Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Prayer of an Innocent Person^[a]

Judah and Tamar

38 About that time Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man named Hirah, who was from the town of Adullam. ² There Judah met a young Canaanite woman whose father was named Shua. He married her, ³ and she bore him a son, whom he named Er. ⁴ She became pregnant again and bore another son and named him Onan. ⁵ Again she had a son and named him Shelah. Judah was at Achzib when the boy was born.

⁶ For his first son Er, Judah got a wife whose name was Tamar. ⁷ Er's conduct was evil, and it displeased the Lord, so the Lord killed him. ⁸ Then Judah said to Er's brother Onan, “Go and sleep with your brother's widow. Fulfill your obligation to her as her husband's brother, so that your brother may have descendants.” ⁹ But Onan knew that the children would not belong to him, so when he had intercourse with his brother's widow, he let the semen spill on the ground, so that there would be no children for his brother. ¹⁰ What he did displeased the Lord, and the Lord killed him also. ¹¹ Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Return to your father's house and remain a widow until my son Shelah grows up.” He said this because he was afraid that Shelah would be killed, as his brothers had been. So Tamar went back home.

¹² After some time Judah's wife died. When he had finished the time of mourning, he and his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah, where his sheep were being sheared. ¹³ Someone told Tamar that her father-in-law was going to Timnah to shear his sheep. ¹⁴ So she changed from the widow's clothes she had been wearing, covered her face with a veil, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, a town on the road to Timnah. As she well knew, Judah's youngest son Shelah was now grown up, and yet she had not been given to him in marriage.

¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, because she had her face covered. ¹⁶ He went over to her at the side of the road and said, “All right, how much do you charge?” (He did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.)

She said, “What will you give me?”

¹⁷ He answered, “I will send you a young goat from my flock.”

She said, “All right, if you will give me something to keep as a pledge until you send the goat.”

¹⁸ “What shall I give you as a pledge?” he asked.

She answered, “Your seal with its cord and the walking stick you are carrying.” He gave them to her. Then they had intercourse, and she became pregnant. ¹⁹ Tamar went home, took off her veil, and put her widow's clothes back on.

²⁰ Judah sent his friend Hirah to take the goat and get back from the woman the articles he had pledged, but Hirah could not find her. ²¹ He asked some men at Enaim, “Where is the prostitute who was here by the road?”

“There has never been a prostitute here,” they answered.

²² He returned to Judah and said, “I couldn't find her. The men of the place said that there had never been a prostitute there.”

²³ Judah said, “Let her keep the things. We don't want people to laugh at us. I did try to pay her, but you couldn't find her.”

²⁴ About three months later someone told Judah, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has been acting like a whore, and now she is pregnant.”

Judah ordered, “Take her out and burn her to death.”

²⁵ As she was being taken out, she sent word to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man who owns these things. Look at them and see whose they are—this seal with its cord and this walking stick.”

²⁶ Judah recognized them and said, “She is in the right. I have failed in my obligation to her—I should have given her to my son Shelah in marriage.” And Judah never had intercourse with her again.

Paul's Defense before Felix

¹⁰ The governor then motioned to Paul to speak, and Paul said,

“I know that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, and so I am happy to defend myself before you. ¹¹ As you can find out for yourself, it was no more than twelve days ago that I went to Jerusalem to worship. ¹² The Jews did not find me arguing with anyone in the Temple, nor did they find me stirring up the people, either in the synagogues or anywhere else in the city. ¹³ Nor can they give you proof of the accusations they now bring against me. ¹⁴ I do admit this to you: I worship the God of our ancestors by following that Way which they say is false. But I also believe in everything written in the Law of Moses and the books of the prophets. ¹⁵ I have the same hope in God that these themselves have, namely, that all people, both the good and the bad, will rise from death. ¹⁶ And so I do my best always to have a clear conscience before God and people.

^17 (A)“After being away from Jerusalem for several years, I went there to take some money to my own people and to offer sacrifices. ¹⁸ It was while I was doing this that they found me in the Temple after I had completed the ceremony of purification. There was no crowd with me and no disorder. ¹⁹ But some Jews from the province of Asia were there; they themselves ought to come before you and make their accusations if they have anything against me. ²⁰ Or let these who are here tell what crime they found me guilty of when I stood before the Council— ^21 (B)except for the one thing I called out when I stood before them: ‘I am being tried by you today for believing that the dead will rise to life.’”

²² Then Felix, who was well informed about the Way, brought the hearing to a close. “When the commander Lysias arrives,” he told them, “I will decide your case.” ²³ He ordered the officer in charge of Paul to keep him under guard, but to give him some freedom and allow his friends to provide for his needs.