Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 146

Praise for God’s Help

¹⁷ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹⁸ Speak to the Israelites and say to them: After you come into the land to which I am bringing you, ¹⁹ whenever you eat of the bread of the land, you shall present a donation to the Lord. ²⁰ From your first batch of dough you shall present a loaf as a donation; you shall present it just as you present a donation from the threshing-floor. ²¹ Throughout your generations you shall give to the Lord a donation from the first of your batch of dough.

²² But if you unintentionally fail to observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses— ²³ everything that the Lord has commanded you by Moses, from the day the Lord gave commandment and thereafter, throughout your generations— ²⁴ then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation, the whole congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt-offering, a pleasing odour to the Lord, together with its grain-offering and its drink-offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin-offering. ²⁵ The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the Israelites, and they shall be forgiven; it was unintentional, and they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to the Lord, and their sin-offering before the Lord, for their error. ²⁶ All the congregation of the Israelites shall be forgiven, as well as the aliens residing among them, because the whole people was involved in the error.

Paul Defends Himself before Agrippa

26 Agrippa said to Paul, ‘You have permission to speak for yourself.’ Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself:

² ‘I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defence today against all the accusations of the Jews, ³ because you are especially familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews; therefore I beg of you to listen to me patiently.

⁴ ‘All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem. ⁵ They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I have belonged to the strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee. ⁶ And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors, ⁷ a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, your Excellency,^[a] that I am accused by Jews! ⁸ Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

⁹ ‘Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.^{[b] 10} And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death. ¹¹ By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.