Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

²⁵ Yes, I will stand and praise you^[a] before all the people. I will publicly fulfill my vows in the presence of all who reverence your name.

²⁶ The poor^[b] shall eat and be satisfied; all who seek the Lord shall find him and shall praise his name. Their hearts shall rejoice with everlasting joy. ²⁷ The whole earth shall see it and return to the Lord; the people of every nation shall worship him.

²⁸ For the Lord is King and rules the nations. ²⁹ Both proud and humble together, all who are mortal—born to die—shall worship him. ³⁰ Our children too shall serve him, for they shall hear from us about the wonders of the Lord; ³¹ generations yet unborn shall hear of all the miracles he did for us.

8 Then the Lord God showed me, in a vision, a basket full of ripe fruit.

² “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.

I replied, “A basket full of ripe fruit.”

Then the Lord said, “This fruit represents my people Israel—ripe for punishment. I will not defer their punishment again. ³ The riotous sound of singing in the Temple will turn to weeping then. Dead bodies will be scattered everywhere. They will be carried out of the city in silence.” The Lord has spoken.

⁴ Listen, you merchants who rob the poor, trampling on the needy; ⁵ you who long for the Sabbath to end and the religious holidays to be over so you can get out and start cheating again—using your weighted scales and under-sized measures; ⁶ you who make slaves of the poor, buying them for their debt of a piece of silver or a pair of shoes, or selling them your moldy wheat:

⁷ The Lord, the Pride of Israel, has sworn: “I won’t forget your deeds!

8 Paul was in complete agreement with the killing of Stephen.

And a great wave of persecution of the believers began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem, and everyone except the apostles fled into Judea and Samaria. ² (But some godly Jews^[a] came and with great sorrow buried Stephen.) ³ Paul was like a wild man, going everywhere to devastate the believers, even entering private homes and dragging out men and women alike and jailing them.

⁴ But the believers^[b] who had fled Jerusalem went everywhere preaching the Good News about Jesus! ⁵ Philip, for instance, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about Christ. ⁶ Crowds listened intently to what he had to say because of the miracles he did. ⁷ Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed, ⁸ so there was much joy in that city!