Daily Bible GNT May 15 Scroll

Paul before the Council

Acts 22 ³⁰The commander wanted to find out for sure what the Jews were accusing Paul of; so the next day he had Paul's chains taken off and ordered the chief priests and the whole Council to meet. Then he took Paul and made him stand before them.
Acts 23 Paul looked straight at the Council and said, "My fellow Israelites! My conscience is perfectly clear about the way in which I have lived before God to this very day." ²The High Priest Ananias ordered those who were standing close to Paul to strike him on the mouth. ³Paul said to him, "God will certainly strike you--you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the Law, yet you break the Law by ordering them to strike me!"

⁴The men close to Paul said to him, "You are insulting God's High Priest!"

⁵Paul answered, "My fellow Israelites, I did not know that he was the High Priest. The scripture says, 'You must not speak evil of the ruler of your people.'"

⁶When Paul saw that some of the group were Sadducees and the others were Pharisees, he called out in the Council, "Fellow Israelites! I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees. I am on trial here because of the hope I have that the dead will rise to life!"

⁷As soon as he said this, the Pharisees and Sadducees started to quarrel, and the group was divided. ( ⁸For the Sadducees say that people will not rise from death and that there are no angels or spirits; but the Pharisees believe in all three.) ⁹The shouting became louder, and some of the teachers of the Law who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and protested strongly: "We cannot find a thing wrong with this man! Perhaps a spirit or an angel really did speak to him!"

¹⁰The argument became so violent that the commander was afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces. So he ordered his soldiers to go down into the group, get Paul away from them, and take him into the fort.

¹¹That night the Lord stood by Paul and said, "Don't be afraid! You have given your witness for me here in Jerusalem, and you must also do the same in Rome."

The Plot against Paul's Life

¹²The next morning some Jews met together and made a plan. They took a vow that they would not eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul. ¹³There were more than forty who planned this together. ¹⁴Then they went to the chief priests and elders and said, "We have taken a solemn vow together not to eat a thing until we have killed Paul. ¹⁵Now then, you and the Council send word to the Roman commander to bring Paul down to you, pretending that you want to get more accurate information about him. But we will be ready to kill him before he ever gets here."

¹⁶But the son of Paul's sister heard about the plot; so he went to the fort and told Paul. ¹⁷Then Paul called one of the officers and said to him, "Take this young man to the commander; he has something to tell him." ¹⁸The officer took him, led him to the commander, and said, "The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, because he has something to say to you."

¹⁹The commander took him by the hand, led him off by himself, and asked him, "What do you have to tell me?"

²⁰He said, "The Jewish authorities have agreed to ask you tomorrow to take Paul down to the Council, pretending that the Council wants to get more accurate information about him. ²¹But don't listen to them, because there are more than forty men who will be hiding and waiting for him. They have taken a vow not to eat or drink until they have killed him. They are now ready to do it and are waiting for your decision."

²²The commander said, "Don't tell anyone that you have reported this to me." And he sent the young man away.

The Levite and His Concubine

Judges 19 In those days before Israel had a king, there was a Levite living far back in the hill country of Ephraim. He took a young woman from Bethlehem in Judah to be his concubine. ²But she became angry with him, went back to her father's house in Bethlehem, and stayed there four months. ³Then the man decided to go after her and try to persuade her to return to him. He took his servant and two donkeys with him. The woman showed the Levite into the house, and when her father saw him, he gave him a hearty greeting. ⁴The father insisted that he stay, and so he stayed for three days. The couple had their meals and spent the nights there. ⁵On the morning of the fourth day they woke up early and got ready to go. But the woman's father said to the Levite, "Have something to eat first. You'll feel better. You can go later."

⁶So the two men sat down and ate and drank together. Then the woman's father told him, "Please spend the night and enjoy yourself."

⁷The Levite got up to go, but the father urged him to stay, so he spent another night there. ⁸Early in the morning of the fifth day he started to leave, but the woman's father said, "Eat something, please. Wait until later in the day." So the two men ate together.

⁹When the man, his concubine, and the servant once more started to leave, the father said, "Look, it's almost evening now; you might as well stay all night. It will be dark soon; stay here and have a good time. Tomorrow you can get up early for the trip and go home."

^10-11But the man did not want to spend another night there, so he and his concubine started on their way, with their servant and two donkeys with pack saddles. It was late in the day when they came near Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), so the servant said to his master, "Why don't we stop and spend the night here in this Jebusite city?"

^12-13But his master said, "We're not going to stop in a city where the people are not Israelites. We'll pass on by and go a little farther and spend the night at Gibeah or Ramah." ¹⁴So they passed by Jebus and continued on their way. It was sunset when they came to Gibeah in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. ¹⁵They turned off the road to go and spend the night there. They went into town and sat down in the city square, but no one offered to take them home for the night.

¹⁶While they were there, an old man came by at the end of a day's work on the farm. He was originally from the hill country of Ephraim, but he was now living in Gibeah. (The other people there were from the tribe of Benjamin.) ¹⁷The old man noticed the traveler in the city square and asked him, "Where do you come from? Where are you going?"

¹⁸The Levite answered, "We have been in Bethlehem in Judah, and now we are on our way home deep in the hill country of Ephraim. No one will put us up for the night, ¹⁹even though we have fodder and straw for our donkeys, as well as bread and wine for my concubine and me and for my servant. We have everything we need."

²⁰The old man said, "You are welcome in my home! I'll take care of you; you don't have to spend the night in the square." ²¹So he took them home with him and fed their donkeys. His guests washed their feet and had a meal.

²²They were enjoying themselves when all of a sudden some sexual perverts from the town surrounded the house and started beating on the door. They said to the old man, "Bring out that man that came home with you! We want to have sex with him!"

²³But the old man went outside and said to them, "No, my friends! Please! Don't do such an evil, immoral thing! This man is my guest. ²⁴Look! Here is his concubine and my own virgin daughter. I'll bring them out now, and you can have them. Do whatever you want to with them. But don't do such an awful thing to this man!" ²⁵But the men would not listen to him. So the Levite took his concubine and put her outside with them. They raped her and abused her all night long and didn't stop until morning.

²⁶At dawn the woman came and fell down at the door of the old man's house, where her husband was. She was still there when daylight came. ²⁷Her husband got up that morning, and when he opened the door to go on his way, he found his concubine lying in front of the house with her hands reaching for the door. ²⁸He said, "Get up. Let's go." But there was no answer. So he put her body across the donkey and started on his way home. ²⁹When he arrived, he went in the house and got a knife. He took his concubine's body, cut it into twelve pieces, and sent one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. ³⁰Everyone who saw it said, "We have never heard of such a thing! Nothing like this has ever happened since the Israelites left Egypt! We have to do something about this! What will it be?"

A Prayer for Protection

Psalm 44 With our own ears we have heard it, O God--

our ancestors have told us about it,

about the great things you did in their time,

in the days of long ago:

²how you yourself drove out the heathen

and established your people in their land;

how you punished the other nations

and caused your own to prosper.

³Your people did not conquer the land with their swords;

they did not win it by their own power;

it was by your power and your strength,

by the assurance of your presence,

which showed that you loved them.

⁴You are my king and my God;

you give victory to your people,

⁵

and by your power we defeat our enemies.

⁶I do not trust in my bow

or in my sword to save me;

⁷but you have saved us from our enemies

and defeated those who hate us.

⁸We will always praise you

and give thanks to you forever.

⁹But now you have rejected us and let us be defeated;

you no longer march out with our armies.

¹⁰You made us run from our enemies,

and they took for themselves what was ours.

¹¹You allowed us to be slaughtered like sheep;

you scattered us in foreign countries.

¹²You sold your own people for a small price

as though they had little value.

¹³Our neighbors see what you did to us,

and they mock us and laugh at us.

¹⁴You have made us a joke among the nations;

they shake their heads at us in scorn.

¹⁵I am always in disgrace;

I am covered with shame

¹⁶

from hearing the sneers and insults

of my enemies and those who hate me.

¹⁷All this has happened to us,

even though we have not forgotten you

or broken the covenant you made with us.

¹⁸We have not been disloyal to you;

we have not disobeyed your commands.

¹⁹Yet you left us helpless among wild animals;

you abandoned us in deepest darkness.

²⁰If we had stopped worshiping our God

and prayed to a foreign god,

²¹you would surely have discovered it,

because you know our secret thoughts.

²²But it is on your account that we are being killed all the time,

that we are treated like sheep to be slaughtered.

²³Wake up, Lord! Why are you asleep?

Rouse yourself ! Don't reject us forever!

²⁴Why are you hiding from us?

Don't forget our suffering and trouble!

²⁵We fall crushed to the ground;

we lie defeated in the dust.

²⁶Come to our aid!

Because of your constant love save us!

This reading is from The Holy Bible, Today's English Version, Second Edition copyright © American Bible Society, 1992;
Old Testament copyright © American Bible Society, 1976, 1992; New Testament © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

These daily Bible readings from the Good News Translation (GNT), formerly the Today's English Version (TEV), are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. All BibleCard® images are copyrighted by iCreative. All rights reserved.