Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
7 “Listen, my people, I am speaking:
Isra’el, I am testifying against you,
I, God, your God.
8 I am not rebuking you for your sacrifices;
your burnt offerings are always before me.
9 I have no need for a bull from your farm
or for male goats from your pens;
10 for all forest creatures are mine already,
as are the animals on a thousand hills;
11 I know all the birds in the mountains;
whatever moves in the fields is mine.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you;
for the world is mine, and everything in it.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer thanksgiving as your sacrifice to God,
pay your vows to the Most High,
15 and call on me when you are in trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
40 Let us examine and test our ways
and return to Adonai.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands
to God in heaven and say,
42 “We, for our part, have transgressed and rebelled;
you, for your part, have not forgiven.
43 “You have covered us with anger,
pursued and slaughtered us without pity.
44 You have covered yourself with a cloud so thick
that no prayer can pass through.
45 You have reduced us
to rubbish and filth among the peoples.
46 “All our adversaries
open their mouths to jeer at us.
47 Panic and pitfall have come upon us,
desolation and destruction.
48 My eyes stream with rivers of water
over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
49 My eyes weep ceaselessly;
there is no respite,
50 until Adonai looks down
and sees from heaven.
51 My eyes make me so upset
at the fate of the women in my city.
52 Those who are my enemies for no reason
hunted me down like a bird.
53 They forced me alive into a pit
and threw stones on me.
54 Water rose above my head;
I thought, “I am finished!”
55 I called on your name, Adonai,
from the bottom of the pit.
56 You heard my voice; don’t close your ear
at my sighs, at my cries.
57 You came near when I called to you;
you said, “Don’t be afraid.”
58 Adonai, you defended my cause;
you redeemed my life.
28 After our escape, we learned that the island was called Malta. 2 Its people showed extraordinary kindness — it was cold and it had started to rain, so they lit a bonfire and welcomed us all. 3 Sha’ul had gathered a bundle of sticks and was adding them to the fire, when a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, fastened itself to his hand. 4 The islanders saw the creature hanging from Sha’ul’s hand and said to one another, “This man must be a murderer. Even though he escaped the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.” 5 But he shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 They waited, expecting him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing that nothing amiss was happening to him, they reversed their opinion and said he was a god.
7 Nearby were lands belonging to the governor of the island, whose name was Publius. He received us in a friendly manner and put us up for three days. 8 Now it so happened that Publius’ father was lying in bed, sick with fever attacks and dysentery. Sha’ul went in to him, prayed, placed his hands on him and healed him. 9 After this happened, the rest of those on the island who had ailments came and were healed. 10 They heaped honors on us; and when the time came for us to sail, they provided the supplies we needed.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.