Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

⁴While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

⁵In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?

⁶He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:

⁷‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”

⁸Then they remembered his words.

⁹When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.

¹⁰It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

¹¹But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

¹²Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

¹³Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

¹⁴They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.

¹⁵As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;

¹⁶but they were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast.

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

¹⁹“What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.

²⁰The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him;

²¹but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.

²²In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning

²³but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.

²⁴Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

²⁵He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

²⁶Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”

²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

²⁸As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther.

²⁹But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

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

³¹Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

³²They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

³³They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together

³⁴and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”

³⁵Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

³⁶While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

³⁷They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.

³⁸He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?

³⁹Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

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

⁴¹And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”

⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish,

⁴³and he took it and ate it in their presence.

⁴⁴He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

⁴⁵Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

⁴⁶He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,

⁴⁷and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.

⁴⁹I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

⁵⁰When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

⁵¹While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.

⁵²Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

⁵³And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

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

²After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro received her

³and her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land”;

⁴and the other was named Eliezer, for he said, “My father’s God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

⁵Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, together with Moses’ sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was camped near the mountain of God.

⁶Jethro had sent word to him, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”

⁷So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent.

⁸Moses told his father-in-law about everything the LORD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the LORD had saved them.

⁹Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the LORD had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰He said, “Praise be to the LORD, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.”

¹²Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law in the presence of God.

¹³The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.

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

¹⁵Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will.

¹⁶Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”

¹⁷Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good.

¹⁸You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.

¹⁹Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him.

²⁰Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave.

²¹But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.

²²Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.

²³If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”

²⁴Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.

²⁵He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.

²⁶They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.

²⁷Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.

¹Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.

²He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.

³Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.

⁴For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

⁵“Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future.

⁶But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

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

⁸do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,

⁹where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did.

¹⁰That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’

¹¹So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

¹²See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

¹³But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

¹⁴We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

¹⁵As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”

¹⁶Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

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

¹⁸And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?

¹⁹So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

¹Then Job replied:

²“If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales!

³It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas— no wonder my words have been impetuous.

⁴The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors are marshaled against me.

⁵Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox bellow when it has fodder?

⁶Is tasteless food eaten without salt, or is there flavor in the sap of the mallow?

⁷I refuse to touch it; such food makes me ill.

⁸“Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for,

⁹that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut off my life!

¹⁰Then I would still have this consolation— my joy in unrelenting pain— that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹“What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?

¹²Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?

¹³Do I have any power to help myself, now that success has been driven from me?

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

¹⁵But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow

¹⁶when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow,

¹⁷but that stop flowing in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels.

¹⁸Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go off into the wasteland and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.

²⁰They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed.

²¹Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.

²²Have I ever said, ‘Give something on my behalf, pay a ransom for me from your wealth,

²³deliver me from the hand of the enemy, rescue me from the clutches of the ruthless’?

²⁴“Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong.

²⁵How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove?

²⁶Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind?

²⁷You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.

²⁸“But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face?

²⁹Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake.

³⁰Is there any wickedness on my lips? Can my mouth not discern malice?

¹For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. A song. May God arise, may his enemies be scattered; may his foes flee before him.

²May you blow them away like smoke— as wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God.

³But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.

⁴Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the LORD.

⁵A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

⁶God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

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

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

⁹You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance.

¹⁰Your people settled in it, and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.

¹¹The Lord announces the word, and the women who proclaim it are a mighty throng:

¹²“Kings and armies flee in haste; the women at home divide the plunder.

¹³Even while you sleep among the sheep pens, the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver, its feathers with shining gold.”

¹⁴When the Almighty scattered the kings in the land, it was like snow fallen on Mount Zalmon.

¹⁵Mount Bashan, majestic mountain, Mount Bashan, rugged mountain,

¹⁶why gaze in envy, you rugged mountain, at the mountain where God chooses to reign, where the LORD himself will dwell forever?

¹⁷The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands; the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary.

¹⁸When you ascended on high, you took many captives; you received gifts from people, even from the rebellious— that you, LORD God, might dwell there.

¹⁹Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.

²⁰Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death.

²¹Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies, the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins.

²²The Lord says, “I will bring them from Bashan; I will bring them from the depths of the sea,

²³that your feet may wade in the blood of your foes, while the tongues of your dogs have their share.”

²⁴Your procession, God, has come into view, the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.

²⁵In front are the singers, after them the musicians; with them are the young women playing the timbrels.

²⁶Praise God in the great congregation; praise the LORD in the assembly of Israel.

²⁷There is the little tribe of Benjamin, leading them, there the great throng of Judah’s princes, and there the princes of Zebulun and of Naphtali.

²⁸Summon your power, God; show us your strength, our God, as you have done before.

²⁹Because of your temple at Jerusalem kings will bring you gifts.

³⁰Rebuke the beast among the reeds, the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations. Humbled, may the beast bring bars of silver. Scatter the nations who delight in war.

³¹Envoys will come from Egypt; Cush will submit herself to God.

³²Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth, sing praise to the Lord,

³³to him who rides across the highest heavens, the ancient heavens, who thunders with mighty voice.

³⁴Proclaim the power of God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the heavens.

³⁵You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God!

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

²you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth.

³So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go—to the point of exhaustion— and give your neighbor no rest!

⁴Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids.

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

⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!

⁷It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,

⁸yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?

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

¹¹and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.

¹²A troublemaker and a villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth,

¹³who winks maliciously with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers,

¹⁴who plots evil with deceit in his heart— he always stirs up conflict.

¹⁵Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.

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

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

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,

¹⁹a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

²⁰My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

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

²²When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

²³For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life,

²⁴keeping you from your neighbor’s wife, from the smooth talk of a wayward woman.

²⁵Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.

²⁶For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, but another man’s wife preys on your very life.

²⁷Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?

²⁸Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?

²⁹So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.

³¹Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.

³²But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself.

³³Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.

¹Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David

²and warned him, “My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there.

³I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.”

⁴Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly.

⁵He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?”

⁶Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death.”

⁷So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.

⁸Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him.

⁹But an evil spirit from the LORD came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre,

¹⁰Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.

¹¹Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.”

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

¹³Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head.

¹⁴When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, “He is ill.”

¹⁵Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him.”

¹⁶But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats’ hair.

¹⁷Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?” Michal told him, “He said to me, ‘Let me get away. Why should I kill you?’ ”

¹⁸When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there.

¹⁹Word came to Saul: “David is in Naioth at Ramah”;

²⁰so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s men, and they also prophesied.

²¹Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied.

²²Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” “Over in Naioth at Ramah,” they said.

²³So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth.

²⁴He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “This is what the LORD says: “ ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown.

³Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,’ ” declares the LORD.

⁴Hear the word of the LORD, you descendants of Jacob, all you clans of Israel.

⁵This is what the LORD says: “What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.

⁶They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, a land of drought and utter darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’

⁷I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.

⁸The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.

⁹“Therefore I bring charges against you again,” declares the LORD. “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.

¹⁰Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this:

¹¹Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.

¹²Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the LORD.

¹³“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

¹⁴Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth? Why then has he become plunder?

¹⁵Lions have roared; they have growled at him. They have laid waste his land; his towns are burned and deserted.

¹⁶Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skull.

¹⁷Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the LORD your God when he led you in the way?

¹⁸Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates?

¹⁹Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

²⁰“Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, ‘I will not serve you!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute.

²¹I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?

²²Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign LORD.

²³“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there,

²⁴a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving— in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her.

²⁵Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, ‘It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’

²⁶“As a thief is disgraced when he is caught, so the people of Israel are disgraced— they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets.

²⁷They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

²⁸Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns.

²⁹“Why do you bring charges against me? You have all rebelled against me,” declares the LORD.

³⁰“In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravenous lion.

³¹“You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD: “Have I been a desert to Israel or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We are free to roam; we will come to you no more’?

³²Does a young woman forget her jewelry, a bride her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.

³³How skilled you are at pursuing love! Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.

³⁴On your clothes is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them breaking in. Yet in spite of all this

³⁵you say, ‘I am innocent; he is not angry with me.’ But I will pass judgment on you because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

³⁶Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria.

³⁷You will also leave that place with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not be helped by them.

¹It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them.

²He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.

³When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

⁴After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

⁵So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

⁶The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.

⁷Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

⁸Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him.

⁹Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.

¹⁰They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.

¹¹Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”

¹²When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying.

¹³Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.

¹⁴When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

¹⁵“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”

¹⁶But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

¹⁷Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

¹⁸In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.

¹⁹After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

²⁰He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s country for their food supply.

²¹On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people.

²²They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.”

²³Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

²⁴But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.

²⁵When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark.