Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

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

²And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.

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

⁴And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.

⁵But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

⁶He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

⁷And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

⁸So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.

⁹And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.

¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

¹¹Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened.

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

¹³saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’

¹⁴And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.”

¹⁵So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

¹⁶Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.

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

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

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

²⁰teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

¹Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When a man consecrates by a vow certain persons to the LORD, according to your valuation,

³if your valuation is of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

⁴If it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels;

⁵and if from five years old up to twenty years old, then your valuation for a male shall be twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels;

⁶and if from a month old up to five years old, then your valuation for a male shall be five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver;

⁷and if from sixty years old and above, if it is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels.

⁸‘But if he is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall set a value for him; according to the ability of him who vowed, the priest shall value him.

⁹‘If it is an animal that men may bring as an offering to the LORD, all that anyone gives to the LORD shall be holy.

¹⁰He shall not substitute it or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good; and if he at all exchanges animal for animal, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy.

¹¹If it is an unclean animal which they do not offer as a sacrifice to the LORD, then he shall present the animal before the priest;

¹²and the priest shall set a value for it, whether it is good or bad; as you, the priest, value it, so it shall be.

¹³But if he wants at all to redeem it, then he must add one-fifth to your valuation.

¹⁴‘And when a man dedicates his house to be holy to the LORD, then the priest shall set a value for it, whether it is good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand.

¹⁵If he who dedicated it wants to redeem his house, then he must add one-fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall be his.

¹⁶‘If a man dedicates to the LORD part of a field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

¹⁷If he dedicates his field from the Year of Jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand.

¹⁸But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the money due according to the years that remain till the Year of Jubilee, and it shall be deducted from your valuation.

¹⁹And if he who dedicates the field ever wishes to redeem it, then he must add one-fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall belong to him.

²⁰But if he does not want to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore;

²¹but the field, when it is released in the Jubilee, shall be holy to the LORD, as a devoted field; it shall be the possession of the priest.

²²‘And if a man dedicates to the LORD a field which he has bought, which is not the field of his possession,

²³then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your valuation, up to the Year of Jubilee, and he shall give your valuation on that day as a holy offering to the LORD.

²⁴In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to the one who owned the land as a possession.

²⁵And all your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs to the shekel.

²⁶‘But the firstborn of the animals, which should be the LORD’s firstborn, no man shall dedicate; whether it is an ox or sheep, it is the LORD’s.

²⁷And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall redeem it according to your valuation, and shall add one-fifth to it; or if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.

²⁸‘Nevertheless no devoted offering that a man may devote to the LORD of all that he has, both man and beast, or the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted offering is most holy to the LORD.

²⁹No person under the ban, who may become doomed to destruction among men, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death.

³⁰And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s. It is holy to the LORD.

³¹If a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one-fifth to it.

³²And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, of whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the LORD.

³³He shall not inquire whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; and if he exchanges it at all, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.’ ”

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

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

²Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.

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

⁴Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.

⁵For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears.

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

⁷and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

⁸For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while.

⁹Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

¹⁰For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

¹¹For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

¹²Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

¹³Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort. And we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

¹⁴For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I am not ashamed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting to Titus was found true.

¹⁵And his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him.

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

¹Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.

²And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.

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

⁴They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

⁵And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.

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

⁷The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.

⁸They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.

⁹And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle.

¹⁰They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months.

¹¹And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

¹²One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are 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.”

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

¹⁶Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.

¹⁷And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.

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

¹⁹For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

²⁰But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.

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

¹The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.

²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— For your love is better than wine.

³Because of the fragrance of your good ointments, Your name is ointment poured forth; Therefore the virgins love you.

⁴Draw me away! We will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you.

⁵I am dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, Like the tents of Kedar, Like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do not look upon me, because I am dark, Because the sun has tanned me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; They made me the keeper of the vineyards, But my own vineyard I have not kept.

⁷Tell me, O you whom I love, Where you feed your flock, Where you make it rest at noon. For why should I be as one who veils herself By the flocks of your companions?

⁸If you do not know, O fairest among women, Follow in the footsteps of the flock, And feed your little goats Beside the shepherds’ tents.

⁹I have compared you, my love, To my filly among Pharaoh’s chariots.

¹⁰Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, Your neck with chains of gold.

¹¹We will make you ornaments of gold With studs of silver.

¹²While the king is at his table, My spikenard sends forth its fragrance.

¹³A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, That lies all night between my breasts.

¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blooms In the vineyards of En Gedi.

¹⁵Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes.

¹⁶Behold, you are handsome, my beloved! Yes, pleasant! Also our bed is green.

¹⁷The beams of our houses are cedar, And our rafters of fir.

¹Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!

²For His merciful kindness is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!

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

²For their heart devises violence, And their lips talk of troublemaking.

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

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

⁵A wise man is strong, Yes, a man of knowledge increases strength;

⁶For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, And in a multitude of counselors there is safety.

⁷Wisdom is too lofty for a fool; He does not open his mouth in the gate.

⁸He who plots to do evil Will be called a schemer.

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

¹⁰If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small.

¹¹Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.

¹²If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?

¹³My son, eat honey because it is good, And the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste;

¹⁴So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul; If you have found it, there is a prospect, And your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; Do not plunder his resting place;

¹⁶For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.

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

¹⁸Lest the LORD see it, and it displease Him, And He turn away His wrath from him.

¹⁹Do not fret because of evildoers, Nor be envious of the wicked;

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

²¹My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not associate with those given to change;

²²For their calamity will rise suddenly, And who knows the ruin those two can bring?

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

²⁴He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” Him the people will curse; Nations will abhor him.

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

²⁶He who gives a right answer kisses the lips.

²⁷Prepare your outside work, Make it fit for yourself in the field; And afterward build your house.

²⁸Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, For would you deceive with your lips?

²⁹Do not say, “I will do to him just as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work.”

³⁰I went by the field of the lazy man, And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;

³¹And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; Its surface was covered with nettles; Its stone wall was broken down.

³²When I saw it, I considered it well; I looked on it and received instruction:

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

³⁴So shall your poverty come like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.

¹And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

²Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you.’ ”

³And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.”

⁴So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself.

⁵The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.

⁶Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before.

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

⁸But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor 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 same way you came.’ ”

¹⁰So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.

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

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

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

¹⁴and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then 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.”

¹⁶And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.

¹⁷For I have been told by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ”

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

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

²⁰Now it happened, as they sat 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, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you,

²²but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the LORD said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ”

²³So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back.

²⁴When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse.

²⁵And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

²⁶Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him.”

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

²⁸Then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the donkey.

²⁹And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn, and to bury him.

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

³¹So it was, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.

³²For the saying which he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines on the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass.”

³³After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.

³⁴And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.

¹Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, Against those who dwell in Leb Kamai, A destroying wind.

²And I will send winnowers to Babylon, Who shall winnow her and empty her land. For in the day of doom They shall be against her all around.

³Against her let the archer bend his bow, And lift himself up against her in his armor. Do not spare her young men; Utterly destroy all her army.

⁴Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, And those thrust through in her streets.

⁵For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, By his God, the LORD of hosts, Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”

⁶Flee from the midst of Babylon, And every one save his life! Do not be cut off in her iniquity, For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; He shall recompense her.

⁷Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, That made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; Therefore the nations are deranged.

⁸Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed. Wail for her! Take balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed.

⁹We would have healed Babylon, But she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country; For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.

¹⁰The LORD has revealed our righteousness. Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.

¹¹Make the arrows bright! Gather the shields! The LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it, Because it is the vengeance of the LORD, The vengeance for His temple.

¹²Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon; Make the guard strong, Set up the watchmen, Prepare the ambushes. For the LORD has both devised and done What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

¹³O you who dwell by many waters, Abundant in treasures, Your end has come, The measure of your covetousness.

¹⁴The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts, And they shall lift up a shout against you.”

¹⁵He has made the earth by His power; He has established the world by His wisdom, And stretched out the heaven by His understanding.

¹⁶When He utters His voice— There is a multitude of waters in the heavens: “He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightnings for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”

¹⁷Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image; For his molded image is falsehood, And there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment they shall perish.

¹⁹The Portion of Jacob is not like them, For He is the Maker of all things; And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance. The LORD of hosts is His name.

²⁰“You are My battle-ax and weapons of war: For with you I will break the nation in pieces; With you I will destroy kingdoms;

²¹With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;

²²With you also I will break in pieces man and woman; With you I will break in pieces old and young; With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;

²³With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.

²⁴“And I will repay Babylon And all the inhabitants of Chaldea For all the evil they have done In Zion in your sight,” says the LORD.

²⁵“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, Who destroys all the earth,” says the LORD. “And I will stretch out My hand against you, Roll you down from the rocks, And make you a burnt mountain.

²⁶They shall not take from you a stone for a corner Nor a stone for a foundation, But you shall be desolate forever,” says the LORD.

²⁷Set up a banner in the land, Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her, Call the kingdoms together against her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a general against her; Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.

²⁸Prepare against her the nations, With the kings of the Medes, Its governors and all its rulers, All the land of his dominion.

²⁹And the land will tremble and sorrow; For every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.

³⁰The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, They have remained in their strongholds; Their might has failed, They became like women; They have burned her dwelling places, The bars of her gate are broken.

³¹One runner will run to meet another, And one messenger to meet another, To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;

³²The passages are blocked, The reeds they have burned with fire, And the men of war are terrified.

³³For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor When it is time to thresh her; Yet a little while And the time of her harvest will come.”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon Has devoured me, he has crushed me; He has made me an empty vessel, He has swallowed me up like a monster; He has filled his stomach with my delicacies, He has spit me out.

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

³⁶Therefore thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

³⁷Babylon shall become a heap, A dwelling place for jackals, An astonishment and a hissing, Without an inhabitant.

³⁸They shall roar together like lions, They shall growl like lions’ whelps.

³⁹In their excitement I will prepare their feasts; I will make them drunk, That they may rejoice, And sleep a perpetual sleep And not awake,” says the LORD.

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

⁴¹“Oh, how Sheshach is taken! Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!

⁴²The sea has come up over Babylon; She is covered with the multitude of its waves.

⁴³Her cities are a desolation, A dry land and a wilderness, A land where no one dwells, Through which no son of man passes.

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; And the nations shall not stream to him anymore. Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵“My people, go out of the midst of her! And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the LORD.

⁴⁶And lest your heart faint, And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land (A rumor will come one year, And after that, in another year A rumor will come, And violence in the land, Ruler against ruler),

⁴⁷Therefore behold, the days are coming That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon; Her whole land shall be ashamed, And all her slain shall fall in her midst.

⁴⁸Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them Shall sing joyously over Babylon; For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the LORD.

⁴⁹As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword, Get away! Do not stand still! Remember the LORD afar off, And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

⁵¹We are ashamed because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, For strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house.

⁵²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will bring judgment on her carved images, And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.

⁵³Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven, And though she were to fortify the height of her strength, Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the LORD.

⁵⁴The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,

⁵⁵Because the LORD is plundering Babylon And silencing her loud voice, Though her waves roar like great waters, And the noise of their voice is uttered,

⁵⁶Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon, And her mighty men are taken. Every one of their bows is broken; For the LORD is the God of recompense, He will surely repay.

⁵⁷“And I will make drunk Her princes and wise men, Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep And not awake,” says the King, Whose name is the LORD of hosts.

⁵⁸Thus says the LORD of hosts: “The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, And her high gates shall be burned with fire; The people will labor in vain, And the nations, because of the fire; And they shall be weary.”

⁵⁹The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster.

⁶⁰So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.

⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words,

⁶²then you shall say, ‘O LORD, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’

⁶³Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates.

⁶⁴Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’ ” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

¹But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.

²And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

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

⁴While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”

⁵Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things.

⁶And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him.

⁷Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.

⁸And Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much?” She said, “Yes, for so much.”

⁹Then Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together 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.”

¹⁰Then immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. And the young men came in and found her dead, and carrying her out, buried her by her husband.

¹¹So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

¹²And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Porch.

¹³Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly.

¹⁴And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,

¹⁵so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.

¹⁶Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

¹⁷Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation,

¹⁸and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.

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

²⁰“Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.”

²¹And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught. But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together, with all the elders of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

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

²³saying, “Indeed we found the prison shut securely, and the guards standing outside before the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside!”

²⁴Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these things, they wondered what the outcome would be.

²⁵So one came and told them, saying, “Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!”

²⁶Then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned.

²⁷And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them,

²⁸saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”

²⁹But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.

³⁰The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.

³¹Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

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

³³When they heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill them.

³⁴Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while.

³⁵And he said to them: “Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men.

³⁶For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing.

³⁷After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census, and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed.

³⁸And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing;

³⁹but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.”

⁴⁰And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

⁴¹So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.

⁴²And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.