Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then Jesus left the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness

²for forty days to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry.

³The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

⁴But Jesus answered him, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone.”

⁵So he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

⁶The devil said to him, “I will give you their splendor and all this authority, because it has been given over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want.

⁷If you, then, will worship me, all will be yours.”

⁸And Jesus answered him, “It is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”

⁹So he took him to Jerusalem, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.

¹⁰For it is written: He will give his angels orders concerning you, to protect you,

¹¹and they will support you with their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

¹²And Jesus answered him, “It is said: Do not test the Lord your God.”

¹³After the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time.

¹⁴Then Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread throughout the entire vicinity.

¹⁵He was teaching in their synagogues, being praised by everyone.

¹⁶He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.

¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written:

¹⁸ The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed,

¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

²⁰He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him.

²¹He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”

²²They were all speaking well of him and were amazed by the gracious words that came from his mouth; yet they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

²³Then he said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. What we’ve heard that took place in Capernaum, do here in your hometown also.’”

²⁴He also said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.

²⁵But I say to you, there were certainly many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months while a great famine came over all the land.

²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them except a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.

²⁷And in the prophet Elisha’s time, there were many in Israel who had leprosy, and yet not one of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged.

²⁹They got up, drove him out of town, and brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff.

³⁰But he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.

³¹Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath.

³²They were astonished at his teaching because his message had authority.

³³In the synagogue there was a man with an unclean demonic spirit who cried out with a loud voice,

³⁴“Leave us alone! What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!”

³⁵But Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be silent and come out of him!” And throwing him down before them, the demon came out of him without hurting him at all.

³⁶Amazement came over them all, and they were saying to one another, “What is this message? For he commands the unclean spirits with authority and power, and they come out!”

³⁷And news about him began to go out to every place in the vicinity.

³⁸After he left the synagogue, he entered Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her.

³⁹So he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and began to serve them.

⁴⁰When the sun was setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to him. As he laid his hands on each one of them, he healed them.

⁴¹Also, demons were coming out of many, shouting and saying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.

⁴²When it was day, he went out and made his way to a deserted place. But the crowds were searching for him. They came to him and tried to keep him from leaving them.

⁴³But he said to them, “It is necessary for me to proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because I was sent for this purpose.”

⁴⁴And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

¹Now the people began complaining openly before the LORD about hardship. When the LORD heard, his anger burned, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

²Then the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down.

³So that place was named Taberah, because the LORD’s fire had blazed among them.

⁴The riffraff among them had a strong craving for other food. The Israelites wept again and said, “Who will feed us meat?

⁵We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.

⁶But now our appetite is gone; there’s nothing to look at but this manna!”

⁷The manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of bdellium.

⁸The people walked around and gathered it. They ground it on a pair of grinding stones or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil.

⁹When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.

¹⁰Moses heard the people, family after family, weeping at the entrance of their tents. The LORD was very angry; Moses was also provoked.

¹¹So Moses asked the LORD, “Why have you brought such trouble on your servant? Why are you angry with me, and why do you burden me with all these people?

¹²Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth so you should tell me, ‘Carry them at your breast, as a nanny carries a baby,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers?

¹³Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are weeping to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’

¹⁴I can’t carry all these people by myself. They are too much for me.

¹⁵If you are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now if I have found favor with you, and don’t let me see my misery anymore.”

¹⁶The LORD answered Moses, “Bring me seventy men from Israel known to you as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you.

¹⁷Then I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit who is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.

¹⁸“Tell the people: Consecrate yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you wept in the LORD’s hearing, ‘Who will feed us meat? We were better off in Egypt.’ The LORD will give you meat and you will eat.

¹⁹You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,

²⁰but for a whole month — until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you — because you have rejected the LORD who is among you, and wept before him: ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt? ’”

²¹But Moses replied, “I’m in the middle of a people with six hundred thousand foot soldiers, yet you say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’

²²If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”

²³The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm weak? Now you will see whether or not what I have promised will happen to you.”

²⁴Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. He brought seventy men from the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent.

²⁵Then the LORD descended in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed the Spirit on the seventy elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they never did it again.

²⁶Two men had remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad; the Spirit rested on them — they were among those listed, but had not gone out to the tent — and they prophesied in the camp.

²⁷A young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

²⁸Joshua son of Nun, assistant to Moses since his youth, responded, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

²⁹But Moses asked him, “Are you jealous on my account? If only all the LORD’s people were prophets and the LORD would place his Spirit on them!”

³⁰Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel.

³¹A wind sent by the LORD came up and blew quail in from the sea; it dropped them all around the camp. They were flying three feet off the ground for about a day’s journey in every direction.

³²The people were up all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quail — the one who took the least gathered fifty bushels  — and they spread them out all around the camp.

³³While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the LORD’s anger burned against the people, and the LORD struck them with a very severe plague.

³⁴So they named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved the meat.

³⁵From Kibroth-hattaavah the people moved on to Hazeroth and remained there.

¹So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

²Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the very words of God.

³What then? If some were unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness?

⁴Absolutely not! Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar, as it is written: That you may be justified in your words and triumph when you judge.

⁵But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath?

⁶Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world?

⁷But if by my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?

⁸And why not say, just as some people slanderously claim we say, “Let us do what is evil so that good may come”? Their condemnation is deserved!

⁹What then? Are we any better off? Not at all! For we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin,

¹⁰as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one.

¹¹There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.

¹²All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.

¹³Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips.

¹⁴Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

¹⁵Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶ruin and wretchedness are in their paths,

¹⁷and the path of peace they have not known.

¹⁸There is no fear of God before their eyes.

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment.

²⁰For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.

²¹But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets.

²²The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction.

²³For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

²⁴They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

²⁵God presented him as an atoning sacrifice in his blood, received through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.

²⁶God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith.

²⁸For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

²⁹Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,

³⁰since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

³¹Do we then nullify the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

¹A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.

²She was pregnant and cried out in labor and agony as she was about to give birth.

³Then another sign appeared in heaven: There was a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven crowns.

⁴Its tail swept away a third of the stars in heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she did give birth it might devour her child.

⁵She gave birth to a Son, a male who is going to rule all nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

⁶The woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, to be nourished there for 1,260 days.

⁷Then war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels also fought,

⁸but he could not prevail, and there was no place for them in heaven any longer.

⁹So the great dragon was thrown out — the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world. He was thrown to earth, and his angels with him.

¹⁰Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down.

¹¹They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; for they did not love their lives to the point of death.

¹²Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you with great fury, because he knows his time is short.

¹³When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who had given birth to the male child.

¹⁴The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, so that she could fly from the serpent’s presence to her place in the wilderness, where she was nourished for a time, times, and half a time.

¹⁵From his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river flowing after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood.

¹⁶But the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth.

¹⁷So the dragon was furious with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring  — those who keep the commands of God and hold firmly to the testimony about Jesus.

¹⁸The dragon stood on the sand of the sea.

¹Call out! Will anyone answer you? Which of the holy ones will you turn to?

²For anger kills a fool, and jealousy slays the gullible.

³I have seen a fool taking root, but I immediately pronounced a curse on his home.

⁴His children are far from safety. They are crushed at the city gate, with no one to rescue them.

⁵The hungry consume his harvest, even taking it out of the thorns. The thirsty pant for his children’s wealth.

⁶For distress does not grow out of the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.

⁷But humans are born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

⁸However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to him.

⁹He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

¹⁰He gives rain to the earth and sends water to the fields.

¹¹He sets the lowly on high, and mourners are lifted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success.

¹³He traps the wise in their craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly brought to an end.

¹⁴They encounter darkness by day, and they grope at noon as if it were night.

¹⁵He saves the needy from their sharp words and from the clutches of the powerful.

¹⁶So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.

¹⁷See how happy is the person whom God corrects; so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds but he also bandages; he strikes, but his hands also heal.

¹⁹He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.

²⁰In famine he will redeem you from death, and in battle, from the power of the sword.

²¹You will be safe from slander and not fear destruction when it comes.

²²You will laugh at destruction and hunger and not fear the land’s wild creatures.

²³For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

²⁴You will know that your tent is secure, and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.

²⁵You will also know that your offspring will be many and your descendants like the grass of the earth.

²⁶You will approach the grave in full vigor, as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.

²⁷We have investigated this, and it is true! Hear it and understand it for yourself.

¹A psalm of David. [1] LORD, who can dwell in your tent? Who can live on your holy mountain?

²The one who lives blamelessly, practices righteousness, and acknowledges the truth in his heart  —

³who does not slander with his tongue, who does not harm his friend or discredit his neighbor,

⁴who despises the one rejected by the LORD but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his word whatever the cost,

⁵who does not lend his silver at interest or take a bribe against the innocent  — the one who does these things will never be shaken.

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding

²so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge.

³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil,

⁴in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps head straight for Sheol.

⁶She doesn’t consider the path of life; she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.

⁷So now, sons, listen to me, and don’t turn away from the words from my mouth.

⁸Keep your way far from her. Don’t go near the door of her house.

⁹Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others and your years to someone cruel;

¹⁰strangers will drain your resources, and your hard-earned pay will end up in a foreigner’s house.

¹¹At the end of your life, you will lament when your physical body has been consumed,

¹²and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and how my heart despised correction.

¹³I didn’t obey my teachers or listen closely to my instructors.

¹⁴I am on the verge of complete ruin before the entire community.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, water flowing from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs flow in the streets, streams in the public squares?

¹⁷They should be for you alone and not for you to share with strangers.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹A loving deer, a graceful doe  — let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever.

²⁰Why, my son, would you lose yourself with a forbidden woman or embrace a wayward woman?

²¹For a man’s ways are before the LORD’s eyes, and he considers all his paths.

²²A wicked man’s iniquities will trap him; he will become tangled in the ropes of his own sin.

²³He will die because there is no discipline, and be lost because of his great stupidity.

¹The Philistines gathered their forces for war at Socoh in Judah and camped between Socoh and Azekah in Ephes-dammim.

²Saul and the men of Israel gathered and camped in the Valley of Elah; then they lined up in battle formation to face the Philistines.

³The Philistines were standing on one hill, and the Israelites were standing on another hill with a ravine between them.

⁴Then a champion named Goliath, from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was nine feet, nine inches tall

⁵and wore a bronze helmet and bronze scale armor that weighed one hundred twenty-five pounds.

⁶There was bronze armor on his shins, and a bronze javelin was slung between his shoulders.

⁷His spear shaft was like a weaver’s beam, and the iron point of his spear weighed fifteen pounds. In addition, a shield-bearer was walking in front of him.

⁸He stood and shouted to the Israelite battle formations: “Why do you come out to line up in battle formation?” He asked them, “Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul? Choose one of your men and have him come down against me.

⁹If he wins in a fight against me and kills me, we will be your servants. But if I win against him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us.”

¹⁰Then the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel today. Send me a man so we can fight each other!”

¹¹When Saul and all Israel heard these words from the Philistine, they lost their courage and were terrified.

¹²Now David was the son of the Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah named Jesse. Jesse had eight sons and during Saul’s reign was already an old man.

¹³Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war, and their names were Eliab, the firstborn, Abinadab, the next, and Shammah, the third,

¹⁴and David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul,

¹⁵but David kept going back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s flock in Bethlehem.

¹⁶Every morning and evening for forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand.

¹⁷One day Jesse had told his son David: “Take this half-bushel of roasted grain along with these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.

¹⁸Also take these ten portions of cheese to the field commander. Check on the well-being of your brothers and bring a confirmation from them.

¹⁹They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines.”

²⁰So David got up early in the morning, left the flock with someone to keep it, loaded up, and set out as Jesse had charged him. He arrived at the perimeter of the camp as the army was marching out to its battle formation shouting their battle cry.

²¹Israel and the Philistines lined up in battle formation facing each other.

²²David left his supplies in the care of the quartermaster and ran to the battle line. When he arrived, he asked his brothers how they were.

²³While he was speaking with them, suddenly the champion named Goliath, the Philistine from Gath, came forward from the Philistine battle line and shouted his usual words, which David heard.

²⁴When all the Israelite men saw Goliath, they retreated from him terrified.

²⁵Previously, an Israelite man had declared: “Do you see this man who keeps coming out? He comes to defy Israel. The king will make the man who kills him very rich and will give him his daughter. The king will also make the family of that man’s father exempt from paying taxes in Israel.”

²⁶David spoke to the men who were standing with him: “What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

²⁷The troops told him about the offer, concluding, “That is what will be done for the man who kills him.”

²⁸David’s oldest brother Eliab listened as he spoke to the men, and he became angry with him. “Why did you come down here?” he asked. “Who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and your evil heart — you came down to see the battle!”

²⁹“What have I done now?” protested David. “It was just a question.”

³⁰Then he turned from those beside him to others in front of him and asked about the offer. The people gave him the same answer as before.

³¹What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, so he had David brought to him.

³²David said to Saul, “Don’t let anyone be discouraged by him; your servant will go and fight this Philistine!”

³³But Saul replied, “You can’t go fight this Philistine. You’re just a youth, and he’s been a warrior since he was young.”

³⁴David answered Saul: “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep. Whenever a lion or a bear came and carried off a lamb from the flock,

³⁵I went after it, struck it down, and rescued the lamb from its mouth. If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down, and kill it.

³⁶Your servant has killed lions and bears; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.”

³⁷Then David said, “The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and may the LORD be with you.”

³⁸Then Saul had his own military clothes put on David. He put a bronze helmet on David’s head and had him put on armor.

³⁹David strapped his sword on over the military clothes and tried to walk, but he was not used to them. “I can’t walk in these,” David said to Saul, “I’m not used to them.” So David took them off.

⁴⁰Instead, he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in the pouch, in his shepherd’s bag. Then, with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.

⁴¹The Philistine came closer and closer to David, with the shield-bearer in front of him.

⁴²When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him because he was just a youth, healthy and handsome.

⁴³He said to David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” Then he cursed David by his gods.

⁴⁴“Come here,” the Philistine called to David, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts!”

⁴⁵David said to the Philistine: “You come against me with a sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Armies, the God of the ranks of Israel — you have defied him.

⁴⁶Today, the LORD will hand you over to me. Today, I’ll strike you down, remove your head, and give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and the wild creatures of the earth. Then all the world will know that Israel has a God,

⁴⁷and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the LORD saves, for the battle is the LORD’s. He will hand you over to us.”

⁴⁸When the Philistine started forward to attack him, David ran quickly to the battle line to meet the Philistine.

⁴⁹David put his hand in the bag, took out a stone, slung it, and hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown to the ground.

⁵⁰David defeated the Philistine with a sling and a stone. David overpowered the Philistine and killed him without having a sword.

⁵¹David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword, pulled it from its sheath, and used it to kill him. Then he cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they fled.

⁵²The men of Israel and Judah rallied, shouting their battle cry, and chased the Philistines to the entrance of the valley and to the gates of Ekron. Philistine bodies were strewn all along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.

⁵³When the Israelites returned from the pursuit of the Philistines, they plundered their camps.

⁵⁴David took Goliath’s head and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put Goliath’s weapons in his own tent.

⁵⁵When Saul had seen David going out to confront the Philistine, he asked Abner the commander of the army, “Whose son is this youth, Abner?” “Your Majesty, as surely as you live, I don’t know,” Abner replied.

⁵⁶The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is!”

⁵⁷When David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine’s head still in his hand.

⁵⁸Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” “The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,” David answered.

¹“I was sought by those who did not ask; I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that did not call on my name.

²I spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in the path that is not good, following their own thoughts.

³These people continually anger me to my face, sacrificing in gardens, burning incense on bricks,

⁴sitting among the graves, spending nights in secret places, eating the meat of pigs, and putting polluted broth in their bowls.

⁵They say, ‘Keep to yourself, don’t come near me, for I am too holy for you!’ These practices are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all day long.

⁶Look, it is written in front of me: I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will repay them fully

⁷for your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together,” says the LORD. “Because they burned incense on the mountains and reproached me on the hills, I will reward them fully for their former deeds.”

⁸The LORD says this: “As the new wine is found in a bunch of grapes, and one says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for there’s some good in it,’ so I will act because of my servants and not destroy them all.

⁹I will produce descendants from Jacob, and heirs to my mountains from Judah; my chosen ones will possess it, and my servants will dwell there.

¹⁰Sharon will be a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for my people who have sought me.

¹¹But you who abandon the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny,

¹²I will destine you for the sword, and all of you will kneel down to be slaughtered, because I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not hear; you did what was evil in my sight and chose what I did not delight in.”

¹³Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: “My servants will eat, but you will be hungry; my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.

¹⁴My servants will shout for joy from a glad heart, but you will cry out from an anguished heart, and you will lament out of a broken spirit.

¹⁵You will leave your name behind as a curse for my chosen ones, and the Lord GOD will kill you; but he will give his servants another name.

¹⁶Whoever asks for a blessing in the land will ask for a blessing by the God of truth, and whoever swears in the land will swear by the God of truth. For the former troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my sight.

¹⁷“For I will create a new heaven and a new earth; the past events will not be remembered or come to mind.

¹⁸Then be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight.

¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. The sound of weeping and crying will no longer be heard in her.

²⁰In her, a nursing infant will no longer live only a few days, or an old man not live out his days. Indeed, the one who dies at a hundred years old will be mourned as a young man, and the one who misses a hundred years will be considered cursed.

²¹People will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

²²They will not build and others live in them; they will not plant and others eat. For my people’s lives will be like the lifetime of a tree. My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands.

²³They will not labor without success or bear children destined for disaster, for they will be a people blessed by the LORD along with their descendants.

²⁴Even before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear.

²⁵The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle, but the serpent’s food will be dust! They will not do what is evil or destroy on my entire holy mountain,” says the LORD.

¹“Are these things true?” the high priest asked.

²“Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

³and said to him: Leave your country and relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.

⁴“Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land in which you are now living.

⁵He didn’t give him an inheritance in it — not even a foot of ground — but he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless.

⁶God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for four hundred years.

⁷I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship me in this place.

⁸And so he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him

¹⁰and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household.

¹¹Now a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find no food.

¹²When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time.

¹³The second time, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all,

¹⁵and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there,

¹⁶were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷“As the time was approaching to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt

¹⁸until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt.

¹⁹He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them abandon their infants outside so that they wouldn’t survive.

²⁰At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home for three months.

²¹When he was put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.

²²So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.

²³“When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

²⁴When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian.

²⁵He assumed his people would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.

²⁶The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other? ’

²⁷“But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying: Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?

²⁸Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

²⁹“When he heard this, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

³⁰After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.

³¹When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came:

³²I am the God of your ancestors — the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.

³³“The Lord said to him: Take off the sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground.

³⁴I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.

³⁵“This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?  — this one God sent as a ruler and a deliverer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

³⁷“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites: God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers and sisters.

³⁸He is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. He received living oracles to give to us.

³⁹Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

⁴⁰They told Aaron: Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.

⁴¹They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.

⁴²God turned away and gave them up to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: House of Israel, did you bring me offerings and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness?

⁴³You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship. So I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.

⁴⁴“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.

⁴⁵Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them, until the days of David.

⁴⁶He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷It was Solomon, rather, who built him a house,

⁴⁸but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:

⁴⁹Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. What sort of house will you build for me? says the Lord, or what will be my resting place?

⁵⁰Did not my hand make all these things?

⁵¹“You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.

⁵³You received the law under the direction of angels and yet have not kept it.”

⁵⁴When they heard these things, they were enraged and gnashed their teeth at him.

⁵⁵Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

⁵⁶He said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

⁵⁷They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him.

⁵⁸They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹While they were stoning Stephen, he called out: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

⁶⁰He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he died.