Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying,

² “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son,

³and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.

⁴ Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’

⁵But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business,

⁶while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.

⁷The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.

⁹Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’

¹⁰And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.

¹²And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.

¹³Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.”

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.

¹⁶And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.

¹⁷Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

¹⁸But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?

¹⁹Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.

²⁰And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”

²¹They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

²²When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

²³The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question,

²⁴saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’

²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother.

²⁶So too the second and third, down to the seventh.

²⁷After them all, the woman died.

²⁸In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

²⁹But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.

³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

³¹And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God:

³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”

³³And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

³⁴But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

³⁵And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

³⁶“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

³⁷And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

³⁸This is the great and first commandment.

³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,

⁴²saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”

⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴ “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

⁴⁵If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

⁴⁶And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

¹After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

²He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

³So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

⁴On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

⁵Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

⁶And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.

⁷And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

⁸Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

⁹When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

¹⁰Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

¹¹But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

¹²He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

¹³And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

¹⁴So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

¹⁵And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven

¹⁶and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,

¹⁷I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,

¹⁸and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

¹⁹So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

²⁰Now after these things it was told to Abraham, “Behold, Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor:

²¹Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram,

²²Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.”

²³(Bethuel fathered Rebekah.) These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother.

²⁴Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

¹When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

²Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?

³Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!

⁴So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?

⁵I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers,

⁶but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?

⁷To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

⁸But you yourselves wrong and defraud — even your own brothers!

⁹Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

¹⁰nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

¹¹And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

¹²“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.

¹³“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food” — and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

¹⁴And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!

¹⁶Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”

¹⁷But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

¹⁹Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

²⁰for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

¹Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker

²and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers,

⁵because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,

⁶and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

⁷For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

⁸Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required,

⁹yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you — I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus —

¹⁰I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.

¹¹(Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.)

¹²I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.

¹³I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel,

¹⁴but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.

¹⁵For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever,

¹⁶no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother — especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

¹⁷So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.

¹⁸If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

¹⁹I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it — to say nothing of your owing me even your own self.

²⁰Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

²¹Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

²²At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

²³Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you,

²⁴and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

²⁵The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

²“Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

⁴Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you?

⁵Is not your evil abundant? There is no end to your iniquities.

⁶For you have exacted pledges of your brothers for nothing and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷You have given no water to the weary to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸The man with power possessed the land, and the favored man lived in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless were crushed.

¹⁰Therefore snares are all around you, and sudden terror overwhelms you,

¹¹or darkness, so that you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.

¹²“Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!

¹³But you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness?

¹⁴Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the vault of heaven.’

¹⁵Will you keep to the old way that wicked men have trod?

¹⁶They were snatched away before their time; their foundation was washed away.

¹⁷They said to God, ‘Depart from us,’ and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’

¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things — but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁹The righteous see it and are glad; the innocent one mocks at them,

²⁰saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off, and what they left the fire has consumed.’

²¹“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.

²²Receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up his words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty you will be built up; if you remove injustice far from your tents,

²⁴if you lay gold in the dust, and gold of Ophir among the stones of the torrent-bed,

²⁵then the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver.

²⁶For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.

²⁷You will make your prayer to him, and he will hear you, and you will pay your vows.

²⁸You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you, and light will shine on your ways.

²⁹For when they are humbled you say, ‘It is because of pride’; but he saves the lowly.

³⁰He delivers even the one who is not innocent, who will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.”

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

²O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

³Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

⁴In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.

⁵To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

⁶But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

⁷All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;

⁸“He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

⁹Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.

¹⁰On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God.

¹¹Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.

¹²Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me;

¹³they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.

¹⁴I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;

¹⁵my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet —

¹⁷I can count all my bones — they stare and gloat over me;

¹⁸they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

¹⁹But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!

²⁰Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!

²¹Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!

²²I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:

²³You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

²⁴For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

²⁵From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him.

²⁶The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever!

²⁷All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.

²⁸For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.

²⁹All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.

³⁰Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;

³¹they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

¹A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.

²The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the Maker of them all.

³The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

⁴The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.

⁵Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked; whoever guards his soul will keep far from them.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

⁷The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

⁸Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.

⁹Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.

¹⁰Drive out a scoffer, and strife will go out, and quarreling and abuse will cease.

¹¹He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.

¹²The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the traitor.

¹³The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!”

¹⁴The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit; he with whom the LORD is angry will fall into it.

¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

¹⁶Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.

¹⁷Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge,

¹⁸for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips.

¹⁹That your trust may be in the LORD, I have made them known to you today, even to you.

²⁰Have I not written for you thirty sayings of counsel and knowledge,

²¹to make you know what is right and true, that you may give a true answer to those who sent you?

²²Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate,

²³for the LORD will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.

²⁴Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man,

²⁵lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.

²⁶Be not one of those who give pledges, who put up security for debts.

²⁷If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?

²⁸Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set.

²⁹Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.

¹At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh,

²and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you.

³You have not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the LORD your God.

⁴And now the LORD your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side of the Jordan.

⁵Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

⁶So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.

⁷Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them,

⁸he said to them, “Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”

⁹So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the LORD through Moses.

¹⁰And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.

¹¹And the people of Israel heard it said, “Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.”

¹²And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.

¹³Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,

¹⁴and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel.

¹⁵And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them,

¹⁶“Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, ‘What is this breach of faith that you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the LORD by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the LORD?

¹⁷Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the LORD,

¹⁸that you too must turn away this day from following the LORD? And if you too rebel against the LORD today then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.

¹⁹But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the LORD's land where the LORD's tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against the LORD or make us as rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God.

²⁰Did not Achan the son of Zerah break faith in the matter of the devoted things, and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And he did not perish alone for his iniquity.’”

²¹Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel,

²²“The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the LORD, do not spare us today

²³for building an altar to turn away from following the LORD. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the LORD himself take vengeance.

²⁴No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?

²⁵For the LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the LORD.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the LORD.

²⁶Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice,

²⁷but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the LORD.”’

²⁸And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.”’

²⁹Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD and turn away this day from following the LORD by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the LORD our God that stands before his tabernacle!”

³⁰When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke, it was good in their eyes.

³¹And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against the LORD. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the LORD.”

³²Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them.

³³And the report was good in the eyes of the people of Israel. And the people of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people of Gad were settled.

³⁴The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, “For,” they said, “it is a witness between us that the LORD is God.”

¹The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,

²you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle.

³All your leaders have fled together; without the bow they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away.

⁴Therefore I said: “Look away from me; let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵For the Lord GOD of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains.

⁶And Elam bore the quiver with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷Your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen took their stand at the gates.

⁸He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,

⁹and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool,

¹⁰and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

¹²In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth;

¹³and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

¹⁴The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him:

¹⁶What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock?

¹⁷Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you

¹⁸and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house.

¹⁹I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station.

²⁰In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,

²¹and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

²²And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

²³And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house.

²⁴And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.

²⁵In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”

¹“Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.”

²And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said:

³“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women,

⁵as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶“As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me.

⁷And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’

⁸And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’

⁹Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

¹⁰And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’

¹¹And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.

¹²“And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,

¹³came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him.

¹⁴And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth;

¹⁵for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

¹⁷“When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance

¹⁸and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.

²⁰And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’

²¹And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

²²Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

²³And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air,

²⁴the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this.

²⁵But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.”

²⁸The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.”

²⁹So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

³⁰But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.