Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem.

²Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.

³For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.

⁴When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.

⁵Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”

⁶He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.

⁷And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men —the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

⁹He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’

¹¹But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God),

¹²then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother,

¹³making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

¹⁴When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand:

¹⁵There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.

¹⁶If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”

¹⁷When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable.

¹⁸So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him,

¹⁹because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”

²⁰And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.

²¹For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

²²thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.

²³All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

²⁴From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.

²⁵For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.

²⁶The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

²⁸And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

³⁰And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.

³¹Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.

³²Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.

³³And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.

³⁴Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

³⁵Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.

³⁶Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.

³⁷And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

¹Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”

²And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.

³Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”

⁴So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.

⁵And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

⁶So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.

⁷And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.

⁸Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Allon Bachuth.

⁹Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him.

¹⁰And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel.

¹¹Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.

¹²The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”

¹³Then God went up from him in the place where He talked with him.

¹⁴So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He talked with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it.

¹⁵And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him, Bethel.

¹⁶Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor.

¹⁷Now it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, “Do not fear; you will have this son also.”

¹⁸And so it was, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she called his name Ben-Oni; but his father called him Benjamin.

¹⁹So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

²⁰And Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.

²¹Then Israel journeyed and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

²²And it happened, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine; and Israel heard about it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

²³the sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun;

²⁴the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin;

²⁵the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, were Dan and Naphtali;

²⁶and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Padan Aram.

²⁷Then Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt.

²⁸Now the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years.

²⁹So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

¹Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

²You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

³clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

⁴And we have such trust through Christ toward God.

⁵Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

⁶who also made us sufficient as ministers of the 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, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,

⁸how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

⁹For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.

¹⁰For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.

¹¹For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

¹²Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—

¹³unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.

¹⁴But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.

¹⁵But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.

¹⁶Nevertheless when one 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 liberty.

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

¹Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),

²that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,

³knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,

⁴and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

⁵For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,

⁶by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.

⁷But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

⁸But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

¹¹Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

¹²looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

¹³Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

¹⁴Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;

¹⁵and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,

¹⁶as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

¹⁷You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;

¹⁸but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

¹Moreover Elihu answered and said:

²“Do you think this is right? Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?

³For you say, ‘What advantage will it be to You? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’

⁴“I will answer you, And your companions with you.

⁵Look to the heavens and see; And behold the clouds— They are higher than you.

⁶If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him?

⁷If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness affects a man such as you, And your righteousness a son of man.

⁹“Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; They cry out for help because of the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night,

¹¹Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, And makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?’

¹²There they cry out, but He does not answer, Because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God will not listen to empty talk, Nor will the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴Although you say you do not see Him, Yet justice is before Him, and you must wait for Him.

¹⁵And now, because He has not punished in His anger, Nor taken much notice of folly,

¹⁶Therefore Job opens his mouth in vain; He multiplies words without knowledge.”

¹A Psalm of David. [1] Plead my cause, O LORD, with those who strive with me; Fight against those who fight against me.

²Take hold of shield and buckler, And stand up for my help.

³Also draw out the spear, And stop those who pursue me. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”

⁴Let those be put to shame and brought to dishonor Who seek after my life; Let those be turned back and brought to confusion Who plot my hurt.

⁵Let them be like chaff before the wind, And let the angel of the LORD chase them.

⁶Let their way be dark and slippery, And let the angel of the LORD pursue them.

⁷For without cause they have hidden their net for me in a pit, Which they have dug without cause for my life.

⁸Let destruction come upon him unexpectedly, And let his net that he has hidden catch himself; Into that very destruction let him fall.

⁹And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD; It shall rejoice in His salvation.

¹⁰All my bones shall say, “LORD, who is like You, Delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, Yes, the poor and the needy from him who plunders him?”

¹¹Fierce witnesses rise up; They ask me things that I do not know.

¹²They reward me evil for good, To the sorrow of my soul.

¹³But as for me, when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; And my prayer would return to my own heart.

¹⁴I paced about as though he were my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one who mourns for his mother.

¹⁵But in my adversity they rejoiced And gathered together; Attackers gathered against me, And I did not know it; They tore at me and did not cease;

¹⁶With ungodly mockers at feasts They gnashed at me with their teeth.

¹⁷Lord, how long will You look on? Rescue me from their destructions, My precious life from the lions.

¹⁸I will give You thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You among many people.

¹⁹Let them not rejoice over me who are wrongfully my enemies; Nor let them wink with the eye who hate me without a cause.

²⁰For they do not speak peace, But they devise deceitful matters Against the quiet ones in the land.

²¹They also opened their mouth wide against me, And said, “Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen it.”

²²This You have seen, O LORD; Do not keep silence. O Lord, do not be far from me.

²³Stir up Yourself, and awake to my vindication, To my cause, my God and my Lord.

²⁴Vindicate me, O LORD my God, according to Your righteousness; And let them not rejoice over me.

²⁵Let them not say in their hearts, “Ah, so we would have it!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”

²⁶Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who rejoice at my hurt; Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor Who exalt themselves against me.

²⁷Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, “Let the LORD be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”

²⁸And my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness And of Your praise all the day long.

¹Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, And give attention to know understanding;

²For I give you good doctrine: Do not forsake my law.

³When I was my father’s son, Tender and the only one in the sight of my mother,

⁴He also taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart retain my words; Keep my commands, and live.

⁵Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

⁶Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you.

⁷Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.

⁸Exalt her, and she will promote you; She will bring you honor, when you embrace her.

⁹She will place on your head an ornament of grace; A crown of glory she will deliver to you.”

¹⁰Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, And the years of your life will be many.

¹¹I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths.

¹²When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, And when you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her, for she is your life.

¹⁴Do not enter the path of the wicked, And do not walk in the way of evil.

¹⁵Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and pass on.

¹⁶For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; And their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall.

¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸But the path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.

²⁰My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.

²¹Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;

²²For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.

²³Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

²⁴Put away from you a deceitful mouth, And put perverse lips far from you.

²⁵Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you.

²⁶Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established.

²⁷Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil.

¹Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot; and Gilead begot Jephthah.

²Gilead’s wife bore sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.”

³Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless men banded together with Jephthah and went out raiding with him.

⁴It came to pass after a time that the people of Ammon made war against Israel.

⁵And so it was, when the people of Ammon made war against Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.

⁶Then they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our commander, that we may fight against the people of Ammon.”

⁷So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?”

⁸And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is why we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the people of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

⁹So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back home to fight against the people of Ammon, and the LORD delivers them to me, shall I be your head?”

¹⁰And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD will be a witness between us, if we do not do according to your words.”

¹¹Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD in Mizpah.

¹²Now Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the people of Ammon, saying, “What do you have against me, that you have come to fight against me in my land?”

¹³And the king of the people of Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and to the Jordan. Now therefore, restore those lands peaceably.”

¹⁴So Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the people of Ammon,

¹⁵and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: ‘Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the people of Ammon;

¹⁶for when Israel came up from Egypt, they walked through the wilderness as far as the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.

¹⁷Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please let me pass through your land.” But the king of Edom would not heed. And in like manner they sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained in Kadesh.

¹⁸And they went along through the wilderness and bypassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab, came to the east side of the land of Moab, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.

¹⁹Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, “Please let us pass through your land into our place.”

²⁰But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together, encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

²¹And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them. Thus Israel gained possession of all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country.

²²They took possession of all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.

²³‘And now the LORD God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel; should you then possess it?

²⁴Will you not possess whatever Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the LORD our God takes possession of before us, we will possess.

²⁵And now, are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel? Did he ever fight against them?

²⁶While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities along the banks of the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time?

²⁷Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you wronged me by fighting against me. May the LORD, the Judge, render judgment this day between the children of Israel and the people of Ammon.’ ”

²⁸However, the king of the people of Ammon did not heed the words which Jephthah sent him.

²⁹Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through Mizpah of Gilead; and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced toward the people of Ammon.

³⁰And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, “If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands,

³¹then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

³²So Jephthah advanced toward the people of Ammon to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his hands.

³³And he defeated them from Aroer as far as Minnith—twenty cities—and to Abel Keramim, with a very great slaughter. Thus the people of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

³⁴When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with timbrels and dancing; and she was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter.

³⁵And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low! You are among those who trouble me! For I have given my word to the LORD, and I cannot go back on it.”

³⁶So she said to him, “My father, if you have given your word to the LORD, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, because the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the people of Ammon.”

³⁷Then she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: let me alone for two months, that I may go and wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity, my friends and I.”

³⁸So he said, “Go.” And he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains.

³⁹And it was so at the end of two months that she returned to her father, and he carried out his vow with her which he had vowed. She knew no man. And it became a custom in Israel

⁴⁰that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

¹The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;

²It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, The excellency of our God.

³Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees.

⁴Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.”

⁵Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

⁶Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.

⁷The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

⁸A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray.

⁹No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there,

¹⁰And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

¹Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

²And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,

³and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’

⁴Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.

⁵And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.

⁶But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years.

⁷‘And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’

⁸Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.

⁹“And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him

¹⁰and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

¹¹Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance.

¹²But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.

¹³And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to the Pharaoh.

¹⁴Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people.

¹⁵So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers.

¹⁶And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

¹⁷“But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt

¹⁸till another king arose who did not know Joseph.

¹⁹This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live.

²⁰At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months.

²¹But when he was set out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son.

²²And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.

²³“Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

²⁴And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.

²⁵For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.

²⁶And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’

²⁷But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

²⁸Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’

²⁹Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.

³⁰“And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.

³¹When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him,

³²saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look.

³³‘Then the LORD said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

³⁴I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.” ’

³⁵“This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

³⁷“This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’

³⁸“This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,

³⁹whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,

⁴⁰saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’

⁴¹And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

⁴²Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

⁴³You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of your god Remphan, Images which you made to worship; And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’

⁴⁴“Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen,

⁴⁵which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David,

⁴⁶who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷But Solomon built Him a house.

⁴⁸“However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:

⁴⁹‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the LORD, Or what is the place of My rest?

⁵⁰Has My hand not made all these things?’

⁵¹“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,

⁵³who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

⁵⁴When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,

⁵⁶and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

⁵⁷Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;

⁵⁸and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

⁶⁰Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.