Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song of praise by David.

Turn from Your Evil Ways

1 In the eighth month of Darius’ second year as king, the Lord spoke his word to the prophet Zechariah, who was the son of Berechiah and the grandson of Iddo. He said, ² “The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. ³ Tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: Return to me, declares the Lord of Armies, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Armies.’ ⁴ Don’t be like your ancestors, who heard the earlier prophets preach to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: Turn from your evil ways and your evil deeds.’ But they didn’t listen or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. ⁵ Your ancestors—where are they now? And the prophets—are they still alive? ⁶ Didn’t my warnings and my laws, which I’ve commanded my servants the prophets ⌞to preach⌟, finally catch up with your ancestors? Then your ancestors turned away from their sins and said, ‘The Lord of Armies has done to us what he had planned to do. He has dealt with us as our ways and deeds deserve.’ ”

The Lord Will Comfort Zion

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (the month of Shebat) in Darius’ second year as king, the Lord spoke his word to the prophet Zechariah, who was the son of Berechiah and the grandson of Iddo.

⁸ During that night I saw a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, chestnut, and white horses.

⁹ “What do these horses mean, sir?” I asked.

The angel who was speaking with me answered, “I will show you what they mean.”

¹⁰ The man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They’re the horses the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.” ¹¹ Then they reported to the Messenger of the Lord standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth. The whole world is at rest and in peace.”

¹² Then the Messenger of the Lord said, “Lord of Armies, how much longer until you show compassion to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah? You’ve been angry with them for 70 years.” ¹³ The Lord responded to the angel who was speaking with me, using kind and comforting words.

¹⁴ The angel who was speaking with me said, “Announce: This is what the Lord of Armies says: I’m very jealous about Jerusalem and Zion, ¹⁵ and I’m very angry with the nations who think they are at ease. I was only a little angry, but they made things worse. ¹⁶ This is what the Lord of Armies says: I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion. My house will be rebuilt in it, declares the Lord of Armies. A measuring line will be used to rebuild Jerusalem.

¹⁷ “Announce again: This is what the Lord of Armies says: My cities will overflow with prosperity once more. The Lord will again comfort Zion and will again choose Jerusalem.” ^[a]

²² Up to that point the mob listened. Then they began to shout, “Kill him! The world doesn’t need a man like this. He shouldn’t have been allowed to live this long!”

²³ The mob was yelling, taking off their coats, and throwing dirt into the air. ²⁴ So the officer ordered the soldiers to take Paul into the barracks and told them to question Paul as they whipped him. The officer wanted to find out why the people were yelling at Paul like this. ²⁵ But when the soldiers had Paul stretch out ⌞to tie him to the whipping post⌟ with the straps, Paul asked the sergeant who was standing there, “Is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn’t had a trial?”

²⁶ When the sergeant heard this, he reported it to his commanding officer. The sergeant asked him, “What are you doing? This man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷ The officer went to Paul and asked him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

Paul answered, “Yes.”

²⁸ The officer replied, “I paid a lot of money to become a Roman citizen.”

Paul replied, “But I was born a Roman citizen.”

²⁹ Immediately, the soldiers who were going to question Paul stepped away from him. The officer was afraid when he found out that he had tied up a Roman citizen.

Paul in Front of the Jewish Council

³⁰ The officer wanted to find out exactly what accusation the Jews had against Paul. So the officer released Paul the next day and ordered the chief priests and the entire Jewish council to meet. Then the officer brought Paul and had him stand in front of them.

23 Paul stared at the Jewish council and said, “Brothers, my relationship with God has always given me a perfectly clear conscience.”

² The chief priest Ananias ordered the men standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. ³ Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you hypocrite! You sit there and judge me by Moses’ Teachings and yet you break those teachings by ordering these men to strike me!”

⁴ The men standing near Paul said to him, “You’re insulting God’s chief priest!”

⁵ Paul answered, “Brothers, I didn’t know that he is the chief priest. After all, Scripture says, ‘Don’t speak evil about a ruler of your people.’ ”

⁶ When Paul saw that some of them were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he shouted in the council, “Brothers, I’m a Pharisee and a descendant of Pharisees. I’m on trial because I expect that the dead will come back to life.”

⁷ After Paul said that, the Pharisees and Sadducees began to quarrel, and the men in the meeting were divided. ⁸ (The Sadducees say that the dead won’t come back to life and that angels and spirits don’t exist. The Pharisees believe in all these things.) ⁹ The shouting became very loud. Some of the experts in Moses’ Teachings were Pharisees who argued their position forcefully. They said, “We don’t find anything wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an angel actually spoke to him!”

¹⁰ The quarrel was becoming violent, and the officer was afraid that they would tear Paul to pieces. So the officer ordered his soldiers to drag Paul back to the barracks.

¹¹ The Lord stood near Paul the next night and said to him, “Don’t lose your courage! You’ve told the truth about me in Jerusalem. Now you must tell the truth about me in Rome.”