Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Prayer of David.

17 Hear the right, O Jehovah, attend unto my cry; give ear unto my prayer, which is not out of feigned lips.

² Let my judgment come forth from thy presence, let thine eyes regard equity.

³ Thou hast proved my heart, thou hast visited me by night; thou hast tried me, thou hast found nothing: my thought goeth not beyond my word.

⁴ Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept from the paths of the violent [man].

⁵ When thou holdest my goings in thy paths, my footsteps slip not.

⁶ I have called upon thee, for thou answerest me, O God. Incline thine ear unto me, hear my speech.

⁷ Shew wondrously thy loving-kindnesses, O thou that savest by thy right hand them that trust [in thee] from those that rise up [against them].

⁸ Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

⁹ From the wicked that destroy me, my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

⁵ If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no son, the wife of the dead shall not marry a stranger abroad: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him as wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her.

⁶ And it shall be, that the firstborn that she beareth shall stand in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name be not blotted out from Israel.

⁷ But if the man like not to take his brother's wife, his brother's wife shall go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel: he will not perform for me the duty of a husband's brother.

⁸ Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak unto him; and if he stand to it and say, I like not to take her;

⁹ then shall his brother's wife come near to him before the eyes of the elders, and draw his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto the man that will not build up his brother's house.

¹⁰ And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe drawn off.

²² And they heard him until this word, and lifted up their voice, saying, Away with such a one as that from the earth, for it was not fit he should live.

²³ And as they were crying, and throwing away their clothes, and casting dust into the air,

²⁴ the chiliarch commanded him to be brought into the fortress, saying that he should be examined by scourging, that he might ascertain for what cause they cried thus against him.

²⁵ But as they stretched him forward with the thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood [by], Is it lawful for you to scourge a man [who is] a Roman and uncondemned?

²⁶ And the centurion, having heard it, went and reported it to the chiliarch, saying, What art thou going to do? for this man is a Roman.

²⁷ And the chiliarch coming up said to him, Tell me, Art *thou* a Roman? And he said, Yes.

²⁸ And the chiliarch answered, *I*, for a great sum, bought this citizenship. And Paul said, But *I* was also [free] born.

²⁹ Immediately therefore those who were going to examine him left him, and the chiliarch also was afraid when he ascertained that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.

³⁰ And on the morrow, desirous to know the certainty [of the matter] why he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and having brought Paul down set him before them.

23 And Paul, fixing his eyes on the council, said, Brethren, I have walked in all good conscience with God unto this day.

² But the high priest Ananias ordered those standing by him to smite his mouth.

³ Then Paul said to him, God will smite thee, whited wall. And *thou*, dost thou sit judging me according to the law, and breaking the law commandest me to be smitten?

⁴ And those that stood by said, Dost thou rail against the high priest of God?

⁵ And Paul said, I was not conscious, brethren, that he was high priest; for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evilly of the ruler of thy people.

⁶ But Paul, knowing that the one part [of them] were of the Sadducees and the other of the Pharisees, cried out in the council, Brethren, *I* am a Pharisee, son of Pharisees: *I* am judged concerning the hope and resurrection of [the] dead.

⁷ And when he had spoken this, there was a tumult of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the multitude was divided.

⁸ For Sadducees say there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but Pharisees confess both of them.

⁹ And there was a great clamour, and the scribes of the Pharisees' part rising up contended, saying, We find nothing evil in this man; and if a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel …

¹⁰ And a great tumult having arisen, the chiliarch, fearing lest Paul should have been torn in pieces by them, commanded the troop to come down and take him by force from the midst of them, and to bring [him] into the fortress.

¹¹ But the following night the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good courage; for as thou hast testified the things concerning me at Jerusalem, so thou must bear witness at Rome also.