Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.

²For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

³During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

⁴But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple,

⁶and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’ ”

⁷Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the LORD your God.’ ”

⁸Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

⁹“I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”

¹⁰“Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the LORD your God and serve only him.’ ”

¹¹Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

¹²When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned to Galilee.

¹³He went first to Nazareth, then left there and moved to Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.

¹⁴This fulfilled what God said through the prophet Isaiah:

¹⁵“In the land of Zebulun and of Naphtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River, in Galilee where so many Gentiles live,

¹⁶the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.”

¹⁷From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. ”

¹⁸One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers — Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew — throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.

¹⁹Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”

²⁰And they left their nets at once and followed him.

²¹A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too.

²²They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

²³Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness.

²⁴News about him spread as far as Syria, and people soon began bringing to him all who were sick. And whatever their sickness or disease, or if they were demon possessed or epileptic or paralyzed — he healed them all.

²⁵Large crowds followed him wherever he went — people from Galilee, the Ten Towns, Jerusalem, from all over Judea, and from east of the Jordan River.

¹“When you go out to fight your enemies and you face horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, do not be afraid. The LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you!

²When you prepare for battle, the priest must come forward to speak to the troops.

³He will say to them, ‘Listen to me, all you men of Israel! Do not be afraid as you go out to fight your enemies today! Do not lose heart or panic or tremble before them.

⁴For the LORD your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!’

⁵“Then the officers of the army must address the troops and say, ‘Has anyone here just built a new house but not yet dedicated it? If so, you may go home! You might be killed in the battle, and someone else would dedicate your house.

⁶Has anyone here just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, you may go home! You might die in battle, and someone else would eat the first fruit.

⁷Has anyone here just become engaged to a woman but not yet married her? Well, you may go home and get married! You might die in the battle, and someone else would marry her.’

⁸“Then the officers will also say, ‘Is anyone here afraid or worried? If you are, you may go home before you frighten anyone else.’

⁹When the officers have finished speaking to their troops, they will appoint the unit commanders.

¹⁰“As you approach a town to attack it, you must first offer its people terms for peace.

¹¹If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor.

¹²But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town.

¹³When the LORD your God hands the town over to you, use your swords to kill every man in the town.

¹⁴But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the plunder from your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.

¹⁵“But these instructions apply only to distant towns, not to the towns of the nations in the land you will enter.

¹⁶In those towns that the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing.

¹⁷You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the LORD your God has commanded you.

¹⁸This will prevent the people of the land from teaching you to imitate their detestable customs in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the LORD your God.

¹⁹“When you are attacking a town and the war drags on, you must not cut down the trees with your axes. You may eat the fruit, but do not cut down the trees. Are the trees your enemies, that you should attack them?

²⁰You may only cut down trees that you know are not valuable for food. Use them to make the equipment you need to attack the enemy town until it falls.

¹Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.

²Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.

³How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?

⁴Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?

⁵I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

⁶In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

⁷The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.

⁸What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”

⁹So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.

¹⁰But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.”

¹¹So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

¹²This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.”

¹³But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

¹⁴Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.

¹⁵Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case.

¹⁶God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children, ” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child” — and that, of course, means Christ.

¹⁷This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise.

¹⁸For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise.

¹⁹Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people.

²⁰Now a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham.

²¹Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it.

²²But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

²³Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed.

²⁴Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.

²⁵And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.

²⁶For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁷And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.

²⁸There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

²⁹And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

¹This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory.

²I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles.

³Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires.

⁴They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”

⁵They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.

⁶Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.

⁷And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.

⁸But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.

⁹The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.

¹¹Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live,

¹²looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.

¹³But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.

¹⁴And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.

¹⁵And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved. This is what our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him —

¹⁶speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.

¹⁷You already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard; then you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your own secure footing.

¹⁸Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to him, both now and forever! Amen.

¹How wonderful to be wise, to analyze and interpret things. Wisdom lights up a person’s face, softening its harshness.

²Obey the king since you vowed to God that you would.

³Don’t try to avoid doing your duty, and don’t stand with those who plot evil, for the king can do whatever he wants.

⁴His command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it.

⁵Those who obey him will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right,

⁶for there is a time and a way for everything, even when a person is in trouble.

⁷Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen?

⁸None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue the wicked.

⁹I have thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where people have the power to hurt each other.

¹⁰I have seen wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes! This, too, is meaningless.

¹¹When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong.

¹²But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off.

¹³The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows.

¹⁴And this is not all that is meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they were wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless!

¹⁵So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun.

¹⁶In my search for wisdom and in my observation of people’s burdens here on earth, I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night.

¹⁷I realized that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim.

¹You have rejected us, O God, and broken our defenses. You have been angry with us; now restore us to your favor.

²You have shaken our land and split it open. Seal the cracks, for the land trembles.

³You have been very hard on us, making us drink wine that sent us reeling.

⁴But you have raised a banner for those who fear you — a rallying point in the face of attack. Interlude

⁵Now rescue your beloved people. Answer and save us by your power.

⁶God has promised this by his holiness : “I will divide up Shechem with joy. I will measure out the valley of Succoth.

⁷Gilead is mine, and Manasseh, too. Ephraim, my helmet, will produce my warriors, and Judah, my scepter, will produce my kings.

⁸But Moab, my washbasin, will become my servant, and I will wipe my feet on Edom and shout in triumph over Philistia.”

⁹Who will bring me into the fortified city? Who will bring me victory over Edom?

¹⁰Have you rejected us, O God? Will you no longer march with our armies?

¹¹Oh, please help us against our enemies, for all human help is useless.

¹²With God’s help we will do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes.

¹Better to be poor and honest than to be dishonest and a fool.

²Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.

³People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the LORD.

⁴Wealth makes many “friends”; poverty drives them all away.

⁵A false witness will not go unpunished, nor will a liar escape.

⁶Many seek favors from a ruler; everyone is the friend of a person who gives gifts!

⁷The relatives of the poor despise them; how much more will their friends avoid them! Though the poor plead with them, their friends are gone.

⁸To acquire wisdom is to love yourself; people who cherish understanding will prosper.

⁹A false witness will not go unpunished, and a liar will be destroyed.

¹⁰It isn’t right for a fool to live in luxury or for a slave to rule over princes!

¹¹Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs.

¹²The king’s anger is like a lion’s roar, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹³A foolish child is a calamity to a father; a quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping.

¹⁴Fathers can give their sons an inheritance of houses and wealth, but only the LORD can give an understanding wife.

¹⁵Lazy people sleep soundly, but idleness leaves them hungry.

¹⁶Keep the commandments and keep your life; despising them leads to death.

¹⁷If you help the poor, you are lending to the LORD — and he will repay you!

¹⁸Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives.

¹⁹Hot-tempered people must pay the penalty. If you rescue them once, you will have to do it again.

²⁰Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life.

²¹You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.

²²Loyalty makes a person attractive. It is better to be poor than dishonest.

²³Fear of the LORD leads to life, bringing security and protection from harm.

²⁴Lazy people take food in their hand but don’t even lift it to their mouth.

²⁵If you punish a mocker, the simpleminded will learn a lesson; if you correct the wise, they will be all the wiser.

²⁶Children who mistreat their father or chase away their mother are an embarrassment and a public disgrace.

²⁷If you stop listening to instruction, my child, you will turn your back on knowledge.

²⁸A corrupt witness makes a mockery of justice; the mouth of the wicked gulps down evil.

²⁹Punishment is made for mockers, and the backs of fools are made to be beaten.

¹Solomon also built a palace for himself, and it took him thirteen years to complete the construction.

²One of Solomon’s buildings was called the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. It was 150 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. There were four rows of cedar pillars, and great cedar beams rested on the pillars.

³The hall had a cedar roof. Above the beams on the pillars were forty-five side rooms, arranged in three tiers of fifteen each.

⁴On each end of the long hall were three rows of windows facing each other.

⁵All the doorways and doorposts had rectangular frames and were arranged in sets of three, facing each other.

⁶Solomon also built the Hall of Pillars, which was 75 feet long and 45 feet wide. There was a porch in front, along with a canopy supported by pillars.

⁷Solomon also built the throne room, known as the Hall of Justice, where he sat to hear legal matters. It was paneled with cedar from floor to ceiling.

⁸Solomon’s living quarters surrounded a courtyard behind this hall, and they were constructed the same way. He also built similar living quarters for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

⁹From foundation to eaves, all these buildings were built from huge blocks of high-quality stone, cut with saws and trimmed to exact measure on all sides.

¹⁰Some of the huge foundation stones were 15 feet long, and some were 12 feet long.

¹¹The blocks of high-quality stone used in the walls were also cut to measure, and cedar beams were also used.

¹²The walls of the great courtyard were built so that there was one layer of cedar beams between every three layers of finished stone, just like the walls of the inner courtyard of the LORD’s Temple with its entry room.

¹³King Solomon then asked for a man named Huram to come from Tyre.

¹⁴He was half Israelite, since his mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father had been a craftsman in bronze from Tyre. Huram was extremely skillful and talented in any work in bronze, and he came to do all the metal work for King Solomon.

¹⁵Huram cast two bronze pillars, each 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference.

¹⁶For the tops of the pillars he cast bronze capitals, each 7 1⁄2 feet tall.

¹⁷Each capital was decorated with seven sets of latticework and interwoven chains.

¹⁸He also encircled the latticework with two rows of pomegranates to decorate the capitals over the pillars.

¹⁹The capitals on the columns inside the entry room were shaped like water lilies, and they were six feet tall.

²⁰The capitals on the two pillars had 200 pomegranates in two rows around them, beside the rounded surface next to the latticework.

²¹Huram set the pillars at the entrance of the Temple, one toward the south and one toward the north. He named the one on the south Jakin, and the one on the north Boaz.

²²The capitals on the pillars were shaped like water lilies. And so the work on the pillars was finished.

²³Then Huram cast a great round basin, 15 feet across from rim to rim, called the Sea. It was 7 1⁄2 feet deep and about 45 feet in circumference.

²⁴It was encircled just below its rim by two rows of decorative gourds. There were about six gourds per foot all the way around, and they were cast as part of the basin.

²⁵The Sea was placed on a base of twelve bronze oxen, all facing outward. Three faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east, and the Sea rested on them.

²⁶The walls of the Sea were about three inches thick, and its rim flared out like a cup and resembled a water lily blossom. It could hold about 11,000 gallons of water.

²⁷Huram also made ten bronze water carts, each 6 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4 1⁄2 feet tall.

²⁸They were constructed with side panels braced with crossbars.

²⁹Both the panels and the crossbars were decorated with carved lions, oxen, and cherubim. Above and below the lions and oxen were wreath decorations.

³⁰Each of these carts had four bronze wheels and bronze axles. There were supporting posts for the bronze basins at the corners of the carts; these supports were decorated on each side with carvings of wreaths.

³¹The top of each cart had a rounded frame for the basin. It projected 1 1⁄2 feet above the cart’s top like a round pedestal, and its opening was 2 1⁄4 feet across; it was decorated on the outside with carvings of wreaths. The panels of the carts were square, not round.

³²Under the panels were four wheels that were connected to axles that had been cast as one unit with the cart. The wheels were 2 1⁄4 feet in diameter

³³and were similar to chariot wheels. The axles, spokes, rims, and hubs were all cast from molten bronze.

³⁴There were handles at each of the four corners of the carts, and these, too, were cast as one unit with the cart.

³⁵Around the top of each cart was a rim nine inches wide. The corner supports and side panels were cast as one unit with the cart.

³⁶Carvings of cherubim, lions, and palm trees decorated the panels and corner supports wherever there was room, and there were wreaths all around.

³⁷All ten water carts were the same size and were made alike, for each was cast from the same mold.

³⁸Huram also made ten smaller bronze basins, one for each cart. Each basin was six feet across and could hold 220 gallons of water.

³⁹He set five water carts on the south side of the Temple and five on the north side. The great bronze basin called the Sea was placed near the southeast corner of the Temple.

⁴⁰He also made the necessary washbasins, shovels, and bowls. So at last Huram completed everything King Solomon had assigned him to make for the Temple of the LORD:

⁴¹the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two networks of interwoven chains that decorated the capitals;

⁴²the 400 pomegranates that hung from the chains on the capitals (two rows of pomegranates for each of the chain networks that decorated the capitals on top of the pillars);

⁴³the ten water carts holding the ten basins;

⁴⁴the Sea and the twelve oxen under it;

⁴⁵the ash buckets, the shovels, and the bowls. Huram made all these things of burnished bronze for the Temple of the LORD, just as King Solomon had directed.

⁴⁶The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zarethan.

⁴⁷Solomon did not weigh all these things because there were so many; the weight of the bronze could not be measured.

⁴⁸Solomon also made all the furnishings of the Temple of the LORD: the gold altar; the gold table for the Bread of the Presence;

⁴⁹the lampstands of solid gold, five on the south and five on the north, in front of the Most Holy Place; the flower decorations, lamps, and tongs — all of gold;

⁵⁰the small bowls, lamp snuffers, bowls, ladles, and incense burners — all of solid gold; the doors for the entrances to the Most Holy Place and the main room of the Temple, with their fronts overlaid with gold.

⁵¹So King Solomon finished all his work on the Temple of the LORD. Then he brought all the gifts his father, David, had dedicated — the silver, the gold, and the various articles — and he stored them in the treasuries of the LORD’s Temple.

¹This is the message Jeremiah received concerning the Judeans living in northern Egypt in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in southern Egypt as well:

²“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: You saw the calamity I brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. They now lie deserted and in ruins.

³They provoked my anger with all their wickedness. They burned incense and worshiped other gods — gods that neither they nor you nor any of your ancestors had ever even known.

⁴“Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them, ‘Don’t do these horrible things that I hate so much.’

⁵But my people would not listen or turn back from their wicked ways. They kept on burning incense to these gods.

⁶And so my fury boiled over and fell like fire on the towns of Judah and into the streets of Jerusalem, and they are still a desolate ruin today.

⁷“And now the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, asks you: Why are you destroying yourselves? For not one of you will survive — not a man, woman, or child among you who has come here from Judah, not even the babies in your arms.

⁸Why provoke my anger by burning incense to the idols you have made here in Egypt? You will only destroy yourselves and make yourselves an object of cursing and mockery for all the nations of the earth.

⁹Have you forgotten the sins of your ancestors, the sins of the kings and queens of Judah, and the sins you and your wives committed in Judah and Jerusalem?

¹⁰To this very hour you have shown no remorse or reverence. No one has chosen to follow my word and the decrees I gave to you and your ancestors before you.

¹¹“Therefore, this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to destroy every one of you!

¹²I will take this remnant of Judah — those who were determined to come here and live in Egypt — and I will consume them. They will fall here in Egypt, killed by war and famine. All will die, from the least to the greatest. They will be an object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery.

¹³I will punish them in Egypt just as I punished them in Jerusalem, by war, famine, and disease.

¹⁴Of that remnant who fled to Egypt, hoping someday to return to Judah, there will be no survivors. Even though they long to return home, only a handful will do so.”

¹⁵Then all the women present and all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to idols — a great crowd of all the Judeans living in northern Egypt and southern Egypt — answered Jeremiah,

¹⁶“We will not listen to your messages from the LORD!

¹⁷We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven just as much as we like — just as we, and our ancestors, and our kings and officials have always done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles!

¹⁸But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping her with liquid offerings, we have been in great trouble and have been dying from war and famine.”

¹⁹“Besides,” the women added, “do you suppose that we were burning incense and pouring out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven, and making cakes marked with her image, without our husbands knowing it and helping us? Of course not!”

²⁰Then Jeremiah said to all of them, men and women alike, who had given him that answer,

²¹“Do you think the LORD did not know that you and your ancestors, your kings and officials, and all the people were burning incense to idols in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

²²It was because the LORD could no longer bear all the disgusting things you were doing that he made your land an object of cursing — a desolate ruin without inhabitants — as it is today.

²³All these terrible things happened to you because you have burned incense to idols and sinned against the LORD. You have refused to obey him and have not followed his instructions, his decrees, and his laws.”

²⁴Then Jeremiah said to them all, including the women, “Listen to this message from the LORD, all you citizens of Judah who live in Egypt.

²⁵This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You and your wives have said, “We will keep our promises to burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven,” and you have proved by your actions that you meant it. So go ahead and carry out your promises and vows to her!’

²⁶“But listen to this message from the LORD, all you Judeans now living in Egypt: ‘I have sworn by my great name,’ says the LORD, ‘that my name will no longer be spoken by any of the Judeans in the land of Egypt. None of you may invoke my name or use this oath: “As surely as the Sovereign LORD lives.”

²⁷For I will watch over you to bring you disaster and not good. Everyone from Judah who is now living in Egypt will suffer war and famine until all of you are dead.

²⁸Only a small number will escape death and return to Judah from Egypt. Then all those who came to Egypt will find out whose words are true — mine or theirs!

²⁹“‘And this is the proof I give you,’ says the LORD, ‘that all I have threatened will happen to you and that I will punish you here.’

³⁰This is what the LORD says: ‘I will turn Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, over to his enemies who want to kill him, just as I turned King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.’”

¹Five days later Ananias, the high priest, arrived with some of the Jewish elders and the lawyer Tertullus, to present their case against Paul to the governor.

²When Paul was called in, Tertullus presented the charges against Paul in the following address to the governor: “You have provided a long period of peace for us Jews and with foresight have enacted reforms for us.

³For all of this, Your Excellency, we are very grateful to you.

⁴But I don’t want to bore you, so please give me your attention for only a moment.

⁵We have found this man to be a troublemaker who is constantly stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the cult known as the Nazarenes.

⁶Furthermore, he was trying to desecrate the Temple when we arrested him.

⁷

⁸You can find out the truth of our accusations by examining him yourself.”

⁹Then the other Jews chimed in, declaring that everything Tertullus said was true.

¹⁰The governor then motioned for Paul to speak. Paul said, “I know, sir, that you have been a judge of Jewish affairs for many years, so I gladly present my defense before you.

¹¹You can quickly discover that I arrived in Jerusalem no more than twelve days ago to worship at the Temple.

¹²My accusers never found me arguing with anyone in the Temple, nor stirring up a riot in any synagogue or on the streets of the city.

¹³These men cannot prove the things they accuse me of doing.

¹⁴“But I admit that I follow the Way, which they call a cult. I worship the God of our ancestors, and I firmly believe the Jewish law and everything written in the prophets.

¹⁵I have the same hope in God that these men have, that he will raise both the righteous and the unrighteous.

¹⁶Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people.

¹⁷“After several years away, I returned to Jerusalem with money to aid my people and to offer sacrifices to God.

¹⁸My accusers saw me in the Temple as I was completing a purification ceremony. There was no crowd around me and no rioting.

¹⁹But some Jews from the province of Asia were there — and they ought to be here to bring charges if they have anything against me!

²⁰Ask these men here what crime the Jewish high council found me guilty of,

²¹except for the one time I shouted out, ‘I am on trial before you today because I believe in the resurrection of the dead!’”

²²At that point Felix, who was quite familiar with the Way, adjourned the hearing and said, “Wait until Lysias, the garrison commander, arrives. Then I will decide the case.”

²³He ordered an officer to keep Paul in custody but to give him some freedom and allow his friends to visit him and take care of his needs.

²⁴A few days later Felix came back with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish. Sending for Paul, they listened as he told them about faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁵As he reasoned with them about righteousness and self-control and the coming day of judgment, Felix became frightened. “Go away for now,” he replied. “When it is more convenient, I’ll call for you again.”

²⁶He also hoped that Paul would bribe him, so he sent for him quite often and talked with him.

²⁷After two years went by in this way, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And because Felix wanted to gain favor with the Jewish people, he left Paul in prison.