261 O Lord, be my judge, for my behaviour has been upright: I have put my faith in the Lord, I am not in danger of slipping. 2 Put me in the scales, O Lord, so that I may be tested; let the fire make clean my thoughts and my heart. 3 For your mercy is before my eyes; and I have gone in the way of your good faith. 4 I have not taken my seat with foolish persons, and I do not go with false men. 5 I have been a hater of the band of wrongdoers, and I will not be seated among sinners.
6 I will make my hands clean from sin; so will I go round your altar, O Lord; 7 That I may give out the voice of praise, and make public all the wonders which you have done. 8 Lord, your house has been dear to me, and the resting-place of your glory. 9 Let not my soul be numbered among sinners, or my life among men of blood; 10 In whose hands are evil designs, and whose right hands take money for judging falsely. 11 But as for me, I will go on in my upright ways: be my saviour, and have mercy on me. 12 I have a safe resting-place for my feet; I will give praise to the Lord in the meetings of the people.
271 The Lord is my light and my salvation; who is then a cause of fear to me? the Lord is the strength of my life; who is a danger to me? 2 When evil-doers, even my haters, came on me to put an end to me, they were broken and put to shame. 3 Even if an army came against me with its tents, my heart would have no fear: if war was made on me, my faith would not be moved. 4 One prayer have I made to the Lord, and this is my heart's desire; that I may have a place in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, looking on his glory, and getting wisdom in his Temple. 5 For in the time of trouble he will keep me safe in his tent: in the secret place of his tent he will keep me from men's eyes; high on a rock he will put me. 6 And now my head will be lifted up higher than my haters who are round me: because of this I will make offerings of joy in his tent; I will make a song, truly I will make a song of praise to the Lord.
7 O Lord, let the voice of my cry come to your ears: have mercy on me, and give me an answer. 8 When you said, Make search for my face, my heart said to you, For your face will I make my search. 9 Let not your face be covered from me; do not put away your servant in wrath; you have been my help: do not give me up or take your support from me, O God of my salvation. 10 When my father and my mother are turned away from me, then the Lord will be my support. 11 Make your way clear to me, O Lord, guiding me by the right way, because of my haters. 12 Do not give me into their hands, because false witnesses have come out against me, and men breathing destruction. 13 I had almost given up my hope of seeing the blessing of the Lord in the land of the living. 14 Let your hope be in the Lord: take heart and be strong; yes, let your hope be in the Lord.
281 My cry goes up to you, O Lord, my Rock; do not keep back your answer from me, so that I may not become like those who go down into the underworld. 2 Give ear to the voice of my prayer, when I am crying to you, when my hands are lifted up to your holy place. 3 Do not take me away with the sinners and the workers of evil, who say words of peace to their neighbours, but evil is in their hearts. 4 Give them the right reward of their acts, and of their evil doings: give them punishment for the works of their hands, let them have their full reward. 5 Because they have no respect for the works of the Lord, or for the things which his hands have made, they will be broken down and not lifted up by him.
6 May the Lord be praised, because he has given ear to the voice of my prayer. 7 The Lord is my strength and my breastplate, my heart had faith in him and I am helped; for this cause my heart is full of rapture, and I will give him praise in my song. 8 The Lord is their strength, and a strong place of salvation for his king. 9 Be a saviour to your people, and send a blessing on your heritage: be their guide, and let them be lifted up for ever.
221 My brothers and fathers, give ear to the story of my life which I now put before you. 2 And, hearing him talking in the Hebrew language, they became the more quiet, and he said,
3 I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia by birth, but I had my education in this town at the feet of Gamaliel, being trained in the keeping of every detail of the law of our fathers; given up to the cause of God with all my heart, as you are today. 4 And I made attacks on this Way, even to death, taking men and women and putting them in prison. 5 Of which the high priest will be a witness, and all the rulers, from whom I had letters to the brothers; and I went into Damascus, to take those who were there as prisoners to Jerusalem for punishment.
6 And it came about that while I was on my journey, coming near to Damascus, about the middle of the day, suddenly I saw a great light from heaven shining round me. 7 And when I went down on the earth, a voice came to my ears saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you attacking me so cruelly? 8 And I, answering, said, Who are you; Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are attacking. 9 And those who were with me saw the light, but the voice of him who was talking to me came not to their ears. 10 And I said, What have I to do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Get up, and go into Damascus; and it will be made clear to you what you have to do. 11 And because I was unable to see because of the glory of that light, those who were with me took me by the hand, and so I came to Damascus. 12 And one Ananias, a God-fearing man, who kept the law, and of whom all the Jews in that place had a high opinion, 13 Came to my side and said, Brother Saul, let your eyes be open. And in that very hour I was able to see him. 14 And he said, You have been marked out by the God of our fathers to have knowledge of his purpose, and to see the Upright One and to give ear to the words of his mouth. 15 For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and of what has come to your ears. 16 And now, why are you waiting? get up, and have baptism, for the washing away of your sins, giving worship to his name.
17 And it came about that when I had come back to Jerusalem, while I was at prayer in the Temple, my senses became more than naturally clear, 18 And I saw him saying to me, Go out of Jerusalem straight away because they will not give hearing to your witness about me. 19 And I said, Lord, they themselves have knowledge that I went through the Synagogues putting in prison and whipping all those who had faith in you: 20 And when Stephen your witness was put to death, I was there, giving approval, and looking after the clothing of those who put him to death. 21 And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.
22 And they gave him a hearing as far as this word; then with loud voices they said, Away with this man from the earth; it is not right for him to be living. 23 And while they were crying out, and pulling off their clothing, and sending dust into the air, 24 The chief captain gave orders for him to be taken into the army building, saying that he would put him to the test by whipping, so that he might have knowledge of the reason why they were crying out so violently against him. 25 And when they had put leather bands round him, Paul said to the captain who was present, Is it the law for you to give blows to a man who is a Roman and has not been judged? 26 And hearing this, the man went to the chief captain and gave him an account of it, saying, What are you about to do? for this man is a Roman. 27 And the chief captain came to him and said, Give me an answer, are you a Roman? And he said, Yes. 28 And the chief captain said, I got Roman rights for myself at a great price. And Paul said, But I had them by birth. 29 Then those who were about to put him to the test went away: and the chief captain was in fear, seeing that he was a Roman, and that he had put chains on him.
30 But on the day after, desiring to have certain knowledge of what the Jews had to say against him, he made him free, and gave orders for the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to come together, and he took Paul and put him before them.
