Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁸ “Tell the Israelites this: I am taking you to another land. ¹⁹ When you eat the food that grows in that land, you must give part of that food as an offering to the Lord. ²⁰ You will gather grain and grind it into flour to make dough for bread. You must give the first bread from that flour as a gift to the Lord. It will be like the grain offering that comes from the threshing floor. ²¹ You and all your descendants must give part of the first dough you make from that flour as a gift to the Lord.

²² “As you try to obey all the commands that the Lord gave Moses, you might fail and make a mistake. ²³ The Lord gave you those commands through Moses, and they have been in effect from the day they were given throughout the generations until today. ²⁴ If you made this mistake where everyone could see it, the whole community must offer a young bull as a burnt offering, as a sweet-smelling gift to the Lord. You must also offer the grain offering and the drink offering with the bull. And you must also give a male goat as a sin offering.

²⁵ “So the priest will make the whole community of Israel pure, and they will be forgiven for the mistake they made. Since they made the mistake, they must bring a gift and a sin offering to the Lord. ²⁶ Then the whole community of Israel and any foreigners among them will be forgiven for the mistake.

Paul Before King Agrippa

26 Agrippa said to Paul, “You may now speak to defend yourself.” Paul raised his hand to get their attention and began to speak. ² He said, “King Agrippa, I feel fortunate that I can stand here before you today and answer all the charges these Jews have made against me. ³ I am very happy to talk to you, because you know so much about all the Jewish customs and the things the Jews argue about. Please listen to me patiently.

⁴ “All the Jews know about my whole life. They know the way I lived from the beginning in my own country and later in Jerusalem. ⁵ These Jews have known me for a long time. If they want to, they can tell you that I was a good Pharisee. And the Pharisees obey the laws of the Jewish religion more carefully than any other group. ⁶ Now I am on trial because I hope for the promise that God made to our fathers. ⁷ This is the promise that all the twelve tribes of our people hope to receive. For this hope the Jews serve God day and night. My king, the Jews have accused me because I hope for this same promise. ⁸ Why do you people think it is impossible for God to raise people from death?

⁹ “I used to think that I should do everything I could against Jesus from Nazareth. ¹⁰ And that’s what I did, beginning in Jerusalem. The leading priests gave me the authority to put many of God’s people in jail. And when they were being killed, I agreed that it was a good thing. ¹¹ I visited all the synagogues and punished them, trying to make them curse^[a] Jesus. My anger against these people was so strong that I went to other cities to find them and punish them.