Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²⁴ Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and their back bend thou down always.

²⁵ Pour out thy indignation upon them: and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

²⁶ Let their habitation be made desolate: and let there be none to dwell in their tabernacles.

²⁷ Because they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds.

²⁸ Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity: and let them not come into thy justice.

²⁹ Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written.

³⁰ But I am poor and sorrowful: thy salvation, O God, hath set me up.

³¹ I will praise the name of God with a canticle: and I will magnify him with praise.

³² And it shall please God better than a young calf, that bringeth forth horns and hoofs.

³³ Let the poor see and rejoice: seek ye God, and your soul shall live.

³⁴ For the Lord hath heard the poor: and hath not despised his prisoners.

³⁵ Let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea, and every thing that creepeth therein.

¹² Abner therefore sent messengers to David for himself, saying: Whose is the land? and that they should say: Make a league with me, and my hand shall be with thee: and I will bring all Israel to thee.

¹³ And he said: Very well: I will make a league with thee: but one thing I require of thee, saying: Thou shalt not see my face before thou bring Michol the daughter of Saul: and so thou shalt come, and see me.

¹⁴ And David sent messengers to Isboseth the son of Saul, saying: Restore my wife Michol, whom I espoused to me for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines.

¹⁵ And Isboseth sent, and took her from her husband Phaltiel, the son of Lais.

¹⁶ And her husband followed her, weeping as far as Bahurim: and Abner said to him: Go and return. And he returned.

¹² And when day was come, some of the Jews gathered together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying, that they would neither eat, nor drink, till they killed Paul.

¹³ And they were more than forty men that had made this conspiracy.

¹⁴ Who came to the chief priests and the ancients, and said: We have bound ourselves under a great curse that we will eat nothing till we have slain Paul.

¹⁵ Now therefore do you with the council signify to the tribune, that he bring him forth to you, as if you meant to know something more certain touching him. And we, before he come near, are ready to kill him.

¹⁶ Which when Paul's sister's son had heard, of their lying in wait, he came and entered into the castle and told Paul.

¹⁷ And Paul, calling to him one of the centurions, said: Bring this young man to the tribune, for he hath some thing to tell him.

¹⁸ And he taking him, brought him to the tribune, and said: Paul, the prisoner, desired me to bring this young man unto thee, who hath some thing to say to thee.

¹⁹ And the tribune taking him by the hand, went aside with him privately, and asked him: What is it that thou hast to tell me?

²⁰ And he said: The Jews have agreed to desire thee, that thou wouldst bring forth Paul to morrow into the council, as if they meant to inquire some thing more certain touching him.

²¹ But do not thou give credit to them; for there lie in wait for him more than forty men of them, who have bound themselves by oath neither to eat, nor to drink, till they have killed him: and they are now ready, looking for a promise from thee.

²² The tribune therefore dismissed the young man, charging him that he should tell no man, that he had made known these things unto him.

²³ Then having called two centurions, he said to them: Make ready two hundred soldiers to go as far as Caesarea, and seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen for the third hour of the night:

²⁴ And provide beasts, that they may set Paul on, and bring him safe to Felix the governor.

²⁵ (For he feared lest perhaps the Jews might take him away by force and kill him, and he should afterwards be slandered, as if he was to take money.) And he wrote a letter after this manner:

²⁶ Claudius Lysias to the most excellent governor, Felix, greeting.

²⁷ This man being taken by the Jews, and ready to be killed by them, I rescued coming in with an army, understanding that he is a Roman:

²⁸ And meaning to know the cause which they objected unto him, I brought him forth into their council.

²⁹ Whom I found to be accused concerning questions of their law; but having nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bands.

³⁰ And when I was told of ambushes that they had prepared for him, I sent him to thee, signifying also to his accusers to plead before thee. Farewell.

³¹ Then the soldiers, according as it was commanded them, taking Paul, brought him by night to Antipatris.

³² And the next day, leaving the horsemen to go with him, they returned to the castle.

³³ Who, when they were come to Caesarea, and had delivered the letter to the governor, did also present Paul before him.

³⁴ And when he had read it, and had asked of what province he was, and understood that he was of Cilicia;

³⁵ I will hear thee, said he, when thy accusers come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's judgment hall.