Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

²Now when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray him.

³Jesus knew that the Father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God.

⁴So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself.

⁵Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel tied around him.

⁶He came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus answered him, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand.”

⁸“You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”

¹⁰“One who has bathed,” Jesus told him, “doesn’t need to wash anything except his feet, but he is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.”

¹¹For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

¹²When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you?

¹³You call me Teacher and Lord — and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am.

¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

¹⁵For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you.

¹⁶“Truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him.

¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

¹⁸“I’m not speaking about all of you; I know those I have chosen. But the Scripture must be fulfilled: The one who eats my bread has raised his heel against me.

¹⁹I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am he.

²⁰Truly I tell you, whoever receives anyone I send receives me, and the one who receives me receives him who sent me.”

²¹When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in his spirit and testified, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”

²²The disciples started looking at one another — uncertain which one he was speaking about.

²³One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining close beside Jesus.

²⁴Simon Peter motioned to him to find out who it was he was talking about.

²⁵So he leaned back against Jesus and asked him, “Lord, who is it?”

²⁶Jesus replied, “He’s the one I give the piece of bread to after I have dipped it.” When he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son.

²⁷After Judas ate the piece of bread, Satan entered him. So Jesus told him, “What you’re doing, do quickly.”

²⁸None of those reclining at the table knew why he said this to him.

²⁹Since Judas kept the money-bag, some thought that Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival,” or that he should give something to the poor.

³⁰After receiving the piece of bread, he immediately left. And it was night.

³¹When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.

³²If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.

³³Children, I am with you a little while longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so now I tell you: ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’

³⁴“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.

³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

³⁶“Lord,” Simon Peter said to him, “where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.”

³⁷“Lord,” Peter asked, “why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

³⁸Jesus replied, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.

¹“Carefully follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase, and may enter and take possession of the land the LORD swore to your fathers.

²Remember that the LORD your God led you on the entire journey these forty years in the wilderness, so that he might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

³He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

⁴Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years.

⁵Keep in mind that the LORD your God has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

⁶So keep the commands of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and fearing him.

⁷For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills;

⁸a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey;

⁹a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper.

¹⁰When you eat and are full, you will bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.

¹¹“Be careful that you don’t forget the LORD your God by failing to keep his commands, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today.

¹²When you eat and are full, and build beautiful houses to live in,

¹³and your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold multiply, and everything else you have increases,

¹⁴be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

¹⁵He led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty land where there was no water. He brought water out of the flint rock for you.

¹⁶He fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers had not known, in order to humble and test you, so that in the end he might cause you to prosper.

¹⁷You may say to yourself, ‘My power and my own ability have gained this wealth for me,’

¹⁸but remember that the LORD your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm his covenant he swore to your fathers, as it is today.

¹⁹If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them, I testify against you today that you will perish.

²⁰Like the nations the LORD is about to destroy before you, you will perish if you do not obey the LORD your God.

¹Therefore, since we have this ministry because we were shown mercy, we do not give up.

²Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful things, not acting deceitfully or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by an open display of the truth.

³But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

⁴In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

⁵For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake.

⁶For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.

⁸We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair;

⁹we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.

¹⁰We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body.

¹¹For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that Jesus’s life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh.

¹²So then, death is at work in us, but life in you.

¹³And since we have the same spirit of faith in keeping with what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke, we also believe, and therefore speak.

¹⁴For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you.

¹⁵Indeed, everything is for your benefit so that, as grace extends through more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God.

¹⁶Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day.

¹⁷For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.

¹⁸So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

¹James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ: To the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings.

²Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,

³because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

⁴And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

⁵Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God — who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly — and it will be given to him.

⁶But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

⁷That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord,

⁸being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.

⁹Let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his exaltation,

¹⁰but let the rich boast in his humiliation because he will pass away like a flower of the field.

¹¹For the sun rises and, together with the scorching wind, dries up the grass; its flower falls off, and its beautiful appearance perishes. In the same way, the rich person will wither away while pursuing his activities.

¹²Blessed is the one who endures trials, because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

¹³No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone.

¹⁴But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire.

¹⁵Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

¹⁶Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

¹⁷Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

¹⁸By his own choice, he gave us birth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

¹⁹My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,

²⁰for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

²¹Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

²²But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

²³Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.

²⁴For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.

²⁵But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works — this person will be blessed in what he does.

²⁶If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself.

²⁷Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

¹Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind. He said:

²Who is this who obscures my counsel with ignorant words?

³Get ready to answer me like a man; when I question you, you will inform me.

⁴Where were you when I established the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone

⁷while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst from the womb,

⁹when I made the clouds its garment and total darkness its blanket,

¹⁰when I determined its boundaries and put its bars and doors in place,

¹¹when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther; your proud waves stop here”?

¹²Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,

¹³so it may seize the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴The earth is changed as clay is by a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked, and the arm raised in violence is broken.

¹⁶Have you traveled to the sources of the sea or walked in the depths of the oceans?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the extent of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹Where is the road to the home of light? Do you know where darkness lives,

²⁰so you can lead it back to its border? Are you familiar with the paths to its home?

²¹Don’t you know? You were already born; you have lived so long!

²²Have you entered the place where the snow is stored? Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,

²³which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of warfare and battle?

²⁴What road leads to the place where light is dispersed? Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?

²⁵Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain or clears the way for lightning,

²⁶to bring rain on an uninhabited land, on a desert with no human life,

²⁷to satisfy the parched wasteland and cause the grass to sprout?

²⁸Does the rain have a father? Who fathered the drops of dew?

²⁹Whose womb did the ice come from? Who gave birth to the frost of heaven

³⁰when water becomes as hard as stone, and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?

³¹Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?

³²Can you bring out the constellations in their season and lead the Bear and her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of heaven? Can you impose its authority on earth?

³⁴Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?

³⁵Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go? Do they report to you: “Here we are”?

³⁶Who put wisdom in the heart or gave the mind understanding?

³⁷Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven

³⁸when the dust hardens like cast metal and the clods of dirt stick together?

³⁹Can you hunt prey for a lioness or satisfy the appetite of young lions

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait within their lairs?

⁴¹Who provides the raven’s food when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?

¹A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. [1] The LORD is great and highly praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain,

²rising splendidly, is the joy of the whole earth. Mount Zion — the summit of Zaphon —  is the city of the great King.

³God is known as a stronghold in its citadels.

⁴Look! The kings assembled; they advanced together.

⁵They looked and froze with fear; they fled in terror.

⁶Trembling seized them there, agony like that of a woman in labor,

⁷as you wrecked the ships of Tarshish with the east wind.

⁸Just as we heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD of Armies, in the city of our God; God will establish it forever. Selah

⁹God, within your temple, we contemplate your faithful love.

¹⁰Like your name, God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with justice.

¹¹Mount Zion is glad. Judah’s villages rejoice because of your judgments.

¹²Go around Zion, encircle it; count its towers,

¹³note its ramparts; tour its citadels so that you can tell a future generation:

¹⁴“This God, our God forever and ever — he will always lead us.”

¹My son, obey my words, and treasure my commands.

²Keep my commands and live, and guard my instructions as you would the pupil of your eye.

³Tie them to your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your relative.

⁵She will keep you from a forbidden woman, a wayward woman with her flattering talk.

⁶At the window of my house I looked through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the inexperienced, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking sense.

⁸Crossing the street near her corner, he strolled down the road to her house

⁹at twilight, in the evening, in the dark of the night.

¹⁰A woman came to meet him dressed like a prostitute, having a hidden agenda.

¹¹She is loud and defiant; her feet do not stay at home.

¹²Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.

¹³She grabs him and kisses him; she brazenly says to him,

¹⁴“I’ve made fellowship offerings; today I’ve fulfilled my vows.

¹⁵So I came out to meet you, to search for you, and I’ve found you.

¹⁶I’ve spread coverings on my bed  — richly colored linen from Egypt.

¹⁷I’ve perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning. Let’s feast on each other’s love!

¹⁹My husband isn’t home; he went on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of silver with him and will come home at the time of the full moon.”

²¹She seduces him with her persistent pleading; she lures with her flattering talk.

²²He follows her impulsively like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding toward a trap

²³until an arrow pierces its liver, like a bird darting into a snare  — he doesn’t know it will cost him his life.

²⁴Now, sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words from my mouth.

²⁵Don’t let your heart turn aside to her ways; don’t stray onto her paths.

²⁶For she has brought many down to death; her victims are countless.

²⁷Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

¹It was reported to Joab, “The king is weeping. He’s mourning over Absalom.”

²That day’s victory was turned into mourning for all the troops because on that day the troops heard, “The king is grieving over his son.”

³So they returned to the city quietly that day like troops come in when they are humiliated after fleeing in battle.

⁴But the king covered his face and cried loudly, “My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”

⁵Then Joab went into the house to the king and said, “Today you have shamed all your soldiers — those who saved your life as well as your sons, your wives, and your concubines —

⁶by loving your enemies and hating those who love you! Today you have made it clear that the commanders and soldiers mean nothing to you. In fact, today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead, it would be fine with you!

⁷“Now get up! Go out and encourage your soldiers, for I swear by the LORD that if you don’t go out, not a man will remain with you tonight. This will be worse for you than all the trouble that has come to you from your youth until now!”

⁸So the king got up and sat in the city gate, and all the people were told: “Look, the king is sitting in the city gate.” Then they all came into the king’s presence. Meanwhile, each Israelite had fled to his tent.

⁹People throughout all the tribes of Israel were arguing among themselves, saying, “The king rescued us from the grasp of our enemies, and he saved us from the grasp of the Philistines, but now he has fled from the land because of Absalom.

¹⁰But Absalom, the man we anointed over us, has died in battle. So why do you say nothing about restoring the king?”

¹¹King David sent word to the priests Zadok and Abiathar: “Say to the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be the last to restore the king to his palace? The talk of all Israel has reached the king at his house.

¹²You are my brothers, my flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king?’

¹³And tell Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me and do so severely if you don’t become commander of my army from now on instead of Joab! ’”

¹⁴So he won over all the men of Judah, and they unanimously sent word to the king: “Come back, you and all your servants.”

¹⁵Then the king returned. When he arrived at the Jordan, Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and escort him across the Jordan.

¹⁶Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David.

¹⁷There were a thousand men from Benjamin with him. Ziba, an attendant from the house of Saul, with his fifteen sons and twenty servants also rushed down to the Jordan ahead of the king.

¹⁸They forded the Jordan to bring the king’s household across and do whatever the king desired. When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell facedown before the king

¹⁹and said to him, “My lord, don’t hold me guilty, and don’t remember your servant’s wrongdoing on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart.

²⁰For your servant knows that I have sinned. But look! Today I am the first one of the entire house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.”

²¹Abishai son of Zeruiah asked, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed?”

²²David answered, “Sons of Zeruiah, do we agree on anything? Have you become my adversary today? Should any man be killed in Israel today? Am I not aware that today I’m king over Israel?”

²³So the king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” Then the king gave him his oath.

²⁴Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, also went down to meet the king. He had not taken care of his feet, trimmed his mustache, or washed his clothes from the day the king left until the day he returned safely.

²⁵When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Mephibosheth, why didn’t you come with me?”

²⁶“My lord the king,” he replied, “my servant Ziba betrayed me. Actually your servant said: ‘I’ll saddle the donkey for myself so that I may ride it and go with the king’ — for your servant is lame.

²⁷Ziba slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like the angel of God, so do whatever you think best.

²⁸For my grandfather’s entire family deserves death from my lord the king, but you set your servant among those who eat at your table. So what further right do I have to keep on making appeals to the king?”

²⁹The king said to him, “Why keep on speaking about these matters of yours? I hereby declare: you and Ziba are to divide the land.”

³⁰Mephibosheth said to the king, “Instead, since my lord the king has come to his palace safely, let Ziba take it all!”

³¹Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim and accompanied the king to the Jordan River to see him off at the Jordan.

³²Barzillai was a very old man — eighty years old — and since he was a very wealthy man, he had provided for the needs of the king while he stayed in Mahanaim.

³³The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me, and I’ll provide for you at my side in Jerusalem.”

³⁴Barzillai replied to the king, “How many years of my life are left that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king?

³⁵I’m now eighty years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of male and female singers? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?

³⁶Since your servant is only going with the king a little way across the Jordan, why should the king repay me with such a reward?

³⁷Please let your servant return so that I may die in my own city near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham: let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him what seems good to you.”

³⁸The king replied, “Chimham will cross over with me, and I will do for him what seems good to you, and whatever you desire from me I will do for you.”

³⁹So all the people crossed the Jordan, and then the king crossed. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai returned to his home.

⁴⁰The king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went with him. All the troops of Judah and half of Israel’s escorted the king.

⁴¹Suddenly, all the men of Israel came to the king. They asked him, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and transport the king and his household across the Jordan, along with all of David’s men?”

⁴²All the men of Judah responded to the men of Israel, “Because the king is our relative. Why does this make you angry? Have we ever eaten anything of the king’s or been honored at all?”

⁴³The men of Israel answered the men of Judah: “We have ten shares in the king, so we have a greater claim to David than you. Why then do you despise us? Weren’t we the first to speak of restoring our king?” But the words of the men of Judah were harsher than those of the men of Israel.

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

²At that time, the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned in the guard’s courtyard in the palace of the king of Judah.

³King Zedekiah of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why are you prophesying as you do? You say, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look, I am about to hand this city over to Babylon’s king, and he will capture it.

⁴King Zedekiah of Judah will not escape from the Chaldeans; indeed, he will certainly be handed over to Babylon’s king. They will speak face to face and meet eye to eye.

⁵He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I attend to him — this is the LORD’s declaration. For you will fight the Chaldeans, but you will not succeed.’”

⁶Jeremiah replied, “The word of the LORD came to me:

⁷Watch! Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, is coming to you to say, ‘Buy my field in Anathoth for yourself, for you own the right of redemption to buy it.’

⁸“Then, as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to the guard’s courtyard and urged me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you own the right of inheritance and redemption. Buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

⁹So I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and I weighed out the silver to him  — seventeen shekels of silver.

¹⁰I recorded it on a scroll, sealed it, called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales.

¹¹I took the purchase agreement — the sealed copy with its terms and conditions and the open copy —

¹²and gave the purchase agreement to Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah. I did this in the sight of my cousin Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the purchase agreement, and all the Judeans sitting in the guard’s courtyard.

¹³“I charged Baruch in their sight,

¹⁴‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Take these scrolls — this purchase agreement with the sealed copy and this open copy — and put them in an earthen storage jar so they will last a long time.

¹⁵For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’

¹⁶“After I had given the purchase agreement to Baruch, son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD:

¹⁷Oh, Lord GOD! You yourself made the heavens and earth by your great power and with your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you!

¹⁸You show faithful love to thousands but lay the fathers’ iniquity on their sons’ laps after them, great and mighty God whose name is the LORD of Armies,

¹⁹the one great in counsel and powerful in action. Your eyes are on all the ways of the children of men in order to reward each person according to his ways and as the result of his actions.

²⁰You performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and still do today, both in Israel and among all mankind. You made a name for yourself, as is the case today.

²¹You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror.

²²You gave them this land you swore to give to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.

²³They entered and possessed it, but they did not obey you or live according to your instructions. They failed to perform all you commanded them to do, and so you have brought all this disaster on them.

²⁴Look! Siege ramps have come against the city to capture it, and the city, as a result of the sword, famine, and plague, has been handed over to the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you have spoken has happened. Look, you can see it!

²⁵Yet you, Lord GOD, have said to me, ‘Purchase the field and call in witnesses’ — even though the city has been handed over to the Chaldeans!”

²⁶The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

²⁷“Look, I am the LORD, the God over every creature. Is anything too difficult for me?

²⁸Therefore, this is what the LORD says: I am about to hand this city over to the Chaldeans, to Babylon’s king Nebuchadnezzar, and he will capture it.

²⁹The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come and set this city on fire. They will burn it, including the houses where incense has been burned to Baal on their rooftops and where drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to anger me.

³⁰From their youth, the Israelites and Judeans have done nothing but what is evil in my sight! They have done nothing but anger me by the work of their hands”  — this is the LORD’s declaration —

³¹“for this city has caused my wrath and fury from the day it was built until now. I will therefore remove it from my presence

³²because of all the evil the Israelites and Judeans have done to anger me — they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem.

³³They have turned their backs to me and not their faces. Though I taught them time and time again, they do not listen and receive discipline.

³⁴They have placed their abhorrent things in the house that bears my name and have defiled it.

³⁵They have built the high places of Baal in Ben Hinnom Valley to sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire to Molech  — something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!

³⁶“Now therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to this city about which you said, ‘It has been handed over to Babylon’s king through sword, famine, and plague’:

³⁷I will certainly gather them from all the lands where I have banished them in my anger, rage and intense wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them live in safety.

³⁸They will be my people, and I will be their God.

³⁹I will give them integrity of heart and action so that they will fear me always, for their good and for the good of their descendants after them.

⁴⁰“I will make a permanent covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put fear of me in their hearts so they will never again turn away from me.

⁴¹I will take delight in them to do what is good for them, and with all my heart and mind I will faithfully plant them in this land.

⁴²“For this is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all this terrible disaster on these people, so am I about to bring on them all the good I am promising them.

⁴³Fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying, ‘It’s a desolation without people or animals; it has been handed over to the Chaldeans!’

⁴⁴Fields will be purchased, the transaction written on a scroll and sealed, and witnesses will be called on in the land of Benjamin, in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and in Judah’s cities — the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, and the cities of the Negev — because I will restore their fortunes.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹About that time King Herod violently attacked some who belonged to the church,

²and he executed James, John’s brother, with the sword.

³When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too, during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

⁴After the arrest, he put him in prison and assigned four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover.

⁵So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was praying fervently to God for him.

⁶When Herod was about to bring him out for trial, that very night Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while the sentries in front of the door guarded the prison.

⁷Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. Striking Peter on the side, he woke him up and said, “Quick, get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists.

⁸“Get dressed,” the angel told him, “and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Wrap your cloak around you,” he told him, “and follow me.”

⁹So he went out and followed, and he did not know that what the angel did was really happening, but he thought he was seeing a vision.

¹⁰After they passed the first and second guards, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went outside and passed one street, and suddenly the angel left him.

¹¹When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from all that the Jewish people expected.”

¹²As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many had assembled and were praying.

¹³He knocked at the door of the outer gate, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer.

¹⁴She recognized Peter’s voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the outer gate.

¹⁵“You’re out of your mind!” they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true, and they said, “It’s his angel.”

¹⁶Peter, however, kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were amazed.

¹⁷Motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Tell these things to James and the brothers,” he said, and he left and went to another place.

¹⁸At daylight, there was a great commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.

¹⁹After Herod had searched and did not find him, he interrogated the guards and ordered their execution. Then Herod went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

²⁰Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. Together they presented themselves before him. After winning over Blastus, who was in charge of the king’s bedroom, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food from the king’s country.

²¹On an appointed day, dressed in royal robes and seated on the throne, Herod delivered a speech to them.

²²The assembled people began to shout, “It’s the voice of a god and not of a man!”

²³At once an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.

²⁴But the word of God flourished and multiplied.

²⁵After they had completed their relief mission, Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem, taking along John who was called Mark.