Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Davidic prayer
Help Us, God
86 Lord, listen and answer me,
for I am afflicted and needy.
2 Protect me, for I am faithful;[a]
My God, deliver your servant who trusts in you.
3 Have mercy on me Lord,
for I call on you all day long.
4 Your servant rejoices,
because, Lord, I set my hope on[b] you.
5 Indeed you, Lord, are kind and forgiving,
overflowing with gracious love to everyone who calls on you.
6 Hear my prayer, Lord;
attend to my prayer of supplication.
7 In my troubled times I will call on you,
for you will answer me.
8 No one can compare with you among the gods, Lord;
No one can accomplish[c] your work.
9 All the nations that you have established will come
and worship you, my Lord.
They will honor your name.
10 For you are great,
and you are doing awesome things;
you alone are God.
Jacob Moves to Bethel
35 Later, God told Jacob, “Get up, move to Bethel, and live there. Build an altar to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”
2 Jacob announced to his household and to everyone with him, “Throw away the foreign gods that you’ve kept among you, purify yourselves, and change your clothes. 3 Then let’s get up and go to Bethel, where I’ll build an altar to the God who answered me when I was in distress and who was with me on the road, wherever I went.”
4 So they handed over to Jacob all their foreign gods on which they had been depending,[a] along with the rings that they were wearing on their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak that grew near Shechem.
The Apostles are Tried before the Jewish Council
17 Then the high priest and all those from the sect of the Sadducees who were with him were filled with jealousy. So they went out, 18 arrested the apostles, and put them in the city jail. 19 But at night the angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and led them out. The angel[a] told them, 20 “Go, stand in the Temple, and keep on telling the people the whole message about this life they can have.”[b]
21 After the apostles[c] heard this, they went into the Temple at daybreak and began to teach. The high priest and those who were with him arrived, called the Council[d] and all the elders of Israel together, and sent word[e] to the prison to have the men brought in. 22 When the Temple police got there, they did not find them in the prison. They came back and reported, 23 “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 When the commander of the Temple guards and the high priests heard these words, they were utterly at a loss as to what could have happened to them.
25 Then someone came and told them, “Look! The men you put in prison are standing in the Temple and teaching the people!” 26 So the commander of the Temple guards went with his men to bring them back without force, because they were afraid of being stoned to death by the people.
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