Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,

²they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

³(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders,

⁴and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches. )

⁵And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

⁶And he 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;

⁷in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

¹¹But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God) —

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

¹³thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

¹⁴And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand:

¹⁵ There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

¹⁶

¹⁷And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.

¹⁸And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,

¹⁹since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

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

²¹For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

²²coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

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

²⁴And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.

²⁵But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.

²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”

²⁹And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

³¹Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.

³²And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.

³³And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.

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

³⁵And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

³⁶And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

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

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

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

³Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”

⁴So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem.

⁵And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

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

⁷and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.

⁸And Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.

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

¹⁰And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel.

¹¹And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.

¹²The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.”

¹³Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him.

¹⁴And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.

¹⁵So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.

¹⁶Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor.

¹⁷And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for you have another son.”

¹⁸And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.

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

²⁰and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel's tomb, which is there to this day.

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

²²While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine. And Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

²³The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant: Dan and Naphtali.

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

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

²⁸Now the days of Isaac were 180 years.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,

²that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,

³knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

⁴They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

⁵For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,

⁶and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

⁷But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

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

⁹The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

¹¹Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,

¹²waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!

¹³But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

¹⁴Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

¹⁵And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,

¹⁶as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.

¹⁷You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.

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. Amen.

¹And Elihu answered and said:

²“Do you think this to be just? Do you say, ‘It is my right before God,’

³that you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’

⁴I will answer you and your friends with you.

⁵Look at the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are higher than you.

⁶If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

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

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

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

¹⁰But none 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 the heavens?’

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

¹³Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!

¹⁵And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not take much note of transgression,

¹⁶Job opens his mouth in empty talk; he multiplies words without knowledge.”

¹Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me!

²Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help!

³Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!”

⁴Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me!

⁵Let them be like chaff before 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!

⁷For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life.

⁸Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it! And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it — to his destruction!

⁹Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his salvation.

¹⁰All my bones shall say, “O LORD, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?”

¹¹Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know.

¹²They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft.

¹³But I, when they were sick — I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.

¹⁴I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.

¹⁵But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered; they gathered together against me; wretches whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing;

¹⁶like profane mockers at a feast, they gnash at me with their teeth.

¹⁷How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions!

¹⁸I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you.

¹⁹Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.

²⁰For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit.

²¹They open wide their mouths against me; they say, “Aha, Aha! Our eyes have seen it!”

²²You have seen, O LORD; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me!

²³Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for 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, “Aha, our heart's desire!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”

²⁶Let them be put to shame and disappointed altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me!

²⁷Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, “Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!”

²⁸Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.

¹Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight,

²for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching.

³When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,

⁴he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.

⁵Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

⁶Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.

⁷The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.

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

⁹She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

¹⁰Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.

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

¹²When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble.

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

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

¹⁵Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.

¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.

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

¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.

²⁰My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

²¹Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

²³Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

²⁴Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.

²⁵Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

²⁶Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.

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

¹Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.

²And Gilead's wife also bore him sons. And when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman.”

³Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him.

⁴After a time the Ammonites made war against Israel.

⁵And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tob.

⁶And they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader, that we may fight against the Ammonites.”

⁷But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me out of 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 to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

⁹Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites, and the LORD gives them over to me, I will be your head.”

¹⁰And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD will be witness between us, if we do not do as you say.”

¹¹So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah.

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

¹³And the king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, “Because Israel on coming up from Egypt took away my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore restore it peaceably.”

¹⁴Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites

¹⁵and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites,

¹⁶but when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.

¹⁷Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us pass through your land,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. And they sent also to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh.

¹⁸“Then they journeyed through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab and arrived on the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab.

¹⁹Israel then sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land to our country,’

²⁰but Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory, so Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.

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

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

²³So then the LORD, the God of Israel, dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel; and are you to take possession of them?

²⁴Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? And all that the LORD our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess.

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

²⁶While Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, 300 years, why did you not deliver them within that time?

²⁷I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me. The LORD, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon.”

²⁸But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.

²⁹Then the Spirit of the LORD was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.

³⁰And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand,

³¹then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”

³²So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD gave them into his hand.

³³And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.

³⁴Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.

³⁵And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow.”

³⁶And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the LORD; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the LORD has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.”

³⁷So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.”

³⁸So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains.

³⁹And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel

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

¹The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;

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

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

⁴Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! 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 unstopped;

⁶then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;

⁷the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

⁸And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

⁹No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they 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; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

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

²And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’

⁴Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.

⁵Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.

⁶And God spoke to this effect — that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.

⁷‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’

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

⁹“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him

¹⁰and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

¹¹Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food.

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

¹³And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.

¹⁴And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all.

¹⁵And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers,

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

¹⁷“But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt

¹⁸until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph.

¹⁹He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive.

²⁰At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house,

²¹and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.

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

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

²⁴And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian.

²⁵He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.

²⁶And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’

²⁷But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

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

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

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

³¹When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord:

³²‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look.

³³Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

³⁴I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I 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?’ — this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

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

³⁷This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’

³⁸This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.

³⁹Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt,

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

⁴¹And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

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

⁴⁴“Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen.

⁴⁵Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David,

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

⁴⁷But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

⁴⁸Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,

⁴⁹“‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?

⁵⁰Did not my hand make all these things?’

⁵¹“You stiff-necked people, 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 announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,

⁵³you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

⁵⁴Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.

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

⁵⁶And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

⁵⁷But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.

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

⁵⁹And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

⁶⁰And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.