Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

I Will Praise Yahweh Throughout My Life

¹⁷ Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land where I am going to bring you, ¹⁹ then it shall be, that when you eat of the ^[a](A)food of the land, you shall ^[b]raise up ^[c]a contribution offering to Yahweh. ^20 (B)Of the first of your ^[d]dough you shall ^[e]raise up a cake as a ^[f]contribution offering; as ^(C)the ^[g]contribution offering of the threshing floor, so you shall raise it up. ²¹ From the first of your ^[h]dough you shall give to Yahweh a ^[i]contribution offering throughout your generations.

²² ‘But when you ^(D)unintentionally fail and do not observe all these commandments, which Yahweh has spoken to Moses, ²³ even all that Yahweh has commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day when Yahweh commanded and onward throughout your generations, ²⁴ then it will be, if it is done ^(E)unintentionally, hidden from the sight of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering as a soothing aroma to Yahweh, ^(F)with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the legal judgment, and one male goat for a sin offering. ²⁵ Then ^(G)the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and they will be pardoned; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to Yahweh, and their sin offering before Yahweh, for their error. ²⁶ So all the congregation of the sons of Israel will be pardoned, with the sojourner who sojourns among them, for it happened to all the people through ^(H)error.

26 ^(A)Now Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul, stretching out his hand, began to make his defense:

² “Concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I regard myself blessed, King Agrippa, that I am about to make my defense before you today; ^3 [a]especially because you are an expert in all ^(B)customs and ^[b]questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴ “So then, all Jews know ^(C)my manner of life from my youth, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem; ⁵ since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a ^(D)Pharisee ^(E)according to the strictest ^(F)sect of our religion. ⁶ And now I am standing here being tried ^(G)for the hope of ^(H)the promise made by God to our fathers; ⁷ the promise ^(I)to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this ^(J)hope, O King, I am being ^(K)accused by Jews. ⁸ Why is it considered unbelievable among all of you ^(L)if God does raise the dead?

⁹ “So then, ^(M)I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to ^(N)the name of Jesus the Nazarene. ¹⁰ And this is ^[c]just what I ^(O)did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the ^[d]saints in prisons, having ^(P)received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I ^(Q)cast my vote against them. ¹¹ And ^(R)as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being ^(S)furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them ^(T)even to ^[e]foreign cities.