Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
132 (0) A song of ascents:
(1) Adonai, remember in David’s favor
all the hardships he endured,
2 how he swore to Adonai,
vowed to the Mighty One of Ya‘akov,
3 “I will not enter the house where I live
or get into my bed,
4 I will not allow myself to sleep
or even close my eyes,
5 until I find a place for Adonai,
a dwelling for the Mighty One of Ya‘akov.”
6 We heard about it in Efrat,
we found it in the Fields of Ya‘ar.
7 Let’s go into his dwelling
and prostrate ourselves at his footstool.
8 Go up, Adonai, to your resting-place,
you and the ark through which you give strength.
9 May your cohanim be clothed with righteousness;
may those loyal to you shout for joy.
10 For the sake of your servant David,
don’t turn away the face of your anointed one.
11 Adonai swore an oath to David,
an oath he will not break:
“One of the sons from your own body
I will set on your throne.
12 If your sons keep my covenant
and my instruction, which I will teach them,
then their descendants too, forever,
will sit on your throne.”
13 For Adonai has chosen Tziyon,
he has wanted it as his home.
14 “This is my resting-place forever,
I will live here because I so much want to.
15 I will bless it with plenty of meat,
I will give its poor their fill of food.
16 Its cohanim I will clothe with salvation,
and its faithful will shout for joy.
17 I will make a king sprout there from David’s line
and prepare a lamp for my anointed one.
18 His enemies I will clothe with shame,
but on him there will be a shining crown.”
22 Yoshiyahu was eight years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for thirty-one years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Y’didah the daughter of ‘Adayah from Botzkat. 2 He did what was right from Adonai’s perspective, living entirely in the manner of David his ancestor and turning away neither to the right nor to the left.
3 In the eighteenth year of King Yoshiyahu, the king sent Shafan the son of Atzalyahu, the son of Meshulam, the secretary, to the house of Adonai after instructing him, 4 “Go up to Hilkiyahu the cohen hagadol, and have him total the money that has been brought into the house of Adonai, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. 5 Then have them give it to the supervisors of the work being done in the house of Adonai; they in turn are to use it to pay the laborers in the house of Adonai to repair damaged places in the building — 6 the carpenters, construction-workers and stonemasons — and to purchase timber and worked stone for doing the repairs on the building.” 7 However, they did not require an accounting from the supervisors given the money to spend, because they dealt honestly.
8 Hilkiyahu the cohen hagadol said to Shafan the secretary, “I have found the scroll of the Torah in the house of Adonai.” Hilkiyah gave the scroll to Shafan, who read it. 9 Then Shafan the secretary went back to the king and gave the king this report: “Your servants have poured out the money found in the house and handed it over to the people supervising the work in the house of Adonai.” 10 Shafan the secretary also told the king, “Hilkiyah the cohen hagadol gave me a scroll.” Then Shafan read it aloud before the king.
54 On hearing these things, they were cut to their hearts and ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Ruach HaKodesh, looked up to heaven and saw God’s Sh’khinah, with Yeshua standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look!” he exclaimed, “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”[a]
57 At this, they began yelling at the top of their voices, so that they wouldn’t have to hear him; and with one accord, they rushed at him, 58 threw him outside the city and began stoning him. And the witnesses laid down their coats at the feet of a young man named Sha’ul.
59 As they were stoning him, Stephen called out to God, “Lord Yeshua! Receive my spirit!” 60 Then he kneeled down and shouted out, “Lord! Don’t hold this sin against them!” With that, he died;
8 and Sha’ul gave his approval to his murder.
Starting with that day, there arose intense persecution against the Messianic Community in Yerushalayim; all but the emissaries were scattered throughout the regions of Y’hudah and Shomron.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.