 21:40 In Hebrew: meaning, perhaps, in Aramaic, which at this time was the Semitic tongue in common use.
- 22:1–21 Paul’s first defense speech is presented to the Jerusalem crowds. Luke here presents Paul as a devout Jew (Acts 22:3) and zealous persecutor of the Christian community (Acts 22:4–5), and then recounts the conversion of Paul for the second time in Acts (see note on Acts 9:1–19).
- 22:15 His witness: like the Galilean followers during the historical ministry of Jesus, Paul too, through his experience of the risen Christ, is to be a witness to the resurrection (compare Acts 1:8; 10:39–41; Lk 24:48).
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.