Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

²There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

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

⁴The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

⁵The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

⁶He is not here; 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 is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

⁸So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

⁹Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

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

¹¹While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.

¹²When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money,

¹³telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’

¹⁴If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”

¹⁵So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

¹⁶Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

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

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

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

²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

¹The LORD said to Moses,

²“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate a person to the LORD by giving the equivalent value,

³set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel;

⁴for a female, set her value at thirty shekels;

⁵for a person between the ages of five and twenty, set the value of a male at twenty shekels and of a female at ten shekels;

⁶for a person between one month and five years, set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and that of a female at three shekels of silver;

⁷for a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels and of a female at ten shekels.

⁸If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount, the person being dedicated is to be presented to the priest, who will set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford.

⁹“ ‘If what they vowed is an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the LORD, such an animal given to the LORD becomes holy.

¹⁰They must not exchange it or substitute a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one; if they should substitute one animal for another, both it and the substitute become holy.

¹¹If what they vowed is a ceremonially unclean animal—one that is not acceptable as an offering to the LORD—the animal must be presented to the priest,

¹²who will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, that is what it will be.

¹³If the owner wishes to redeem the animal, a fifth must be added to its value.

¹⁴“ ‘If anyone dedicates their house as something holy to the LORD, the priest will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, so it will remain.

¹⁵If the one who dedicates their house wishes to redeem it, they must add a fifth to its value, and the house will again become theirs.

¹⁶“ ‘If anyone dedicates to the LORD part of their family land, its value is to be set according to the amount of seed required for it—fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed.

¹⁷If they dedicate a field during the Year of Jubilee, the value that has been set remains.

¹⁸But if they dedicate a field after the Jubilee, the priest will determine the value according to the number of years that remain until the next Year of Jubilee, and its set value will be reduced.

¹⁹If the one who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, they must add a fifth to its value, and the field will again become theirs.

²⁰If, however, they do not redeem the field, or if they have sold it to someone else, it can never be redeemed.

²¹When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become holy, like a field devoted to the LORD; it will become priestly property.

²²“ ‘If anyone dedicates to the LORD a field they have bought, which is not part of their family land,

²³the priest will determine its value up to the Year of Jubilee, and the owner must pay its value on that day as something holy to the LORD.

²⁴In the Year of Jubilee the field will revert to the person from whom it was bought, the one whose land it was.

²⁵Every value is to be set according to the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

²⁶“ ‘No one, however, may dedicate the firstborn of an animal, since the firstborn already belongs to the LORD; whether an ox or a sheep, it is the LORD’s.

²⁷If it is one of the unclean animals, it may be bought back at its set value, adding a fifth of the value to it. If it is not redeemed, it is to be sold at its set value.

²⁸“ ‘But nothing that a person owns and devotes to the LORD—whether a human being or an animal or family land—may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the LORD.

²⁹“ ‘No person devoted to destruction may be ransomed; they are to be put to death.

³⁰“ ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.

³¹Whoever would redeem any of their tithe must add a fifth of the value to it.

³²Every tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the LORD.

³³No one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If anyone does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.’ ”

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

¹Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

²Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one.

³I do not say this to condemn you; I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you.

⁴I have spoken to you with great frankness; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.

⁵For when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within.

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

⁷and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever.

⁸Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while—

⁹yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us.

¹⁰Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

¹¹See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

¹²So even though I wrote to you, it was neither on account of the one who did the wrong nor on account of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are.

¹³By all this we are encouraged. In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.

¹⁴I had boasted to him about you, and you have not embarrassed me. But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well.

¹⁵And his affection for you is all the greater when he remembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling.

¹⁶I am glad I can have complete confidence in you.

¹The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.

²When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.

³And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.

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

⁵They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes.

⁶During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

⁷The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.

⁸Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.

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

¹⁰They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.

¹¹They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

¹²The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.

¹³The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God.

¹⁴It said 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 kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.

¹⁶The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.

¹⁷The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur.

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

¹⁹The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

²⁰The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk.

²¹Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

¹Solomon’s Song of Songs.

²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine.

³Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you!

⁴Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!

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

⁶Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I had to neglect.

⁷Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?

⁸If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds.

⁹I liken you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.

¹⁰Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.

¹¹We will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver.

¹²While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.

¹³My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.

¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.

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

¹⁶How handsome you are, my beloved! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant.

¹⁷The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.

¹Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.

²For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.

¹Do not envy the wicked, do not desire their company;

²for their hearts plot violence, and their lips talk about making trouble.

³By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established;

⁴through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.

⁵The wise prevail through great power, and those who have knowledge muster their strength.

⁶Surely you need guidance to wage war, and victory is won through many advisers.

⁷Wisdom is too high for fools; in the assembly at the gate they must not open their mouths.

⁸Whoever plots evil will be known as a schemer.

⁹The schemes of folly are sin, and people detest a mocker.

¹⁰If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!

¹¹Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.

¹²If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?

¹³Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.

¹⁴Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: If you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Do not lurk like a thief near the house of the righteous, do not plunder their dwelling place;

¹⁶for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.

¹⁷Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,

¹⁸or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from them.

¹⁹Do not fret because of evildoers or be envious of the wicked,

²⁰for the evildoer has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.

²¹Fear the LORD and the king, my son, and do not join with rebellious officials,

²²for those two will send sudden destruction on them, and who knows what calamities they can bring?

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

²⁴Whoever says to the guilty, “You are innocent,” will be cursed by peoples and denounced by nations.

²⁵But it will go well with those who convict the guilty, and rich blessing will come on them.

²⁶An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.

²⁷Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.

²⁸Do not testify against your neighbor without cause— would you use your lips to mislead?

²⁹Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me; I’ll pay them back for what they did.”

³⁰I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;

³¹thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins.

³²I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw:

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

³⁴and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

¹By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering.

²By the word of the LORD he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’ ”

³That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the LORD has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”

⁴When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back.

⁵Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the LORD.

⁶Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.

⁷The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.”

⁸But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here.

⁹For I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’ ”

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

¹¹Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king.

¹²Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken.

¹³So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it

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

¹⁵So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.”

¹⁶The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

¹⁷I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’ ”

¹⁸The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the LORD: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (But he was lying to him.)

¹⁹So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

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

²¹He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you.

²²You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.’ ”

²³When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him.

²⁴As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it.

²⁵Some people who passed by saw the body lying there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who defied the word of the LORD. The LORD has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the LORD had warned him.”

²⁷The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so.

²⁸Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey.

²⁹So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him.

³⁰Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!”

³¹After burying 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 he declared by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”

³³Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places.

³⁴This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.

¹This is what the LORD says: “See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai.

²I will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her land; they will oppose her on every side in the day of her disaster.

³Let not the archer string his bow, nor let him put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; completely destroy her army.

⁴They will fall down slain in Babylon, fatally wounded in her streets.

⁵For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD Almighty, though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.

⁶“Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins. It is time for the LORD’s vengeance; he will repay her what she deserves.

⁷Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD’s hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad.

⁸Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. Wail over her! Get balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.

⁹“ ‘We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to our own land, for her judgment reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the heavens.’

¹⁰“ ‘The LORD has vindicated us; come, let us tell in Zion what the LORD our God has done.’

¹¹“Sharpen the arrows, take up the shields! The LORD has stirred up the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is to destroy Babylon. The LORD will take vengeance, vengeance for his temple.

¹²Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon! Reinforce the guard, station the watchmen, prepare an ambush! The LORD will carry out his purpose, his decree against the people of Babylon.

¹³You who live by many waters and are rich in treasures, your end has come, the time for you to be destroyed.

¹⁴The LORD Almighty has sworn by himself: I will surely fill you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.

¹⁵“He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

¹⁶When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

¹⁷“Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. The images he makes are a fraud; they have no breath in them.

¹⁸They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish.

¹⁹He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including the people of his inheritance— the LORD Almighty is his name.

²⁰“You are my war club, my weapon for battle— with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms,

²¹with you I shatter horse and rider, with you I shatter chariot and driver,

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

²³with you I shatter shepherd and flock, with you I shatter farmer and oxen, with you I shatter governors and officials.

²⁴“Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wrong they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.

²⁵“I am against you, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,” declares the LORD. “I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain.

²⁶No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone, nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever,” declares the LORD.

²⁷“Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her; summon against her these kingdoms: Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her; send up horses like a swarm of locusts.

²⁸Prepare the nations for battle against her— the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the countries they rule.

²⁹The land trembles and writhes, for the LORD’s purposes against Babylon stand— to lay waste the land of Babylon so that no one will live there.

³⁰Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they remain in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become weaklings. Her dwellings are set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken.

³¹One courier follows another and messenger follows messenger to announce to the king of Babylon that his entire city is captured,

³²the river crossings seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers terrified.”

³³This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come.”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has thrown us into confusion, he has made us an empty jar. Like a serpent he has swallowed us and filled his stomach with our delicacies, and then has spewed us out.

³⁵May the violence done to our flesh be on Babylon,” say the inhabitants of Zion. “May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,” says Jerusalem.

³⁶Therefore this is what the LORD says: “See, I will defend your cause and avenge you; I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

³⁷Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives.

³⁸Her people all roar like young lions, they growl like lion cubs.

³⁹But while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they shout with laughter— then sleep forever and not awake,” declares the LORD.

⁴⁰“I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.

⁴¹“How Sheshak will be captured, the boast of the whole earth seized! How desolate Babylon will be among the nations!

⁴²The sea will rise over Babylon; its roaring waves will cover her.

⁴³Her towns will be desolate, a dry and desert land, a land where no one lives, through which no one travels.

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him spew out what he has swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him. And the wall of Babylon will fall.

⁴⁵“Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the LORD.

⁴⁶Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷For the time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be disgraced and her slain will all lie fallen within her.

⁴⁸Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for out of the north destroyers will attack her,” declares the LORD.

⁴⁹“Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword, leave and do not linger! Remember the LORD in a distant land, and call to mind Jerusalem.”

⁵¹“We are disgraced, for we have been insulted and shame covers our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s house.”

⁵²“But days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

⁵³Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers against her,” declares the LORD.

⁵⁴“The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

⁵⁵The LORD will destroy Babylon; he will silence her noisy din. Waves of enemies will rage like great waters; the roar of their voices will resound.

⁵⁶A destroyer will come against Babylon; her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken. For the LORD is a God of retribution; he will repay in full.

⁵⁷I will make her officials and wise men drunk, her governors, officers and warriors as well; they will sleep forever and not awake,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD Almighty.

⁵⁸This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”

⁵⁹This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign.

⁶⁰Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon—all that had been recorded concerning Babylon.

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

⁶²Then say, ‘LORD, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate forever.’

⁶³When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates.

⁶⁴Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.’ ” The words of Jeremiah end here.

¹Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.

²With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

³Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?

⁴Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

⁵When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.

⁶Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

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

⁸Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”

⁹Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”

¹⁰At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

¹¹Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

¹²The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade.

¹³No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.

¹⁴Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

¹⁵As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.

¹⁶Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.

¹⁷Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.

¹⁸They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.

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

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

²¹At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles.

²²But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported,

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

²⁴On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to.

²⁵Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.”

²⁶At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.

²⁷The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest.

²⁸“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

²⁹Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!

³⁰The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross.

³¹God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their 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 furious and wanted to put them to death.

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

³⁵Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.

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

³⁷After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.

³⁸Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.

³⁹But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

⁴⁰His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

⁴¹The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

⁴²Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.