Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

81 Sing aloud unto God our strength; make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

² Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.

³ Blow the trumpet in the new moon, at the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.

⁴ For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.

⁵ This He ordained in Joseph as a testimony, when He went out through the land of Egypt, where I heard a language that I understood not:

⁶ “I removed his shoulder from the burden; his hands were delivered from the pots.

⁷ Thou called in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. I tested thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah

⁸ Hear, O My people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me!

⁹ There shall be no strange god among thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.

¹⁰ I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

¹³ “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord who doth sanctify you.

¹⁴ Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you. Every one who defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

¹⁵ Six days may work be done, but on the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

¹⁶ Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant.

¹⁷ It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”

¹⁸ And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tablets of testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

25 Now when Festus had come into the province, after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem.

² Then the high priest and the chief men of the Jews informed him against Paul and besought him,

³ desiring a favor against him: that he would have Paul brought to Jerusalem, so that they might lie in wait on the way to kill him.

⁴ But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would depart shortly thither.

⁵ “Let those therefore,” he said, “who among you are able, go down with me and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him.”

⁶ And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea. And the next day, sitting in the judgment seat, he commanded Paul to be brought.

⁷ And when he had come, the Jews who came down from Jerusalem stood round about and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove,

⁸ while Paul answered for himself: “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor yet against Caesar have I offended any thing at all.”

⁹ But Festus, desiring to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, “Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem and there be judged of these things before me?”

¹⁰ Then said Paul, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest.

¹¹ For if I am an offender, or have committed anything worthy of death, I should not refuse to die; but if there is nothing to these things whereof they accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.”

¹² Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, “Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? Unto Caesar shalt thou go!”