Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked,

²“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”

³Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

⁴For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’

⁵But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’

⁶they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

⁷You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

⁸“ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

⁹They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ ”

¹⁰Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.

¹¹What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

¹²Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

¹³He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

¹⁴Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

¹⁵Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

¹⁶“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them.

¹⁷“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?

¹⁸But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.

¹⁹For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

²⁰These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

²¹Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

²²A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

²³Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

²⁴He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

²⁵The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

²⁶He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

²⁷“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

²⁸Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

²⁹Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down.

³⁰Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them.

³¹The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

³²Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

³³His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”

³⁴“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”

³⁵He told the crowd to sit down on the ground.

³⁶Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people.

³⁷They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

³⁸The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children.

³⁹After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.

¹The LORD said to Moses,

²“These are the regulations for any diseased person at the time of their ceremonial cleansing, when they are brought to the priest:

³The priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. If they have been healed of their defiling skin disease,

⁴the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the person to be cleansed.

⁵Then the priest shall order that one of the birds be killed over fresh water in a clay pot.

⁶He is then to take the live bird and dip it, together with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, into the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water.

⁷Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the defiling disease, and then pronounce them clean. After that, he is to release the live bird in the open fields.

⁸“The person to be cleansed must wash their clothes, shave off all their hair and bathe with water; then they will be ceremonially clean. After this they may come into the camp, but they must stay outside their tent for seven days.

⁹On the seventh day they must shave off all their hair; they must shave their head, their beard, their eyebrows and the rest of their hair. They must wash their clothes and bathe themselves with water, and they will be clean.

¹⁰“On the eighth day they must bring two male lambs and one ewe lamb a year old, each without defect, along with three-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering, and one log of oil.

¹¹The priest who pronounces them clean shall present both the one to be cleansed and their offerings before the LORD at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

¹²“Then the priest is to take one of the male lambs and offer it as a guilt offering, along with the log of oil; he shall wave them before the LORD as a wave offering.

¹³He is to slaughter the lamb in the sanctuary area where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered. Like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy.

¹⁴The priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot.

¹⁵The priest shall then take some of the log of oil, pour it in the palm of his own left hand,

¹⁶dip his right forefinger into the oil in his palm, and with his finger sprinkle some of it before the LORD seven times.

¹⁷The priest is to put some of the oil remaining in his palm on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering.

¹⁸The rest of the oil in his palm the priest shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed and make atonement for them before the LORD.

¹⁹“Then the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from their uncleanness. After that, the priest shall slaughter the burnt offering

²⁰and offer it on the altar, together with the grain offering, and make atonement for them, and they will be clean.

²¹“If, however, they are poor and cannot afford these, they must take one male lamb as a guilt offering to be waved to make atonement for them, together with a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering, a log of oil,

²²and two doves or two young pigeons, such as they can afford, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.

²³“On the eighth day they must bring them for their cleansing to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the LORD.

²⁴The priest is to take the lamb for the guilt offering, together with the log of oil, and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering.

²⁵He shall slaughter the lamb for the guilt offering and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot.

²⁶The priest is to pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand,

²⁷and with his right forefinger sprinkle some of the oil from his palm seven times before the LORD.

²⁸Some of the oil in his palm he is to put on the same places he put the blood of the guilt offering—on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot.

²⁹The rest of the oil in his palm the priest shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed, to make atonement for them before the LORD.

³⁰Then he shall sacrifice the doves or the young pigeons, such as the person can afford,

³¹one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, together with the grain offering. In this way the priest will make atonement before the LORD on behalf of the one to be cleansed.”

³²These are the regulations for anyone who has a defiling skin disease and who cannot afford the regular offerings for their cleansing.

³³The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

³⁴“When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your possession, and I put a spreading mold in a house in that land,

³⁵the owner of the house must go and tell the priest, ‘I have seen something that looks like a defiling mold in my house.’

³⁶The priest is to order the house to be emptied before he goes in to examine the mold, so that nothing in the house will be pronounced unclean. After this the priest is to go in and inspect the house.

³⁷He is to examine the mold on the walls, and if it has greenish or reddish depressions that appear to be deeper than the surface of the wall,

³⁸the priest shall go out the doorway of the house and close it up for seven days.

³⁹On the seventh day the priest shall return to inspect the house. If the mold has spread on the walls,

⁴⁰he is to order that the contaminated stones be torn out and thrown into an unclean place outside the town.

⁴¹He must have all the inside walls of the house scraped and the material that is scraped off dumped into an unclean place outside the town.

⁴²Then they are to take other stones to replace these and take new clay and plaster the house.

⁴³“If the defiling mold reappears in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house scraped and plastered,

⁴⁴the priest is to go and examine it and, if the mold has spread in the house, it is a persistent defiling mold; the house is unclean.

⁴⁵It must be torn down—its stones, timbers and all the plaster—and taken out of the town to an unclean place.

⁴⁶“Anyone who goes into the house while it is closed up will be unclean till evening.

⁴⁷Anyone who sleeps or eats in the house must wash their clothes.

⁴⁸“But if the priest comes to examine it and the mold has not spread after the house has been plastered, he shall pronounce the house clean, because the defiling mold is gone.

⁴⁹To purify the house he is to take two birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop.

⁵⁰He shall kill one of the birds over fresh water in a clay pot.

⁵¹Then he is to take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn and the live bird, dip them into the blood of the dead bird and the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times.

⁵²He shall purify the house with the bird’s blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet yarn.

⁵³Then he is to release the live bird in the open fields outside the town. In this way he will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.”

⁵⁴These are the regulations for any defiling skin disease, for a sore,

⁵⁵for defiling molds in fabric or in a house,

⁵⁶and for a swelling, a rash or a shiny spot,

⁵⁷to determine when something is clean or unclean. These are the regulations for defiling skin diseases and defiling molds.

¹For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.

²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

³They all ate the same spiritual food

⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

⁶Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.

⁷Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”

⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.

⁹We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.

¹⁰And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

¹¹These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

¹²So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

¹³No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

¹⁴Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.

¹⁵I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

¹⁶Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?

¹⁷Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.

¹⁸Consider the people of Israel: Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar?

¹⁹Do I mean then that food sacrificed to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?

²⁰No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons.

²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.

²²Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

²³“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.

²⁴No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.

²⁵Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience,

²⁶for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

²⁷If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience.

²⁸But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience.

²⁹I am referring to the other person’s conscience, not yours. For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience?

³⁰If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

³¹So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

³²Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—

³³even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

¹Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

²This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

³but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

⁴You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

⁵They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.

⁶We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

¹³This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.

¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

¹⁵If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.

¹⁶And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

¹⁷This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.

¹⁸There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

¹⁹We love because he first loved us.

²⁰Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.

²¹And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

¹Then Job replied to the LORD:

²“I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

³You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

⁴“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’

⁵My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.

⁶Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

⁷After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.

⁸So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.”

⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.

¹⁰After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.

¹¹All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

¹²The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys.

¹³And he also had seven sons and three daughters.

¹⁴The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch.

¹⁵Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.

¹⁶After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation.

¹⁷And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

¹Praise the LORD, my soul. LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

²The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent

³and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind.

⁴He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants.

⁵He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.

⁶You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.

⁷But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;

⁸they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them.

⁹You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth.

¹⁰He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains.

¹¹They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

¹²The birds of the sky nest by the waters; they sing among the branches.

¹³He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.

¹⁴He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth:

¹⁵wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.

¹⁶The trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

¹⁷There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the junipers.

¹⁸The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

¹⁹He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.

²⁰You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl.

²¹The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.

²²The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens.

²³Then people go out to their work, to their labor until evening.

²⁴How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

²⁵There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small.

²⁶There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

²⁷All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time.

²⁸When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.

²⁹When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.

³⁰When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

³¹May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works—

³²he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

³³I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

³⁴May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD.

³⁵But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the LORD, my soul. Praise the LORD.

¹The LORD detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.

²When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

³The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.

⁴Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

⁵The righteousness of the blameless makes their paths straight, but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness.

⁶The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires.

⁷Hopes placed in mortals die with them; all the promise of their power comes to nothing.

⁸The righteous person is rescued from trouble, and it falls on the wicked instead.

⁹With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbors, but through knowledge the righteous escape.

¹⁰When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.

¹¹Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.

¹²Whoever derides their neighbor has no sense, but the one who has understanding holds their tongue.

¹³A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.

¹⁴For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.

¹⁵Whoever puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer, but whoever refuses to shake hands in pledge is safe.

¹⁶A kindhearted woman gains honor, but ruthless men gain only wealth.

¹⁷Those who are kind benefit themselves, but the cruel bring ruin on themselves.

¹⁸A wicked person earns deceptive wages, but the one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.

¹⁹Truly the righteous attain life, but whoever pursues evil finds death.

²⁰The LORD detests those whose hearts are perverse, but he delights in those whose ways are blameless.

²¹Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will go free.

²²Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.

²³The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath.

²⁴One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

²⁵A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

²⁶People curse the one who hoards grain, but they pray God’s blessing on the one who is willing to sell.

²⁷Whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to one who searches for it.

²⁸Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.

²⁹Whoever brings ruin on their family will inherit only wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise.

³⁰The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives.

³¹If the righteous receive their due on earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner!

¹Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”

²So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”

³But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”

⁴The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.

⁵After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer.

⁶They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon.

⁷Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.

⁸After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

⁹Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.

¹⁰David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

¹¹Before David got up the next morning, the word of the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer:

¹²“Go and tell David, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’ ”

¹³So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

¹⁴David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁵So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.

¹⁶When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the LORD was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd, have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”

¹⁸On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

¹⁹So David went up, as the LORD had commanded through Gad.

²⁰When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” “To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the LORD, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”

²²Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.

²³Your Majesty, Araunah gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the LORD your God accept you.”

²⁴But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.

²⁵David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

¹Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehukal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah was telling all the people when he said,

²“This is what the LORD says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians will live. They will escape with their lives; they will live.’

³And this is what the LORD says: ‘This city will certainly be given into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.’ ”

⁴Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.”

⁵“He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.”

⁶So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

⁷But Ebed-Melek, a Cushite, an official in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate,

⁸Ebed-Melek went out of the palace and said to him,

⁹“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.”

¹⁰Then the king commanded Ebed-Melek the Cushite, “Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹So Ebed-Melek took the men with him and went to a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from there and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.

¹²Ebed-Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so,

¹³and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

¹⁴Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance to the temple of the LORD. “I am going to ask you something,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”

¹⁵Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I give you an answer, will you not kill me? Even if I did give you counsel, you would not listen to me.”

¹⁶But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah: “As surely as the LORD lives, who has given us breath, I will neither kill you nor hand you over to those who want to kill you.”

¹⁷Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live.

¹⁸But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from them.’ ”

¹⁹King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.”

²⁰“They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey the LORD by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared.

²¹But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has revealed to me:

²²All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you: “ ‘They misled you and overcame you— those trusted friends of yours. Your feet are sunk in the mud; your friends have deserted you.’

²³“All your wives and children will be brought out to the Babylonians. You yourself will not escape from their hands but will be captured by the king of Babylon; and this city will be burned down.”

²⁴Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you may die.

²⁵If the officials hear that I talked with you, and they come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us or we will kill you,’

²⁶then tell them, ‘I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house to die there.’ ”

²⁷All the officials did come to Jeremiah and question him, and he told them everything the king had ordered him to say. So they said no more to him, for no one had heard his conversation with the king.

²⁸And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured. This is how Jerusalem was taken:

¹When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia.

²He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece,

³where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia.

⁴He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.

⁵These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas.

⁶But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

⁷On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.

⁸There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.

⁹Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead.

¹⁰Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!”

¹¹Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left.

¹²The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

¹³We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot.

¹⁴When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene.

¹⁵The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Chios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus.

¹⁶Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.

¹⁸When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia.

¹⁹I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.

²⁰You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house.

²¹I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

²²“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

²³I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.

²⁴However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

²⁵“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.

²⁶Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you.

²⁷For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.

²⁸Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

²⁹I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.

³⁰Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

³¹So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

³²“Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

³³I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.

³⁴You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.

³⁵In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

³⁶When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.

³⁷They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him.

³⁸What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.