Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Davidic Song, when he was in the cave.[a] A prayer.
A Call to God for Help
142 My voice cries out to the Lord;
my voice pleads for mercy to the Lord.
2 I pour out my complaint to him,
telling him all of my troubles.
3 Though my spirit grows faint within me,
you are aware of my path.
Wherever I go,
they have hidden a trap for me.
4 I look to my right[b] and observe—
no one is concerned about me.
There is nowhere I can go for refuge,
and no one cares for me.
5 So I cry to you, Lord,
declaring, “You are my refuge,
my only[c] possession while I am on this earth.”[d]
6 Pay attention to my cry,
for I have been brought very low.
Deliver me from my tormentors,
for they are far too strong for me.
7 Break me out of this prison,
so I can give thanks to your name.
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal generously with me.
A Lament for Israel
5 “Hear this accusation[a] that I am bringing against you:
‘A dirge, house of Israel:
2 Fallen is Israel the virgin—never to rise again!
She is abandoned on her own land,
with no one to raise her up.’
3 “For this is what the Lord God says:
‘The city that is sending out a thousand
will have a hundred left;
The city[b] that is sending out a hundred
will have ten left of the house of Israel.’”
Seek God, and Live
4 “For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel:
‘Seek me and live,
5 but don’t seek Bethel.
Don’t go to Gilgal,
and don’t pass over to Beer-sheba.
Because Gilgal will surely go into captivity,[c]
and Bethel will come to nothing.
6 ‘Seek the Lord and live!
Otherwise, he may break out like a fire in the house of Joseph
and devour Bethel,[d]
and there will be no one to extinguish it.
7 Those of you who are making justice taste bitter,[e]
and who have thrown righteousness to the ground:
8 Seek[f] the one who fashions the Pleiades and Orion,
who turns the deep darkness[g] into morning,
who darkens day into night,
who calls out to the waters of the sea,
pouring them out onto the surface of the earth—
the Lord is his name.
9 It is he who is raining sudden destruction
upon the strong like lightning,[h]
so that ruin comes upon the fortress.
27 When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, seeing Paul[a] in the Temple, stirred up a large crowd. They grabbed Paul,[b] 28 yelling, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere to turn against our people, the Law, and this place. More than that, he has even brought Greeks into the Temple and desecrated this Holy Place.” 29 For they had earlier seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and assumed that Paul had taken him into the Temple. 30 The whole city was in chaos. The people rushed together, grabbed Paul, dragged him out of the Temple, and at once the doors were sealed shut.
31 The crowd[c] was trying to kill Paul[d] when a report reached the tribune of the cohort[e] that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 Immediately the tribune[f] took some soldiers and officers and ran down to the crowd.[g] When the people[h] saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the tribune came up, grabbed Paul,[i] and ordered him to be tied up with two chains. He then asked who Paul[j] was and what he had done. 34 Some of the crowd shouted this and some that. Since the tribune[k] couldn’t learn the facts due to the confusion, he ordered Paul[l] to be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul[m] got to the steps, he had to be carried by the soldiers because the mob had become so violent. 36 The crowd of people kept following him and shouting, “Kill him!”
Paul Speaks in His Own Defense
37 Just as Paul was about to be taken into the barracks, he asked the tribune, “May I say something to you?”
The tribune[n] asked, “Oh, do you speak Greek? 38 You’re not the Egyptian who started a revolt some time ago and led 4,000 assassins into the desert, are you?”
39 Paul replied, “I’m a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. Please let me speak to the people.”
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