Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb.

²There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it.

³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow.

⁴The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men.

⁵The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

⁶He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there.’ Listen, I have told you.”

⁸So, departing quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell his disciples the news.

⁹Just then Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.

¹⁰Then Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

¹¹As they were on their way, some of the guards came into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.

¹²After the priests had assembled with the elders and agreed on a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money

¹³and told them, “Say this, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him while we were sleeping.’

¹⁴If this reaches the governor’s ears, we will deal with him and keep you out of trouble.”

¹⁵They took the money and did as they were instructed, and this story has been spread among Jewish people to this day.

¹⁶The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.

¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted.

¹⁸Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

¹⁹Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

²⁰teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

¹The LORD spoke to Moses:

²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When someone makes a special vow to the LORD that involves the assessment of people,

³if the assessment concerns a male from twenty to sixty years old, your assessment is fifty silver shekels measured by the standard sanctuary shekel.

⁴If the person is a female, your assessment is thirty shekels.

⁵If the person is from five to twenty years old, your assessment for a male is twenty shekels and for a female ten shekels.

⁶If the person is from one month to five years old, your assessment for a male is five silver shekels, and for a female your assessment is three shekels of silver.

⁷If the person is sixty years or more, your assessment is fifteen shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female.

⁸But if one is too poor to pay the assessment, he is to present the person before the priest and the priest will set a value for him. The priest will set a value for him according to what the one making the vow can afford.

⁹“If the vow involves one of the animals that may be brought as an offering to the LORD, any of these he gives to the LORD will be holy.

¹⁰He may not replace it or make a substitution for it, either good for bad, or bad for good. But if he does substitute one animal for another, both that animal and its substitute will be holy.

¹¹“If the vow involves any of the unclean animals that may not be brought as an offering to the LORD, the animal must be presented before the priest.

¹²The priest will set its value, whether high or low; the price will be set as the priest makes the assessment for you.

¹³If the one who brought it decides to redeem it, he must add a fifth to the assessed value.

¹⁴“When a man consecrates his house as holy to the LORD, the priest will assess its value, whether high or low. The price will stand just as the priest assesses it.

¹⁵But if the one who consecrated his house redeems it, he must add a fifth to the assessed value, and it will be his.

¹⁶“If a man consecrates to the LORD any part of a field that he possesses, your assessment of value will be proportional to the seed needed to sow it, at the rate of fifty silver shekels for every five bushels of barley seed.

¹⁷If he consecrates his field during the Year of Jubilee, the price will stand according to your assessment.

¹⁸But if he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, the priest will calculate the price for him in proportion to the years left until the next Year of Jubilee, so that your assessment will be reduced.

¹⁹If the one who consecrated the field decides to redeem it, he must add a fifth to the assessed value, and the field will transfer back to him.

²⁰But if he does not redeem the field or if he has sold it to another man, it is no longer redeemable.

²¹When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will be holy to the LORD like a field permanently set apart; it becomes the priest’s property.

²²“If a person consecrates to the LORD a field he has purchased that is not part of his inherited landholding,

²³then the priest will calculate for him the amount of the assessment up to the Year of Jubilee, and the person will pay the assessed value on that day as a holy offering to the LORD.

²⁴In the Year of Jubilee the field will return to the one he bought it from, the original owner.

²⁵All your assessed values will be measured by the standard sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

²⁶“But no one can consecrate a firstborn of the livestock, whether an animal from the herd or flock, to the LORD, because a firstborn already belongs to the LORD.

²⁷If it is one of the unclean livestock, it can be ransomed according to your assessment by adding a fifth of its value to it. If it is not redeemed, it can be sold according to your assessment.

²⁸“Nothing that a man permanently sets apart to the LORD from all he owns, whether a person, an animal, or his inherited landholding, can be sold or redeemed; everything set apart is especially holy to the LORD.

²⁹No person who has been set apart for destruction is to be ransomed; he must be put to death.

³⁰“Every tenth of the land’s produce, grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.

³¹If a man decides to redeem any part of this tenth, he must add a fifth to its value.

³²Every tenth animal from the herd or flock, which passes under the shepherd’s rod, will be holy to the LORD.

³³He is not to inspect whether it is good or bad, and he is not to make a substitution for it. But if he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute will be holy; they cannot be redeemed.”

³⁴These are the commands the LORD gave Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.

¹So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

²Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, corrupted no one, taken advantage of no one.

³I don’t say this to condemn you, since I have already said that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

⁴I am very frank with you; I have great pride in you. I am filled with encouragement; I am overflowing with joy in all our afflictions.

⁵In fact, when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest. Instead, we were troubled in every way: conflicts on the outside, fears within.

⁶But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus,

⁷and not only by his arrival but also by the comfort he received from you. He told us about your deep longing, your sorrow, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

⁸For even if I grieved you with my letter, I don’t regret it. And if I regretted it — since I saw that the letter grieved you, yet only for a while —

⁹I now rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us.

¹⁰For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death.

¹¹For consider how much diligence this very thing — this grieving as God wills — has produced in you: what a desire to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what deep longing, what zeal, what justice! In every way you showed yourselves to be pure in this matter.

¹²So even though I wrote to you, it was not because of the one who did wrong, or because of the one who was wronged, but in order that your devotion to us might be made plain to you in the sight of God.

¹³For this reason we have been comforted. In addition to our own comfort, we rejoiced even more over the joy Titus had, because his spirit was refreshed by all of you.

¹⁴For if I have made any boast to him about you, I have not been disappointed; but as I have spoken everything to you in truth, so our boasting to Titus has also turned out to be the truth.

¹⁵And his affection toward you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of all of you, and how you received him with fear and trembling.

¹⁶I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you.

¹The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. The key for the shaft to the abyss was given to him.

²He opened the shaft to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great furnace so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft.

³Then locusts came out of the smoke on to the earth, and power was given to them like the power that scorpions have on the earth.

⁴They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only those people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads.

⁵They were not permitted to kill them but were to torment them for five months; their torment is like the torment caused by a scorpion when it stings someone.

⁶In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

⁷The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. Something like golden crowns was on their heads; their faces were like human faces;

⁸they had hair like women’s hair; their teeth were like lions’ teeth;

⁹they had chests like iron breastplates; the sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariots with horses rushing into battle;

¹⁰and they had tails with stingers like scorpions, so that with their tails they had the power to harm people for five months.

¹¹They had as their king the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

¹²The first woe has passed. There are still two more woes to come after this.

¹³The sixth angel blew his trumpet. From the four horns of the golden altar that is before God, I heard a voice

¹⁴say to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates.”

¹⁵So the four angels who were prepared for the hour, day, month, and year were released to kill a third of the human race.

¹⁶The number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number.

¹⁷This is how I saw the horses and their riders in the vision: They had breastplates that were fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and from their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur.

¹⁸A third of the human race was killed by these three plagues — by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came from their mouths.

¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails, which resemble snakes, have heads that inflict injury.

²⁰The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk.

²¹And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

¹The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.

²Oh, that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your caresses are more delightful than wine.

³The fragrance of your perfume is intoxicating; your name is perfume poured out. No wonder young women adore you.

⁴Take me with you  — let’s hurry. Oh, that the king would bring me to his chambers. We will rejoice and be glad in you; we will celebrate your caresses more than wine. It is only right that they adore you.

⁵Daughters of Jerusalem, I am dark like the tents of Kedar, yet lovely like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do not stare at me because I am dark, for the sun has gazed on me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; they made me take care of the vineyards. I have not taken care of my own vineyard.

⁷Tell me, you whom I love: Where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you let them rest at noon? Why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?

⁸If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats near the shepherds’ tents.

⁹I compare you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariots.

¹⁰Your cheeks are beautiful with jewelry, your neck with its necklace.

¹¹We will make gold jewelry for you, accented with silver.

¹²While the king is on his couch, my perfume releases its fragrance.

¹³The one I love is a sachet of myrrh to me, spending the night between my breasts.

¹⁴The one I love is a cluster of henna blossoms to me, in the vineyards of En-gedi.

¹⁵How beautiful you are, my darling. How very beautiful! Your eyes are doves.

¹⁶How handsome you are, my love. How delightful! Our bed is verdant;

¹⁷the beams of our house are cedars, and our rafters are cypresses.

¹Praise the LORD, all nations! Glorify him, all peoples!

²For his faithful love to us is great; the LORD’s faithfulness endures forever. Hallelujah!

¹Don’t envy the evil or desire to be with them,

²for their hearts plan violence, and their words stir up trouble.

³A house is built by wisdom, and it is established by understanding;

⁴by knowledge the rooms are filled with every precious and beautiful treasure.

⁵A wise warrior is better than a strong one, and a man of knowledge than one of strength;

⁶for you should wage war with sound guidance — victory comes with many counselors.

⁷Wisdom is inaccessible to a fool; he does not open his mouth at the city gate.

⁸The one who plots evil will be called a schemer.

⁹A foolish scheme is sin, and a mocker is detestable to people.

¹⁰If you do nothing in a difficult time, your strength is limited.

¹¹Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter.

¹²If you say, “But we didn’t know about this,” won’t he who weighs hearts consider it? Won’t he who protects your life know? Won’t he repay a person according to his work?

¹³Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your palate;

¹⁴realize that wisdom is the same for you. If you find it, you will have a future, and your hope will never fade.

¹⁵Don’t set an ambush, you wicked one, at the camp of the righteous man; don’t destroy his dwelling.

¹⁶Though a righteous person falls seven times, he will get up, but the wicked will stumble into ruin.

¹⁷Don’t gloat when your enemy falls, and don’t let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,

¹⁸or the LORD will see, be displeased, and turn his wrath away from him.

¹⁹Don’t be agitated by evildoers, and don’t envy the wicked.

²⁰For the evil have no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.

²¹My son, fear the LORD, as well as the king, and don’t associate with rebels,

²²for destruction will come suddenly from them; who knows what distress these two can bring?

²³These sayings also belong to the wise: It is not good to show partiality in judgment.

²⁴Whoever says to the guilty, “You are innocent”  — peoples will curse him, and nations will denounce him;

²⁵but it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and a generous blessing will come to them.

²⁶He who gives an honest answer gives a kiss on the lips.

²⁷Complete your outdoor work, and prepare your field; afterward, build your house.

²⁸Don’t testify against your neighbor without cause. Don’t deceive with your lips.

²⁹Don’t say, “I’ll do to him what he did to me; I’ll repay the man for what he has done.”

³⁰I went by the field of a slacker and by the vineyard of one lacking sense.

³¹Thistles had come up everywhere, weeds covered the ground, and the stone wall was ruined.

³²I saw, and took it to heart; I looked, and received instruction:

³³a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest,

³⁴and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need, like a bandit.

¹A man of God came, however, from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD while Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense.

²The man of God cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD: “Altar, altar, this is what the LORD says, ‘A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’”

³He gave a sign that day. He said, “This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: ‘The altar will now be ripped apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.’”

⁴When the king heard the message that the man of God had cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Arrest him!” But the hand he stretched out against him withered, and he could not pull it back to himself.

⁵The altar was ripped apart, and the ashes poured from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.

⁶Then the king responded to the man of God, “Plead for the favor of the LORD your God and pray for me so that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God pleaded for the favor of the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it had been at first.

⁷Then the king declared to the man of God, “Come home with me, refresh yourself, and I’ll give you a reward.”

⁸But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your house, I still wouldn’t go with you, and I wouldn’t eat food or drink water in this place,

⁹for this is what I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat food or drink water or go back the way you came.’”

¹⁰So he went another way; he did not go back by the way he had come to Bethel.

¹¹Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel. His son came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. His sons also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king.

¹²Then their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” His sons had seen the way taken by the man of God who had come from Judah.

¹³Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he got on it.

¹⁴He followed the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he said.

¹⁵Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat some food.”

¹⁶But he answered, “I cannot go back with you or accompany you; I will not eat food or drink water with you in this place.

¹⁷For a message came to me by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat food or drink water there or go back by the way you came.’”

¹⁸He said to him, “I am also a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat food and drink water.’” The old prophet deceived him,

¹⁹and the man of God went back with him, ate food in his house, and drank water.

²⁰While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back,

²¹and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you rebelled against the LORD’s command and did not keep the command that the LORD your God commanded you —

²²but you went back and ate food and drank water in the place that he said to you, “Do not eat food and do not drink water” — your corpse will never reach the grave of your fathers.’”

²³So after he had eaten food and after he had drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back.

²⁴When he left, a lion attacked him along the way and killed him. His corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it; the lion was standing beside the corpse too.

²⁵There were men passing by who saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and spoke about it in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶When the prophet who had brought him back from his way heard about it, he said, “He is the man of God who disobeyed the LORD’s command. The LORD has given him to the lion, and it has mauled and killed him, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke to him.”

²⁷Then the old prophet instructed his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” They saddled it,

²⁸and he went and found the corpse thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse or mauled the donkey.

²⁹So the prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back. The old prophet came into the city to mourn and to bury him.

³⁰Then he laid the corpse in his own grave, and they mourned over him: “Oh, my brother!”

³¹After he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones,

³²for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria is certain to happen.”

³³Even after this, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil way but again made priests for the high places from the ranks of the people. He ordained whoever so desired it, and they became priests of the high places.

³⁴This was the sin that caused the house of Jeroboam to be cut off and obliterated from the face of the earth.

¹This is what the LORD says: I am about to rouse the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and against the population of Leb-qamai.

²I will send strangers to Babylon who will scatter her and strip her land bare, for they will come against her from every side in the day of disaster.

³Don’t let the archer string his bow; don’t let him put on his armor. Don’t spare her young men; completely destroy her entire army!

⁴Those who were slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, those who were pierced through, in her streets.

⁵For Israel and Judah are not left widowed by their God, the LORD of Armies, though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

⁶Leave Babylon; save your lives, each of you! Don’t perish because of her guilt. For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance — he will pay her what she deserves.

⁷Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD’s hand, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore, the nations go mad.

⁸Suddenly Babylon fell and was shattered. Wail for her; get balm for her wound — perhaps she can be healed.

⁹We tried to heal Babylon, but she could not be healed. Abandon her! Let each of us go to his own land, for her judgment extends to the sky and reaches as far as the clouds.

¹⁰The LORD has brought about our vindication; come, let’s tell in Zion what the LORD our God has accomplished.

¹¹Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes because his plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the LORD’s vengeance, vengeance for his temple.

¹²Raise up a signal flag against the walls of Babylon; fortify the watch post; set the watchmen in place; prepare the ambush. For the LORD has both planned and accomplished what he has threatened against those who live in Babylon.

¹³You who reside by abundant water, rich in treasures, your end has come, your life thread is cut.

¹⁴The LORD of Armies has sworn by himself: I will fill you up with men as with locusts, and they will sing the victory song over you.

¹⁵He made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and spread out the heavens by his understanding.

¹⁶When he thunders, the waters in the heavens are tumultuous, and he causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from his storehouses.

¹⁷Everyone is stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast images are a lie; there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are worthless, a work to be mocked. At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.

¹⁹Jacob’s Portion is not like these because he is the one who formed all things. Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of Armies is his name.

²⁰You are my war club, my weapons of war. With you I will smash nations; with you I will bring kingdoms to ruin.

²¹With you I will smash the horse and its rider; with you I will smash the chariot and its rider.

²²With you I will smash man and woman; with you I will smash the old man and the youth; with you I will smash the young man and the young woman.

²³With you I will smash the shepherd and his flock; with you I will smash the farmer and his ox-team. With you I will smash governors and officials.

²⁴“Before your very eyes, I will repay Babylon and all the residents of Chaldea for all their evil they have done in Zion.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

²⁵Look, I am against you, devastating mountain. This is the LORD’s declaration. You devastate the whole earth. I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you down from the cliffs, and turn you into a charred mountain.

²⁶No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstone or a foundation stone from you, because you will become desolate forever. This is the LORD’s declaration.

²⁷Raise a signal flag in the land; blow a ram’s horn among the nations; set apart the nations against her. Summon kingdoms against her — Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her; bring up horses like a swarm of locusts.

²⁸Set apart the nations for battle against her — the kings of Media, her governors and all her officials, and all the lands they rule.

²⁹The earth quakes and trembles because the LORD’s intentions against Babylon stand: to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

³⁰Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their might is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, her gate bars are shattered.

³¹Messenger races to meet messenger, and herald to meet herald, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city has been captured from end to end.

³²The fords have been seized, the marshes set on fire, and the fighting men are terrified.

³³For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.

³⁴“King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty dish; he has swallowed me like a sea monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies; he has vomited me out.

³⁵Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon,” says the inhabitant of Zion. “Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.

³⁶Therefore, this is what the LORD says: I am about to champion your cause and take vengeance on your behalf; I will dry up her sea and make her fountain run dry.

³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a jackals’ den, a desolation and an object of scorn, without inhabitant.

³⁸They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs.

³⁹While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast, and I will make them drunk so that they celebrate. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up. This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams together with male goats.

⁴¹How Sheshach has been captured, the praise of the whole earth seized. What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

⁴²The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered with its tumultuous waves.

⁴³Her cities have become a desolation, an arid desert, a land where no one lives, where no human being even passes through.

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him vomit what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even Babylon’s wall will fall.

⁴⁵Come out from among her, my people! Save your lives, each of you, from the LORD’s burning anger.

⁴⁶May you not become cowardly and fearful when the report is proclaimed in the land, for the report will come one year, and then another the next year. There will be violence in the land with ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷Therefore, look, the days are coming when I will punish Babylon’s carved images. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her.

⁴⁸Heaven and earth and everything in them will shout for joy over Babylon because the destroyers from the north will come against her. This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁴⁹Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel, even as the slain of the whole earth fell because of Babylon.

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword, go and do not stand still! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to your mind.

⁵¹We are ashamed because we have heard insults. Humiliation covers our faces because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s temple.

⁵²Therefore, look, the days are coming — this is the LORD’s declaration — when I will punish her carved images, and the wounded will groan throughout her land.

⁵³Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens and fortify her tall fortresses, destroyers will come against her from me. This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁵⁴The sound of a cry from Babylon! The sound of terrible destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

⁵⁵For the LORD is going to devastate Babylon; he will silence her mighty voice. Their waves roar like a huge torrent; the tumult of their voice resounds,

⁵⁶for a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon. Her warriors will be captured, their bows shattered, for the LORD is a God of retribution; he will certainly repay.

⁵⁷I will make her princes and sages drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up. This is the King’s declaration; the LORD of Armies is his name.

⁵⁸This is what the LORD of Armies says: Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished, and her high gates set ablaze. The peoples will have labored for nothing; the nations will weary themselves only to feed the fire.

⁵⁹This is what the prophet Jeremiah commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, the quartermaster, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign.

⁶⁰Jeremiah wrote on one scroll about all the disaster that would come to Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon.

⁶¹Jeremiah told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud.

⁶²Say, ‘LORD, you have threatened to cut off this place so that no one will live in it — people or animals. Indeed, it will remain desolate forever.’

⁶³When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.

⁶⁴Then say, ‘In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am bringing on her. They will grow weary.’” The words of Jeremiah end here.

¹But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property.

²However, he kept back part of the proceeds with his wife’s knowledge, and brought a portion of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

³“Ananias,” Peter asked, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land?

⁴Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to people but to God.”

⁵When he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead, and a great fear came on all who heard.

⁶The young men got up, wrapped his body, carried him out, and buried him.

⁷About three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

⁸“Tell me,” Peter asked her, “did you sell the land for this price?” “Yes,” she said, “for that price.”

⁹Then Peter said to her, “Why did you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”

¹⁰Instantly she dropped dead at his feet. When the young men came in, they found her dead, carried her out, and buried her beside her husband.

¹¹Then great fear came on the whole church and on all who heard these things.

¹²Many signs and wonders were being done among the people through the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon’s Colonnade.

¹³No one else dared to join them, but the people spoke well of them.

¹⁴Believers were added to the Lord in increasing numbers — multitudes of both men and women.

¹⁵As a result, they would carry the sick out into the streets and lay them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.

¹⁶In addition, a multitude came together from the towns surrounding Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

¹⁷Then the high priest rose up. He and all who were with him, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.

¹⁸So they arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.

¹⁹But an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail during the night, brought them out, and said,

²⁰“Go and stand in the temple, and tell the people all about this life.”

²¹Hearing this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. When the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin — the full council of the Israelites — and sent orders to the jail to have them brought.

²²But when the servants got there, they did not find them in the jail, so they returned and reported,

²³“We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing in front of the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”

²⁴As the captain of the temple police and the chief priests heard these things, they were baffled about them, wondering what would come of this.

²⁵Someone came and reported to them, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple and teaching the people.”

²⁶Then the commander went with the servants and brought them in without force, because they were afraid the people might stone them.

²⁷After they brought them in, they had them stand before the Sanhedrin, and the high priest asked,

²⁸“Didn’t we strictly order you not to teach in this name? Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

²⁹Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than people.

³⁰The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging him on a tree.

³¹God exalted this man to his right hand as ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

³²We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

³³When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.

³⁴But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered the men to be taken outside for a little while.

³⁵He said to them, “Men of Israel, be careful about what you’re about to do to these men.

³⁶Some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed and came to nothing.

³⁷After this man, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and attracted a following. He also perished, and all his followers were scattered.

³⁸So in the present case, I tell you, stay away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan or this work is of human origin, it will fail;

³⁹but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting against God.” They were persuaded by him.

⁴⁰After they called in the apostles and had them flogged, they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them.

⁴¹Then they went out from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be treated shamefully on behalf of the Name.

⁴²Every day in the temple, and in various homes, they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.