Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 142
A maskil[a] by David when he was in the cave; a prayer.
1 Loudly, I cry to Yahweh.
Loudly, I plead with Yahweh for mercy.
2 I pour out my complaints in his presence
and tell him my troubles.
3 When I begin to lose hope,
you already know what I am experiencing.
My enemies have hidden a trap for me on the path where I walk.
4 Look to my right and see that no one notices me.
Escape is impossible for me.
No one cares about me.
5 I call out to you, O Yahweh.
I say, “You are my Machseh,
my own inheritance in this world of the living.”
6 Pay attention to my cry for help
because I am very weak.
Rescue me from those who pursue me
because they are too strong for me.
7 Release my soul from prison
so that I may give thanks to your name.
Righteous people will surround me
because you are good to me.
A Funeral Song about Israel
5 Listen to this message, this funeral song that I sing about you, nation of Israel:
2 The people of Israel have fallen,
never to rise again.
They lie abandoned in their own land.
There is no one to help them.
3 This is what Adonay Yahweh says:
The city that sends 1,000 troops off to war
will have only 100 left.
The one that sends 100 troops off to war
will have only 10 left for the nation of Israel.
A Threefold Call to Turn Away from Sin
4 This is what Yahweh says to the nation of Israel:
Search for me and live!
5 But don’t search for me at Bethel.
Don’t go to Gilgal.
Don’t travel to Beersheba.
Gilgal will certainly go into exile.
Bethel will come to nothing.
6 Search for Yahweh and live!
If you don’t, he will spread like a fire through the house of Joseph
and burn it down.
Bethel will have no one to put it out.
7 You, Israel, turn justice into poison
and throw righteousness on the ground.
8 Elohim made the constellations Pleiades and Orion.
He turns deep darkness into dawn.
He turns day into night.
He calls for water from the sea
to pour it over the face of the earth.
His name is Yahweh.
9 He destroys strongholds and ruins fortresses.
27 When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the temple courtyard. They stirred up the whole crowd and grabbed Paul. 28 Then they began shouting, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere to turn against the Jewish people, Moses’ Teachings, and this temple. He has even brought Greeks into the temple courtyard and has made this holy place unclean.”[a] 29 They had seen Trophimus from Ephesus with him in the city earlier and thought Paul had taken him into the temple courtyard.
30 The whole city was in chaos, and a mob formed. The mob grabbed Paul and dragged him out of the temple courtyard. The courtyard doors were immediately shut.
31 As the people were trying to kill Paul, the officer in charge of the Roman soldiers received a report that all Jerusalem was rioting. 32 Immediately, he took some soldiers and officers and charged the crowd. When the crowd saw the officer and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the officer went to Paul, grabbed him, and ordered him to be tied up with two chains.
The officer asked who Paul was and what he had done. 34 Some of the crowd shouted one thing, while others shouted something else. The officer couldn’t get any facts because of the noise and confusion, so he ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul came to the stairs of the barracks, the crowd was so violent that the soldiers had to carry him. 36 The mob was behind them shouting, “Kill him!”
Paul Speaks in His Own Defense
37 As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the officer, “May I say something to you?”
The officer replied to Paul, “Can you speak Greek? 38 Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolution not long ago and led four thousand terrorists into the desert?”
39 Paul answered, “I’m a Jew, a citizen from the well-known city of Tarsus in Cilicia. I’m asking you to let me talk to the people.”
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.