Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This is a special song that David wrote.

He prayed this when he was in the cave.^[a]

Please help me, Lord!

The Lord is powerful

9 Then I saw a vision of the Lord. He was standing beside the altar in the temple. The Lord said, ‘Hit the tops of the pillars so that the whole foundation shakes! Cause the building to fall on the heads of all the people. If anyone is still alive after that, I will cause them to die in battle. Nobody will escape! ² They might try to dig deep into the earth to save themselves. But my strong hand will pull them out of there. They might climb up into the sky. But I will pull them down from there. ³ They might try to hide on the top of Mount Carmel. But I will find them and I will take them from there. They might try to hide from me deep down in the sea. But I will command the great sea snake to bite them. ⁴ Even when their enemies take them away as prisoners, I will cause them to die in battle. I have decided to destroy them. I will not help them.’

The Jews in Jerusalem decide to kill Paul

¹² The next morning, a group of Jews talked together about how they might kill Paul. They agreed to make a promise to God. They would not eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul. ¹³ More than 40 men were in the group that decided this. ¹⁴ They went to the leaders of the priests and the important Jews. They said to them, ‘We have agreed together to make a serious promise to God. We will not eat anything until we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ So now we want you and the group of Jewish leaders to send a message to the leader of the Roman soldiers. Ask him, “Please bring Paul to the meeting of the Jewish leaders. We want to know more about the wrong things that he has done.” That will be the message. But, we will wait for Paul and we will be ready to kill him. We will do this before he arrives here at the meeting.’

¹⁶ But the son of Paul's sister heard what the Jews had decided to do. He went into the soldiers' building and he told Paul about it.

¹⁷ So Paul asked one of the soldiers' officers to come to him. He said, ‘Please take this young man to your leader. He has something important to tell him.’ ¹⁸ Then the officer led the young man to the soldiers' leader. He said to him, ‘Paul, who is here in the prison, spoke to me. He asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you.’

¹⁹ The leader of the soldiers held the young man's hand and he led him to another place. When they were alone, he asked the young man, ‘What do you want to tell me?’

²⁰ The young man said, ‘Some Jewish men have agreed together to send a message to you. They will ask you to take Paul down to the meeting of the Jewish leaders tomorrow. They will say that they want to ask him more questions. But that is not true. ²¹ Do not agree to do what they want. There are more than 40 men who will be hiding somewhere. They are waiting for Paul. They have made a serious promise to God. They will not eat or drink anything until they have killed Paul. They are now ready to do this. They will be waiting to hear your answer.’

²² The leader of the soldiers said to him, ‘Do not tell anyone that you told me about this.’ Then he sent the young man away.

The soldiers' leader sends Paul to Felix

²³ Then the soldiers' leader told two of his officers to come to him. He said to them, ‘Tell 200 of our soldiers to prepare themselves. They must go to Caesarea at nine o'clock tonight. 70 soldiers who ride on horses must also go. There must also be another 200 soldiers with their weapons. ²⁴ Take some horses for Paul to ride on. Take him to Felix the Roman ruler, and keep him safe on the journey.’

²⁵ Then the soldiers' leader wrote a letter to Felix. He sent this message:

²⁶ ‘I, Claudius Lysias, write this letter. I say “hello” to you, Felix, our great ruler.

²⁷ I am sending this man to you. The Jews took hold of him and they wanted to kill him. I found out that he is a citizen of Rome. Because of that, I took my soldiers and I saved him from them. ²⁸ The Jews said that he had done some wrong things. I wanted to know what was really true, so I took him to a meeting of their leaders. ²⁹ The Jewish leaders said that he had not obeyed their own laws. But that was all. We could not put him in prison or kill him because of these things. That would not be right. ³⁰ But a group of Jews decided to kill him. Someone told me about this, so I decided to send him to you immediately. I have told the Jewish leaders also to come to you in Caesarea. They can then tell you why they say that this man has done bad things.’

³¹ The soldiers did what their leader had told them to do. They took Paul out from the prison in their building. That night, they took him as far as Antipatris. ³² The next day, the soldiers who had walked returned to their building in Jerusalem. But the soldiers who rode horses continued to travel with Paul.^[a]

³³ When they arrived in Caesarea, they gave the letter to Felix, the ruler. They also brought Paul to him. ³⁴ Felix read the letter and he asked Paul, ‘Which Roman region are you from?’ Paul answered, ‘I am from Cilicia.’ ³⁵ Felix said, ‘When the Jews arrive, they will tell me about you. I will also listen to you. I will decide what is right.’

Felix then said to his soldiers, ‘Put this man in the prison in Herod's house. Guard him carefully!’