Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:

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

³He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.

⁶The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.

⁷The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.

⁹So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’

¹⁰So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.

¹²He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

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

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

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.

¹⁶They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are.

¹⁷Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?

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

²⁰and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

²¹“Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

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

²³That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.

²⁴“Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.

²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.

²⁶The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.

²⁷Finally, the woman died.

²⁸Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

²⁹Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

³⁰At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

³¹But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you,

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

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

³⁴Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.

³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment.

³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

⁴¹While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

⁴²“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied.

⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

⁴⁴“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’

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

⁴⁶No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

¹The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: ‘A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean for any of his people who die,

²except for a close relative, such as his mother or father, his son or daughter, his brother,

³or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband—for her he may make himself unclean.

⁴He must not make himself unclean for people related to him by marriage, and so defile himself.

⁵“ ‘Priests must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies.

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

⁷“ ‘They must not marry women defiled by prostitution or divorced from their husbands, because priests are holy to their God.

⁸Regard them as holy, because they offer up the food of your God. Consider them holy, because I the LORD am holy—I who make you holy.

⁹“ ‘If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she disgraces her father; she must be burned in the fire.

¹⁰“ ‘The high priest, the one among his brothers who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair become unkempt or tear his clothes.

¹¹He must not enter a place where there is a dead body. He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother,

¹²nor leave the sanctuary of his God or desecrate it, because he has been dedicated by the anointing oil of his God. I am the LORD.

¹³“ ‘The woman he marries must be a virgin.

¹⁴He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman defiled by prostitution, but only a virgin from his own people,

¹⁵so that he will not defile his offspring among his people. I am the LORD, who makes him holy.’ ”

¹⁶The LORD said to Moses,

¹⁷“Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God.

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

¹⁹no man with a crippled foot or hand,

²⁰or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles.

²¹No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the LORD. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God.

²²He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food;

²³yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.’ ”

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

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia:

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

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,

⁴who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

⁵For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

⁶If we are distressed, 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 we suffer.

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

⁸We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.

⁹Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

¹⁰He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,

¹¹as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

¹²Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace.

¹³For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that,

¹⁴as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁵Because I was confident of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you might benefit twice.

¹⁶I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea.

¹⁷Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?

¹⁸But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.”

¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.”

²⁰For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

²¹Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,

²²set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

²³I call God as my witness—and I stake my life on it—that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.

²⁴Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.

¹“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

²Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.

³Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

⁴Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

⁵The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.

⁶Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

⁷“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

⁸I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

⁹I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.

¹⁰Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.

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

¹²The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.

¹³Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

¹⁴“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation.

¹⁵I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!

¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

¹⁷You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

¹⁸I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

¹⁹Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.

²⁰Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

²¹To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.

²²Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

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

²It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.

³Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.

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

⁵It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools.

⁶Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.

⁷Extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

⁸The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.

⁹Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

¹⁰Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.

¹¹Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing and benefits those who see the sun.

¹²Wisdom is a shelter as money is a shelter, but the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves those who have it.

¹³Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?

¹⁴When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.

¹⁵In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: the righteous perishing in their righteousness, and the wicked living long in their wickedness.

¹⁶Do not be overrighteous, neither be overwise— why destroy yourself?

¹⁷Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool— why die before your time?

¹⁸It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes.

¹⁹Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city.

²⁰Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.

²¹Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you—

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

²³All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise”— but this was beyond me.

²⁴Whatever exists is far off and most profound— who can discover it?

²⁵So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.

²⁶I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare.

²⁷“Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered: “Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—

²⁸while I was still searching but not finding— I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.

²⁹This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.”

¹Praise the LORD. I will extol the LORD with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly.

²Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them.

³Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.

⁴He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate.

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

⁶He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them the lands of other nations.

⁷The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.

⁸They are established for ever and ever, enacted in faithfulness and uprightness.

⁹He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever— holy and awesome is his name.

¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.

¹An unfriendly person pursues selfish ends and against all sound judgment starts quarrels.

²Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.

³When wickedness comes, so does contempt, and with shame comes reproach.

⁴The words of the mouth are deep waters, but the fountain of wisdom is a rushing stream.

⁵It is not good to be partial to the wicked and so deprive the innocent of justice.

⁶The lips of fools bring them strife, and their mouths invite a beating.

⁷The mouths of fools are their undoing, and their lips are a snare to their very lives.

⁸The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts.

⁹One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys.

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

¹¹The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it a wall too high to scale.

¹²Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.

¹³To answer before listening— that is folly and shame.

¹⁴The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?

¹⁵The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.

¹⁶A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.

¹⁷In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines.

¹⁸Casting the lot settles disputes and keeps strong opponents apart.

¹⁹A brother wronged is more unyielding than a fortified city; disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel.

²⁰From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied.

²¹The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.

²³The poor plead for mercy, but the rich answer harshly.

²⁴One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

¹It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace.

²He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high, with four rows of cedar columns supporting trimmed cedar beams.

³It was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the columns—forty-five beams, fifteen to a row.

⁴Its windows were placed high in sets of three, facing each other.

⁵All the doorways had rectangular frames; they were in the front part in sets of three, facing each other.

⁶He made a colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty wide. In front of it was a portico, and in front of that were pillars and an overhanging roof.

⁷He built the throne hall, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge, and he covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling.

⁸And the palace in which he was to live, set farther back, was similar in design. Solomon also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

⁹All these structures, from the outside to the great courtyard and from foundation to eaves, were made of blocks of high-grade stone cut to size and smoothed on their inner and outer faces.

¹⁰The foundations were laid with large stones of good quality, some measuring ten cubits and some eight.

¹¹Above were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams.

¹²The great courtyard was surrounded by a wall of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams, as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the LORD with its portico.

¹³King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram,

¹⁴whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was from Tyre and a skilled craftsman in bronze. Huram was filled with wisdom, with understanding and with knowledge to do all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him.

¹⁵He cast two bronze pillars, each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference.

¹⁶He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; each capital was five cubits high.

¹⁷A network of interwoven chains adorned the capitals on top of the pillars, seven for each capital.

¹⁸He made pomegranates in two rows encircling each network to decorate the capitals on top of the pillars. He did the same for each capital.

¹⁹The capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were in the shape of lilies, four cubits high.

²⁰On the capitals of both pillars, above the bowl-shaped part next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows all around.

²¹He erected the pillars at the portico of the temple. The pillar to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.

²²The capitals on top were in the shape of lilies. And so the work on the pillars was completed.

²³He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it.

²⁴Below the rim, gourds encircled it—ten to a cubit. The gourds were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea.

²⁵The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center.

²⁶It was a handbreadth in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held two thousand baths.

²⁷He also made ten movable stands of bronze; each was four cubits long, four wide and three high.

²⁸This is how the stands were made: They had side panels attached to uprights.

²⁹On the panels between the uprights were lions, bulls and cherubim—and on the uprights as well. Above and below the lions and bulls were wreaths of hammered work.

³⁰Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and each had a basin resting on four supports, cast with wreaths on each side.

³¹On the inside of the stand there was an opening that had a circular frame one cubit deep. This opening was round, and with its basework it measured a cubit and a half. Around its opening there was engraving. The panels of the stands were square, not round.

³²The four wheels were under the panels, and the axles of the wheels were attached to the stand. The diameter of each wheel was a cubit and a half.

³³The wheels were made like chariot wheels; the axles, rims, spokes and hubs were all of cast metal.

³⁴Each stand had four handles, one on each corner, projecting from the stand.

³⁵At the top of the stand there was a circular band half a cubit deep. The supports and panels were attached to the top of the stand.

³⁶He engraved cherubim, lions and palm trees on the surfaces of the supports and on the panels, in every available space, with wreaths all around.

³⁷This is the way he made the ten stands. They were all cast in the same molds and were identical in size and shape.

³⁸He then made ten bronze basins, each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits across, one basin to go on each of the ten stands.

³⁹He placed five of the stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north. He placed the Sea on the south side, at the southeast corner of the temple.

⁴⁰He also made the pots and shovels and sprinkling bowls. So Huram finished all the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of the LORD:

⁴¹the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two sets of network decorating the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars;

⁴²the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network (two rows of pomegranates for each network decorating the bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars);

⁴³the ten stands with their ten basins;

⁴⁴the Sea and the twelve bulls under it;

⁴⁵the pots, shovels and sprinkling bowls. All these objects that Huram made for King Solomon for the temple of the LORD were of burnished bronze.

⁴⁶The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Sukkoth and Zarethan.

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

⁴⁸Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in the LORD’s temple: the golden altar; the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence;

⁴⁹the lampstands of pure gold (five on the right and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary); the gold floral work and lamps and tongs;

⁵⁰the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, and also for the doors of the main hall of the temple.

⁵¹When all the work King Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated—the silver and gold and the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of the LORD’s temple.

¹When Baruch son of Neriah wrote on a scroll the words Jeremiah the prophet dictated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, Jeremiah said this to Baruch:

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

³You said, ‘Woe to me! The LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest.’

⁴But the LORD has told me to say to you, ‘This is what the LORD says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth.

⁵Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.’ ”

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

²We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

³The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs.

⁴From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us.

⁵When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia.

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

⁷We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone.

⁸We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

⁹Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement. So Paul warned them,

¹⁰“Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.”

¹¹But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship.

¹²Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.

¹³When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete.

¹⁴Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island.

¹⁵The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along.

¹⁶As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure,

¹⁷so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along.

¹⁸We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard.

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

²⁰When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.

²¹After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss.

²²But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.

²³Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me

²⁴and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’

²⁵So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.

²⁶Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”

²⁷On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land.

²⁸They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep. A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep.

²⁹Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.

³⁰In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow.

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

³²So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.

³³Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything.

³⁴Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.”

³⁵After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat.

³⁶They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves.

³⁷Altogether there were 276 of us on board.

³⁸When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.

³⁹When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.

⁴⁰Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.

⁴¹But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.

⁴²The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping.

⁴³But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.

⁴⁴The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.