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31  As for God, his way is perfect;
      the word of the Lord is tried in the fire; ♦︎
   he is a shield to all who trust in him.
32  For who is God but the Lord, ♦︎
   and who is the rock except our God?
33  It is God who girds me about with strength ♦︎
   and makes my way perfect.
34  He makes my feet like hinds’ feet ♦︎
   so that I tread surely on the heights.
35  He teaches my hands to fight ♦︎
   and my arms to bend a bow of bronze.
36  You have given me the shield of your salvation; ♦︎
   your right hand upholds me
      and your grace has made me great.
37  You enlarge my strides beneath me, ♦︎
   yet my feet do not slide.
38  I will pursue my enemies and overtake them, ♦︎
   nor turn again until I have destroyed them.
39  I will smite them down so they cannot rise; ♦︎
   they shall fall beneath my feet.
40  You have girded me with strength for the battle; ♦︎
   you will cast down my enemies under me;
41  You will make my foes turn their backs upon me ♦︎
   and I shall destroy them that hate me.
42  They will cry out, but there shall be none to help them; ♦︎
   they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer.
43  I shall beat them as small as the dust on the wind; ♦︎
   I will cast them out as the mire in the streets.
44  You will deliver me from the strife of the peoples; ♦︎
   you will make me the head of the nations.
45  A people I have not known shall serve me;
      as soon as they hear me, they shall obey me; ♦︎
   strangers will humble themselves before me.
46  The foreign peoples will lose heart ♦︎
   and come trembling out of their strongholds.
47  The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock! ♦︎
   Praised be the God of my salvation,
48  Even the God who vindicates me ♦︎
   and subdues the peoples under me!
49  You that deliver me from my enemies,
      you will set me up above my foes; ♦︎
   from the violent you will deliver me;
50  Therefore will I give you thanks, O Lord, among the nations ♦︎
   and sing praises to your name,
51  To the one who gives great victory to his king ♦︎
   and shows faithful love to his anointed,
      to David and his seed for ever.

Israel’s Sin and Captivity

10Israel is a luxuriant vine
   that yields its fruit.
The more his fruit increased
   the more altars he built;
as his country improved,
   he improved his pillars.
² Their heart is false;
   now they must bear their guilt.
The Lord ^* will break down their altars,
   and destroy their pillars.

³ For now they will say:
   ‘We have no king,
for we do not fear the Lord,
   and a king—what could he do for us?’
⁴ They utter mere words;
   with empty oaths they make covenants;
so litigation springs up like poisonous weeds
   in the furrows of the field.
⁵ The inhabitants of Samaria tremble
   for the calf^* of Beth-aven.
Its people shall mourn for it,
   and its idolatrous priests shall wail^* over it,
   over its glory that has departed from it.
⁶ The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria
   as tribute to the great king.^*
Ephraim shall be put to shame,
   and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.^*

⁷ Samaria’s king shall perish
   like a splinter on the face of the waters.
⁸ The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
   shall be destroyed.
Thorn and thistle shall grow up
   on their altars.
They shall say to the mountains, Cover us,
   and to the hills, Fall on us.

⁹ Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel;
   there they have continued.
   Shall not war overtake them in Gibeah?
¹⁰ I will come^* against the wayward people to punish them;
   and nations shall be gathered against them
   when they are punished^* for their double iniquity.

¹¹ Ephraim was a trained heifer
   that loved to thresh,
   and I spared her fair neck;
but I will make Ephraim break the ground;
   Judah must plough;
   Jacob must harrow for himself.
¹² Sow for yourselves righteousness;
   reap steadfast love;
   break up your fallow ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,
   that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

¹³ You have ploughed wickedness,
   you have reaped injustice,
   you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your power
   and in the multitude of your warriors,
¹⁴ therefore the tumult of war shall rise against your people,
   and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,
as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle
   when mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.
¹⁵ Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,
   because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel
   shall be utterly cut off.

Paul before Felix at Caesarea

24Five days later the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and an attorney, a certain Tertullus, and they reported their case against Paul to the governor. ²When Paul^* had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying:

‘Your Excellency,^* because of you we have long enjoyed peace, and reforms have been made for this people because of your foresight. ³We welcome this in every way and everywhere with utmost gratitude. ⁴But, to detain you no further, I beg you to hear us briefly with your customary graciousness. ⁵We have, in fact, found this man a pestilent fellow, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.^{* 6}He even tried to profane the temple, and so we seized him.^{* 8}By examining him yourself you will be able to learn from him concerning everything of which we accuse him.’

9 The Jews also joined in the charge by asserting that all this was true.

Paul’s Defence before Felix

10 When the governor motioned to him to speak, Paul replied:

‘I cheerfully make my defence, knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation. ¹¹As you can find out, it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem. ¹²They did not find me disputing with anyone in the temple or stirring up a crowd either in the synagogues or throughout the city. ¹³Neither can they prove to you the charge that they now bring against me. ¹⁴But this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors, believing everything laid down according to the law or written in the prophets. ¹⁵I have a hope in God—a hope that they themselves also accept—that there will be a resurrection of both^* the righteous and the unrighteous. ¹⁶Therefore I do my best always to have a clear conscience towards God and all people. ¹⁷Now after some years I came to bring alms to my nation and to offer sacrifices. ¹⁸While I was doing this, they found me in the temple, completing the rite of purification, without any crowd or disturbance. ¹⁹But there were some Jews from Asia—they ought to be here before you to make an accusation, if they have anything against me. ²⁰Or let these men here tell what crime they had found when I stood before the council, ²¹unless it was this one sentence that I called out while standing before them, “It is about the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.” ’

22 But Felix, who was rather well informed about the Way, adjourned the hearing with the comment, ‘When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case.’ ²³Then he ordered the centurion to keep him in custody, but to let him have some liberty and not to prevent any of his friends from taking care of his needs.