Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

²At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them.

³Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center.

⁴“Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.

⁵In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”

⁶They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him. Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger.

⁷When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.”

⁸Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground.

⁹When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center.

¹⁰When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹“No one, Lord,” she answered. “Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”

¹²Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”

¹³So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

¹⁴“Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “My testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going.

¹⁵You judge by human standards. I judge no one.

¹⁶And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

¹⁷Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.

¹⁸I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

¹⁹Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?” “You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”

²⁰He spoke these words by the treasury, while teaching in the temple. But no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

²¹Then he said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”

²²So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’ ?”

²³“You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

²⁴Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

²⁵“Who are you?” they questioned. “Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them.

²⁶“I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him — these things I tell the world.”

²⁷They did not know he was speaking to them about the Father.

²⁸So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own. But just as the Father taught me, I say these things.

²⁹The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”

³⁰As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

³¹Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples.

³²You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

³³“We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

³⁵A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever.

³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.

³⁷I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you.

³⁸I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father; so then, you do what you have heard from your father.”

³⁹“Our father is Abraham,” they replied. “If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did.

⁴⁰But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.

⁴¹You’re doing what your father does.” “We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father — God.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me.

⁴³Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word.

⁴⁴You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

⁴⁵Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

⁴⁶Who among you can convict me of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?

⁴⁷The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.”

⁴⁸The Jews responded to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?”

⁴⁹“I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered. “On the contrary, I honor my Father and you dishonor me.

⁵⁰I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges.

⁵¹Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

⁵²Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’

⁵³Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?”

⁵⁴“If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father — about whom you say, ‘He is our God’ — he is the one who glorifies me.

⁵⁵You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word.

⁵⁶Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?”

⁵⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”

⁵⁹So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.

¹“Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan, and King Og of Bashan came out against us with his whole army to do battle at Edrei.

²But the LORD said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you along with his whole army and his land. Do to him as you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.’

³So the LORD our God also handed over King Og of Bashan and his whole army to us. We struck him until there was no survivor left.

⁴We captured all his cities at that time. There wasn’t a city that we didn’t take from them: sixty cities, the entire region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

⁵All these were fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides a large number of rural villages.

⁶We completely destroyed them, as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon, destroying the men, women, and children of every city.

⁷But we took all the livestock and the spoil from the cities as plunder for ourselves.

⁸“At that time we took the land from the two Amorite kings across the Jordan, from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon,

⁹which the Sidonians call Sirion, but the Amorites call Senir,

¹⁰all the cities of the plateau, Gilead, and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, cities of Og’s kingdom in Bashan.

¹¹(Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed was made of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the Ammonites? It is 13½ feet long and 6 feet wide by a standard measure. )

¹²“At that time we took possession of this land. I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites the area extending from Aroer by the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead along with its cities.

¹³I gave to half the tribe of Manasseh the rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og. The entire region of Argob, the whole territory of Bashan, used to be called the land of the Rephaim.

¹⁴Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took over the entire region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites. He called Bashan by his own name, Jair’s Villages, as it is today.

¹⁵I gave Gilead to Machir,

¹⁶and I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites the area extending from Gilead to the Arnon Valley (the middle of the valley was the border) and up to the Jabbok River, the border of the Ammonites.

¹⁷The Arabah and Jordan are also borders from Chinnereth as far as the Sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah on the east.

¹⁸“I commanded you at that time: The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All your valiant men will cross over in battle formation ahead of your brothers the Israelites.

¹⁹But your wives, dependents, and livestock — I know that you have a lot of livestock — will remain in the cities I have given you

²⁰until the LORD gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession that I have given you.

²¹“I commanded Joshua at that time: Your own eyes have seen everything the LORD your God has done to these two kings. The LORD will do the same to all the kingdoms you are about to enter.

²²Don’t be afraid of them, for the LORD your God fights for you.

²³“At that time I begged the LORD:

²⁴Lord GOD, you have begun to show your greatness and your strong hand to your servant, for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can perform deeds and mighty acts like yours?

²⁵Please let me cross over and see the beautiful land on the other side of the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.

²⁶“But the LORD was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. The LORD said to me, ‘That’s enough! Do not speak to me again about this matter.

²⁷Go to the top of Pisgah and look to the west, north, south, and east, and see it with your own eyes, for you will not cross the Jordan.

²⁸But commission Joshua and encourage and strengthen him, for he will cross over ahead of the people and enable them to inherit this land that you will see.’

²⁹So we stayed in the valley facing Beth-peor.

¹Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand

²and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you — unless you believed in vain.

³For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.

⁶Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.

⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

⁸Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, he also appeared to me.

⁹For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

¹¹Whether, then, it is I or they, so we proclaim and so you have believed.

¹²Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say, “There is no resurrection of the dead”?

¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised;

¹⁴and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith.

¹⁵Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified wrongly about God that he raised up Christ — whom he did not raise up, if in fact the dead are not raised.

¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

¹⁸Those, then, who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished.

¹⁹If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.

²⁰But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

²¹For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man.

²²For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

²³But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.

²⁴Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he abolishes all rule and all authority and power.

²⁵For he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet.

²⁶The last enemy to be abolished is death.

²⁷For God has put everything under his feet. Now when it says “everything” is put under him, it is obvious that he who puts everything under him is the exception.

²⁸When everything is subject to Christ, then the Son himself will also be subject to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.

²⁹Otherwise what will they do who are being baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are people baptized for them?

³⁰Why are we in danger every hour?

³¹I face death every day, as surely as I may boast about you, brothers and sisters, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

³²If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus as a mere man, what good did that do me? If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

³³Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

³⁴Come to your senses and stop sinning; for some people are ignorant about God. I say this to your shame.

³⁵But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have when they come?”

³⁶You fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

³⁷And as for what you sow — you are not sowing the body that will be, but only a seed, perhaps of wheat or another grain.

³⁸But God gives it a body as he wants, and to each of the seeds its own body.

³⁹Not all flesh is the same flesh; there is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

⁴⁰There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is different from that of the earthly ones.

⁴¹There is a splendor of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; in fact, one star differs from another star in splendor.

⁴²So it is with the resurrection of the dead: Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption;

⁴³sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power;

⁴⁴sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

⁴⁵So it is written, The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

⁴⁶However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual.

⁴⁷The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

⁴⁸Like the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; like the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.

⁴⁹And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.

⁵⁰What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption.

⁵¹Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed,

⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.

⁵³For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality.

⁵⁴When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory.

⁵⁵Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

⁵⁸Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

¹I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom:

²Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching.

³For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear.

⁴They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.

⁵But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

⁶For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close.

⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

⁸There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.

⁹Make every effort to come to me soon,

¹⁰because Demas has deserted me, since he loved this present world, and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

¹¹Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry.

¹²I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

¹³When you come, bring the cloak I left in Troas with Carpus, as well as the scrolls, especially the parchments.

¹⁴Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his works.

¹⁵Watch out for him yourself because he strongly opposed our words.

¹⁶At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them.

¹⁷But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that I might fully preach the word and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.

¹⁸The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

¹⁹Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.

²⁰Erastus has remained at Corinth; I left Trophimus sick at Miletus.

²¹Make every effort to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters.

²²The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.

¹But now, Job, pay attention to my speech, and listen to all my words.

²I am going to open my mouth; my tongue will form words on my palate.

³My words come from my upright heart, and my lips speak with sincerity what they know.

⁴The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

⁵Refute me if you can. Prepare your case against me; take your stand.

⁶I am just like you before God; I was also pinched off from a piece of clay.

⁷Fear of me should not terrify you; no pressure from me should weigh you down.

⁸Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard these very words:

⁹“I am pure, without transgression; I am clean and have no iniquity.

¹⁰But he finds reasons to oppose me; he regards me as his enemy.

¹¹He puts my feet in the stocks; he stands watch over all my paths.”

¹²But I tell you that you are wrong in this matter, since God is greater than man.

¹³Why do you take him to court for not answering anything a person asks?

¹⁴For God speaks time and again, but a person may not notice it.

¹⁵In a dream, a vision in the night, when deep sleep comes over people as they slumber on their beds,

¹⁶he uncovers their ears and terrifies them with warnings,

¹⁷in order to turn a person from his actions and suppress the pride of a person.

¹⁸God spares his soul from the Pit, his life from crossing the river of death.

¹⁹A person may be disciplined on his bed with pain and constant distress in his bones,

²⁰so that he detests bread, and his soul despises his favorite food.

²¹His flesh wastes away to nothing, and his unseen bones stick out.

²²He draws near to the Pit, and his life to the executioners.

²³If there is an angel on his side, one mediator out of a thousand, to tell a person what is right for him

²⁴and to be gracious to him and say, “Spare him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom,”

²⁵then his flesh will be healthier than in his youth, and he will return to the days of his youthful vigor.

²⁶He will pray to God, and God will delight in him. That person will see his face with a shout of joy, and God will restore his righteousness to him.

²⁷He will look at men and say, “I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved.

²⁸He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and I will continue to see the light.”

²⁹God certainly does all these things two or three times to a person

³⁰in order to turn him back from the Pit, so he may shine with the light of life.

³¹Pay attention, Job, and listen to me. Be quiet, and I will speak.

³²But if you have something to say, answer me; speak, for I would like to justify you.

³³If not, then listen to me; be quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.

¹Vindicate me, God, and champion my cause against an unfaithful nation; rescue me from the deceitful and unjust person.

²For you are the God of my refuge. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?

³Send your light and your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling place.

⁴Then I will come to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise you with the lyre, God, my God.

⁵Why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God.

¹My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,

²listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding;

³furthermore, if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,

⁴if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,

⁵then you will understand the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.

⁶For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

⁷He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity

⁸so that he may guard the paths of justice and protect the way of his faithful followers.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and integrity — every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will delight you.

¹¹Discretion will watch over you, and understanding will guard you.

¹²It will rescue you from the way of evil — from anyone who says perverse things,

¹³from those who abandon the right paths to walk in ways of darkness,

¹⁴from those who enjoy doing evil and celebrate perversion,

¹⁵whose paths are crooked, and whose ways are devious.

¹⁶It will rescue you from a forbidden woman, from a wayward woman with her flattering talk,

¹⁷who abandons the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;

¹⁸for her house sinks down to death and her ways to the land of the departed spirits.

¹⁹None return who go to her; none reach the paths of life.

²⁰So follow the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will inhabit the land, and those of integrity will remain in it;

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous ripped out of it.

¹Joab son of Zeruiah realized that the king’s mind was on Absalom.

²So Joab sent someone to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Pretend to be in mourning: dress in mourning clothes and don’t put on any oil. Act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for a long time.

³Go to the king and speak these words to him.” Then Joab told her exactly what to say.

⁴When the woman from Tekoa came to the king, she fell facedown to the ground, paid homage, and said, “Help me, Your Majesty!”

⁵“What’s the matter?” the king asked her. “Sadly, I am a widow; my husband died,” she said.

⁶“Your servant had two sons. They were fighting in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.

⁷Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant and said, ‘Hand over the one who killed his brother so we may put him to death for the life of the brother he murdered. We will eliminate the heir! ’ They would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on earth.”

⁸The king told the woman, “Go home. I will issue a command on your behalf.”

⁹Then the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord the king, may any blame be on me and my father’s family, and may the king and his throne be innocent.”

¹⁰“Whoever speaks to you,” the king said, “bring him to me. He will not trouble you again!”

¹¹She replied, “Please, may the king invoke the LORD your God, so that the avenger of blood will not increase the loss, and they will not eliminate my son!” “As the LORD lives,” he vowed, “not a hair of your son will fall to the ground.”

¹²Then the woman said, “Please, may your servant speak a word to my lord the king?” “Speak,” he replied.

¹³The woman asked, “Why have you devised something similar against the people of God? When the king spoke as he did about this matter, he has pronounced his own guilt. The king has not brought back his own banished one.

¹⁴We will certainly die and be like water poured out on the ground, which can’t be recovered. But God would not take away a life; he would devise plans so that the one banished from him does not remain banished.

¹⁵“Now therefore, I’ve come to present this matter to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought: I must speak to the king. Perhaps the king will grant his servant’s request.

¹⁶The king will surely listen in order to keep his servant from the grasp of this man who would eliminate both me and my son from God’s inheritance.

¹⁷Your servant thought: May the word of my lord the king bring relief, for my lord the king is able to discern the good and the bad like the angel of God. May the LORD your God be with you.”

¹⁸Then the king answered the woman, “I’m going to ask you something; don’t conceal it from me!” “Let my lord the king speak,” the woman replied.

¹⁹The king asked, “Did Joab put you up to all this?” The woman answered. “As you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or left from all my lord the king says. Yes, your servant Joab is the one who gave orders to me; he told your servant exactly what to say.

²⁰Joab your servant has done this to address the issue indirectly, but my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God, knowing everything on earth.”

²¹Then the king said to Joab, “I hereby grant this request. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.”

²²Joab fell with his face to the ground in homage and blessed the king. “Today,” Joab said, “your servant knows I have found favor with you, my lord the king, because the king has granted the request of your servant.”

²³So Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴However, the king added, “He may return to his house, but he may not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his house, but he did not see the king.

²⁵No man in all Israel was as handsome and highly praised as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head, he did not have a single flaw.

²⁶When he shaved his head — he shaved it at the end of every year because his hair got so heavy for him that he had to shave it off — he would weigh the hair from his head and it would be five pounds according to the royal standard.

²⁷Three sons were born to Absalom, and a daughter named Tamar, who was a beautiful woman.

²⁸Absalom resided in Jerusalem two years but never saw the king.

²⁹Then Absalom sent for Joab in order to send him to the king, but Joab was unwilling to come to him. So he sent again, a second time, but he still would not come.

³⁰Then Absalom said to his servants, “See, Joab has a field right next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set fire to it!” So Absalom’s servants set the field on fire.

³¹Then Joab came to Absalom’s house and demanded, “Why did your servants set my field on fire?”

³²“Look,” Absalom explained to Joab, “I sent for you and said, ‘Come here. I want to send you to the king to ask: Why have I come back from Geshur? I’d be better off if I were still there.’ So now, let me see the king. If I am guilty, let him kill me.”

³³Joab went to the king and told him. So David summoned Absalom, who came to the king and paid homage with his face to the ground before him. Then the king kissed Absalom.

¹At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²This is what the LORD said to me: “Make chains and yoke bars for yourself and put them on your neck.

³Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon through messengers who are coming to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem.

⁴Command them to go to their masters, saying, ‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Tell this to your masters:

⁵“By my great strength and outstretched arm, I made the earth, and the people, and animals on the face of the earth. I give it to anyone I please.

⁶So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I have even given him the wild animals to serve him.

⁷All nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until the time for his own land comes, and then many nations and great kings will enslave him.

⁸“‘“As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and does not place its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish by sword, famine, and plague — this is the LORD’s declaration — until through him I have destroyed it.

⁹So you should not listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, fortune-tellers, or sorcerers who say to you, ‘Don’t serve the king of Babylon!’

¹⁰They are prophesying a lie to you so that you will be removed from your land. I will banish you, and you will perish.

¹¹But as for the nation that will put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave it in its own land, and that nation will cultivate it and reside in it. This is the LORD’s declaration.”’”

¹²I spoke to King Zedekiah of Judah in the same way: “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, serve him and his people, and live!

¹³Why should you and your people die by the sword, famine, and plague as the LORD has threatened against any nation that does not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁴Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are telling you, ‘Don’t serve the king of Babylon,’ for they are prophesying a lie to you.

¹⁵‘I have not sent them’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘and they are prophesying falsely in my name; therefore, I will banish you, and you will perish — you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.’”

¹⁶Then I spoke to the priests and all these people, saying, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Do not listen to the words of your prophets. They are prophesying to you, claiming, “Look, very soon now the articles of the LORD’s temple will be brought back from Babylon.” They are prophesying a lie to you.

¹⁷Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live! Why should this city become a ruin?

¹⁸If they are indeed prophets and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them intercede with the LORD of Armies not to let the articles that remain in the LORD’s temple, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem go to Babylon.’

¹⁹For this is what the LORD of Armies says about the pillars, the basin, the water carts, and the rest of the articles that still remain in this city,

²⁰those King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take when he deported Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.

²¹Yes, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says about the articles that remain in the temple of the LORD, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:

²²‘They will be taken to Babylon and will remain there until I attend to them again.’ This is the LORD’s declaration. ‘Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’”

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.