Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

²As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way.

³A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!

⁴John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

⁵The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

⁶John wore a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

⁷He proclaimed, “One who is more powerful than I am is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals.

⁸I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

⁹In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.

¹⁰As soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

¹¹And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”

¹²Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness.

¹³He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him.

¹⁴After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God:

¹⁵“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

¹⁶As he passed alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, Simon’s brother, casting a net into the sea  — for they were fishermen.

¹⁷“Follow me,” Jesus told them, “and I will make you fish for people.”

¹⁸Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹Going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat putting their nets in order.

²⁰Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

²¹They went into Capernaum, and right away he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach.

²²They were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not like the scribes.

²³Just then a man with an unclean spirit was in their synagogue. He cried out,

²⁴“What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!”

²⁵Jesus rebuked him saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”

²⁶And the unclean spirit threw him into convulsions, shouted with a loud voice, and came out of him.

²⁷They were all amazed, and so they began to ask each other: “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

²⁸At once the news about him spread throughout the entire vicinity of Galilee.

²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they went into Simon and Andrew’s house with James and John.

³⁰Simon’s mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.

³¹So he went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she began to serve them.

³²When evening came, after the sun had set, they brought to him all those who were sick and demon-possessed.

³³The whole town was assembled at the door,

³⁴and he healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

³⁵Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying.

³⁶Simon and his companions searched for him,

³⁷and when they found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you.”

³⁸And he said to them, “Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come.”

³⁹He went into all of Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

⁴⁰Then a man with leprosy came to him and, on his knees, begged him: “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

⁴¹Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he told him. “Be made clean.”

⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

⁴³Then he sternly warned him and sent him away at once,

⁴⁴telling him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer what Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

⁴⁵Yet he went out and began to proclaim it widely and to spread the news, with the result that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly. But he was out in deserted places, and they came to him from everywhere.

¹The LORD spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Wilderness of Sinai, on the first day of the second month of the second year after Israel’s departure from the land of Egypt:

²“Take a census of the entire Israelite community by their clans and their fathers’ families, counting the names of every male one by one.

³You and Aaron are to register those who are twenty years old or more by their military divisions — everyone who can serve in Israel’s army.

⁴A man from each tribe is to be with you, each one the head of his ancestral family.

⁵These are the names of the men who are to assist you: Elizur son of Shedeur from Reuben;

⁶Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai from Simeon;

⁷Nahshon son of Amminadab from Judah;

⁸Nethanel son of Zuar from Issachar;

⁹Eliab son of Helon from Zebulun;

¹⁰from the sons of Joseph: Elishama son of Ammihud from Ephraim, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur from Manasseh;

¹¹Abidan son of Gideoni from Benjamin;

¹²Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai from Dan;

¹³Pagiel son of Ochran from Asher;

¹⁴Eliasaph son of Deuel from Gad;

¹⁵Ahira son of Enan from Naphtali.

¹⁶These are the men called from the community; they are leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of Israel’s clans.”

¹⁷So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name,

¹⁸and they assembled the whole community on the first day of the second month. They recorded their ancestry by their clans and their ancestral families, counting one by one the names of those twenty years old or more,

¹⁹just as the LORD commanded Moses. He registered them in the Wilderness of Sinai:

²⁰The descendants of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting one by one the names of every male twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

²¹those registered for the tribe of Reuben numbered 46,500.

²²The descendants of Simeon: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, those registered counting one by one the names of every male twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

²³those registered for the tribe of Simeon numbered 59,300.

²⁴The descendants of Gad: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of those twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

²⁵those registered for the tribe of Gad numbered 45,650.

²⁶The descendants of Judah: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of those twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

²⁷those registered for the tribe of Judah numbered 74,600.

²⁸The descendants of Issachar: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of those twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

²⁹those registered for the tribe of Issachar numbered 54,400.

³⁰The descendants of Zebulun: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of those twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

³¹those registered for the tribe of Zebulun numbered 57,400.

³²The descendants of Joseph: The descendants of Ephraim: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of those twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

³³those registered for the tribe of Ephraim numbered 40,500.

³⁴The descendants of Manasseh: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of those twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

³⁵those registered for the tribe of Manasseh numbered 32,200.

³⁶The descendants of Benjamin: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of those twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

³⁷those registered for the tribe of Benjamin numbered 35,400.

³⁸The descendants of Dan: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of those twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

³⁹those registered for the tribe of Dan numbered 62,700.

⁴⁰The descendants of Asher: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of those twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

⁴¹those registered for the tribe of Asher numbered 41,500.

⁴²The descendants of Naphtali: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of those twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army,

⁴³those registered for the tribe of Naphtali numbered 53,400.

⁴⁴These are the men Moses and Aaron registered, with the assistance of the twelve leaders of Israel; each represented his ancestral family.

⁴⁵So all the Israelites twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in Israel’s army, were registered by their ancestral families.

⁴⁶All those registered numbered 603,550.

⁴⁷But the Levites were not registered with them by their ancestral tribe.

⁴⁸For the LORD had told Moses:

⁴⁹“Do not register or take a census of the tribe of Levi with the other Israelites.

⁵⁰Appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, all its furnishings, and everything in it. They are to transport the tabernacle and all its articles, take care of it, and camp around it.

⁵¹Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever it is to stop at a campsite, the Levites are to set it up. Any unauthorized person who comes near it is to be put to death.

⁵²“The Israelites are to camp by their military divisions, each man with his encampment and under his banner.

⁵³The Levites are to camp around the tabernacle of the testimony and watch over it, so that no wrath will fall on the Israelite community.”

⁵⁴The Israelites did everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia:

²During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

³I can testify that, according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own accord,

⁴they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints,

⁵and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God’s will.

⁶So we urged Titus that just as he had begun, so he should also complete among you this act of grace.

⁷Now as you excel in everything — in faith, speech, knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love for us  — excel also in this act of grace.

⁸I am not saying this as a command. Rather, by means of the diligence of others, I am testing the genuineness of your love.

⁹For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

¹⁰And in this matter I am giving advice because it is profitable for you, who began last year not only to do something but also to want to do it.

¹¹Now also finish the task, so that just as there was an eager desire, there may also be a completion, according to what you have.

¹²For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.

¹³It is not that there should be relief for others and hardship for you, but it is a question of equality.

¹⁴At the present time your surplus is available for their need, so that their abundance may in turn meet your need, in order that there may be equality.

¹⁵As it is written: The person who had much did not have too much, and the person who had little did not have too little.

¹⁶Thanks be to God, who put the same concern for you into the heart of Titus.

¹⁷For he welcomed our appeal and, being very diligent, went out to you by his own choice.

¹⁸We have sent with him the brother who is praised among all the churches for his gospel ministry.

¹⁹And not only that, but he was also appointed by the churches to accompany us with this gracious gift that we are administering for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help.

²⁰We are taking this precaution so that no one will criticize us about this large sum that we are administering.

²¹Indeed, we are giving careful thought to do what is right, not only before the Lord but also before people.

²²We have also sent with them our brother. We have often tested him in many circumstances and found him to be diligent — and now even more diligent because of his great confidence in you.

²³As for Titus, he is my partner and coworker for you; as for our brothers, they are the messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.

²⁴Therefore, show them proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you.

¹Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, his legs were like pillars of fire,

²and he held a little scroll opened in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea, his left on the land,

³and he called out with a loud voice like a roaring lion. When he cried out, the seven thunders raised their voices.

⁴And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down!”

⁵Then the angel that I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven.

⁶He swore by the one who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it: “There will no longer be a delay,

⁷but in the days when the seventh angel will blow his trumpet, then the mystery of God will be completed, as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

⁸Then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”

⁹So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take and eat it; it will be bitter in your stomach, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”

¹⁰Then I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I ate it, my stomach became bitter.

¹¹And they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”

¹I am a wildflower of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

²Like a lily among thorns, so is my darling among the young women.

³Like an apricot tree among the trees of the forest, so is my love among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

⁴He brought me to the banquet hall, and he looked on me with love.

⁵Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apricots, for I am lovesick.

⁶May his left hand be under my head, and his right arm embrace me.

⁷Young women of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and the wild does of the field, do not stir up or awaken love until the appropriate time.

⁸Listen! My love is approaching. Look! Here he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills.

⁹My love is like a gazelle or a young stag. See, he is standing behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

¹⁰My love calls to me: Arise, my darling. Come away, my beautiful one.

¹¹For now the winter is past; the rain has ended and gone away.

¹²The blossoms appear in the countryside. The time of singing has come, and the turtledove’s cooing is heard in our land.

¹³The fig tree ripens its figs; the blossoming vines give off their fragrance. Arise, my darling. Come away, my beautiful one.

¹⁴My dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the crevices of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

¹⁵Catch the foxes for us  — the little foxes that ruin the vineyards — for our vineyards are in bloom.

¹⁶My love is mine and I am his; he feeds among the lilies.

¹⁷Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn around, my love, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the divided mountains.

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever.

²Let Israel say, “His faithful love endures forever.”

³Let the house of Aaron say, “His faithful love endures forever.”

⁴Let those who fear the LORD say, “His faithful love endures forever.”

⁵I called to the LORD in distress; the LORD answered me and put me in a spacious place.

⁶The LORD is for me; I will not be afraid. What can a mere mortal do to me?

⁷The LORD is my helper, Therefore, I will look in triumph on those who hate me.

⁸It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in humanity.

⁹It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in nobles.

¹⁰All the nations surrounded me; in the name of the LORD I destroyed them.

¹¹They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me; in the name of the LORD I destroyed them.

¹²They surrounded me like bees; they were extinguished like a fire among thorns; in the name of the LORD I destroyed them.

¹³They pushed me hard to make me fall, but the LORD helped me.

¹⁴The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.

¹⁵There are shouts of joy and victory in the tents of the righteous: “The LORD’s right hand performs valiantly!

¹⁶The LORD’s right hand is raised. The LORD’s right hand performs valiantly!”

¹⁷I will not die, but I will live and proclaim what the LORD has done.

¹⁸The LORD disciplined me severely but did not give me over to death.

¹⁹Open the gates of righteousness for me; I will enter through them and give thanks to the LORD.

²⁰This is the LORD’s gate; the righteous will enter through it.

²¹I will give thanks to you because you have answered me and have become my salvation.

²²The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

²³This came from the LORD; it is wondrous in our sight.

²⁴This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

²⁵LORD, save us! LORD, please grant us success!

²⁶He who comes in the name of the LORD is blessed. From the house of the LORD we bless you.

²⁷The LORD is God and has given us light. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.

²⁸You are my God, and I will give you thanks. You are my God; I will exalt you.

²⁹Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his faithful love endures forever.

¹These too are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of King Hezekiah of Judah, copied.

²It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to investigate a matter.

³As the heavens are high and the earth is deep, so the hearts of kings cannot be investigated.

⁴Remove impurities from silver, and material will be produced for a silversmith.

⁵Remove the wicked from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established in righteousness.

⁶Don’t boast about yourself before the king, and don’t stand in the place of the great;

⁷for it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here!” than to demote you in plain view of a noble.

⁸Don’t take a matter to court hastily. Otherwise, what will you do afterward if your opponent humiliates you?

⁹Make your case with your opponent without revealing another’s secret;

¹⁰otherwise, the one who hears will disgrace you, and you’ll never live it down.

¹¹A word spoken at the right time is like gold apples in silver settings.

¹²A wise correction to a receptive ear is like a gold ring or an ornament of gold.

¹³To those who send him, a trustworthy envoy is like the coolness of snow on a harvest day; he refreshes the life of his masters.

¹⁴The one who boasts about a gift that does not exist is like clouds and wind without rain.

¹⁵A ruler can be persuaded through patience, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

¹⁶If you find honey, eat only what you need; otherwise, you’ll get sick from it and vomit.

¹⁷Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house; otherwise, he’ll get sick of you and hate you.

¹⁸A person giving false testimony against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow.

¹⁹Trusting an unreliable person in a difficult time is like a rotten tooth or a faltering foot.

²⁰Singing songs to a troubled heart is like taking off clothing on a cold day or like pouring vinegar on soda.

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;

²²for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.

²³The north wind produces rain, and a backbiting tongue, angry looks.

²⁴Better to live on the corner of a roof than to share a house with a nagging wife.

²⁵Good news from a distant land is like cold water to a parched throat.

²⁶A righteous person who yields to the wicked is like a muddied spring or a polluted well.

²⁷It is not good to eat too much honey or to seek glory after glory.

²⁸A person who does not control his temper is like a city whose wall is broken down.

¹At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became sick.

²Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go disguise yourself, so they won’t know that you’re Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. The prophet Ahijah is there; it was he who told about me becoming king over this people.

³Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

⁴Jeroboam’s wife did that: she went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Ahijah could not see; he was blind due to his age.

⁵But the LORD had said to Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming soon to ask you about her son, for he is sick. You are to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will be disguised.”

⁶When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you disguised? I have bad news for you.

⁷Go tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the LORD God of Israel says: I raised you up from among the people, appointed you ruler over my people Israel,

⁸tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you. But you were not like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what is right in my sight.

⁹You behaved more wickedly than all who were before you. In order to anger me, you have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and cast images, but you have flung me behind your back.

¹⁰Because of all this, I am about to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will wipe out all of Jeroboam’s males, both slave and free, in Israel; I will sweep away the house of Jeroboam as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone!

¹¹Anyone who belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and anyone who dies in the field, the birds will eat, for the LORD has spoken!’

¹²“As for you, get up and go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the boy will die.

¹³All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone out of Jeroboam’s house will be given a proper burial because out of the house of Jeroboam something favorable to the LORD God of Israel was found in him.

¹⁴The LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who will wipe out the house of Jeroboam. This is the day, yes, even today!

¹⁵For the LORD will strike Israel so that they will shake as a reed shakes in water. He will uproot Israel from this good soil that he gave to their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates because they made their Asherah poles, angering the LORD.

¹⁶He will give up Israel because of Jeroboam’s sins that he committed and caused Israel to commit.”

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As she was crossing the threshold of the house, the boy died.

¹⁸He was buried, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD he had spoken through his servant the prophet Ahijah.

¹⁹As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, how he waged war and how he reigned, note that they are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.

²⁰The length of Jeroboam’s reign was twenty-two years. He rested with his fathers, and his son Nadab became king in his place.

²¹Now Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king; he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city where the LORD had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put his name. Rehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.

²²Judah did what was evil in the LORD’s sight. They provoked him to jealous anger more than all that their ancestors had done with the sins they committed.

²³They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree;

²⁴there were even male cult prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites.

²⁵In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt went to war against Jerusalem.

²⁶He seized the treasuries of the LORD’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace. He took everything. He took all the gold shields that Solomon had made.

²⁷King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and committed them into the care of the captains of the guards who protected the entrance to the king’s palace.

²⁸Whenever the king entered the LORD’s temple, the guards would carry the shields, then they would take them back to the armory.

²⁹The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written about in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

³⁰There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their reigns.

³¹Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. His son Abijam became king in his place.

¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.

²Zedekiah did what was evil in the LORD’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done.

³Because of the LORD’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally banished them from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around.

⁵The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food.

⁷Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah.

⁸The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered.

⁹The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

¹⁰At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered the Judean commanders.

¹¹Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.

¹²On the tenth day of the fifth month — which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon.

¹³He burned the LORD’s temple, the king’s palace, all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses.

¹⁴The whole Chaldean army with the captain of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.

¹⁵Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported some of the poorest of the people, as well as the rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.

¹⁶But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.

¹⁷Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the LORD’s temple and the water carts and the bronze basin that were in the LORD’s temple, and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.

¹⁸They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.

¹⁹The captain of the guards took away the bowls, firepans, sprinkling basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and drink offering bowls  — whatever was gold or silver.

²⁰As for the two pillars, the one basin, with the twelve bronze oxen under it, and the water carts that King Solomon had made for the LORD’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.

²¹One pillar was 27 feet tall, had a circumference of 18 feet, was hollow — four fingers thick —

²²and had a bronze capital on top of it. One capital, encircled by bronze grating and pomegranates, stood 7½ feet high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates.

²³Each capital had ninety-six pomegranates all around it. All the pomegranates around the grating numbered one hundred.

²⁴The captain of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers.

²⁵From the city he took a court official who had been appointed over the warriors; seven trusted royal aides found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and sixty men from the common people who were found within the city.

²⁶Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

²⁷The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.

²⁸These are the people Nebuchadnezzar deported: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

²⁹in his eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem;

³⁰in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported 745 Jews. Altogether, 4,600 people were deported.

³¹On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.

³²He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

³³So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he dined regularly in the presence of the king of Babylon for the rest of his life.

³⁴As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, for the rest of his life.

¹In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution.

²The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables.

³Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.

⁴But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

⁵This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch.

⁶They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

⁷So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.

⁸Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹Opposition arose, however, from some members of the Freedmen’s Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, and they began to argue with Stephen.

¹⁰But they were unable to stand up against his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.

¹¹Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

¹²They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; so they came, seized him, and took him to the Sanhedrin.

¹³They also presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and the law.

¹⁴For we heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”

¹⁵And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.