Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

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

²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

³but when they went in, they did not find the body.

⁴While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.

⁵The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.

⁶Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,

⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

⁸Then they remembered his words,

⁹and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,

¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad.

¹⁸Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”

¹⁹He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over 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 took place.

²²Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning,

²³and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed 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 they did not see him.”

²⁵Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!

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

²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

²⁸As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on.

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

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

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

³²They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

³³That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.

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

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

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

³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

³⁸He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost 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.

⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”

⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish,

⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence.

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, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”

⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,

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

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

⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.

⁴⁹And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

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

⁵¹While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.

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

⁵³and they 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 his people Israel, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

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

³along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been an alien 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 into the wilderness where Moses was encamped at the mountain of God, bringing Moses’ sons and wife to him.

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

⁷Moses went out to meet his father-in-law; he bowed down and kissed him; each asked after the other’s welfare, and they 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 beset them on the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.

⁹Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the LORD had done to Israel, in delivering them from the Egyptians.

¹⁰Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh.

¹¹Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because he delivered the people from the Egyptians, when they dealt arrogantly with them.”

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 in the presence of God.

¹³The next day Moses sat as judge for the people, while the people stood around him from morning until 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, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”

¹⁵Moses 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 known to them the statutes and instructions of God.”

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

¹⁸You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.

¹⁹Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You should represent the people before God, and you should bring their cases before God;

²⁰teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they are to go and the things they are to do.

²¹You should also look for able men among all the people, men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set such men over them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

²²Let them sit as judges for the people at all times; let them bring every important case to you, but decide every minor case themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.

²³If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their home in peace.”

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

²⁵Moses chose able men from all Israel and appointed them as heads over the people, as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

²⁶And they judged the people at all times; hard cases they brought to Moses, but any minor case they decided themselves.

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

¹Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,

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

³Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just 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 would be spoken later.

⁶Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.

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

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

⁹where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works

¹⁰for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.’

¹¹As in my anger I swore, ‘They will not enter my rest.’”

¹²Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

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

¹⁴For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.

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

¹⁶Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses?

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

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

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

¹Then Job answered:

²“O 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 ass bray over its grass, or the ox low over its fodder?

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

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

⁸“O that I might have my request, and that God would grant my desire;

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

¹⁰This would be my consolation; I would even exult in unrelenting pain; 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?

¹³In truth I have no help in me, and any resource is driven from me.

¹⁴“Those who withhold kindness from a friend forsake the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My companions are treacherous like a torrent-bed, like freshets that pass away,

¹⁶that run dark with ice, turbid with melting snow.

¹⁷In time of heat 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 disappointed because they were confident; they come there and are confounded.

²¹Such you have now become to me; you see my calamity, and are afraid.

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

²³Or, ‘Save me from an opponent’s hand’? Or, ‘Ransom me from the hand of oppressors’?

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

²⁵How forceful are honest words! But your reproof, what does it reprove?

²⁶Do you think that you can reprove words, as if the speech of the desperate were wind?

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

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

²⁹Turn, I pray, let no wrong be done. Turn now, my vindication is at stake.

³⁰Is there any wrong on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern calamity?

¹Let God rise up, let his enemies be scattered; let those who hate him flee before him.

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

³But let the righteous be joyful; let them exult before God; let them be jubilant with joy.

⁴Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds — his name is the LORD — be exultant before him.

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

⁶God gives the desolate a home to live in; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious live 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 at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

⁹Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad; you restored your heritage when it languished;

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

¹¹The Lord gives the command; great is the company of those who bore the tidings:

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

¹³though they stay among the sheepfolds — the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with green gold.

¹⁴When the Almighty scattered kings there, snow fell on Zalmon.

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

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

¹⁷With mighty chariotry, twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands, the Lord came from Sinai into the holy place.

¹⁸You ascended the high mount, leading captives in your train and receiving gifts from people, even from those who rebel against the LORD God’s abiding 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, belongs escape from death.

²¹But God will shatter the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of those who walk in their guilty ways.

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

²³so that you may bathe your feet in blood, so that the tongues of your dogs may have their share from the foe.”

²⁴Your solemn processions are seen, O God, the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary —

²⁵the singers in front, the musicians last, between them girls 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 a body, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

²⁸Summon your might, O God; show your strength, O God, as you have done for us before.

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

³⁰Rebuke the wild animals that live among the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples. Trample under foot those who lust after tribute; scatter the peoples who delight in war.

³¹Let bronze be brought from Egypt; let Ethiopia hasten to stretch out its hands to God.

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

³³O rider in the heavens, the ancient heavens; listen, 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 in his sanctuary, the God of Israel; he gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!

¹My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor, if you have bound yourself to another,

²you are snared by the utterance of your lips, caught by the words of your mouth.

³So do this, my child, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbor’s power: go, hurry, and plead with your neighbor.

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

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

⁶Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.

⁷Without having any chief or officer or ruler,

⁸it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, O lazybones? When will you rise 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 warrior.

¹²A scoundrel and a villain goes around with crooked speech,

¹³winking the eyes, shuffling the feet, pointing the fingers,

¹⁴with perverted mind devising evil, continually sowing discord;

¹⁵on such a one calamity will descend suddenly; in a moment, damage beyond repair.

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 hurry to run to evil,

¹⁹a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family.

²⁰My child, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

²¹Bind them upon 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 wife of another, 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 a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread, but the wife of another stalks a man’s very life.

²⁷Can fire be carried in the bosom without burning one’s clothes?

²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals without scorching the feet?

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

³⁰Thieves are not despised who steal only to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry.

³¹Yet if they are caught, they will pay sevenfold; they will forfeit all the goods of their house.

³²But he who commits adultery has no sense; he who does it destroys himself.

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

³⁴For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he shows no restraint when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will accept no compensation, and refuses a bribe no matter how great.

¹Saul spoke with his son Jonathan and with all his servants about killing David. But Saul’s son Jonathan took great delight in David.

²Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is trying to kill you; therefore be on guard tomorrow morning; stay in a secret place and hide yourself.

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

⁴Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul, saying to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been of good service to you;

⁵for he took his life in his hand when he attacked the Philistine, and the LORD brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced; why then will you sin against an innocent person by killing David without cause?”

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

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

⁸Again there was war, and David went out to fight the Philistines. He launched a heavy attack on them, so that they fled before him.

⁹Then an evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing music.

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

¹¹Saul sent messengers to David’s house to keep watch over him, planning to kill him in the morning. David’s wife Michal told him, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”

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

¹³Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed; she put a net of goats’ hair on its head, and covered it with the clothes.

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

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

¹⁶When the messengers came in, the idol was in the bed, with the covering of goats’ hair on its head.

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

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

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

²⁰Then Saul sent messengers to take David. When they saw the company of the prophets in a frenzy, with Samuel standing in charge of them, the spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also fell into a prophetic frenzy.

²¹When Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they also fell into a frenzy. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also fell into a frenzy.

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

²³He went there, toward Naioth in Ramah; and the spirit of God came upon him. As he was going, he fell into a prophetic frenzy, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

²⁴He too stripped off his clothes, and he too fell into a frenzy before Samuel. He lay naked all that day and all that night. Therefore it is said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

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

²Go 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 first fruits of his harvest. All who ate of it were held guilty; disaster came upon them, — says the LORD.

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

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

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 no one passes through, where no one lives?”

⁷I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered 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 rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after things that do not profit.

⁹Therefore once more I accuse you, — says the LORD, and I accuse your children’s children.

¹⁰Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing.

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

¹²Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, — says the LORD,

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

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

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 people of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head.

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

¹⁸What then 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 wickedness will punish you, and your apostasies will convict 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, — says the Lord GOD of hosts.

²⁰For long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds, and you said, “I will not serve!” On every high hill and under every green tree you sprawled and played the whore.

²¹Yet I planted you as a choice vine, from the purest stock. How then did you turn 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, — says the Lord GOD.

²³How can you say, “I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals”? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done — a restive young camel interlacing her tracks,

²⁴a wild ass at home in 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 strangers, and after them I will go.”

²⁶As 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 backs to me, and not their faces. But in the time of their trouble they say, “Come and save us!”

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

²⁹Why do you complain against me? You have all rebelled against me, — says the LORD.

³⁰In vain I have struck down your children; they accepted 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 to you no more”?

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

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

³⁴Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things

³⁵you say, “I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.” Now I am bringing you to judgment for saying, “I have not sinned.”

³⁶How lightly you gad about, changing your ways! You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria.

³⁷From there also 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 through them.

¹About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church.

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

³After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during the festival of Unleavened Bread.)

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

⁵While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.

⁶The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison.

⁷Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists.

⁸The angel said to him, “Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.” He did so. Then he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.”

⁹Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision.

¹⁰After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him.

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

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

¹³When he knocked at the outer gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer.

¹⁴On recognizing Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate.

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

¹⁶Meanwhile Peter continued knocking; and when they opened the gate, they saw him and were amazed.

¹⁷He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, “Tell this to James and to the believers.” Then he left and went to another place.

¹⁸When morning came, there was no small commotion among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.

¹⁹When Herod had searched for him and could not find him, he examined the guards and ordered them to be put to death. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

²⁰Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. So they came to him in a body; and after winning over Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for a reconciliation, because their country depended on the king’s country for food.

²¹On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat on the platform, and delivered a public address to them.

²²The people kept shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a mortal!”

²³And immediately, because he had not given the glory 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 advance and gain adherents.

²⁵Then after completing their mission Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem and brought with them John, whose other name was Mark.