Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When daybreak came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death.

²After tying him up, they led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.

³Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, was full of remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.

⁴“I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said. “What’s that to us?” they said. “See to it yourself!”

⁵So he threw the silver into the temple and departed. Then he went and hanged himself.

⁶The chief priests took the silver and said, “It’s not permitted to put it into the temple treasury, since it is blood money.”

⁷They conferred together and bought the potter’s field with it as a burial place for foreigners.

⁸Therefore that field has been called “Blood Field” to this day.

⁹Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him whose price was set by the Israelites,

¹⁰and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.

¹¹Now Jesus stood before the governor. “Are you the King of the Jews?” the governor asked him. Jesus answered, “You say so.”

¹²While he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he didn’t answer.

¹³Then Pilate said to him, “Don’t you hear how much they are testifying against you?”

¹⁴But he didn’t answer him on even one charge, so that the governor was quite amazed.

¹⁵At the festival the governor’s custom was to release to the crowd a prisoner they wanted.

¹⁶At that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.

¹⁷So when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Who is it you want me to release for you — Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?”

¹⁸For he knew it was because of envy that they had handed him over.

¹⁹While he was sitting on the judge’s bench, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for today I’ve suffered terribly in a dream because of him.”

²⁰The chief priests and the elders, however, persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to execute Jesus.

²¹The governor asked them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” “Barabbas!” they answered.

²²Pilate asked them, “What should I do then with Jesus, who is called Christ?” They all answered, “Crucify him!”

²³Then he said, “Why? What has he done wrong?” But they kept shouting all the more, “Crucify him!”

²⁴When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that a riot was starting instead, he took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. See to it yourselves!”

²⁵All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

²⁶Then he released Barabbas to them and, after having Jesus flogged, handed him over to be crucified.

²⁷Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence and gathered the whole company around him.

²⁸They stripped him and dressed him in a scarlet robe.

²⁹They twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and placed a staff in his right hand. And they knelt down before him and mocked him: “Hail, King of the Jews!”

³⁰Then they spat on him, took the staff, and kept hitting him on the head.

³¹After they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.

³²As they were going out, they found a Cyrenian man named Simon. They forced him to carry his cross.

³³When they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of the Skull),

³⁴they gave him wine mixed with gall to drink. But when he tasted it, he refused to drink it.

³⁵After crucifying him, they divided his clothes by casting lots.

³⁶Then they sat down and were guarding him there.

³⁷Above his head they put up the charge against him in writing: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

³⁸Then two criminals were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.

³⁹Those who passed by were yelling insults at him, shaking their heads

⁴⁰and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”

⁴¹In the same way the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him and said,

⁴²“He saved others, but he cannot save himself! He is the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.

⁴³He trusts in God; let God rescue him now — if he takes pleasure in him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

⁴⁴In the same way even the criminals who were crucified with him taunted him.

⁴⁵From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over the whole land.

⁴⁶About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

⁴⁷When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling for Elijah.”

⁴⁸Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and offered him a drink.

⁴⁹But the rest said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

⁵⁰But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit.

⁵¹Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.

⁵²The tombs were also opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

⁵³And they came out of the tombs after his resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many.

⁵⁴When the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

⁵⁵Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and looked after him were there, watching from a distance.

⁵⁶Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

⁵⁷When it was evening, a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph came, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.

⁵⁸He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body. Then Pilate ordered that it be released.

⁵⁹So Joseph took the body, wrapped it in clean, fine linen,

⁶⁰and placed it in his new tomb, which he had cut into the rock. He left after rolling a great stone against the entrance of the tomb.

⁶¹Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were seated there, facing the tomb.

⁶²The next day, which followed the preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate

⁶³and said, “Sir, we remember that while this deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’

⁶⁴So give orders that the tomb be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come, steal him, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.”

⁶⁵“You have a guard of soldiers,” Pilate told them. “Go and make it as secure as you know how.”

⁶⁶They went and secured the tomb by setting a seal on the stone and placing the guard.

¹“Do not make idols for yourselves, set up a carved image or sacred pillar for yourselves, or place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the LORD your God.

²Keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary; I am the LORD.

³“If you follow my statutes and faithfully observe my commands,

⁴I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

⁵Your threshing will continue until grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have plenty of food to eat and live securely in your land.

⁶I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to frighten you. I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.

⁷You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.

⁸Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand; your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

⁹“I will turn to you, make you fruitful and multiply you, and confirm my covenant with you.

¹⁰You will eat the old grain of the previous year and will clear out the old to make room for the new.

¹¹I will place my residence among you, and I will not reject you.

¹²I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.

¹³I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live in freedom.

¹⁴“But if you do not obey me and observe all these commands —

¹⁵if you reject my statutes and despise my ordinances, and do not observe all my commands — and break my covenant,

¹⁶then I will do this to you: I will bring terror on you — wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it.

¹⁷I will turn against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even though no one is pursuing you.

¹⁸“But if after these things you will not obey me, I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins.

¹⁹I will break down your strong pride. I will make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

²⁰and your strength will be used up for nothing. Your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

²¹“If you act with hostility toward me and are unwilling to obey me, I will multiply your plagues seven times for your sins.

²²I will send wild animals against you that will deprive you of your children, ravage your livestock, and reduce your numbers until your roads are deserted.

²³“If in spite of these things you do not accept my discipline, but act with hostility toward me,

²⁴then I will act with hostility toward you; I also will strike you seven times for your sins.

²⁵I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a pestilence among you, and you will be delivered into enemy hands.

²⁶When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and ration out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

²⁷“And if in spite of this you do not obey me but act with hostility toward me,

²⁸I will act with furious hostility toward you; I will also discipline you seven times for your sins.

²⁹You will eat the flesh of your sons; you will eat the flesh of your daughters.

³⁰I will destroy your high places, cut down your shrines, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless bodies of your idols; I will reject you.

³¹I will reduce your cities to ruins and devastate your sanctuaries. I will not smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices.

³²I also will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to live there will be appalled by it.

³³But I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword to chase after you. So your land will become desolate, and your cities will become ruins.

³⁴“Then the land will make up for its Sabbath years during the time it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and make up for its Sabbaths.

³⁵As long as it lies desolate, it will have the rest it did not have during your Sabbaths when you lived there.

³⁶“I will put anxiety in the hearts of those of you who survive in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a wind-driven leaf will put them to flight, and they will flee as one flees from a sword, and fall though no one is pursuing them.

³⁷They will stumble over one another as if fleeing from a sword though no one is pursuing them. You will not be able to stand against your enemies.

³⁸You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.

³⁹Those who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away because of their iniquity; they will also waste away because of their fathers’ iniquities along with theirs.

⁴⁰“But when they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers — their unfaithfulness that they practiced against me, and how they acted with hostility toward me,

⁴¹and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies — and when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they make amends for their iniquity,

⁴²then I will remember my covenant with Jacob. I will also remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

⁴³For the land abandoned by them will make up for its Sabbaths by lying desolate without the people, while they make amends for their iniquity, because they rejected my ordinances and abhorred my statutes.

⁴⁴Yet in spite of this, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or abhor them so as to destroy them and break my covenant with them, since I am the LORD their God.

⁴⁵For their sake I will remember the covenant with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God; I am the LORD.”

⁴⁶These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws the LORD established between himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

¹Working together with him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive the grace of God in vain.”

²For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

³We are not giving anyone an occasion for offense, so that the ministry will not be blamed.

⁴Instead, as God’s ministers, we commend ourselves in everything: by great endurance, by afflictions, by hardships, by difficulties,

⁵by beatings, by imprisonments, by riots, by labors, by sleepless nights, by times of hunger,

⁶by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love,

⁷by the word of truth, by the power of God; through weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left,

⁸through glory and dishonor, through slander and good report; regarded as deceivers, yet true;

⁹as unknown, yet recognized; as dying, yet see — we live; as being disciplined, yet not killed;

¹⁰as grieving, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet enriching many; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

¹¹We have spoken openly to you, Corinthians; our heart has been opened wide.

¹²We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.

¹³I speak as to my children; as a proper response, open your heart to us.

¹⁴Don’t become partners with those who do not believe. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

¹⁵What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

¹⁶And what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, as God said: I will dwell and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.

¹⁷Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord; do not touch any unclean thing, and I will welcome you.

¹⁸And I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.

¹When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

²Then I saw the seven angels who stand in the presence of God; seven trumpets were given to them.

³Another angel, with a golden incense burner, came and stood at the altar. He was given a large amount of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar in front of the throne.

⁴The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up in the presence of God from the angel’s hand.

⁵The angel took the incense burner, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth; there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

⁶And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

⁷The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire, mixed with blood, were hurled to the earth. So a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

⁸The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain ablaze with fire was hurled into the sea. So a third of the sea became blood,

⁹a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from heaven. It fell on a third of the rivers and springs of water.

¹¹The name of the star is Wormwood, and a third of the waters became wormwood. So, many of the people died from the waters, because they had been made bitter.

¹²The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day was without light and also a third of the night.

¹³I looked and heard an eagle flying high overhead, crying out in a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who live on the earth, because of the remaining trumpet blasts that the three angels are about to sound!”

¹So remember your Creator in the days of your youth: Before the days of adversity come, and the years approach when you will say, “I have no delight in them”;

²before the sun and the light are darkened, and the moon and the stars, and the clouds return after the rain;

³on the day when the guardians of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, the women who grind grain cease because they are few, and the ones who watch through the windows see dimly,

⁴the doors at the street are shut while the sound of the mill fades; when one rises at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song grow faint.

⁵Also, they are afraid of heights and dangers on the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry has no effect; for the mere mortal is headed to his eternal home, and mourners will walk around in the street;

⁶before the silver cord is snapped, and the gold bowl is broken, and the jar is shattered at the spring, and the wheel is broken into the well;

⁷and the dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

⁸“Absolute futility,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile.”

⁹In addition to the Teacher being a wise man, he constantly taught the people knowledge; he weighed, explored, and arranged many proverbs.

¹⁰The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and write words of truth accurately.

¹¹The sayings of the wise are like cattle prods, and those from masters of collections are like firmly embedded nails. The sayings are given by one Shepherd.

¹²But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body.

¹³When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity.

¹⁴For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.

¹I love the LORD because he has heard my appeal for mercy.

²Because he has turned his ear to me, I will call out to him as long as I live.

³The ropes of death were wrapped around me, and the torments of Sheol overcame me; I encountered trouble and sorrow.

⁴Then I called on the name of the LORD: “LORD, save me!”

⁵The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is compassionate.

⁶The LORD guards the inexperienced; I was helpless, and he saved me.

⁷Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

⁸For you, LORD, rescued me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

⁹I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

¹⁰I believed, even when I said, “I am severely oppressed.”

¹¹In my alarm I said, “Everyone is a liar.”

¹²How can I repay the LORD for all the good he has done for me?

¹³I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.

¹⁴I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵The death of his faithful ones is valuable in the LORD’s sight.

¹⁶LORD, I am indeed your servant; I am your servant, the son of your female servant. You have loosened my bonds.

¹⁷I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.

¹⁸I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹in the courts of the LORD’s house — within you, Jerusalem. Hallelujah!

¹When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you,

²and put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite;

³don’t desire his choice food, for that food is deceptive.

⁴Don’t wear yourself out to get rich; because you know better, stop!

⁵As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.

⁶Don’t eat a stingy person’s bread, and don’t desire his choice food,

⁷for it’s like someone calculating inwardly. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

⁸You will vomit the little you’ve eaten and waste your pleasant words.

⁹Don’t speak to a fool, for he will despise the insight of your words.

¹⁰Don’t move an ancient boundary marker, and don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹for their Redeemer is strong, and he will champion their cause against you.

¹²Apply yourself to discipline and listen to words of knowledge.

¹³Don’t withhold discipline from a youth; if you punish him with a rod, he will not die.

¹⁴Punish him with a rod, and you will rescue his life from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will indeed rejoice.

¹⁶My innermost being will celebrate when your lips say what is right.

¹⁷Don’t let your heart envy sinners; instead, always fear the LORD.

¹⁸For then you will have a future, and your hope will not be dashed.

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise; keep your mind on the right course.

²⁰Don’t associate with those who drink too much wine or with those who gorge themselves on meat.

²¹For the drunkard and the glutton will become poor, and grogginess will clothe them in rags.

²²Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy — and do not sell — truth, wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

²⁴The father of a righteous son will rejoice greatly, and one who fathers a wise son will delight in him.

²⁵Let your father and mother have joy, and let her who gave birth to you rejoice.

²⁶My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, and a wayward woman is a narrow well;

²⁸indeed, she sets an ambush like a robber and increases the number of unfaithful people.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has conflicts? Who has complaints? Who has wounds for no reason? Who has red eyes?

³⁰Those who linger over wine; those who go looking for mixed wine.

³¹Don’t gaze at wine because it is red, because it gleams in the cup and goes down smoothly.

³²In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say absurd things.

³⁴You’ll be like someone sleeping out at sea or lying down on the top of a ship’s mast.

³⁵“They struck me, but I feel no pain! They beat me, but I didn’t know it! When will I wake up? I’ll look for another drink.”

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it, he stayed in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence. Jeroboam stayed in Egypt.

³But they summoned him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam:

⁴“Your father made our yoke harsh. You, therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵Rehoboam replied, “Go away for three days and then return to me.” So the people left.

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people?”

⁷They replied, “Today if you will be a servant to this people and serve them, and if you respond to them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

⁸But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and attended him.

⁹He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to this people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

¹⁰Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us! ’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!

¹¹Although my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.’”

¹²So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had ordered: “Return to me on the third day.”

¹³Then the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice the elders had given him

¹⁴and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.”

¹⁵The king did not listen to the people, because this turn of events came from the LORD to carry out his word, which the LORD had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered him: What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Israel, return to your tents; David, now look after your own house! So Israel went to their tents,

¹⁷but Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into the chariot and flee to Jerusalem.

¹⁹Israel is still in rebellion against the house of David today.

²⁰When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. No one followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.

²¹When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized one hundred eighty thousand fit young soldiers from the entire house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

²²But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God:

²³“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,

²⁴‘This is what the LORD says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you return home, for this situation is from me.’” So they listened to the word of the LORD and went back according to the word of the LORD.

²⁵Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built Penuel.

²⁶Jeroboam said to himself, “The kingdom might now return to the house of David.

²⁷If these people regularly go to offer sacrifices in the LORD’s temple in Jerusalem, the heart of these people will return to their lord, King Rehoboam of Judah. They will kill me and go back to the king of Judah.”

²⁸So the king sought advice. Then he made two golden calves, and he said to the people, “Going to Jerusalem is too difficult for you. Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

²⁹He set up one in Bethel, and put the other in Dan.

³⁰This led to sin; the people walked in procession before one of the calves all the way to Dan.

³¹Jeroboam also made shrines on the high places and made priests from the ranks of the people who were not Levites.

³²Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah. He offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had made. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had made.

³³He offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He chose this month on his own. He made a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

¹This is the word the LORD spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:

²Announce to the nations; proclaim and raise up a signal flag; proclaim, and hide nothing. Say, “Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is terrified.” Her idols are put to shame; her false gods, devastated.

³For a nation from the north will attack her; it will make her land desolate. No one will be living in it — both people and animals will escape.

⁴In those days and at that time — this is the LORD’s declaration — the Israelites and Judeans will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the LORD their God.

⁵They will ask about Zion, turning their faces to this road. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in a permanent covenant that will never be forgotten.

⁶My people were lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, guiding them the wrong way in the mountains. They wandered from mountain to hill; they forgot their resting place.

⁷Whoever found them devoured them. Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty; instead, they have sinned against the LORD, their righteous grazing land, the hope of their ancestors, the LORD.”

⁸Escape from Babylon; depart from the Chaldeans’ land. Be like the rams that lead the flock.

⁹For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. They will line up in battle formation against her; from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.

¹⁰The Chaldeans will become plunder; all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹¹Because you rejoice, because you celebrate — you who plundered my inheritance — because you frolic like a young cow treading grain and neigh like stallions,

¹²your mother will be utterly humiliated; she who bore you will be put to shame. Look! She will lag behind all the nations — an arid wilderness, a desert.

¹³Because of the LORD’s wrath, she will not be inhabited; she will become a desolation, every bit of her. Everyone who passes through Babylon will be appalled and scoff because of all her wounds.

¹⁴Line up in battle formation around Babylon, all you archers! Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow, for she has sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her defense towers have fallen; her walls are demolished. Since this is the LORD’s vengeance, take your vengeance on her; as she has done, do the same to her.

¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time. Because of the oppressor’s sword, each will turn to his own people, each will flee to his own land.

¹⁷Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria; the last who crushed his bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

¹⁸Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹I will return Israel to his grazing land, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan; he will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.

²⁰In those days and at that time — this is the LORD’s declaration — one will search for Israel’s iniquity, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found, for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.

²¹Attack the land of Merathaim, and those living in Pekod. Put them to the sword; completely destroy them — this is the LORD’s declaration — do everything I have commanded you.

²²The sound of war is in the land  — a crushing blow!

²³How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and smashed! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

²⁴Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught, but you did not even know it. You were found and captured because you pitted yourself against the LORD.

²⁵The LORD opened his armory and brought out his weapons of wrath, because it is a task of the Lord GOD of Armies in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Come against her from the most distant places. Open her granaries; pile her up like mounds of grain and completely destroy her. Leave her no survivors.

²⁷Put all her young bulls to the sword; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them because their day has come, the time of their punishment.

²⁸There is a voice of fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon. The voice announces in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance for his temple.

²⁹Summon the archers to Babylon, all who string the bow; camp all around her; let none escape. Repay her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do the same to her, for she has acted arrogantly against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares; all the warriors will perish in that day. This is the LORD’s declaration.

³¹Look, I am against you, you arrogant one — this is the declaration of the Lord GOD of Armies — for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.

³²The arrogant will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. I will set fire to his cities, and it will consume everything around him.

³³This is what the LORD of Armies says: Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed. All their captors hold them fast; they refuse to release them.

³⁴Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Armies is his name. He will fervently champion their cause so that he might bring rest to the earth but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.

³⁵A sword is over the Chaldeans — this is the LORD’s declaration — against those who live in Babylon, against her officials, and against her sages.

³⁶A sword is against the diviners, and they will act foolishly. A sword is against her heroic warriors, and they will be terrified.

³⁷A sword is against his horses and chariots and against all the foreigners among them, and they will be like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.

³⁸A drought will come on her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of carved images, and they go mad because of terrifying things.

³⁹Therefore, desert creatures will live with hyenas, and ostriches will also live in her. It will never again be inhabited or lived in through all generations.

⁴⁰Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns  — this is the LORD’s declaration — so no one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily as a temporary resident.

⁴¹Look! A people comes from the north. A great nation and many kings will be stirred up from the remote regions of the earth.

⁴²They grasp bow and javelin. They are cruel and show no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, lined up like men in battle formation against you, Daughter Babylon.

⁴³The king of Babylon has heard about them; his hands have become weak. Distress has seized him — pain, like a woman in labor.

⁴⁴“Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Babylon away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me?”

⁴⁵Therefore, hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock’s little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them.

⁴⁶At the sound of Babylon’s conquest the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.

¹While they were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple police, and the Sadducees confronted them,

²because they were annoyed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

³So they seized them and took them into custody until the next day since it was already evening.

⁴But many of those who heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

⁵The next day, their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem

⁶with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all the members of the high-priestly family.

⁷After they had Peter and John stand before them, they began to question them: “By what power or in what name have you done this?”

⁸Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders:

⁹If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man, by what means he was healed,

¹⁰let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead — by him this man is standing here before you healthy.

¹¹This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone.

¹²There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

¹³When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.

¹⁴And since they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

¹⁵After they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, they conferred among themselves,

¹⁶saying, “What should we do with these men? For an obvious sign has been done through them, clear to everyone living in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

¹⁷But so that this does not spread any further among the people, let’s threaten them against speaking to anyone in this name again.”

¹⁸So they called for them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide;

²⁰for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

²¹After threatening them further, they released them. They found no way to punish them because the people were all giving glory to God over what had been done.

²²For this sign of healing had been performed on a man over forty years old.

²³After they were released, they went to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

²⁴When they heard this, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.

²⁵You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant: Why do the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot futile things?

²⁶The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers assemble together against the Lord and against his Messiah.

²⁷“For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed,

²⁸to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place.

²⁹And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness,

³⁰while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.

³²Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.

³³With great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them.

³⁴For there was not a needy person among them because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold,

³⁵and laid them at the apostles’ feet. This was then distributed to each person as any had need.

³⁶Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus by birth, the one the apostles called Barnabas (which is translated Son of Encouragement),

³⁷sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.