Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,

²as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—

³“a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”

⁴And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

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

⁶John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

⁷And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

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

⁹At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

¹⁰Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

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

¹²At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness,

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

¹⁴After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.

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

¹⁶As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

¹⁷“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

¹⁸At once they left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.

²⁰Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

²¹They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.

²²The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

²³Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out,

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

²⁵“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!”

²⁶The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

²⁷The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.”

²⁸News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew.

³⁰Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her.

³¹So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

³²That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.

³³The whole town gathered at the door,

³⁴and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

³⁵Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

³⁶Simon and his companions went to look for him,

³⁷and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

³⁸Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

³⁹So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

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

⁴¹Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

⁴³Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:

⁴⁴“See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

⁴⁵Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

¹The LORD spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said:

²“Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.

³You and Aaron are to count according to their divisions all the men in Israel who are twenty years old or more and able to serve in the army.

⁴One man from each tribe, each of them the head of his family, is to help you.

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

⁶from Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai;

⁷from Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab;

⁸from Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar;

⁹from Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon;

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

¹¹from Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni;

¹²from Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai;

¹³from Asher, Pagiel son of Okran;

¹⁴from Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel;

¹⁵from Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan.”

¹⁶These were the men appointed from the community, the leaders of their ancestral tribes. They were the heads of the clans of Israel.

¹⁷Moses and Aaron took these men whose names had been specified,

¹⁸and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people registered their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one,

¹⁹as the LORD commanded Moses. And so he counted them in the Desert of Sinai:

²⁰From the descendants of Reuben the firstborn son of Israel: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, one by one, according to the records of their clans and families.

²¹The number from the tribe of Reuben was 46,500.

²²From the descendants of Simeon: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were counted and listed by name, one by one, according to the records of their clans and families.

²³The number from the tribe of Simeon was 59,300.

²⁴From the descendants of Gad: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.

²⁵The number from the tribe of Gad was 45,650.

²⁶From the descendants of Judah: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.

²⁷The number from the tribe of Judah was 74,600.

²⁸From the descendants of Issachar: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.

²⁹The number from the tribe of Issachar was 54,400.

³⁰From the descendants of Zebulun: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.

³¹The number from the tribe of Zebulun was 57,400.

³²From the sons of Joseph: From the descendants of Ephraim: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.

³³The number from the tribe of Ephraim was 40,500.

³⁴From the descendants of Manasseh: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.

³⁵The number from the tribe of Manasseh was 32,200.

³⁶From the descendants of Benjamin: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.

³⁷The number from the tribe of Benjamin was 35,400.

³⁸From the descendants of Dan: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.

³⁹The number from the tribe of Dan was 62,700.

⁴⁰From the descendants of Asher: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.

⁴¹The number from the tribe of Asher was 41,500.

⁴²From the descendants of Naphtali: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.

⁴³The number from the tribe of Naphtali was 53,400.

⁴⁴These were the men counted by Moses and Aaron and the twelve leaders of Israel, each one representing his family.

⁴⁵All the Israelites twenty years old or more who were able to serve in Israel’s army were counted according to their families.

⁴⁶The total number was 603,550.

⁴⁷The ancestral tribe of the Levites, however, was not counted along with the others.

⁴⁸The LORD had said to Moses:

⁴⁹“You must not count the tribe of Levi or include them in the census of the other Israelites.

⁵⁰Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle of the covenant law—over all its furnishings and everything belonging to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it.

⁵¹Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it. Anyone else who approaches it is to be put to death.

⁵²The Israelites are to set up their tents by divisions, each of them in their own camp under their standard.

⁵³The Levites, however, are to set up their tents around the tabernacle of the covenant law so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the covenant law.”

⁵⁴The Israelites did all this just as the LORD commanded Moses.

¹And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.

²In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

³For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,

⁴they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people.

⁵And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.

⁶So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.

⁷But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

⁸I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.

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

¹⁰And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so.

¹¹Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means.

¹²For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.

¹³Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality.

¹⁴At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality,

¹⁵as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”

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

¹⁷For Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative.

¹⁸And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel.

¹⁹What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honor the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help.

²⁰We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift.

²¹For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.

²²In addition, we are sending with them our brother who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous, and now even more so because of his great confidence in you.

²³As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker among you; as for our brothers, they are representatives of the churches and an honor to Christ.

²⁴Therefore show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you, so that the churches can see it.

¹Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars.

²He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,

³and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke.

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

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

⁶And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay!

⁷But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

⁸Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: “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 it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’”

¹⁰I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.

¹¹Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”

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

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

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

⁴Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love.

⁵Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.

⁶His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.

⁷Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

⁸Listen! My beloved! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.

⁹My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

¹⁰My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.

¹¹See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.

¹²Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

¹³The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”

¹⁴My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

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

¹⁶My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.

¹⁷Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.

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

²Let Israel say: “His love endures forever.”

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

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

⁵When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD; he brought me into a spacious place.

⁶The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

⁷The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I look in triumph on my enemies.

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

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

¹⁰All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them down.

¹¹They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the LORD I cut them down.

¹²They swarmed around me like bees, but they were consumed as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them down.

¹³I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me.

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

¹⁵Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!

¹⁶The LORD’s right hand is lifted high; the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!”

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

¹⁸The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death.

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

²⁰This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter.

²¹I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.

²²The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;

²³the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

²⁴The LORD has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.

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

²⁶Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.

²⁷The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.

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

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

¹These are more proverbs of Solomon, compiled by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah:

²It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

³As the heavens are high and the earth is deep, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.

⁴Remove the dross from the silver, and a silversmith can produce a vessel;

⁵remove wicked officials from the king’s presence, and his throne will be established through righteousness.

⁶Do not exalt yourself in the king’s presence, and do not claim a place among his great men;

⁷it is better for him to say to you, “Come up here,” than for him to humiliate you before his nobles. What you have seen with your eyes

⁸do not bring hastily to court, for what will you do in the end if your neighbor puts you to shame?

⁹If you take your neighbor to court, do not betray another’s confidence,

¹⁰or the one who hears it may shame you and the charge against you will stand.

¹¹Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a ruling rightly given.

¹²Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is the rebuke of a wise judge to a listening ear.

¹³Like a snow-cooled drink at harvest time is a trustworthy messenger to the one who sends him; he refreshes the spirit of his master.

¹⁴Like clouds and wind without rain is one who boasts of gifts never given.

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

¹⁶If you find honey, eat just enough— too much of it, and you will vomit.

¹⁷Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house— too much of you, and they will hate you.

¹⁸Like a club or a sword or a sharp arrow is one who gives false testimony against a neighbor.

¹⁹Like a broken tooth or a lame foot is reliance on the unfaithful in a time of trouble.

²⁰Like one who takes away a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar poured on a wound, is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

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

²²In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.

²³Like a north wind that brings unexpected rain is a sly tongue—which provokes a horrified look.

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

²⁵Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.

²⁶Like a muddied spring or a polluted well are the righteous who give way to the wicked.

²⁷It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to search out matters that are too deep.

²⁸Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.

¹At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill,

²and Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go, disguise yourself, so you won’t be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there—the one who told me I would be king over this people.

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

⁴So Jeroboam’s wife did what he said and went to Ahijah’s house in Shiloh. Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age.

⁵But the LORD had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill, and you are to give her such and such an answer. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else.”

⁶So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news.

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

⁸I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.

⁹You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have aroused my anger and turned your back on me.

¹⁰“ ‘Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone.

¹¹Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds will feed on those who die in the country. The LORD has spoken!’

¹²“As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die.

¹³All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good.

¹⁴“The LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. Even now this is beginning to happen.

¹⁵And the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they aroused the LORD’s anger by making Asherah poles.

¹⁶And he will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died.

¹⁸They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, as the LORD had said through his servant the prophet Ahijah.

¹⁹The other events of Jeroboam’s reign, his wars and how he ruled, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel.

²⁰He reigned for twenty-two years and then rested with his ancestors. And Nadab his son succeeded him as king.

²¹Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite.

²²Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done.

²³They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.

²⁴There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

²⁵In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem.

²⁶He carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made.

²⁷So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace.

²⁸Whenever the king went to the LORD’s temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom.

²⁹As for the other events of Rehoboam’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

³⁰There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.

³¹And Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. And Abijah his son succeeded him as king.

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

²He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.

³It was because of the LORD’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence. Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it.

⁵The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.

⁷Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled. They left the city at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah,

⁸but the Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered,

⁹and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him.

¹⁰There at Riblah the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the officials of Judah.

¹¹Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon, where he put him in prison till the day of his death.

¹²On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

¹³He set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.

¹⁴The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.

¹⁵Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest people and those who remained in the city, along with the rest of the craftsmen and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon.

¹⁶But Nebuzaradan left behind the rest of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

¹⁷The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the LORD and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.

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

¹⁹The commander of the imperial guard took away the basins, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, dishes and bowls used for drink offerings—all that were made of pure gold or silver.

²⁰The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands, which King Solomon had made for the temple of the LORD, was more than could be weighed.

²¹Each pillar was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference; each was four fingers thick, and hollow.

²²The bronze capital on top of one pillar was five cubits high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar.

²³There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; the total number of pomegranates above the surrounding network was a hundred.

²⁴The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers.

²⁵Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and seven royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land, sixty of whom were found in the city.

²⁶Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

²⁷There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.

²⁸This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

²⁹in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem;

³⁰in his twenty-third year, 745 Jews taken into exile by Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard. There were 4,600 people in all.

³¹In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed him from prison.

³²He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

³³So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table.

³⁴Day by day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived, till the day of his death.

¹In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

²So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.

³Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them

⁴and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

⁵This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

⁶They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

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

⁸Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen.

¹⁰But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

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

¹²So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.

¹³They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.

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

¹⁵All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.