Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.

²And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

³but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

⁴While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

⁵And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?

⁶He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,

⁷that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

⁸And they remembered his words,

⁹and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles,

¹¹but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

¹²But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

¹³That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,

¹⁴and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

¹⁵While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

¹⁶But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad.

¹⁸Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

¹⁹And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

²⁰and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.

²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

²²Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning,

²³and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.

²⁴Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

²⁵And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

²⁶ Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

²⁸So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther,

²⁹but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.

³¹And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.

³²They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

³³And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,

³⁴saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

³⁶As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”

³⁷But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

³⁸And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

³⁹See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

⁴¹And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”

⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish,

⁴³and he took it and ate before them.

⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

⁴⁶and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,

⁴⁷and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things.

⁴⁹And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

⁵⁰And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.

⁵¹While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

⁵²And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

⁵³and were continually in the temple blessing God.

¹Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

²Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home,

³along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”),

⁴and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”).

⁵Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the mountain of God.

⁶And when he sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,”

⁷Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent.

⁸Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.

⁹And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the LORD had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.”

¹²And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.

¹³The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening.

¹⁴When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?”

¹⁵And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God;

¹⁶when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws.”

¹⁷Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good.

¹⁸You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone.

¹⁹Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God,

²⁰and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.

²¹Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

²²And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.

²³If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”

²⁴So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said.

²⁵Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

²⁶And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves.

²⁷Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country.

¹Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,

²who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house.

³For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses — as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

⁴(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)

⁵Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later,

⁶but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

⁷Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,

⁸do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,

⁹where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.

¹⁰Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’

¹¹As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

¹²Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

¹³But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

¹⁴For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

¹⁵As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

¹⁶For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?

¹⁷And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

¹⁸And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

¹⁹So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

¹Then Job answered and said:

²“Oh that my vexation were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!

³For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

⁵Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder?

⁶Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt, or is there any taste in the juice of the mallow?

⁷My appetite refuses to touch them; they are as food that is loathsome to me.

⁸“Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope,

⁹that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!

¹⁰This would be my comfort; I would even exult in pain unsparing, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should be patient?

¹²Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?

¹³Have I any help in me, when resource is driven from me?

¹⁴“He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away,

¹⁶which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself.

¹⁷When they melt, they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place.

¹⁸The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope.

²⁰They are ashamed because they were confident; they come there and are disappointed.

²¹For you have now become nothing; you see my calamity and are afraid.

²²Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’? Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’?

²³Or, ‘Deliver me from the adversary's hand’? Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless’?

²⁴“Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray.

²⁵How forceful are upright words! But what does reproof from you reprove?

²⁶Do you think that you can reprove words, when the speech of a despairing man is wind?

²⁷You would even cast lots over the fatherless, and bargain over your friend.

²⁸“But now, be pleased to look at me, for I will not lie to your face.

²⁹Please turn; let no injustice be done. Turn now; my vindication is at stake.

³⁰Is there any injustice on my tongue? Cannot my palate discern the cause of calamity?

¹God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him!

²As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God!

³But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!

⁴Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the LORD; exult before him!

⁵Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

⁶God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

⁷O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, Selah

⁸the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

⁹Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad; you restored your inheritance as it languished;

¹⁰your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.

¹¹The Lord gives the word; the women who announce the news are a great host:

¹²“The kings of the armies — they flee, they flee!” The women at home divide the spoil —

¹³though you men lie among the sheepfolds — the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with shimmering gold.

¹⁴When the Almighty scatters kings there, let snow fall on Zalmon.

¹⁵O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan; O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!

¹⁶Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount that God desired for his abode, yes, where the LORD will dwell forever?

¹⁷The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary.

¹⁸You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.

¹⁹Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah

²⁰Our God is a God of salvation, and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.

²¹But God will strike the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways.

²²The Lord said, “I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,

²³that you may strike your feet in their blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe.”

²⁴Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary —

²⁵the singers in front, the musicians last, between them virgins playing tambourines:

²⁶“Bless God in the great congregation, the LORD, O you who are of Israel's fountain!”

²⁷There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead, the princes of Judah in their throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

²⁸Summon your power, O God, the power, O God, by which you have worked for us.

²⁹Because of your temple at Jerusalem kings shall bear gifts to you.

³⁰Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples. Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute; scatter the peoples who delight in war.

³¹Nobles shall come from Egypt; Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God.

³²O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praises to the Lord, Selah

³³to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.

³⁴Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies.

³⁵Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel — he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!

¹My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger,

²if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth,

³then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.

⁴Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;

⁵save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

⁷Without having any chief, officer, or ruler,

⁸she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,

¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech,

¹³winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger,

¹⁴with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord;

¹⁵therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

¹⁶There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,

¹⁹a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.

²¹Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

²⁴to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

²⁶for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.

²⁷Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,

³¹but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house.

³²He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.

³³He will get wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts.

¹And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David.

²And Jonathan told David, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Therefore be on your guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself.

³And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you. And if I learn anything I will tell you.”

⁴And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you.

⁵For he took his life in his hand and he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?”

⁶And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, “As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death.”

⁷And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.

⁸And there was war again. And David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him.

⁹Then a harmful spirit from the LORD came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre.

¹⁰And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.

¹¹Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, “If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”

¹²So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped.

¹³Michal took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head and covered it with the clothes.

¹⁴And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”

¹⁵Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.”

¹⁶And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed, with the pillow of goats' hair at its head.

¹⁷Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” And Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go. Why should I kill you?’”

¹⁸Now David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and lived at Naioth.

¹⁹And it was told Saul, “Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.”

²⁰Then Saul sent messengers to take David, and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

²¹When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied.

²²Then he himself went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Secu. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” And one said, “Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.”

²³And he went there to Naioth in Ramah. And the Spirit of God came upon him also, and as he went he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

²⁴And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay naked all that day and all that night. Thus it is said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

¹The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

³Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the LORD.”

⁴Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel.

⁵Thus says the LORD: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?

⁶They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’

⁷And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.

⁸The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.

⁹“Therefore I still contend with you, declares the LORD, and with your children's children I will contend.

¹⁰For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing.

¹¹Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

¹²Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD,

¹³for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

¹⁴“Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant? Why then has he become a prey?

¹⁵The lions have roared against him; they have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste; his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant.

¹⁶Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head.

¹⁷Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the LORD your God, when he led you in the way?

¹⁸And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

¹⁹Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

²⁰“For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore.

²¹Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?

²²Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD.

²³How can you say, ‘I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done — a restless young camel running here and there,

²⁴a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her.

²⁵Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go.’

²⁶“As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets,

²⁷who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’

²⁸But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.

²⁹“Why do you contend with me? You have all transgressed against me, declares the LORD.

³⁰In vain have I struck your children; they took no correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.

³¹And you, O generation, behold the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, ‘We are free, we will come no more to you’?

³²Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

³³“How well you direct your course to seek love! So that even to wicked women you have taught your ways.

³⁴Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor; you did not find them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things

³⁵you say, ‘I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.’ Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’

³⁶How much you go about, changing your way! You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria.

³⁷From it too you will come away with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them.

¹About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.

²He killed James the brother of John with the sword,

³and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread.

⁴And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.

⁵So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

⁶Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison.

⁷And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands.

⁸And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.”

⁹And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

¹⁰When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him.

¹¹When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

¹²When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.

¹³And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer.

¹⁴Recognizing Peter's voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate.

¹⁵They said to her, “You are out of your mind.” But she kept insisting that it was so, and they kept saying, “It is his angel!”

¹⁶But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed.

¹⁷But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Tell these things to James and to the brothers.” Then he departed and went to another place.

¹⁸Now when day came, there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.

¹⁹And after Herod searched for him and did not find him, he examined the sentries and ordered that they should be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there.

²⁰Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food.

²¹On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.

²²And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”

²³Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

²⁴But the word of God increased and multiplied.

²⁵And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had completed their service, bringing with them John, whose other name was Mark.