Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged.

²For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use.

³Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?

⁴Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye?

⁵Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.

⁶Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.

⁷“Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.

⁸For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

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

¹¹If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.

¹²Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

¹³“Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.

¹⁴How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

¹⁵“Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.

¹⁶You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

¹⁷In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit.

¹⁸A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit.

¹⁹Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

²⁰So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.

²¹“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

²²On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’

²³Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’

²⁴“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

²⁵The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

²⁶But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

²⁷The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash.”

²⁸When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,

²⁹because he was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like their scribes.

¹Then the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.

²You are to take with you seven pairs, a male and its female, of all the clean animals, and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and its female,

³and seven pairs, male and female, of the birds of the sky — in order to keep offspring alive throughout the earth.

⁴Seven days from now I will make it rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing I have made I will wipe off the face of the earth.”

⁵And Noah did everything that the LORD commanded him.

⁶Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came and water covered the earth.

⁷So Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives entered the ark because of the floodwaters.

⁸From the clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and every creature that crawls on the ground,

⁹two of each, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, just as God had commanded him.

¹⁰Seven days later the floodwaters came on the earth.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the sources of the vast watery depths burst open, the floodgates of the sky were opened,

¹²and the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³On that same day Noah along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and his three sons’ wives entered the ark with him.

¹⁴They entered it with all the wildlife according to their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, all the creatures that crawl on the earth according to their kinds, every flying creature — all the birds and every winged creature — according to their kinds.

¹⁵Two of every creature that has the breath of life in it came to Noah and entered the ark.

¹⁶Those that entered, male and female of every creature, entered just as God had commanded him. Then the LORD shut him in.

¹⁷The flood continued for forty days on the earth; the water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth.

¹⁸The water surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.

¹⁹Then the water surged even higher on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered.

²⁰The mountains were covered as the water surged above them more than twenty feet.

²¹Every creature perished — those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind.

²²Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils  — everything on dry land died.

²³He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.

²⁴And the water surged on the earth 150 days.

¹Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, don’t you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives?

²For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband.

³So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress.

⁴Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

⁵For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death.

⁶But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.

⁷What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.

⁸And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.

⁹Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again

¹⁰and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me.

¹¹For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

¹²So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

¹³Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave to sin.

¹⁵For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.

¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

¹⁷So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.

¹⁸For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.

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

²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me.

²¹So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me.

²²For in my inner self I delight in God’s law,

²³but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.

²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.

¹Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him: We ask you, brothers and sisters,

²not to be easily upset or troubled, either by a prophecy or by a message or by a letter supposedly from us, alleging that the day of the Lord has come.

³Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

⁴He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s temple, proclaiming that he himself is God.

⁵Don’t you remember that when I was still with you I used to tell you about this?

⁶And you know what currently restrains him, so that he will be revealed in his time.

⁷For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way,

⁸and then the lawless one will be revealed. The Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and will bring him to nothing at the appearance of his coming.

⁹The coming of the lawless one is based on Satan’s working, with all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders,

¹⁰and with every wicked deception among those who are perishing. They perish because they did not accept the love of the truth and so be saved.

¹¹For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie,

¹²so that all will be condemned  — those who did not believe the truth but delighted in unrighteousness.

¹³But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

¹⁴He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or what we wrote.

¹⁶May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace,

¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.

¹Isn’t each person consigned to forced labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired worker?

²Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hired worker he waits for his pay.

³So I have been made to inherit months of futility, and troubled nights have been assigned to me.

⁴When I lie down I think, “When will I get up?” But the evening drags on endlessly, and I toss and turn until dawn.

⁵My flesh is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dirt. My skin forms scabs and then oozes.

⁶My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.

⁷Remember that my life is but a breath. My eye will never again see anything good.

⁸The eye of anyone who looks on me will no longer see me. Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.

⁹As a cloud fades away and vanishes, so the one who goes down to Sheol will never rise again.

¹⁰He will never return to his house; his hometown will no longer remember him.

¹¹Therefore I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I the sea or a sea monster, that you keep me under guard?

¹³When I say, “My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint,”

¹⁴then you frighten me with dreams, and terrify me with visions,

¹⁵so that I prefer strangling  — death rather than life in this body.

¹⁶I give up! I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

¹⁷What is a mere human, that you think so highly of him and pay so much attention to him?

¹⁸You inspect him every morning, and put him to the test every moment.

¹⁹Will you ever look away from me, or leave me alone long enough to swallow?

²⁰If I have sinned, what have I done to you, Watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target, so that I have become a burden to you?

²¹Why not forgive my sin and pardon my iniquity? For soon I will lie down in the grave. You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone.

¹A of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite. [1] LORD my God, I seek refuge in you; save me from all my pursuers and rescue me

²or they will tear me like a lion, ripping me apart with no one to rescue me.

³LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is injustice on my hands,

⁴if I have done harm to one at peace with me or have plundered my adversary without cause,

⁵may an enemy pursue and overtake me; may he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust. Selah

⁶Rise up, LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my adversaries; awake for me; you have ordained a judgment.

⁷Let the assembly of peoples gather around you; take your seat on high over it.

⁸The LORD judges the peoples; vindicate me, LORD, according to my righteousness and my integrity.

⁹Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous. The one who examines the thoughts and emotions is a righteous God.

¹⁰My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

¹¹God is a righteous judge and a God who shows his wrath every day.

¹²If anyone does not repent, he will sharpen his sword; he has strung his bow and made it ready.

¹³He has prepared his deadly weapons; he tips his arrows with fire.

¹⁴See, the wicked one is pregnant with evil, conceives trouble, and gives birth to deceit.

¹⁵He dug a pit and hollowed it out but fell into the hole he had made.

¹⁶His trouble comes back on his own head; his own violence comes down on top of his head.

¹⁷I will thank the LORD for his righteousness; I will sing about the name of the LORD Most High.

¹My son, obey my words, and treasure my commands.

²Keep my commands and live, and guard my instructions as you would the pupil of your eye.

³Tie them to your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your relative.

⁵She will keep you from a forbidden woman, a wayward woman with her flattering talk.

⁶At the window of my house I looked through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the inexperienced, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking sense.

⁸Crossing the street near her corner, he strolled down the road to her house

⁹at twilight, in the evening, in the dark of the night.

¹⁰A woman came to meet him dressed like a prostitute, having a hidden agenda.

¹¹She is loud and defiant; her feet do not stay at home.

¹²Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.

¹³She grabs him and kisses him; she brazenly says to him,

¹⁴“I’ve made fellowship offerings; today I’ve fulfilled my vows.

¹⁵So I came out to meet you, to search for you, and I’ve found you.

¹⁶I’ve spread coverings on my bed  — richly colored linen from Egypt.

¹⁷I’ve perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning. Let’s feast on each other’s love!

¹⁹My husband isn’t home; he went on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of silver with him and will come home at the time of the full moon.”

²¹She seduces him with her persistent pleading; she lures with her flattering talk.

²²He follows her impulsively like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding toward a trap

²³until an arrow pierces its liver, like a bird darting into a snare  — he doesn’t know it will cost him his life.

²⁴Now, sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words from my mouth.

²⁵Don’t let your heart turn aside to her ways; don’t stray onto her paths.

²⁶For she has brought many down to death; her victims are countless.

²⁷Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

¹The Israelites, however, were unfaithful regarding the things set apart for destruction. Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set apart, and the LORD’s anger burned against the Israelites.

²Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and scout the land.” So the men went up and scouted Ai.

³After returning to Joshua they reported to him, “Don’t send all the people, but send about two thousand or three thousand men to attack Ai. Since the people of Ai are so few, don’t wear out all our people there.”

⁴So about three thousand men went up there, but they fled from the men of Ai.

⁵The men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of them and chased them from outside the city gate to the quarries, striking them down on the descent. As a result, the people lost heart.

⁶Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the LORD until evening, as did the elders of Israel; they all put dust on their heads.

⁷“Oh, Lord GOD,” Joshua said, “why did you ever bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites for our destruction? If only we had been content to remain on the other side of the Jordan!

⁸What can I say, Lord, now that Israel has turned its back and run from its enemies?

⁹When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. Then what will you do about your great name?”

¹⁰The LORD then said to Joshua, “Stand up! Why have you fallen facedown?

¹¹Israel has sinned. They have violated my covenant that I appointed for them. They have taken some of what was set apart. They have stolen, deceived, and put those things with their own belongings.

¹²This is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies. They will turn their backs and run from their enemies, because they have been set apart for destruction. I will no longer be with you unless you remove from among you what is set apart.

¹³“Go and consecrate the people. Tell them to consecrate themselves for tomorrow, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: There are things that are set apart among you, Israel. You will not be able to stand against your enemies until you remove what is set apart.

¹⁴In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe the LORD selects is to come forward clan by clan. The clan the LORD selects is to come forward family by family. The family the LORD selects is to come forward man by man.

¹⁵The one who is caught with the things set apart must be burned, along with everything he has, because he has violated the LORD’s covenant and committed an outrage in Israel.”

¹⁶Joshua got up early the next morning. He had Israel come forward tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was selected.

¹⁷He had the clans of Judah come forward, and the Zerahite clan was selected. He had the Zerahite clan come forward by heads of families, and Zabdi was selected.

¹⁸He then had Zabdi’s family come forward man by man, and Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was selected.

¹⁹So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and make a confession to him. I urge you, tell me what you have done. Don’t hide anything from me.”

²⁰Achan replied to Joshua, “It is true. I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. This is what I did:

²¹When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Babylon, five pounds of silver, and a bar of gold weighing a pound and a quarter, I coveted them and took them. You can see for yourself. They are concealed in the ground inside my tent, with the silver under the cloak.”

²²So Joshua sent messengers who ran to the tent, and there was the cloak, concealed in his tent, with the silver underneath.

²³They took the things from inside the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and spread them out in the LORD’s presence.

²⁴Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the cloak, and the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his ox, donkey, and sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and brought them up to the Valley of Achor.

²⁵Joshua said, “Why have you brought us trouble? Today the LORD will bring you trouble!” So all Israel stoned them to death. They burned their bodies, threw stones on them,

²⁶and raised over him a large pile of rocks that remains still today. Then the LORD turned from his burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor still today.

¹This took place during the reign of Ahaz, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah king of Judah: Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah son of Remaliah went to fight against Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it.

²When it became known to the house of David that Aram had occupied Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the hearts of his people trembled like trees of a forest shaking in the wind.

³The LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to the Launderer’s Field.

⁴Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly because of these two smoldering sticks, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah.

⁵For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted harm against you. They say,

⁶‘Let us go up against Judah, terrorize it, and conquer it for ourselves. Then we can install Tabeel’s son as king in it.’”

⁷This is what the Lord GOD says: It will not happen; it will not occur.

⁸The chief city of Aram is Damascus, the chief of Damascus is Rezin (within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people),

⁹the chief city of Ephraim is Samaria, and the chief of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.

¹⁰Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz:

¹¹“Ask for a sign from the LORD your God — it can be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.”

¹²But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask. I will not test the LORD.”

¹³Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God?

¹⁴Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

¹⁵By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good, he will be eating curds and honey.

¹⁶For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned.

¹⁷The LORD will bring on you, your people, and your father’s house such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah: He will bring the king of Assyria.”

¹⁸On that day the LORD will whistle to flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to bees in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹All of them will come and settle in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes, and in all the water holes.

²⁰On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River — the king of Assyria  — to shave the hair on your heads, the hair on your legs, and even your beards.

²¹On that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep,

²²and from the abundant milk they give he will eat curds, for every survivor in the land will eat curds and honey.

²³And on that day every place where there were a thousand vines, worth a thousand pieces of silver, will become thorns and briers.

²⁴A man will go there with bow and arrows because the whole land will be thorns and briers.

²⁵You will not go to all the hills that were once tilled with a hoe, for fear of the thorns and briers. Those hills will be places for oxen to graze and for sheep to trample.

¹“Are these things true?” the high priest asked.

²“Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

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

⁴“Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land in which you are now living.

⁵He didn’t give him an inheritance in it — not even a foot of ground — but he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless.

⁶God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for four hundred years.

⁷I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship me in this place.

⁸And so he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him

¹⁰and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household.

¹¹Now a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find no food.

¹²When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time.

¹³The second time, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all,

¹⁵and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there,

¹⁶were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷“As the time was approaching to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt

¹⁸until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt.

¹⁹He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them abandon their infants outside so that they wouldn’t survive.

²⁰At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home for three months.

²¹When he was put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.

²²So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.

²³“When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

²⁴When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian.

²⁵He assumed his people would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.

²⁶The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other? ’

²⁷“But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying: Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?

²⁸Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

²⁹“When he heard this, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

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

³¹When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came:

³²I am the God of your ancestors — the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.

³³“The Lord said to him: Take off the sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground.

³⁴I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.

³⁵“This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?  — this one God sent as a ruler and a deliverer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

³⁷“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites: God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers and sisters.

³⁸He is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. He received living oracles to give to us.

³⁹Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

⁴⁰They told Aaron: Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.

⁴¹They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.

⁴²God turned away and gave them up to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: House of Israel, did you bring me offerings and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness?

⁴³You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship. So I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.

⁴⁴“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.

⁴⁵Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them, until the days of David.

⁴⁶He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷It was Solomon, rather, who built him a house,

⁴⁸but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:

⁴⁹Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. What sort of house will you build for me? says the Lord, or what will be my resting place?

⁵⁰Did not my hand make all these things?

⁵¹“You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.

⁵³You received the law under the direction of angels and yet have not kept it.”

⁵⁴When they heard these things, they were enraged and gnashed their teeth at him.

⁵⁵Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

⁵⁶He said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

⁵⁷They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him.

⁵⁸They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹While they were stoning Stephen, he called out: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

⁶⁰He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he died.