Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

²And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way?

³No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

⁴Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?

⁵No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

⁶And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.

⁷And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’

⁸And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.

⁹Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

¹⁰Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

¹¹And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.

¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.”

¹³And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.

¹⁴But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”

¹⁵Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?

¹⁶And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

¹⁷As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

¹⁸He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?

¹⁹It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”

²⁰And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?

²¹ It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

²²He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.

²³And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them,

²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

²⁵ When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’

²⁶Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

²⁷But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’

²⁸ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.

²⁹And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.

³⁰And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

³¹At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.”

³²And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.

³³Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’

³⁴ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

³⁵Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

¹“On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets,

²and you shall offer a burnt offering, for a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish;

³also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the ram,

⁴and one tenth for each of the seven lambs;

⁵with one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you;

⁶besides the burnt offering of the new moon, and its grain offering, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offering, according to the rule for them, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.

⁷“On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation and afflict yourselves. You shall do no work,

⁸but you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old: see that they are without blemish.

⁹And their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the one ram,

¹⁰a tenth for each of the seven lambs:

¹¹also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings.

¹²“On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days.

¹³And you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish;

¹⁴and their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two tenths for each of the two rams,

¹⁵and a tenth for each of the fourteen lambs;

¹⁶also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering.

¹⁷“On the second day twelve bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,

¹⁸with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;

¹⁹also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings.

²⁰“On the third day eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,

²¹with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;

²²also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.

²³“On the fourth day ten bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,

²⁴with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;

²⁵also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering and its drink offering.

²⁶“On the fifth day nine bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,

²⁷with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;

²⁸also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.

²⁹“On the sixth day eight bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,

³⁰with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;

³¹also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offerings.

³²“On the seventh day seven bulls, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old without blemish,

³³with the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;

³⁴also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.

³⁵“On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly. You shall not do any ordinary work,

³⁶but you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish,

³⁷and the grain offering and the drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, in the prescribed quantities;

³⁸also one male goat for a sin offering; besides the regular burnt offering and its grain offering and its drink offering.

³⁹“These you shall offer to the LORD at your appointed feasts, in addition to your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your grain offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.”

⁴⁰So Moses told the people of Israel everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,

²who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house.

³For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses — as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

⁴(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)

⁵Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,

⁶but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

⁷Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,

⁸do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,

⁹where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.

¹⁰Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’

¹¹As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

¹²Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

¹³But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

¹⁴For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

¹⁵As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

¹⁶For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?

¹⁷And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

¹⁸And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

¹⁹So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

¹You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,

²and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

³Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

⁴No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

⁵An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

⁶It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.

⁷Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

⁸Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel,

⁹for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!

¹⁰Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

¹¹The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

¹²if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;

¹³if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself.

¹⁴Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.

¹⁵Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

¹⁶But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

¹⁷and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,

¹⁸who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some.

¹⁹But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

²⁰Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.

²¹Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

²²So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

²³Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.

²⁴And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil,

²⁵correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,

²⁶and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

²“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

⁴Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you?

⁵Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.

⁶For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.

¹⁰Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you,

¹¹or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.

¹²“Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!

¹³But you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness?

¹⁴Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the vault of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away.

¹⁷They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’

¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things — but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁹The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent one mocks at them,

²⁰saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed.’

²¹“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.

²²Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents,

²⁴if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,

²⁵then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.

²⁶For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.

²⁷You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows.

²⁸You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly.

³⁰He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

¹Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul!

²I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

³Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

⁴When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.

⁵Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,

⁶who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever;

⁷who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free;

⁸the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.

⁹The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

¹⁰The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD!

¹A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

²The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the Maker of them all.

³The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

⁴The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.

⁵Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked; whoever guards his soul will keep far from them.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

⁷The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

⁸Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.

⁹Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.

¹⁰Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease.

¹¹He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.

¹²The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the traitor.

¹³The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!”

¹⁴The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit; he with whom the LORD is angry will fall into it.

¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

¹⁶Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.

¹⁷Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge,

¹⁸for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips.

¹⁹That your trust may be in the LORD, I have made them known to you today, even to you.

²⁰Have I not written for you thirty sayings of counsel and knowledge,

²¹to make you know what is right and true, that you may give a true answer to those who sent you?

²²Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate,

²³for the LORD will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.

²⁴Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man,

²⁵lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.

²⁶Be not one of those who give pledges, who put up security for debts.

²⁷If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?

²⁸Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set.

²⁹Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.

¹In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying,

³“Now, O LORD, please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him:

⁵“Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD,

⁶and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.”

⁷And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover.”

⁸And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?”

⁹And Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?”

¹⁰And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.”

¹¹And Isaiah the prophet called to the LORD, and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.

¹²At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

¹³And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

¹⁴Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.”

¹⁵He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD:

¹⁷Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.

¹⁸And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

¹⁹Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

²⁰The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²¹And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²“Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother.

³They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and their virgin bosoms handled.

⁴Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

⁵“Oholah played the whore while she was mine, and she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors

⁶clothed in purple, governors and commanders, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.

⁷She bestowed her whoring upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them, and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone after whom she lusted.

⁸She did not give up her whoring that she had begun in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and handled her virgin bosom and poured out their whoring lust upon her.

⁹Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted.

¹⁰These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and as for her, they killed her with the sword; and she became a byword among women, when judgment had been executed on her.

¹¹“Her sister Oholibah saw this, and she became more corrupt than her sister in her lust and in her whoring, which was worse than that of her sister.

¹²She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

¹³And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way.

¹⁴But she carried her whoring further. She saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,

¹⁵wearing belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, a likeness of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea.

¹⁶When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

¹⁷And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoring lust. And after she was defiled by them, she turned from them in disgust.

¹⁸When she carried on her whoring so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister.

¹⁹Yet she increased her whoring, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt

²⁰and lusted after her lovers there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses.

²¹Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts.”

²²Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will stir up against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side:

²³the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.

²⁴And they shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.

²⁵And I will direct my jealousy against you, that they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire.

²⁶They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels.

²⁷Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring begun in the land of Egypt, so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.

²⁸“For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust,

²⁹and they shall deal with you in hatred and take away all the fruit of your labor and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your whoring shall be uncovered. Your lewdness and your whoring

³⁰have brought this upon you, because you played the whore with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.

³¹You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.

³²Thus says the Lord GOD: “You shall drink your sister's cup that is deep and large; you shall be laughed at and held in derision, for it contains much;

³³you will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. A cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria;

³⁴you shall drink it and drain it out, and gnaw its shards, and tear your breasts; for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.

³⁵Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, you yourself must bear the consequences of your lewdness and whoring.”

³⁶The LORD said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare to them their abominations.

³⁷For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me.

³⁸Moreover, this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my Sabbaths.

³⁹For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And behold, this is what they did in my house.

⁴⁰They even sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments.

⁴¹You sat on a stately couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed my incense and my oil.

⁴²The sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and with men of the common sort, drunkards were brought from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of the women, and beautiful crowns on their heads.

⁴³“Then I said of her who was worn out by adultery, ‘Now they will continue to use her for a whore, even her!’

⁴⁴For they have gone in to her, as men go in to a prostitute. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, lewd women!

⁴⁵But righteous men shall pass judgment on them with the sentence of adulteresses, and with the sentence of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.”

⁴⁶For thus says the Lord GOD: “Bring up a vast host against them, and make them an object of terror and a plunder.

⁴⁷And the host shall stone them and cut them down with their swords. They shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses.

⁴⁸Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done.

⁴⁹And they shall return your lewdness upon you, and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry, and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.”

¹Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

²And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

³Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

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

⁵And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

⁶These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

⁷And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

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

⁹Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.

¹⁰But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.

¹¹Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

¹²And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council,

¹³and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law,

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

¹⁵And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.