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Bible Study Plan:     Bible Version     Starting Date

  Nehemiah 4-6


4:1 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews,
4:2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble-- burned as they are?"
4:3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, "What they are building-- if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!"
4:4 Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.
4:5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.
4:6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
4:7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem's walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.
4:8 They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.
4:9 But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
4:10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall."
4:11 Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work."
4:12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."
4:13 Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows.
4:14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don"t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."
4:15 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.
4:16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah
4:17 who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other,
4:18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me.
4:19 Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall.
4:20 Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us!"
4:21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out.
4:22 At that time I also said to the people, "Have every man and his helper stay inside Jerusalem at night, so they can serve us as guards by night and workmen by day."
4:23 Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.
5:1 Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers.
5:2 Some were saying, "We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain."
5:3 Others were saying, "We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine."
5:4 Still others were saying, "We have had to borrow money to pay the king's tax on our fields and vineyards.
5:5 Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our countrymen and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others."
5:6 When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry.
5:7 I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, "You are exacting usury from your own countrymen!" So I called together a large meeting to deal with them
5:8 and said
5:9 So I continued, "What you are doing is not right. Shouldn"t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?
5:10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let the exacting of usury stop!
5:11 Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the usury you are charging them-- the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine and oil."
5:12 "We will give it back," they said. "And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say." Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised.
5:13 I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, "In this way may God shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied!" At this the whole assembly said, "Amen," and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.
5:14 Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year-- twelve years-- neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor.
5:15 But the earlier governors-- those preceding me-- placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that.
5:16 Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we did not acquire any land.
5:17 Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations.
5:18 Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.
5:19 Remember me with favor, O my God, for all I have done for these people.
6:1 When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it-- though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates--
6:2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message
6:3 so I sent messengers to them with this reply
6:4 Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.
6:5 Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter
6:6 in which was written
6:7 and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem
6:8 I sent him this reply
6:9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed." [But I prayed,] "Now strengthen my hands."
6:10 One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, "Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you-- by night they are coming to kill you."
6:11 But I said, "Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!"
6:12 I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
6:13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.
6:14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me.
6:15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.
6:16 When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.
6:17 Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them.
6:18 For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah.
6:19 Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.

  Acts  2


2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2:2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
2:3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
2:5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
2:6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
2:7 Utterly amazed, they asked
2:8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
2:9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome
2:11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"
2:12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"
2:13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."
2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd
2:15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning!
2:16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel
2:17 ""In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
2:18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
2:19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
2:20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
2:21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
2:22 "Men of Israel, listen to this
2:23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
2:24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
2:25 David said about him
2:26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope,
2:27 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
2:28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence."
2:29 "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.
2:30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.
2:31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.
2:32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.
2:33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
2:34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, ""The Lord said to my Lord
2:35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.""
2:36 "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this
2:37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"
2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
2:39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-- for all whom the Lord our God will call."
2:40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."
2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles" teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
2:43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.
2:44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.
2:45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
2:46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
2:47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.