Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.

²And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

³but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

⁴While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

⁵And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?

⁶He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,

⁷that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

⁸And they remembered his words,

⁹and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles,

¹¹but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

¹²But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

¹³That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,

¹⁴and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

¹⁵While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

¹⁶But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad.

¹⁸Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

¹⁹And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

²⁰and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.

²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

²²Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning,

²³and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.

²⁴Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

²⁵And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

²⁶ Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

²⁸So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther,

²⁹but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.

³¹And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.

³²They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

³³And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,

³⁴saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

³⁶As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”

³⁷But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

³⁸And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

³⁹See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

⁴¹And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”

⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish,

⁴³and he took it and ate before them.

⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

⁴⁶and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,

⁴⁷and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things.

⁴⁹And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

⁵⁰And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.

⁵¹While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

⁵²And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

⁵³and were continually in the temple blessing God.

¹“And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

²You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.

³Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor.

⁴But you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive today.

⁵See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

⁶Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

⁷For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?

⁸And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

⁹“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children —

¹⁰how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’

¹¹And you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud, and gloom.

¹²Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

¹³And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone.

¹⁴And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.

¹⁵“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

¹⁶beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

¹⁷the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,

¹⁸the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.

¹⁹And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

²⁰But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.

²¹Furthermore, the LORD was angry with me because of you, and he swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

²²For I must die in this land; I must not go over the Jordan. But you shall go over and take possession of that good land.

²³Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you.

²⁴For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

²⁵“When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger,

²⁶I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

²⁷And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.

²⁸And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

²⁹But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

³⁰When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice.

³¹For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

³²“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.

³³Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?

³⁴Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁵To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.

³⁶Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you. And on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

³⁷And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,

³⁸driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day,

³⁹know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

⁴⁰Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.”

⁴¹Then Moses set apart three cities in the east beyond the Jordan,

⁴²that the manslayer might flee there, anyone who kills his neighbor unintentionally, without being at enmity with him in time past; he may flee to one of these cities and save his life:

⁴³Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland for the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.

⁴⁴This is the law that Moses set before the people of Israel.

⁴⁵These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the rules, which Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt,

⁴⁶beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the people of Israel defeated when they came out of Egypt.

⁴⁷And they took possession of his land and the land of Og, the king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who lived to the east beyond the Jordan;

⁴⁸from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, as far as Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon),

⁴⁹together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

¹Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

²which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

³concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh

⁴and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

⁵through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

⁶including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

⁷To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.

⁹For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you

¹⁰always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.

¹¹For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you —

¹²that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

¹³I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

¹⁴I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

¹⁵So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

¹⁷For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

¹⁹For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

²⁰For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

²¹For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

²⁵because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

²⁶For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

²⁷and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

²⁹They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,

³⁰slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

³²Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

¹Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.

²Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.

³Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.

⁴Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.

⁵You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

⁶You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.

⁷Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.

⁸You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

⁹Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.

¹⁰As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

¹¹Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

¹²But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

¹³Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.

¹⁴Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

¹⁵And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

¹⁶Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

¹⁷Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

¹⁸Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

¹⁹My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,

²⁰let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

¹“But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words.

²Behold, I open my mouth; the tongue in my mouth speaks.

³My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know they speak sincerely.

⁴The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

⁵Answer me, if you can; set your words in order before me; take your stand.

⁶Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.

⁷Behold, no fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy upon you.

⁸“Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words.

⁹You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.

¹⁰Behold, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy,

¹¹he puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths.’

¹²“Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.

¹³Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of man's words’?

¹⁴For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.

¹⁵In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds,

¹⁶then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings,

¹⁷that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man;

¹⁸he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.

¹⁹“Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones,

²⁰so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite the choicest food.

²¹His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out.

²²His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death.

²³If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him,

²⁴and he is merciful to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom;

²⁵let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;

²⁶then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness.

²⁷He sings before men and says: ‘I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me.

²⁸He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.’

²⁹“Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man,

³⁰to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life.

³¹Pay attention, O Job, listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.

³²If you have any words, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you.

³³If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”

¹O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,

²lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.

³O LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands,

⁴if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause,

⁵let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah

⁶Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.

⁷Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high.

⁸The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.

⁹Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous — you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!

¹⁰My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

¹¹God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.

¹²If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow;

¹³he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.

¹⁴Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.

¹⁵He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.

¹⁶His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

¹⁷I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.

¹My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,

²making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;

³yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

⁴if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,

⁵then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

⁷he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

⁸guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;

¹⁰for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

¹¹discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you,

¹²delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹⁴who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,

¹⁵men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.

¹⁶So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,

¹⁷who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;

¹⁸for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed;

¹⁹none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

²⁰So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it,

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

¹The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

²The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.

³The children of Amram: Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. The sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

⁴Eleazar fathered Phinehas, Phinehas fathered Abishua,

⁵Abishua fathered Bukki, Bukki fathered Uzzi,

⁶Uzzi fathered Zerahiah, Zerahiah fathered Meraioth,

⁷Meraioth fathered Amariah, Amariah fathered Ahitub,

⁸Ahitub fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Ahimaaz,

⁹Ahimaaz fathered Azariah, Azariah fathered Johanan,

¹⁰and Johanan fathered Azariah (it was he who served as priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem).

¹¹Azariah fathered Amariah, Amariah fathered Ahitub,

¹²Ahitub fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Shallum,

¹³Shallum fathered Hilkiah, Hilkiah fathered Azariah,

¹⁴Azariah fathered Seraiah, Seraiah fathered Jehozadak;

¹⁵and Jehozadak went into exile when the LORD sent Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

¹⁶The sons of Levi: Gershom, Kohath, and Merari.

¹⁷And these are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni and Shimei.

¹⁸The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel.

¹⁹The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their fathers.

²⁰Of Gershom: Libni his son, Jahath his son, Zimmah his son,

²¹Joah his son, Iddo his son, Zerah his son, Jeatherai his son.

²²The sons of Kohath: Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son,

²³Elkanah his son, Ebiasaph his son, Assir his son,

²⁴Tahath his son, Uriel his son, Uzziah his son, and Shaul his son.

²⁵The sons of Elkanah: Amasai and Ahimoth,

²⁶Elkanah his son, Zophai his son, Nahath his son,

²⁷Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, Elkanah his son.

²⁸The sons of Samuel: Joel his firstborn, the second Abijah.

²⁹The sons of Merari: Mahli, Libni his son, Shimei his son, Uzzah his son,

³⁰Shimea his son, Haggiah his son, and Asaiah his son.

³¹These are the men whom David put in charge of the service of song in the house of the LORD after the ark rested there.

³²They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting until Solomon built the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they performed their service according to their order.

³³These are the men who served and their sons. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman the singer the son of Joel, son of Samuel,

³⁴son of Elkanah, son of Jeroham, son of Eliel, son of Toah,

³⁵son of Zuph, son of Elkanah, son of Mahath, son of Amasai,

³⁶son of Elkanah, son of Joel, son of Azariah, son of Zephaniah,

³⁷son of Tahath, son of Assir, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah,

³⁸son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, son of Israel;

³⁹and his brother Asaph, who stood on his right hand, namely, Asaph the son of Berechiah, son of Shimea,

⁴⁰son of Michael, son of Baaseiah, son of Malchijah,

⁴¹son of Ethni, son of Zerah, son of Adaiah,

⁴²son of Ethan, son of Zimmah, son of Shimei,

⁴³son of Jahath, son of Gershom, son of Levi.

⁴⁴On the left hand were their brothers, the sons of Merari: Ethan the son of Kishi, son of Abdi, son of Malluch,

⁴⁵son of Hashabiah, son of Amaziah, son of Hilkiah,

⁴⁶son of Amzi, son of Bani, son of Shemer,

⁴⁷son of Mahli, son of Mushi, son of Merari, son of Levi.

⁴⁸And their brothers the Levites were appointed for all the service of the tabernacle of the house of God.

⁴⁹But Aaron and his sons made offerings on the altar of burnt offering and on the altar of incense for all the work of the Most Holy Place, and to make atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.

⁵⁰These are the sons of Aaron: Eleazar his son, Phinehas his son, Abishua his son,

⁵¹Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahiah his son,

⁵²Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son,

⁵³Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son.

⁵⁴These are their dwelling places according to their settlements within their borders: to the sons of Aaron of the clans of Kohathites, for theirs was the first lot,

⁵⁵to them they gave Hebron in the land of Judah and its surrounding pasturelands,

⁵⁶but the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

⁵⁷To the sons of Aaron they gave the cities of refuge: Hebron, Libnah with its pasturelands, Jattir, Eshtemoa with its pasturelands,

⁵⁸Hilen with its pasturelands, Debir with its pasturelands,

⁵⁹Ashan with its pasturelands, and Beth-shemesh with its pasturelands;

⁶⁰and from the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon, Geba with its pasturelands, Alemeth with its pasturelands, and Anathoth with its pasturelands. All their cities throughout their clans were thirteen.

⁶¹To the rest of the Kohathites were given by lot out of the clan of the tribe, out of the half-tribe, the half of Manasseh, ten cities.

⁶²To the Gershomites according to their clans were allotted thirteen cities out of the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali and Manasseh in Bashan.

⁶³To the Merarites according to their clans were allotted twelve cities out of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun.

⁶⁴So the people of Israel gave the Levites the cities with their pasturelands.

⁶⁵They gave by lot out of the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin these cities that are mentioned by name.

⁶⁶And some of the clans of the sons of Kohath had cities of their territory out of the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁷They were given the cities of refuge: Shechem with its pasturelands in the hill country of Ephraim, Gezer with its pasturelands,

⁶⁸Jokmeam with its pasturelands, Beth-horon with its pasturelands,

⁶⁹Aijalon with its pasturelands, Gath-rimmon with its pasturelands,

⁷⁰and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Aner with its pasturelands, and Bileam with its pasturelands, for the rest of the clans of the Kohathites.

⁷¹To the Gershomites were given out of the clan of the half-tribe of Manasseh: Golan in Bashan with its pasturelands and Ashtaroth with its pasturelands;

⁷²and out of the tribe of Issachar: Kedesh with its pasturelands, Daberath with its pasturelands,

⁷³Ramoth with its pasturelands, and Anem with its pasturelands;

⁷⁴out of the tribe of Asher: Mashal with its pasturelands, Abdon with its pasturelands,

⁷⁵Hukok with its pasturelands, and Rehob with its pasturelands;

⁷⁶and out of the tribe of Naphtali: Kedesh in Galilee with its pasturelands, Hammon with its pasturelands, and Kiriathaim with its pasturelands.

⁷⁷To the rest of the Merarites were allotted out of the tribe of Zebulun: Rimmono with its pasturelands, Tabor with its pasturelands,

⁷⁸and beyond the Jordan at Jericho, on the east side of the Jordan, out of the tribe of Reuben: Bezer in the wilderness with its pasturelands, Jahzah with its pasturelands,

⁷⁹Kedemoth with its pasturelands, and Mephaath with its pasturelands;

⁸⁰and out of the tribe of Gad: Ramoth in Gilead with its pasturelands, Mahanaim with its pasturelands,

⁸¹Heshbon with its pasturelands, and Jazer with its pasturelands.

¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?

³You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep.

⁴The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.

⁵So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered;

⁶they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

⁷“Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

⁸As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep,

⁹therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:

¹⁰Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

¹¹“For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

¹²As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

¹³And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

¹⁴I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁶I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

¹⁷“As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats.

¹⁸Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet?

¹⁹And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

²⁰“Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

²¹Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad,

²²I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep.

²³And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.

²⁴And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.

²⁵“I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.

²⁶And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing.

²⁷And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them.

²⁸They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid.

²⁹And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations.

³⁰And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD.

³¹And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

⁴And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

⁶And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

⁷and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

⁸And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

⁹And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

¹²Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

¹⁴Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.

¹⁵Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

¹⁸Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities” — because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

²⁰For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.”

²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

²²So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

²³For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

²⁶And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

²⁷that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

²⁸for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

²⁹Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

³⁰The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

³³So Paul went out from their midst.

³⁴But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.