Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him.

²They observed that some of his disciples were eating bread with unclean  — that is, unwashed — hands.

³(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, keeping the tradition of the elders.

⁴When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches. )

⁵So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with ceremonially unclean hands?”

⁶He answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

⁷ They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.

⁸Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.”

⁹He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up your tradition!

¹⁰For Moses said: Honor your father and your mother; and Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.

¹¹But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother: Whatever benefit you might have received from me is corban’” (that is, an offering devoted to God),

¹²“you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.

¹³You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other similar things.”

¹⁴Summoning the crowd again, he told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand:

¹⁵Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

¹⁶

¹⁷When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable.

¹⁸He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him?

¹⁹For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean ).

²⁰And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

²¹For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders,

²²adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

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

²⁴He got up and departed from there to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but he could not escape notice.

²⁵Instead, immediately after hearing about him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit came and fell at his feet.

²⁶The woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she was asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸But she replied to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹Then he told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.

³¹Again, leaving the region of Tyre, he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis.

³²They brought to him a deaf man who had difficulty speaking and begged Jesus to lay his hand on him.

³³So he took him away from the crowd in private. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears and spitting, he touched his tongue.

³⁴Looking up to heaven, he sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”).

³⁵Immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak clearly.

³⁶He ordered them to tell no one, but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.

³⁷They were extremely astonished and said, “He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

¹God said to Jacob, “Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”

²So Jacob said to his family and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes.

³We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me everywhere I have gone.”

⁴Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem.

⁵When they set out, a terror from God came over the cities around them, and they did not pursue Jacob’s sons.

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

⁷Jacob built an altar there and called the place El-bethel because it was there that God had revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

⁸Deborah, the one who had nursed and raised Rebekah, died and was buried under the oak south of Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.

⁹God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan-aram, and he blessed him.

¹⁰God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; you will no longer be named Jacob, but your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.

¹¹God also said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will come from you, and kings will descend from you.

¹²I will give to you the land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac. And I will give the land to your future descendants.”

¹³Then God withdrew from him at the place where he had spoken to him.

¹⁴Jacob set up a marker at the place where he had spoken to him — a stone marker. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil.

¹⁵Jacob named the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

¹⁶They set out from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.

¹⁷During her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.”

¹⁸With her last breath — for she was dying — she named him Ben-oni, but his father called him Benjamin.

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

²⁰Jacob set up a marker on her grave; it is the marker at Rachel’s grave still today.

²¹Israel set out again and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder.

²²While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:

²³Leah’s sons were Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

²⁴Rachel’s sons were Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵The sons of Rachel’s slave Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶The sons of Leah’s slave Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

²⁷Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron ), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.

²⁸Isaac lived 180 years.

²⁹He took his last breath and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

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

²You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.

³You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us, not written 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 through Christ before God.

⁵It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.

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

⁷Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside,

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

⁹For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory.

¹⁰In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it.

¹¹For if what was set aside was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

¹²Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness.

¹³We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end of the glory of what was being set aside,

¹⁴but their minds were hardened. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ.

¹⁵Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts,

¹⁶but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

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

¹⁸We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

¹Dear friends, this is now the second letter I have written to you; in both letters, I want to stir up your sincere understanding by way of reminder,

²so that you recall the words previously spoken by the holy prophets and the command of our Lord and Savior given through your apostles.

³Above all, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days scoffing and following their own evil desires,

⁴saying, “Where is his ‘coming’ that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.”

⁵They deliberately overlook this: By the word of God the heavens came into being long ago and the earth was brought about from water and through water.

⁶Through these the world of that time perished when it was flooded.

⁷By the same word, the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

⁸Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

⁹The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed.

¹¹Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness

¹²as you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming. Because of that day, the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat.

¹³But based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

¹⁴Therefore, dear friends, while you wait for these things, make every effort to be found without spot or blemish in his sight, at peace.

¹⁵Also, regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him.

¹⁶He speaks about these things in all his letters. There are some matters that are hard to understand. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.

¹⁷Therefore, dear friends, since you know this in advance, be on your guard, so that you are not led away by the error of lawless people and fall from your own stable position.

¹⁸But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

¹Then Elihu continued, saying:

²Do you think it is just when you say, “I am righteous before God”?

³For you ask, “What does it profit you, and what benefit comes to me, if I do not sin?”

⁴I will answer you and your friends with you.

⁵Look at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.

⁶If you sin, how does it affect God? If you multiply your transgressions, what does it do to him?

⁷If you are righteous, what do you give him, or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness affects a person like yourself, and your righteousness, a son of man.

⁹People cry out because of severe oppression; they shout for help because of the power of the mighty.

¹⁰But no one asks, “Where is God my Maker, who provides us with songs in the night,

¹¹who gives us more understanding than the animals of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?”

¹²There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil people.

¹³Indeed, God does not listen to empty cries, and the Almighty does not take note of it —

¹⁴how much less when you complain that you do not see him, that your case is before him and you are waiting for him.

¹⁵But now, because God’s anger does not punish and he does not pay attention to transgression,

¹⁶Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.

¹Of David. [1] Oppose my opponents, LORD; fight those who fight me.

²Take your shields — large and small — and come to my aid.

³Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers, and assure me: “I am your deliverance.”

⁴Let those who intend to take my life be disgraced and humiliated; let those who plan to harm me be turned back and ashamed.

⁵Let them be like chaff in the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away.

⁶Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them.

⁷They hid their net for me without cause; they dug a pit for me without cause.

⁸Let ruin come on him unexpectedly, and let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it — to his ruin.

⁹Then I will rejoice in the LORD; I will delight in his deliverance.

¹⁰All my bones will say, “LORD, who is like you, rescuing the poor from one too strong for him, the poor or the needy from one who robs him?”

¹¹Malicious witnesses come forward; they question me about things I do not know.

¹²They repay me evil for good, making me desolate.

¹³Yet when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, and my prayer was genuine.

¹⁴I went about mourning as if for my friend or brother; I was bowed down with grief, like one mourning for a mother.

¹⁵But when I stumbled, they gathered in glee; they gathered against me. Assailants I did not know tore at me and did not stop.

¹⁶With godless mockery they gnashed their teeth at me.

¹⁷Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue me from their ravages; rescue my precious life from the young lions.

¹⁸I will praise you in the great assembly; I will exalt you among many people.

¹⁹Do not let my deceitful enemies rejoice over me; do not let those who hate me without cause wink at me maliciously.

²⁰For they do not speak in friendly ways, but contrive fraudulent schemes against those who live peacefully in the land.

²¹They open their mouths wide against me and say, “Aha, aha! We saw it!”

²²You saw it, LORD; do not be silent. Lord, do not be far from me.

²³Wake up and rise to my defense, to my cause, my God and my Lord!

²⁴Vindicate me, LORD my God, in keeping with your righteousness, and do not let them rejoice over me.

²⁵Do not let them say in their hearts, “Aha! Just what we wanted.” Do not let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”

²⁶Let those who rejoice at my misfortune be disgraced and humiliated; let those who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and reproach.

²⁷Let those who want my vindication shout for joy and be glad; let them continually say, “The LORD be exalted. He takes pleasure in his servant’s well-being.”

²⁸And my tongue will proclaim your righteousness, your praise all day long.

¹Listen, sons, to a father’s discipline, and pay attention so that you may gain understanding,

²for I am giving you good instruction. Don’t abandon my teaching.

³When I was a son with my father, tender and precious to my mother,

⁴he taught me and said: “Your heart must hold on to my words. Keep my commands and live.

⁵Get wisdom, get understanding; don’t forget or turn away from the words from my mouth.

⁶Don’t abandon wisdom, and she will watch over you; love her, and she will guard you.

⁷Wisdom is supreme — so get wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding.

⁸Cherish her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.

⁹She will place a garland of favor on your head; she will give you a crown of beauty.”

¹⁰Listen, my son. Accept my words, and you will live many years.

¹¹I am teaching you the way of wisdom; I am guiding you on straight paths.

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

¹³Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life.

¹⁴Keep off the path of the wicked; don’t proceed on the way of evil ones.

¹⁵Avoid it; don’t travel on it. Turn away from it, and pass it by.

¹⁶For they can’t sleep unless they have done what is evil; they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

¹⁷They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

¹⁹But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they don’t know what makes them stumble.

²⁰My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings.

²¹Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body.

²³Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.

²⁴Don’t let your mouth speak dishonestly, and don’t let your lips talk deviously.

²⁵Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

²⁶Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established.

²⁷Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil.

¹Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.

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

³So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Then some worthless men joined Jephthah and went on raids with him.

⁴Some time later, the Ammonites fought against Israel.

⁵When the Ammonites made war with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.

⁶They said to him, “Come, be our commander, and let’s fight the Ammonites.”

⁷Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me out of my father’s family? Why then have you come to me now when you’re in trouble?”

⁸They answered Jephthah, “That’s true. But now we turn to you. Come with us, fight the Ammonites, and you will become leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

⁹So Jephthah said to them, “If you are bringing me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me, I will be your leader.”

¹⁰The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is our witness if we don’t do as you say.”

¹¹So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead. The people made him their leader and commander, and Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the LORD at Mizpah.

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

¹³The king of the Ammonites said to Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came from Egypt, they seized my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and the Jordan. Now restore it peaceably.”

¹⁴Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites

¹⁵to tell him, “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.

¹⁶But when they came from Egypt, Israel traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.

¹⁷Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us travel through your land,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he refused. So Israel stayed in Kadesh.

¹⁸“Then they traveled through the wilderness and around the lands of Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon but did not enter into the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab.

¹⁹“Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon. Israel said to him, ‘Please let us travel through your land to our country,’

²⁰but Sihon would not trust Israel to pass through his territory. Instead, Sihon gathered all his troops, camped at Jahaz, and fought with Israel.

²¹Then the LORD God of Israel handed over Sihon and all his troops to Israel, and they defeated them. So Israel took possession of the entire land of the Amorites who lived in 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“The LORD God of Israel has now driven out the Amorites before his people Israel, and will you now force us out?

²⁴Isn’t it true that you can have whatever your god Chemosh conquers for you, and we can have whatever the LORD our God conquers for us?

²⁵Now are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or fight against them?

²⁶While Israel lived three hundred years in Heshbon and Aroer and their surrounding villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, why didn’t you take them back at that time?

²⁷I have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by fighting against me. Let the LORD who is the judge decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”

²⁸But the king of the Ammonites would not listen to Jephthah’s message that he sent him.

²⁹The Spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah, who traveled through Gilead and Manasseh, and then through Mizpah of Gilead. He crossed over to the Ammonites from Mizpah of Gilead.

³⁰Jephthah made this vow to the LORD: “If you in fact hand over the Ammonites to me,

³¹whoever comes out the doors of my house to greet me when I return safely from the Ammonites will belong to the LORD, and I will offer that person as a burnt offering.”

³²Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD handed them over to him.

³³He defeated twenty of their cities with a great slaughter from Aroer all the way to the entrance of Minnith and to Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.

³⁴When Jephthah went to his home in Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no other son or daughter besides her.

³⁵When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have devastated me! You have brought great misery on me. I have given my word to the LORD and cannot take it back.”

³⁶Then she said to him, “My father, you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me as you have said, for the LORD brought vengeance on your enemies, the Ammonites.”

³⁷She also said to her father, “Let me do this one thing: Let me wander two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity.”

³⁸“Go,” he said. And he sent her away two months. So she left with her friends and mourned her virginity as she wandered through the mountains.

³⁹At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he kept the vow he had made about her. And she had never been intimate with a man. Now it became a custom in Israel

⁴⁰that four days each year the young women of Israel would commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

¹The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a wildflower.

²It will blossom abundantly and will also rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.

³Strengthen the weak hands, steady the shaking knees!

⁴Say to the cowardly: “Be strong; do not fear! Here is your God; vengeance is coming. God’s retribution is coming; he will save you.”

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

⁶Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;

⁷the parched ground will become a pool, and the thirsty land springs. In the haunt of jackals, in their lairs, there will be grass, reeds, and papyrus.

⁸A road will be there and a way; it will be called the Holy Way. The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for the one who walks the path. Fools will not wander on it.

⁹There will be no lion there, and no vicious beast will go up on it; they will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk on it,

¹⁰and the redeemed of the LORD will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.

¹“Are these things true?” the high priest asked.

²“Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

³and said to him: Leave your country and relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.

⁴“Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land in which you are now living.

⁵He didn’t give him an inheritance in it — not even a foot of ground — but he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless.

⁶God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for four hundred years.

⁷I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship me in this place.

⁸And so he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him

¹⁰and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household.

¹¹Now a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find no food.

¹²When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time.

¹³The second time, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all,

¹⁵and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there,

¹⁶were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷“As the time was approaching to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt

¹⁸until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt.

¹⁹He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them abandon their infants outside so that they wouldn’t survive.

²⁰At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home for three months.

²¹When he was put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.

²²So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.

²³“When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

²⁴When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian.

²⁵He assumed his people would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.

²⁶The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other? ’

²⁷“But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying: Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?

²⁸Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

²⁹“When he heard this, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

³⁰After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.

³¹When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came:

³²I am the God of your ancestors — the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.

³³“The Lord said to him: Take off the sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground.

³⁴I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.

³⁵“This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?  — this one God sent as a ruler and a deliverer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

³⁷“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites: God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers and sisters.

³⁸He is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. He received living oracles to give to us.

³⁹Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

⁴⁰They told Aaron: Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.

⁴¹They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.

⁴²God turned away and gave them up to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: House of Israel, did you bring me offerings and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness?

⁴³You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship. So I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.

⁴⁴“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.

⁴⁵Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them, until the days of David.

⁴⁶He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷It was Solomon, rather, who built him a house,

⁴⁸but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:

⁴⁹Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. What sort of house will you build for me? says the Lord, or what will be my resting place?

⁵⁰Did not my hand make all these things?

⁵¹“You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.

⁵³You received the law under the direction of angels and yet have not kept it.”

⁵⁴When they heard these things, they were enraged and gnashed their teeth at him.

⁵⁵Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

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

⁵⁷They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him.

⁵⁸They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹While they were stoning Stephen, he called out: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

⁶⁰He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he died.