Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.

²So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them.

³Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.

⁴And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.

⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

⁶Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,

⁷“Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

⁸At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts?

⁹Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’?

¹⁰But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he said to the paralytic —

¹¹“I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.”

¹²And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

¹³Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them.

¹⁴As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

¹⁵And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples — for there were many who followed him.

¹⁶When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

¹⁸Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁹Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

²⁰The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

²¹“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.

²²And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

²³One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.

²⁴The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”

²⁵And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food?

²⁶He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.”

²⁷Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;

²⁸so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

¹When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!”

²Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

³Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her.”

⁴So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her.

⁵And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

⁶Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son”; therefore she named him Dan.

⁷Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

⁸Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed”; so she named him Naphtali.

⁹When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

¹⁰Then Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

¹¹And Leah said, “Good fortune!” so she named him Gad.

¹²Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.

¹³And Leah said, “Happy am I! For the women will call me happy”; so she named him Asher.

¹⁴In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁶When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, “You must come in to me; for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night.

¹⁷And God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸Leah said, “God has given me my hire because I gave my maid to my husband”; so she named him Issachar.

¹⁹And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son.

²⁰Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons”; so she named him Zebulun.

²¹Afterwards she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

²²Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb.

²³She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach”;

²⁴and she named him Joseph, saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!”

²⁵When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.

²⁶Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know very well the service I have given you.”

²⁷But Laban said to him, “If you will allow me to say so, I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you;

²⁸name your wages, and I will give it.”

²⁹Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me.

³⁰For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly; and the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?”

³¹He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything; if you will do this for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it:

³²let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages.

³³So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.”

³⁴Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.”

³⁵But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons;

³⁶and he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flock.

³⁷Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods.

³⁸He set the rods that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,

³⁹the flocks bred in front of the rods, and so the flocks produced young that were striped, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and the completely black animals in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

⁴¹Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob laid the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the rods,

⁴²but for the feebler of the flock he did not lay them there; so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.

⁴³Thus the man grew exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, and male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.

¹Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy.

²For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit.

³On the other hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.

⁴Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church.

⁵Now I would like all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. One who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

⁶Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I speak to you in some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?

⁷It is the same way with lifeless instruments that produce sound, such as the flute or the harp. If they do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is being played?

⁸And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle?

⁹So with yourselves; if in a tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is being said? For you will be speaking into the air.

¹⁰There are doubtless many different kinds of sounds in the world, and nothing is without sound.

¹¹If then I do not know the meaning of a sound, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.

¹²So with yourselves; since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church.

¹³Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.

¹⁴For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive.

¹⁵What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.

¹⁶Otherwise, if you say a blessing with the spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since the outsider does not know what you are saying?

¹⁷For you may give thanks well enough, but the other person is not built up.

¹⁸I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you;

¹⁹nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

²⁰Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking; rather, be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults.

²¹In the law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people; yet even then they will not listen to me,” says the Lord.

²²Tongues, then, are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is not for unbelievers but for believers.

²³If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind?

²⁴But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all.

²⁵After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, “God is really among you.”

²⁶What should be done then, my friends? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

²⁷If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret.

²⁸But if there is no one to interpret, let them be silent in church and speak to themselves and to God.

²⁹Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.

³⁰If a revelation is made to someone else sitting nearby, let the first person be silent.

³¹For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged.

³²And the spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets,

³³for God is a God not of disorder but of peace. (As in all the churches of the saints,

³⁴women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says.

³⁵If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

³⁶Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only ones it has reached?)

³⁷Anyone who claims to be a prophet, or to have spiritual powers, must acknowledge that what I am writing to you is a command of the Lord.

³⁸Anyone who does not recognize this is not to be recognized.

³⁹So, my friends, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues;

⁴⁰but all things should be done decently and in order.

¹Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands, so that, even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives’ conduct,

²when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

³Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing;

⁴rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight.

⁵It was in this way long ago that the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by accepting the authority of their husbands.

⁶Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You have become her daughters as long as you do what is good and never let fears alarm you.

⁷Husbands, in the same way, show consideration for your wives in your life together, paying honor to the woman as the weaker sex, since they too are also heirs of the gracious gift of life — so that nothing may hinder your prayers.

⁸Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

⁹Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called — that you might inherit a blessing.

¹⁰For “Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit;

¹¹let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it.

¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

¹³Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?

¹⁴But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated,

¹⁵but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you;

¹⁶yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.

¹⁷For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil.

¹⁸For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,

¹⁹in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison,

²⁰who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

²¹And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you — not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

¹“But now they make sport of me, those who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

²What could I gain from the strength of their hands? All their vigor is gone.

³Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground,

⁴they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes, and to warm themselves the roots of broom.

⁵They are driven out from society; people shout after them as after a thief.

⁶In the gullies of wadis they must live, in holes in the ground, and in the rocks.

⁷Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together.

⁸A senseless, disreputable brood, they have been whipped out of the land.

⁹“And now they mock me in song; I am a byword to them.

¹⁰They abhor me, they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.

¹¹Because God has loosed my bowstring and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.

¹²On my right hand the rabble rise up; they send me sprawling, and build roads for my ruin.

¹³They break up my path, they promote my calamity; no one restrains them.

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on.

¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

¹⁶“And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me.

¹⁷The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.

¹⁸With violence he seizes my garment; he grasps me by the collar of my tunic.

¹⁹He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry to you and you do not answer me; I stand, and you merely look at me.

²¹You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me.

²²You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.

²³I know that you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴“Surely one does not turn against the needy, when in disaster they cry for help.

²⁵Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?

²⁶But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came.

²⁷My inward parts are in turmoil, and are never still; days of affliction come to meet me.

²⁸I go about in sunless gloom; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

²⁹I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches.

³⁰My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.

³¹My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

¹I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me.

²O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.

³O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.

⁴Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name.

⁵For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

⁶As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”

⁷By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed.

⁸To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication:

⁹“What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?

¹⁰Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!”

¹¹You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

¹²so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

¹The words of Agur son of Jakeh. An oracle. Thus says the man: I am weary, O God, I am weary, O God. How can I prevail?

²Surely I am too stupid to be human; I do not have human understanding.

³I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the holy ones.

⁴Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in the hollow of the hand? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is the person’s name? And what is the name of the person’s child? Surely you know!

⁵Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

⁶Do not add to his words, or else he will rebuke you, and you will be found a liar.

⁷Two things I ask of you; do not deny them to me before I die:

⁸Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need,

⁹or I shall be full, and deny you, and say, “Who is the LORD?” or I shall be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God.

¹⁰Do not slander a servant to a master, or the servant will curse you, and you will be held guilty.

¹¹There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers.

¹²There are those who are pure in their own eyes yet are not cleansed of their filthiness.

¹³There are those — how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift! —

¹⁴there are those whose teeth are swords, whose teeth are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mortals.

¹⁵The leech has two daughters; “Give, give,” they cry. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough”:

¹⁶Sheol, the barren womb, the earth ever thirsty for water, and the fire that never says, “Enough.”

¹⁷The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.

¹⁸Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand:

¹⁹the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a girl.

²⁰This is the way of an adulteress: she eats, and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wrong.”

²¹Under three things the earth trembles; under four it cannot bear up:

²²a slave when he becomes king, and a fool when glutted with food;

²³an unloved woman when she gets a husband, and a maid when she succeeds her mistress.

²⁴Four things on earth are small, yet they are exceedingly wise:

²⁵the ants are a people without strength, yet they provide their food in the summer;

²⁶the badgers are a people without power, yet they make their homes in the rocks;

²⁷the locusts have no king, yet all of them march in rank;

²⁸the lizard can be grasped in the hand, yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

²⁹Three things are stately in their stride; four are stately in their gait:

³⁰the lion, which is mightiest among wild animals and does not turn back before any;

³¹the strutting rooster, the he-goat, and a king striding before his people.

³²If you have been foolish, exalting yourself, or if you have been devising evil, put your hand on your mouth.

³³For as pressing milk produces curds, and pressing the nose produces blood, so pressing anger produces strife.

¹The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years.

²The hand of Midian prevailed over Israel; and because of Midian the Israelites provided for themselves hiding places in the mountains, caves and strongholds.

³For whenever the Israelites put in seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them.

⁴They would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the land, as far as the neighborhood of Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep or ox or donkey.

⁵For they and their livestock would come up, and they would even bring their tents, as thick as locusts; neither they nor their camels could be counted; so they wasted the land as they came in.

⁶Thus Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian; and the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.

⁷When the Israelites cried to the LORD on account of the Midianites,

⁸the LORD sent a prophet to the Israelites; and he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of slavery;

⁹and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you, and gave you their land;

¹⁰and I said to you, ‘I am the LORD your God; you shall not pay reverence to the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.’ But you have not given heed to my voice.”

¹¹Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites.

¹²The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior.”

¹³Gideon answered him, “But sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has cast us off, and given us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; I hereby commission you.”

¹⁵He responded, “But sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

¹⁶The LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike down the Midianites, every one of them.”

¹⁷Then he said to him, “If now I have found favor with you, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.

¹⁸Do not depart from here until I come to you, and bring out my present, and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay until you return.”

¹⁹So Gideon went into his house and prepared a kid, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour; the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the oak and presented them.

²⁰The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.

²¹Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.

²²Then Gideon perceived that it was the angel of the LORD; and Gideon said, “Help me, Lord GOD! For I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.”

²³But the LORD said to him, “Peace be to you; do not fear, you shall not die.”

²⁴Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it, The LORD is peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.

²⁵That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the sacred pole that is beside it;

²⁶and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, in proper order; then take the second bull, and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the sacred pole that you shall cut down.”

²⁷So Gideon took ten of his servants, and did as the LORD had told him; but because he was too afraid of his family and the townspeople to do it by day, he did it by night.

²⁸When the townspeople rose early in the morning, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the sacred pole beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built.

²⁹So they said to one another, “Who has done this?” After searching and inquiring, they were told, “Gideon son of Joash did it.”

³⁰Then the townspeople said to Joash, “Bring out your son, so that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the sacred pole beside it.”

³¹But Joash said to all who were arrayed against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you defend his cause? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been pulled down.”

³²Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he pulled down his altar.

³³Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together, and crossing the Jordan they encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.

³⁴But the spirit of the LORD took possession of Gideon; and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him.

³⁵He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.

³⁶Then Gideon said to God, “In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said,

³⁷I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.”

³⁸And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water.

³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.”

⁴⁰And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

¹Oh, rebellious children, says the LORD, who carry out a plan, but not mine; who make an alliance, but against my will, adding sin to sin;

²who set out to go down to Egypt without asking for my counsel, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt;

³Therefore the protection of Pharaoh shall become your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation.

⁴For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes,

⁵everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.

⁶An oracle concerning the animals of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and distress, of lioness and roaring lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.

⁷For Egypt’s help is worthless and empty, therefore I have called her, “Rahab who sits still.”

⁸Go now, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, so that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.

⁹For they are a rebellious people, faithless children, children who will not hear the instruction of the LORD;

¹⁰who say to the seers, “Do not see”; and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,

¹¹leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”

¹²Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: Because you reject this word, and put your trust in oppression and deceit, and rely on them;

¹³therefore this iniquity shall become for you like a break in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose crash comes suddenly, in an instant;

¹⁴its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a sherd is found for taking fire from the hearth, or dipping water out of the cistern.

¹⁵For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused

¹⁶and said, “No! We will flee upon horses” — therefore you shall flee! and, “We will ride upon swift steeds” — therefore your pursuers shall be swift!

¹⁷A thousand shall flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five you shall flee, until you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.

¹⁸Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

¹⁹Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you.

²⁰Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.

²¹And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

²²Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like filthy rags; you will say to them, “Away with you!”

²³He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures;

²⁴and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.

²⁵On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water — on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

²⁶Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the LORD binds up the injuries of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

²⁷See, the name of the LORD comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;

²⁸his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck — to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads them astray.

²⁹You shall have a song as in the night when a holy festival is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.

³⁰And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and tempest and hailstones.

³¹The Assyrian will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod.

³²And every stroke of the staff of punishment that the LORD lays upon him will be to the sound of timbrels and lyres; battling with brandished arm he will fight with him.

³³For his burning place has long been prepared; truly it is made ready for the king, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

¹When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.

⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

⁵Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.

⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.

⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?

⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

¹¹Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

¹²All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

¹³But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

¹⁴But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.

¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.

¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

¹⁸Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

¹⁹And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

²⁰The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.

²¹Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

²²“You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know —

²³this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law.

²⁴But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

²⁵For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;

²⁶therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will live in hope.

²⁷For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption.

²⁸You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

²⁹“Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

³⁰Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne.

³¹Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’

³²This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.

³³Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear.

³⁴For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,

³⁵until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

³⁶Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

³⁷Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

³⁸Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

³⁹For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”

⁴⁰And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

⁴¹So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

⁴³Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.

⁴⁴All who believed were together and had all things in common;

⁴⁵they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

⁴⁶Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts,

⁴⁷praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.