Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Lord, an Abundant Helper.

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

²² ‘But when you ^(D)unintentionally do wrong and fail to ^[h]comply with all these commandments which the Lord has spoken to Moses, ²³ that is, all that the Lord has commanded you ^[i]through Moses from the day that the Lord gave commandments and onward, throughout your generations, ²⁴ then it shall be, if it is done ^(E)unintentionally, ^[j]without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one bull as a burnt offering, as a soothing aroma to the Lord, ^(F)with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat as a sin offering. ²⁵ Then ^(G)the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and they will be forgiven; for it was an unintentional wrong, and they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord, for their unintentional wrong. ²⁶ So all the congregation of the sons of Israel will be forgiven, as well as the stranger who resides among them, for guilt was attributed to all the people through an ^(H)unintentional wrong.

Paul’s Defense before Agrippa

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

² “Regarding all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate 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 way of life since my youth, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and in 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 trial ^(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. For this ^(J)hope, O king, I am being ^(K)accused by Jews. ⁸ Why is it considered incredible among you people ^(L)if God raises the dead?

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