Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb.

²And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it.

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

⁴The guards shook from fear of him and became like dead men.

⁵And the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.

⁶He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.

⁷And go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”

⁸And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to report to His disciples.

⁹And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Rejoice!” And they came up and took hold of His feet, and worshiped Him.

¹⁰Then Jesus *said to them, “Do not be afraid; go, bring word to My brothers to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

¹¹Now while they were on their way, some of the men from the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened.

¹²And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers,

¹³and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him while we were asleep.’

¹⁴And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and keep you out of trouble.”

¹⁵And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day.

¹⁶But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated to them.

¹⁷And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.

¹⁸And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

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

²⁰teaching them tofollow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with youalways, to the end of the age.”

¹Again, the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When someone makes an explicit vow, he shall be valued according to your assessment of persons belonging to the LORD.

³If your assessment is of a male from twenty years even to sixty years old, then your assessment shall be fifty shekels of silver, by the shekel of the sanctuary.

⁴Or if the person is a female, then your assessment shall be thirty shekels.

⁵And if the person is from five years even to twenty years old, then your assessment for a male shall be twenty shekels, and for a female, ten shekels.

⁶But if the person is from a month even up to five years old, then your assessment shall be five shekels of silver for a male, and for a female your assessment shall be three shekels of silver.

⁷If the person is from sixty years old and upward, if a male, then your assessment shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten shekels.

⁸But if he is poorer than your assessment, then he shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; according to the means of the one who vowed, the priest shall assess him.

⁹‘Now if it is an animal of the kind that one can present as an offering to the LORD, any such animal that one gives to the LORD shall be holy.

¹⁰He shall not replace it nor exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; yet if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy.

¹¹If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which one does not present as an offering to the LORD, then he shall place the animal before the priest.

¹²And the priest shall assess it as either good or bad; as you, the priest, assess it, so shall it be.

¹³But if he should ever want to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of it to your assessment.

¹⁴‘Now if someone consecrates his house as holy to the LORD, then the priest shall assess it as either good or bad; as the priest assesses it, so shall it stand.

¹⁵Yet if the one who consecrates it should want to redeem his house, then he shall add a fifth of your assessment price to it, so that it may be his.

¹⁶‘Again, if someone consecrates to the LORD part of the field of his own property, then your assessment shall be proportionate to the seed needed for it: a homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver.

¹⁷If he consecrates his field as of the year of jubilee, according to your assessment it shall stand.

¹⁸If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest shall calculate the price for him proportionate to the years that are left until the year of jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your assessment.

¹⁹If the one who consecrates it should ever want to redeem the field, then he shall add a fifth of your assessment price to it, so that it may belong to him.

²⁰Yet if he does not redeem the field, but has sold the field to another person, it may no longer be redeemed;

²¹and when it reverts in the jubilee, the field shall be holy to the LORD, like a field banned from secular use; it shall be for the priest as his property.

²²Or if he consecrates to the LORD a field which he has bought, which is not a part of the field of his own property,

²³then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of your assessment up to the year of jubilee; and he shall on that day give your assessment as holy to the LORD.

²⁴In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, to whom the possession of the land belongs.

²⁵Every assessment of yours, moreover, shall be by the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.

²⁶‘However, a firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the LORD, no one may consecrate; whether ox or sheep, it is the LORD’S.

²⁷But if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall redeem it according to your assessment and add to it a fifth of it; and if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your assessment.

²⁸‘Nevertheless, anything which someone sets apart to the LORD for destruction out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the field of his own property, shall not be sold nor redeemed. Anything set apart for destruction is most holy to the LORD.

²⁹No one who may have been set apart among mankind shall be ransomed; he must be put to death.

³⁰‘Now all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’S; it is holy to the LORD.

³¹If, therefore, someone should ever want to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it a fifth of it.

³²For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD.

³³He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; yet if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’ ”

³⁴These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the sons of Israel on Mount Sinai.

¹Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

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

³I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

⁴My confidence in you is great; my boasting in your behalf is great. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction.

⁵For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts on the outside, fears inside.

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

⁷and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted among you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.

⁸For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while—

⁹I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.

¹⁰For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

¹¹For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.

¹²So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness in our behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God.

¹³Because of this, we have been comforted. And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

¹⁴For if I have boasted to him about you regarding anything, I was not put to shame. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus proved to be the truth.

¹⁵His affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.

¹⁶I rejoice that in everything I have confidence in you.

¹Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key to the shaft of the abyss was given to him.

²He opened the shaft of the abyss, and smoke ascended out of the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened from the smoke of the shaft.

³Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

⁴They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

⁵And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a person.

⁶And in those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will flee from them!

⁷The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like human faces.

⁸They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions.

⁹They had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle.

¹⁰They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt people for five months.

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

¹²The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.

¹³Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

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

¹⁵And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind.

¹⁶The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.

¹⁷And this is how I saw in my vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire, of hyacinth, and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths *came fire and smoke and brimstone.

¹⁸A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire, the smoke, and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.

¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.

²⁰The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands so as not to worship demons and the idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;

²¹and they did not repent of their murders, nor of their witchcraft, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts.

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

²“May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is sweeter than wine.

³Your oils have a pleasing fragrance, Your name is like purified oil; Therefore the young women love you.

⁴Draw me after you and let’s run together! The king has brought me into his chambers.” “We will rejoice in you and be joyful; We will praise your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you.”

⁵“I am black and beautiful, You daughters of Jerusalem, Like the tents of Kedar, Like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do not stare at me because I am dark, For the sun has tanned me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; They made me caretaker of the vineyards, But I have not taken care of my own vineyard.

⁷Tell me, you whom my soul loves, Where do you pasture your flock, Where do you have it lie down at noon? For why should I be like one who veils herself Beside the flocks of your companions?”

⁸“If you yourself do not know, Most beautiful among women, Go out on the trail of the flock, And pasture your young goats By the tents of the shepherds.

⁹“To me, my darling, you are like My mare among the chariots of Pharaoh.

¹⁰Your cheeks are delightful with jewelry, Your neck with strings of beads.”

¹¹“We will make for you jewelry of gold With beads of silver.”

¹²“While the king was at his table, My perfume gave forth its fragrance.

¹³My beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh Which lies all night between my breasts.

¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms In the vineyards of Engedi.”

¹⁵“How beautiful you are, my darling, How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves.”

¹⁶“How handsome you are, my beloved, And so delightful! Indeed, our bed is luxuriant!

¹⁷The beams of our house are cedars, Our rafters, junipers.

¹Praise the LORD, all nations; Sing His praises, all peoples!

²For His mercy toward us is great, And the truth of the LORD is everlasting. Praise the LORD!

¹Do not be envious of evil people, Nor desire to be with them;

²For their minds plot violence, And their lips talk of trouble.

³By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established;

⁴And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches.

⁵A wise man is strong, And a person of knowledge increases power.

⁶For by wise guidance you will wage war, And in an abundance of counselors there is victory.

⁷Wisdom is too exalted for a fool, He does not open his mouth at the gate.

⁸One who plans to do evil, People will call a schemer.

⁹The devising of foolishness is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to humanity.

¹⁰If you show yourself lacking courage on the day of distress, Your strength is meager.

¹¹Rescue those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to the slaughter, Oh hold them back!

¹²If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He who weighs the hearts not consider it? And does He who watches over your soul not know it? And will He not repay a person according to his work?

¹³My son, eat honey, for it is good; Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste;

¹⁴Know that wisdom is the same for your soul; If you find it, then there will be a future, And your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Do not lie in ambush, you wicked person, against the home of the righteous; Do not destroy his resting place;

¹⁶For a righteous person falls seven times and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of disaster.

¹⁷Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,

¹⁸Otherwise, the LORD will see and be displeased, And turn His anger away from him.

¹⁹Do not get upset because of evildoers Or be envious of the wicked;

²⁰For there will be no future for the evil person; The lamp of the wicked will be put out.

²¹My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not get involved with those of high rank,

²²For their disaster will rise suddenly, And who knows the ruin that can come from both of them?

²³These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good.

²⁴One who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” Peoples will curse him, nations will scold him;

²⁵But for those who rebuke the wicked there will be delight, And a good blessing will come upon them.

²⁶One who gives a right answer Kisses the lips.

²⁷Prepare your work outside, And make it ready for yourself in the field; Afterward, then, build your house.

²⁸Do not be a witness against your neighbor for no reason, And do not deceive with your lips.

²⁹Do not say, “I shall do the same to him as he has done to me; I will repay the person according to his work.”

³⁰I passed by the field of a lazy one, And by the vineyard of a person lacking sense,

³¹And behold, it was completely overgrown with weeds; Its surface was covered with weeds, And its stone wall was broken down.

³²When I saw, I reflected upon it; I looked, and received instruction.

³³“A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest,”

³⁴Then your poverty will come like a drifter, And your need like an armed man.

¹Now behold, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, while Jeroboam was standing at the altar to burn incense.

²And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD and said, “Altar, altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall burn on you.’ ”

³Then he gave a sign on the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn to pieces and the ashes which are on it shall be poured out.’ ”

⁴Now when the king heard the statement of the man of God which he cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” But his hand which he had stretched out toward him dried up, and he could not draw it back to himself.

⁵The altar also was torn to pieces and the ashes were poured out from the altar, in accordance with the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.

⁶And the king responded and said to the man of God, “Please appease the LORD your God and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God appeased the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before.

⁷Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a gift.”

⁸But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.

⁹For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way that you came.’ ”

¹⁰So he went another way and did not return by the way that he had come to Bethel.

¹¹Now an old prophet was living in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the deeds which the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king, these also they reported to their father.

¹²And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” Now his sons had seen the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone.

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

¹⁴So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak; and he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.”

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

¹⁶But he said, “I cannot return with you, nor come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

¹⁷For a command came to me by the word of the LORD: ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way that you came.’ ”

¹⁸Then he said to him, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” But he lied to him.

¹⁹So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.

²⁰Now it came about, as they were sitting down at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back;

²¹and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have disobeyed the command of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you,

²²but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, “You are not to eat bread nor drink water”; your dead body will not come to the grave of your fathers.’ ”

²³It came about after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back.

²⁴Now when he had gone, a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it; the lion also was standing beside the body.

²⁵And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown on the road, and the lion standing beside the body; so they came and told about it in the city where the old prophet had lived.

²⁶Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard about it, he said, “It is the man of God, who disobeyed the command of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, in accordance with the word of the LORD which He spoke to him.”

²⁷Then he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it.

²⁸Then he went and found his body thrown on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body; the lion had not eaten the body nor harmed the donkey.

²⁹So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back; and he came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and to bury him.

³⁰He laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, “Oh, my brother!”

³¹And after he had buried him, he talked to his sons, saying, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.

³²For the thing will certainly come to pass which he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar that is in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria.”

³³After this event, Jeroboam did not abandon his evil way, but he again appointed priests of the high places from all the people; anyone who wanted, he ordained, and he became one of the priests of the high places.

³⁴This event also became a sin of the house of Jeroboam, even to wipe it out and eliminate it from the face of the earth.

¹This is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am going to stir up The spirit of a destroyer against Babylon And against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai.

²I will send foreigners to Babylon so that they may winnow her And devastate her land; For they will be opposed to her on every side On the day of her disaster.

³Let not him who bends his bow bend it, Nor let him rise up in his coat of armor. Do not spare her young men; Devote all her army to destruction.

⁴They will fall down dead in the land of the Chaldeans, And pierced through in their streets.”

⁵For neither Israel nor Judah has been forsaken By his God, the LORD of armies, Although their land is full of guilt Before the Holy One of Israel.

⁶Flee from the midst of Babylon, And each of you save his life! Do not perish in her punishment, For this is the LORD’S time of vengeance; He is going to repay to her what she deserves.

⁷Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the LORD, Intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk of her wine; Therefore the nations are going insane.

⁸Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; Wail over her! Bring balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed.

⁹We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; Abandon her and let’s each go to his own country, For her judgment has reached to heaven And it rises to the clouds.

¹⁰The LORD has brought about our vindication; Come and let’s recount in Zion The work of the LORD our God!

¹¹Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, Because His plan is against Babylon to destroy it; For it is the vengeance of the LORD, vengeance for His temple.

¹²Lift up a signal flag against the walls of Babylon; Post a strong guard, Station sentries, Set up an ambush! For the LORD has both planned and performed What He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

¹³You who live by many waters, Abundant in treasures, Your end has come, The measure of your end.

¹⁴The LORD of armies has sworn by Himself: “I will certainly fill you with a population like locusts, And they will cry out with shouts of victory over you.”

¹⁵It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom, And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.

¹⁶When He utters His voice, there is a roar of waters in the heavens, And He makes the clouds ascend from the end of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain And brings out wind from His storehouses.

¹⁷Every person is stupid, devoid of knowledge; Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, For his cast metal images are deceitful, And there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are worthless, a work of mockery; At the time of their punishment they will perish.

¹⁹The portion of Jacob is not like these; For He is the Maker of everything, And of the tribe of His inheritance; The LORD of armies is His name.

²⁰He says, “You are My war-club, My weapon of war; And with you I shatter nations, And with you I destroy kingdoms.

²¹With you I shatter the horse and his rider, And with you I shatter the chariot and its rider,

²²And with you I shatter man and woman, And with you I shatter the old man and youth, And with you I shatter the young man and virgin,

²³And with you I shatter the shepherd and his flock, And with you I shatter the farmer and his team, And with you I shatter governors and officials.

²⁴“But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes,” declares the LORD.

²⁵“Behold, I am against you, mountain of destruction That destroys the whole earth,” declares the LORD, “And I will stretch out My hand against you, And roll you down from the rocky cliffs, And I will make you a burnt out mountain.

²⁶They will not take from you even a stone for a corner Nor a stone for foundations, But you will be desolate forever,” declares the LORD.

²⁷Lift up a signal flag in the land, Blow a trumpet among the nations! Consecrate the nations against her, Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; Appoint an officer against her, Bring up the horses like bristly locusts.

²⁸Consecrate the nations against her, The kings of the Medes, Their governors and all their officials, And every land under their control.

²⁹So the land quakes and writhes, For the plans of the LORD against Babylon stand, To make the land of Babylon A desolation without inhabitants.

³⁰The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting, They stay in the strongholds; Their strength is exhausted, They are becoming like women; Their homes are set on fire, The bars of her gates are broken.

³¹One courier runs to meet another, And one messenger to meet another, To tell the king of Babylon That his city has been captured from end to end;

³²The river crossing places have been seized, And they have burned the marshes with fire, And the men of war are terrified.

³³For this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor At the time that it is tread down; In just a little while the time of harvest will come for her.”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, He has set me down like an empty vessel; He has swallowed me like a monster, He has filled his stomach with my delicacies; He has washed me away.

³⁵May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” The inhabitant of Zion will say; And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” Jerusalem will say.

³⁶Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am going to plead your case And take vengeance for you; And I will dry up her sea And make her fountain dry.

³⁷Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, An object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.

³⁸They will roar together like young lions, They will growl like lions’ cubs.

³⁹When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet And make them drunk, so that they may rejoice in triumph, And may sleep a perpetual sleep And not wake up,” declares the LORD.

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

⁴¹“How Sheshak has been captured, And the praise of the whole earth has been seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!

⁴²The sea has come up over Babylon; She has been engulfed by its roaring waves.

⁴³Her cities have become an object of horror, A dry land and a desert, A land in which no one lives And through which no one of mankind passes.

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth; And the nations will no longer stream toward him. Even the wall of Babylon has fallen down!

⁴⁵“Come out from her midst, My people, And each of you save yourselves From the fierce anger of the LORD.

⁴⁶Now, so that your heart does not grow faint, And you are not afraid at the report that will be heard in the land— For the report will come in one year, And after that another report in another year, And violence will be in the land With ruler against ruler—

⁴⁷Therefore behold, days are coming When I will punish the idols of Babylon; And her whole land will be put to shame. And all her slain will fall in her midst.

⁴⁸Then heaven and earth and everything that is in them Will shout for joy over Babylon, Because the destroyers will come to her from the north,” Declares the LORD.

⁴⁹Indeed, Babylon is to fall for the slain of Israel, As the slain of all the earth have also fallen for Babylon.

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword, Go! Do not stay! Remember the LORD from far away, And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

⁵¹We are ashamed because we have heard rebuke; Disgrace has covered our faces, Because strangers have entered The holy places of the LORD’S house.

⁵²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When I will punish her idols, And the mortally wounded will groan throughout her land.

⁵³Though Babylon ascends to the heavens, And though she fortifies her lofty stronghold, Destroyers will come from Me to her,” declares the LORD.

⁵⁴The sound of an outcry from Babylon, And of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

⁵⁵For the LORD is going to destroy Babylon, And He will make her loud noise vanish from her. And their waves will roar like many waters; The clamor of their voices sounds forth.

⁵⁶For the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon, And her warriors will be captured, Their bows shattered; For the LORD is a God of retribution, He will fully repay.

⁵⁷“I will make her leaders and her wise men drunk, Her governors, her officials, and her warriors, So that they will sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up,” Declares the King, whose name is the LORD of armies.

⁵⁸This is what the LORD of armies says: “The broad wall of Babylon will be completely demolished, And her high gates will be set on fire; So the peoples will labor for nothing, And the nations become exhausted only for fire.”

⁵⁹The command that Jeremiah the prophet gave Seraiah the son of Neriah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (And Seraiah was quartermaster.)

⁶⁰Jeremiah wrote on a single scroll all the disaster which would come against Babylon, that is, all these words which have been written concerning Babylon.

⁶¹Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “As soon as you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud,

⁶²and say, ‘You, LORD, have promised concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing living in it, whether man or animal; but it will be a permanent desolation.’

⁶³And as soon as you finish reading this scroll, you shall tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,

⁶⁴and say, ‘Just so shall Babylon sink down and not rise again, because of the disaster that I am going to bring upon her; and they will become exhausted.’ ” To this point are the words of Jeremiah.

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

²and kept back some of the proceeds for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet.

³But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the proceeds of the land?

⁴While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.”

⁵And as he heard these words, Ananias collapsed and died; and great fear came over all who heard about it.

⁶The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying him out, they buried him.

⁷Now an interval of about three hours elapsed, and his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

⁸And Peter responded to her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for this price?” And she said, “Yes, for that price.”

⁹Then Peter said to her, “Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.”

¹⁰And immediately she collapsed at his feet and died; and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

¹¹And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard about these things.

¹²At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all together in Solomon’s portico.

¹³But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem.

¹⁴And increasingly believers in the Lord, large numbers of men and women, were being added to their number,

¹⁵to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any of them.

¹⁶The people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together as well, bringing people who were sick or tormented with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.

¹⁷But the high priest stood up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy.

¹⁸They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public prison.

¹⁹But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the gates of the prison, and leading them out, he said,

²⁰“Go, stand and speak to the people in the temple area the whole message of this Life.”

²¹Upon hearing this, they entered into the temple area about daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high priest and his associates came, they called the Council together, that is, all the Senate of the sons of Israel, and sent orders to the prison for them to be brought.

²²But the officers who came did not find them in the prison; and they returned and reported,

²³saying, “We found the prison locked quite securely and the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”

²⁴Now when the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them as to what would come of this.

²⁵But someone came and reported to them, “The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple area and teaching the people!”

²⁶Then the captain went along with the officers and proceeded to bring them back without violence (for they were afraid of the people, that they might be stoned).

²⁷When they had brought them, they had them stand before the Council. The high priest interrogated them,

²⁸saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this Man’s blood upon us.”

²⁹But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

³⁰The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you put to death by hanging Him on a cross.

³¹He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

³²And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

³³But when they heard this, they became infuriated and nearly decided to execute them.

³⁴But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, respected by all the people, stood up in the Council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time.

³⁵And he said to them, “Men of Israel, be careful as to what you are about to do with these men.

³⁶For, some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.

³⁷After this man, Judas of Galilee appeared in the days of the census and drew away some people after him; he also perished, and all those who followed him were scattered.

³⁸And so in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone, for if the source of this plan or movement is men, it will be overthrown;

³⁹but if the source is God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.”

⁴⁰They followed his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them.

⁴¹So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

⁴²And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and preaching the good news of Jesus as the Christ.