Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables:

²“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.

³He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come.

⁴Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵“But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business,

⁶while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.

⁷The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city.

⁸“Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.

⁹Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’

¹⁰So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests.

¹¹When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding.

¹²So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

¹³“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap him by what he said.

¹⁶So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are truthful and teach truthfully the way of God. You don’t care what anyone thinks nor do you show partiality.

¹⁷Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸Perceiving their malicious intent, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, hypocrites?

¹⁹Show me the coin used for the tax.” They brought him a denarius.

²⁰“Whose image and inscription is this?” he asked them.

²¹“Caesar’s,” they said to him. Then he said to them, “Give, then, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

²²When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

²³That same day some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came up to him and questioned him:

²⁴“Teacher, Moses said, if a man dies, having no children, his brother is to marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.

²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first got married and died. Having no offspring, he left his wife to his brother.

²⁶The same thing happened to the second also, and the third, and so on to all seven.

²⁷Last of all, the woman died.

²⁸In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had married her.”

²⁹Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God.

³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.

³¹Now concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read what was spoken to you by God:

³²I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

³³And when the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

³⁴When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together.

³⁵And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him:

³⁶“Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”

³⁷He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

³⁸This is the greatest and most important command.

³⁹The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

⁴¹While the Pharisees were together, Jesus questioned them,

⁴²“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They replied, “David’s.”

⁴³He asked them, “How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’

⁴⁴ The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet’?

⁴⁵“If David calls him ‘Lord,’ how then can he be his son?”

⁴⁶No one was able to answer him at all, and from that day no one dared to question him anymore.

¹The LORD said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them: A priest is not to make himself ceremonially unclean for a dead person among his relatives,

²except for his immediate family: his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother.

³He may make himself unclean for his unmarried virgin sister in his immediate family.

⁴He is not to make himself unclean for those related to him by marriage and so defile himself.

⁵“Priests may not make bald spots on their heads, shave the edge of their beards, or make gashes on their bodies.

⁶They are to be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they present the fire offerings to the LORD, the food of their God, and they must be holy.

⁷They are not to marry a woman defiled by prostitution. They are not to marry one divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.

⁸You are to consider him holy since he presents the food of your God. He will be holy to you because I, the LORD who sets you apart, am holy.

⁹If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by promiscuity, she defiles her father; she must be burned to death.

¹⁰“The priest who is highest among his brothers, who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and has been ordained to wear the clothes, must not dishevel his hair or tear his clothes.

¹¹He must not go near any dead person or make himself unclean even for his father or mother.

¹²He must not leave the sanctuary or he will desecrate the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am the LORD.

¹³“He is to marry a woman who is a virgin.

¹⁴He is not to marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people,

¹⁵so that he does not corrupt his bloodline among his people, for I am the LORD who sets him apart.”

¹⁶The LORD spoke to Moses:

¹⁷“Tell Aaron: None of your descendants throughout your generations who has a physical defect is to come near to present the food of his God.

¹⁸No man who has any defect is to come near: no man who is blind, lame, facially disfigured, or deformed;

¹⁹no man who has a broken foot or hand,

²⁰or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has an eye defect, a festering rash, scabs, or a crushed testicle.

²¹No descendant of the priest Aaron who has a defect is to come near to present the fire offerings to the LORD. He has a defect and is not to come near to present the food of his God.

²²He may eat the food of his God from what is especially holy as well as from what is holy.

²³But because he has a defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar. He is not to desecrate my holy places, for I am the LORD who sets them apart.”

²⁴Moses said this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother: To the church of God at Corinth, with all the saints who are throughout Achaia.

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

⁴He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

⁵For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

⁶If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer.

⁷And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.

⁸We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia. We were completely overwhelmed — beyond our strength  — so that we even despaired of life itself.

⁹Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.

¹⁰He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and he will deliver us. We have put our hope in him that he will deliver us again

¹¹while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many.

¹²Indeed, this is our boast: The testimony of our conscience is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with godly sincerity and purity, not by human wisdom but by God’s grace.

¹³For we are writing nothing to you other than what you can read and also understand. I hope you will understand completely —

¹⁴just as you have partially understood us — that we are your reason for pride, just as you also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.

¹⁵Because of this confidence, I planned to come to you first, so that you could have a second benefit,

¹⁶and to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then come to you again from Macedonia and be helped by you on my journey to Judea.

¹⁷Now when I planned this, was I of two minds? Or what I plan, do I plan in a purely human way so that I say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time?

¹⁸As God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes and no.”

¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you — Silvanus, Timothy, and I — did not become “Yes and no.” On the contrary, in him it is always “Yes.”

²⁰For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God.

²¹Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed us.

²²He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

²³I call on God as a witness, on my life, that it was to spare you that I did not come to Corinth.

²⁴I do not mean that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because you stand firm in your faith.

¹“Write to the angel of the church in Sardis: Thus says the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.

²Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before my God.

³Remember, then, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. If you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come upon you.

⁴But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with me in white, because they are worthy.

⁵“In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels.

⁶“Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

⁷“Write to the angel of the church in Philadelphia: Thus says the Holy One, the true one, the one who has the key of David, who opens and no one will close, and who closes and no one opens:

⁸I know your works. Look, I have placed before you an open door that no one can close because you have but little power; yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

⁹Note this: I will make those from the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews and are not, but are lying — I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I have loved you.

¹⁰Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is going to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth.

¹¹I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one takes your crown.

¹²“The one who conquers I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never go out again. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God — the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God — and my new name.

¹³“Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.

¹⁴“Write to the angel of the church in Laodicea: Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation:

¹⁵I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot.

¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.

¹⁷For you say, ‘I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing,’ and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

¹⁸I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you may be rich, white clothes so that you may be dressed and your shameful nakedness not be exposed, and ointment to spread on your eyes so that you may see.

¹⁹As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be zealous and repent.

²⁰See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

²¹“To the one who conquers I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

²²“Let anyone who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches.”

¹A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.

²It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart.

³Grief is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad.

⁴The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in a house of pleasure.

⁵It is better to listen to rebuke from a wise person than to listen to the song of fools,

⁶for like the crackling of burning thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.

⁷Surely, the practice of extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the mind.

⁸The end of a matter is better than its beginning; a patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.

⁹Don’t let your spirit rush to be angry, for anger abides in the heart of fools.

¹⁰Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” since it is not wise of you to ask this.

¹¹Wisdom is as good as an inheritance and an advantage to those who see the sun,

¹²because wisdom is protection as silver is protection; but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

¹³Consider the work of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked?

¹⁴In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that no one can discover anything that will come after him.

¹⁵In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.

¹⁶Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

¹⁷Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

¹⁸It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

¹⁹Wisdom makes the wise person stronger than ten rulers of a city.

²⁰There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins.

²¹Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you,

²²for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

²³I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me.

²⁴What exists is beyond reach and very deep. Who can discover it?

²⁵I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness.

²⁶And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap: her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

²⁷“Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation,

²⁸which my soul continually searches for but does not find: I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.

²⁹Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

¹Hallelujah! I will praise the LORD with all my heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.

²The LORD’s works are great, studied by all who delight in them.

³All that he does is splendid and majestic; his righteousness endures forever.

⁴He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered. The LORD is gracious and compassionate.

⁵He has provided food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever.

⁶He has shown his people the power of his works by giving them the inheritance of the nations.

⁷The works of his hands are truth and justice; all his instructions are trustworthy.

⁸They are established forever and ever, enacted in truth and in uprightness.

⁹He has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever. His name is holy and awe-inspiring.

¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his instructions have good insight. His praise endures forever.

¹One who isolates himself pursues selfish desires; he rebels against all sound wisdom.

²A fool does not delight in understanding, but only wants to show off his opinions.

³When a wicked person comes, contempt also comes, and along with dishonor, derision.

⁴The words of a person’s mouth are deep waters, a flowing river, a fountain of wisdom.

⁵It is not good to show partiality to the guilty, denying an innocent person justice.

⁶A fool’s lips lead to strife, and his mouth provokes a beating.

⁷A fool’s mouth is his devastation, and his lips are a trap for his life.

⁸A gossip’s words are like choice food that goes down to one’s innermost being.

⁹The one who is lazy in his work is brother to a vandal.

¹⁰The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are protected.

¹¹The wealth of the rich is his fortified city; in his imagination it is like a high wall.

¹²Before his downfall a person’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

¹³The one who gives an answer before he listens — this is foolishness and disgrace for him.

¹⁴A person’s spirit can endure sickness, but who can survive a broken spirit?

¹⁵The mind of the discerning acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks it.

¹⁶A person’s gift opens doors for him and brings him before the great.

¹⁷The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.

¹⁸Casting the lot ends quarrels and separates powerful opponents.

¹⁹An offended brother is harder to reach than a fortified city, and quarrels are like the bars of a fortress.

²⁰From the fruit of a person’s mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is filled with the product of his lips.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²A man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.

²³The poor person pleads, but the rich one answers roughly.

²⁴One with many friends may be harmed, but there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.

¹Solomon completed his entire palace complex after thirteen years of construction.

²He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was one hundred fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on top of the pillars.

³It was paneled above with cedar at the top of the chambers that rested on forty-five pillars, fifteen per row.

⁴There were three rows of window frames, facing each other in three tiers.

⁵All the doors and doorposts had rectangular frames, the openings facing each other in three tiers.

⁶He made the hall of pillars seventy-five feet long and forty-five feet wide. A portico was in front of the pillars, and a canopy with pillars was in front of them.

⁷He made the Hall of the Throne where he would judge  — the Hall of Judgment. It was paneled with cedar from the floor to the rafters.

⁸Solomon’s own palace where he would live, in the other courtyard behind the hall, was of similar construction. And he made a house like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, his wife.

⁹All of these buildings were of costly stones, cut to size and sawed with saws on the inner and outer surfaces, from foundation to coping and from the outside to the great courtyard.

¹⁰The foundation was made of large, costly stones twelve and fifteen feet long.

¹¹Above were also costly stones, cut to size, as well as cedar wood.

¹²Around the great courtyard, as well as the inner courtyard of the LORD’s temple and the portico of the temple, were three rows of dressed stone and a row of trimmed cedar beams.

¹³King Solomon had Hiram brought from Tyre.

¹⁴He was a widow’s son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze craftsman. Hiram had great skill, understanding, and knowledge to do every kind of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and carried out all his work.

¹⁵He cast two bronze pillars, each 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference.

¹⁶He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on top of the pillars; 7½ feet was the height of the first capital, and 7½ feet was also the height of the second capital.

¹⁷The capitals on top of the pillars had gratings of latticework, wreaths made of chainwork — seven for the first capital and seven for the second.

¹⁸He made the pillars with two encircling rows of pomegranates on the one grating to cover the capital on top; he did the same for the second capital.

¹⁹And the capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were shaped like lilies, six feet high.

²⁰The capitals on the two pillars were also immediately above the rounded surface next to the grating, and two hundred pomegranates were in rows encircling each capital.

²¹He set up the pillars at the portico of the sanctuary: he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin; then he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz.

²²The tops of the pillars were shaped like lilies. Then the work of the pillars was completed.

²³He made the cast metal basin, 15 feet from brim to brim, perfectly round. It was 7½ feet high and 45 feet in circumference.

²⁴Ornamental gourds encircled it below the brim, ten every half yard, completely encircling the basin. The gourds were cast in two rows when the basin was cast.

²⁵It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The basin was on top of them and all their hindquarters were toward the center.

²⁶The basin was three inches thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup or of a lily blossom. It held eleven thousand gallons.

²⁷Then he made ten bronze water carts. Each water cart was 6 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4½ feet high.

²⁸This was the design of the carts: They had frames; the frames were between the cross-pieces,

²⁹and on the frames between the cross-pieces were lions, oxen, and cherubim. On the cross-pieces there was a pedestal above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.

³⁰Each cart had four bronze wheels with bronze axles. Underneath the four corners of the basin were cast supports, each next to a wreath.

³¹And the water cart’s opening inside the crown on top was eighteen inches wide. The opening was round, made as a pedestal twenty-seven inches wide. On it were carvings, but their frames were square, not round.

³²There were four wheels under the frames, and the wheel axles were part of the water cart; each wheel was twenty-seven inches tall.

³³The wheels’ design was similar to that of chariot wheels: their axles, rims, spokes, and hubs were all of cast metal.

³⁴Four supports were at the four corners of each water cart; each support was one piece with the water cart.

³⁵At the top of the cart was a band nine inches high encircling it; also, at the top of the cart, its braces and its frames were one piece with it.

³⁶He engraved cherubim, lions, and palm trees on the plates of its braces and on its frames, wherever each had space, with encircling wreaths.

³⁷In this way he made the ten water carts using the same casting, dimensions, and shape for all of them.

³⁸Then he made ten bronze basins  — each basin held 220 gallons and each was six feet wide — one basin for each of the ten water carts.

³⁹He set five water carts on the right side of the temple and five on the left side. He put the basin near the right side of the temple toward the southeast.

⁴⁰Then Hiram made the basins, the shovels, and the sprinkling basins. So Hiram finished all the work that he was doing for King Solomon on the LORD’s temple:

⁴¹two pillars; bowls for the capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two gratings for covering both bowls of the capitals that were on top of the pillars;

⁴²the four hundred pomegranates for the two gratings (two rows of pomegranates for each grating covering both capitals’ bowls on top of the pillars );

⁴³the ten water carts; the ten basins on the water carts;

⁴⁴the basin; the twelve oxen underneath the basin;

⁴⁵and the pots, shovels, and sprinkling basins. All the utensils that Hiram made for King Solomon at the LORD’s temple were made of burnished bronze.

⁴⁶The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zarethan.

⁴⁷Solomon left all the utensils unweighed because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not determined.

⁴⁸Solomon also made all the equipment in the LORD’s temple: the gold altar; the gold table that the Bread of the Presence was placed on;

⁴⁹the pure gold lampstands in front of the inner sanctuary, five on the right and five on the left; the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs;

⁵⁰the pure gold ceremonial bowls, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, ladles, and firepans; and the gold hinges for the doors of the inner temple (that is, the most holy place) and for the doors of the temple sanctuary.

⁵¹So all the work King Solomon did in the LORD’s temple was completed. Then Solomon brought in the consecrated things of his father David  — the silver, the gold, and the utensils — and put them in the treasuries of the LORD’s temple.

¹This is the word that the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he wrote these words on a scroll at Jeremiah’s dictation in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:

²“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch:

³‘You have said, “Woe is me, because the LORD has added misery to my pain! I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest.”’

⁴“This is what you are to say to him: ‘This is what the LORD says: “What I have built I am about to demolish, and what I have planted I am about to uproot  — the whole land!

⁵But as for you, do you pursue great things for yourself? Stop pursuing! For I am about to bring disaster on everyone” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “but I will grant you your life like the spoils of war wherever you go.”’”

¹When it was decided that we were to sail to Italy, they handed over Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion named Julius, of the Imperial Regiment.

²When we had boarded a ship of Adramyttium, we put to sea, intending to sail to ports along the coast of Asia. Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us.

³The next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly and allowed him to go to his friends to receive their care.

⁴When we had put out to sea from there, we sailed along the northern coast of Cyprus because the winds were against us.

⁵After sailing through the open sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we reached Myra in Lycia.

⁶There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board.

⁷Sailing slowly for many days, with difficulty we arrived off Cnidus. Since the wind did not allow us to approach it, we sailed along the south side of Crete off Salmone.

⁸With still more difficulty we sailed along the coast and came to a place called Fair Havens near the city of Lasea.

⁹By now much time had passed, and the voyage was already dangerous. Since the Day of Atonement was already over, Paul gave his advice

¹⁰and told them, “Men, I can see that this voyage is headed toward disaster and heavy loss, not only of the cargo and the ship but also of our lives.”

¹¹But the centurion paid attention to the captain and the owner of the ship rather than to what Paul said.

¹²Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided to set sail from there, hoping somehow to reach Phoenix, a harbor on Crete facing the southwest and northwest, and to winter there.

¹³When a gentle south wind sprang up, they thought they had achieved their purpose. They weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete.

¹⁴But before long, a fierce wind called the “northeaster” rushed down from the island.

¹⁵Since the ship was caught and unable to head into the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along.

¹⁶After running under the shelter of a little island called Cauda, we were barely able to get control of the skiff.

¹⁷After hoisting it up, they used ropes and tackle and girded the ship. Fearing they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the drift-anchor, and in this way they were driven along.

¹⁸Because we were being severely battered by the storm, they began to jettison the cargo the next day.

¹⁹On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands.

²⁰For many days neither sun nor stars appeared, and the severe storm kept raging. Finally all hope was fading that we would be saved.

²¹Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul then stood up among them and said, “You men should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete and sustain this damage and loss.

²²Now I urge you to take courage, because there will be no loss of any of your lives, but only of the ship.

²³For last night an angel of the God I belong to and serve stood by me

²⁴and said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. It is necessary for you to appear before Caesar. And indeed, God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you.’

²⁵So take courage, men, because I believe God that it will be just the way it was told to me.

²⁶But we have to run aground on some island.”

²⁷When the fourteenth night came, we were drifting in the Adriatic Sea, and about midnight the sailors thought they were approaching land.

²⁸They took soundings and found it to be a hundred and twenty feet deep; when they had sailed a little farther and sounded again, they found it to be ninety feet deep.

²⁹Then, fearing we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight to come.

³⁰Some sailors tried to escape from the ship; they had let down the skiff into the sea, pretending that they were going to put out anchors from the bow.

³¹Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”

³²Then the soldiers cut the ropes holding the skiff and let it drop away.

³³When it was about daylight, Paul urged them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, having eaten nothing.

³⁴So I urge you to take some food. For this is for your survival, since none of you will lose a hair from your head.”

³⁵After he said these things and had taken some bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all of them, and after he broke it, he began to eat.

³⁶They all were encouraged and took food themselves.

³⁷In all there were 276 of us on the ship.

³⁸When they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship by throwing the grain overboard into the sea.

³⁹When daylight came, they did not recognize the land but sighted a bay with a beach. They planned to run the ship ashore if they could.

⁴⁰After cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach.

⁴¹But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow jammed fast and remained immovable, while the stern began to break up by the pounding of the waves.

⁴²The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners so that no one could swim away and escape.

⁴³But the centurion kept them from carrying out their plan because he wanted to save Paul, and so he ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.

⁴⁴The rest were to follow, some on planks and some on debris from the ship. In this way, everyone safely reached the shore.