Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁴⁰ That is why Jehovah’s anger burned against his people, and he abhorred them. ^41-42 That is why he let the heathen nations crush them. They were ruled by those who hated them and oppressed by their enemies.

⁴³ Again and again he delivered them from their slavery, but they continued to rebel against him and were finally destroyed by their sin. ⁴⁴ Yet, even so, he listened to their cries and heeded their distress; ⁴⁵ he remembered his promises to them and relented because of his great love, ⁴⁶ and caused even their enemies who captured them to pity them.

⁴⁷ O Lord God, save us! Regather us from the nations so we can thank your holy name and rejoice and praise you.

⁴⁸ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!

¹² Who is wise enough to understand all this? Where is the Lord’s messenger to explain it? Why is the land a wilderness so that no one dares even to travel through?

¹³ “Because,” the Lord replies, “my people have forsaken my commandments and not obeyed my laws. ¹⁴ Instead, they have done whatever they pleased and worshiped the idols of Baal, as their fathers told them to.” ¹⁵ Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Look! I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink. ¹⁶ I will scatter them around the world, to be strangers in distant lands; and even there the sword of destruction shall chase them until I have utterly destroyed them.

^17-18 The Lord Almighty says: “Send for the mourners! Quick! Begin your crying! Let the tears flow from your eyes. ¹⁹ Hear Jerusalem weeping in despair. ‘We are ruined! Disaster has befallen us! We must leave our land and homes!’” ²⁰ Listen to the words of God, O women who wail. Teach your daughters to wail and your neighbors too. ²¹ For death has crept in through your windows into your homes. He has killed off the flower of your youth. Children no longer play in the streets; the young men gather no more in the squares.

²² Tell them this, says the Lord: Bodies shall be scattered across the fields like manure, like sheaves after the mower, and no one will bury them.

²³ The Lord says: Let not the wise man bask in his wisdom, nor the mighty man in his might, nor the rich man in his riches. ²⁴ Let them boast in this alone: That they truly know me, and understand that I am the Lord of justice and of righteousness whose love is steadfast; and that I love to be this way.

^25-26 A time is coming, says the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised in body but not in spirit—the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, Arabs, and yes, even you people of Judah. For all these pagan nations also circumcise themselves. Unless you circumcise your hearts by loving me, your circumcision is only a heathen rite like theirs, and nothing more.

4 While they were talking to the people, the chief priests, the captain of the Temple police, and some of the Sadducees^[a] came over to them, ² very disturbed that Peter and John were claiming that Jesus had risen from the dead. ³ They arrested them and since it was already evening, jailed them overnight. ⁴ But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so that the number of believers now reached a new high of about five thousand men!

⁵ The next day it happened that the Council of all the Jewish leaders was in session in Jerusalem— ⁶ Annas the High Priest was there, and Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others of the High Priest’s relatives. ⁷ So the two disciples were brought in before them.

“By what power, or by whose authority have you done this?” the Council demanded.

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Honorable leaders and elders of our nation, ⁹ if you mean the good deed done to the cripple, and how he was healed, ¹⁰ let me clearly state to you and to all the people of Israel that it was done in the name and power of Jesus from Nazareth, the Messiah, the man you crucified—but God raised back to life again. It is by his authority that this man stands here healed! ¹¹ For Jesus the Messiah is (the one referred to in the Scriptures when they speak of) a ‘stone discarded by the builders which became the capstone of the arch.’^{[b] 12} There is salvation in no one else! Under all heaven there is no other name for men to call upon to save them.”