Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 17

A Prayer of David.

¹ Hear the right (my righteous cause), O Lord; listen to my shrill, piercing cry! Give ear to my prayer, that comes from unfeigned and guileless lips.

² Let my sentence of vindication come from You! May Your eyes behold the things that are just and upright.

³ You have proved my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and find nothing [no evil purpose in me]; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

⁴ Concerning the works of men, by the word of Your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent (the paths of the destroyer).

⁵ My steps have held closely to Your paths [to the tracks of the One Who has gone on before]; my feet have not slipped.

⁶ I have called upon You, O God, for You will hear me; incline Your ear to me and hear my speech.

⁷ Show Your marvelous loving-kindness, O You Who save by Your right hand those who trust and take refuge in You from those who rise up against them.

⁸ Keep and guard me as the pupil of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings

⁹ From the wicked who despoil and oppress me, my deadly adversaries who surround me.

⁵ If brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, his wife shall not be married outside the family to a stranger [an excluded man]. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.

⁶ And the firstborn son shall succeed to the name of the dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

⁷ And if the man does not want to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuses to continue his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother.

⁸ Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if he stands firm and says, I do not want to take her,

⁹ Then shall his brother’s wife come to him in the presence of the elders and pull his shoe off his foot and spit in his face and shall answer, So shall it be done to that man who does not build up his brother’s house.

¹⁰ And his family shall be called in Israel, The House of Him Whose Shoe Was Loosed.

²² Up to the moment that Paul made this last statement, the people listened to him; but now they raised their voices and shouted, Away with such a fellow from the earth! He is not fit to live!

²³ And as they were shouting and tossing and waving their garments and throwing dust into the air,

²⁴ The commandant ordered that Paul be brought into the barracks, and that he be examined by scourging in order that [the commandant] might learn why the people cried out thus against him.

²⁵ But when they had stretched him out with the thongs (leather straps), Paul asked the centurion who was standing by, Is it legal for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned [without a trial]?

²⁶ When the centurion heard that, he went to the commandant and said to him, What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen!

²⁷ So the commandant came and said to [Paul], Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? And he said, Yes [indeed]!

²⁸ The commandant replied, I purchased this citizenship [as a capital investment] for a big price. Paul said, But I was born [Roman]!

²⁹ Instantly those who were about to examine and flog him withdrew from him; and the commandant also was frightened, for he realized that [Paul] was a Roman citizen and he had put him in chains.

³⁰ But the next day, desiring to know the real cause for which the Jews accused him, he unbound him and ordered the chief priests and all the council (Sanhedrin) to assemble; and he brought Paul down and placed him before them.

23 Then Paul, gazing earnestly at the council (Sanhedrin), said, Brethren, I have lived before God, doing my duty with a perfectly good conscience until this very day [^[a]as a citizen, a true and loyal Jew].

² At this the high priest Ananias ordered those who stood near him to strike him on the mouth.

³ Then Paul said to him, God is about to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit as a judge to try me in accordance with the Law, and yet in defiance of the Law you order me to be struck?

⁴ Those who stood near exclaimed, Do you rail at and insult the high priest of God?

⁵ And Paul said, I was not conscious, brethren, that he was a high priest; for the Scripture says, You shall not speak ill of a ruler of your people.^(A)

⁶ But Paul, when he perceived that one part of them were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees, cried out to the council (Sanhedrin), Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; it is with regard to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am indicted and being judged.

⁷ So when he had said this, an angry dispute arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and the whole [crowded] assemblage was divided [into two factions].

⁸ For the Sadducees hold that there is no resurrection, nor angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees declare openly and speak out freely, acknowledging [their belief in] them both.

⁹ Then a great uproar ensued, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and thoroughly fought the case, [contending fiercely] and declaring, We find nothing evil or wrong in this man. But if a spirit or an angel [really] spoke to him—? Let us not fight against God!

¹⁰ And when the strife became more and more tense and violent, the commandant, fearing that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, ordered the troops to go down and take him forcibly from among them and conduct him back into the barracks.

¹¹ And [that same] following night the Lord stood beside Paul and said, Take courage, Paul, for as you have borne faithful witness concerning Me at Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.