Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

An instruction of David; when he was in the cave: a prayer.

142 I cry unto Jehovah with my voice: with my voice unto Jehovah do I make supplication.

² I pour out my plaint before him; I shew before him my trouble.

³ When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then *thou* knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they hidden a snare for me.

⁴ Look on the right hand and see; there is no man that knoweth me: refuge hath failed me; no man careth for my soul.

⁵ I cried unto thee, Jehovah; I said, Thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.

⁶ Attend unto my cry, for I am brought very low; deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I.

⁷ Bring my soul out of prison, that I may celebrate thy name. The righteous shall surround me, because thou dealest bountifully with me.

9 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar; and he said, Smite the chapiter that the thresholds may shake; and break all of them in pieces, in the head; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not get away by flight, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered.

² Though they dig into Sheol, thence shall my hand take them; and though they climb up to the heavens, thence will I bring them down;

³ and though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and it shall bite them;

⁴ and though they go into captivity before their enemies, there will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

¹² And when it was day, the Jews, having banded together, put themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they should kill Paul.

¹³ And they were more than forty who had joined together in this oath;

¹⁴ and they went to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have cursed ourselves with a curse to taste nothing until we kill Paul.

¹⁵ Now therefore do ye with the council make a representation to the chiliarch so that he may bring him down to you, as about to determine more precisely what concerns him, and we, before he draws near, are ready to kill him.

¹⁶ But Paul's sister's son, having heard of the lying in wait, came and entered into the fortress and reported [it] to Paul.

¹⁷ And Paul, having called one of the centurions, said, Take this youth to the chiliarch, for he has something to report to him.

¹⁸ He therefore, having taken him with [him], led him to the chiliarch, and says, The prisoner Paul called me to [him] and asked me to lead this youth to thee, who has something to say to thee.

¹⁹ And the chiliarch having taken him by the hand, and having gone apart in private, inquired, What is it that thou hast to report to me?

²⁰ And he said, The Jews have agreed together to make a request to thee, that thou mayest bring Paul down to-morrow into the council, as about to inquire something more precise concerning him.

²¹ Do not thou then be persuaded by them, for there lie in wait for him of them more than forty men, who have put themselves under a curse neither to eat nor drink till they kill him; and now they are ready waiting the promise from thee.

²² The chiliarch then dismissed the youth, commanding [him], Utter to no one that thou hast represented these things to me.

²³ And having called to [him] certain two of the centurions, he said, Prepare two hundred soldiers that they may go as far as Caesarea, and seventy horsemen, and two hundred light-armed footmen, for the third hour of the night.

²⁴ And [he ordered them] to provide beasts, that they might set Paul on them and carry [him] safe through to Felix the governor,

²⁵ having written a letter, couched in this form:

²⁶ Claudius Lysias to the most excellent governor Felix, greeting.

²⁷ This man, having been taken by the Jews, and being about to be killed by them, I came up with the military and took out [of their hands], having learned that he was a Roman.

²⁸ And desiring to know the charge on which they accused him, I brought him down to their council;

²⁹ whom I found to be accused of questions of their law, but to have no charge laid against him [making him] worthy of death or of bonds.

³⁰ But having received information of a plot about to be put in execution against the man [by the Jews], I have immediately sent him to thee, commanding also his accusers to say before thee the things that are against him. [Farewell.]

³¹ The soldiers therefore, according to what was ordered them, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris,

³² and on the morrow, having left the horsemen to go with him, returned to the fortress.

³³ And these, having entered into Caesarea, and given up the letter to the governor, presented Paul also to him.

³⁴ And having read [it], and asked of what eparchy he was, and learned that [he was] of Cilicia,

³⁵ he said, I will hear thee fully when thine accusers also are arrived. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's praetorium.