Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹It happened one Sabbath, when He went for a meal at the house of one of the ruling Pharisees, that they were watching Him closely and carefully [hoping to entrap Him].

²And there in front of Him was a man who had dropsy (extreme swelling).

³And Jesus asked the lawyers and the Pharisees, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?"

⁴But they kept silent. Then He took hold of the man and healed him, and sent him on his way.

⁵Then He said to them, "Which one of you, having a son or an ox that falls into a well, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?"

⁶And they were unable to reply to this.

⁷Now Jesus began telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been selecting the places of honor at the table, saying to them,

⁸"When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down [to eat] at the place of honor, since a more distinguished person than you may have been invited by the host,

⁹and he who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your place,' and then, in disgrace you proceed to take the last place.

¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit down [to eat] at the last place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; and then you will be honored in the presence of all who are at the table with you.

¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled [before others], and he who habitually humbles himself (keeps a realistic self-view) will be exalted."

¹²Jesus also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or wealthy neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment.

¹³But when you give a banquet or a reception, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, and the blind,

¹⁴and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous (the just, the upright)."

¹⁵When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, "Blessed (happy, prosperous, to be admired) is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!"

¹⁶But Jesus said to him, "A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many guests;

¹⁷and at the dinner hour he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, because everything is ready now.'

¹⁸But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, 'I have purchased a piece of land and I have to go out and see it; please consider me excused.'

¹⁹Another one said, 'I have purchased five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.'

²⁰And another said, 'I have [recently] married a wife, and for that reason I am unable to come.'

²¹So the servant came back and reported this to his master. Then [his master,] the head of the household, became angry [at the rejections of his invitation] and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the disabled and the blind and the lame.'

²²And the servant [after returning] said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.'

²³Then the master told the servant, 'Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled [with guests].

²⁴For I tell you, not one of those who were invited [and declined] will taste my dinner.'"

²⁵Now large crowds were going along with Jesus; and He turned and said to them,

²⁶"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life [in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God]—he cannot be My disciple.

²⁷Whoever does not carry his own cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow after Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me] cannot be My disciple.

²⁸For which one of you, when he wants to build a watchtower [for his guards], does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to finish it?

²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is unable to finish [the building], all who see it will begin to ridicule him,

³⁰saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish!'

³¹Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one who is coming against him with twenty thousand?

³²Or else [if he feels he is not powerful enough], while the other [king] is still a far distance away, he sends an envoy and asks for terms of peace.

³³So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not [carefully consider the cost and then for My sake] give up all his own possessions.

³⁴"Therefore, salt is good; but if salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?

³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear and heed My words."

¹Then Moses spoke to the leaders of the tribes of the Israelites, saying, "This is the thing which the LORD has commanded:

²If a man makes a vow to the LORD or swears an oath to bind himself with a pledge [of abstinence], he shall not break (violate, profane) his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

³"Also if a woman makes a vow to the LORD and binds herself by a pledge [of abstinence], while living in her father's house in her youth,

⁴and her father hears her vow and her pledge by which she has bound herself, and he offers no objection, then all her vows shall stand and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand.

⁵But if her father disapproves of her [making her vow] on the day that he hears about it, none of her vows or her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand; and the LORD will forgive her because her father has disapproved of her [making the vow].

⁶"But if she marries while under her vows or if she has bound herself by a rash statement,

⁷and her husband hears of it and says nothing about it on the day he hears it, then her vows shall stand and her pledge by which she bound herself shall stand.

⁸But if her husband disapproves of her [making her vow or pledge] on the day that he hears of it, then he shall annul her vow which she is under and the rash statement of her lips by which she bound herself; and the LORD will forgive her.

⁹"But the vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, everything by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.

¹⁰However, if she vowed in her husband's house or bound herself by a pledge with an oath,

¹¹and her husband heard it, but said nothing to her and did not disapprove of her [making the vow], then all her vows and every pledge by which she bound herself shall stand.

¹²But if her husband absolutely annuls them on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeds from her lips concerning her vows or concerning her pledge shall not stand. Her husband has annulled them, and the LORD will forgive her.

¹³"Every vow and every binding oath to humble herself, her husband may confirm it or her husband may annul it.

¹⁴But if her husband says nothing to her [concerning the matter] from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all her pledges which are on her. He has confirmed them because he said nothing to her on the day he heard them.

¹⁵But if he indeed nullifies them after he hears of them, then he shall be responsible for and bear her guilt [for breaking her promise]."

¹⁶These are the statutes which the LORD commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, and between a father and his daughter while she is a youth in her father's house.

¹Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still remains and is freely offered today, let us fear, in case any one of you may seem to come short of reaching it or think he has come too late.

²For indeed we have had the good news [of salvation] preached to us, just as the Israelites also [when the good news of the promised land came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not united with faith [in God] by those who heard.

³For we who believe [that is, we who personally trust and confidently rely on God] enter that rest [so we have His inner peace now because we are confident in our salvation, and assured of His power], just as He has said, "As I swore [an oath] in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest," [this He said] although His works were completed from the foundation of the world [waiting for all who would believe].

⁴For somewhere [in Scripture] He has said this about the seventh day: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works";

⁵and again in this, "They shall not enter My rest."

⁶Therefore, since the promise remains for some to enter His rest, and those who formerly had the good news preached to them failed to [grasp it and did not] enter because of [their unbelief evidenced by] disobedience,

⁷He again sets a definite day, [a new] "Today," [providing another opportunity to enter that rest by] saying through David after so long a time, just as has been said before [in the words already quoted], "Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts."

⁸[This mention of a rest was not a reference to their entering into Canaan.] For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak about another day [of opportunity] after that.

⁹So there remains a [full and complete] Sabbath rest for the people of God.

¹⁰For the one who has once entered His rest has also rested from [the weariness and pain of] his [human] labors, just as God rested from [those labors uniquely] His own.

¹¹Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience [as those who died in the wilderness].

¹²For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹³And not a creature exists that is concealed from His sight, but all things are open and exposed, and revealed to the eyes of Him with whom we have to give account.

¹⁴Inasmuch then as we [believers] have a great High Priest who has [already ascended and] passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession [of faith and cling tenaciously to our absolute trust in Him as Savior].

¹⁵For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but One who has been tempted [knowing exactly how it feels to be human] in every respect as we are, yet without [committing any] sin.

¹⁶Therefore let us [with privilege] approach the throne of grace [that is, the throne of God's gracious favor] with confidence and without fear, so that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find [His amazing] grace to help in time of need [an appropriate blessing, coming just at the right moment].

¹But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear].

²For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane,

³[and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good,

⁴traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God,

⁵holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them.

⁶For among them are those who worm their way into homes and captivate morally weak and spiritually-dwarfed women weighed down by [the burden of their] sins, easily swayed by various impulses,

⁷always learning and listening to anybody who will teach them, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres [the court magicians of Egypt] opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, unqualified and worthless [as teachers] in regard to the faith.

⁹But they will not get very far, for their meaningless nonsense and ignorance will become obvious to everyone, as was that of Jannes and Jambres.

¹⁰Now you have diligently followed [my example, that is] my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,

¹¹persecutions, and sufferings—such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, but the Lord rescued me from them all!

¹²Indeed, all who delight in pursuing righteousness and are determined to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be hunted and persecuted [because of their faith].

¹³But evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

¹⁴But as for you, continue in the things that you have learned and of which you are convinced [holding tightly to the truths], knowing from whom you learned them,

¹⁵and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings (Hebrew Scriptures) which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus [surrendering your entire self to Him and having absolute confidence in His wisdom, power and goodness].

¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God's will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage];

¹⁷so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

¹Then Job answered and said,

²"Even today my complaint is contentious; His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

³"Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I might [even] come to His seat!

⁴"I would present my cause before Him And fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵"I would learn the words which He would answer, And understand what He would say to me.

⁶"Would He contend against me with His great power? No, surely He would give attention to me.

⁷"There the righteous and upright could reason with Him; So I would be acquitted forever by my Judge.

⁸"Behold, I go forward (to the east), but He is not there; I go backward (to the west), but I cannot perceive Him;

⁹To the left (north) He turns, but I cannot behold Him; He turns to the right hand (south), but I cannot see Him.

¹⁰"But He knows the way that I take [and He pays attention to it]. When He has tried me, I will come forth as [refined] gold [pure and luminous].

¹¹"My feet have carefully followed His steps; I have kept His ways and not turned aside.

¹²"I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have kept the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

¹³"But He is unique and unchangeable, and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does.

¹⁴"For He performs what is planned (appointed) for me, And He is mindful of many such things.

¹⁵"Therefore I would be terrified at His presence; When I consider [all of this], I tremble in dread of Him.

¹⁶"For God has made my heart faint, And the Almighty has terrified me,

¹⁷But I am not silenced by the darkness [of these woes that fell on me], Nor by the thick darkness which covers my face.

¹Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our [gracious and majestic] God; Praise is becoming and appropriate.

²The LORD is building up Jerusalem; He is gathering [together] the exiles of Israel.

³He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds [healing their pain and comforting their sorrow].

⁴He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names.

⁵Great is our [majestic and mighty] Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is inexhaustible [infinite, boundless].

⁶The LORD lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground.

⁷Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; Sing praises to our God with the lyre,

⁸Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who provides rain for the earth, Who makes grass grow on the mountains.

⁹He gives to the beast its food, And to the young ravens that for which they cry.

¹⁰He does not delight in the strength (military power) of the horse, Nor does He take pleasure in the legs (strength) of a man.

¹¹The LORD favors those who fear and worship Him [with awe-inspired reverence and obedience], Those who wait for His mercy and lovingkindness.

¹²Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!

¹³For He has strengthened the bars of your gates, He has blessed your children within you.

¹⁴He makes peace in your borders; He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat.

¹⁵He sends His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly.

¹⁶He gives [to the earth] snow like [a blanket of] wool; He scatters the frost like ashes.

¹⁷He casts out His ice like fragments; Who can stand before His cold?

¹⁸He sends out His word and melts the ice; He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow.

¹⁹He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel.

²⁰He has not dealt this way with any [other] nation; They have not known [understood, appreciated, heeded, or cherished] His ordinances. Praise the LORD! (Hallelujah!)

¹When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Consider carefully what is [set] before you;

²For you will put a knife to your throat If you are a man of great appetite.

³Do not desire his delicacies, For it is deceptive food [offered to you with questionable motives].

⁴Do not weary yourself [with the overwhelming desire] to gain wealth; Cease from your own understanding of it.

⁵When you set your eyes on wealth, it is [suddenly] gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies to the heavens.

⁶Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies;

⁷For as he thinks in his heart, so is he [in behavior—one who manipulates]. He says to you, "Eat and drink," Yet his heart is not with you [but it is begrudging the cost].

⁸The morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up, And you will waste your compliments.

⁹Do not speak in the ears of a fool, For he will despise the [godly] wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not move the ancient landmark [at the boundary of the property] And do not go into the fields of the fatherless [to take what is theirs],

¹¹For their Redeemer is strong and mighty; He will plead their case against you.

¹²Apply your heart to discipline And your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³Do not withhold discipline from the child; If you swat him with a reed-like rod [applied with godly wisdom], he will not die.

¹⁴You shall swat him with the reed-like rod And rescue his life from Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead).

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, My heart will also be glad;

¹⁶Yes, my heart will rejoice When your lips speak right things.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners [who live godless lives and have no hope of salvation], But [continue to] live in the [reverent, worshipful] fear of the LORD day by day.

¹⁸Surely there is a future [and a reward], And your hope and expectation will not be cut off.

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way [of the LORD].

²⁰Do not associate with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat,

²¹For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And the drowsiness [of overindulgence] will clothe one with rags.

²²Listen to your father, who sired you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy truth, and do not sell it; Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who sires a wise child will have joy in him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her who gave birth to you rejoice [in your wise and godly choices].

²⁶My son, give me your heart And let your eyes delight in my ways,

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, And an immoral woman is a narrow well.

²⁸She lurks and lies in wait like a robber [who waits for prey], And she increases the faithless among men.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Whose eyes are red and dim?

³⁰Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to taste mixed wine.

³¹Do not look at wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the glass, When it goes down smoothly.

³²At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper.

³³Your [drunken] eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things [untrue things, twisted things].

³⁴And you will be [as unsteady] as one who lies down in the middle of the sea, And [as vulnerable to disaster] as one who lies down on the top of a ship's mast, saying,

³⁵"They struck me, but I was not hurt! They beat me, but I did not feel it! When will I wake up? I will seek more wine."

¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.

²He did [great] evil in the sight of the LORD, in accordance with the [idolatrous] repulsive acts of the [pagan] nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons (descendants) of Israel.

³For he rebuilt the high places [for the worship of pagan gods] which his father Hezekiah had destroyed; and he set up altars for Baal and made an [image of] Asherah, just as Ahab king of Israel had done, and he worshiped all the [starry] host of heaven and served them.

⁴And he built [pagan] altars in the house (temple) of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem I will put My Name (Presence)."

⁵And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD.

⁶He made his son pass through the fire and burned him [as an offering to Molech]; he practiced witchcraft and divination, and dealt with mediums and soothsayers. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.

⁷He made a carved image of the [goddess] Asherah and set it up in the house (temple), of which the LORD said to David and to his son Solomon, "In this house and in Jerusalem [in the tribe of Judah], which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My Name forever.

⁸"And I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will be careful to act in accordance with everything that I have commanded them, and with all the law that My servant Moses commanded them."

⁹But they did not listen; and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons (descendants) of Israel.

¹⁰Now the LORD spoke through His servants the prophets, saying,

¹¹"Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these repulsive acts, having done more evil than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols;

¹²therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I am bringing such catastrophe on Jerusalem and Judah, that everyone who hears of it, both of his ears will ring [from the shock].

¹³I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem clean just as one wipes a [dirty] bowl clean, wiping it and turning it upside down.

¹⁴I will abandon the remnant (remainder) of My inheritance and hand them over to their enemies; and they will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies,

¹⁵because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger, since the day their fathers came from Egypt to this day.'"

¹⁶Moreover, Manasseh shed a very great quantity of innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, by doing evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁷Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, everything that he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

¹⁸Manasseh slept with his fathers [in death] and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. And his son Amon became king in his place.

¹⁹Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

²⁰He also did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his father Manasseh had done.

²¹He walked in all the [evil] ways that his father had walked; and he served the idols that his father had served, and worshiped them;

²²he abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.

²³But the servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house (palace).

²⁴Then the people of the land [of Judah] killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.

²⁵Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²⁶He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.

¹Again in the ninth year [of King Jehoiachin's captivity by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon], in the tenth month, on the tenth [day] of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²"Son of man, record the name of the day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day.

³Speak a parable against the rebellious house [of Judah] and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Put on a pot; put it on and also pour water into it;

⁴"Put in it the pieces [of meat], Every good piece (the people of Jerusalem), the thigh and the shoulder; Fill it with choice bones.

⁵"Take the choicest of the flock, And also pile wood under the pot. Make it boil vigorously And boil its bones in the pot."

⁶'Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, "Woe (judgment is coming) to the bloody city, To the pot in which there is rust And whose rust has not gone out of it! Take out of it piece by piece, Without making any choice.

⁷"For her blood [that she has shed] remains in her midst; She put it on the bare rock; She did not pour it on the ground To cover it with dust.

⁸"That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have put her blood [guilt for her children sacrificed to Molech] on the bare rock, That it may not be covered."

⁹'Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, "Woe to the bloody city! I will also make the pile [of wood] high.

¹⁰"Heap on wood, kindle the fire, Boil the meat well [done] And mix in the spices, And let the bones be burned.

¹¹"Then set the empty pot (Jerusalem) back on the coals So that it may be hot And its bronze may glow And its filthiness may be melted And its rust (scum) may be consumed.

¹²"She has wearied Me with toil, Yet her great rust has not left her; Her thick rust and filth will not be burned away by fire [no matter how hot the flame].

¹³"In your filthiness are lewdness and outrage. Therefore I would have cleansed you, Yet you were not [willing to be] cleansed, You will not be cleansed from your filthiness again Until I have satisfied My wrath against you.

¹⁴I the LORD have spoken; it is coming and I will act. I will not relent, and I will not have compassion and I will not be sorry; in accordance with your ways and in accordance with your deeds I will judge and punish you," says the Lord GOD.'"

¹⁵Also the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

¹⁶"Son of man, listen carefully, I am about to take away from you the desire of your eyes [your wife] with a single stroke. Yet you shall not mourn and you shall not weep, and your tears shall not flow.

¹⁷Sigh and groan in silence; do not mourn for the dead. Bind on your turban and put your sandals on your feet, and do not cover your mustache or eat the bread of [mourners furnished by other] men."

¹⁸So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. And the next morning I did as I was commanded.

¹⁹The people said to me, "These things that you are doing—tell us, what do they mean for us?"

²⁰Then I answered them, "The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²¹'Speak to the house of Israel, "Thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I will profane My sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your soul; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind [in Jerusalem] will fall by the sword.

²²You will do as I [Ezekiel] have done; you shall not cover your mustache nor eat the bread of [mourning brought to you by other] men.

²³'Your turbans will be on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but you will rot away in your sins and you will groan to one another.

²⁴So Ezekiel will be a sign to you; in accordance with all that he has done you will do. And when this [destruction of the temple] comes, then you will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord GOD.'"

²⁵'As for you, son of man, on the day when I take their strength and their stronghold from them, their joy and their glory, the desire of their eyes and their heart's [chief] delight (the temple), and I also take their sons and their daughters,

²⁶that on that day a survivor will come to you to let you hear [of the destruction of Jerusalem] with your [own] ears.

²⁷On that day your mouth will be opened to him who escaped, and you will speak and no longer be mute. In this way you shall be a sign to them, and they will know [without any doubt] that I am the LORD.'"

¹Now the high priest asked [Stephen], "Are these charges true?"

²And he answered, "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory [the Shekinah, the radiance of God] appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and He said to him, 'Leave your country and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.'

⁴Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God sent him to this country in which you now live.

⁵But He did not give him inheritable property, not even enough ground to take a step on, yet He promised that He would give it to Him as a possession, and to his descendants after him.

⁶And this is, in effect, what God spoke [to him]: That his descendants would be aliens (strangers) in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

⁷'And I will judge any nation to whom they will be in bondage,' said God, 'and after that they will come out and serve Me [in worship] in this place.'

⁸And God gave Abraham a covenant [a formal agreement to be strictly observed] of [which] circumcision [was the sign]; and so [under these circumstances] Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac [became the father] of Jacob, and Jacob [became the father] of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹"The [ten elder] patriarchs, overwhelmed with jealousy, sold [their younger brother] Joseph into [slavery in] Egypt; but God was with him,

¹⁰and He rescued him from all his suffering, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made Joseph governor over Egypt and over his entire household.

¹¹"Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great distress and our fathers could not find food [for their households and livestock].

¹²But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.

¹³And on the second visit Joseph identified himself to his brothers, and Joseph's family and background were revealed to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Then Joseph sent and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.

¹⁵And Jacob (Israel) went down into Egypt, and there he died, as did our fathers;

¹⁶and [from Egypt] their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷"But as the time [for the fulfillment] of the promise which God had made to Abraham was approaching, the [Hebrew] people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸until [the time when] there arose another king over egypt who did not know joseph [nor his history and the merit of his service to Egypt].

¹⁹He shrewdly exploited our race and mistreated our fathers, forcing them to expose their [male] babies so that they would die.

²⁰It was at this [critical] time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and for three months he was nourished in his father's house.

²¹Then when he was set outside [to die], Pharaoh's daughter rescued him and claimed him for herself, and cared for him as her own son.

²²So Moses was educated in all the wisdom and culture of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds.

²³But when he reached the age of forty, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

²⁴And when he saw one [of them] being treated unfairly, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking and killing the Egyptian.

²⁵He expected his countrymen to understand that God was granting them freedom through him [assuming that they would accept him], but they did not understand.

²⁶Then on the next day he suddenly appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another?'

²⁷But the man who was injuring his neighbor pushed Moses away, saying, 'Who appointed you ruler and judge over us?

²⁸Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'

²⁹At this remark Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.

³⁰"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush.

³¹When Moses saw it, he was astonished at the sight; but as he went near to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came [to him, saying]:

³²'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

³³Then the Lord said to him, 'Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground [worthy of reverence and respect].

³⁴I have most certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Now come, and I will send you to Egypt [as My messenger].'

³⁵"This Moses whom they rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' is the very one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer, with the [protecting and helping] hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.

³⁶This man led them out [of Egypt] after performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

³⁷This is the Moses who said to the children of Israel, 'God will raise up for you a Prophetlike me from your countrymen.'

³⁸This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living oracles [divine words that still live] to be handed down to you.

³⁹Our fathers were unwilling to be subject to him [and refused to listen to him]. They rejected him, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

⁴⁰They said to Aaron, 'Make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.'

⁴¹In those days they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced and celebrated over the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned away [from them] and handed them over to serve the host of heaven. As it is written and forever remains written in the book of the prophets, 'It was not [really] to Me that you offered victims and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, was it, O house of Israel?

⁴³You also took along the tabernacle (portable temple) of Moloch and the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship; and I will remove you beyond Babylon [carrying you away into exile].'

⁴⁴"Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as God directed Moses to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.

⁴⁵Our fathers also brought it in [with them into the land] with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, [and so it remained here] until the time of David,

⁴⁶who found favor (grace, spiritual blessing) in the sight of God and asked that he might [be allowed to] find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.

⁴⁸However, the Most High [the One infinitely exalted above humanity] does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet [Isaiah] says,

⁴⁹'Heaven is My throne, And the earth is the footstool for My feet; What kind of house will you build for Me?' says the Lord, 'Or what place is there for My rest?

⁵⁰'Was it not My hand that made all these things?'

⁵¹"You stiff-necked and stubborn people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did.

⁵²Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;

⁵³you who received the law as ordained and delivered to you by angels, and yet you did not obey it!"

⁵⁴Now when they heard this [accusation and understood its implication], they were cut to the heart, and they began grinding their teeth [in rage] at him.

⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit and led by Him, gazed into heaven and saw the glory [the great splendor and majesty] of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;

⁵⁶and he said, "Look! I see the heavens opened up [in welcome] and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

⁵⁷But they shouted with loud voices, and covered their ears and together rushed at him [considering him guilty of blasphemy].

⁵⁸Then they drove him out of the city and began stoning him; and the witnesses placed their outer robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹They continued stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, receive and accept and welcome my spirit!"

⁶⁰Then falling on his knees [in worship], he cried out loudly, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them [do not charge them]!" When he had said this, he fell asleep [in death].