Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

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

²So they made Him a dinner there, and Martha was serving; and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.

³Mary then took a pound of very expensive perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, the one who intended to betray Him, *said,

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

⁶Now he said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he kept the money box, he used to steal from what was put into it.

⁷Therefore Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep itfor the day of My burial.

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

⁹The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not on account of Jesus only, but so that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead.

¹⁰But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also,

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

¹²On the next day, when the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,

¹³they took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began shouting, “Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, indeed, the King of Israel!”

¹⁴Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written:

¹⁵“DO NOT FEAR, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING, SEATED ON A DONKEY’S COLT.”

¹⁶These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things for Him.

¹⁷So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him.

¹⁸For this reason also the people went to meet Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.

¹⁹So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not accomplishing anything; look, the world has gone after Him!”

²⁰Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast;

²¹these people then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and were making a request of him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

²²Philip *came and *told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip *came and *told Jesus.

²³But Jesus *answered them by saying, “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.

²⁵The one who loves hislife loses it, and the one who hates hislife in this world will keep itto eternal life.

²⁶If anyoneserves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyoneserves Me, the Father will honor him.

²⁷“Now My soul has become troubled; and what am I to say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.

²⁸Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

²⁹So the crowd who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him!”

³⁰Jesus responded and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for yours.

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

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

³³Now He was saying this to indicate what kind of death He was going to die.

³⁴The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how is it that You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

³⁵So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; also, the one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

³⁶While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus proclaimed, and He went away and hid Himself from them.

³⁷But though He had performed so many signs in their sight, they still were not believing in Him.

³⁸This happened so that the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke would be fulfilled: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?”

³⁹For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again,

⁴⁰“HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WILL NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED, AND so I WILL not heal them.”

⁴¹These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke about Him.

⁴²Nevertheless many, even of the rulers, believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, so that they would not be excommunicated from the synagogue;

⁴³for they loved the approval of people rather than the approval of God.

⁴⁴Now Jesus cried out and said, “The one who believes in Me, does not believe only in Me, but also in Him who sent Me.

⁴⁵And the one who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.

⁴⁶I have come as Light into the world, so that no one who believes in Me will remain in darkness.

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

⁴⁸The one who rejects Me and does notaccept Myteachings has one who judges him: the word which I spoke. That will judge him on the last day.

⁴⁹For I did not speakon My own, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.

⁵⁰And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

¹“When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to take possession of it, and He drives away many nations from before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,

²and when the LORD your God turns them over to you and you defeat them, you shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant with them nor be gracious to them.

³Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them: you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.

⁴For they will turn your sons away from following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.

⁵But this is what you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, smash their memorial stones, cut their Asherim to pieces, and burn their carved images in the fire.

⁶For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His personal possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

⁷“The LORD did not make you His beloved nor choose you because you were greater in number than any of the peoples, since you were the fewest of all peoples,

⁸but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by 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, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His faithfulness to a thousand generations for those who love Him and keep His commandments;

¹⁰but He repays those who hate Him to their faces, to eliminate them; He will not hesitate toward him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.

¹¹Therefore, you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I am commanding you today, to do them.

¹²“Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep His covenant with you and His faithfulness which He swore to your forefathers.

¹³And He will love you, bless you, and make you numerous; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain, your new wine, and your oil, the newborn of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land which He swore to your forefathers to give you.

¹⁴You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no sterile male or infertile female among you or among your cattle.

¹⁵And the LORD will remove from you all sickness; and He will not inflict upon you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will give them to all who hate you.

¹⁶You shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD your God will turn over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor 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 are not to be afraid of them; you shall remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:

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

²⁰Indeed, the LORD your God will send the hornet against them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish.

²¹You are not to be terrified of them, because the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.

²²And the LORD your God will drive away these nations from you little by little; you will not be able to put an end to them quickly, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you.

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

²⁴And He will hand over their kings to you, so that you will eliminate their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.

²⁵The carved images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be trapped by it; for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.

²⁶And you shall not bring an abomination into your house and become designated for destruction, like it; you are to utterly detest it, and you are to utterly loathe it, for it is something designated for destruction.

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

²You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people,

³revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of 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 we have toward God through Christ.

⁵Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

⁶who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷But if the ministry of death, engraved in letters on stones, came with glory so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,

⁸how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?

⁹For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness excel in glory.

¹⁰For indeed what had glory in this case has no glory, because of the glory that surpasses it.

¹¹For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

¹²Therefore, having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,

¹³and we are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not stare at the end of what was fading away.

¹⁴But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.

¹⁵But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts;

¹⁶but whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

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

¹⁸But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

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

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

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

⁴I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers,

⁵because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints;

⁶and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for the sake of Christ.

⁷For I have had great joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

⁸Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper,

⁹yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you—since I am such a person as Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—

¹⁰I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I fathered in my imprisonment,

¹¹who previously was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me.

¹²I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart,

¹³whom I wanted to keep with me, so that in your behalf he might be at my service in my imprisonment for the gospel;

¹⁴but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion, but of your own free will.

¹⁵For perhaps it was for this reason that he was separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever,

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

¹⁷If then you regard me as a partner, accept him as you would me.

¹⁸But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account;

¹⁹I, Paul, have written this with my own hand, I will repay it (not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well).

²⁰Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ.

²¹Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, since I know that you will do even more than what I say.

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

²³Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you,

²⁴as 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 from its place.

²Listen closely to the thunder of His voice, And the rumbling that goes out from His mouth.

³Under the whole heaven He lets it loose, And His lightning travels to the ends of the earth.

⁴After it, a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, And He does not restrain the lightning when His voice is heard.

⁵God thunders wondrously with His voice, Doing great things which we do not comprehend.

⁶For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ And to the downpour and the rain, ‘Be strong.’

⁷He seals the hand of every person, So that all people may know His work.

⁸Then the animal goes into its lair And remains in its den.

⁹From the south comes the storm, And from the north wind the cold.

¹⁰From the breath of God ice is made, And the expanse of the waters is frozen.

¹¹He also loads the clouds with moisture; He disperses the cloud of His lightning.

¹²It changes direction, turning around by His guidance, That it may do whatever He commands it On the face of the inhabited earth.

¹³Whether for correction, or for His earth, Or for goodness, He causes it to happen.

¹⁴“Listen to this, Job; Stand and consider the wonders of God.

¹⁵Do you know how God establishes them, And makes the lightning of His clouds to shine?

¹⁶Do you know about the hovering of the clouds, The wonders of One who is perfect in knowledge,

¹⁷You whose garments are hot When the land is still because of the south wind?

¹⁸Can you, with Him, spread out the skies, Strong as a cast metal mirror?

¹⁹Teach us what we are to say to Him; We cannot present our case because of darkness.

²⁰Shall it be told Him that I would speak? Or should a man say that he would be swallowed up?

²¹“Now people do not see the light which is bright in the skies; But the wind has passed and cleared them.

²²From the north comes golden splendor; Around God is awesome majesty.

²³The Almighty—we cannot find Him; He is exalted in power And He will not violate justice and abundant righteousness.

²⁴Therefore people fear Him; He does not regard any who are wise of heart.”

¹Clap your hands, all you peoples; Shout to God with a voice of joy.

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

³He subdues peoples under us And nations under our feet.

⁴He chooses our inheritance for us, The pride of Jacob whom He loves. Selah

⁵God has ascended 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 of wisdom.

⁸God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne.

⁹The princes of the people have assembled 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 become a guarantor for your neighbor, Or have given a handshake for a stranger,

²If you have been ensnared by the words of your mouth, Or caught by the words of your mouth,

³Then do this, my son, and save yourself: Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and be urgent with your neighbor to free yourself.

⁴Give no sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids;

⁵Save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand, And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, you lazy one, Observe its ways and be wise,

⁷Which, having no chief, Officer, or ruler,

⁸Prepares its food in the summer And gathers its provision in the harvest.

⁹How long will you lie down, you lazy one? When will you arise from your sleep?

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

¹¹Then your poverty will come in like a drifter, And your need like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man, Is one who walks with a perverse mouth,

¹³Who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, Who points with his fingers;

¹⁴Who, with perversion in his heart, continually devises evil, Who spreads strife.

¹⁵Therefore his disaster will come suddenly; Instantly he will be broken and there will be no 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 run rapidly to evil,

¹⁹A false witness who declares lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.

²⁰My son, comply with the commandment of your father, And do not ignore the teaching of your mother;

²¹Bind them continually on your heart; Tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And rebukes for discipline are the way of life

²⁴To keep you from the evil woman, From the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart, Nor let her capture you with her eyelids.

²⁶For the price of a prostitute reduces one to a loaf of bread, And an adulteress hunts for a precious life.

²⁷Can anyone take fire in his lap And his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can a person walk on hot coals And his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her will not go unpunished.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals To satisfy himself when he is hungry;

³¹But when he is found, he must repay seven times as much; He must give up all the property of his house.

³²One who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself commits it.

³³He will find wounds and disgrace, And his shame will not be removed.

³⁴For jealousy enrages a man, And he will not have compassion on the day of vengeance.

³⁵He will not accept any settlement, Nor will he be satisfied though you make it a large gift.

¹Then David took a count of the people who were with him and appointed over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds.

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

³But the people said, “You should not go out; for if in fact we flee, they will not care about us; and if half of us die, they will not care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us; so now it is better that you will be ready to help us from the city.”

⁴Then the king said to them, “Whatever seems best to you I will do.” So the king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and thousands.

⁵But the king commanded Joab, Abishai, and Ittai, saying, “Deal gently with the young man Absalom for my sake.” And all the people heard when the king commanded all the commanders regarding Absalom.

⁶Then the people went out to the field against Israel, and the battle took place in the forest of Ephraim.

⁷The people of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the slaughter there that day was great, twenty thousand men.

⁸For the battle there was spread over the whole countryside, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

⁹Now Absalom encountered the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the branches of a massive oak. Then his head caught firmly in the oak, and he was left hanging between the sky and earth, while the mule that was under him kept going.

¹⁰When a certain man saw him, he informed Joab and said, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.”

¹¹Then Joab said to the man who had informed him, “So behold, you saw him! Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? And it would have been my duty to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt.”

¹²But the man said to Joab, “Even if I were to receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I would not put out my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you, Abishai, and Ittai, saying, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for me!’

¹³Otherwise, if I had dealt treacherously against his life (and there is nothing hidden from the king), then you yourself would have avoided me.”

¹⁴Then Joab said, “I will not waste time here with you.” So he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the midst of the oak.

¹⁵And ten young men who carried Joab’s armor gathered around and struck Absalom and killed him.

¹⁶Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained the people.

¹⁷And they took Absalom and threw him into a deep pit in the forest, and erected over him a very large pile of stones. And all Israel fled, each to his own tent.

¹⁸Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself a memorial stone, which is in the King’s Valley, for he said, “I have no son to continue my name.” So he named the memorial stone after his own name, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.

¹⁹Then Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said, “Please let me run and bring the king news that the LORD has freed him from the hand of his enemies!”

²⁰But Joab said to him, “You are not the man to bring news this day, but you shall bring news another day; however, you shall bring no news this day, because the king’s son is dead.”

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

²²However, Ahimaaz the son of Zadok said once more to Joab, “But whatever happens, please let me also run after the Cushite.” And Joab said, “Why would you run, my son, since you will have no messenger’s reward for going?”

²³“But whatever happens,” he said, “I will run.” So he said to him, “Run.” Then Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and passed by the Cushite.

²⁴Now David was sitting between the two gates; and the watchman went to the roof of the gate by the wall, and raised his eyes and looked; and behold, a man was running by himself.

²⁵So the watchman called out and told the king. And the king said, “If he is by himself there is good news in his mouth.” And he came nearer and nearer.

²⁶Then the watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the gatekeeper and said, “Behold, another man is running by himself.” And the king said, “This one also is bringing good news.”

²⁷The watchman said, “I think the running form of the first one is like the running form of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok.” And the king said, “This is a good man, and he is coming with good news.”

²⁸Then Ahimaaz called out and said to the king, “All is well.” And he prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground. And he said, “Blessed is the LORD your God, who has turned over the men who raised their hands against my lord the king.”

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

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

³¹Then behold, the Cushite arrived, and the Cushite said, “Let my lord the king receive good news, for the LORD has freed you this day from the hand of all those who rose up against you.”

³²Then the 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!”

³³Then the king trembled and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And this is what he said as he walked: “My son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!”

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

²This is what the LORD says: “The people who survived the sword Found grace in the wilderness— Israel, when it went to find its rest.”

³The LORD appeared to him long ago, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you out with kindness.

⁴I will build you again and you will be rebuilt, Virgin of Israel! You will take up your tambourines again, And go out to the dances of the revelers.

⁵Again you will plant vineyards On the hills of Samaria; The planters will plant And will enjoy the fruit.

⁶For there will be a day when watchmen On the hills of Ephraim call out, ‘Arise, and let’s go up to Zion, To the LORD our God.’ ”

⁷For this is what the LORD says: “Sing aloud with joy for Jacob, And be joyful with the chief of the nations; Proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘LORD, save Your people, The remnant of Israel!’

⁸Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth, Among them those who are blind and those who limp, The pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together; They will return here as a great assembly.

⁹They will come with weeping, And by pleading I will bring them; I will lead them by streams of waters, On a straight path on which they will not stumble; For I am a father to Israel, And Ephraim is My firstborn.”

¹⁰Hear the word of the LORD, you nations, And declare it in the coastlands far away, And say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, And He will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”

¹¹For the LORD has ransomed Jacob And redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

¹²“They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, And they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD— Over the grain, the new wine, the oil, And over the young of the flock and the herd. And their life will be like a watered garden, And they will never languish again.

¹³Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, And the young men and the old together; For I will turn their mourning into joy And comfort them, and give them joy for their sorrow.

¹⁴I will refresh the soul of the priests with abundance, And My people will be satisfied with My goodness,” declares the LORD.

¹⁵This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, Lamenting and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; She refuses to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more.”

¹⁶This is what the LORD says: “Restrain your voice from weeping And your eyes from tears; For your work will be rewarded,” declares the LORD, “And they will return from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷There is hope for your future,” declares the LORD, “And your children will return to their own territory.

¹⁸I have certainly heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was corrected, Like an untrained calf; Bring me back that I may be restored, For You are the LORD my God.

¹⁹For after I turned back, I repented; And after I was instructed, I slapped my thigh; I was ashamed and also humiliated Because I bore the shame of my youth.’

²⁰Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a delightful child? Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him, I certainly still remember him; Therefore My heart yearns for him; I will certainly have mercy on him,” declares the LORD.

²¹“Set up roadmarks for yourself, Place guideposts for yourself; Direct your mind to the highway, The way by which you went. Return, O virgin of Israel, Return to these your cities.

²²How long will you waver, You rebellious daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: A woman will shelter a man.”

²³This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Once again they will speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I restore their fortunes, ‘The LORD bless you, O place of righteousness, O holy hill!’

²⁴Judah and all its cities will live together in it, the farmers and those who travel with flocks.

²⁵For I give plenty of water to the weary ones, and refresh everyone who languishes.”

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

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

²⁸And just as I have watched over them to uproot them, tear them down, ruin, destroy, and bring disaster on them, so I will watch over them to build and to plant them,” declares the LORD.

²⁹“In those days they will no longer say, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, But it is the children’s teeth that have become blunt.’

³⁰But everyone will die for his own wrongdoing; each person who eats the sour grapes, his own teeth will become blunt.

³¹“Behold, 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 which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.

³³“For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD: “I will put My law within them and write it on their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

³⁴They will not teach again, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and their sin I will no longer remember.”

³⁵This is what the LORD says, He 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 armies is His name:

³⁶“If this fixed order departs From Me,” declares the LORD, “Then the descendants of Israel also will cease To be a nation before Me forever.”

³⁷This is what the LORD says: “If the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also reject all the descendants of Israel For everything that they have done,” declares the LORD.

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

³⁹The measuring line will go out farther straight ahead, to the hill Gareb; then it will turn to Goah.

⁴⁰And the entire valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD; it will not be uprooted or overthrown ever again.”

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

²And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, the Jewish believers took issue with him,

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

⁴But Peter began and explained at length to them in an orderly sequence, saying,

⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky; and it came to where I was,

⁶and I stared at it and was thinking about it, and I saw the four-footed animals of the earth, the wild animals, the crawling creatures, and the birds of the sky.

⁷I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’

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

⁹But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’

¹⁰This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky.

¹¹And behold, at that moment three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea came up to the house where we were staying.

¹²And the Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.

¹³And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send some men to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here;

¹⁴and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’

¹⁵And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning.

¹⁶And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptizedwith the Holy Spirit.’

¹⁷Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as He also gave to us after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

¹⁸When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has also granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

¹⁹So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.

²⁰But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks as well, preaching the good news of the Lord Jesus.

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

²²The news about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch.

²³Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord;

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

²⁵And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul;

²⁶and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers of people; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

²⁷Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸One of them, named Agabus, stood up and indicated by the Spirit that there would definitely be a severe famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius.

²⁹And to the extent that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brothers and sisters living in Judea.

³⁰And they did this, sending it with Barnabas and Saul to the elders.