Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

23 (Mizmor of Dovid). Hashem is my Ro’eh (Shepherd); I shall not lack.

² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the mei menuchot (tranquil waters).

³ He restoreth my nefesh; He guideth me in the paths of tzedek l’ma’an Shmo (righteousness for the sake of His Name).

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the Gey Tzalmavet (Valley of the Shadow of Death), I will fear no rah (evil); for Thou art with me; Thy shevet (rod) and Thy staff they comfort me.

⁵ Thou preparest a shulchan before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with shemen (olive oil); my kos runneth over.

⁶ Surely tov and chesed shall follow me kol y’mei chaiyyai (all the days of my life): and I will dwell in the Bais Hashem l’orech yamim (for length of days, whole life

¹⁷ Gather up thy gear [for Exile] meEretz (from the Land), O besieged inhabitant.

¹⁸ For thus saith Hashem, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of HaAretz at this time, and will bring distress upon them, so that find they may [i.e., what they deserve].

¹⁹ Oy li! (woe is me) for my disaster! My wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this is a sickness, and I must bear it.

²⁰ My ohel is destroyed, and all my tent cords are broken; my banim are gone forth of me, and are no more; there is none to pitch any more my ohel, and to hang up my tent curtains.

²¹ For the ro’im (shepherds, pastors) are become stupid, and inquire not of Hashem; therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flock shall be scattered.

²² Hinei, the noise! The report is come, and a great commotion out of Eretz Tzafon, to make the towns of Yehudah desolate, and a haunt of jackals.

²³ Hashem, I know that the derech of adam (man) is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

²⁴ Hashem, correct me, but with mishpat; not in Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing.

²⁵ Pour out Thy fury upon the Goyim that know Thee not, and upon the mishpekhot that call not on Shimecha (Thy Name) [See Joel 2:32(3:5); Ac 2:21; Ro 10:13]; for they have eaten up Ya’akov, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

¹⁶ And awaiting them in Athens, the ruach of Rav Sha’ul was being distressed within him as he observed the city being full of elilim.

¹⁷ Therefore, Rav Sha’ul was dialoguing and arguing in the shul with the Yehudim and with the yirei Elohim and also in the marketplace yom yom [street preaching] to the ones who happened to be there.

¹⁸ Also some of the Apikoros (Epicurean) and Stoic philosophers started conversing with Rav Sha’ul, and some were saying, "What might this babbler wish to say?" And others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities." They said this because of what Rav Sha’ul was proclaiming: Yehoshua and the Techiyas HaMesim.

¹⁹ And having taken hold of Rav Sha’ul, they brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "Are we able to have da’as of what this new teaching is, which is being spoken by you?

²⁰ "For some surprising things you bring to our hearing. Therefore, we desire to have da’as of what these things mean."

²¹ Now all the Athenians and the visiting foreigners and tourists in Athens used to spend time doing nothing but shmoozing about the latest novelty in the news.

²² And Rav Sha’ul, taking his stand in the middle of the Areopagus, said, "Anashim, Athenians, with respect to everything how very religious indeed I observe you to be.

²³ "For passing through and looking carefully at your objects of worship, I found also an altar on which had been inscribed ‘To the unknown g-d.’ Therefore, what you worship without da’as, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴ "Hashem, the One having made HaOlam and all the things in it, this One being Adon HaShomayim vaHaAretz, does not dwell in temples made by human hands. [Isa 42:5 Dt 10:14; Isa 66:1; 1Kgs 8:27]

²⁵ "Nor is Hashem served by human hands, as if Hashem were in need of something, since He gives to all Chayyim and breath and everything. [Ps 50:10-12; Isa 42:5]

²⁶ "And Hashem made from one ancestor every nation of anashim dwelling pnei kol haAretz. And Hashem has set the zmanim and the fixed boundaries of their habitations, [Dt 32:8; Job 12:23]

²⁷ "So that they would seek Hashem, if efsher (perhaps) they might grope for Him and might find Him, though Hashem is not far from each one of us. [Dt 4:7; Isa 55:6; Jer 23:23,24]

²⁸ "For ‘we live in Him and in Him we move and have our being,’ as also some of your poets have said, ‘For we are all His offspring.’ [Dt 30:20; Job 12:10; Dan 5:23; Epimenides; Aratus]

²⁹ "Therefore, being offspring of Hashem, we ought not to think that Hashem’s essence is like gold or silver or stone, a tzelem (image) made by the skill and thought of Bnei Adam. [Isa 40:18-20]

³⁰ "While Hashem has disregarded and let pass the Am HaAretz times of ignorance, now, however, Hashem proclaims to kol bnei Adam everywhere, Make teshuva,

³¹ "Because he set a day in which he is about to bring MISHPAT (TEHILLIM 9:8) on the Olam Hazeh in tzedek [DANIEL 9:24] by an ISH (ZECHARYAH 6:12) whom he appointed, having furnished proof to all by having made him to stand up alive again from the Mesim." [Ps 9:8; 96:13; 98:9; Isa 53:11 MEGILLOT YAM HAMELACH (DEAD SEA SCROLLS)]