Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 86
Lament and Petition
A Davidic prayer.
1 Listen, Lord, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.(A)
2 Protect my life, for I am faithful.(B)
You are my God; save Your servant who trusts in You.(C)
3 Be gracious to me, Lord,
for I call to You all day long.(D)
4 Bring joy to Your servant’s life,
because I turn to You, Lord.(E)
Return to Bethel
35 God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there.(A) Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”(B)
2 So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you.(C) Purify yourselves and change your clothes.(D) 3 We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress.(E) He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”(F)
4 Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem.
In and Out of Prison
17 Then the high priest took action. He and all his colleagues, those who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.(A) 18 So they arrested[a] the apostles and put them in the city jail.(B) 19 But an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail during the night, brought them out, and said,(C) 20 “Go and stand in the temple complex, and tell the people all about this life.”(D) 21 In obedience to this, they entered the temple complex at daybreak and began to teach.
The Apostles on Trial Again
When the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin—the full Senate of the sons of Israel—and sent orders to the jail to have them brought.(E) 22 But when the temple police got there, they did not find them in the jail, so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing in front of the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside!” 24 As[b] the commander of the temple police and the chief priests heard these things, they were baffled about them, as to what could come of this.
25 Someone came and reported to them, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple complex and teaching the people.” 26 Then the commander went with the temple police and brought them in without force, because they were afraid the people might stone them.(F)
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