Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶ When they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out his hand to the Ark of God and steadied it because the oxen were stumbling. ⁷ This aroused the Lord’s anger against Uzzah because of his irreverent act, and he died there beside the Ark of God. ⁸ David became greatly upset because the Lord had vented his anger against Uzzah, and to this very day that place is called Perez-uzzah.

⁹ David greatly feared the Lord that day, and he said: “How can the Ark of the Lord be placed in my care?” ¹⁰ Therefore, he decided not to take the Ark of the Lord to be in his care in the City of David. Instead he took it to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. ¹¹ The Ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and his entire household.

¹² When King David was informed that the Lord had blessed the family of Obed-edom and everything that belonged to him because of the Ark of God, David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the City of David amid great rejoicing.

²⁷ Paul’s Arrest in the Temple.^[a] When the seven days were nearly over, the Jews from the province of Asia saw him in the temple. Stirring up the whole crowd, they seized him, ²⁸ shouting, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against our people, the Law, and this place. What is more, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.” ²⁹ They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

³⁰ Thus, the entire city was in turmoil, and people came running from all directions. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and the gates were then shut. ³¹ While they were trying to kill him, word reached the commander of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. ³² Immediately, he took soldiers and centurions with him and charged down on them.

When the Jews saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. ³³ Then the commander came forward, arrested him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Next he asked who he was and what he had done. ³⁴ Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another; and since the commander could not arrive at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. ³⁵ When he came to the steps, the violence of the crowd was so intense that he had to be carried by the soldiers. ³⁶ The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!”

³⁷ Just as he was about to be taken into the barracks, Paul said to the commander, “May I say something to you?” The commander replied, “So you speak Greek? ³⁸ Then you are not the Egyptian^[b] who recently started a revolt and led the four thousand assassins into the desert.” ³⁹ Paul asserted, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city. May I have your permission to speak to the people?”