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JULY 25
hand of my God which had been good upon 3 asking a favor against him, that he would
me, and also of the king’s words that he had summon him to Jerusalem—while they lay in
spoken to me. ambush along the road to kill him. But Festus
4
So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” answered that Paul should be kept at
Then they set their hands to this good work. Caesarea, and that he himself was going there
But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah shortly. “Therefore,” he said, “let those who
19 5
the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab have authority among you go down with me
heard of it, they laughed at us and despised and accuse this man, to see if there is any fault
us, and said, “What is this thing that you are in him.”
doing? Will you rebel against the king?” 6 And when he had remained among them
So I answered them, and said to them, more than ten days, he went down to
20
“The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; Caesarea. And the next day, sitting on the judg-
therefore we His servants will arise and build, ment seat, he commanded Paul to be brought.
but you have no heritage or right or memorial 7 When he had come, the Jews who had come
in Jerusalem.” down from Jerusalem stood about and laid
many serious complaints against Paul, which
Psalm 88:11–18
8
they could not prove, while he answered for
Shall Your lovingkindness be declared himself, “Neither against the law of the Jews,
11
in the grave? nor against the temple, nor against Caesar
Or Your faithfulness in the place of have I offended in anything at all.”
destruction? 9 But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor,
Shall Your wonders be known in the answered Paul and said, “Are you willing to go
12
dark? up to Jerusalem and there be judged before
And Your righteousness in the land me concerning these things?”
of forgetfulness? 10 So Paul said, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment
seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews
But to You I have cried out, O LORD, I have done no wrong, as you very well know.
13
And in the morning my prayer comes 11 For if I am an offender, or have committed
before You.
14 LORD, why do You cast off my soul? anything deserving of death, I do not object to
Why do You hide Your face dying; but if there is nothing in these things of
which these men accuse me, no one can deliv-
from me?
15 er me to them. I appeal to Caesar.”
I have been afflicted and ready to die 12
from my youth; Then Festus, when he had conferred with
I suffer Your terrors; the council, answered, “You have appealed to
I am distraught. Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!”
16 Your fierce wrath has gone over me;
Your terrors have cut me off.
They came around me all day long
17
like water;
They engulfed me altogether. 25:13 King Agrippa. Herod Agrippa II, son of
18 Loved one and friend You have put the Herod who killed James and imprisoned
far from me, Peter (12:1). He was the last of the Herods, who
And my acquaintances into play a prominent role in New Testament history.
darkness. His great-uncle, Herod Antipas, was the Herod
of the Gospels (Mark 6:14–29; Luke 3:1;
Proverbs 21:25–26 13:31–33;23:7–12),while his great-grandfather,
25 The desire of the lazy man kills him, Herod the Great, ruled at the time Jesus was
For his hands refuse to labor. born (Matt. 2:1–19; Luke 1:5). Though not the
He covets greedily all day long,
26 ruler of Judea, Agrippa was well versed in
But the righteous gives and does Jewish affairs (26:3). Bernice. Not Agrippa’s
not spare. wife, but his consort and sister. (Their sister,
Drusilla, was married to the former governor,
Acts 25:1–27 Felix). Their incestuous relationship was the
Now when Festus had come to the talk of Rome, where Agrippa grew up. Bernice
25 province, after three days he went up for a while became the mistress of Emperor
Vespasian, then of his son, Titus, but always
2
from Caesarea to Jerusalem. Then the high returned to her brother.
priest and the chief men of the Jews informed
him against Paul; and they petitioned him,
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