Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 though I am mocked and cursed and shamed for your sake. 8 Even my own brothers pretend they don’t know me! 9 My zeal for God and his work[a] burns hot within me. And because I advocate your cause, your enemies insult me even as they insult you. 10 How they scoff and mock me when I mourn and fast before the Lord!
11 How they talk about me when I wear sackcloth to show my humiliation and sorrow for my sins! 12 I am the talk of the town and the song of the drunkards. 13 But I keep right on praying to you, Lord. For now is the time—you are bending down to hear! You are ready with a plentiful supply of love and kindness. Now answer my prayer and rescue me as you promised.[a] 14 Pull me out of this mire. Don’t let me sink in. Rescue me from those who hate me, and from these deep waters I am in.
15 Don’t let the floods overwhelm me or the ocean swallow me; save me from the pit that threatens me.
16 O Jehovah, answer my prayers, for your loving-kindness is wonderful; your mercy is so plentiful, so tender and so kind. 17 Don’t hide from me,[a] for I am in deep trouble. Quick! Come and save me. 18 Come, Lord, and rescue me. Ransom me from all my enemies.
18 Then the people said, “Come, let’s get rid of Jeremiah. We have our own priests and wise men and prophets—we don’t need his advice. Let’s silence him that he may speak no more against us, nor bother us again.”
19 O Lord, help me! See what they are planning to do to me! 20 Should they repay evil for good? They have set a trap to kill me, yet I spoke well of them to you and tried to defend them from your anger. 21 Now, Lord, let their children starve to death and let the sword pour out their blood! Let their wives be widows and be bereft of all their children! Let their men die in epidemics and their youths die in battle! 22 Let screaming be heard from their homes as troops of soldiers come suddenly upon them, for they have dug a pit for me to fall in, and they have hidden traps along my path. 23 Lord, you know all their murderous plots against me. Don’t forgive them, don’t blot out their sin, but let them perish before you; deal with them in your anger.
17 The High Priest and his relatives and friends among the Sadducees reacted with violent jealousy 18 and arrested the apostles, and put them in the public jail.
19 But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail and brought them out. Then he told them, 20 “Go over to the Temple and preach about this Life!”
21 They arrived at the Temple about daybreak and immediately began preaching! Later that morning[a] the High Priest and his courtiers arrived at the Temple, and, convening the Jewish Council and the entire Senate, they sent for the apostles to be brought for trial. 22 But when the police arrived at the jail, the men weren’t there, so they returned to the Council and reported, 23 “The jail doors were locked, and the guards were standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there!”
24 When the police captain[b] and the chief priests heard this, they were frantic, wondering what would happen next and where all this would end! 25 Then someone arrived with the news that the men they had jailed were out in the Temple, preaching to the people!
26-27 The police captain went with his officers and arrested them (without violence, for they were afraid the people would kill them if they roughed up the disciples) and brought them in before the Council.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.