Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²² And Rav Sha’ul, taking his stand in the middle of the Areopagus, said, "Anashim, Athenians, with respect to everything how very religious indeed I observe you to be.

²³ "For passing through and looking carefully at your objects of worship, I found also an altar on which had been inscribed ‘To the unknown g-d.’ Therefore, what you worship without da’as, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴ "Hashem, the One having made HaOlam and all the things in it, this One being Adon HaShomayim vaHaAretz, does not dwell in temples made by human hands. [Isa 42:5 Dt 10:14; Isa 66:1; 1Kgs 8:27]

²⁵ "Nor is Hashem served by human hands, as if Hashem were in need of something, since He gives to all Chayyim and breath and everything. [Ps 50:10-12; Isa 42:5]

²⁶ "And Hashem made from one ancestor every nation of anashim dwelling pnei kol haAretz. And Hashem has set the zmanim and the fixed boundaries of their habitations, [Dt 32:8; Job 12:23]

²⁷ "So that they would seek Hashem, if efsher (perhaps) they might grope for Him and might find Him, though Hashem is not far from each one of us. [Dt 4:7; Isa 55:6; Jer 23:23,24]

²⁸ "For ‘we live in Him and in Him we move and have our being,’ as also some of your poets have said, ‘For we are all His offspring.’ [Dt 30:20; Job 12:10; Dan 5:23; Epimenides; Aratus]

²⁹ "Therefore, being offspring of Hashem, we ought not to think that Hashem’s essence is like gold or silver or stone, a tzelem (image) made by the skill and thought of Bnei Adam. [Isa 40:18-20]

³⁰ "While Hashem has disregarded and let pass the Am HaAretz times of ignorance, now, however, Hashem proclaims to kol bnei Adam everywhere, Make teshuva,

³¹ "Because he set a day in which he is about to bring MISHPAT (TEHILLIM 9:8) on the Olam Hazeh in tzedek [DANIEL 9:24] by an ISH (ZECHARYAH 6:12) whom he appointed, having furnished proof to all by having made him to stand up alive again from the Mesim." [Ps 9:8; 96:13; 98:9; Isa 53:11 MEGILLOT YAM HAMELACH (DEAD SEA SCROLLS)]

⁸ Barchu Eloheinu, Amim, and make the kol (sound) of His tehillah (praise) to be heard.

⁹ He is the One who set nafsheinu in chayyim and does not permit ragleinu (our foot) to slip.

¹⁰ For Thou, Elohim, hath tested us and hast proved us; Thou hast put us in the crucible’s refining and refined us as kesef.

¹¹ Thou broughtest us into the metzudah (prison); Thou laidst a mu’akah (burden) upon our loins.

¹² Thou hast caused enosh (mankind) to ride over rosheinu (our head); we went through eish and through mayim; but Thou broughtest us out into plenty.

¹³ I will come into Thy Beis [HaMikdash] with olot; I will fulfill for Thee my nedarim,

¹⁴ Which my sfatayim have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in tzoros.

¹⁵ I will offer unto Thee olot mekhim (burnt offerings of fat animals), with the ketoret (incense, offering) of rams; I will offer bakar with goats. Selah.

¹⁶ Come and hear, Kol Yirei Elohim, and I will declare what He hath done for my nefesh.

¹⁷ I cried unto Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my leshon.

¹⁸ If I regard avon (iniquity, sin) in my lev, Adonoi will not hear me;

¹⁹ But surely Elohim hath heard me; He hath attended to the kol tefillati (voice of my prayer).

²⁰ Baruch Elohim, Who hath not turned away my tefillah, nor His chesed from me.

¹³ And who is the one harming you if you have kana’ut (zeal) for HaTov (The Good)?

¹⁴ But if indeed you should suffer tzoros because of Tzidkat Hashem, you are blessed and happy. But do not fear their pachad (terror), neither be troubled.

¹⁵ But reverence in your levavot Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach as Adoneinu, prepared always for a hitstaddekut (an apologetic defense) to everyone coming to you with a she’elah (question), ready with a word concerning the tikvah in you,

¹⁶ But with anavah (meekness) and yirat Shomayim, having a clear matzpun (conscience [3:21]), so that, when you are maligned by lashon hora, your abusers may be humiliated by your midas chasidus in Moshiach.

¹⁷ For im yirtzeh Hashem (if the L-rd wills), it is better to suffer tzoros for doing mitzvot than for doing ra’ah.

¹⁸ Because, indeed, Moshiach suffered once on behalf of chatta’im (sins), a Tzaddik (righteous one) on behalf of the chote’im (unrighteous ones, sinners), that he might bring you to Hashem he, having been in the basar [TEHILLIM 16:9-10] put to death, yet, in the Ruach Hakodesh, having been made alive [4:6]; [see Isa 53:8]

¹⁹ In which also to the ruchot (spirits) in mishmar (prison), having gone, Moshiach made the hachrazah (proclamation, kerygma)

²⁰ To ones without mishma’at (obedience) back then when the zitzfleisch (patience) of Hashem was waiting, in the days of Noach, while the Teva (Ark) was being prepared, in which a few, that is shemoneh nefashot (eight souls), were delivered through that mabbul’s mikveh mayim;

²¹ And Moshiach’s tevilah in the mikveh mayim, which this mabbul prefigures, now delivers you, not by means of the removal of filth from the basar, but through the hitchaiy’vut (pledge) of a clean matzpun toward Hashem, through the Techiyas HaMoshiach Yehoshua,

²² Who is at the right hand of Hashem, having gone into Shomayim, with malachim and rashuyot (authorities) and gevurot under his feet.

¹⁵ If you have ahavah for me, you will be shomer mitzvot regarding my commandments. [Ps 103:18]

¹⁶ And I will ask HaAv and another Melitz Yosher [Advocate, Counselor, Helper in Court, 14:26; 15:26; 16:7] He will give you that He may be with you l’Olam,

¹⁷ The Ruach HaEmes, which the Olam Hazeh is not able to receive, because it does not see Him nor have da’as of Him. But you have da’as of Him, because He remains with you and He will be in you.

¹⁸ I will not leave you yetomim (orphans). I am coming to you. [MELACHIM ALEF 6:13]

¹⁹ Yet a little time and the Olam Hazeh no longer sees me, but you see me. Because Ani Chai, so you will live also.

²⁰ On Yom Hahu (that day) you will have da’as that I am in HaAv of me and you are in me and I am in you.

²¹ The one having the mitzvot of me and being shomer mitzvot, that one is the one having ahavah for me. And the one having ahavah for me will receive ahavah from HaAv of me, and I will have ahavah for him and I will manifest myself to him.