Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹As Jesus left and was going out of the temple, his disciples came up and called his attention to its buildings.

²He replied to them, “Do you see all these things? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here on another that will not be thrown down.”

³While he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

⁴Jesus replied to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you.

⁵For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many.

⁶You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet.

⁷For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

⁸All these events are the beginning of labor pains.

⁹“Then they will hand you over to be persecuted, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name.

¹⁰Then many will fall away, betray one another, and hate one another.

¹¹Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

¹²Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold.

¹³But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

¹⁴This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

¹⁵“So when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place” (let the reader understand),

¹⁶“then those in Judea must flee to the mountains.

¹⁷A man on the housetop must not come down to get things out of his house,

¹⁸and a man in the field must not go back to get his coat.

¹⁹Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days!

²⁰Pray that your escape may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.

²¹For at that time there will be great distress, the kind that hasn’t taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again.

²²Unless those days were cut short, no one would be saved. But those days will be cut short because of the elect.

²³“If anyone tells you then, ‘See, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Over here!’ do not believe it.

²⁴For false messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

²⁵Take note: I have told you in advance.

²⁶So if they tell you, ‘See, he’s in the wilderness! ’ don’t go out; or, ‘See, he’s in the storerooms! ’ do not believe it.

²⁷For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

²⁸Wherever the carcass is, there the vultures will gather.

²⁹“Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

³⁰Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

³¹He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

³²“Learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.

³³In the same way, when you see all these things, recognize that he is near — at the door.

³⁴Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place.

³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³⁶“Now concerning that day and hour no one knows — neither the angels of heaven nor the Son — except the Father alone.

³⁷As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the Son of Man will be.

³⁸For in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark.

³⁹They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away. This is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be.

⁴⁰Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left.

⁴¹Two women will be grinding grain with a hand mill; one will be taken and one left.

⁴²Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.

⁴³But know this: If the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into.

⁴⁴This is why you are also to be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

⁴⁵“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give them food at the proper time?

⁴⁶Blessed is that servant whom the master finds doing his job when he comes.

⁴⁷Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

⁴⁸But if that wicked servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delayed,’

⁴⁹and starts to beat his fellow servants, and eats and drinks with drunkards,

⁵⁰that servant’s master will come on a day he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know.

⁵¹He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

¹The LORD spoke to Moses:

²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: These are my appointed times, the times of the LORD that you will proclaim as sacred assemblies.

³“Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there is to be a Sabbath of complete rest, a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; it is a Sabbath to the LORD wherever you live.

⁴“These are the LORD’s appointed times, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times.

⁵The Passover to the LORD comes in the first month, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month.

⁶The Festival of Unleavened Bread to the LORD is on the fifteenth day of the same month. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

⁷On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly; you are not to do any daily work.

⁸You are to present a fire offering to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day there will be a sacred assembly; do not do any daily work.”

⁹The LORD spoke to Moses:

¹⁰“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you and reap its harvest, you are to bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest.

¹¹He will present the sheaf before the LORD so that you may be accepted; the priest is to present it on the day after the Sabbath.

¹²On the day you present the sheaf, you are to offer a year-old male lamb without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD.

¹³Its grain offering is to be four quarts of fine flour mixed with oil as a fire offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma, and its drink offering will be one quart of wine.

¹⁴You must not eat bread, roasted grain, or any new grain until this very day, and until you have brought the offering to your God. This is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you live.

¹⁵“You are to count seven complete weeks starting from the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the presentation offering.

¹⁶You are to count fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.

¹⁷Bring two loaves of bread from your settlements as a presentation offering, each of them made from four quarts of fine flour, baked with yeast, as firstfruits to the LORD.

¹⁸You are to present with the bread seven unblemished male lambs a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offerings and drink offerings, a fire offering of a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

¹⁹You are also to prepare one male goat as a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a fellowship sacrifice.

²⁰The priest will present the lambs with the bread of firstfruits as a presentation offering before the LORD; the bread and the two lambs will be holy to the LORD for the priest.

²¹On that same day you are to make a proclamation and hold a sacred assembly. You are not to do any daily work. This is to be a permanent statute wherever you live throughout your generations.

²²When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap all the way to the edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the resident alien; I am the LORD your God.”

²³The LORD spoke to Moses:

²⁴“Tell the Israelites: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you are to have a day of complete rest, commemoration, and trumpet blasts  — a sacred assembly.

²⁵You must not do any daily work, but you must present a fire offering to the LORD.”

²⁶The LORD again spoke to Moses:

²⁷“The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You are to hold a sacred assembly and practice self-denial; you are to present a fire offering to the LORD.

²⁸On this particular day you are not to do any work, for it is a Day of Atonement to make atonement for yourselves before the LORD your God.

²⁹If any person does not practice self-denial on this particular day, he is to be cut off from his people.

³⁰I will destroy among his people anyone who does any work on this same day.

³¹You are not to do any work. This is a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you live.

³²It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must practice self-denial. You are to observe your Sabbath from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening.”

³³The LORD spoke to Moses:

³⁴“Tell the Israelites: The Festival of Shelters to the LORD begins on the fifteenth day of this seventh month and continues for seven days.

³⁵There is to be a sacred assembly on the first day; you are not to do any daily work.

³⁶You are to present a fire offering to the LORD for seven days. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a fire offering to the LORD. It is a solemn gathering; you are not to do any daily work.

³⁷“These are the LORD’s appointed times that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting fire offerings to the LORD, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day.

³⁸These are in addition to the offerings for the LORD’s Sabbaths, your gifts, all your vow offerings, and all your freewill offerings that you give to the LORD.

³⁹“You are to celebrate the LORD’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day.

⁴⁰On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees — palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook  — and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.

⁴¹You are to celebrate it as a festival to the LORD seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; celebrate it in the seventh month.

⁴²You are to live in shelters for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in shelters,

⁴³so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.”

⁴⁴So Moses declared the LORD’s appointed times to the Israelites.

¹Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

²You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.

³You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God  — not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God.

⁵It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.

⁶He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside,

⁸how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

⁹For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory.

¹⁰In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it.

¹¹For if what was set aside was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

¹²Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness.

¹³We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end of the glory of what was being set aside,

¹⁴but their minds were hardened. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ.

¹⁵Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts,

¹⁶but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

¹⁸We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

¹Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides, sealed with seven seals.

²I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

³But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look in it.

⁴I wept and wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even to look in it.

⁵Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶Then I saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth.

⁷He went and took the scroll out of the right hand of the one seated on the throne.

⁸When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

⁹And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.

¹⁰You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth.

¹¹Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands.

¹²They said with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!

¹³I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!

¹⁴The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

¹Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: The righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands. People don’t know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them.

²Everything is the same for everyone: There is one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, so also it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who takes an oath, so also for the one who fears an oath.

³This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live; after that they go to the dead.

⁴But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion.

⁵For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything. There is no longer a reward for them because the memory of them is forgotten.

⁶Their love, their hate, and their envy have already disappeared, and there is no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun.

⁷Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works.

⁸Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head.

⁹Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun.

¹⁰Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

¹¹Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them.

¹²For certainly no one knows his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them.

¹³I have observed that this also is wisdom under the sun, and it is significant to me:

¹⁴There was a small city with few men in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege works against it.

¹⁵Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

¹⁶And I said, “Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.”

¹⁷The calm words of the wise are heeded more than the shouts of a ruler over fools.

¹⁸Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much good.

¹Hallelujah! Give praise, servants of the LORD; praise the name of the LORD.

²Let the name of the LORD be blessed both now and forever.

³From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the name of the LORD be praised.

⁴The LORD is exalted above all the nations, his glory above the heavens.

⁵Who is like the LORD our God — the one enthroned on high,

⁶who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?

⁷He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the trash heap

⁸in order to seat them with nobles — with the nobles of his people.

⁹He gives the childless woman a household, making her the joyful mother of children. Hallelujah!

¹Wine is a mocker, beer is a brawler; whoever goes astray because of them is not wise.

²A king’s terrible wrath is like the roaring of a lion; anyone who provokes him endangers himself.

³Honor belongs to the person who ends a dispute, but any fool can get himself into a quarrel.

⁴The slacker does not plow during planting season; at harvest time he looks, and there is nothing.

⁵Counsel in a person’s heart is deep water; but a person of understanding draws it out.

⁶Many a person proclaims his own loyalty, but who can find a trustworthy person?

⁷A righteous person acts with integrity; his children who come after him will be happy.

⁸A king sitting on a throne to judge separates out all evil with his eyes.

⁹Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin”?

¹⁰Differing weights and varying measures  — both are detestable to the LORD.

¹¹Even a young man is known by his actions — by whether his behavior is pure and upright.

¹²The hearing ear and the seeing eye — the LORD made them both.

¹³Don’t love sleep, or you will become poor; open your eyes, and you’ll have enough to eat.

¹⁴“It’s worthless, it’s worthless!” the buyer says, but after he is on his way, he gloats.

¹⁵There is gold and a multitude of jewels, but knowledgeable lips are a rare treasure.

¹⁶Take his garment, for he has put up security for a stranger; get collateral if it is for foreigners.

¹⁷Food gained by fraud is sweet to a person, but afterward his mouth is full of gravel.

¹⁸Finalize plans with counsel, and wage war with sound guidance.

¹⁹The one who reveals secrets is a constant gossip; avoid someone with a big mouth.

²⁰Whoever curses his father or mother —  his lamp will go out in deep darkness.

²¹An inheritance gained prematurely will not be blessed ultimately.

²²Don’t say, “I will avenge this evil!” Wait on the LORD, and he will rescue you.

²³Differing weights are detestable to the LORD, and dishonest scales are unfair.

²⁴Even a courageous person’s steps are determined by the LORD, so how can anyone understand his own way?

²⁵It is a trap for anyone to dedicate something rashly and later to reconsider his vows.

²⁶A wise king separates out the wicked and drives the threshing wheel over them.

²⁷The LORD’s lamp sheds light on a person’s life, searching the innermost parts.

²⁸Loyalty and faithfulness guard a king; through loyalty he maintains his throne.

²⁹The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is gray hair.

³⁰Lashes and wounds purge away evil, and beatings cleanse the innermost parts.

¹When Solomon finished building the temple of the LORD, the royal palace, and all that Solomon desired to do,

²the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

³The LORD said to him: I have heard your prayer and petition you have made before me. I have consecrated this temple you have built, to put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

⁴As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and in what is right, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances,

⁵I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.

⁶If you or your sons turn away from following me and do not keep my commands — my statutes that I have set before you — and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them,

⁷I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them, and I will reject the temple I have sanctified for my name. Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

⁸Though this temple is now exalted, everyone who passes by will be appalled and will scoff. They will say: Why did the LORD do this to this land and this temple?

⁹Then they will say: Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt. They held on to other gods and bowed in worship to them and served them. Because of this, the LORD brought all this ruin on them.

¹⁰At the end of twenty years during which Solomon had built the two houses, the LORD’s temple and the royal palace  —

¹¹King Hiram of Tyre having supplied him with cedar and cypress logs and gold for his every wish  — King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee.

¹²So Hiram went out from Tyre to look over the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them.

¹³So he said, “What are these towns you’ve given me, my brother?” So he called them the Land of Cabul, as they are still called today.

¹⁴Now Hiram had sent the king nine thousand pounds of gold.

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon had imposed to build the LORD’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He then burned it, killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and gave it as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife.

¹⁷Then Solomon rebuilt Gezer, Lower Beth-horon,

¹⁸Baalath, Tamar in the Wilderness of Judah,

¹⁹all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, the chariot cities, the cavalry cities, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.

²⁰As for all the peoples who remained of the Amorites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not Israelites —

²¹their descendants who remained in the land after them, those whom the Israelites were unable to destroy completely  — Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is still this way today.

²²But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to slavery; they were soldiers, his servants, his commanders, his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry.

²³These were the deputies who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who supervised the people doing the work.

²⁴Pharaoh’s daughter moved from the city of David to the house that Solomon had built for her; he then built the terraces.

²⁵Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, and he burned incense with them in the LORD’s presence. So he completed the temple.

²⁶King Solomon put together a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in the land of Edom.

²⁷With the fleet, Hiram sent his servants, experienced seamen, along with Solomon’s servants.

²⁸They went to Ophir and acquired gold there — sixteen tons  — and delivered it to Solomon.

¹This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah about the Philistines before Pharaoh defeated Gaza.

²This is what the LORD says: Look, water is rising from the north and becoming an overflowing wadi. It will overflow the land and everything in it, the cities and their inhabitants. The people will cry out, and every inhabitant of the land will wail.

³At the sound of the stomping hooves of his stallions, the rumbling of his chariots, and the clatter of their wheels, fathers will not turn back for their sons. They will be utterly helpless

⁴on account of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every remaining ally. Indeed, the LORD is about to destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.

⁵Baldness is coming to Gaza; Ashkelon will become silent. Remnant of their valley, how long will you gash yourself?

⁶Oh, sword of the LORD! How long will you be restless? Go back to your sheath; be still; be silent!

⁷How can it rest when the LORD has given it a command? He has assigned it against Ashkelon and the shore of the sea.

¹I wrote the first narrative, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach

²until the day he was taken up, after he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

³After he had suffered, he also presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

⁴While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “Which,” he said, “you have heard me speak about;

⁵for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.”

⁶So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”

⁷He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.

⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

⁹After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

¹⁰While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them.

¹¹They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.”

¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem — a Sabbath day’s journey away.

¹³When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

¹⁴They all were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

¹⁵In those days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters  — the number of people who were together was about a hundred and twenty — and said:

¹⁶“Brothers and sisters, it was necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled that the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David foretold about Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.

¹⁷For he was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”

¹⁸Now this man acquired a field with his unrighteous wages. He fell headfirst, his body burst open and his intestines spilled out.

¹⁹This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that in their own language that field is called Hakeldama (that is, Field of Blood).

²⁰“For it is written in the Book of Psalms: Let his dwelling become desolate; let no one live in it; and Let someone else take his position.

²¹“Therefore, from among the men who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us —

²²beginning from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us — from among these, it is necessary that one become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

²³So they proposed two: Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was also known as Justus, and Matthias.

²⁴Then they prayed, “You, Lord, know everyone’s hearts; show which of these two you have chosen

²⁵to take the place in this apostolic ministry that Judas left to go where he belongs.”

²⁶Then they cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias and he was added to the eleven apostles.