Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Take care not to practice your righteousness in the sight of people, to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

²“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, so that they will be praised by people. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

³But when yougive to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

⁴so that your charitable giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

⁵“And when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they will be seen by people. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

⁶But as for you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

⁷“And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.

⁸So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

⁹“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

¹⁰Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

¹¹Give us this day our daily bread.

¹²And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

¹³And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. ’

¹⁴For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

¹⁵But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive youroffenses.

¹⁶“Now whenever you fast, do not make a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they distort their faces so that they will be noticed by people when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

¹⁷But as for you, when you fast,anoint your head and wash your face,

¹⁸so that your fasting will not be noticed by people but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;

²¹for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²²“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

²³But if your eye isbad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

²⁴“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

²⁵“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing?

²⁶Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more important than they?

²⁷And which of you by worrying can add a singleday to hislife’s span?

²⁸And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth,

²⁹yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

³¹Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’

³²For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

³³Butseek firstHis kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will beprovided to you.

³⁴“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

¹“You shall not see your countryman’s ox or his sheep straying away, and avoid them; you shall certainly bring them back to your countryman.

²And if your countryman is not near you, or if you do not know him, then you shall bring it to your house, and it shall remain with you until your countryman looks for it; then you shall restore it to him.

³You shall also do this with his donkey, and you shall do the same with his garment, and you shall do likewise with any lost property of your countryman, which has been lost by him and you have found. You are not allowed to avoid them.

⁴You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the road, and avoid them; you shall certainly help him raise them up.

⁵“A woman shall not wear a man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.

⁶“If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs in it, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young;

⁷you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may go well for you and that you may prolong your days.

⁸“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring guilt for bloodshed on your house if anyone falls from it.

⁹“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, otherwise all the produce of the seed which you have sown and the yield of the vineyard will be forfeited to the sanctuary.

¹⁰“You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

¹¹“You shall not wear a material of wool and linen combined together.

¹²“You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your garment with which you cover yourself.

¹³“If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then turns against her,

¹⁴and he charges her with shameful behavior and publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her to have evidence of virginity,’

¹⁵then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.

¹⁶And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, but he turned against her;

¹⁷and behold, he has charged her with shameful behavior, saying, “I did not find your daughter to have evidence of virginity.” But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread out the garment before the elders of the city.

¹⁸Then the elders of that city shall take the man and rebuke him,

¹⁹and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he is not allowed to divorce her all his days.

²⁰“But if this charge is true, and they did not find the girl to have evidence of virginity,

²¹then they shall bring the girl out to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death, because she has committed a disgraceful sin in Israel by playing the prostitute in her father’s house; so you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

²²“If a man is found sleeping with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who slept with the woman, and the woman; so you shall eliminate the evil from Israel.

²³“If there is a girl who is a virgin betrothed to a man, and another man finds her in the city and sleeps with her,

²⁴then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death: the girl, because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

²⁵“But if the man finds the girl who is betrothed in the field, and the man seizes her and rapes her, then only the man who raped her shall die.

²⁶And you are not to do anything to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case.

²⁷When he found her in the field, the betrothed girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.

²⁸“If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and has sexual relations with her, and they are discovered,

²⁹then the man who had sexual relations with her shall give the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife, because he has violated her; he is not allowed to divorce her all his days.

³⁰“A man shall not take his father’s wife in marriage, so that he does not uncover his father’s garment.

¹It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

²Look! I, Paul, tell you that if you have yourselves circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

³And I testify again to every man who has himself circumcised, that he is obligated to keep the whole Law.

⁴You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the Law; you have fallen from grace.

⁵For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.

⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.

⁷You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?

⁸This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.

⁹A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.

¹⁰I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you will bear the punishment, whoever he is.

¹¹But as for me, brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been eliminated.

¹²I wish that those who are troubling you would even emasculate themselves.

¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

¹⁴For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

¹⁵But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

¹⁶But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

¹⁷For the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, in order to keep you from doing whatever you want.

¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

¹⁹Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior,

²⁰idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions,

²¹envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

²⁴Now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit as well.

²⁶Let’s not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

¹My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

²and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

³By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

⁴The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

⁵but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:

⁶the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.

⁷Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.

⁸On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining.

⁹The one who says that he is in the Light and yet hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now.

¹⁰The one who loves his brother and sister remains in the Light, and there is nothing in him to cause stumbling.

¹¹But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹²I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you on account of His name.

¹³I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.

¹⁴I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁵Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

¹⁷The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever.

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.

¹⁹They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be evident that they all are not of us.

²⁰But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

²¹I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

²²Who is the liar except the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

²³Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.

²⁴As for you, see that what you heard from the beginning remains in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.

²⁵This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.

²⁶These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you.

²⁷And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him remains in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you remain in Him.

²⁸Now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not draw back from Him in shame at His coming.

²⁹If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness also has been born of Him.

¹Dead flies turn a perfumer’s oil rancid, so a little foolishness is more potent than wisdom and honor.

²A wise person’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish person’s heart directs him toward the left.

³Even when the fool walks along the road, his sense is lacking, and he demonstrates to everyone that he is a fool.

⁴If the ruler’s temper rises against you, do not abandon your place, because composure puts great offenses to rest.

⁵There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like a mistake that proceeds from the ruler:

⁶foolishness is set in many exalted places while the rich sit in humble places.

⁷I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land.

⁸One who digs a pit may fall into it, and a serpent may bite one who breaks through a wall.

⁹One who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and one who splits logs may be endangered by them.

¹⁰If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of bringing success.

¹¹If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no benefit for the charmer.

¹²Words from the mouth of a wise person are gracious, while the lips of a fool consume him;

¹³the beginning of his talking is foolishness, and the end of it is evil insanity.

¹⁴Yet the fool multiplies words. No person knows what will happen, and who can tell him what will come after him?

¹⁵The labor of a fool makes him so weary that he does not even know how to go to a city.

¹⁶Woe to you, land whose king is a boy, and whose princes feast in the morning.

¹⁷Blessed are you, land whose king is of nobility, and whose princes eat at the appropriate time—for strength and not for drunkenness.

¹⁸Through extreme laziness the rafters sag, and through idleness the house leaks.

¹⁹People prepare a meal for enjoyment, wine makes life joyful, and money is the answer to everything.

²⁰Furthermore, in your bedroom do not curse a king, and in your sleeping rooms do not curse a rich person; for a bird of the sky will bring the sound, and the winged one will make your word known.

¹My soul waits in silence for God alone; From Him comes my salvation.

²He alone is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I will not be greatly shaken.

³How long will you attack a man, That you may murder him, all of you, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?

⁴They have planned only to thrust him down from his high position; They delight in falsehood; They bless with their mouth, But inwardly they curse. Selah

⁵My soul, wait in silence for God alone, For my hope is from Him.

⁶He alone is my rock and my salvation, My refuge; I will not be shaken.

⁷My salvation and my glory rest on God; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.

⁸Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your hearts before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah

⁹People of low standing are only breath, and people of rank are a lie; In the balances they go up. Together they are lighter than breath.

¹⁰Do not trust in oppression, And do not vainly rely on robbery; If wealth increases, do not set your heart on it.

¹¹God has spoken once; Twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God;

¹²And faithfulness is Yours, Lord, For You reward a person according to his work.

¹The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He pleases.

²Every person’s way is right in his own eyes, But the LORD examines the hearts.

³To do righteousness and justice Is preferred by the LORD more than sacrifice.

⁴Haughty eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.

⁵The plans of the diligent certainly lead to advantage, But everyone who is in a hurry certainly comes to poverty.

⁶The acquisition of treasures by a lying tongue Is a fleeting vapor, the pursuit of death.

⁷The violence of the wicked will sweep them away, Because they refuse to act with justice.

⁸The way of a guilty person is crooked, But as for the pure, his conduct is upright.

⁹It is better to live on a corner of a roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

¹⁰The soul of the wicked desires evil; His neighbor is shown no compassion in his eyes.

¹¹When the scoffer is punished, the naive becomes wise; But when the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.

¹²The righteous one considers the house of the wicked, Bringing the wicked to ruin.

¹³One who shuts his ear to the outcry of the poor Will also call out himself, and not be answered.

¹⁴A gift in secret subdues anger, And a bribe in an inside pocket, strong wrath.

¹⁵The exercise of justice is joy for the righteous, But terror to those who practice injustice.

¹⁶A person who wanders from the way of understanding Will rest in the assembly of the dead.

¹⁷One who loves pleasure will become a poor person; One who loves wine and oil will not become rich.

¹⁸The wicked is a ransom for the righteous, And the treacherous is in the place of the upright.

¹⁹It is better to live in a desert land Than with a contentious and irritating woman.

²⁰There is precious treasure and oil in the home of the wise, But a foolish person swallows it up.

²¹One who pursues righteousness and loyalty Finds life, righteousness, and honor.

²²A wise person scales the city of the mighty And brings down the stronghold in which they trust.

²³One who guards his mouth and his tongue, Guards his soul from troubles.

²⁴“Proud,” “Arrogant,” “Scoffer,” are his names, One who acts with insolent pride.

²⁵The desire of the lazy one puts him to death, For his hands refuse to work;

²⁶All day long he is craving, While the righteous gives and does not hold back.

²⁷The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, How much more when he brings it with evil intent!

²⁸A false witness will perish, But a person who listens will speak forever.

²⁹A wicked person displays a bold face, But as for the upright, he makes his way sure.

³⁰There is no wisdom, no understanding, And no plan against the LORD.

³¹The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But the victory belongs to the LORD.

¹Now it came about when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king’s house, and all that Solomon desired to do,

²that the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon.

³And the LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea which you have offered before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built, by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there always.

⁴As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and honesty, acting in accordance with everything that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My ordinances,

⁵then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not be deprived of a man on the throne of Israel.’

⁶“But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have placed before you, but you go and serve other gods and worship them,

⁷then I will cut Israel off from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will expel from My sight. So Israel will become a saying and an object of derision among all peoples.

⁸And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by it will be appalled and hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and this house?’

⁹And they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped and served them, for that reason the LORD has brought all this adversity on them.’ ”

¹⁰Now it came about at the end of twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king’s house

¹¹(Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and juniper timber and gold, satisfying all his desire), that King Solomon then gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

¹²So Hiram left Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him, and they did not please him.

¹³And he said, “What are these cities which you have given me, my brother?” So they have been called the land of Cabul to this day.

¹⁴And Hiram sent to the king 120 talents of gold.

¹⁵Now this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon conscripted to build the house of the LORD, his own house, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and overthrown Gezer and burned it with fire, and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city; and he had given it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

¹⁷So Solomon rebuilt Gezer and the lower Beth-horon,

¹⁸and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,

¹⁹and all the storage cities which Solomon had, that is, the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horsemen, and everything that it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land under his rule.

²⁰As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel,

²¹their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel were unable to completely eliminate, from them Solomon conscripted forced laborers, as they are to this day.

²²But Solomon did not make slaves of the sons of Israel; for they were men of war, his servants, his commanders, his charioteers, his chariot commanders, and his horsemen.

²³These were the chief officers who were in charge of Solomon’s work, 550, who ruled over the people doing the work.

²⁴As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter came up from the city of David to her house which Solomon had built for her, he then built the Millo.

²⁵Now three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he had built for the LORD, burning incense with them on the altar which was before the LORD. So he finished the house.

²⁶King Solomon also built a fleet of ships in Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

²⁷And Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, sailors who knew the sea, along with the servants of Solomon.

²⁸And they went to Ophir and received 420 talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.

¹That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.

²To Egypt, concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

³“Set up the buckler and shield, And advance to the battle!

⁴Harness the horses, And mount the steeds, Take your stand with helmets on! Polish the spears, Put on the coats of armor!

⁵Why have I seen it? They are terrified, They are retreating, And their warriors are defeated And have taken refuge in flight, Without facing back. Terror is on every side!” Declares the LORD.

⁶Let not the swift man flee, Nor the warrior escape. In the north beside the river Euphrates They have stumbled and fallen.

⁷Who is this that rises like the Nile, Like the rivers whose waters surge?

⁸Egypt rises like the Nile, And like the rivers whose waters surge; And He has said, “I will rise and cover that land; I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.”

⁹Go up, you horses, and drive wildly, you chariots, So that the warriors may march forward: Cush and Put, who handle the shield, And the Lydians, who handle and bend the bow.

¹⁰For that day belongs to the Lord GOD of armies, A day of vengeance, so as to avenge Himself on His foes; And the sword will devour and be satisfied, And drink its fill of their blood; For there will be a slaughter for the Lord GOD of armies, In the land of the north at the river Euphrates.

¹¹Go up to Gilead and obtain balm, Virgin daughter of Egypt! You have used many remedies in vain; There is no healing for you.

¹²The nations have heard of your shame, And the earth is full of your cry of distress; For one warrior has stumbled over another, And both of them have fallen down together.

¹³This is the message which the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:

¹⁴“Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol, Proclaim also in Memphis and Tahpanhes; Say, ‘Take your stand and get yourself ready, For the sword has devoured those around you.’

¹⁵Why have your powerful ones been cut down? They do not stand because the LORD has thrust them away.

¹⁶They have repeatedly stumbled; Indeed, they have fallen, one against another. Then they said, ‘Get up, and let’s go back To our own people and our native land, Away from the sword of the oppressor!’

¹⁷They shouted there, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is nothing but a big noise; He has let the appointed time pass by!’

¹⁸As I live,” declares the King, Whose name is the LORD of armies, “One certainly shall come who is like Tabor among the mountains, Or like Carmel by the sea.

¹⁹Make your baggage ready for exile, Daughter living in Egypt, For Memphis will become a desolation; It will be destroyed and deprived of inhabitants.

²⁰Egypt is a pretty heifer, But a horsefly is coming from the north—it is coming!

²¹Also her mercenaries in her midst Are like fattened calves, For they too have turned away and have fled together; They did not stand their ground. For the day of their disaster has come upon them, The time of their punishment.

²²Its sound moves along like a serpent; For they move on like an army And come to her as woodcutters with axes.

²³They have cut down her forest,” declares the LORD; “Certainly it will no longer be found, Even though they are more numerous than locusts And are without number.

²⁴The daughter of Egypt has been put to shame, Turned over to the power of the people of the north.”

²⁵The LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I am going to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt along with her gods and her kings, indeed, Pharaoh and those who trust in him.

²⁶I shall hand them over to those who are seeking their lives, that is, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to his officers. Afterward, however, it will be inhabited as in the days of old,” declares the LORD.

²⁷“But as for you, Jacob My servant, do not fear, Nor be dismayed, Israel! For, see, I am going to save you from far away, And your descendants from the land of their captivity; And Jacob will return and be undisturbed And secure, with no one making him afraid.

²⁸Jacob My servant, do not fear,” declares the LORD, “For I am with you. For I will make a complete destruction of all the nations Where I have driven you, Yet I will not make a complete destruction of you; But I will correct you properly And by no means leave you unpunished.”

¹Now Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul extended his hand and proceeded to make his defense:

²“Regarding all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that I am about to make my defense before you today,

³especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“So then, all Jews know my way of life since my youth, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and in Jerusalem,

⁵since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion.

⁶And now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers;

⁷the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. For this hope, O king, I am being accused by Jews.

⁸Why is it considered incredible among you people if God raises the dead?

⁹“So I thought to myself that I had to act in strong opposition to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, after receiving authority from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being put to death.

¹¹And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was extremely enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.

¹²“While so engaged, as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

¹³at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who were journeying with me.

¹⁴And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you as a servant and a witness not only to the things in which you have seen Me, but also to the things in which I will appear to you,

¹⁷rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,

¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from thepower of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

¹⁹“For that reason, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but continually proclaimed to those in Damascus first, and in Jerusalem, and then all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they are to repent and turn to God, performing deeds consistent with repentance.

²¹For these reasons some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to murder me.

²²So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place,

²³as to whether the Christ was to suffer, and whether, as first from the resurrection of the dead, He would proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴While Paul was stating these things in his defense, Festus *said in a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you insane.”

²⁵But Paul *said, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus; on the contrary, I am speaking out with truthful and rational words.

²⁶For the king knows about these matters, and I also speak to him with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you believe.”

²⁸Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you are going to persuade me to make a Christian of myself.”

²⁹And Paul said, “I would wish to God that even in a short or long time not only you, but also all who hear me this day would become such as I myself am, except for these chains.”

³⁰The king stood up and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with them,

³¹and when they had gone out, they began talking to one another, saying, “This man is not doing anything deserving death or imprisonment.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”