Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Scorn and Disgrace, Gall and Vinegar
Psalm 69
1 For the music director, on “Lilies,” of David.
2 Save me, O God,
for the waters
have reached my soul.
3 I have sunk in deep mud,
and there is no footing,
I have come into deep waters,
and a flood sweeps over me.
4 I am worn out by my crying,
my throat is parched,
my eyes fail, waiting for my God.
5 Those who hate me without a cause[a] outnumber the hairs of my head.
Powerful are my enemies who would destroy me with lies.
What I did not steal, must I restore?
30 But I—I am afflicted and in pain.
Let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
31 I will praise God’s Name with a song,
and magnify Him with praise.
32 It will please Adonai better than an ox
or a bull with horns and hoofs.
33 The humble will see it and be glad.
You who seek God, let your hearts revive.
34 For Adonai hears the needy
and does not despise His captive people.
35 Let heaven and earth praise Him,
the seas and everything moving in them.
36 For God will save Zion,
and rebuild the cities of Judah.
Then they will dwell there and possess it.
Holy Anointing Oil
22 Moreover Adonai spoke to Moses saying, 23 “Now take for yourself the best spices: 500 shekels of flowing myrrh, half as much sweet cinnamon (250), also 250 shekels of sweet calamus, 24 500 of cassia, after the Sanctuary shekel, plus a hin[a] of olive oil. 25 You are to make holy anointing oil from it, a fragrant mixture, blended as the work of a perfumer. It will be holy anointing oil. 26 You are to anoint the Tent of Meeting with it, the Ark of the Testimony, 27 as well as the table and all its articles, the menorah and its articles, the altar of incense, 28 the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin along with its stand. 29 You are to consecrate them so that they will be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy.
30 “You are to anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them, so that they may minister to Me as kohanim. 31 Speak to Bnei-Yisrael saying, ‘This is to be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations. 32 It must not be poured on human flesh, nor are you to make any like it, with its formula. It is holy and it must be holy to you. 33 Whoever mixes any like it, or whoever puts any of it on anyone unauthorized, will be cut off from his people.’”
34 Then Adonai said to Moses, “Take the sweet spices—stacte, onycha and galbanum. The spices and pure frankincense are to be in equal measures. 35 Make a fragrant mixture from them, a blend like the work of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy. 36 You are to beat some of it into powder, and set it before the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It is to be most holy to you. 37 But the incense which you make, with its formula, you are not to make for yourselves. It is to be holy to you, for Adonai. 38 Whoever makes any like it, to breathe in its smell, will be cut off from his people.”
2 When they heard that Paul was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even more quiet. Then he said, 3 “I am a Jewish man, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, trained strictly according to the Torah of our fathers, being zealous for God just as all of you are today. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting both men and women and throwing them in prisons— 5 as the kohen gadol and all the council of elders can testify about me. I also received letters from them to the brothers, and I went to Damascus to bring back to Jerusalem even those who were there in chains—to be punished.
6 “But it happened that as I was traveling and drawing near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly flashed all around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?’
8 “I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
“He said to me, ‘I am Yeshua ha-Natzrati, whom you are persecuting.’
9 “Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me. 10 So I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’
“And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up, and go to Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been appointed to do.’
11 “But since I could not see because of the brilliance of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus. 12 Then a certain Ananias—a devout man according to the Torah, well spoken of by all the Jewish people living there— 13 came to me. Standing before me, he said to me, ‘Brother Saul, look up!’ In that very moment, I looked and saw him!
14 “And he said, ‘The God of our fathers handpicked you to know His will—to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth. 15 For you will be a witness for Him to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 Now why are you waiting? Get up and be immersed, and wash away your sins, calling on His Name.’
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.