Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹" Do not judge and criticize and condemn [others unfairly with an attitude of self-righteous superiority as though assuming the office of a judge], so that you will not be judged [unfairly].

²For just as you [hypocritically] judge others [when you are sinful and unrepentant], so will you be judged; and in accordance with your standard of measure [used to pass out judgment], judgment will be measured to you.

³Why do you look at the [insignificant] speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice and acknowledge the [egregious] log that is in your own eye?

⁴Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me get the speck out of your eye,' when there is a log in your own eye?

⁵You hypocrite (play-actor, pretender), first get the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

⁶"Do not give that which is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, for they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

⁷" Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.

⁸For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened.

⁹Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will [instead] give him a stone?

¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will [instead] give him a snake?

¹¹If you then, evil (sinful by nature) as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give what is good and advantageous to those who keep on asking Him.

¹²"So then, in everything treat others the same way you want them to treat you, for this is [the essence of] the Law and the [writings of the] Prophets.

¹³"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it.

¹⁴But small is the gate and narrow and difficult to travel is the path that leads the way to [everlasting] life, and there are few who find it.

¹⁵"Beware of the false prophets, [teachers] who come to you dressed as sheep [appearing gentle and innocent], but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

¹⁶By their fruit you will recognize them [that is, by their contrived doctrine and self-focus]. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

¹⁷Even so, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the unhealthy tree bears bad fruit.

¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

¹⁹Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

²⁰Therefore, by their fruit you will recognize them [as false prophets].

²¹"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

²²Many will say to Me on that day [when I judge them], 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done many miracles in Your name?'

²³And then I will declare to them publicly, 'I never knew you; depart from Me [you are banished from My presence], you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands].'

²⁴"So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, will be like a wise man [a far-sighted, practical, and sensible man] who built his house on the rock.

²⁵And the rain fell, and the floods and torrents came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

²⁶And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish (stupid) man who built his house on the sand.

²⁷And the rain fell, and the floods and torrents came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great and complete was its fall."

²⁸When Jesus had finished [speaking] these words [on the mountain], the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed at His teaching;

²⁹for He was teaching them as one who had authority [to teach entirely of His own volition], and not as their scribes [who relied on others to confirm their authority].

¹Then the LORD said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you with all your household, for you [alone] I have seen as righteous (doing what is right) before Me in this generation.

²Of every clean animal you shall take with you seven pair, the male and his female, and of animals that are not clean, two each the male and his female;

³also of the birds of the air, seven pair, the male and the female, to keep the offspring alive on the surface of the earth.

⁴For in seven days I am going to cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will destroy (blot out, wipe away) every living thing that I have made from the surface of the earth."

⁵So Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.

⁶Noah was six hundred years old when the flood (deluge) of water came on the earth [covering all of the land].

⁷Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him entered the ark to escape the flood waters.

⁸Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and fowls and everything that crawls on the ground,

⁹they came [motivated by God] into the ark with Noah two by two, the male and the female, just as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰And after the seven days [God released the rain and] the floodwaters came on the earth.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, on that same day all the fountains of the great deep [subterranean waters] burst open, and the windows and floodgates of the heavens were opened.

¹²It rained on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark,

¹⁴they and every animal according to its kind, all the livestock according to their kinds, every moving thing that crawls on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every winged thing of every sort.

¹⁵So they went into the ark with Noah, two by two of all living beings in which there was the breath and spirit of life.

¹⁶Those which entered, male and female of all flesh (creatures), entered as God had commanded Noah; and the LORD closed the door behind him.

¹⁷The flood [the great downpour of rain] was forty days and nights on the earth; and the waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it floated [high] above the land.

¹⁸The waters became mighty and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.

¹⁹The waters prevailed so greatly and were so mighty and overwhelming on the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.

²⁰[In fact] the waters became fifteen cubits higher [than the highest ground], and the mountains were covered.

²¹All living beings that moved on the earth perished—birds and cattle (domestic animals), [wild] animals, all things that swarm and crawl on the earth, and all mankind.

²²Everything on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath and spirit of life, died.

²³God destroyed (blotted out, wiped away) every living thing that was on the surface of the earth; man and animals and the crawling things and the birds of the heavens were destroyed from the land. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.

²⁴The waters covered [all of] the earth for a hundred and fifty days (five months).

¹Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction [to rule] over a person as long as he lives?

²For the married woman [as an example] is bound and remains bound by law to her husband while he lives; but if her husband dies, she is released and exempt from the law concerning her husband.

³Accordingly, she will be designated as an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law [regarding marriage], so that she is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

⁴Therefore, my fellow believers, you too died to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

⁵When we were living in the flesh [trapped by sin], the sinful passions, which were awakened by [that which] the Law [identifies as sin], were at work in our body to bear fruit for death [since the willingness to sin led to death and separation from God].

⁶But now we have been released from the Law and its penalty, having died [through Christ] to that by which we were held captive, so that we serve [God] in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter [of the Law].

⁷What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, if it had not been for the Law, I would not have recognized sin. For I would not have known [for example] about coveting [what belongs to another, and would have had no sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, "You shall not covet."

⁸But sin, finding an opportunity through the commandment [to express itself] produced in me every kind of coveting and selfish desire. For without the Law sin is dead [the recognition of sin is inactive].

⁹I was once alive without [knowledge of] the Law; but when the commandment came [and I understood its meaning], sin became alive and I died [since the Law sentenced me to death].

¹⁰And the very commandment which was intended to bring life, actually proved to bring death for me.

¹¹For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, beguiled and completely deceived me, and using it as a weapon killed me [separating me from God].

¹²So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³Did that which is good [the Law], then become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, in order that it might be revealed as sin, was producing death in me by [using] this good thing [as a weapon], so that through the commandment sin would become exceedingly sinful.

¹⁴We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am a creature of the flesh [worldly, self-reliant—carnal and unspiritual], sold into slavery to sin [and serving under its control].

¹⁵For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled and bewildered by them]. I do not practice what I want to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate [and yielding to my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity].

¹⁶Now if I habitually do what I do not want to do, [that means] I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good (morally excellent).

¹⁷So now [if that is the case, then] it is no longer I who do it [the disobedient thing which I despise], but the sin [nature] which lives in me.

¹⁸For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh [my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity]. For the willingness [to do good] is present in me, but the doing of good is not.

¹⁹For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

²⁰But if I am doing the very thing I do not want to do, I am no longer the one doing it [that is, it is not me that acts], but the sin [nature] which lives in me.

²¹So I find it to be the law [of my inner self], that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

²²For I joyfully delight in the law of God in my inner self [with my new nature],

²³but I see a different law and rule of action in the members of my body [in its appetites and desires], waging war against the law of my mind and subduing me and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is within my members.

²⁴Wretched and miserable man that I am! Who will [rescue me and] set me free from this body of death [this corrupt, mortal existence]?

²⁵Thanks be to God [for my deliverance] through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind serve the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh [my human nature, my worldliness, my sinful capacity—I serve] the law of sin.

¹Now in regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to meet Him, we ask you, brothers and sisters,

²not to be quickly unsettled or alarmed either by a [so-called prophetic revelation of a] spirit or a message or a letter [alleged to be] from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has [already] come.

³Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first [that is, the great rebellion, the abandonment of the faith by professed Christians], and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction [the Antichrist, the one who is destined to be destroyed],

⁴who opposes and exalts himself [so proudly and so insolently] above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he [actually enters and] takes his seat in the temple of God, publicly proclaiming that he himself is God.

⁵Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I was telling you these things?

⁶And you know what restrains him now [from being revealed]; it is so that he will be revealed at his own [appointed] time.

⁷For the mystery of lawlessness [rebellion against divine authority and the coming reign of lawlessness] is already at work; [but it is restrained] only until he who now restrains it is taken out of the way.

⁸Then the lawless one [the Antichrist] will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by the appearance of His coming.

⁹The coming of the [Antichrist, the lawless] one is through the activity of Satan, [attended] with great power [all kinds of counterfeit miracles] and [deceptive] signs and false wonders [all of them lies],

¹⁰and by unlimited seduction to evil and with all the deception of wickedness for those who are perishing, because they did not welcome the love of the truth [of the gospel] so as to be saved [they were spiritually blind, and rejected the truth that would have saved them].

¹¹Because of this God will send upon them a misleading influence, [an activity of error and deception] so they will believe the lie,

¹²in order that all may be judged and condemned who did not believe the truth [about their sin, and the need for salvation through Christ], but instead took pleasure in unrighteousness.

¹³But we should and are [morally] obligated [as debtors] always to give thanks to God for you, believers beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through the sanctifying work of the Spirit [that sets you apart for God's purpose] and by your faith in the truth [of God's word that leads you to spiritual maturity].

¹⁴It was to this end that He called you through our gospel [the good news of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection], so that you may obtain and share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold [tightly] to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.

¹⁶Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting comfort and encouragement and the good [well-founded] hope [of salvation] by His grace,

¹⁷comfort and encourage and strengthen your hearts [keeping them steadfast and on course] in every good work and word.

¹"Is not man forced to labor on earth? And are not his days like the days of a hired man?

²"As a slave earnestly longs for the shade, And as a hired man eagerly awaits his wages,

³So am I allotted months of futility and suffering, And [long] nights of trouble and misery are appointed to me.

⁴"When I lie down I say, 'When shall I arise [and the night be gone]?' But the night continues, And I am continually tossing until the dawning of day.

⁵"My body is clothed with worms and a crust of dust; My skin is hardened [and broken and loathsome], and [breaks out and] runs.

⁶"My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, And are spent without hope.

⁷"Remember that my life is but breath [a puff of wind, a sigh]; My eye will not see good again.

⁸"The eye of him who sees me [now] will see me no more; Your eyes will be upon me, but I will not be.

⁹"As a cloud vanishes and is gone, So he who goes down to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) does not come up.

¹⁰"He will not return again to his house, Nor will his place know about him anymore.

¹¹"Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul [O Lord].

¹²"Am I the sea, or the sea monster, That You set a guard over me?

¹³"When I say, 'My bed will comfort me, My couch will ease my complaint,'

¹⁴Then You frighten me with dreams And terrify me through visions,

¹⁵So that I would choose suffocation, Death rather than my pain.

¹⁶"I waste away and loathe my life; I will not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are but a breath [futile and without substance].

¹⁷"What is man that You [should] magnify him [and think him important]? And that You are concerned about him?

¹⁸"And that You examine him every morning And try and test him every moment?

¹⁹"Will You never turn Your gaze away from me [it plagues me], Nor let me alone until I swallow my spittle?

²⁰"If I have sinned, what [harm] have I done to You, O Watcher of mankind? Why have You set me as a target for You, So that I am a burden to myself?

²¹"Why then do You not pardon my transgression And take away my sin and guilt? For now I will lie down in the dust; And You will seek me [diligently], but I will not be."

¹An Ode of David, [perhaps in a wild, irregular, enthusiastic strain,] which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite. O LORD my God, in You I take refuge; Save me and rescue me from all those who pursue me,

²So that my enemy will not tear me like a lion, Dragging me away while there is no one to rescue [me].

³O LORD my God, if I have done this, If there is injustice in my hands,

⁴If I have done evil to him who was at peace with me, Or without cause robbed him who was my enemy,

⁵Let the enemy pursue me and overtake me; And let him trample my life to the ground And lay my honor in the dust. Selah.

⁶Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; Lift up Yourself against the rage of my enemies; Rise up for me; You have commanded judgment and vindication.

⁷Let the assembly of the nations be gathered around You, And return on high over them.

⁸The LORD judges the peoples; Judge me, O LORD, and grant me justice according to my righteousness and according to the integrity within me.

⁹Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous [those in right standing with You]; For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.

¹⁰My shield and my defense depend on God, Who saves the upright in heart.

¹¹God is a righteous judge, And a God who is indignant every day.

¹²If a man does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has strung and bent His [mighty] bow and made it ready.

¹³He has also prepared [other] deadly weapons for Himself; He makes His arrows fiery shafts [aimed at the unrepentant].

¹⁴Behold, the [wicked and irreverent] man is pregnant with sin, And he conceives mischief and gives birth to lies.

¹⁵He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the [very] pit which he made [as a trap].

¹⁶His mischief will return on his own head, And his violence will come down on the top of his head [like loose dirt].

¹⁷I will give thanks to the LORD according to His righteousness and justice, And I will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.

¹My son, keep my words And treasure my commandments within you [so they are readily available to guide you].

²Keep my commandments and live, And keep my teaching and law as the apple of your eye.

³Bind them [securely] on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to [skillful and godly] wisdom, "You are my sister," And regard understanding and intelligent insight as your intimate friends;

⁵That they may keep you from the immoral woman, From the foreigner [who does not observe God's laws and] who flatters with her [smooth] words.

⁶For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice.

⁷And among the naive [the inexperienced and gullible], I saw among the youths A young man lacking [good] sense,

⁸Passing through the street near her corner; And he took the path to her house

⁹In the twilight, in the evening; In the black and dark night.

¹⁰And there a woman met him, Dressed as a prostitute and sly and cunning of heart.

¹¹She was boisterous and rebellious; She would not stay at home.

¹²At times she was in the streets, at times in the market places, Lurking and setting her ambush at every corner.

¹³So she caught him and kissed him And with a brazen and impudent face she said to him:

¹⁴"I have peace offerings with me; Today I have paid my vows.

¹⁵"So I came out to meet you [that you might share with me the feast of my offering], Diligently I sought your face and I have found you.

¹⁶"I have spread my couch with coverings and cushions of tapestry, With colored fine linen of Egypt.

¹⁷"I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸"Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning; Let us console and delight ourselves with love.

¹⁹"For my husband is not at home. He has gone on a long journey;

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him, And he will come home on the appointed day."

²¹With her many persuasions she caused him to yield; With her flattering lips she seduced him.

²²Suddenly he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter [not knowing the outcome], Or as one in stocks going to the correction [to be given] to a fool,

²³Until an arrow pierced his liver [with a mortal wound]; Like a bird fluttering straight into the net, He did not know that it would cost him his life.

²⁴Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, And pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, Do not stray into her [evil, immoral] paths.

²⁶For she has cast down many [mortally] wounded; Indeed, all who were killed by her were strong.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, Descending to the chambers of death.

¹But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully and violated their obligation in regard to the things [off limits] under the ban [those things belonging to the LORD], for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban [for personal gain]. Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against the Israelites.

²Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, "Go up and spy out the land." So the men went up and spied out Ai.

³Then they returned to Joshua and said to him, "Do not make all the people go up [to fight]; have only about two thousand or three thousand men go up and attack Ai; do not make the entire army go up there, for they [of Ai] are few."

⁴So about three thousand men from the sons of Israel went up there, but they fled [in retreat] from the men of Ai.

⁵The men of Ai killed about thirty-six of Israel's men, and chased them from the gate as far as [the bluffs of] Shebarim and struck them down as they descended [the steep pass], so the hearts of the people melted [in despair and began to doubt God's promise] and became like water (disheartened).

⁶Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and [with great sorrow] they put dust on their heads.

⁷Joshua said, "Alas, O Lord GOD, why have You brought this people across the Jordan at all, only to hand us over to the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to live beyond the Jordan!

⁸O Lord, what can I say now that [the army of] Israel has turned back [in retreat and fled] before their enemies?

⁹For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear about it, and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name [to keep it from dishonor]?"

¹⁰So the LORD said to Joshua, "Get up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face?

¹¹Israel has sinned; they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them [to keep]. They have even taken some of the things under the ban, and they have both stolen and denied [the theft]. Moreover, they have also put the stolen objects among their own things.

¹²That is why the soldiers of Israel could not stand [and defend themselves] before their enemies; they turned their backs [and ran] before them, because they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from among you.

¹³Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: "There are things under the ban among you, O Israel. You cannot stand [victorious] before your enemies until you remove the things under the ban from among you."

¹⁴In the morning you shall come forward by your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the LORD chooses by lot shall come forward by families, and the family which the LORD chooses shall come forward by [separate] households, and the household which the LORD chooses shall come forward man by man.

¹⁵It shall be that the one who is chosen with the things under the ban shall be [killed and his body] burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he has done a disgraceful and disobedient thing in Israel.'"

¹⁶So Joshua got up early in the morning and had Israel come forward by tribes, and the tribe of Judah was chosen [by lot].

¹⁷He had the families of Judah come forward, and the family of the Zerahites was chosen; and he had the family of the Zerahites come forward man by man, and Zabdi was chosen.

¹⁸He brought his household forward man by man; and Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was chosen.

¹⁹Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, I implore you, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him [in recognition of His righteous judgments]; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me."

²⁰So Achan answered Joshua and said, "In truth, I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, and this is what I have done:

²¹when I saw among the spoils [in Jericho] a beautiful robe from Shinar (southern Babylon) and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I wanted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath."

²²So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and they saw the stolen objects hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath.

²³And they took them from the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the sons of Israel, and spread them out before the LORD.

²⁴Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the [royal] robe, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and everything that he had; and they brought them up to the Valley of Achor (Disaster).

²⁵Joshua said, "Why have you brought disaster on us? The LORD will bring you disaster this day." Then all Israel stoned them [to death] with stones; afterward they burned their bodies in the fire.

²⁶Then they piled up over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor (Disaster) to this day.

¹Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Aram (Syria) and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it.

²When the house of David (Judah) was told, "Aram is allied with Ephraim (Israel)," the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.

³Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out to meet Ahaz [king of Judah], you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the highway to the Fuller's Field;

⁴and say to him, 'Take care and be calm, do not fear and be weak-hearted because of these two stumps of smoldering logs, on account of the fierce anger of [King] Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah (Pekah, usurper of the throne of Israel).

⁵Because Aram, along with Ephraim (Israel) and the son of Remaliah, have planned evil against you (Judah), saying,

⁶"Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it; and let us breach its wall and tear it apart [each of us taking a portion] and set up the son of Tabeel over it as its [puppet] king,"

⁷for this is what the Lord GOD says, "It shall not stand nor shall it happen.

⁸For the head (capital) of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is [King] Rezin (now within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces and will no longer be a people).

⁹And the head (capital) of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son [King Pekah]. If you will not believe [and trust in God and His message], be assured that you will not be established."'"

¹⁰Then the LORD spoke again to [King] Ahaz, saying,

¹¹"Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God [one that will convince you that God has spoken and will keep His word]; make your request as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven."

¹²But Ahaz said, " I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!"

¹³Then Isaiah said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too small a thing for you to try the patience of men, but will you try the patience of my God as well?

¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Listen carefully, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will call his name Immanuel (God with us).

¹⁵He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.

¹⁶For before the child will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land (Canaan) whose two kings you dread will be deserted [both Ephraim and Aram].

¹⁷The LORD will bring on you, on your people, and on your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim (the ten northern tribes) separated from Judah—[He will call for] the king of Assyria."

¹⁸In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the mouth of the rivers and canals of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹These [armies, like flies and bees] will all come and settle on the steep and rugged ravines and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thorn bushes and in all the watering places.

²⁰In that day [when foreign armies swarm the land] the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from the regions beyond the Euphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria), [that razor will shave] the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard [leaving Judah stripped, shamed and scorned].

²¹Now in that day [because of the poverty caused by the invaders] a man will keep alive only a young milk cow and two sheep;

²²and because of the abundance of milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left in the land will eat [only] curds and [wild] honey.

²³And it will come to pass in that day, in every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be briars and thorns.

²⁴People will come there [to hunt] with arrows and with bows because all the land will be briars and thorns.

²⁵As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the pick and the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place where oxen are pastured and where sheep tread.

¹Now the high priest asked [Stephen], "Are these charges true?"

²And he answered, "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory [the Shekinah, the radiance of God] appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and He said to him, 'Leave your country and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.'

⁴Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God sent him to this country in which you now live.

⁵But He did not give him inheritable property, not even enough ground to take a step on, yet He promised that He would give it to Him as a possession, and to his descendants after him.

⁶And this is, in effect, what God spoke [to him]: That his descendants would be aliens (strangers) in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

⁷'And I will judge any nation to whom they will be in bondage,' said God, 'and after that they will come out and serve Me [in worship] in this place.'

⁸And God gave Abraham a covenant [a formal agreement to be strictly observed] of [which] circumcision [was the sign]; and so [under these circumstances] Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac [became the father] of Jacob, and Jacob [became the father] of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹"The [ten elder] patriarchs, overwhelmed with jealousy, sold [their younger brother] Joseph into [slavery in] Egypt; but God was with him,

¹⁰and He rescued him from all his suffering, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made Joseph governor over Egypt and over his entire household.

¹¹"Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great distress and our fathers could not find food [for their households and livestock].

¹²But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.

¹³And on the second visit Joseph identified himself to his brothers, and Joseph's family and background were revealed to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Then Joseph sent and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.

¹⁵And Jacob (Israel) went down into Egypt, and there he died, as did our fathers;

¹⁶and [from Egypt] their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷"But as the time [for the fulfillment] of the promise which God had made to Abraham was approaching, the [Hebrew] people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸until [the time when] there arose another king over egypt who did not know joseph [nor his history and the merit of his service to Egypt].

¹⁹He shrewdly exploited our race and mistreated our fathers, forcing them to expose their [male] babies so that they would die.

²⁰It was at this [critical] time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and for three months he was nourished in his father's house.

²¹Then when he was set outside [to die], Pharaoh's daughter rescued him and claimed him for herself, and cared for him as her own son.

²²So Moses was educated in all the wisdom and culture of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds.

²³But when he reached the age of forty, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

²⁴And when he saw one [of them] being treated unfairly, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking and killing the Egyptian.

²⁵He expected his countrymen to understand that God was granting them freedom through him [assuming that they would accept him], but they did not understand.

²⁶Then on the next day he suddenly appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another?'

²⁷But the man who was injuring his neighbor pushed Moses away, saying, 'Who appointed you ruler and judge over us?

²⁸Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'

²⁹At this remark Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.

³⁰"After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush.

³¹When Moses saw it, he was astonished at the sight; but as he went near to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came [to him, saying]:

³²'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.' Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

³³Then the Lord said to him, 'Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground [worthy of reverence and respect].

³⁴I have most certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Now come, and I will send you to Egypt [as My messenger].'

³⁵"This Moses whom they rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' is the very one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer, with the [protecting and helping] hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.

³⁶This man led them out [of Egypt] after performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

³⁷This is the Moses who said to the children of Israel, 'God will raise up for you a Prophetlike me from your countrymen.'

³⁸This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living oracles [divine words that still live] to be handed down to you.

³⁹Our fathers were unwilling to be subject to him [and refused to listen to him]. They rejected him, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

⁴⁰They said to Aaron, 'Make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.'

⁴¹In those days they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced and celebrated over the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned away [from them] and handed them over to serve the host of heaven. As it is written and forever remains written in the book of the prophets, 'It was not [really] to Me that you offered victims and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, was it, O house of Israel?

⁴³You also took along the tabernacle (portable temple) of Moloch and the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship; and I will remove you beyond Babylon [carrying you away into exile].'

⁴⁴"Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as God directed Moses to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.

⁴⁵Our fathers also brought it in [with them into the land] with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, [and so it remained here] until the time of David,

⁴⁶who found favor (grace, spiritual blessing) in the sight of God and asked that he might [be allowed to] find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.

⁴⁸However, the Most High [the One infinitely exalted above humanity] does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet [Isaiah] says,

⁴⁹'Heaven is My throne, And the earth is the footstool for My feet; What kind of house will you build for Me?' says the Lord, 'Or what place is there for My rest?

⁵⁰'Was it not My hand that made all these things?'

⁵¹"You stiff-necked and stubborn people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did.

⁵²Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;

⁵³you who received the law as ordained and delivered to you by angels, and yet you did not obey it!"

⁵⁴Now when they heard this [accusation and understood its implication], they were cut to the heart, and they began grinding their teeth [in rage] at him.

⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit and led by Him, gazed into heaven and saw the glory [the great splendor and majesty] of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;

⁵⁶and he said, "Look! I see the heavens opened up [in welcome] and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

⁵⁷But they shouted with loud voices, and covered their ears and together rushed at him [considering him guilty of blasphemy].

⁵⁸Then they drove him out of the city and began stoning him; and the witnesses placed their outer robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹They continued stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, receive and accept and welcome my spirit!"

⁶⁰Then falling on his knees [in worship], he cried out loudly, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them [do not charge them]!" When he had said this, he fell asleep [in death].