Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Do not judge, so that you will not be judged.

²For in the way you judge, you will be judged; andby your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

³Why do you look at thespeck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

⁴Or howcan you say to your brother, ‘Let me take thespeck out of your eye,’ and look, the log is in your own eye?

⁵You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take thespeck out of your brother’s eye!

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

⁷“ Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

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

⁹Or what person is there among youwho, when his son asks for a loaf of bread,will give him a stone?

¹⁰Orif he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?

¹¹So if you, despite beingevil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

¹²“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

¹³“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

¹⁴For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

¹⁵“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

¹⁶You willknow them by their fruits.Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?

¹⁷So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad 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.

²⁰So then, you willknow them by their fruits.

²¹“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

²²Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform manymiracles?’

²³And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; LEAVE ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

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.

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

²⁶And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does notact on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

²⁷And the rain fell and thefloods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and its collapse was great.”

²⁸When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching;

²⁹for He was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

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

²You shall take with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and his female; and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and his female;

³also of the birds of the sky, seven pairs, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.

⁴For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”

⁵So Noah acted in accordance with everything that the LORD had commanded him.

⁶Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth.

⁷Then Noah and his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the waters of the flood.

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

⁹they all went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰Now it came about after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came upon 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 fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

¹²The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³On this very same day Noah, Shem, 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, and all the livestock according to their kind, and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, all sorts of birds.

¹⁵So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.

¹⁶Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD closed the door behind him.

¹⁷Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth.

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

¹⁹And the water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.

²⁰The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered.

²¹So all creatures that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, animals, and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind;

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

²³So He wiped out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from mankind to animals, to crawling things, and the birds of the sky, and they were wiped out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark.

²⁴The water prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.

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

²For the married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he is alive; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.

³So then, if while her husband is alive she gives herself to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress if she gives herself to another man.

⁴Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in regard to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

⁵For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were brought to light by the Law, were at work in the parts of our body to bear fruit for death.

⁶But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

⁷What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Far from it! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”

⁸But sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.

⁹I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin came to life, and I died;

¹⁰and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;

¹¹for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it, killed me.

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

¹³Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? Far from it! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by bringing about my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

¹⁴For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin.

¹⁵For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate.

¹⁶However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good.

¹⁷But now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me.

¹⁸For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

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

²⁰But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me.

²¹I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

²²For I joyfully agree with the law of God in the inner person,

²³but I see a different law in the parts of my body waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, the law which is in my body’s parts.

²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

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

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

²that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit, or a message, or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

³No one is to deceive you in any way! For it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,

⁴who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

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

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

⁷For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is removed.

⁸Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will eliminate with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;

⁹that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders,

¹⁰and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not accept the love of the truth so as to be saved.

¹¹For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,

¹²in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

¹³But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

¹⁴It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on 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 eternal comfort and good hope by grace,

¹⁷comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.

¹“Is a person not forced to labor on earth, And are his days not like the days of a hired worker?

²As a slave pants for the shade, And as a hired worker who eagerly waits for his wages,

³So I am allotted worthless months, And nights of trouble are apportioned to me.

⁴When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise?’ But the night continues, And I am continually tossing until dawn.

⁵My flesh is clothed with maggots and a crust of dirt, My skin hardens and oozes.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, And they come to an end without hope.

⁷“Remember that my life is a mere breath; My eye will not see goodness again.

⁸The eye of him who sees me will no longer look at me; Your eyes will be on me, but I will not exist.

⁹When a cloud vanishes, it is gone; In the same way one who goes down to Sheol does not come up.

¹⁰He will not return to his house again, 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.

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

¹³If I say, ‘My couch will comfort me, My bed will ease my complaint,’

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

¹⁵So that my soul would choose suffocation, Death rather than my pains.

¹⁶I waste away; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are only a breath.

¹⁷What is man that You exalt him, And that You are concerned about him,

¹⁸That You examine him every morning And put him to the test every moment?

¹⁹Will You never turn Your gaze away from me, Nor leave me alone until I swallow my spittle?

²⁰Have I sinned? What have I done to You, Watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, So that I am a burden to myself?

²¹Why then do You not forgive my wrongdoing And take away my guilt? For now I will lie down in the dust; And You will search for me, but I will no longer exist.”

¹O LORD my God, in You I have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and rescue me,

²Or he will tear my soul 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 my friend, Or have plundered my enemy for no reason,

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

⁶Arise, LORD, in Your anger; Raise Yourself against the rage of my enemies, And stir Yourself for me; You have ordered judgment.

⁷Let the assembly of the peoples encompass You, And return on high over it.

⁸The LORD judges the peoples; Vindicate me, LORD, according to my righteousness and my integrity that is in me.

⁹Please let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God puts hearts and minds to the test.

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

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

¹²If one does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and taken aim.

¹³He has also prepared deadly weapons for Himself; He makes His arrows fiery shafts.

¹⁴Behold, an evil person is pregnant with injustice, And he conceives harm and gives birth to lies.

¹⁵He has dug a pit and hollowed it out, And has fallen into the hole which he made.

¹⁶His harm will return on his own head, And his violence will descend on the top of his own head.

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

¹My son, keep my words And treasure my commandments within you.

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

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

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your intimate friend,

⁵So that they may keep you from an adulteress, From the foreigner who flatters with her words.

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

⁷And I saw among the naive, And discerned among the youths A young man lacking sense,

⁸Passing through the street near her corner; And he walks along the way to her house,

⁹In the twilight, in the evening, In the middle of the night and the darkness.

¹⁰And behold, a woman comes to meet him, Dressed as a prostitute and cunning of heart.

¹¹She is boisterous and rebellious, Her feet do not remain at home;

¹²She is now in the streets, now in the public squares, And lurks by every corner.

¹³So she seizes him and kisses him, And with a brazen face she says to him:

¹⁴“I was due to offer peace offerings; Today I have paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I have come out to meet you, To seek your presence diligently, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with coverings, With colored linens of Egypt.

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

¹⁸Come, let’s drink our fill of love until morning; Let’s delight ourselves with caresses.

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

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. At the full moon he will come home.”

²¹With her many persuasions she entices him; With her flattering lips she seduces him.

²²Suddenly he follows her As an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as one walks in ankle bracelets to the discipline of a fool,

²³Until an arrow pierces through his liver; As a bird hurries to the snare, So he does not know that it will 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 paths.

²⁶For many are the victims she has brought to ruin, And numerous are all those slaughtered by her.

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

¹But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully regarding the things designated for destruction, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the designated things; therefore the anger of the LORD burned against the sons of Israel.

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 have all the people go up; have only about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai; do not trouble all the people there, for they are few.”

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

⁵And the men of Ai struck and killed about thirty-six of their men, and pursued them from the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them on the mountainside; and the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

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

⁷And Joshua said, “Oh, Lord GOD! Why did You ever bring this people across the Jordan, only to hand us over to the Amorites, to eliminate us? If only we had been willing to live beyond the Jordan!

⁸O Lord, what can I say since Israel has turned their back before their enemies?

⁹For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear about it, and they will surround us and eliminate our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?”

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

¹¹Israel has sinned, and they have also violated My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things designated for destruction, and have both stolen and kept it a secret. Furthermore, they have also put them among their own things.

¹²Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become designated for destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you eliminate from your midst the things designated for destruction.

¹³Stand up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, because the LORD, the God of Israel, has said this: “There are things designated for destruction in your midst, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you have removed the designated things from your midst.”

¹⁴So in the morning you shall come forward by your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the LORD selects by lot shall come forward by families, and the family which the LORD selects shall come forward by households, and the household which the LORD selects shall come forward man by man.

¹⁵And it shall be that the one who is selected with the things designated for destruction shall be burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has violated the covenant of the LORD, and because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.’ ”

¹⁶So Joshua got up early in the morning and brought Israel forward by tribes, and the tribe of Judah was selected.

¹⁷So he brought the family of Judah forward, and he selected the family of the Zerahites; then he brought the family of the Zerahites forward man by man, and Zabdi was selected.

¹⁸And he brought his household forward man by man; and Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, was selected.

¹⁹Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I implore you, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.”

²⁰So Achan answered Joshua and said, “Truly, I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel, and this is what I did:

²¹when I saw among the spoils a beautiful robe from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I wanted them and took them; and 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 behold, it was hidden in his tent with the silver underneath it.

²³So they took them from inside the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the sons of Israel; and they laid them out before the LORD.

²⁴Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to the Valley of Achor.

²⁵And Joshua said, “Why have you brought disaster on us? The LORD will bring disaster on you this day.” And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.

²⁶Then they erected over him a large heap of stones that stands to this day, and the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day.

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

²When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans have taken a stand by Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake from the wind.

³Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the fuller’s field,

⁴and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stumps of smoldering logs, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.

⁵Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying,

⁶“Let’s go up against Judah and terrorize it, and take it for ourselves by assault and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”

⁷this is what the Lord GOD says: “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.

⁸For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces, so that it is no longer a people),

⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you certainly shall not last.” ’ ”

¹⁰Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

¹¹“Ask for a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

¹²But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I put the LORD to the test!”

¹³Then he said, “Listen now, house of David! Is it too trivial a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?

¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel.

¹⁵He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.

¹⁶For before the boy knows enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be abandoned.

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 separated from Judah—the days of the king of Assyria.”

¹⁸On that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the canals of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹They will all come and settle on the steep ravines, on the ledges of the cliffs, on all the thorn bushes, and on all the watering places.

²⁰On that day the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from regions beyond the Euphrates River (that is, with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

²¹Now on that day a person may keep alive only a heifer and a pair of sheep;

²²and because of the abundance of the milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone who is left within the land will eat curds and honey.

²³And it will come about on that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns.

²⁴People will come there with bows and arrows, because all the land will be briars and thorns.

²⁵As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the plow, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.

¹Now the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

²And Stephen said, “Listen to me, brothers and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and He said to him, ‘GO FROM YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME TO THE LAND WHICH I WILL SHOW YOU.’

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

⁵But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child.

⁶But God spoke to this effect, that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE STRANGERS IN A LAND THAT WAS NOT THEIRS, AND THEY WOULD ENSLAVE AND MISTREAT them for four hundred years.

⁷‘AND WHATEVER NATION TO WHICH THEY ARE ENSLAVED I MYSELF WILL JUDGE,’ said God, ‘AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE ME IN THIS PLACE.’

⁸And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham fathered Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs.

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

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

¹¹“Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food.

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

¹³And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was revealed to Pharaoh.

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

¹⁵And Jacob went down to Egypt, and he and our fathers died there.

¹⁶And they were brought back from there to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷“But as the time of the promise which God had assured to Abraham was approaching, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸until ANOTHER KING AROSE OVER EGYPT WHO DID NOT KNOW JOSEPH.

¹⁹It was he who shrewdly took advantage of our nation and mistreated our fathers in order that they would abandon their infants in the Nile, so that they would not survive.

²⁰At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful to God. He was nurtured for three months in his father’s home.

²¹And after he had been put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son.

²²Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was proficient in speaking and action.

²³But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his countrymen, the sons of Israel.

²⁴And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended and took vengeance for the oppressed man by fatally striking the Egyptian.

²⁵And he thought that his brothers understood that God was granting them deliverance through him; but they did not understand.

²⁶And on the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting each other, and he tried to reconcile them to peace, by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why are you injuring each other?’

²⁷But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND JUDGE OVER US?

²⁸YOU DO NOT INTEND TO KILL ME AS YOU KILLED THE EGYPTIAN YESTERDAY, DO YOU?’

²⁹At this remark, MOSES FLED AND BECAME A STRANGER 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; and as he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came:

³²‘I AM THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS, THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND ISAAC, AND JACOB.’ Moses shook with fear and did not dare to look closely.

³³But the LORD said to him, ‘REMOVE YOUR SANDALS FROM YOUR FEET, FOR THE PLACE ON WHICH YOU ARE STANDING IS HOLY GROUND.

³⁴I HAVE CERTAINLY SEEN THE OPPRESSION OF MY PEOPLE WHO ARE IN EGYPT, AND HAVE HEARD THEIR GROANING, AND I HAVE COME DOWN TO RESCUE THEM; AND NOW COME, I WILL SEND YOU TO EGYPT.’

³⁵“This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.

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

³⁷This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR COUNTRYMEN.’

³⁸This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness together with the angel who spoke to him at length on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to you.

³⁹Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him; on the contrary they rejected him and turned back to Egypt in their hearts,

⁴⁰saying to Aaron, ‘MAKE US A GOD WHO WILL GO BEFORE US; FOR THIS MOSES WHO LED US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT—WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM.’

⁴¹At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned away and gave them over to serve the heavenly lights; as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘YOU DID NOT OFFER ME VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FOR FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, DID YOU, HOUSE OF ISRAEL?

⁴³YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF YOUR GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL DEPORT YOU BEYOND BABYLON.’

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

⁴⁵Our fathers in turn received it, and they also brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations that God drove out from our fathers, until the time of David.

⁴⁶David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

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

⁴⁸However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:

⁴⁹‘HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND THE EARTH IS THE FOOTSTOOL OF MY FEET; WHAT KIND OF HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME?’ says the Lord, ‘OR WHAT PLACE IS THERE FOR MY REST?

⁵⁰WAS IT NOT MY HAND THAT MADE ALL THESE THINGS?’

⁵¹“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always 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 had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, and you have now become betrayers and murderers of Him;

⁵³you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

⁵⁴Now when they heard this, they were infuriated, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;

⁵⁶and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

⁵⁷But they shouted with loud voices, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one mind.

⁵⁸When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

⁶⁰Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.