Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town.

²Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

³At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

⁴Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

⁵Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

⁶But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”

⁷Then the man got up and went home.

⁸When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.

⁹As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.

¹¹When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹²On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

¹³But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁴Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁵Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.

¹⁶“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.

¹⁷Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

¹⁸While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.”

¹⁹Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

²⁰Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.

²¹She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

²²Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

²³When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes,

²⁴he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him.

²⁵After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up.

²⁶News of this spread through all that region.

²⁷As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

²⁸When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied.

²⁹Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”;

³⁰and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.”

³¹But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.

³²While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus.

³³And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”

³⁴But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”

³⁵Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

³⁸Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

¹The LORD said to Moses,

²“Bring Aaron and his sons, their garments, the anointing oil, the bull for the sin offering, the two rams and the basket containing bread made without yeast,

³and gather the entire assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting.”

⁴Moses did as the LORD commanded him, and the assembly gathered at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

⁵Moses said to the assembly, “This is what the LORD has commanded to be done.”

⁶Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water.

⁷He put the tunic on Aaron, tied the sash around him, clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him. He also fastened the ephod with a decorative waistband, which he tied around him.

⁸He placed the breastpiece on him and put the Urim and Thummim in the breastpiece.

⁹Then he placed the turban on Aaron’s head and set the gold plate, the sacred emblem, on the front of it, as the LORD commanded Moses.

¹⁰Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and so consecrated them.

¹¹He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times, anointing the altar and all its utensils and the basin with its stand, to consecrate them.

¹²He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him.

¹³Then he brought Aaron’s sons forward, put tunics on them, tied sashes around them and fastened caps on them, as the LORD commanded Moses.

¹⁴He then presented the bull for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.

¹⁵Moses slaughtered the bull and took some of the blood, and with his finger he put it on all the horns of the altar to purify the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. So he consecrated it to make atonement for it.

¹⁶Moses also took all the fat around the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and both kidneys and their fat, and burned it on the altar.

¹⁷But the bull with its hide and its flesh and its intestines he burned up outside the camp, as the LORD commanded Moses.

¹⁸He then presented the ram for the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.

¹⁹Then Moses slaughtered the ram and splashed the blood against the sides of the altar.

²⁰He cut the ram into pieces and burned the head, the pieces and the fat.

²¹He washed the internal organs and the legs with water and burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.

²²He then presented the other ram, the ram for the ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.

²³Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.

²⁴Moses also brought Aaron’s sons forward and put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Then he splashed blood against the sides of the altar.

²⁵After that, he took the fat, the fat tail, all the fat around the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, both kidneys and their fat and the right thigh.

²⁶And from the basket of bread made without yeast, which was before the LORD, he took one thick loaf, one thick loaf with olive oil mixed in, and one thin loaf, and he put these on the fat portions and on the right thigh.

²⁷He put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons, and they waved them before the LORD as a wave offering.

²⁸Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar on top of the burnt offering as an ordination offering, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the LORD.

²⁹Moses also took the breast, which was his share of the ordination ram, and waved it before the LORD as a wave offering, as the LORD commanded Moses.

³⁰Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood from the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and their garments.

³¹Moses then said to Aaron and his sons, “Cook the meat at the entrance to the tent of meeting and eat it there with the bread from the basket of ordination offerings, as I was commanded: ‘Aaron and his sons are to eat it.’

³²Then burn up the rest of the meat and the bread.

³³Do not leave the entrance to the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for your ordination will last seven days.

³⁴What has been done today was commanded by the LORD to make atonement for you.

³⁵You must stay at the entrance to the tent of meeting day and night for seven days and do what the LORD requires, so you will not die; for that is what I have been commanded.”

³⁶So Aaron and his sons did everything the LORD commanded through Moses.

¹This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.

²Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

³I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.

⁴My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.

⁵Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

⁶Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.

⁷For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

⁸Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!

⁹For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.

¹⁰We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!

¹¹To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.

¹²We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;

¹³when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

¹⁴I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children.

¹⁵Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

¹⁶Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

¹⁷For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

¹⁸Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you.

¹⁹But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have.

²⁰For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

²¹What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?

¹Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:

²Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

⁴Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;

⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;

⁷and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

¹⁰Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,

¹¹and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

¹²So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.

¹³I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body,

¹⁴because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

¹⁵And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

¹⁷He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

¹⁹We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

²⁰Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.

²¹For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

¹Elihu continued:

²“Bear with me a little longer and I will show you that there is more to be said in God’s behalf.

³I get my knowledge from afar; I will ascribe justice to my Maker.

⁴Be assured that my words are not false; one who has perfect knowledge is with you.

⁵“God is mighty, but despises no one; he is mighty, and firm in his purpose.

⁶He does not keep the wicked alive but gives the afflicted their rights.

⁷He does not take his eyes off the righteous; he enthrones them with kings and exalts them forever.

⁸But if people are bound in chains, held fast by cords of affliction,

⁹he tells them what they have done— that they have sinned arrogantly.

¹⁰He makes them listen to correction and commands them to repent of their evil.

¹¹If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment.

¹²But if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword and die without knowledge.

¹³“The godless in heart harbor resentment; even when he fetters them, they do not cry for help.

¹⁴They die in their youth, among male prostitutes of the shrines.

¹⁵But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction.

¹⁶“He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.

¹⁷But now you are laden with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice have taken hold of you.

¹⁸Be careful that no one entices you by riches; do not let a large bribe turn you aside.

¹⁹Would your wealth or even all your mighty efforts sustain you so you would not be in distress?

²⁰Do not long for the night, to drag people away from their homes.

²¹Beware of turning to evil, which you seem to prefer to affliction.

²²“God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?

²³Who has prescribed his ways for him, or said to him, ‘You have done wrong’?

²⁴Remember to extol his work, which people have praised in song.

²⁵All humanity has seen it; mortals gaze on it from afar.

²⁶How great is God—beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.

²⁷“He draws up the drops of water, which distill as rain to the streams;

²⁸the clouds pour down their moisture and abundant showers fall on mankind.

²⁹Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion?

³⁰See how he scatters his lightning about him, bathing the depths of the sea.

³¹This is the way he governs the nations and provides food in abundance.

³²He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.

³³His thunder announces the coming storm; even the cattle make known its approach.

¹A psalm. Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

²The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

³He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;

⁵make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing,

⁶with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn— shout for joy before the LORD, the King.

⁷Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

⁸Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy;

⁹let them sing before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom, turn your ear to my words of insight,

²that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.

³For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;

⁴but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.

⁶She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it.

⁷Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say.

⁸Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house,

⁹lest you lose your honor to others and your dignity to one who is cruel,

¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich the house of another.

¹¹At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent.

¹²You will say, “How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction!

¹³I would not obey my teachers or turn my ear to my instructors.

¹⁴And I was soon in serious trouble in the assembly of God’s people.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

¹⁸May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹A loving doe, a graceful deer— may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love.

²⁰Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife? Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?

²¹For your ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all your paths.

²²The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast.

²³For lack of discipline they will die, led astray by their own great folly.

¹David mustered the men who were with him and appointed over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds.

²David sent out his troops, a third under the command of Joab, a third under Joab’s brother Abishai son of Zeruiah, and a third under Ittai the Gittite. The king told the troops, “I myself will surely march out with you.”

³But the men said, “You must not go out; if we are forced to flee, they won’t care about us. Even if half of us die, they won’t care; but you are worth ten thousand of us. It would be better now for you to give us support from the city.”

⁴The king answered, “I will do whatever seems best to you.” So the king stood beside the gate while all his men marched out in units of hundreds and of thousands.

⁵The king commanded Joab, Abishai and Ittai, “Be gentle with the young man Absalom for my sake.” And all the troops heard the king giving orders concerning Absalom to each of the commanders.

⁶David’s army marched out of the city to fight Israel, and the battle took place in the forest of Ephraim.

⁷There Israel’s troops were routed by David’s men, and the casualties that day were great—twenty thousand men.

⁸The battle spread out over the whole countryside, and the forest swallowed up more men that day than the sword.

⁹Now Absalom happened to meet David’s men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s hair got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going.

¹⁰When one of the men saw what had happened, he told Joab, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree.”

¹¹Joab said to the man who had told him this, “What! You saw him? Why didn’t you strike him to the ground right there? Then I would have had to give you ten shekels of silver and a warrior’s belt.”

¹²But the man replied, “Even if a thousand shekels were weighed out into my hands, I would not lay a hand on the king’s son. In our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’

¹³And if I had put my life in jeopardy—and nothing is hidden from the king—you would have kept your distance from me.”

¹⁴Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this for you.” So he took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom’s heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree.

¹⁵And ten of Joab’s armor-bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him and killed him.

¹⁶Then Joab sounded the trumpet, and the troops stopped pursuing Israel, for Joab halted them.

¹⁷They took Absalom, threw him into a big pit in the forest and piled up a large heap of rocks over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled to their homes.

¹⁸During his lifetime Absalom had taken a pillar and erected it in the King’s Valley as a monument to himself, for he thought, “I have no son to carry on the memory of my name.” He named the pillar after himself, and it is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.

¹⁹Now Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, “Let me run and take the news to the king that the LORD has vindicated him by delivering him from the hand of his enemies.”

²⁰“You are not the one to take the news today,” Joab told him. “You may take the news another time, but you must not do so today, because the king’s son is dead.”

²¹Then Joab said to a Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen.” The Cushite bowed down before Joab and ran off.

²²Ahimaaz son of Zadok again said to Joab, “Come what may, please let me run behind the Cushite.” But Joab replied, “My son, why do you want to go? You don’t have any news that will bring you a reward.”

²³He said, “Come what may, I want to run.” So Joab said, “Run!” Then Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and outran the Cushite.

²⁴While David was sitting between the inner and outer gates, the watchman went up to the roof of the gateway by the wall. As he looked out, he saw a man running alone.

²⁵The watchman called out to the king and reported it. The king said, “If he is alone, he must have good news.” And the runner came closer and closer.

²⁶Then the watchman saw another runner, and he called down to the gatekeeper, “Look, another man running alone!” The king said, “He must be bringing good news, too.”

²⁷The watchman said, “It seems to me that the first one runs like Ahimaaz son of Zadok.” “He’s a good man,” the king said. “He comes with good news.”

²⁸Then Ahimaaz called out to the king, “All is well!” He bowed down before the king with his face to the ground and said, “Praise be to the LORD your God! He has delivered up those who lifted their hands against my lord the king.”

²⁹The king asked, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” Ahimaaz answered, “I saw great confusion just as Joab was about to send the king’s servant and me, your servant, but I don’t know what it was.”

³⁰The king said, “Stand aside and wait here.” So he stepped aside and stood there.

³¹Then the Cushite arrived and said, “My lord the king, hear the good news! The LORD has vindicated you today by delivering you from the hand of all who rose up against you.”

³²The king asked the Cushite, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” The Cushite replied, “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up to harm you be like that young man.”

³³The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son!”

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

²The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace of Judah.

³Now Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him there, saying, “Why do you prophesy as you do? You say, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

⁴Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape the Babylonians but will certainly be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him with his own eyes.

⁵He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will remain until I deal with him, declares the LORD. If you fight against the Babylonians, you will not succeed.’ ”

⁶Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me:

⁷Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth, because as nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it.’

⁸“Then, just as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since it is your right to redeem it and possess it, buy it for yourself.’ “I knew that this was the word of the LORD;

⁹so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out for him seventeen shekels of silver.

¹⁰I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed, and weighed out the silver on the scales.

¹¹I took the deed of purchase—the sealed copy containing the terms and conditions, as well as the unsealed copy—

¹²and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed and of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.

¹³“In their presence I gave Baruch these instructions:

¹⁴‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Take these documents, both the sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of purchase, and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time.

¹⁵For this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’

¹⁶“After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD:

¹⁷“Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.

¹⁸You show love to thousands but bring the punishment for the parents’ sins into the laps of their children after them. Great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD Almighty,

¹⁹great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to the ways of all mankind; you reward each person according to their conduct and as their deeds deserve.

²⁰You performed signs and wonders in Egypt and have continued them to this day, in Israel and among all mankind, and have gained the renown that is still yours.

²¹You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror.

²²You gave them this land you had sworn to give their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.

²³They came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey you or follow your law; they did not do what you commanded them to do. So you brought all this disaster on them.

²⁴“See how the siege ramps are built up to take the city. Because of the sword, famine and plague, the city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians who are attacking it. What you said has happened, as you now see.

²⁵And though the city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians, you, Sovereign LORD, say to me, ‘Buy the field with silver and have the transaction witnessed.’ ”

²⁶Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

²⁷“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?

²⁸Therefore this is what the LORD says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will capture it.

²⁹The Babylonians who are attacking this city will come in and set it on fire; they will burn it down, along with the houses where the people aroused my anger by burning incense on the roofs to Baal and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods.

³⁰“The people of Israel and Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth; indeed, the people of Israel have done nothing but arouse my anger with what their hands have made, declares the LORD.

³¹From the day it was built until now, this city has so aroused my anger and wrath that I must remove it from my sight.

³²The people of Israel and Judah have provoked me by all the evil they have done—they, their kings and officials, their priests and prophets, the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem.

³³They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline.

³⁴They set up their vile images in the house that bears my Name and defiled it.

³⁵They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molek, though I never commanded—nor did it enter my mind—that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.

³⁶“You are saying about this city, ‘By the sword, famine and plague it will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon’; but this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says:

³⁷I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety.

³⁸They will be my people, and I will be their God.

³⁹I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me and that all will then go well for them and for their children after them.

⁴⁰I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.

⁴¹I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

⁴²“This is what the LORD says: As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them.

⁴³Once more fields will be bought in this land of which you say, ‘It is a desolate waste, without people or animals, for it has been given into the hands of the Babylonians.’

⁴⁴Fields will be bought for silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed and witnessed in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, because I will restore their fortunes, declares the LORD.”

¹At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.

²But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

³So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.

⁴The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles.

⁵There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them.

⁶But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country,

⁷where they continued to preach the gospel.

⁸In Lystra there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked.

⁹He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed

¹⁰and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

¹¹When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

¹²Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker.

¹³The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

¹⁴But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting:

¹⁵“Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

¹⁶In the past, he let all nations go their own way.

¹⁷Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

¹⁸Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.

¹⁹Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.

²⁰But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

²¹They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch,

²²strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

²³Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

²⁴After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia,

²⁵and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

²⁶From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.

²⁷On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

²⁸And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.