Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

145 I will extol Thee, my God, O King; and I will bless Thy name for ever and ever.

² Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy name for ever and ever.

³ Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.

⁴ One generation shall praise Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts.

⁵ I will speak of the glorious honor of Thy majesty, and of Thy wondrous works.

¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.

¹⁸ The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.

¹⁹ He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him; He also will hear their cry and will save them.

²⁰ The Lord preserveth all them that love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy.

²¹ My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless His holy name for ever and ever.

⁹ And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

¹⁰ “Take from them of the captivity — even from Heldai, from Tobijah, and from Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon — and come thou the same day and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah.

¹¹ Then take silver and gold and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest,

¹² and speak unto him, saying, ‘Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, “Behold the Man whose name is The Branch! And He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the Lord.

¹³ Even He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne. And He shall be a priest upon His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’

¹⁴ “And the crowns shall be for Helem and for Tobijah and for Jedaiah, and for Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of the Lord.

¹⁵ And those who are far off shall come and build the temple of the Lord, and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent Me unto you. And this shall come to pass if ye will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

¹⁰ Then Paul, after the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered: “Inasmuch as I know that thou hast been for many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself.

¹¹ For thou mayest understand that there have been yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship.

¹² And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither stirring up the people, neither in the synagogues nor in the city.

¹³ Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me.

¹⁴ But this I confess unto thee, that according to the Way, which they call heresy, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.

¹⁵ And I have hope in God, which they themselves also hold, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

¹⁶ And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.

¹⁷ “Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings,

¹⁸ whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, with neither crowd nor tumult.

¹⁹ These ought to have been here before thee to object if they had aught against me;

²⁰ or else let these same say here if they have found any evildoing in me when I stood before the council,

²¹ unless it be for this one utterance that I cried out standing among them: ‘Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am called into question by you this day.’”

²² And when Felix heard these things, having a more complete knowledge of that Way, he deferred the hearing and said, “When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.”

²³ And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, but to let him have some liberties, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintances to minister or come unto him.