Why does circumcision of Timothy now seem to be a necessity if he is to continue with Paul and Silas on this second missionary journey?
After parting ways with Barnabas, Paul has chosen Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.
And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
Acts of the Apostles 15:41 ESV
view of the Taurus mountains looking Southeast back toward roads from Syria
Paul, on this second missionary journey began via a land route from the church in Antioch, rather than by sea and then proceeding north from Perga as he and Barnabas had traveled before after walking across Cypress to its coastal towns.
A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.
2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.
3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
But wait! I thought that we had settled those issues of circumcision at the Council in Jerusalem?
Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. – Acts 15:24-25 ESV
Cultural clashes between Greeks and Jews
In fact, Saul of Tarsus continues to preach Christ to the Jews at great cost as the apostle returns once more to their local synagogues along with others.
Do you recall the issue which had led Paul and Barnabas to return to Jerusalem?
Circumcision.
Many gentiles had come to follow Christ and worshiped as brothers alongside converted Jews of The Way. Young Timothy is the son of one such believer.
Saul of Tarsus had been equally zealous for the Mosaic traditions before his encounter with Christ some years ago.
Joseph of Cypress (Barnabas) had sought out Saul in Tarsus where Paul had mostly stayed out of sight of zealous Judaizers for ten years. This is not dissimilar to Joseph bringing Mary and the child Jesus out of Egypt more than forty years before after the death of Herod’s grandfather.
Yet Zealots for the Law and traditions had recently caused trouble on Saul’s first missionary journey with Barnabas.
Apostles sent out into ever-changing political landscapes of Rome, Judea and a Hellenist world in between journeyed on frequently-shifting tectonic plates of clashing cultures.
Some men had come down to Antioch from Judea saying,
“Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Acts 15:1b ESV
This incident in Iconium, one of many, had threatened the apostles sent out by the Church.
On his second missionary journey Paul seeks out these new believers once more, including a young man named Timothy who had been raised by his Jewish grandmother and mother.
16:2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.
Luke mentions [16:1] that Paul and Silas travel to Lystra and Derbe even before now mentioning ‘brothers‘ in Iconium. What had happened in Iconium last time?
Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.- Acts of the Apostles 14:1 ESV
At Iconium as in Antioch Pisidia the apostles received a divided (and sometimes violent) reception to the Gospel.
The Jews of Cilicia held to their Jewishness in opposition to rampant cultural sin in the customs and ceremonies of an idolatrous Hellenistic majority of their own towns. Saul of Tarsus returns to these Christian brothers trying to convince other Jewish brothers that Jesus is the Christ.
How could these apostles of the risen Jesus reach even more Jews in theirs journeys?
In order to do this the Apostle Paul and his company of men must seem most Jewish in order to proclaim Christ in their synagogues.
BUT the issue of bringing Timothy to other towns is that his father is Greek and of course had not circumcised his son eight days after his birth — in the manner and custom of Hebrew fathers.
חֲתַן דָּמִים לַמּוּלֹֽת׃
Circumcision
At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood” with reference to the circumcision.
Exodus 4:26b – Proclamation of Zipporah after she completed this sign of the covenant of the LORD on Moses’ son.
We read and the Hellenists read of the signs that the Lord God had confirmed His solemn promises to Abraham.
And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
ACTS of the Apostles 7:8 – from the preaching of Stephen to the Sanhedrin (most likely with Saul of Tarsus nearby)
Let’s be clear that in the διαθήκη covenant of περιτομή circumcision that our solemn agreement cut with the LORD is paramount to any sign or evidence of the flesh.
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying,
“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Gospel of Luke 22:20 – the words of the Lord Jesus to the Twelve at the meal of the last Passover
WE are not Jews or Christians — true followers of the LORD (as was Moses) — true disciples of Jesus the Christ of the New Covenant — by signs of baptism, communion, ceremony or any other claim of grace separate from God’s covenant in Scripture.
The Apostle Peter had also been confronted with this same issue after reporting back to the Church in Jerusalem of the signs of the Holy Spirit also given to the gentiles.
Peter, John, Phillip, Paul, Barnabas and all the evangelists of the Gospel must continue to convince Jews as well as gentiles concerning God’s mercy and new covenant of the heart.
Paul’s later letter begins by addressing circumcision.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16 ESV
To the Jew FIRST — Apostolic approach of taking the Gospel into all of the 1st century world.
Paul mentions the culture of so many idolaters among whom the Jews and Christians live. This idolatry is a legitimate concern, more so than a sign of circumcision.
Romans 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!
Amen.
These Hellenists to whom the LORD made the Jews a light living among them are citizens of many towns to which Paul now will bring this Greek disciple named Timothy.
BUT the Jews have been rightly cautious about now allowing the leaven of their idol worship come near the worship of the Living God — most especially at their own Passover feasts.
Note: Konya (Iconium near Derbe & Lystra) in foreground – source: Google Earth AD2023
For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
I have only to mention recent, current and highly anticipated pagan festivals of the 21st century to paint a glace of the idolatry of first century — idol worship including parades, drinking, ritual sex, raucous celebrations and porneia in the public places — which Jews and Christians recognize as abhorrent to Almighty God.
The Hellenes to which Paul, Silas and Timothy would soon travel lived NOT in a unified Greece under Roman occupation similar to the religiously-united Judea of the Jews throughout the Empire, but in numerous culturally divergent city-states conquered separately by Roman centurions advancing from ports of the Mediterranean and Aegean seas.
Idolatries of the Hellenes worshipping gods of each city, similar to god idols of Roman myths allowed for a tolerant Roman peace. Romans simply viewed idol worship as harmless and practical public parties of a cultural nature, even a religious duty.
These frequent festivals sometimes celebrated each year may have been out of obligation, but culturally they generally were celebrations influential men of the city used to maintain their hold on the women, boys, slaves and money they controlled.
Remember, in most of the Roman Empire and most Hellenist cities MOST men served other men of means in charge of various aspects of their everyday lives. Many captive slaves worked for local land owners and the Roman army as well, including young boys who served their masters in ways NOT acceptable to any faithful Jew.
On the further mission beyond Derbe, Lystra and Iconium (modern-day Kona, Turkiye) Silas and Saul of Tarsus would certainly NOT want any fellow Jew to mistake this faithful young man and disciple, Timothy, as a Greek (because of his uncircumcision by his non-Jewish Greek father) as some Jews who traveled like Saul already knew.
4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.
Acts 15 Decisions of the Council in Jerusalem (last year)
.. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements:
that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.
If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.
Farewell.”
So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
Acts of the Apostles 16:5 ESV
ACTS of the apostles Silas, Paul and Timothy .. To Be Continued…
Now that we have settled the ‘Where Next?’ of Paul’s second missionary journey (after his separation from Barnabas), before we proceed further let’s take a helpful glance at the ‘Who’s Who’ of Paul’s missionary journeys.
1st Missionary Journey
Antioch-Cypress
Paul & Barnabas with John Mark
Pamphylia-Pisidia-Syria
Paul & Barnabas without John Mark
2nd Missionary Journey
Barnabas and Mark separate to a second mission trip back to Cypress (without Paul) AND
Paul and Silas depart for Derbe in Pisidia (without Mark or Barnabas)
Commentators make much of the disagreements involving John Mark that led to a parting of ways of Paul and Barnabas. The Holy Spirit will use these men to accomplish even more as time and Scripture will witness of their later work and love for each other in Christ.
WHO’S WHO on the Second Missionary Journey
Paul
Paul or Saul of Tarsus we now know well. This notable apostle to the gentiles hails from a who’s who lineage of Jewish Pharisees. We would also include him in a who’s who of Cilicia as a leading Roman citizen of its capital. Jesus Christ called the Apostle to proclaim the Gospel a dozen years ago.
Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
From the Who’s Who of Paul’s 2nd missionary journey the often overlooked Silas[pronounced: see’-las]
Joins Paul in ~AD49 sent from Council in Jerusalem with their Epistle (letter) to the gentile churches. Silas, like Paul, is both Jewish and a Roman Citizen. In addition to his missionary journeys Silas also becomes an important messenger from Peter, Paul and other Church leaders who is sent out with letters, witness and encouragement to remote church leaders.
ACTS 18:1-2 .. Paul.. went to Corinth. And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.
AND looking back at an earlier account WE almost missed this:
Here is another WHO'S WHO name rarely mentioned on Paul's 2nd missionary journey & not even named in his text in Acts of the Apostles:
Luke
Λουκᾶς – Loukâs, loo-kas’; contracted from Latin Lucanus; Lucas, a Christian:—Lucas, Luke.
NT Commentators including Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Acts and David Brown point to a subtle key reference of the author Luke in the “we passages” after recording previous acts of Paul and others as “they.”
6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia..
10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
.. 11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage..
12 and from there to Philippi..
We remained in this city some days.
Luke – a first-person Witness
Like John Mark as a scribe recording the First Missionary Journey on Cypress, the beloved physician Luke now joins Paul’s Second Missionary Journey as a first hand witness.
The author of Acts will also have ample time on ships and in many towns throughout the Roman world of the apostles to the gentiles to interview others for his orderly account and record what has happened previously and concurrently in other places.
AD 49-51
2800 miles (4,500 km)
The Second Missionary Journey of Paul (and many others)
NOTE: Reading time of this post is longer than average due to extended passages of Scripture usually excerpted and linked being included in full. - RH
Exhortation – paraklēsis – is probably not what you think it is. After Barnabas and Saul reach Pisidian Antioch we will look closer at its role in preaching AND I will provide a complete definition at the bottom of this post. – RH
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching.
Most hikers plan for a journey like that into the mountains to take anywhere from five days to two weeks, hoping for an average daily distance of about ten to fifteen miles.
Some commentators speculate that Paul may have contracted malaria common to travelers journeying along the low marshlands near Perga. Barnabas and Saul would have been exhausted on whatever day of the week they arrived in Antioch and certainly would be encouraged by a sabbath rest.
But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down.
15 לאחר קריאת פרשת השבוע מן התורה, וההפטרה מהנביאים, שלחו אליהם ראשי בית-הכנסת הודעה: “אחים, אם יש לכם דבר עידוד והדרכה בשבילנו, אתם מוזמנים לדבר!”
15 And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
- Does a Hebrew glance at ACTS 13:15 [above] prompt you to think about how Jews in the Synagogue viewed Scripture?
Preaching for an audience you know
Before we move on to Paul’s proclamation of the Gospel in the synagogue of Antioch (near Pisidia), let’s take a look at the context of worship for these first century Jews in a Greco-Roman culture of Asia (as it was called) in the Roman capitol of Galatia (as Pisidian Antioch functioned politically).
Without digressing too far, let’s just say that Rome conquered towns, cultures and strategic places (like Antioch). Then once subdued by their Legions, Rome allowed these Greeks or Hellenists to include their social, cultural and religious practices as part of a tolerant peace with their Roman government. (There’s no puppet-king or elected Greek governor.) The rule of law is now and will remain ROMAN.
Jews who proclaimed that THEIR GOD IS ONE would eventually relent and add their Yahweh to acceptable social worship of a pantheon of Greco-Roman gods.
BUT some Jews insisted that they would not participate in any of the important holidays of the gods of their cities.
Greek is the language of the Empire.
Hebrew a Jewish language in worship even here in the capitol of the Roman province of Galatia.
Latin is the Roman language of the Legions and the language of government carved into the columns and walls of the distinctly ornate public buildings of Rome which have replaced the Greek places of the past.
I am neither historian, archeologist or sociologist, but my guess is that in the Synagogue of Antioch that the Torah and Prophets were read in Hebrew, while the teaching and discourse of the day with both Jews and proselytes from throughout the Empire present was conducted in their common Greek.
I’ll also speculate that prominent men of the Roman government (like the Proconsul Sergius Paulus whom they had just met) converse with those governed in Greek, even though some of their official duties required the Latin of Rome.
Saulos is a well-know Jew of Tarsus well-studied under Gamaliel of Jerusalem. And iōsēph the kyprios (Cyprian) Levite may offer additional priestly insight little known to these Hellenist Jews.
Tradition of Worship
Luke’s account from the year of our Lord 47 or 48 of Saul and Barnabas in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch provides readers (whether his first Christian audience of the AD 60’s and 70’s or 21st c. Christians) with some details of worship in the synagogue less familiar than the well-documented worship, festivals and gatherings of the Temple in Jerusalem.
And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. – v.14b
Saturday worship: Jews go to the synagogue and sit to hear Scripture.
And after the reading of the Law – v.15a
The Law [nomos] a systematic, pre-determined reading of Genesis – Deuteronomy (the Pentateuch) is prominently read first by a synagogue official in the pulpit (or on the platform).
And [after the reading of] the Prophets – v.15a
Again, a systematic, pre-determined reading from a book of a major Prophet (like Isaiah) or reading of a minor Prophet (perhaps even their entire scroll).
(Luke’s account here makes no attempt to cover other parts of the weekly worship at the synagogue, such as the singing of Psalms or the offering or prayers.)
i.e. Psalm 2, referenced here by context of Saul’s sermon, may have been sung as part of the appointed hymns from the prior weeks or later after his sermon.
the synagogue officials [of the archisynagōgos]sent to them [apostellōprosa autos] v.15b
ruler of the synagogue. It was his duty to select the readers or teachers in the synagogue, to examine the discourses of the public speakers, and to see that all things were done with decency and in accordance with ancestral usage.
the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, “Brothers,
(Although Saul and Joseph of Cypress visit from other congregations of Jews, the Arch-Synagogos leading worship WELCOMES them ‘as brothers’ and invites them to PREACH.)
“Brothers, if you have any word [logos] – v.15b
Did a messenger of the archisynagōgos greet them on arrival with this specific invitation from the head pastor of the synagogue requesting them to say a word if they would like?
Or perhaps the leader of the synagogue greeted these distinguished brothers personally?
Or maybe, seeing them in the congregation he gestured to the renowned Saul of Tarsus to at least say something?
have any word of exhortation for the people,
[WE will address the expectation of a word of exhortationafter the reading of the Law and the Prophets.)
say it. – Acts 13:15b
The following readings are intended to give us a sense of the regular Saturday worship in the synagogue to set the stage for the important exhortation of Paul which will follow from Acts of the Apostles in our next post.
Paul MAY HAVE drawn from these Scriptures which COULD HAVE been part of the first century Jewish lectionary schedule. Even if these specific Scriptures were not those read, the congregation would have been familiar with them.- RH
Perhaps one of you theologians could share a comment to inform if our ears to hear would have been tuned to the Hebrew original or the local Greek.
Today for our international audience of this 21st century I will use English from the Legacy Standard Bible.
when Israel came down from Beersheba to Egypt, beginning in verse 28.
Now he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out the way before him to Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen. And Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; as soon as he appeared before him, he fell on his neck and wept on his neck a long time. Then Israel said to Joseph, “Now I can die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive.”
And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh and say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me; and the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock; and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’ “And it will be when Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth and until now, both we and our fathers,’ that you may live in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”
Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh and said, “My father and my brothers and their flocks and their herds and all that they have, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.” And he took five men from among his brothers and set them before Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” So they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers.” And they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks, for the famine is heavy in the land of Canaan. So now, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen.”
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. “The land of Egypt is at your disposal; have your father and your brothers settle in the best of the land, let them settle in the land of Goshen; and if you know any excellent men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock.”
Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and stood him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning.”
And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. So Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to their little ones.
Now there was no food in all the land because the famine was very heavy, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. And Joseph gathered all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house. Then the money came to an end in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan. So all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us food, for why should we die in your presence? For our money is gone.”
Then Joseph said, “Give up your livestock, and I will give you food for your livestock, since your money is gone.” So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses and the flocks and the herds and the donkeys; and he fed them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. Then that year came to an end.
And they came to him the next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money has come to an end, and the livestock are my lord’s. There is nothing left for my lord except our bodies and our land. “Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. So give us seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.”
So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for every Egyptian sold his field because the famine was severe upon them. Thus the land became Pharaoh’s. As for the people, he moved them to the cities from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they ate off the allotment which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore, they did not sell their land.
Then Joseph said to the people, “Behold, I have today bought you and your land for Pharaoh; now, here is seed for you, and you may sow the land. “And it will be, at the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four-fifths shall be your own for seed of the field and for your food and for those of your households and as food for your little ones.”
So they said, “You have kept us alive! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s slaves.” And Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt valid to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth; only the land of the priests did not become Pharaoh’s.
Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in Goshen, and they took possession of property in it and were fruitful and became very numerous.
And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; so the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years.
A reading from Bereshis.
Do you recall this compelling story from Genesis which tells how the Hebrew descendants of Jacob became slaves which Moses would redeem later?
Without exposition, the readings would continue from the Books of the Prophets.
How long, O Yahweh, will I call for help,
And You will not hear?
I cry out to You, “Violence!”
Yet You do not save.
Why do You make me see wickedness
And cause me to look on trouble?
Indeed, devastation and violence are before me;
And there is strife, and contention is lifted up.
Therefore the law is ignored,
And justice never comes forth.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore justice comes forth perverted.
“For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
That bitter and hasty nation
Who walks on the breadth of the land
To possess dwelling places which are not theirs.
“They are dreaded and feared;
Their justice and exaltation come forth from themselves.
“Their horses are swifter than leopards
And sharper than wolves in the evening.
Their horsemen come galloping;
Their horsemen come from afar;
They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.
“All of them come for violence.
Their horde of faces moves forward.
And they gather captives like sand.
“And they mock at kings,
And rulers are a laughing matter to them.
They laugh at every fortress
And heap up dirt and capture it.
“Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on.
But they will be held guilty,
They whose power is their god.”
Your eyes are too pure to see evil,
And You cannot look on trouble.
Why do You look
On those who deal treacherously?
Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up
Those more righteous than they?
And You have made men like the fish of the sea,
Like creeping things without a ruler over them.
The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook,
Drag them away with their net,
And gather them together in their fishing net.
Therefore they are glad and rejoice.
Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net
And burn incense to their fishing net
Because through these things their portion is rich
And their food is fat.
Will they therefore empty their net
And continually kill nations without sparing?
I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
And the Lord answered me:
“Write the vision;
make it plain upon tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seem slow, wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay.
Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Moreover, wine is treacherous;
the arrogant man shall not abide.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations,
and collects as his own all peoples.”
Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, in scoffing derision of him, and say,
“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
for how long?—
and loads himself with pledges!”
Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
and those awake who will make you tremble?
Then you will be booty for them.
Because you have plundered many nations,
all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of men and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell therein.
Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
to set his nest on high,
to be safe from the reach of harm!
You have devised shame to your house
by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
For the stone will cry out from the wall,
and the beam from the woodwork respond.
Woe to him who builds a town with blood,
and founds a city on iniquity!
Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts
that peoples labor only for fire,
and nations weary themselves for nought?
For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.
Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink
of the cup of his wrath, and makes them drunk,
to gaze on their shame!
You will be sated with contempt instead of glory.
Drink, yourself, and stagger!
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
will come around to you,
and shame will come upon your glory!
The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you;
the destruction of the beasts will terrify you,
for the blood of men and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell therein.
What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For the workman trusts in his own creation
when he makes dumb idols!
Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a dumb stone, Arise!
Can this give revelation?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
thus of the Messianic salvation (so the Rabbis call the Messiah the consoler, the comforter)
And Saul of Tarsus, who is known to the Jews to have had a personal encounter with the risen Messiah Jesus, is about to give those people of the LORD God gathered together as brothers on the Sabbath the Word and exhortation.
