Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When he had concluded saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum.

²A centurion’s servant, who was highly valued by him, was sick and about to die.

³When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, requesting him to come and save the life of his servant.

⁴When they reached Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy for you to grant this,

⁵because he loves our nation and has built us a synagogue.”

⁶Jesus went with them, and when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, since I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.

⁷That is why I didn’t even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.

⁸For I too am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

⁹Jesus heard this and was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found so great a faith even in Israel.”

¹⁰When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant in good health.

¹¹Afterward he was on his way to a town called Nain. His disciples and a large crowd were traveling with him.

¹²Just as he neared the gate of the town, a dead man was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was also with her.

¹³When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said, “Don’t weep.”

¹⁴Then he came up and touched the open coffin, and the pallbearers stopped. And he said, “Young man, I tell you, get up!”

¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

¹⁶Then fear came over everyone, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us,” and “God has visited his people.”

¹⁷This report about him went throughout Judea and all the vicinity.

¹⁸Then John’s disciples told him about all these things. So John summoned two of his disciples

¹⁹and sent them to the Lord, asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

²⁰When the men reached him, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to ask you, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”

²¹At that time Jesus healed many people of diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits, and he granted sight to many blind people.

²²He replied to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news,

²³and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.”

²⁴After John’s messengers left, he began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?

²⁵What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothes? See, those who are splendidly dressed and live in luxury are in royal palaces.

²⁶What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

²⁷This is the one about whom it is written: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.

²⁸I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater than John, but the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

²⁹(And when all the people, including the tax collectors, heard this, they acknowledged God’s way of righteousness, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism.

³⁰But since the Pharisees and experts in the law had not been baptized by him, they rejected the plan of God for themselves. )

³¹“To what then should I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?

³²They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to each other: We played the flute for you, but you didn’t dance; we sang a lament, but you didn’t weep!

³³For John the Baptist did not come eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’

³⁴The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

³⁵Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

³⁶Then one of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.

³⁷And a woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume

³⁸and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with the perfume.

³⁹When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him — she’s a sinner!”

⁴⁰Jesus replied to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” He said, “Say it, teacher.”

⁴¹“A creditor had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

⁴²Since they could not pay it back, he graciously forgave them both. So, which of them will love him more?”

⁴³Simon answered, “I suppose the one he forgave more.” “You have judged correctly,” he told him.

⁴⁴Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she, with her tears, has washed my feet and wiped them with her hair.

⁴⁵You gave me no kiss, but she hasn’t stopped kissing my feet since I came in.

⁴⁶You didn’t anoint my head with olive oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume.

⁴⁷Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.”

⁴⁸Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹Those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

¹Then the whole community broke into loud cries, and the people wept that night.

²All the Israelites complained about Moses and Aaron, and the whole community told them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!

³Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to die by the sword? Our wives and children will become plunder. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

⁴So they said to one another, “Let’s appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.”

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown in front of the whole assembly of the Israelite community.

⁶Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who scouted out the land, tore their clothes

⁷and said to the entire Israelite community: “The land we passed through and explored is an extremely good land.

⁸If the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and give it to us.

⁹Only don’t rebel against the LORD, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us. Don’t be afraid of them!”

¹⁰While the whole community threatened to stone them, the glory of the LORD appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.

¹¹The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people despise me? How long will they not trust in me despite all the signs I have performed among them?

¹²I will strike them with a plague and destroy them. Then I will make you into a greater and mightier nation than they are.”

¹³But Moses replied to the LORD, “The Egyptians will hear about it, for by your strength you brought up this people from them.

¹⁴They will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, LORD, are among these people, how you, LORD, are seen face to face, how your cloud stands over them, and how you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵If you kill this people with a single blow, the nations that have heard of your fame will declare,

¹⁶‘Since the LORD wasn’t able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them, he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.’

¹⁷“So now, may my Lord’s power be magnified just as you have spoken:

¹⁸The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in faithful love, forgiving iniquity and rebellion. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generation.

¹⁹Please pardon the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of your faithful love, just as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now.”

²⁰The LORD responded, “I have pardoned them as you requested.

²¹Yet as surely as I live and as the whole earth is filled with the LORD’s glory,

²²none of the men who have seen my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested me these ten times and did not obey me,

²³will ever see the land I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have despised me will see it.

²⁴But since my servant Caleb has a different spirit and has remained loyal to me, I will bring him into the land where he has gone, and his descendants will inherit it.

²⁵Since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the lowlands, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.”

²⁶Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron:

²⁷“How long must I endure this evil community that keeps complaining about me? I have heard the Israelites’ complaints that they make against me.

²⁸Tell them: As surely as I live — this is the LORD’s declaration — I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.

²⁹Your corpses will fall in this wilderness — all of you who were registered in the census, the entire number of you twenty years old or more  — because you have complained about me.

³⁰I swear that none of you will enter the land I promised to settle you in, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

³¹I will bring your children whom you said would become plunder into the land you rejected, and they will enjoy it.

³²But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.

³³Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years and bear the penalty for your acts of unfaithfulness until all your corpses lie scattered in the wilderness.

³⁴You will bear the consequences of your iniquities forty years based on the number of the forty days that you scouted the land, a year for each day. You will know my displeasure.

³⁵I, the LORD, have spoken. I swear that I will do this to the entire evil community that has conspired against me. They will come to an end in the wilderness, and there they will die.”

³⁶So the men Moses sent to scout out the land, and who returned and incited the entire community to complain about him by spreading a negative report about the land —

³⁷those men who spread the negative report about the land were struck down by the LORD.

³⁸Only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive of those men who went to scout out the land.

³⁹When Moses reported these words to all the Israelites, the people were overcome with grief.

⁴⁰They got up early the next morning and went up the ridge of the hill country, saying, “Let’s go to the place the LORD promised, for we were wrong.”

⁴¹But Moses responded, “Why are you going against the LORD’s command? It won’t succeed.

⁴²Don’t go, because the LORD is not among you and you will be defeated by your enemies.

⁴³The Amalekites and Canaanites are right in front of you, and you will fall by the sword. The LORD won’t be with you, since you have turned from following him.”

⁴⁴But they dared to go up the ridge of the hill country, even though the ark of the LORD’s covenant and Moses did not leave the camp.

⁴⁵Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them as far as Hormah.

¹What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?

²Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

³Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,

⁷since a person who has died is freed from sin.

⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,

⁹because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him.

¹⁰For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.

¹³And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.

¹⁴For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not!

¹⁶Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey  — either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?

¹⁷But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over,

¹⁸and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

¹⁹I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.

²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

²¹So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death.

²²But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification  — and the outcome is eternal life!

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹Then I saw another great and awe-inspiring sign in heaven: seven angels with the seven last plagues; for with them God’s wrath will be completed.

²I also saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had won the victory over the beast, its image, and the number of its name, were standing on the sea of glass with harps from God.

³They sang the song of God’s servant Moses and the song of the Lamb: Great and awe-inspiring are your works, Lord God, the Almighty; just and true are your ways, King of the nations.

⁴Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All the nations will come and worship before you because your righteous acts have been revealed.

⁵After this I looked, and the heavenly temple — the tabernacle of testimony  — was opened.

⁶Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, dressed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes wrapped around their chests.

⁷One of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.

⁸Then the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²How long will you go on saying these things? Your words are a blast of wind.

³Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

⁴Since your children sinned against him, he gave them over to their rebellion.

⁵But if you earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,

⁶if you are pure and upright, then he will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.

⁷Then, even if your beginnings were modest, your final days will be full of prosperity.

⁸For ask the previous generation, and pay attention to what their fathers discovered,

⁹since we were born only yesterday and know nothing. Our days on earth are but a shadow.

¹⁰Will they not teach you and tell you and speak from their understanding?

¹¹Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Do reeds flourish without water?

¹²While still uncut shoots, they would dry up quicker than any other plant.

¹³Such is the destiny of all who forget God; the hope of the godless will perish.

¹⁴His source of confidence is fragile; what he trusts in is a spider’s web.

¹⁵He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm. He grabs it, but it does not hold up.

¹⁶He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine; his shoots spread out over his garden.

¹⁷His roots are intertwined around a pile of rocks. He looks for a home among the stones.

¹⁸If he is uprooted from his place, it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.”

¹⁹Surely this is the joy of his way of life; yet others will sprout from the dust.

²⁰Look, God does not reject a person of integrity, and he will not support evildoers.

²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with a shout of joy.

²²Your enemies will be clothed with shame; the tent of the wicked will no longer exist.

¹For the choir director. Of the servant of the LORD, David, who spoke the words of this song to the LORD on the day the LORD rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from the power of Saul. He said: [1] I love you, LORD, my strength.

²The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock where I seek refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

³I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I was saved from my enemies.

⁴The ropes of death were wrapped around me; the torrents of destruction terrified me.

⁵The ropes of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.

⁶I called to the LORD in my distress, and I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

⁷Then the earth shook and quaked; the foundations of the mountains trembled; they shook because he burned with anger.

⁸Smoke rose from his nostrils, and consuming fire came from his mouth; coals were set ablaze by it.

⁹He bent the heavens and came down, total darkness beneath his feet.

¹⁰He rode on a cherub and flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.

¹¹He made darkness his hiding place, dark storm clouds his canopy around him.

¹²From the radiance of his presence, his clouds swept onward with hail and blazing coals.

¹³The LORD thundered from heaven; the Most High made his voice heard.

¹⁴He shot his arrows and scattered them; he hurled lightning bolts and routed them.

¹⁵The depths of the sea became visible, the foundations of the world were exposed, at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

¹⁶He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he pulled me out of deep water.

¹⁷He rescued me from my powerful enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.

¹⁸They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support.

¹⁹He brought me out to a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

²⁰The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; he repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands.

²¹For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not turned from my God to wickedness.

²²Indeed, I let all his ordinances guide me and have not disregarded his statutes.

²³I was blameless toward him and kept myself from my iniquity.

²⁴So the LORD repaid me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

²⁵With the faithful you prove yourself faithful, with the blameless you prove yourself blameless,

²⁶with the pure you prove yourself pure; but with the crooked you prove yourself shrewd.

²⁷For you rescue an oppressed people, but you humble those with haughty eyes.

²⁸LORD, you light my lamp; my God illuminates my darkness.

²⁹With you I can attack a barricade, and with my God I can leap over a wall.

³⁰God — his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is pure. He is a shield to all who take refuge in him.

³¹For who is God besides the LORD? And who is a rock? Only our God.

³²God — he clothes me with strength and makes my way perfect.

³³He makes my feet like the feet of a deer and sets me securely on the heights.

³⁴He trains my hands for war; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁵You have given me the shield of your salvation; your right hand upholds me, and your humility exalts me.

³⁶You make a spacious place beneath me for my steps, and my ankles do not give way.

³⁷I pursue my enemies and overtake them; I do not turn back until they are wiped out.

³⁸I crush them, and they cannot get up; they fall beneath my feet.

³⁹You have clothed me with strength for battle; you subdue my adversaries beneath me.

⁴⁰You have made my enemies retreat before me; I annihilate those who hate me.

⁴¹They cry for help, but there is no one to save them  — they cry to the LORD, but he does not answer them.

⁴²I pulverize them like dust before the wind; I trample them like mud in the streets.

⁴³You have freed me from the feuds among the people; you have appointed me the head of nations; a people I had not known serve me.

⁴⁴Foreigners submit to me cringing; as soon as they hear they obey me.

⁴⁵Foreigners lose heart and come trembling from their fortifications.

⁴⁶The LORD lives — blessed be my rock! The God of my salvation is exalted.

⁴⁷God — he grants me vengeance and subdues peoples under me.

⁴⁸He frees me from my enemies. You exalt me above my adversaries; you rescue me from violent men.

⁴⁹Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, LORD; I will sing praises about your name.

⁵⁰He gives great victories to his king; he shows loyalty to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.

¹Doesn’t wisdom call out? Doesn’t understanding make her voice heard?

²At the heights overlooking the road, at the crossroads, she takes her stand.

³Beside the gates leading into the city, at the main entrance, she cries out:

⁴“People, I call out to you; my cry is to the children of Adam.

⁵Learn to be shrewd, you who are inexperienced; develop common sense, you who are foolish.

⁶Listen, for I speak of noble things, and what my lips say is right.

⁷For my mouth tells the truth, and wickedness is detestable to my lips.

⁸All the words from my mouth are righteous; none of them are deceptive or perverse.

⁹All of them are clear to the perceptive, and right to those who discover knowledge.

¹⁰Accept my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.

¹¹For wisdom is better than jewels, and nothing desirable can equal it.

¹²I, wisdom, share a home with shrewdness and have knowledge and discretion.

¹³To fear the LORD is to hate evil. I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.

¹⁴I possess good advice and sound wisdom; I have understanding and strength.

¹⁵It is by me that kings reign and rulers enact just law;

¹⁶by me, princes lead, as do nobles and all righteous judges.

¹⁷I love those who love me, and those who search for me find me.

¹⁸With me are riches and honor, lasting wealth and righteousness.

¹⁹My fruit is better than solid gold, and my harvest than pure silver.

²⁰I walk in the ways of righteousness, along the paths of justice,

²¹giving wealth as an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.

²²“The LORD acquired me at the beginning of his creation, before his works of long ago.

²³I was formed before ancient times, from the beginning, before the earth began.

²⁴I was born when there were no watery depths and no springs filled with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were established, prior to the hills, I was given birth —

²⁶before he made the land, the fields, or the first soil on earth.

²⁷I was there when he established the heavens, when he laid out the horizon on the surface of the ocean,

²⁸when he placed the skies above, when the fountains of the ocean gushed out,

²⁹when he set a limit for the sea so that the waters would not violate his command, when he laid out the foundations of the earth.

³⁰I was a skilled craftsman beside him. I was his delight every day, always rejoicing before him.

³¹I was rejoicing in his inhabited world, delighting in the children of Adam.

³²“And now, sons, listen to me; those who keep my ways are happy.

³³Listen to instruction and be wise; don’t ignore it.

³⁴Anyone who listens to me is happy, watching at my doors every day, waiting by the posts of my doorway.

³⁵For the one who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD,

³⁶but the one who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”

¹David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What did I do wrong? How have I sinned against your father so that he wants to take my life?”

²Jonathan said to him, “No, you won’t die. Listen, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without telling me. So why would he hide this matter from me? This can’t be true.”

³But David said, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favor with you. He has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or else he will be grieved.’” David also swore, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”

⁴Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”

⁵So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I’m supposed to sit down and eat with the king. Instead, let me go, and I’ll hide in the countryside for the next two nights.

⁶If your father misses me at all, say, ‘David urgently requested my permission to go quickly to his hometown Bethlehem for an annual sacrifice there involving the whole clan.’

⁷If he says, ‘Good,’ then your servant is safe, but if he becomes angry, you will know he has evil intentions.

⁸Deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the LORD. If I have done anything wrong, then kill me yourself; why take me to your father?”

⁹“No!” Jonathan responded. “If I ever find out my father has evil intentions against you, wouldn’t I tell you about it?”

¹⁰So David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

¹¹He answered David, “Come on, let’s go out to the countryside.” So both of them went out to the countryside.

¹²“By the LORD, the God of Israel, I will sound out my father by this time tomorrow or the next day. If I find out that he is favorable toward you, will I not send for you and tell you?

¹³If my father intends to bring evil on you, may God punish Jonathan and do so severely if I do not tell you and send you away so you may leave safely. May the LORD be with you, just as he was with my father.

¹⁴If I continue to live, show me kindness from the LORD, but if I die,

¹⁵don’t ever withdraw your kindness from my household — not even when the LORD cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”

¹⁶Then Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD hold David’s enemies accountable.”

¹⁷Jonathan once again swore to David in his love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.

¹⁸Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the New Moon; you’ll be missed because your seat will be empty.

¹⁹The following day hurry down and go to the place where you hid on the day this incident began and stay beside the rock Ezel.

²⁰I will shoot three arrows beside it as if I’m aiming at a target.

²¹Then I will send a servant and say, ‘Go and find the arrows! ’ Now, if I expressly say to the servant, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you — get them,’ then come, because as the LORD lives, it is safe for you and there is no problem.

²²But if I say this to the youth, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you! ’ then go, for the LORD is sending you away.

²³As for the matter you and I have spoken about, the LORD will be a witness between you and me forever.”

²⁴So David hid in the countryside. At the New Moon, the king sat down to eat the meal.

²⁵He sat at his usual place on the seat by the wall. Jonathan sat facing him and Abner took his place beside Saul, but David’s place was empty.

²⁶Saul did not say anything that day because he thought, “Something unexpected has happened; he must be ceremonially unclean — yes, that’s it, he is unclean.”

²⁷However, the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t Jesse’s son come to the meal either yesterday or today?”

²⁸Jonathan answered, “David asked for my permission to go to Bethlehem.

²⁹He said, ‘Please let me go because our clan is holding a sacrifice in the town, and my brother has told me to be there. So now, if I have found favor with you, let me go so I can see my brothers.’ That’s why he didn’t come to the king’s table.”

³⁰Then Saul became angry with Jonathan and shouted, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you are siding with Jesse’s son to your own shame and to the disgrace of your mother?

³¹Every day Jesse’s son lives on earth you and your kingship are not secure. Now send for him and bring him to me — he must die!”

³²Jonathan answered his father back: “Why is he to be killed? What has he done?”

³³Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, so he knew that his father was determined to kill David.

³⁴He got up from the table fiercely angry and did not eat any food that second day of the New Moon, for he was grieved because of his father’s shameful behavior toward David.

³⁵In the morning Jonathan went out to the countryside for the appointed meeting with David. A young servant was with him.

³⁶He said to the servant, “Run and find the arrows I’m shooting.” As the servant ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him.

³⁷He came to the location of the arrow that Jonathan had shot, but Jonathan called to him and said, “The arrow is beyond you, isn’t it?”

³⁸Then Jonathan called to him, “Hurry up and don’t stop!” Jonathan’s servant picked up the arrow and returned to his master.

³⁹He did not know anything; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement.

⁴⁰Then Jonathan gave his equipment to the servant who was with him and said, “Go, take it back to the city.”

⁴¹When the servant had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone Ezel, fell facedown to the ground, and paid homage three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept with each other, though David wept more.

⁴²Jonathan then said to David, “Go in the assurance the two of us pledged in the name of the LORD when we said: The LORD will be a witness between you and me and between my offspring and your offspring forever.” Then David left, and Jonathan went into the city.

¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²“Go and announce directly to Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: I remember the loyalty of your youth, your love as a bride — how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

³Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it found themselves guilty; disaster came on them.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁴Hear the word of the LORD, house of Jacob and all families of the house of Israel.

⁵This is what the LORD says: What fault did your fathers find in me that they went so far from me, followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?

⁶They stopped asking, “Where is the LORD who brought us from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, through a land of drought and darkness, a land no one traveled through and where no one lived?”

⁷I brought you to a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but after you entered, you defiled my land; you made my inheritance detestable.

⁸The priests quit asking, “Where is the LORD?” The experts in the law no longer knew me, and the rulers rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.

⁹Therefore, I will bring a case against you again. This is the LORD’s declaration. I will bring a case against your children’s children.

¹⁰Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and take a look. Send someone to Kedar and consider carefully; see if there has ever been anything like this:

¹¹Has a nation ever exchanged its gods? (But they were not gods! ) Yet my people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.

¹²Be appalled at this, heavens; be shocked and utterly desolated! This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹³For my people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves —  cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.

¹⁴Is Israel a slave? Was he born into slavery? Why else has he become a prey?

¹⁵The young lions have roared at him; they have roared loudly. They have laid waste his land. His cities are in ruins, without inhabitants.

¹⁶The men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have also broken your skull.

¹⁷Have you not brought this on yourself by abandoning the LORD your God while he was leading you along the way?

¹⁸Now what will you gain by traveling along the way to Egypt to drink the water of the Nile? What will you gain by traveling along the way to Assyria to drink the water of the Euphrates?

¹⁹Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Recognize how evil and bitter it is for you to abandon the LORD your God and to have no fear of me. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD of Armies.

²⁰For long ago I broke your yoke; I tore off your chains. You insisted, “I will not serve!” On every high hill and under every green tree you lay down like a prostitute.

²¹I planted you, a choice vine from the very best seed. How then could you turn into a degenerate, foreign vine?

²²Even if you wash with lye and use a great amount of bleach, the stain of your iniquity is still in front of me. This is the Lord GOD’s declaration.

²³How can you protest, “I am not defiled; I have not followed the Baals”? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young camel twisting and turning on her way,

²⁴a wild donkey at home in the wilderness. She sniffs the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can control her passion? All who look for her will not become weary; they will find her in her mating season.

²⁵Keep your feet from going bare and your throat from thirst. But you say, “It’s hopeless; I love strangers, and I will continue to follow them.”

²⁶Like the shame of a thief when he is caught, so the house of Israel has been put to shame. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets

²⁷say to a tree, “You are my father,” and to a stone, “You gave birth to me.” For they have turned their back to me and not their face, yet in their time of disaster they beg, “Rise up and save us!”

²⁸But where are your gods you made for yourself? Let them rise up and save you in your time of disaster if they can, for your gods are as numerous as your cities, Judah.

²⁹Why do you bring a case against me? All of you have rebelled against me. This is the LORD’s declaration.

³⁰I have struck down your children in vain; they would not accept discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a ravaging lion.

³¹Evil generation, pay attention to the word of the LORD! Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of dense darkness? Why do my people claim, “We will go where we want; we will no longer come to you”?

³²Can a young woman forget her jewelry or a bride her wedding sash? Yet my people have forgotten me for countless days.

³³How skillfully you pursue love; you also teach evil women your ways.

³⁴Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor. You did not catch them breaking and entering. But in spite of all these things

³⁵you claim, “I am innocent. His anger is sure to turn away from me.” But I will certainly judge you because you have said, “I have not sinned.”

³⁶How unstable you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be put to shame by Egypt just as you were put to shame by Assyria.

³⁷Moreover, you will be led out from here with your hands on your head since the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not succeed even with their help.

¹There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment.

²He was a devout man and feared God along with his whole household. He did many charitable deeds for the Jewish people and always prayed to God.

³About three in the afternoon he distinctly saw in a vision an angel of God who came in and said to him, “Cornelius.”

⁴Staring at him in awe, he said, “What is it, Lord?” The angel told him, “Your prayers and your acts of charity have ascended as a memorial offering before God.

⁵Now send men to Joppa and call for Simon, who is also named Peter.

⁶He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

⁷When the angel who spoke to him had gone, he called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, who was one of those who attended him.

⁸After explaining everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

⁹The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon.

¹⁰He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he fell into a trance.

¹¹He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth.

¹²In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky.

¹³A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.”

¹⁴“No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.”

¹⁵Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.”

¹⁶This happened three times, and suddenly the object was taken up into heaven.

¹⁷While Peter was deeply perplexed about what the vision he had seen might mean, right away the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions to Simon’s house, stood at the gate.

¹⁸They called out, asking if Simon, who was also named Peter, was lodging there.

¹⁹While Peter was thinking about the vision, the Spirit told him, “Three men are here looking for you.

²⁰Get up, go downstairs, and go with them with no doubts at all, because I have sent them.”

²¹Then Peter went down to the men and said, “Here I am, the one you’re looking for. What is the reason you’re here?”

²²They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who has a good reputation with the whole Jewish nation, was divinely directed by a holy angel to call you to his house and to hear a message from you.”

²³Peter then invited them in and gave them lodging. The next day he got up and set out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went with him.

²⁴The following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

²⁵When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell at his feet, and worshiped him.

²⁶But Peter lifted him up and said, “Stand up. I myself am also a man.”

²⁷While talking with him, he went in and found a large gathering of people.

²⁸Peter said to them, “You know it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner, but God has shown me that I must not call any person impure or unclean.

²⁹That’s why I came without any objection when I was sent for. So may I ask why you sent for me?”

³⁰Cornelius replied, “Four days ago at this hour, at three in the afternoon, I was praying in my house. Just then a man in dazzling clothing stood before me

³¹and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your acts of charity have been remembered in God’s sight.

³²Therefore send someone to Joppa and invite Simon here, who is also named Peter. He is lodging in Simon the tanner’s house by the sea.’

³³So I immediately sent for you, and it was good of you to come. So now we are all in the presence of God to hear everything you have been commanded by the Lord.”

³⁴Peter began to speak: “Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism,

³⁵but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

³⁶He sent the message to the Israelites, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ — he is Lord of all.

³⁷You know the events that took place throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John preached:

³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him.

³⁹We ourselves are witnesses of everything he did in both the Judean country and in Jerusalem, and yet they killed him by hanging him on a tree.

⁴⁰God raised up this man on the third day and caused him to be seen,

⁴¹not by all the people, but by us whom God appointed as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

⁴²He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

⁴³All the prophets testify about him that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.”

⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who heard the message.

⁴⁵The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.

⁴⁶For they heard them speaking in other tongues and declaring the greatness of God. Then Peter responded,

⁴⁷“Can anyone withhold water and prevent these people from being baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”

⁴⁸He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay for a few days.