Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The Pharisees and some of the scribes *gathered to Him after they came from Jerusalem,

²and saw that some of His disciples were eating their bread with unholy hands, that is, unwashed.

³(For the Pharisees and all the other Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thereby holding firmly to the tradition of the elders;

⁴and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they completely cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received as traditions to firmly hold, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, and copper pots.)

⁵And the Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk in accordance with the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unholy hands?”

⁶But He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.

⁷AND IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN.’

⁸Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

¹⁰For Moses said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER’; and, ‘THE ONE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, ISCERTAINLY TO BE PUT TO DEATH’;

¹¹but you say, ‘If a person says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is, given to God),’

¹²you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother;

¹³thereby invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

¹⁴After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:

¹⁵there is nothing outside the person which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which come out of the person are what defile the person.”

¹⁶

¹⁷And when He later entered a house, away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him about the parable.

¹⁸And He *said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding as well? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the person from outside cannot defile him,

¹⁹because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, andis eliminated?” (Thereby He declared all foods clean.)

²⁰And He was saying, “That which comes out of the person, that is what defiles the person.

²¹For from within, out of thehearts of people, come the evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, acts of adultery,

²²deeds of greed, wickedness, deceit, indecent behavior,envy, slander,pride, and foolishness.

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

²⁴Now Jesus got up and went from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know about it; and yet He could not escape notice.

²⁵But after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.

²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician descent. And she repeatedly asked Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is notgood to take the children’s bread and throw it to thedogs.”

²⁸But she answered and *said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹And He said to her, “Because of thisanswer, go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

³⁰And after going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹Again He left the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis.

³²And they *brought to Him one who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they *begged Him to lay His hand on him.

³³And Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers in his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva;

³⁴and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He *said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”

³⁵And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.

³⁶And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it.

³⁷And they were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even those who are deaf hear, and those who are unable to talk, speak.”

¹Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to 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, “Remove the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments;

³and let’s arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me on the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”

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

⁵As they journeyed, there was a great terror upon the cities which were 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.

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

⁸Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and it was named Allon-bacuth.

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

¹⁰God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.” So He called him Israel.

¹¹God also said to him, “I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a multitude of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come from you.

¹²And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you, And I will give the land to your descendants after you.”

¹³Then God went up from him at the place where He had spoken with him.

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

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

¹⁶Then they journeyed on from Bethel; but when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe difficulties in her labor.

¹⁷And when she was suffering severe difficulties in her labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for you have another son!”

¹⁸And it came about, as her soul was departing (for she died), that 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).

²⁰And Jacob set up a memorial stone over her grave; that is the memorial stone of Rachel’s grave to this day.

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

²²And it came about, while Israel was living in that land, that Reuben went and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Now there were twelve sons of Jacob—

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

²⁴the sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin;

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

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

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

²⁸Now the days of Isaac were 180 years.

²⁹Then Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, an old man of ripe age; and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹Beloved, this is now the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of a reminder,

²to remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

³Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,

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

⁵For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,

⁶through which the world at that time was destroyed by being flooded with water.

⁷But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people.

⁸But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

⁹The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be discovered.

¹¹Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people 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 destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

¹³But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

¹⁴Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found spotless and blameless by Him, at peace,

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

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

¹⁷You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unscrupulous people and lose your own firm commitment,

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.

¹Then Elihu continued and said,

²“Do you think this is in accordance with justice? Do you say, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?

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

⁴I will answer you, And your friends with you.

⁵Look at the heavens and see; And look at the clouds—they are higher than you.

⁶If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against Him? And if your wrongdoings are many, 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 is for a man like yourself, And your righteousness is for a son of man.

⁹“Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; They cry 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 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.

¹³God certainly will not listen to an empty cry, Nor will the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴How much less when you say you do not look at Him, The case is before Him, and you must wait for Him!

¹⁵And now, because He has not avenged His anger, Nor has He acknowledged wrongdoing well,

¹⁶So Job opens his mouth with empty words; He multiplies words without knowledge.”

¹Contend, LORD, with those who contend with me; Fight against those who fight against me.

²Take hold of buckler and shield And rise up as my help.

³Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me; Say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”

⁴Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me.

⁵Let them be like chaff before the wind, With the angel of the LORD driving them on.

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

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

⁸Let destruction come upon him when he is unaware, And let the net which he hid catch him; Let him fall into that very destruction.

⁹So my soul shall rejoice in the LORD; It shall rejoice in His salvation.

¹⁰All my bones will say, “LORD, who is like You, Who rescues the afflicted from one who is too strong for him, And the afflicted and the poor from one who robs him?”

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

¹²They repay me evil for good, To the bereavement of my soul.

¹³But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, But my prayer kept returning to me.

¹⁴I went about as though it were my friend or brother; I bowed down in mourning, like one who mourns for a mother.

¹⁵But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered themselves together; The afflicted people whom I did not know gathered together against me, They slandered me without ceasing.

¹⁶Like godless jesters at a feast, They gnashed at me with their teeth.

¹⁷Lord, how long will You look on? Rescue my soul from their ravages, My only life from the lions.

¹⁸I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty people.

¹⁹Do not let those who are wrongfully my enemies rejoice over me; Nor let those who hate me for no reason wink maliciously.

²⁰For they do not speak peace, But they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.

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

²²You have seen it, LORD, do not keep silent; Lord, do not be far from me.

²³Stir Yourself, and awake to my right And to my cause, my God and my Lord.

²⁴Judge me, LORD my God, according to Your righteousness, And do not let them rejoice over me.

²⁵Do not let them say in their heart, “Aha, our desire!” Do not let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”

²⁶May those be ashamed and altogether humiliated who rejoice at my distress; May those who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and dishonor.

²⁷May those shout for joy and rejoice, who take delight in my vindication; And may they say continually, “The LORD be exalted, Who delights in the prosperity of His servant.”

²⁸And my tongue shall proclaim Your righteousness And Your praise all day long.

¹Listen, my sons, to the instruction of a father, And pay attention so that you may gain understanding,

²For I give you good teaching; Do not abandon my instruction.

³When I was a son to my father, Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother,

⁴He taught me and said to me, “Let your heart take hold of my words; Keep my commandments and live;

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

⁶Do not abandon her, and she will guard you; Love her, and she will watch over you.

⁷The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your possessions, acquire understanding.

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

⁹She will place on your head a garland of grace; She will present you with a crown of beauty.”

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

¹¹I have instructed you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in upright paths.

¹²When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; And if you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Take 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 proceed in the way of evil people.

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

¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; And they are robbed of sleep unless they make 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 That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

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

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

²¹They are not to escape from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, And healing to all their body.

²³Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.

²⁴Rid yourself of a deceitful mouth And keep devious speech far from you.

²⁵Let your eyes look directly ahead And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you.

²⁶Watch the path of your feet, And all your ways will be established.

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

¹Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. And Gilead had fathered Jephthah.

²Gilead’s wife 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.”

³So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and worthless men gathered around Jephthah, and they went wherever he did.

⁴Now it came about, after a while, that the sons of Ammon fought against Israel.

⁵When the sons of Ammon fought against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob;

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

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

⁸The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “For this reason we have now returned to you, that you may go with us and fight the sons of Ammon, and become our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

⁹So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me back to fight against the sons of Ammon and the LORD gives them up to me, will I become your head?”

¹⁰And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is witness between us; be assured we will do as you have said.”

¹¹Then 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.

¹²So Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, “What conflict do you and I have, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”

¹³And the king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, “It is because Israel took my land when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and the Jordan; so return them peaceably now.”

¹⁴But Jephthah sent messengers once again to the king of the sons of Ammon,

¹⁵and they said to him, “This is what Jephthah says: ‘Israel did not take the land of Moab nor the land of the sons of Ammon.

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

¹⁷then Israel 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 also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh.

¹⁸Then they went through the wilderness and around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came to the east side of the land of Moab, and they camped beyond the Arnon; but they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.

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

²⁰But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people and camped in Jahaz, and fought with Israel.

²¹And the LORD, the God of Israel, handed Sihon and all his people over to Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

²²So they possessed all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan.

²³And now the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites from His people Israel; so should you possess it?

²⁴Do you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the LORD our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess it.

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

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

²⁷So I have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by making war against me. May the LORD, the Judge, judge today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.’ ”

²⁸But the king of the sons of Ammon disregarded the message which Jephthah sent him.

²⁹Now the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh; then he passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he went on to the sons of Ammon.

³⁰And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, “If You will indeed hand over to me the sons of Ammon,

³¹then whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

³²So Jephthah crossed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD handed them over to him.

³³He inflicted a very great defeat on them from Aroer to the entrance of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel.

³⁴But Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, and behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. And she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter.

³⁵So when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Oh, my daughter! You have brought me disaster, and you are among those who trouble me; for I have given my word to the LORD, and I cannot take it back.”

³⁶So she said to him, “My father, you have given your word to the LORD; do to me just as you have said, since the LORD has brought you vengeance on your enemies, the sons of Ammon.”

³⁷And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me; allow me two months, so that I may go to the mountains and weep because of my virginity, I and my friends.”

³⁸Then he said, “Go.” So he let her go for two months; and she left with her friends, and wept on the mountains because of her virginity.

³⁹And at the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her what he had vowed; and she had no relations with a man. And it became a custom in Israel,

⁴⁰that the daughters of Israel went annually to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days in the year.

¹The wilderness and the desert will rejoice, And the desert will shout for joy and blossom; Like the crocus

²It will blossom profusely And rejoice with joy and jubilation. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, The majesty of our God.

³Strengthen the exhausted, and make the feeble strong.

⁴Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The retribution of God will come, But He will save you.”

⁵Then the eyes of those who are blind will be opened, And the ears of those who are deaf will be unstopped.

⁶Then those who limp will leap like a deer, And the tongue of those who cannot speak will shout for joy. For waters will burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.

⁷The scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

⁸A highway will be there, a roadway, And it will be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it, But it will be for the one who walks that way, And fools will not wander on it.

⁹No lion will be there, Nor will any vicious animal go up on it; They will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there,

¹⁰And the redeemed of the LORD will return And come to Zion with joyful shouting, And everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

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

²And Stephen said, “Listen to me, brothers and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and He said to him, ‘GO FROM YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME TO THE LAND WHICH I WILL SHOW YOU.’

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

⁵But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child.

⁶But God spoke to this effect, that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE STRANGERS IN A LAND THAT WAS NOT THEIRS, AND THEY WOULD ENSLAVE AND MISTREAT them for four hundred years.

⁷‘AND WHATEVER NATION TO WHICH THEY ARE ENSLAVED I MYSELF WILL JUDGE,’ said God, ‘AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE ME IN THIS PLACE.’

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

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

¹⁰and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and his entire household.

¹¹“Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food.

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

¹³And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was revealed to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Then Joseph sent word and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five people in all.

¹⁵And Jacob went down to Egypt, and he and our fathers died there.

¹⁶And they were brought back from there to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷“But as the time of the promise which God had assured to Abraham was approaching, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸until ANOTHER KING AROSE OVER EGYPT WHO DID NOT KNOW JOSEPH.

¹⁹It was he who shrewdly took advantage of our nation and mistreated our fathers in order that they would abandon their infants in the Nile, so that they would not survive.

²⁰At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful to God. He was nurtured for three months in his father’s home.

²¹And after he had been put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son.

²²Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was proficient in speaking and action.

²³But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his countrymen, the sons of Israel.

²⁴And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended and took vengeance for the oppressed man by fatally striking the Egyptian.

²⁵And he thought that his brothers understood that God was granting them deliverance through him; but they did not understand.

²⁶And on the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting each other, and he tried to reconcile them to peace, by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why are you injuring each other?’

²⁷But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND JUDGE OVER US?

²⁸YOU DO NOT INTEND TO KILL ME AS YOU KILLED THE EGYPTIAN YESTERDAY, DO YOU?’

²⁹At this remark, MOSES FLED AND BECAME A STRANGER IN THE LAND OF MIDIAN, where he fathered two sons.

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

³¹When Moses saw it, he was astonished at the sight; and as he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came:

³²‘I AM THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS, THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND ISAAC, AND JACOB.’ Moses shook with fear and did not dare to look closely.

³³But the LORD said to him, ‘REMOVE YOUR SANDALS FROM YOUR FEET, FOR THE PLACE ON WHICH YOU ARE STANDING IS HOLY GROUND.

³⁴I HAVE CERTAINLY SEEN THE OPPRESSION OF MY PEOPLE WHO ARE IN EGYPT, AND HAVE HEARD THEIR GROANING, AND I HAVE COME DOWN TO RESCUE THEM; AND NOW COME, I WILL SEND YOU TO EGYPT.’

³⁵“This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.

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

³⁷This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR COUNTRYMEN.’

³⁸This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness together with the angel who spoke to him at length on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to you.

³⁹Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him; on the contrary they rejected him and turned back to Egypt in their hearts,

⁴⁰saying to Aaron, ‘MAKE US A GOD WHO WILL GO BEFORE US; FOR THIS MOSES WHO LED US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT—WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM.’

⁴¹At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned away and gave them over to serve the heavenly lights; as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘YOU DID NOT OFFER ME VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FOR FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, DID YOU, HOUSE OF ISRAEL?

⁴³YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF YOUR GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL DEPORT YOU BEYOND BABYLON.’

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

⁴⁵Our fathers in turn received it, and they also brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations that God drove out from our fathers, until the time of David.

⁴⁶David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

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

⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:

⁴⁹‘HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND THE EARTH IS THE FOOTSTOOL OF MY FEET; WHAT KIND OF HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME?’ says the Lord, ‘OR WHAT PLACE IS THERE FOR MY REST?

⁵⁰WAS IT NOT MY HAND THAT MADE ALL THESE THINGS?’

⁵¹“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.

⁵²Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, and you have now become betrayers and murderers of Him;

⁵³you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

⁵⁴Now when they heard this, they were infuriated, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently 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 shouted with loud voices, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one mind.

⁵⁸When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

⁶⁰Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.