Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

²So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.

³Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said,

⁵“Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

⁶He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it.

⁷Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.

⁸For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

⁹When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

¹⁰So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well,

¹¹because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

¹²The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

¹³So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”

¹⁴And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,

¹⁵“Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!”

¹⁶His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.

¹⁷The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness.

¹⁸The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.

¹⁹So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.”

²⁰Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks.

²¹So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

²²Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

²³And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

²⁴Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

²⁵ Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

²⁶If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

²⁷ “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

²⁸Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

²⁹The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”

³⁰Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.

³¹ Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

³³He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

³⁴So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”

³⁵So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” The Unbelief of the People When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.

³⁷Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him,

³⁸so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

³⁹Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

⁴⁰“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”

⁴¹Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

⁴²Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue;

⁴³for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

⁴⁴And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.

⁴⁵And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.

⁴⁶ I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

⁴⁷If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

⁴⁸ The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

⁴⁹For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment — what to say and what to speak.

⁵⁰And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

¹“When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you,

²and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.

³You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,

⁴for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

⁵But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.

⁶“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

⁷It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

⁸but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

¹⁰and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.

¹¹You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

¹²“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers.

¹³He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.

¹⁴You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock.

¹⁵And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.

¹⁶And you shall consume all the peoples that the LORD your God will give over to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

¹⁷“If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’

¹⁸you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,

¹⁹the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

²⁰Moreover, the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed.

²¹You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.

²²The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.

²³But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.

²⁴And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.

²⁵The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.

²⁶And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.

¹Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?

²You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all.

³And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

⁵Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

⁶who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end,

⁸will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?

⁹For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

¹⁰Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it.

¹¹For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

¹²Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,

¹³not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.

¹⁴But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.

¹⁵Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.

¹⁶But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

¹⁸And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹“At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place.

²Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

³Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth.

⁴After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.

⁵God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.

⁶For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.

⁷He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he made may know it.

⁸Then the beasts go into their lairs, and remain in their dens.

⁹From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds.

¹⁰By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast.

¹¹He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning.

¹²They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world.

¹³Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen.

¹⁴“Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God.

¹⁵Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?

¹⁶Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,

¹⁷you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind?

¹⁸Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a cast metal mirror?

¹⁹Teach us what we shall say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.

²⁰Shall it be told him that I would speak? Did a man ever wish that he would be swallowed up?

²¹“And now no one looks on the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them.

²²Out of the north comes golden splendor; God is clothed with awesome majesty.

²³The Almighty — we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.

²⁴Therefore men fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”

¹Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!

²For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.

³He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.

⁴He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah

⁵God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.

⁶Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!

⁷For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!

⁸God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.

⁹The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted!

¹My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger,

²if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth,

³then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.

⁴Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;

⁵save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

⁷Without having any chief, officer, or ruler,

⁸she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,

¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech,

¹³winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger,

¹⁴with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord;

¹⁵therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

¹⁶There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,

¹⁹a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.

²¹Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

²⁴to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

²⁶for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.

²⁷Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,

³¹but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house.

³²He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.

³³He will get wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts.

¹Then David mustered the men who were with him and set over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds.

²And David sent out the army, one third under the command of Joab, one third under the command of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and one third under the command of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said to the men, “I myself will also go out with you.”

³But the men said, “You shall not go out. For if we flee, they will not care about us. If half of us die, they will not care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. Therefore it is better that you send us help from the city.”

⁴The king said to them, “Whatever seems best to you I will do.” So the king stood at the side of the gate, while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands.

⁵And the king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders about Absalom.

⁶So the army went out into the field against Israel, and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim.

⁷And the men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the loss there was great on that day, twenty thousand men.

⁸The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword.

⁹And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on.

¹⁰And a certain man saw it and told Joab, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.”

¹¹Joab said to the man who told him, “What, you saw him! Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have been glad to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt.”

¹²But the man said to Joab, “Even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not reach out my hand against the king's son, for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘For my sake protect the young man Absalom.’

¹³On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously against his life (and there is nothing hidden from the king), then you yourself would have stood aloof.”

¹⁴Joab said, “I will not waste time like this with you.” And he took three javelins in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak.

¹⁵And ten young men, Joab's armor-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him.

¹⁶Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the troops came back from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained them.

¹⁷And they took Absalom and threw him into a great pit in the forest and raised over him a very great heap of stones. And all Israel fled every one to his own home.

¹⁸Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself the pillar that is in the King's Valley, for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.” He called the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom's monument to this day.

¹⁹Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said, “Let me run and carry news to the king that the LORD has delivered him from the hand of his enemies.”

²⁰And Joab said to him, “You are not to carry news today. You may carry news another day, but today you shall carry no news, because the king's son is dead.”

²¹Then Joab said to the Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen.” The Cushite bowed before Joab, and ran.

²²Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said again to Joab, “Come what may, let me also run after the Cushite.” And Joab said, “Why will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the news?”

²³“Come what may,” he said, “I will run.” So he said to him, “Run.” Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and outran the Cushite.

²⁴Now David was sitting between the two gates, and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall, and when he lifted up his eyes and looked, he saw a man running alone.

²⁵The watchman called out and told the king. And the king said, “If he is alone, there is news in his mouth.” And he drew nearer and nearer.

²⁶The watchman saw another man running. And the watchman called to the gate and said, “See, another man running alone!” The king said, “He also brings news.”

²⁷The watchman said, “I think the running of the first is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok.” And the king said, “He is a good man and comes with good news.”

²⁸Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, “All is well.” And he bowed before the king with his face to the earth and said, “Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king.”

²⁹And the king said, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” Ahimaaz answered, “When Joab sent the king's servant, your servant, I saw a great commotion, but I do not know what it was.”

³⁰And the king said, “Turn aside and stand here.” So he turned aside and stood still.

³¹And behold, the Cushite came, and the Cushite said, “Good news for my lord the king! For the LORD has delivered you this day from the hand of all who rose up against you.”

³²The king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” And the Cushite answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man.”

³³And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

¹“At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”

²Thus says the LORD: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest,

³the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

⁴Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.

⁵Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit.

⁶For there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of Ephraim: ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.’”

⁷For thus says the LORD: “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.’

⁸Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.

⁹With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

¹⁰“Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’

¹¹For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

¹²They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.

¹³Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

¹⁴I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the LORD.”

¹⁵Thus says the LORD: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

¹⁶Thus says the LORD: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷There is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country.

¹⁸I have heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the LORD my God.

¹⁹For after I had turned away, I relented, and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

²⁰Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the LORD.

²¹“Set up road markers for yourself; make yourself guideposts; consider well the highway, the road by which you went. Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities.

²²How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encircles a man.”

²³Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes: “‘The LORD bless you, O habitation of righteousness, O holy hill!’

²⁴And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks.

²⁵For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

²⁶At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

²⁷“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast.

²⁸And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD.

²⁹In those days they shall no longer say: “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.’

³⁰But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

³¹“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,

³²not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.

³³For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

³⁴And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

³⁵Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — the LORD of hosts is his name:

³⁶“If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.”

³⁷Thus says the LORD: “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the LORD.”

³⁸“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

³⁹And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah.

⁴⁰The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the LORD. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”

¹Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

²So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying,

³“You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

⁴But Peter began and explained it to them in order:

⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me.

⁶Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air.

⁷And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’

⁸But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’

¹⁰This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven.

¹¹And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea.

¹²And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.

¹³And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter;

¹⁴he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’

¹⁵As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.

¹⁶And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

¹⁷If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”

¹⁸When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

¹⁹Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.

²⁰But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.

²¹And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

²²The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

²³When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose,

²⁴for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.

²⁵So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,

²⁶and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

²⁷Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius).

²⁹So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.

³⁰And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.