Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Song of degrees.

121 I lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: whence shall my help come?

² My help [cometh] from Jehovah, who made the heavens and the earth.

³ He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

⁴ Behold, he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ Jehovah is thy keeper, Jehovah is thy shade upon thy right hand;

⁶ The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

⁷ Jehovah will keep thee from all evil; he will keep thy soul.

⁸ Jehovah will keep thy going out and thy coming in, from henceforth and for evermore.

²⁶ And above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.

²⁷ And I saw as the look of glowing brass, as the appearance of fire, within it round about; from the appearance of his loins and upward, and from the appearance of his loins and downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.

²⁸ As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah. And when I saw, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.

2 And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee.

26 And Agrippa said to Paul, It is permitted thee to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretching out his hand answered in his defence:

² I count myself happy, king Agrippa, in having to answer to-day before thee concerning all of which I am accused by the Jews,

³ especially because thou art acquainted with all the customs and questions which are among the Jews; wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.

⁴ My manner of life then from my youth, which from its commencement was passed among my nation in Jerusalem, know all the Jews,

⁵ who knew me before from the outset [of my life], if they would bear witness, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

⁶ And now I stand to be judged because of the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,

⁷ to which our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night hope to arrive; about which hope, O king, I am accused of [the] Jews.

⁸ Why should it be judged a thing incredible in your sight if God raises the dead?

⁹ *I* indeed myself thought that I ought to do much against the name of Jesus the Nazaraean.

¹⁰ Which also I did in Jerusalem, and myself shut up in prisons many of the saints, having received the authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death I gave my vote.

¹¹ And often punishing them in all the synagogues, I compelled them to blaspheme. And, being exceedingly furious against them, I persecuted them even to cities out [of our own land].

¹² And when, [engaged] in this, I was journeying to Damascus, with authority and power from the chief priests,

¹³ at mid-day, on the way, I saw, O king, a light above the brightness of the sun, shining from heaven round about me and those who were journeying with me.

¹⁴ And, when we were all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? [it is] hard for thee to kick against goads.

¹⁵ And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, *I* am Jesus whom *thou* persecutest:

¹⁶ but rise up and stand on thy feet; for, for this purpose have I appeared to thee, to appoint thee to be a servant and a witness both of what thou hast seen, and of what I shall appear to thee in,

¹⁷ taking thee out from among the people, and the nations, to whom *I* send thee,

¹⁸ to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me.