Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹² Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people he has chosen as his own. ^13-15 The Lord gazes down upon mankind from heaven where he lives. He has made their hearts and closely watches everything they do.

^16-17 The best-equipped army cannot save a king—for great strength is not enough to save anyone. A war horse is a poor risk for winning victories—it is strong, but it cannot save.

^18-19 But the eyes of the Lord are watching over those who fear him, who rely upon his steady love. He will keep them from death even in times of famine! ²⁰ We depend upon the Lord alone to save us. Only he can help us; he protects us like a shield. ²¹ No wonder we are happy in the Lord! For we are trusting him. We trust his holy name. ²² Yes, Lord, let your constant love surround us, for our hopes are in you alone.

6 Yes, but there is a very serious evil which I have seen everywhere— ² God has given to some men very great wealth and honor so that they can have everything they want, but he doesn’t give them the health to enjoy it, and they die and others get it all! This is absurd, a hollow mockery, and a serious fault.

³ Even if a man has a hundred sons and as many daughters and lives to be very old, but leaves so little money at his death that his children can’t even give him a decent burial—I say that he would be better off born dead. ⁴ For though his birth would then be futile and end in darkness, without even a name, ⁵ never seeing the sun or even knowing its existence, yet that is better than to be an old, unhappy man. ⁶ Though a man lives a thousand years twice over but doesn’t find contentment—well, what’s the use?

7 Then the High Priest asked him, “Are these accusations true?”

² This was Stephen’s lengthy reply: “The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Iraq^[a] before he moved to Syria, ³ and told him to leave his native land, to say good-bye to his relatives and to start out for a country that God would direct him to. ⁴ So he left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran, in Syria, until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land of Israel, ⁵ but gave him no property of his own, not one little tract of land.

“However, God promised that eventually the whole country would belong to him and his descendants—though as yet he had no children! ⁶ But God also told him that these descendants of his would leave the land and live in a foreign country and there become slaves for 400 years. ⁷ ‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God told him, ‘and afterwards my people will return to this land of Israel and worship me here.’

⁸ “God also gave Abraham the ceremony of circumcision at that time, as evidence of the covenant between God and the people of Abraham. And so Isaac, Abraham’s son, was circumcised when he was eight days old. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Jewish nation.