Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁹ O fear the Lord, all you who belong to Him. For those who fear Him never want for anything. ¹⁰ The young lions suffer want and hunger. But they who look for the Lord will not be without any good thing. ¹¹ Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. ¹² Who is the man who has a desire for life, and wants to live long so that he may see good things? ¹³ Keep your tongue from sin and your lips from speaking lies. ¹⁴ Turn away from what is sinful. Do what is good. Look for peace and follow it.

Zophar Talks

11 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered, ² “Should many words go without an answer? Should a man full of talk be said to be without blame? ³ Should your words of pride make men quiet? Should you make fun of truth and no one speak sharp words to you? ⁴ For you say, ‘What I believe is pure. I am without fault in Your eyes.’ ⁵ If only God would speak, and open His lips against you. ⁶ He would show you the secrets of wisdom because there are two sides. Then you would know that God is punishing you less than you should get.

⁷ “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out how far the All-powerful can go? ⁸ They are higher than the heavens. What can you do? They are deeper than the place of the dead. What can you know? ⁹ They are longer than the earth and wider than the sea. ¹⁰ If He passes by, puts a man in prison, or calls him to trial, who can stop Him? ¹¹ For He knows men who are no good. When He sees wrong-doing, will He not look into it? ¹² A fool cannot become wise anymore than a wild donkey can give birth to a man.

¹³ “If you set your heart right, and put out your hands to Him, ¹⁴ and if you put away the sin that is in your hand, do not let wrong-doing be in your tents. ¹⁵ Then you will be able to lift up your face without sin. You would be strong and not afraid. ¹⁶ For you would forget your trouble, remembering it as waters that have passed by. ¹⁷ Your life would be brighter than noon. Darkness would be like the morning. ¹⁸ Then you would trust, because there is hope. You would look around and rest and be safe. ¹⁹ You would lie down and no one would make you afraid. Many would ask for your favor. ²⁰ But the eyes of the sinful will waste away. There will be no way for them to get away. And their hope is to breathe their last.”

Stephen Is Brought in Front of the Religious Leaders’ Court

⁸ Stephen was a man full of faith and power. He did many great things among the people. ⁹ But some men came from their place of worship who were known as the Free people. They started to argue with Stephen. These men were from the countries of Cyrene and Alexandria and Cilicia and Asia. ¹⁰ Stephen spoke with wisdom and power given by the Holy Spirit. They were not able to say anything against what he said. ¹¹ So they told other men to say, “We have heard him say things against Moses and God.” ¹² In this way they got the people talking against Stephen. The leaders of the people and the teachers of the Law came and took him to the religious leaders’ court. ¹³ The people were told to lie and say, “This man keeps on talking against this place of worship and the Law of Moses. ¹⁴ We have heard him say, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is going to pull down this place. He is going to change what Moses taught us.’”

¹⁵ The men sitting in the religious leaders’ court were looking at Stephen. They all saw that his face looked like the face of an angel.