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Psalm 81

1  Sing merrily to God our strength, ♦︎
   shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
2  Take up the song and sound the timbrel, ♦︎
   the tuneful lyre with the harp.
3  Blow the trumpet at the new moon, ♦︎
   as at the full moon, upon our solemn feast day.
4  For this is a statute for Israel, ♦︎
   a law of the God of Jacob,
5  The charge he laid on the people of Joseph, ♦︎
   when they came out of the land of Egypt.
6  I heard a voice I did not know, that said: ♦︎
   ‘I eased their shoulder from the burden;
      their hands were set free from bearing the load.
7  ‘You called upon me in trouble and I delivered you; ♦︎
   I answered you from the secret place of thunder
      and proved you at the waters of Meribah.
8  ‘Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you: ♦︎
   O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9  ‘There shall be no strange god among you; ♦︎
   you shall not worship a foreign god.
10  ‘I am the Lord your God,
      who brought you up from the land of Egypt; ♦︎
   open your mouth wide and I shall fill it.’

The Sabbath Law

12 The Lord said to Moses: ¹³You yourself are to speak to the Israelites: ‘You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. ¹⁴You shall keep the sabbath, because it is holy for you; everyone who profanes it shall be put to death; whoever does any work on it shall be cut off from among the people. ¹⁵For six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall be put to death. ¹⁶Therefore the Israelites shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant. ¹⁷It is a sign for ever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.’

The Two Tablets of the Covenant

18 When God^* finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant,^* tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

Paul Appeals to the Emperor

25Three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem ²where the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews gave him a report against Paul. They appealed to him ³and requested, as a favour to them against Paul,^* to have him transferred to Jerusalem. They were, in fact, planning an ambush to kill him along the way. ⁴Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he himself intended to go there shortly. ⁵‘So’, he said, ‘let those of you who have the authority come down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them accuse him.’

6 After he had stayed among them for not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. ⁷When he arrived, the Jews who had gone down from Jerusalem surrounded him, bringing many serious charges against him, which they could not prove. ⁸Paul said in his defence, ‘I have in no way committed an offence against the law of the Jews, or against the temple, or against the emperor.’ ⁹But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favour, asked Paul, ‘Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and be tried there before me on these charges?’ ¹⁰Paul said, ‘I am appealing to the emperor’s tribunal; this is where I should be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you very well know. ¹¹Now if I am in the wrong and have committed something for which I deserve to die, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can turn me over to them. I appeal to the emperor.’ ¹²Then Festus, after he had conferred with his council, replied, ‘You have appealed to the emperor; to the emperor you will go.’