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Looking up, Jesus saw the rich people putting their gifts into the chests for the Temple offerings. He saw, too, a widow in poor circumstances putting two small coins into them. “I tell you”, he said “that this poor widow has put in more than all the others; for everyone else here put in something from what he had to spare, while she, in her need, has put in all she had to live on.”
When some of them spoke about the Temple being decorated with beautiful stones and offerings, Jesus said, “As for these things that you are looking at, a time is coming when not one stone will be left on another here. Every one will be thrown down.” So the disciples questioned Jesus, “But, teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when this is near?”
And Jesus said, “See that you are not led astray; for many will take my name, and come saying ‘I am He,’ and ‘The time is close at hand.’ Do not follow them. And, when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified, for these things must occur first; but the end will not be at once.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes, and plagues and famines in various places, and there will be terrible appearances and signs in the heavens. Before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you, and they will betray you to synagogues and put you in prison, when you will be brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name. Then will be your opportunity of witnessing for me. Make up your minds, therefore, not to prepare your defense; for I will myself give you words, and a wisdom which all your opponents together will be unable to resist or defy. You will be betrayed even by your parents and brothers and sisters and relatives and friends, and they will cause some of you to be put to death, and you will be hated by everyone because of me my name. Yet not a single hair of your heads will be lost! By your endurance you will win yourselves life. As soon, however, as you see Jerusalem surrounded by armed camps, then you may know that the hour of her desecration is at hand. Then those of you who are in Judea must take refuge in the mountains, those who are in Jerusalem must leave at once, and those who are in the country places must not go into it. For these are to be the days of vengeance, when all that scripture says will be fulfilled. Alas for pregnant women, and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great suffering in the land, and anger against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be taken prisoners to every land, and Jerusalem will be under the heel of the Gentiles, until their day is over – as it will be. There will be signs, too, in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth despair among the nations, in their dismay at the roar of the sea and the surge. People’s hearts will fail them through dread of what is coming upon the world; for the forces of the heavens will be convulsed. Then will be seen the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And, when these things begin to occur, look upwards and lift your heads, for your deliverance will be at hand.”
Then he taught them a lesson, saying – “Look at the fig tree and all the other trees. As soon as they shoot, you know, as you look at them, without being told, that summer is near. And so may you, as soon as you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. I tell you that even the present generation will not pass away until all has taken place. The heavens and the earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Be on your guard or your minds will become dulled by debauches or drunkenness or the anxieties of life, and ‘that day’ will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all who are living upon the face of the whole earth. Be on the watch at all times, and pray that you may have strength to escape all that is destined to happen, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man.”
During the days, Jesus continued to teach in the Temple Courts, but he went out and spent the nights on the hill called the ‘Mount of Olives.’ And all the people would get up early in the morning and come to listen to him in the Temple Courts. (OEB)
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The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth, and he said, “See now, my lords, please come into your servant’s house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you can rise up early, and go on your way.”
They said, “No, but we will stay in the street all night.”
He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
Lot went out to them through the door, and shut the door after himself. He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly. See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men reached out their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
The men said to Lot, “Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place: for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown so great before Yahweh that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.”
Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city!”
But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking. When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city.” But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city. It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, “Escape for your life! Don’t look behind you, and don’t stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed!”
Lot said to them, “Oh, not so, my lord. See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can’t escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die. See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn’t it a little one ?), and my soul will live.”
He said to him, “Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. [Zoar means “little”. ]
The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Abraham went up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh. He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters. The firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth. Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose. It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.” They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up. Thus both of Lot’s daughters were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day. (WEB)
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This is the third time I am coming to you. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” (Deuteronomy 19:15 ) I have warned previously, and I warn again, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, I write to those who have sinned before now and to all the rest that if I come again, I will not spare, seeing that you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me who is not weak, but is powerful in you. For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God toward you.
Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you ?— unless indeed you are disqualified. But I hope that you will know that we aren’t disqualified.
Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we may seem to have failed. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. We also pray for this: your becoming perfect. For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.
Finally, brothers, rejoice! Be perfected. Be comforted. Be of the same mind. Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the saints greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (WEB)
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Therefore I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed: shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily; not for dishonest gain, but willingly; not as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock. When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the crown of glory that doesn’t fade away.
Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility and subject yourselves to one another; for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (Proverbs 3:34 ) Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.
Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings. But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you. So does Mark, my son. Greet one another with a kiss of love.
Peace be to all of you who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. (WEB)
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How beautiful are your feet in sandals, prince’s daughter!
Your rounded thighs are like jewels,
the work of the hands of a skillful workman.
Your body is like a round goblet,
no mixed wine is wanting.
Your waist is like a heap of wheat,
set about with lilies.
Your two breasts are like two fawns,
that are twins of a roe.
Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus.
Your head on you is like Carmel.
The hair of your head like purple.
The king is held captive in its tresses.
How beautiful and how pleasant you are,
love, for delights!
This, your stature, is like a palm tree,
your breasts like its fruit.
I said, “I will climb up into the palm tree.
I will take hold of its fruit.”
Let your breasts be like clusters of the vine,
the smell of your breath like apples.
Your mouth is like the best wine,
that goes down smoothly for my beloved,
gliding through the lips of those who are asleep. \sp Beloved
I am my beloved’s.
His desire is toward me.
Come, my beloved! Let’s go out into the field.
Let’s lodge in the villages.
Let’s go early up to the vineyards.
Let’s see whether the vine has budded,
its blossom is open,
and the pomegranates are in flower.
There I will give you my love.
The mandrakes produce fragrance.
At our doors are all kinds of precious fruits, new and old,
which I have stored up for you, my beloved. (WEB)
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Praise the Lᴏʀᴅ, all you nations:
laud him, all you peoples.
For his mighty love is over us:
the Lᴏʀᴅ is faithful forever.
Hallelujah.
(OEB)
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The words of Agur, the son of Jakeh; an oracle: This man says to Ithiel, to Ithiel and to Ukal: Surely I am more brutish than any other human being, and I do not have human understanding; I have not learned wisdom,nor can I have knowledge of the Holy One. Who has ascended into heaven, and then descended? Who has gathered up the winds in his fists? Who has bound up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name? Surely you can know! Every word of God is purified; he is like a shield for those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words,lest he reprove you and prove you to be a liar. Two things I have asked from you; do not refuse me before I die: Remove falsehood and lies far from me;do not give me poverty or riches;feed me with my allotted portion of bread, lest I become satisfied and act deceptively and say, “Who is the Lord?”Or lest I become poor and stealand demean the name of my God. Do not slander a servant to his master,lest he curse you, and you are found guilty. There is a generation who curse their fathersand do not bless their mothers. There is a generation who are pure in their own opinionand yet are not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation whose eyes are so lofty and whose eyelids are lifted up disdainfully. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords and whose molars are like knivesto devour the poor from the earthand the needy from among the human race. The leech has two daughters: “Give! Give!” There are three things that will never be satisfied,four that have never said, “Enough”— the grave, the barren womb; earth has not been satisfied with water;and fire has never said, “Enough!” The eye that mocks at a fatherand despises obeying a mother—the ravens of the valley will peck it out,and the young vultures will eat it. There are three things that are too wonderful for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky,the way of a snake on a rock,the way of a ship in the sea,and the way of a man with a woman. This is the way of an adulterous woman:She has eaten and wiped her mouth and has said, “I have not done wrong.” Under three things the earth has trembled, and under four things it cannot bear up: under a servant who becomes king,under a fool who becomes stuffed with food, under an unloved woman who becomes married,and under a female servant who dispossesses her mistress. There are four things on earth that are small, but they are exceedingly wise: Ants are creatures with little strength,but they prepare their food in the summer; rock badgers are creatures with little power,but they make their homes in the crags; locusts have no king,but they all go forward by ranks; a lizard you can catch with the hand,but it gets into the palaces of the king. There are three things that are magnificent in their step,four things that move about magnificently: a lion, mightiest of the beasts,who does not retreat from anything; a strutting rooster, a male goat,and a king with his army around him. If you have done foolishly by exalting yourself or if you have planned evil,put your hand over your mouth! For as the churning of milk produces butterand as punching the nose produces blood,so stirring up anger produces strife.
(NET)
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Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, “None of us will give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife.” The people came to Bethel and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept severely. They said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?”
On the next day, the people rose early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. The children of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn’t come up in the assembly to Yahweh?” For they had made a great oath concerning him who didn’t come up to Yahweh to Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.” The children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, “There is one tribe cut off from Israel today. How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?” They said, “What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn’t come up to Yahweh to Mizpah?” Behold, no one came from Jabesh Gilead to the camp to the assembly. For when the people were counted, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there. The congregation sent twelve thousand of the most valiant men there, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain with a man.” They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead. There still weren’t enough for them. The people grieved for Benjamin, because Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?” They said, “There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel. However, we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, ‘Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.’” They said, “Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.” They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each man catch his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, ‘Grant them graciously to us, because we didn’t take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them; otherwise you would now be guilty.’”
The children of Benjamin did so, and took wives for themselves according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them. The children of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they each went out from there to his own inheritance. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes. (WEB)
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I said,
“Please listen, you heads of Jacob,
and rulers of the house of Israel:
Isn’t it for you to know justice?
You who hate the good,
and love the evil;
who tear off their skin,
and their flesh from off their bones;
who also eat the flesh of my people,
and peel their skin from off them,
and break their bones,
and chop them in pieces, as for the pot,
and as meat within the cauldron.
Then they will cry to Yahweh,
but he will not answer them.
Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they made their deeds evil.”
Yahweh says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray — for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:
“Therefore night is over you, with no vision,
and it is dark to you, that you may not divine;
and the sun will go down on the prophets,
and the day will be black over them.
The seers shall be disappointed,
and the diviners confounded.
Yes, they shall all cover their lips,
for there is no answer from God.” [The Hebrew word rendered “God” is “אֱלֹהִ֑ים” (Elohim). ]
But as for me, I am full of power by Yahweh’s Spirit,
and of judgment, and of might,
to declare to Jacob his disobedience,
and to Israel his sin.
Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob,
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice,
and pervert all equity,
who build up Zion with blood,
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Her leaders judge for bribes,
and her priests teach for a price,
and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money;
yet they lean on Yahweh, and say,
“Isn’t Yahweh among us?
No disaster will come on us.”
Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field,
and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble,
and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
(WEB)
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Then the high priest asked, “Is this true?” Stephen replied, “Brothers and fathers, hear what I have to say. God, who manifests himself in the glory, appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, and before he settled in Haran, and said to him – ‘Leave your country and your people, and come into the country that I will show you.’ And so Abraham left the country of the Chaldaeans and settled in Haran; and from there, after his father’s death, God caused him to migrate into this country, in which you are now living. God did not at that time give him any part of it, not even a foot of ground. But he promised to give him possession of it and his descendants after him, though at that time he had no child. God’s words were these – ‘Abraham’s descendants will live in a foreign country, where they will be enslaved and ill-treated for four hundred years. But I myself will judge the nation, to which they will be enslaved,’ God said, ‘and after that they will leave the country and worship me in this place.’ Then God made with Abraham the covenant of circumcision; and under it Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him when he was eight days old; and Isaac became the father of Jacob; and Jacob of the Twelve Patriarchs. The Patriarchs, out of jealousy, sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt; but God was with him, and delivered him out of all his troubles, and enabled him to win favor and show wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him Governor of Egypt and of his whole household. Then a famine spread over the whole of Egypt and Canaan, causing great distress, and our ancestors could find no food. Hearing, however, that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob sent our ancestors there on their first visit. In the course of their second visit, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent an urgent invitation to his father Jacob and to his relatives, seventy-five persons in all; and so Jacob went down into Egypt. There he died, and our ancestors also, and their bodies were removed to Shechem, and laid in the tomb which Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. As the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise which God had made to Abraham, the people increased largely in numbers in Egypt, until a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph, came to the throne. This king acted deceitfully towards our people and ill-treated our ancestors, making them abandon their own infants, so that they should not be reared. It was just at this time that Moses was born. He was an exceedingly beautiful child, and for three months was brought up in his own father’s house; and, when he was abandoned, the daughter of Pharaoh found him and brought him up as her own son. So Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and proved his ability both by his words and actions. When he was in his fortieth year, he resolved to visit his fellow Israelites; and, seeing an Israelite ill-treated, he defended him, and avenged the man, who was being wronged, by striking down the Egyptian. He thought his own people would understand that God was using him to save them; but they failed to do so. The next day he again appeared on the scene, when some of them were fighting, and tried to make peace between them. ‘Men,’ he said, ‘you are brothers; how is it that you are ill-treating one another?’ But the man who was ill-treating his fellow workman pushed Moses aside saying – ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to make away with me as you did yesterday with that Egyptian?’ At these words Moses took to flight, and became an exile in Midian; and there he had two sons born to him. Forty years had passed when there appeared to him, in the desert of Mount Sinai, an angel in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he was astonished at the vision; but on his going nearer to look at it more closely, the voice of the Lord was heard to say – ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled, and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him – ‘Take your sandals off your feet, for the spot where you are standing is holy ground. I have seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and heard their groans, and I have come down to deliver them. Come now and I will send you into Egypt.’ This same Moses, whom they had disowned with the words – ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ was the man whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer, under the guidance of the angel that had appeared to him in the bush. He it was who led them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the desert during forty years. This was the Moses who said to the people of Israel – ‘God will raise up for you, from among yourselves, a prophet, as he raised up me.’ He, too, it was who was present at the assembly in the desert, with the angel who talked to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, and who received living truths to impart to you. Yet our ancestors refused him obedience; more than that, they rejected him, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, while they said to Aaron – ‘Make us Gods who will lead the way for us, since, as for this Moses who has brought us out of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ That was the time when they made the calf and offered sacrifice to their idol, and held festivities in honor of their own handiwork! So God turned from them and left them to the worship of the Starry Host, as is written in the book of the prophets –
‘Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me, house of Israel,
all those forty years in the desert?
You took with you the tent where Moloch is worshiped
and the star of the god Rephan –
the images which you had made to worship.
Therefore I will exile you beyond Babylon.’
Our ancestors had the tent where they worshiped God in the desert, constructed, just as he who spoke to Moses had directed him to make it, after the model which he had seen. This tent, which was handed down to them, was brought into this country by our ancestors who accompanied Joshua (at the conquest of the nations that God drove out before their advance), and remained here until the time of David. David found favor with God, and prayed that he might provide the God of Jacob with a place to reside. But it was Solomon who built a house for God. Yet it is not in buildings made by hands that the Most High dwells. As the prophet says –
‘The heavens are a throne for me,
and the earth a stool for my feet.
What manner of house will you build me, asks the Lord,
or what place is there where I may rest?
Was it not my hand that made all these things?’
Stubborn people, heathen in heart and ears, you are for ever resisting the Holy Spirit; your ancestors did it, and you are doing it still. Which of the prophets escaped persecution at their hands? They killed those who foretold the coming of the righteous one; of whom you, in your turn, have now become the betrayers and murderers – you who received the Law as transmitted by angels and yet failed to keep it.”
As they listened to this, the Council grew frantic with rage, and gnashed their teeth at Stephen. He, filled as he was with the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes intently on the heavens, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right hand.
“Look,” he exclaimed, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand!” At this, with a loud shout, they stopped their ears and all rushed on him, forced him outside the city, and began to stone him, the witnesses laying their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen, while he cried to the Lord, “Lord Jesus! Receive my spirit!” Falling on his knees, he called out loudly, “Lord! Do not charge them with this sin;” and with these words he fell asleep. (OEB)