Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ Give honor and thanks to God, O people, and let all hear how great He is! ⁹ He keeps us alive, and does not let our feet go out from under us. ¹⁰ For You have tested us, O God. You have made us pure like silver is made pure. ¹¹ You brought us into the net. And You laid a heavy load on our back. ¹² You made men travel over our heads. We went through fire and through water. But You brought us out into a place where we have much more than we need. ¹³ I will come into Your house with burnt gifts. I will give You what I promised, ¹⁴ promises made by my lips and spoken by my mouth when I was in trouble. ¹⁵ I will give You burnt gifts of fat animals with the smoke of rams. I will give You bulls with male goats.

¹⁶ Come and hear, all who fear God, and I will tell you what He has done for me. ¹⁷ I cried to Him with my mouth and praised Him with my tongue. ¹⁸ The Lord will not hear me if I hold on to sin in my heart. ¹⁹ But it is sure that God has heard. He has listened to the voice of my prayer. ²⁰ Honor and thanks be to God! He has not turned away from my prayer or held His loving-kindness from me.

The Flood

7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat, you and all your family. For I have seen that you only are right and good at this time. ² Take with you seven of every clean animal of each sex, and one of each sex of the animals that are unclean. ³ And take with you seven of every kind of bird of the sky of each sex, to keep their kind alive over all the earth. ⁴ In seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy from the land every living thing that I have made.” ⁵ And Noah did all that the Lord told him to do.

⁶ Noah was 600 years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. ⁷ Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives all went into the large boat because of the water of the flood. ⁸ Clean animals and animals that were unclean and birds and every thing that moved on the ground ⁹ went into the large boat with Noah. They went two by two, male and female, just as God had told Noah. ¹⁰ After seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. ¹¹ In the year 600 of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the wells of water under the earth broke open. The windows of the heavens were opened. ¹² And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, all went into the large boat. ¹⁴ With them went every kind of animal, and all the cattle, and every thing that moved on the earth, and every kind of bird. ¹⁵ They went into the large boat with Noah, two of every living thing.

¹⁶ Male and female of all flesh went in as God had told Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood came upon the earth for forty days. The water got deeper and raised up the large boat so that it was lifted above the earth. ¹⁸ The water was very deep upon the earth. And the boat stayed upon the top of the water. ¹⁹ The water got higher and higher upon the earth until all the high mountains under heaven were covered. ²⁰ But the water went about four times taller than a man above the tops of the mountains. ²¹ All flesh that moved on the earth was destroyed, birds and cattle and wild animals, and every man. ²² Every thing that had the breath of life and lived on dry land died. ²³ God destroyed every living thing upon the land, from man to animals, from things that moved upon the ground to birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the large boat. ²⁴ And the water covered the earth for 150 days.

¹³ When a south wind started to blow, they thought their plan was right. They pulled up the anchor and went close to the shore of Crete.

¹⁴ Later a bad wind storm came down from the land. It was called a northeaster. ¹⁵ The ship was stopped by the wind. After awhile we gave up and let it go with the wind. ¹⁶ We went behind a small island called Claudia. It was hard work but we were able to make the ship’s boat safe. ¹⁷ They pulled it up and tied ropes around it and the ship. They were afraid of going on the Syrtis sands. So they took the sail down and let the ship go with the wind.

¹⁸ The storm was so bad the high waves were beating against the ship. The next day the men threw some of the freight over into the sea. ¹⁹ On the third day, with their own hands, they threw part of the sails and ropes into the sea. ²⁰ We did not see the sun or stars for many days. A very bad storm kept beating against us. We lost all hope of being saved.

Paul Shows His Faith

²¹ No one had eaten for a long time. Then Paul stood up and said to them, “Men, you should have listened to me and not left Crete. You would not have had this trouble and loss. ²² But now I want you to take hope. No one will lose his life. Only the ship will be lost. ²³ I belong to God and I work for Him. Last night an angel of God stood by me ²⁴ and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand in front of Caesar. God has given you the lives of all the men on this ship.’ ²⁵ So take hope, men. I believe my God will do what He has told me. ²⁶ But the ship will be lost on some island.”

²⁷ It was now the fourteenth night. We were going with the wind on the Adriatic Sea. At midnight the sailors thought land was near. ²⁸ They let down the lead weight and found the water was not very deep. After they had gone a little farther, they found there was not as much water. ²⁹ They were afraid we might be thrown against the rocks on the shore. So they put out four anchors from the back of the ship. Then they waited for morning to come.

³⁰ The sailors were thinking of leaving the ship. They let down a boat as if they were going to put out anchors from the front of the ship. ³¹ But Paul said to the captain and the soldiers, “These men must stay on the ship or you cannot be safe!” ³² Then the soldiers cut the ropes and let the boat fall into the sea.

³³ Just before the light of day came, Paul told all of them to eat. He said, “Today is the fourteenth day you have not eaten. ³⁴ You must eat. It will give you strength. Not one of you will lose a hair from your head.”

³⁵ After he said this, he took some bread. He gave thanks to God in front of them all. He broke it in pieces and started to eat. ³⁶ They all were comforted. Each one ate some food. ³⁷ All together there were 276 of us on the ship. ³⁸ After they had eaten, they threw the wheat into the sea so the ship would not be as heavy.