Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
121 (Shir HaMa’alot) I will lift up mine eyes unto the harim (hills), from whence cometh ezri (my help).
2 Ezri (my help) cometh from Hashem, Oseh Shomayim v’Aretz.
3 He will not allow thy regel to slip; He that is shomer over thee will not slumber.
4 Hinei, He that is shomer over Yisroel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 Hashem is the One shomer over thee; Hashem is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The shemesh shall not strike thee by day, nor the yarei’ach by night.
7 Hashem shall preserve thee from kol rah; He shall preserve thy nefesh.
8 Hashem shall be shomer over thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even v’ad olam.
11 O thou afflicted one, tempest-tossed and unconsoled, hinei, I will lay thy stones of glistening colors, and lay thy yesod (foundation, i.e., figuratively of post-Exilic Jerusalem’s foundation) with sapphires.
12 And I will make thy battlements of rubies, and thy she’arim (gates) of carbuncles, and all thy walls of avnei chefetz (precious stones).
13 And all thy banim shall be taught of Hashem; and the shalom of thy banim shall be rav (great).
14 In tzedakah (righteousness) shalt thou be established; thou shalt be far from oshek (oppression, tyranny); for thou shalt not fear; and thou shalt be far from mechitah (terror); for it shall not come near thee.
15 Indeed, if attacking they stir up strife, it is not from Me; whosoever shall gather together against thee, yipol (he shall fall) for thy sake.
16 See, I have created the charash (ironsmith, blacksmith) that fanneth the red-hot coals in the eish (fire), the one forging a keli (an instrument) for his ma’aseh (work); and I have created the mashchit (destroyer, waster, spoiler) to destroy.
17 No keli (weapon, instrument) that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every leshon (tongue) that shall rise against thee in mishpat (judgment, accusation) tarshi’i (thou shalt condemn, prove false, refute, prove wrong). This is the nachalat avdei Hashem (the heritage of the servants of Hashem), and their tzedakah (righteousness, vindication) is from Me, saith Hashem.
22 And Rav Sha’ul, taking his stand in the middle of the Areopagus, said, "Anashim, Athenians, with respect to everything how very religious indeed I observe you to be.
23 "For passing through and looking carefully at your objects of worship, I found also an altar on which had been inscribed ‘To the unknown g-d.’ Therefore, what you worship without da’as, this I proclaim to you.
24 "Hashem, the One having made HaOlam and all the things in it, this One being Adon HaShomayim vaHaAretz, does not dwell in temples made by human hands. [Isa 42:5 Dt 10:14; Isa 66:1; 1Kgs 8:27]
25 "Nor is Hashem served by human hands, as if Hashem were in need of something, since He gives to all Chayyim and breath and everything. [Ps 50:10-12; Isa 42:5]
26 "And Hashem made from one ancestor every nation of anashim dwelling pnei kol haAretz. And Hashem has set the zmanim and the fixed boundaries of their habitations, [Dt 32:8; Job 12:23]
27 "So that they would seek Hashem, if efsher (perhaps) they might grope for Him and might find Him, though Hashem is not far from each one of us. [Dt 4:7; Isa 55:6; Jer 23:23,24]
28 "For ‘we live in Him and in Him we move and have our being,’ as also some of your poets have said, ‘For we are all His offspring.’ [Dt 30:20; Job 12:10; Dan 5:23; Epimenides; Aratus]
29 "Therefore, being offspring of Hashem, we ought not to think that Hashem’s essence is like gold or silver or stone, a tzelem (image) made by the skill and thought of Bnei Adam. [Isa 40:18-20]
30 "While Hashem has disregarded and let pass the Am HaAretz times of ignorance, now, however, Hashem proclaims to kol bnei Adam everywhere, Make teshuva,
31 "Because he set a day in which he is about to bring MISHPAT (TEHILLIM 9:8) on the Olam Hazeh in tzedek [DANIEL 9:24] by an ISH (ZECHARYAH 6:12) whom he appointed, having furnished proof to all by having made him to stand up alive again from the Mesim." [Ps 9:8; 96:13; 98:9; Isa 53:11 MEGILLOT YAM HAMELACH (DEAD SEA SCROLLS)]
32 And when they heard of the Techiyas HaMesim, some were mocking Rav Sha’ul. But others said, "We will hear you again about this."
33 Thus did Rav Sha’ul go out from the midst of them.
34 And some anashim became mishtatef in the chavurah of Rav Sha’ul, in that they had emunah, among whom were both Dionysius, a member of the Athenian Council of the Areopagus, and an isha by name Damaris, and others with them.
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