Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely.

²And there in front of Him was a man suffering from edema.

³And Jesus responded and said to the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

⁴But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away.

⁵And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”

⁶And they could offer no reply to this.

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

⁸“Whenever you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do nottake the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,

⁹and the one who invited youboth will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then in disgrace you will proceed to occupy the last place.

¹⁰But whenever you are invited, go andtake the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who aredining at the table with you.

¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²Now He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “Whenever you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor wealthy neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you to a meal in return, and that will be yourrepayment.

¹³But whenever you give abanquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, and people who are blind;

¹⁴and you will be blessed, since theydo not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵Now when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

¹⁶But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many;

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

¹⁸And yet they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I purchased a field and I need to go out to look at it;please consider me excused.’

¹⁹And another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out;please consider me excused.’

²⁰And another one said, ‘I took a woman as my wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’

²¹And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here those who are poor, those with disabilities, those who are blind, and those who are limping.’

²²And later the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’

²³And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and the hedges and press upon them to come in, so that my house will be filled.

²⁴For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my dinner.’ ”

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

²⁶“If anyone comes to Me and does nothate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

²⁷Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

²⁸For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?

²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who are watching it will begin to ridicule him,

³⁰saying, ‘This person 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 face the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

³²Otherwise, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and requests terms of peace.

³³So then, none of you can be My disciple who does notgive up all his own possessions.

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

³⁵It is useless either for the soil or the manure pile, so it is thrown out. The one who has ears to hear,let him hear.”

¹Then Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the sons of Israel, saying, “This is the word which the LORD has commanded:

²If a man makes a vow to the LORD, or takes an oath to put himself under a binding obligation, he shall not break his word; he shall act in accordance with everything that comes out of his mouth.

³“And if a woman makes a vow to the LORD, and puts herself under a binding obligation in her father’s house in her youth,

⁴and her father hears her vow and her obligation under which she has put herself, and her father says nothing to her, then all her vows shall remain valid and every binding obligation under which she has put herself shall remain valid.

⁵But if her father expresses disapproval to her on the day he hears of it, none of her vows or her obligations under which she has put herself shall remain valid; and the LORD will forgive her because her father has expressed disapproval to her.

⁶“However, if she happens to marry while under her vows or the impulsive statement of her lips by which she has obligated herself,

⁷and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on the day he hears it, then her vows shall remain valid and her binding obligations under which she has put herself shall remain valid.

⁸But if on the day her husband hears of it, he expresses disapproval to her, then he will annul her vow which she is under and the impulsive statement of her lips by which she has obligated herself; and the LORD will forgive her.

⁹“But as for the vow of a widow or of a divorced woman, every binding obligation under which she has put herself, shall remain valid against her.

¹⁰However, if a married woman vowed in her husband’s house, or put herself under a binding obligation with an oath,

¹¹and her husband heard it, but said nothing to her and did not express disapproval to her, then all her vows shall remain valid and every binding obligation under which she put herself shall remain valid.

¹²But if her husband actually annuls them on the day he hears them, then no utterance from her lips concerning her vows or the obligation she put on herself shall remain valid; 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 in fact says nothing to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all her binding obligations which are on her; he has confirmed them, because he said nothing to her on the day he heard them.

¹⁵However, if he actually annuls them after he has heard them, then he shall bear the responsibility for her guilt.”

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

¹Therefore, we must fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

²For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also did; but the word they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united with those who listened with faith.

³For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “AS I SWORE IN MY ANGER, THEY CERTAINLY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

⁴For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”;

⁵and again in this passage, “THEY CERTAINLY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.”

⁶Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who previously had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience,

⁷He again sets a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”

⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.

⁹Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

¹⁰For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

¹¹Therefore let’s make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience.

¹²For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹³And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we must answer.

¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession.

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin.

¹⁶Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.

¹But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

²For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

³unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

⁴treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

⁵holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.

⁶For among them are those who slip into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,

⁷always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, worthless in regard to the faith.

⁹But they will not make further progress; for their foolishness will be obvious to all, just as was that also of Jannes and Jambres.

¹⁰Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance,

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

¹²Indeed, all who want to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

¹³But evil people and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

¹⁴You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,

¹⁵and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness;

¹⁷so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.

¹Then Job responded,

²“Even today my complaint is rebellion; His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

³Oh that I knew how to find Him, That I might come to His home!

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

⁵I would learn the words which He would answer, And perceive what He would tell me.

⁶Would He contend with me by the greatness of His power? No, surely He would pay attention to me.

⁷There the upright would argue with Him; And I would be free of my Judge forever.

⁸“Behold, I go forward but He is not there, And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;

⁹When He acts on the left, I cannot see Him; He turns to the right, but I cannot see Him.

¹⁰But He knows the way I take; When He has put me to the test, I will come out as gold.

¹¹My foot has held on to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside.

¹²I have not failed the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

¹³But He is unique, and who can make Him turn? Whatever His soul desires, He does it.

¹⁴For He carries out what is destined for me, And many such destinies are with Him.

¹⁵Therefore, I would be terrified at His presence; When I consider this, I am frightened of Him.

¹⁶It is God who has made my heart faint, And the Almighty who has terrified me,

¹⁷But I am not destroyed by darkness, Nor by deep gloom which covers me.

¹Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant and praise is beautiful.

²The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel.

³He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

⁴He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.

⁵Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.

⁶The LORD supports the afflicted; He brings the wicked down to the ground.

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

⁸It is He who covers the heavens with clouds, Who provides rain for the earth, Who makes grass sprout on the mountains.

⁹It is He who gives an animal its food, And feeds young ravens that cry.

¹⁰He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man.

¹¹The LORD favors those who fear Him, Those who wait for His faithfulness.

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

¹³For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your sons among 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 showers snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes.

¹⁷He hurls His ice as fragments; Who can stand before His cold?

¹⁸He sends His word and makes them melt; He makes His wind blow, and the waters flow.

¹⁹He declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel.

²⁰He has not dealt this way with any other nation; And as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise the LORD!

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

²And put a knife to your throat If you are a person of great appetite.

³Do not desire his delicacies, For it is deceptive food.

⁴Do not weary yourself to gain wealth; Stop dwelling on it.

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

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

⁷For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.

⁸You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten And waste your compliments.

⁹Do not speak to be heard by a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not move the ancient boundary Or go into the fields of the fatherless,

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

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

¹³Do not withhold discipline from a child; Though you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴You shall strike him with the rod And rescue his soul from Sheol.

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

¹⁶And my innermost being will rejoice When your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the LORD always.

¹⁸Certainly there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off.

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

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

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

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

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

²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.

²⁶Give me your heart, my son, And let your eyes delight in my ways.

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

²⁸Certainly she lurks as a robber, And increases the treacherous among mankind.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has red eyes?

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 cup, When it goes down smoothly;

³²In the end it bites like a snake And stings like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will say perverse things.

³⁴And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.

³⁵“They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When will I awake? I will seek another drink.”

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

²He did evil in the sight of the LORD, in accordance with the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

³For he rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, just as Ahab king of Israel had done, and he worshiped all the heavenly lights and served them.

⁴And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My name.”

⁵He built altars for all the heavenly lights in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD.

⁶And he made his son pass through the fire, interpreted signs, practiced divination, and used mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.

⁷Then he put the carved image of Asherah that he had made in the house of which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.

⁸And I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will take care 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 encouraged them to do evil, more than the nations whom the LORD eliminated from the presence of the sons of Israel.

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

¹¹“Since Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations, having done more evil than all that the Amorites did who were before him, and has also misled Judah into sin with his idols,

¹²therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘Behold, I am bringing such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears about it, both of his ears will ring.

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

¹⁴And I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and hand them over to their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoils 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, even to this day.’ ”

¹⁶Furthermore, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin into which he misled Judah, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD.

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

¹⁸And Manasseh lay down with his fathers 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 for two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

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

²¹For he walked entirely in the way that his father had walked, and served the idols that his father had served, and worshiped them.

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

²³And the servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house.

²⁴Then the people of the land 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 grave in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.

¹Now the word of the LORD came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, saying,

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

³Present a parable to the rebellious house and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “Put on the pot, put it on and also pour water into it;

⁴Put in it the pieces of meat, Every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder; Fill it with choice bones.

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

⁶‘Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: “Woe 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 after piece, Without making a choice.

⁷For her blood is in her midst; She placed it on the bare rock; She did not pour it on the ground To cover it with dust.

⁸So that it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have put her blood on the bare rock, So that it will not be covered.”

⁹Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: “Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the wood pile great.

¹⁰Heap on the wood, kindle the fire, Cook the meat thoroughly And mix in the spices, And let the bones be burned up.

¹¹Then set it empty on its burning coals So that it may be hot And its bronze may glow, And its filthiness may be melted in it, Its rust eliminated.

¹²She has wearied Me with work, Yet her great rust has not gone from her; Let her rust be in the fire!

¹³In your filthiness is outrageous sin. Because I would have cleansed you, Yet you are not clean, You will not be cleansed from your filthiness again Until I have expended My wrath on you.

¹⁴I, the LORD, have spoken; it is coming and I will act. I will not overlook, I will not pity, and I will not be sorry; according to your ways and according to your deeds I will judge you,” declares the Lord GOD.’ ”

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

¹⁶“Son of man, behold, I am about to take from you what is precious to your eyes with a fatal blow; but you shall not mourn and you shall not weep, and your tears shall not come.

¹⁷Groan silently; do no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban and put your sandals on your feet, and do not cover your mustache, and do not eat the bread of other people.”

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

¹⁹And the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are doing?”

²⁰Then I said to them, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²¹‘Speak to the house of Israel, “This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I am about to profane My sanctuary, the pride of your power, that which is precious in your eyes and the longing of your soul; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.

²²And you will do just as I have done; you will not cover your mustache, and you will not eat the bread of other people.

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

²⁴So Ezekiel will be a sign to you; according to all that he has done, you will do. When it comes, then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.’ ”

²⁵‘As for you, son of man, will it not be on the day when I take from them their stronghold, the joy of their splendor, that which is precious in their eyes and their heart’s longing, their sons and their daughters,

²⁶that on that day the one who escapes will come to you with information for your ears?

²⁷On that day your mouth will be opened to him who escaped, and you will speak and no longer be silenced. So you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

¹Now the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

²And Stephen said, “Listen to me, brothers and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and He said to him, ‘GO FROM YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME TO THE LAND WHICH I WILL SHOW YOU.’

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

⁵But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child.

⁶But God spoke to this effect, that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE STRANGERS IN A LAND THAT WAS NOT THEIRS, AND THEY WOULD ENSLAVE AND MISTREAT them for four hundred years.

⁷‘AND WHATEVER NATION TO WHICH THEY ARE ENSLAVED I MYSELF WILL JUDGE,’ said God, ‘AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE ME IN THIS PLACE.’

⁸And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham fathered Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs.

⁹“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him,

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

¹¹“Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food.

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

¹³And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was revealed to Pharaoh.

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

¹⁵And Jacob went down to Egypt, and he and our fathers died there.

¹⁶And they were brought back from there to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷“But as the time of the promise which God had assured to Abraham was approaching, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸until ANOTHER KING AROSE OVER EGYPT WHO DID NOT KNOW JOSEPH.

¹⁹It was he who shrewdly took advantage of our nation and mistreated our fathers in order that they would abandon their infants in the Nile, so that they would not survive.

²⁰At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful to God. He was nurtured for three months in his father’s home.

²¹And after he had been put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son.

²²Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was proficient in speaking and action.

²³But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his countrymen, the sons of Israel.

²⁴And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended and took vengeance for the oppressed man by fatally striking the Egyptian.

²⁵And he thought that his brothers understood that God was granting them deliverance through him; but they did not understand.

²⁶And on the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting each other, and he tried to reconcile them to peace, by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why are you injuring each other?’

²⁷But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND JUDGE OVER US?

²⁸YOU DO NOT INTEND TO KILL ME AS YOU KILLED THE EGYPTIAN YESTERDAY, DO YOU?’

²⁹At this remark, MOSES FLED AND BECAME A STRANGER 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; and as he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came:

³²‘I AM THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS, THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND ISAAC, AND JACOB.’ Moses shook with fear and did not dare to look closely.

³³But the LORD said to him, ‘REMOVE YOUR SANDALS FROM YOUR FEET, FOR THE PLACE ON WHICH YOU ARE STANDING IS HOLY GROUND.

³⁴I HAVE CERTAINLY SEEN THE OPPRESSION OF MY PEOPLE WHO ARE IN EGYPT, AND HAVE HEARD THEIR GROANING, AND I HAVE COME DOWN TO RESCUE THEM; AND NOW COME, I WILL SEND YOU TO EGYPT.’

³⁵“This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.

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

³⁷This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR COUNTRYMEN.’

³⁸This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness together with the angel who spoke to him at length on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to you.

³⁹Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him; on the contrary they rejected him and turned back to Egypt in their hearts,

⁴⁰saying to Aaron, ‘MAKE US A GOD WHO WILL GO BEFORE US; FOR THIS MOSES WHO LED US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT—WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM.’

⁴¹At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned away and gave them over to serve the heavenly lights; as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘YOU DID NOT OFFER ME VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FOR FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, DID YOU, HOUSE OF ISRAEL?

⁴³YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF YOUR GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL DEPORT YOU BEYOND BABYLON.’

⁴⁴“Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.

⁴⁵Our fathers in turn received it, and they also brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations that God drove out from our fathers, until the time of David.

⁴⁶David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

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

⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:

⁴⁹‘HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND THE EARTH IS THE FOOTSTOOL OF MY FEET; WHAT KIND OF HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME?’ says the Lord, ‘OR WHAT PLACE IS THERE FOR MY REST?

⁵⁰WAS IT NOT MY HAND THAT MADE ALL THESE THINGS?’

⁵¹“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always 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 had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, and you have now become betrayers and murderers of Him;

⁵³you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

⁵⁴Now when they heard this, they were infuriated, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;

⁵⁶and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

⁵⁷But they shouted with loud voices, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one mind.

⁵⁸When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

⁶⁰Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.