Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”

²And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘ Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.

³Give us each day our daily bread.

⁴And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation.’ ”

⁵And He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves,

⁶because a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to serve him’;

⁷and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my childrenand I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’

⁸I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything just because he is his friend, yet because of hisshamelessness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁹“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

¹¹Nowwhich one of you fathers will his son ask for afish, and instead of a fish, he will give him a snake?

¹²Or he will even ask for an egg, and his father will give him a scorpion?

¹³So if you, despite beingevil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more willyour heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

¹⁴And He was casting out a mute demon; when the demon had gone out, the man who was previously unable to speak talked, and the crowds were amazed.

¹⁵But some of them said, “He casts out the demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”

¹⁶Others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from heaven.

¹⁷But He knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided againstitself falls.

¹⁸And if Satan also has been divided against himself, how will his kingdomstand? For you claim that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul.

¹⁹Yet if by Beelzebul I cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges.

²⁰But if I cast out the demons bythe finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²¹Whena strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions aresecure.

²²But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, that man takes away his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder.

²³The one who is not with Me is against Me; and the one who does not gather with Me scatters.

²⁴“When the unclean spirit comes out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it then says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’

²⁵And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.

²⁶Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they come in and live there; and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first.”

²⁷While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that carried You, and the breasts at which You nursed!”

²⁸But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and follow it.”

²⁹Now as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it demands asign, and so nosign will be given to it except thesign of Jonah.

³⁰For just as Jonah became asign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

³¹The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

³²The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

³³“No one lights a lamp and puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye isclear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it isbad, your body also is full of darkness.

³⁵So watch out that the light in you is not darkness.

³⁶Therefore if your whole body is full of light, without any dark part, it will be wholly illuminated, as when the lamp illuminates you with its light.”

³⁷Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in and reclined at the table.

³⁸When the Pharisee saw this, he was surprised that Jesus had not first ceremonially washed before the meal.

³⁹But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish; but your inside is full of greed and wickedness.

⁴⁰You foolish ones, did He who made the outside not make the inside also?

⁴¹But give that which is within as a charitable gift, andthen all things are clean for you.

⁴²“But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithes of mint, rue, and every kind of garden herb, and yet you ignore justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.

⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the seat of honor in the synagogues and personal greetings in the marketplaces.

⁴⁴Woe to you! For you are likeunseen tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.”

⁴⁵One of the lawyers *said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us too.”

⁴⁶But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you load people with burdens that are hard to bear,while you yourselves will not eventouch the burdens with one of your fingers.

⁴⁷Woe to you! For you build thetombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them.

⁴⁸So you are witnesses and you approve of the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build theirtombs.

⁴⁹For this reason also, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill, and some they willpersecute,

⁵⁰so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be chargedagainst this generation,

⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be chargedagainst this generation.’

⁵²Woe to youlawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³When He left that place, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to interrogate Him about many subjects,

⁵⁴plotting against Him to catch Him in something He might say.

¹Then the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph, came forward; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

²They stood before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, before the leaders, and all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying,

³“Our father died in the wilderness, yet he was not among the group of those who gathered together against the LORD, in the group of Korah; but he died in his own sin, and he had no sons.

⁴Why should the name of our father be withdrawn from among his family simply because he had no son? Give us property among our father’s brothers.”

⁵So Moses brought their case before the LORD.

⁶Then the LORD said to Moses,

⁷“The daughters of Zelophehad are right about their statements. You shall certainly give them hereditary property among their father’s brothers, and you shall transfer the inheritance of their father to them.

⁸Further, you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.

⁹And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers.

¹⁰If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers.

¹¹And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his nearest relative in his own family, and he shall take possession of it; and it shall be a statutory ordinance to the sons of Israel, just as the LORD has commanded Moses.’ ”

¹²Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go up to this mountain of Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the sons of Israel.

¹³When you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother was;

¹⁴for in the wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to treat Me as holy before their eyes at the water.” (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)

¹⁵Then Moses spoke to the LORD, saying,

¹⁶“May the LORD, the God of the spirits of humanity, appoint a man over the congregation,

¹⁷who will go out and come in before them, and lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD will not be like sheep that have no shepherd.”

¹⁸So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him;

¹⁹and have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and commission him in their sight.

²⁰And you shall put some of your authority on him, so that all the congregation of the sons of Israel will obey him.

²¹Moreover, he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the LORD. At his command they shall go out, and at his command they shall come in, both he and all the sons of Israel with him, all the congregation.”

²²Then Moses did just as the LORD commanded him; he took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation.

²³Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.

¹God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,

²in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world.

³And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

⁴having become so much better than the angels, to the extent that He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

⁵For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE FATHERED YOU”? And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE WILL BE A SON TO ME”?

⁶And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.”

⁷And regarding the angels He says, “HE MAKES HIS ANGELS WINDS, AND HIS MINISTERS A FLAME OF FIRE.”

⁸But regarding the Son He says, “YOUR THRONE, GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE SCEPTER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.

⁹YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF JOY ABOVE YOUR COMPANIONS.”

¹⁰And, “YOU, LORD, IN THE BEGINNING LAID THE FOUNDATION OF THE EARTH, AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS;

¹¹THEY WILL PERISH, BUT YOU REMAIN; AND THEY ALL WILL WEAR OUT LIKE A GARMENT,

¹²AND LIKE A ROBE YOU WILL ROLL THEM UP; LIKE A GARMENT THEY WILL ALSO BE CHANGED. BUT YOU ARE THE SAME, AND YOUR YEARS WILL NOT COME TO AN END.”

¹³But to which of the angels has He ever said, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET”?

¹⁴Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to provide service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

¹All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against.

²Those who have believers as their masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brothers or sisters, but must serve them all the more, because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles.

³If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness,

⁴he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a sick craving for controversial questions and disputes about words, from which come envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions,

⁵and constant friction between people of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.

⁶But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.

⁷For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it, either.

⁸If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

⁹But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge people into ruin and destruction.

¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

¹¹But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

¹²Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

¹³I direct you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,

¹⁴that you keep the commandment without fault or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹⁵which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

¹⁶who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

¹⁷Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.

¹⁸Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,

¹⁹storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

²⁰Timothy, protect what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”—

²¹which some have professed and thereby have gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite responded,

²“Therefore my disquieting thoughts make me respond, Even because of my inward agitation.

³I listened to the reprimand which insults me, And the spirit of my understanding makes me answer.

⁴Do you know this from ancient times, From the establishment of mankind on earth,

⁵That the rejoicing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the godless momentary?

⁶Though his arrogance reaches the heavens, And his head touches the clouds,

⁷He perishes forever like his refuse; Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

⁸He flies away like a dream, and they cannot find him; Like a vision of the night he is chased away.

⁹The eye which saw him sees him no longer, And his place no longer beholds him.

¹⁰His sons favor the poor, And his hands give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of his youthful strength, But it lies down with him in the dust.

¹²“Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth And he hides it under his tongue,

¹³Though he desires it and will not let it go, But holds it in his mouth,

¹⁴Yet his food in his stomach is changed To the venom of cobras within him.

¹⁵He swallows riches, But will vomit them up; God will expel them from his belly.

¹⁶He sucks the poison of cobras; The viper’s tongue kills him.

¹⁷He does not look at the streams, The rivers flowing with honey and curds.

¹⁸He returns the product of his labor And cannot swallow it; As to the riches of his trading, He cannot even enjoy them.

¹⁹For he has oppressed and neglected the poor; He has seized a house which he has not built.

²⁰“Because he knew no quiet within him, He does not retain anything he desires.

²¹Nothing remains for him to devour, Therefore his prosperity does not endure.

²²In the fullness of his excess he will be cramped; The hand of everyone who suffers will come against him.

²³When he fills his belly, God will send His fierce anger on him And rain it on him while he is eating.

²⁴He may flee from the iron weapon, But the bronze bow will pierce him.

²⁵It is drawn and comes out of his back, Even the flashing point from his gallbladder; Terrors come upon him,

²⁶Complete darkness is held in reserve for his treasures, And unfanned fire will devour him; It will consume the survivor in his tent.

²⁷The heavens will reveal his guilt, And the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸The increase of his house will disappear; His possessions will flow away on the day of His anger.

²⁹This is a wicked person’s portion from God, The inheritance decreed to him by God.”

¹Blessed be the LORD, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle;

²My faithfulness and my fortress, My stronghold and my savior, My shield and He in whom I take refuge, Who subdues my people under me.

³LORD, what is man, that You look after him? Or a son of man, that You think of him?

⁴Man is like the breath; His days are like a passing shadow.

⁵Bend down Your heavens, LORD, and come down; Touch the mountains, that they may smoke.

⁶Flash forth lightning and scatter them; Send out Your arrows and confuse them.

⁷Reach out with Your hand from on high; Rescue me and save me from great waters, From the hand of foreigners

⁸Whose mouths speak deceit, And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

⁹God, I will sing a new song to You; On a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,

¹⁰Who gives salvation to kings, Who rescues His servant David from the evil sword.

¹¹Rescue me and save me from the hand of foreigners, Whose mouth speaks deceit And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

¹²When our sons in their youth are like growing plants, And our daughters like corner pillars fashioned for a palace,

¹³Our granaries are full, providing every kind of produce, And our flocks deliver thousands and ten thousands in our fields;

¹⁴May our cattle be bred Without mishap and without loss, May there be no outcry in our streets!

¹⁵Blessed are the people who are so situated; Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!

¹Wine is a mocker, intoxicating drink a brawler, And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.

²The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion; One who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.

³Avoiding strife is an honor for a person, But any fool will quarrel.

⁴The lazy one does not plow after the autumn, So he begs during the harvest and has nothing.

⁵A plan in the heart of a person is like deep water, But a person of understanding draws it out.

⁶Many a person proclaims his own loyalty, But who can find a trustworthy person?

⁷A righteous person who walks in his integrity— How blessed are his sons after him.

⁸A king who sits on the throne of justice Disperses all evil with his eyes.

⁹Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin”?

¹⁰Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the LORD.

¹¹It is by his deeds that a boy distinguishes himself, If his conduct is pure and right.

¹²The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The LORD has made both of them.

¹³Do not love sleep, or you will become poor; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food.

¹⁴“Bad, bad,” says the buyer, But when he goes his way, then he boasts.

¹⁵There is gold, and an abundance of jewels; But lips of knowledge are a more precious thing.

¹⁶Take his garment when he becomes guarantor for a stranger; And for foreigners, seize a pledge from him.

¹⁷Bread obtained by a lie is sweet to a person, But afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.

¹⁸Prepare plans by consultation, And make war by wise guidance.

¹⁹One who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets; Therefore do not associate with a gossip.

²⁰He who curses his father or his mother, His lamp will go out in time of darkness.

²¹An inheritance gained in a hurry at the beginning Will not be blessed in the end.

²²Do not say, “I will repay evil”; Wait for the LORD, and He will save you.

²³Differing weights are an abomination to the LORD, And a false scale is not good.

²⁴A man’s steps are ordained by the LORD; How then can a person understand his way?

²⁵It is a trap for a person to say carelessly, “It is holy!” And after the vows to make inquiry.

²⁶A wise king scatters the wicked, And drives a threshing wheel over them.

²⁷The spirit of a person is the lamp of the LORD, Searching all the innermost parts of his being.

²⁸Loyalty and truth watch over the king, And he upholds his throne by loyalty.

²⁹The glory of young men is their strength, And the honor of old men is their gray hair.

³⁰Bruising wounds clean away evil, And blows cleanse the innermost parts.

¹Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king.

²He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.

³He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, in accordance with everything that his father David had done.

⁴He removed the high places and smashed the memorial stones to pieces, and cut down the Asherah. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.

⁵He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; and after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who came before him.

⁶For he clung to the LORD; he did not desist from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁷And the LORD was with him; wherever he went he was successful. And he revolted against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

⁸He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

⁹Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it.

¹⁰And at the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured.

¹¹Then the king of Assyria led Israel into exile to Assyria, and put them in Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

¹²This happened because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant, all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.

¹³Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.

¹⁴Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent messengers to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will endure.” So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah the payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

¹⁵Hezekiah then gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasuries of the king’s house.

¹⁶At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the doorposts, which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rab-saris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the road of the fuller’s field.

¹⁸Then they called to the king, and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the secretary, went out to them.

¹⁹And Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says: “What is this confidence that you have?

²⁰You say—but they are only empty words—‘I have a plan and strength for the war.’ Now on whom have you relied, that you have revolted against me?

²¹Now behold, you have relied on the support of this broken reed, on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. That is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him.

²²However, if you say to me, ‘We have trusted in the LORD our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has removed, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?

²³Now then, come make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them!

²⁴How then can you drive back even one official of the least of my master’s servants, and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

²⁵Have I now come up without the LORD’S approval against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”

²⁶Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean so that the people who are on the wall hear you.”

²⁷But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words? Has he not also sent me to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

²⁸Then Rabshakeh stood up and shouted with a loud voice in Judean, saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria!

²⁹This is what the king says: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you from my hand.

³⁰And do not let Hezekiah lead you to trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will certainly save us, and this city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”

³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat, each one, from his vine and each from his fig tree, and drink, each one, the waters of his own cistern,

³²until I come and take you to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees producing oil, and of honey, so that you will live and not die.” But do not listen to Hezekiah, because he misleads you by saying, “The LORD will save us.”

³³Has any of the gods of the nations actually saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they saved Samaria from my hand?

³⁵Who among all the gods of the lands are there who have saved their land from my hand, that the LORD would save Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

³⁶But the people were silent and did not answer him with even a word, because it was the king’s command: “Do not answer him.”

³⁷Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.

¹And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem, and speak prophetically against the sanctuaries and prophesy against the land of Israel;

³and say to the land of Israel, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am against you; and I will draw My sword from its sheath and cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.

⁴Because I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore My sword will go out from its sheath against humanity from south to north.

⁵So humanity will know that I, the LORD, have drawn My sword from its sheath. It will not return to its sheath again.” ’

⁶As for you, son of man, groan with a breaking heart and bitter grief; you shall groan in their sight.

⁷And when they say to you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news, for it is coming; and every heart will melt, all hands will go limp, every spirit will be disheartened, and all knees will drip with water. Behold, it is coming and it will happen,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

⁸And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁹“Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the LORD says:’ Say, ‘A sword, a sword sharpened And also polished!

¹⁰Sharpened to make a slaughter, Polished to flash like lightning!’ Or shall we rejoice, the rod of My son despising every tree?

¹¹And it is given to be polished, so that it may be handled; the sword is sharpened and polished, to hand it over to the slaughterer.

¹²Cry out and wail, son of man; for it is against My people, it is against all the officials of Israel. They are turned over to the sword with My people, therefore slap your thigh.

¹³For there is a testing; and what if even the rod which despises will cease to be?” declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁴“You therefore, son of man, prophesy and clap your hands; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword for the slain. It is the sword for the great one slain, which surrounds them,

¹⁵so that their hearts will waver, and many fall at all their gates. I have granted the slaughter of the sword. Oh! It is made for striking like lightning, it is sharpened in readiness for slaughter.

¹⁶Prove yourself sharp, go to the right; set yourself; go to the left, wherever your edge is ordered.

¹⁷I will also clap My hands, and I will satisfy My wrath; I, the LORD, have spoken.”

¹⁸And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

¹⁹“Now as for you, son of man, make two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them will go out of one land. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the way to the city.

²⁰You shall mark a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and to Judah into fortified Jerusalem.

²¹For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the household idols, he looks at the liver.

²²Into his right hand came the divination, ‘Jerusalem,’ to set up battering rams, to open the mouth for slaughter, to raise the voice with a battle cry, to set up battering rams against the gates, to pile up assault ramps, to build a siege wall.

²³And it will be to them like a false divination in their eyes; they have sworn solemn oaths. But he makes guilt known, so that they may be seized.

²⁴“Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have made your guilt known, in that your offenses are uncovered, so that in all your deeds your sins are seen—because you have come to mind, you will be seized by the hand.

²⁵And you, slain, wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come, in the time of the punishment of the end,’

²⁶this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Remove the turban and take off the crown; this will no longer be the same. Exalt that which is low, and humble that which is high.

²⁷Ruins, ruins, ruins, I will make it! This also will be no longer until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him.’

²⁸“And you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says concerning the sons of Ammon and their taunting,’ and say: ‘A sword, a sword is drawn, sharpened for the slaughter, to make it consume, so that it may be like lightning—

²⁹while they see false visions for you, while they divine lies for you—to place you on the necks of the wicked who are killed, whose day has come, in the time of the punishment of the end.

³⁰Return it to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you.

³¹I will pour out My indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and I will hand you over to brutal men, craftsmen of destruction.

³²You will be fuel for the fire; your blood will be in the midst of the land. You will not be remembered, for I, the LORD, have spoken.’ ”

¹As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,

²being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

³And they laid hands on them and put them in prison until the next day, for it was already evening.

⁴But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

⁵On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem;

⁶and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent.

⁷When they had placed them in the center, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?”

⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people,

⁹if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well,

¹⁰let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health.

¹¹He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE.

¹²And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.”

¹³Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

¹⁴And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.

¹⁵But when they had ordered them to leave the Council, they began to confer with one another,

¹⁶saying, “What are we to do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

¹⁷But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let’s warn them not to speak any longer to any person in this name.”

¹⁸And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, make your own judgment;

²⁰for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

²¹When they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened;

²²for the man on whom this miracle of healing had been performed was more than forty years old.

²³When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported everything that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

²⁴And when they heard this, they raised their voices to God with one mind and said, “Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND EVERYTHING THAT IS IN THEM,

²⁵who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, ‘WHY WERE THE NATIONS INSOLENT, AND THE PEOPLES PLOTTING IN VAIN?

²⁶THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.’

²⁷For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,

²⁸to do whatever Your hand and purpose predestined to occur.

²⁹And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant it to Your bond-servants to speak Your word with all confidence,

³⁰while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

³²And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.

³³And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.

³⁴For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales

³⁵and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each to the extent that any had need.

³⁶Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement),

³⁷owned a tract of land. So he sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.