Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

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

²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

³but when they went in, they did not find the body.

⁴While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.

⁵The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.

⁶Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,

⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

⁸Then they remembered his words,

⁹and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.

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

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

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

¹³Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,

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

¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,

¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad.

¹⁸Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”

¹⁹He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over 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 took place.

²²Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning,

²³and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed 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 they did not see him.”

²⁵Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!

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

²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

²⁸As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on.

²⁹But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them.

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

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

³²They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

³³That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.

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

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

³⁶While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

³⁸He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost 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.

⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”

⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish,

⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence.

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, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”

⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,

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

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

⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.

⁴⁹And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

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

⁵¹While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.

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

⁵³and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

¹So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

²You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you.

³You have seen for yourselves what the LORD did with regard to the Baal of Peor — how the LORD your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor,

⁴while those of you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive today.

⁵See, just as the LORD my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.

⁶You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!”

⁷For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him?

⁸And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

⁹But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children —

¹⁰how you once stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, “Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so”;

¹¹you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds.

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

¹³He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two stone tablets.

¹⁴And the LORD charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy.

¹⁵Since you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely,

¹⁶so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol 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 when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven.

²⁰But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron-smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now.

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

²²For I am going to die in this land without crossing over the Jordan, but you are going to cross over to take possession of that good land.

²³So be careful not to forget the covenant that the LORD your God made with you, and not to make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you.

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

²⁵When you have had children and children’s children, and become complacent in the land, if you act corruptly by making an idol in the form of anything, thus doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, and provoking 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 crossing the Jordan to occupy; you will not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed.

²⁷The LORD will scatter you among the peoples; only a few of you will be left among the nations where the LORD will lead you.

²⁸There you will serve other gods made by human hands, objects of wood and stone that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

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

³⁰In your distress, when all these things have happened to you in time to come, you will return to the LORD your God and heed him.

³¹Because the LORD your God is a merciful God, he will neither abandon you nor destroy you; he will not forget the covenant with your ancestors that he swore to them.

³²For ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of?

³³Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived?

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

³⁵To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him.

³⁶From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire.

³⁷And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power,

³⁸driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today.

³⁹So acknowledge today and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

⁴⁰Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.

⁴¹Then Moses set apart on the east side of the Jordan three cities

⁴²to which a homicide could flee, someone who unintentionally kills another person, the two not having been at enmity before; the homicide could flee to one of these cities and live:

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

⁴⁴This is the law that Moses set before the Israelites.

⁴⁵These are the decrees and the statutes and ordinances that Moses spoke to the Israelites when they had come out of Egypt,

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

⁴⁷They occupied his land and the land of King Og of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites on the eastern side of the Jordan:

⁴⁸from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Wadi 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 Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

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

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

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

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

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

⁷To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are 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 throughout the world.

⁹For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers,

¹⁰asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you.

¹¹For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you —

¹²or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

¹³I want you to know, brothers and sisters, 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 I have among the rest of the Gentiles.

¹⁴I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish

¹⁵— hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

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

¹⁷For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”

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

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

²⁰Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse;

²¹for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.

²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools;

²³and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading 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 degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural,

²⁷and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done.

²⁹They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips,

³⁰slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents,

³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

³²They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die — yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.

¹Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you.

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

³Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days.

⁴Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, 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 pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

⁶You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

⁷Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.

⁸You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.

⁹Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors!

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

¹¹Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

¹²Above all, my beloved, 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.

¹³Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.

¹⁴Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.

¹⁵The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.

¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.

¹⁷Elijah was a human being like us, 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 the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

¹⁹My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another,

²⁰you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

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

²See, 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.

⁶See, before God I am as you are; I too was formed from a piece of clay.

⁷No fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy on you.

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

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

¹⁰Look, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy;

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

¹²“But in this you are not right. I will answer you: God is greater than any mortal.

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

¹⁴For God speaks in one way, and in two, though people do not perceive it.

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

¹⁶then he opens their ears, and terrifies them with warnings,

¹⁷that he may turn them aside from their deeds, and keep them from pride,

¹⁸to spare their souls from the Pit, their lives from traversing the River.

¹⁹They are also chastened with pain upon their beds, and with continual strife in their bones,

²⁰so that their lives loathe bread, and their appetites dainty food.

²¹Their flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen; and their bones, once invisible, now stick out.

²²Their souls draw near the Pit, and their lives to those who bring death.

²³Then, if there should be for one of them an angel, a mediator, one of a thousand, one who declares a person upright,

²⁴and he is gracious to that person, 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 he prays to God, and is accepted by him, he comes into his presence with joy, and God repays him for his righteousness.

²⁷That person sings to others and says, ‘I sinned, and perverted what was right, and it was not paid back to me.

²⁸He has redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and my life shall see the light.’

²⁹“God indeed does all these things, twice, three times, with mortals,

³⁰to bring back their souls from the Pit, so that they may see the light of life.

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

³²If you have anything to say, 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 I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,

²or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.

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

⁴if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause,

⁵then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust. Selah

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

⁷Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat on high.

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

⁹O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous, you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God.

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

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

¹²If one does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;

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

¹⁴See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.

¹⁵They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.

¹⁶Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.

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

¹My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you,

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

³if you indeed cry 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 blamelessly,

⁸guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones.

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;

¹¹prudence will watch over you; and understanding will guard you.

¹²It will save you from the way of evil, from those who speak perversely,

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;

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

¹⁶You will be saved from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,

¹⁷who forsakes the partner of her youth and forgets her sacred covenant;

¹⁸for her way leads down to death, and her paths to the shades;

¹⁹those who go to her never come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

²⁰Therefore walk in the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the just.

²¹For the upright will abide in the land, and the innocent 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: Gershom, 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 became the father of Phinehas, Phinehas of Abishua,

⁵Abishua of Bukki, Bukki of Uzzi,

⁶Uzzi of Zerahiah, Zerahiah of Meraioth,

⁷Meraioth of Amariah, Amariah of Ahitub,

⁸Ahitub of Zadok, Zadok of Ahimaaz,

⁹Ahimaaz of Azariah, Azariah of Johanan,

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

¹¹Azariah became the father of Amariah, Amariah of Ahitub,

¹²Ahitub of Zadok, Zadok of Shallum,

¹³Shallum of Hilkiah, Hilkiah of Azariah,

¹⁴Azariah of Seraiah, Seraiah of 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.

¹⁷These 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 ancestry.

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 came to rest there.

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

³³These are the men who served; and their sons were: Of the Kohathites: Heman, the singer, 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, namely, Asaph 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 were their kindred the sons of Merari: Ethan 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 kindred 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, doing all the work of the most holy place, 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 families of Kohathites — for the lot fell to them first —

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

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

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

⁵⁸Hilen with its pasture lands, Debir with its pasture lands,

⁵⁹Ashan with its pasture lands, and Beth-shemesh with its pasture lands.

⁶⁰From the tribe of Benjamin, Geba with its pasture lands, Alemeth with its pasture lands, and Anathoth with its pasture lands. All their towns throughout their families were thirteen.

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

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

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

⁶⁴So the people of Israel gave the Levites the towns with their pasture lands.

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

⁶⁶And some of the families of the sons of Kohath had towns of their territory out of the tribe of Ephraim.

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

⁶⁸Jokmeam with its pasture lands, Beth-horon with its pasture lands,

⁶⁹Aijalon with its pasture lands, Gath-rimmon with its pasture lands;

⁷⁰and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Aner with its pasture lands, and Bileam with its pasture lands, for the rest of the families of the Kohathites.

⁷¹To the Gershomites: out of the half-tribe of Manasseh: Golan in Bashan with its pasture lands and Ashtaroth with its pasture lands;

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

⁷³Ramoth with its pasture lands, and Anem with its pasture lands;

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

⁷⁵Hukok with its pasture lands, and Rehob with its pasture lands;

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

⁷⁷To the rest of the Merarites out of the tribe of Zebulun: Rimmono with its pasture lands, Tabor with its pasture lands,

⁷⁸and across the Jordan from Jericho, on the east side of the Jordan, out of the tribe of Reuben: Bezer in the steppe with its pasture lands, Jahzah with its pasture lands,

⁷⁹Kedemoth with its pasture lands, and Mephaath with its pasture lands;

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

⁸¹Heshbon with its pasture lands, and Jazer with its pasture lands.

¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them — to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, you 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 fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep.

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

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

⁶My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them.

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

⁸As I live, says the Lord GOD, because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild animals, 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, I am against the shepherds; and I will demand 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, so that they may not be food for them.

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

¹²As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

¹³I 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 watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land.

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

¹⁵I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says 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, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

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

¹⁸Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture? When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet?

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

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

²¹Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide,

²²I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

²³I 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, the LORD, have spoken.

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

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

²⁷The trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase. They shall be secure on their soil; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and save them from the hands of those who enslaved them.

²⁸They shall no more be plunder for the nations, nor shall the animals of the land devour them; they shall live in safety, and no one shall make them afraid.

²⁹I will provide for them a splendid vegetation so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the insults of the nations.

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

³¹You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture and I am your God, says the Lord GOD.

¹After Paul and Silas 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 argued with them from the scriptures,

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

⁴Some 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 became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason’s house.

⁶When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some believers before the city authorities, shouting, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also,

⁷and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.”

⁸The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this,

⁹and after they had taken bail from Jason and the others, they let them go.

¹⁰That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea; and when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.

¹²Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea as well, they came there too, to stir up and incite the crowds.

¹⁴Then the believers immediately sent Paul away to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained behind.

¹⁵Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him.

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

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

¹⁸Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)

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

²⁰It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.”

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

²²Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way.

²³For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,

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

²⁶From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,

²⁷so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though indeed he is 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 too are his offspring.’

²⁹Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.

³⁰While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

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

³²When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

³³At that point Paul left them.

³⁴But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.