Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹On a Sabbath, he passed through the grainfields. His disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.

²But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

³Jesus answered them, “Haven’t you read what David and those who were with him did when he was hungry — 

⁴how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat? He even gave some to those who were with him.”

⁵Then he told them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

⁶On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was shriveled.

⁷The scribes and Pharisees were watching him closely, to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against him.

⁸But he knew their thoughts and told the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand here.” So he got up and stood there.

⁹Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

¹⁰After looking around at them all, he told him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his hand was restored.

¹¹They, however, were filled with rage and started discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus.

¹²During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God.

¹³When daylight came, he summoned his disciples, and he chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:

¹⁴Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew;

¹⁵Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot;

¹⁶Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

¹⁷After coming down with them, he stood on a level place with a large crowd of his disciples and a great number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon.

¹⁸They came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those tormented by unclean spirits were made well.

¹⁹The whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power was coming out from him and healing them all.

²⁰Then looking up at his disciples, he said: Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours.

²¹Blessed are you who are now hungry, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh.

²²Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

²³“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Take note — your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets.

²⁴But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort.

²⁵Woe to you who are now full, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are now laughing, for you will mourn and weep.

²⁶Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets.

²⁷“But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you,

²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

²⁹If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also. And if anyone takes away your coat, don’t hold back your shirt either.

³⁰Give to everyone who asks you, and from someone who takes your things, don’t ask for them back.

³¹Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.

³²If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.

³³If you do what is good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.

³⁴And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to be repaid in full.

³⁵But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High. For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil.

³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

³⁷“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

³⁸Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure — pressed down, shaken together, and running over — will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

³⁹He also told them a parable: “Can the blind guide the blind? Won’t they both fall into a pit?

⁴⁰A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

⁴¹“Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?

⁴²Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the beam of wood in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the splinter in your brother’s eye.

⁴³“A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit; on the other hand, a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit.

⁴⁴For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren’t gathered from thornbushes, or grapes picked from a bramble bush.

⁴⁵A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.

⁴⁶“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?

⁴⁷I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them:

⁴⁸He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it, because it was well built.

⁴⁹But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river crashed against it, and immediately it collapsed. And the destruction of that house was great.”

¹At the end of two years Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing beside the Nile,

²when seven healthy-looking, well-fed cows came up from the Nile and began to graze among the reeds.

³After them, seven other cows, sickly and thin, came up from the Nile and stood beside those cows along the bank of the Nile.

⁴The sickly, thin cows ate the healthy, well-fed cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.

⁵He fell asleep and dreamed a second time: Seven heads of grain, plump and good, came up on one stalk.

⁶After them, seven heads of grain, thin and scorched by the east wind, sprouted up.

⁷The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven plump, full ones. Then Pharaoh woke up, and it was only a dream.

⁸When morning came, he was troubled, so he summoned all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.

⁹Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I remember my faults.

¹⁰Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and he put me and the chief baker in the custody of the captain of the guards.

¹¹He and I had dreams on the same night; each dream had its own meaning.

¹²Now a young Hebrew, a slave of the captain of the guards, was with us there. We told him our dreams, he interpreted our dreams for us, and each had its own interpretation.

¹³It turned out just the way he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was hanged.”

¹⁴Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they quickly brought him from the dungeon. He shaved, changed his clothes, and went to Pharaoh.

¹⁵Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said about you that you can hear a dream and interpret it.”

¹⁶“I am not able to,” Joseph answered Pharaoh. “It is God who will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”

¹⁷So Pharaoh said to Joseph: “In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile,

¹⁸when seven well-fed, healthy-looking cows came up from the Nile and grazed among the reeds.

¹⁹After them, seven other cows — weak, very sickly, and thin — came up. I’ve never seen such sickly ones as these in all the land of Egypt.

²⁰Then the thin, sickly cows ate the first seven well-fed cows.

²¹When they had devoured them, you could not tell that they had devoured them; their appearance was as bad as it had been before. Then I woke up.

²²In my dream I also saw seven heads of grain, full and good, coming up on one stalk.

²³After them, seven heads of grain — withered, thin, and scorched by the east wind — sprouted up.

²⁴The thin heads of grain swallowed the seven good ones. I told this to the magicians, but no one can tell me what it means.”

²⁵Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s dreams mean the same thing. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

²⁶The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years. The dreams mean the same thing.

²⁷The seven thin, sickly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven worthless, scorched heads of grain are seven years of famine.

²⁸“It is just as I told Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.

²⁹Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt.

³⁰After them, seven years of famine will take place, and all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten. The famine will devastate the land.

³¹The abundance in the land will not be remembered because of the famine that follows it, for the famine will be very severe.

³²Since the dream was given twice to Pharaoh, it means that the matter has been determined by God, and he will carry it out soon.

³³“So now, let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt.

³⁴Let Pharaoh do this: Let him appoint overseers over the land and take a fifth of the harvest of the land of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.

³⁵Let them gather all the excess food during these good years that are coming. Under Pharaoh’s authority, store the grain in the cities, so they may preserve it as food.

³⁶The food will be a reserve for the land during the seven years of famine that will take place in the land of Egypt. Then the country will not be wiped out by the famine.”

³⁷The proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants,

³⁸and he said to them, “Can we find anyone like this, a man who has God’s spirit in him?”

³⁹So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one as discerning and wise as you are.

⁴⁰You will be over my house, and all my people will obey your commands. Only I, as king, will be greater than you.”

⁴¹Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “See, I am placing you over all the land of Egypt.”

⁴²Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, clothed him with fine linen garments, and placed a gold chain around his neck.

⁴³He had Joseph ride in his second chariot, and servants called out before him, “Make way!” So he placed him over all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁴Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh and no one will be able to raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt without your permission.”

⁴⁵Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-paneah and gave him a wife, Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest at On. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt.

⁴⁶Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph left Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout the land of Egypt.

⁴⁷During the seven years of abundance the land produced outstanding harvests.

⁴⁸Joseph gathered all the excess food in the land of Egypt during the seven years and put it in the cities. He put the food in every city from the fields around it.

⁴⁹So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance — like the sand of the sea — that he stopped measuring it because it was beyond measure.

⁵⁰Two sons were born to Joseph before the years of famine arrived. Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest at On, bore them to him.

⁵¹Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh and said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and my whole family.”

⁵²And the second son he named Ephraim and said, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

⁵³Then the seven years of abundance in the land of Egypt came to an end,

⁵⁴and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every land, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food.

⁵⁵When the whole land of Egypt was stricken with famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh told all Egypt, “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.”

⁵⁶Now the famine had spread across the whole region, so Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

⁵⁷Every land came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, for the famine was severe in every land.

¹For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, met Abraham and blessed him as he returned from defeating the kings,

²and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means king of righteousness, then also, king of Salem, meaning king of peace.

³Without father, mother, or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.

⁴Now consider how great this man was: even Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the plunder to him.

⁵The sons of Levi who receive the priestly office have a command according to the law to collect a tenth from the people  — that is, from their brothers and sisters — though they have also descended from Abraham.

⁶But one without this lineage collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises.

⁷Without a doubt, the inferior is blessed by the superior.

⁸In the one case, men who will die receive a tenth, but in the other case, Scripture testifies that he lives.

⁹And in a sense Levi himself, who receives a tenth, has paid a tenth through Abraham,

¹⁰for he was still within his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

¹¹Now if perfection came through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the law ), what further need was there for another priest to appear, said to be according to the order of Melchizedek and not according to the order of Aaron?

¹²For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must be a change of law as well.

¹³For the one these things are spoken about belonged to a different tribe. No one from it has served at the altar.

¹⁴Now it is evident that our Lord came from Judah, and Moses said nothing about that tribe concerning priests.

¹⁵And this becomes clearer if another priest like Melchizedek appears,

¹⁶who did not become a priest based on a legal regulation about physical descent but based on the power of an indestructible life.

¹⁷For it has been testified: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

¹⁸So the previous command is annulled because it was weak and unprofitable

¹⁹(for the law perfected nothing), but a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

²⁰None of this happened without an oath. For others became priests without an oath,

²¹but he became a priest with an oath made by the one who said to him: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever.”

²²Because of this oath, Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.

²³Now many have become Levitical priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office.

²⁴But because he remains forever, he holds his priesthood permanently.

²⁵Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.

²⁶For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

²⁷He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do — first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all time when he offered himself.

²⁸For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son, who has been perfected forever.

¹Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

²May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

⁴By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge,

⁶knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness,

⁷godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.

¹⁰Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.

¹¹For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

¹²Therefore I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have.

¹³I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder,

¹⁴since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me.

¹⁵And I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure.

¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

¹⁷For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!”

¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

²⁰Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation,

²¹because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

¹Then Job replied to the LORD:

²I know that you can do anything and no plan of yours can be thwarted.

³You asked, “Who is this who conceals my counsel with ignorance?” Surely I spoke about things I did not understand, things too wondrous for me to know.

⁴You said, “Listen now, and I will speak. When I question you, you will inform me.”

⁵I had heard reports about you, but now my eyes have seen you.

⁶Therefore, I reject my words and am sorry for them; I am dust and ashes.

⁷After the LORD had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.

⁸Now take seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. Then my servant Job will pray for you. I will surely accept his prayer and not deal with you as your folly deserves. For you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.”

⁹Then Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.

¹⁰After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and doubled his previous possessions.

¹¹All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to him and dined with him in his house. They sympathized with him and comforted him concerning all the adversity the LORD had brought on him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold earring.

¹²So the LORD blessed the last part of Job’s life more than the first. He owned fourteen thousand sheep and goats, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys.

¹³He also had seven sons and three daughters.

¹⁴He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch.

¹⁵No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance with their brothers.

¹⁶Job lived 140 years after this and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.

¹⁷Then Job died, old and full of days.

¹A of Asaph. [1] My people, hear my instruction; listen to the words from my mouth.

²I will declare wise sayings; I will speak mysteries from the past  —

³things we have heard and known and that our fathers have passed down to us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, but will tell a future generation the praiseworthy acts of the LORD, his might, and the wondrous works he has performed.

⁵He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children

⁶so that a future generation — children yet to be born — might know. They were to rise and tell their children

⁷so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God’s works, but keep his commands.

⁸Then they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not loyal and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹The Ephraimite archers turned back on the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law.

¹¹They forgot what he had done, the wondrous works he had shown them.

¹²He worked wonders in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, the territory of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea and brought them across; the water stood firm like a wall.

¹⁴He led them with a cloud by day and with a fiery light throughout the night.

¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.

¹⁶He brought streams out of the stone and made water flow down like rivers.

¹⁷But they continued to sin against him, rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

¹⁸They deliberately tested God, demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying, “Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?

²⁰Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out; torrents overflowed. But can he also provide bread or furnish meat for his people?”

²¹Therefore, the LORD heard and became furious; then fire broke out against Jacob, and anger flared up against Israel

²²because they did not believe God or rely on his salvation.

²³He gave a command to the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴He rained manna for them to eat; he gave them grain from heaven.

²⁵People ate the bread of angels. He sent them an abundant supply of food.

²⁶He made the east wind blow in the skies and drove the south wind by his might.

²⁷He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the seas.

²⁸He made them fall in the camp, all around the tents.

²⁹The people ate and were completely satisfied, for he gave them what they craved.

³⁰Before they had turned from what they craved, while the food was still in their mouths,

³¹God’s anger flared up against them, and he killed some of their best men. He struck down Israel’s fit young men.

³²Despite all this, they kept sinning and did not believe his wondrous works.

³³He made their days end in futility, their years in sudden disaster.

³⁴When he killed some of them, the rest began to seek him; they repented and searched for God.

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their Redeemer.

³⁶But they deceived him with their mouths, they lied to him with their tongues,

³⁷their hearts were insincere toward him, and they were unfaithful to his covenant.

³⁸Yet he was compassionate; he atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often turned his anger aside and did not unleash all his wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were only flesh, a wind that passes and does not return.

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert.

⁴¹They constantly tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his power shown on the day he redeemed them from the foe,

⁴³when he performed his miraculous signs in Egypt and his wonders in the territory of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their rivers into blood, and they could not drink from their streams.

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which fed on them, and frogs, which devastated them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the caterpillar and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hail and their sycamore fig trees with a flood.

⁴⁸He handed over their livestock to hail and their cattle to lightning bolts.

⁴⁹He sent his burning anger against them: fury, indignation, and calamity — a band of deadly messengers.

⁵⁰He cleared a path for his anger. He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

⁵¹He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first progeny of the tents of Ham.

⁵²He led his people out like sheep and guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

⁵³He led them safely, and they were not afraid; but the sea covered their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to his holy territory, to the mountain his right hand acquired.

⁵⁵He drove out nations before them. He apportioned their inheritance by lot and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶But they rebelliously tested the Most High God, for they did not keep his decrees.

⁵⁷They treacherously turned away like their fathers; they became warped like a faulty bow.

⁵⁸They enraged him with their high places and provoked his jealousy with their carved images.

⁵⁹God heard and became furious; he completely rejected Israel.

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he resided among mankind.

⁶¹He gave up his strength to captivity and his splendor to the hand of a foe.

⁶²He surrendered his people to the sword because he was enraged with his heritage.

⁶³Fire consumed his chosen young men, and his young women had no wedding songs.

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword, and the widows could not lament.

⁶⁵The Lord awoke as if from sleep, like a warrior from the effects of wine.

⁶⁶He beat back his foes; he gave them lasting disgrace.

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁸He chose instead the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever.

⁷⁰He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens;

⁷¹he brought him from tending ewes to be shepherd over his people Jacob — over Israel, his inheritance.

⁷²He shepherded them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands.

¹Dishonest scales are detestable to the LORD, but an accurate weight is his delight.

²When arrogance comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom.

³The integrity of the upright guides them, but the perversity of the treacherous destroys them.

⁴Wealth is not profitable on a day of wrath, but righteousness rescues from death.

⁵The righteousness of the blameless clears his path, but the wicked person will fall because of his wickedness.

⁶The righteousness of the upright rescues them, but the treacherous are trapped by their own desires.

⁷When the wicked person dies, his expectation comes to nothing, and hope placed in wealth vanishes.

⁸The righteous one is rescued from trouble; in his place, the wicked one goes in.

⁹With his mouth the ungodly destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous are rescued.

¹⁰When the righteous thrive, a city rejoices; when the wicked die, there is joyful shouting.

¹¹A city is built up by the blessing of the upright, but it is torn down by the mouth of the wicked.

¹²Whoever shows contempt for his neighbor lacks sense, but a person with understanding keeps silent.

¹³A gossip goes around revealing a secret, but a trustworthy person keeps a confidence.

¹⁴Without guidance, a people will fall, but with many counselors there is deliverance.

¹⁵If someone puts up security for a stranger, he will suffer for it, but the one who hates such agreements is protected.

¹⁶A gracious woman gains honor, but violent people gain only riches.

¹⁷A kind man benefits himself, but a cruel person brings ruin on himself.

¹⁸The wicked person earns an empty wage, but the one who sows righteousness, a true reward.

¹⁹Genuine righteousness leads to life, but pursuing evil leads to death.

²⁰Those with twisted minds are detestable to the LORD, but those with blameless conduct are his delight.

²¹Be assured that a wicked person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will escape.

²²A beautiful woman who rejects good sense is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.

²³The desire of the righteous turns out well, but the hope of the wicked leads to wrath.

²⁴One person gives freely, yet gains more; another withholds what is right, only to become poor.

²⁵A generous person will be enriched, and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water.

²⁶People will curse anyone who hoards grain, but a blessing will come to the one who sells it.

²⁷The one who searches for what is good seeks favor, but if someone looks for trouble, it will come to him.

²⁸Anyone trusting in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage.

²⁹The one who brings ruin on his household will inherit the wind, and a fool will be a slave to someone whose heart is wise.

³⁰The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and a wise person captivates people. 

³¹If the righteous will be repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and sinful.

¹During the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was set before him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had never been sad in his presence,

²so the king said to me, “Why are you sad, when you aren’t sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” I was overwhelmed with fear

³and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

⁴Then the king asked me, “What is your request?” So I prayed to the God of the heavens

⁵and answered the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, send me to Judah and to the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I may rebuild it.”

⁶The king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So I gave him a definite time, and it pleased the king to send me.

⁷I also said to the king: “If it pleases the king, let me have letters written to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates River, so that they will grant me safe passage until I reach Judah.

⁸And let me have a letter written to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so that he will give me timber to rebuild the gates of the temple’s fortress, the city wall, and the home where I will live.” The king granted my requests, for the gracious hand of my God was on me.

⁹I went to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent officers of the infantry and cavalry with me.

¹⁰When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard that someone had come to pursue the prosperity of the Israelites, they were greatly displeased.

¹¹After I arrived in Jerusalem and had been there three days,

¹²I got up at night and took a few men with me. I didn’t tell anyone what my God had laid on my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the one I was riding.

¹³I went out at night through the Valley Gate toward the Serpent’s Well and the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.

¹⁴I went on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but farther down it became too narrow for my animal to go through.

¹⁵So I went up at night by way of the valley and inspected the wall. Then heading back, I entered through the Valley Gate and returned.

¹⁶The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, for I had not yet told the Jews, priests, nobles, officials, or the rest of those who would be doing the work.

¹⁷So I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned. Come, let’s rebuild Jerusalem’s wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace.”

¹⁸I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me, and what the king had said to me. They said, “Let’s start rebuilding,” and their hands were strengthened to do this good work.

¹⁹When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked and despised us, and said, “What is this you’re doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”

²⁰I gave them this reply, “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success. We, his servants, will start building, but you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem.”

¹The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah.

²I will completely sweep away everything from the face of the earth  — this is the LORD’s declaration.

³I will sweep away people and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, and the ruins along with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth. This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁴I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the residents of Jerusalem. I will cut off every vestige of Baal from this place, the names of the pagan priests along with the priests;

⁵those who bow in worship on the rooftops to the stars in the sky; those who bow and pledge loyalty to the LORD but also pledge loyalty to Milcom;

⁶and those who turn back from following the LORD, who do not seek the LORD or inquire of him.

⁷Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD, for the day of the LORD is near. Indeed, the LORD has prepared a sacrifice; he has consecrated his guests.

⁸On the day of the LORD’s sacrifice I will punish the officials, the king’s sons, and all who are dressed in foreign clothing.

⁹On that day I will punish all who skip over the threshold, who fill their master’s house with violence and deceit.

¹⁰On that day — this is the LORD’s declaration — there will be an outcry from the Fish Gate, a wailing from the Second District, and a loud crashing from the hills.

¹¹Wail, you residents of the Hollow, for all the merchants will be silenced; all those loaded with silver will be cut off.

¹²And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who settle down comfortably, who say to themselves: The LORD will not do good or evil.

¹³Their wealth will become plunder and their houses a ruin. They will build houses but never live in them, plant vineyards but never drink their wine.

¹⁴The great day of the LORD is near, near and rapidly approaching. Listen, the day of the LORD  — then the warrior’s cry is bitter.

¹⁵That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and total darkness,

¹⁶a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities, and against the high corner towers.

¹⁷I will bring distress on mankind, and they will walk like the blind because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung.

¹⁸Their silver and their gold will be unable to rescue them on the day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a complete, yes, a horrifying end of all the inhabitants of the earth.

¹While they were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple police, and the Sadducees confronted them,

²because they were annoyed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

³So they seized them and took them into custody until the next day since it was already evening.

⁴But many of those who heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

⁵The next day, their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem

⁶with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and all the members of the high-priestly family.

⁷After they had Peter and John stand before them, they began to question them: “By what power or in what name have you done this?”

⁸Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders:

⁹If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man, by what means he was healed,

¹⁰let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead — by him this man is standing here before you healthy.

¹¹This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone.

¹²There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

¹³When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.

¹⁴And since they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

¹⁵After they ordered them to leave the Sanhedrin, they conferred among themselves,

¹⁶saying, “What should we do with these men? For an obvious sign has been done through them, clear to everyone living in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

¹⁷But so that this does not spread any further among the people, let’s threaten them against speaking to anyone in this name again.”

¹⁸So they called for them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide;

²⁰for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

²¹After threatening them further, they released them. They found no way to punish them because the people were all giving glory to God over what had been done.

²²For this sign of healing had been performed on a man over forty years old.

²³After they were released, they went to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

²⁴When they heard this, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Master, you are the one who made the heaven, the earth, and the sea, and everything in them.

²⁵You said through the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David your servant: Why do the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot futile things?

²⁶The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers assemble together against the Lord and against his Messiah.

²⁷“For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed,

²⁸to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place.

²⁹And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness,

³⁰while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God boldly.

³²Now the entire group of those who believed were of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but instead they held everything in common.

³³With great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on all of them.

³⁴For there was not a needy person among them because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold,

³⁵and laid them at the apostles’ feet. This was then distributed to each person as any had need.

³⁶Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus by birth, the one the apostles called Barnabas (which is translated Son of Encouragement),

³⁷sold a field he owned, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.