Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples

²and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it.

³If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this? ’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here right away.’”

⁴So they went and found a colt outside in the street, tied by a door. They untied it,

⁵and some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”

⁶They answered them just as Jesus had said; so they let them go.

⁷They brought the donkey to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it.

⁸Many people spread their clothes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from the fields.

⁹Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

¹⁰Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

¹¹He went into Jerusalem and into the temple. After looking around at everything, since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

¹²The next day when they went out from Bethany, he was hungry.

¹³Seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went to find out if there was anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs.

¹⁴He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And his disciples heard it.

¹⁵They came to Jerusalem, and he went into the temple and began to throw out those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,

¹⁶and would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.

¹⁷He was teaching them: “Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!”

¹⁸The chief priests and the scribes heard it and started looking for a way to kill him. For they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was astonished by his teaching.

¹⁹Whenever evening came, they would go out of the city.

²⁰Early in the morning, as they were passing by, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.

²¹Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

²²Jesus replied to them, “Have faith in God.

²³Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

²⁴Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for  —  believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

²⁵And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”

²⁶

²⁷They came again to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came

²⁸and asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do these things?”

²⁹Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; then answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

³⁰Was John’s baptism from heaven or of human origin? Answer me.”

³¹They discussed it among themselves: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’

³²But if we say, ‘Of human origin’” — they were afraid of the crowd, because everyone thought that John was truly a prophet.

³³So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

¹Now the people began complaining openly before the LORD about hardship. When the LORD heard, his anger burned, and fire from the LORD blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

²Then the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down.

³So that place was named Taberah, because the LORD’s fire had blazed among them.

⁴The riffraff among them had a strong craving for other food. The Israelites wept again and said, “Who will feed us meat?

⁵We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.

⁶But now our appetite is gone; there’s nothing to look at but this manna!”

⁷The manna resembled coriander seed, and its appearance was like that of bdellium.

⁸The people walked around and gathered it. They ground it on a pair of grinding stones or crushed it in a mortar, then boiled it in a cooking pot and shaped it into cakes. It tasted like a pastry cooked with the finest oil.

⁹When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.

¹⁰Moses heard the people, family after family, weeping at the entrance of their tents. The LORD was very angry; Moses was also provoked.

¹¹So Moses asked the LORD, “Why have you brought such trouble on your servant? Why are you angry with me, and why do you burden me with all these people?

¹²Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth so you should tell me, ‘Carry them at your breast, as a nanny carries a baby,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers?

¹³Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are weeping to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’

¹⁴I can’t carry all these people by myself. They are too much for me.

¹⁵If you are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now if I have found favor with you, and don’t let me see my misery anymore.”

¹⁶The LORD answered Moses, “Bring me seventy men from Israel known to you as elders and officers of the people. Take them to the tent of meeting and have them stand there with you.

¹⁷Then I will come down and speak with you there. I will take some of the Spirit who is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.

¹⁸“Tell the people: Consecrate yourselves in readiness for tomorrow, and you will eat meat because you wept in the LORD’s hearing, ‘Who will feed us meat? We were better off in Egypt.’ The LORD will give you meat and you will eat.

¹⁹You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,

²⁰but for a whole month — until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you — because you have rejected the LORD who is among you, and wept before him: ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt? ’”

²¹But Moses replied, “I’m in the middle of a people with six hundred thousand foot soldiers, yet you say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’

²²If flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would they have enough? Or if all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”

²³The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm weak? Now you will see whether or not what I have promised will happen to you.”

²⁴Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. He brought seventy men from the elders of the people and had them stand around the tent.

²⁵Then the LORD descended in the cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and placed the Spirit on the seventy elders. As the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they never did it again.

²⁶Two men had remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad; the Spirit rested on them — they were among those listed, but had not gone out to the tent — and they prophesied in the camp.

²⁷A young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

²⁸Joshua son of Nun, assistant to Moses since his youth, responded, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

²⁹But Moses asked him, “Are you jealous on my account? If only all the LORD’s people were prophets and the LORD would place his Spirit on them!”

³⁰Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel.

³¹A wind sent by the LORD came up and blew quail in from the sea; it dropped them all around the camp. They were flying three feet off the ground for about a day’s journey in every direction.

³²The people were up all that day and night and all the next day gathering the quail — the one who took the least gathered fifty bushels  — and they spread them out all around the camp.

³³While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the LORD’s anger burned against the people, and the LORD struck them with a very severe plague.

³⁴So they named that place Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved the meat.

³⁵From Kibroth-hattaavah the people moved on to Hazeroth and remained there.

¹For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.

²Take note! I, Paul, am telling you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all.

³Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to do the entire law.

⁴You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace.

⁵For we eagerly await through the Spirit, by faith, the hope of righteousness.

⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

⁷You were running well. Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth?

⁸This persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.

⁹A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough.

¹⁰I myself am persuaded in the Lord you will not accept any other view. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty.

¹¹Now brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.

¹²I wish those who are disturbing you might also let themselves be mutilated!

¹³For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

¹⁴For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

¹⁵But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

¹⁶I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.

¹⁷For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.

¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity,

²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions,

²¹envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things — as I warned you before — that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.

²⁴Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

¹Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

²He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

³He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed. After that, he must be released for a short time.

⁴Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

⁵The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.

⁶Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

⁷When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison

⁸and will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea.

⁹They came up across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the encampment of the saints, the beloved city. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed them.

¹⁰The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

¹¹Then I saw a great white throne and one seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.

¹²I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books.

¹³Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them; each one was judged according to their works.

¹⁴Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

¹⁵And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²Should anyone try to speak with you when you are exhausted? Yet who can keep from speaking?

³Indeed, you have instructed many and have strengthened weak hands.

⁴Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling and braced the knees that were buckling.

⁵But now that this has happened to you, you have become exhausted. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.

⁶Isn’t your piety your confidence, and the integrity of your life your hope?

⁷Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent? Where have the honest been destroyed?

⁸In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same.

⁹They perish at a single blast from God and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils.

¹⁰The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl, but the teeth of young lions are broken.

¹¹The strong lion dies if it catches no prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹²A word was brought to me in secret; my ears caught a whisper of it.

¹³Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night, when deep sleep comes over men,

¹⁴fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shake.

¹⁵I felt a draft on my face, and the hair on my body stood up.

¹⁶A figure stood there, but I could not recognize its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes. I heard a whispering voice:

¹⁷“Can a mortal be righteous before God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?”

¹⁸If God puts no trust in his servants and he charges his angels with foolishness,

¹⁹how much more those who dwell in clay houses, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth!

²⁰They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; they perish forever while no one notices.

²¹Are their tent cords not pulled up? They die without wisdom.

¹A song of ascents. [1] How happy is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways!

²You will surely eat what your hands have worked for. You will be happy, and it will go well for you.

³Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children, like young olive trees around your table.

⁴In this very way the man who fears the LORD will be blessed.

⁵May the LORD bless you from Zion, so that you will see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life

⁶and will see your children’s children! Peace be with Israel.

¹Listen, sons, to a father’s discipline, and pay attention so that you may gain understanding,

²for I am giving you good instruction. Don’t abandon my teaching.

³When I was a son with my father, tender and precious to my mother,

⁴he taught me and said: “Your heart must hold on to my words. Keep my commands and live.

⁵Get wisdom, get understanding; don’t forget or turn away from the words from my mouth.

⁶Don’t abandon wisdom, and she will watch over you; love her, and she will guard you.

⁷Wisdom is supreme — so get wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding.

⁸Cherish her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.

⁹She will place a garland of favor on your head; she will give you a crown of beauty.”

¹⁰Listen, my son. Accept my words, and you will live many years.

¹¹I am teaching you the way of wisdom; I am guiding you on straight paths.

¹²When you walk, your steps will not be hindered; when you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life.

¹⁴Keep off the path of the wicked; don’t proceed on the way of evil ones.

¹⁵Avoid it; don’t travel on it. Turn away from it, and pass it by.

¹⁶For they can’t sleep unless they have done what is evil; they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

¹⁷They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

¹⁹But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they don’t know what makes them stumble.

²⁰My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings.

²¹Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body.

²³Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.

²⁴Don’t let your mouth speak dishonestly, and don’t let your lips talk deviously.

²⁵Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

²⁶Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established.

²⁷Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil.

¹The time had come for the LORD to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal,

²and Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the LORD is sending me on to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

³Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” He said, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”

⁴Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here; the LORD is sending me to Jericho.” But Elisha said, “As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho.

⁵Then the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho came up to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” He said, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.”

⁶Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the LORD is sending me to the Jordan.” But Elisha said, “As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on.

⁷Fifty men from the sons of the prophets came and stood observing them at a distance while the two of them stood by the Jordan.

⁸Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water, which parted to the right and left. Then the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

⁹When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken from you.” So Elisha answered, “Please, let me inherit two shares of your spirit.”

¹⁰Elijah replied, “You have asked for something difficult. If you see me being taken from you, you will have it. If not, you won’t.”

¹¹As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire with horses of fire suddenly appeared and separated the two of them. Then Elijah went up into heaven in the whirlwind.

¹²As Elisha watched, he kept crying out, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!” When he could see him no longer, he took hold of his own clothes, tore them in two,

¹³picked up the mantle that had fallen off Elijah, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

¹⁴He took the mantle Elijah had dropped, and he struck the water. “Where is the LORD God of Elijah?” he asked. He struck the water himself, and it parted to the right and the left, and Elisha crossed over.

¹⁵When the sons of the prophets from Jericho who were observing saw him, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” They came to meet him and bowed down to the ground in front of him.

¹⁶Then the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “Since there are fifty strong men here with your servants, please let them go and search for your master. Maybe the Spirit of the LORD has carried him away and put him on one of the mountains or into one of the valleys.” He answered, “Don’t send them.”

¹⁷However, they urged him to the point of embarrassment, so he said, “Send them.” They sent fifty men, who looked for three days but did not find him.

¹⁸When they returned to him in Jericho where he was staying, he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”

¹⁹The men of the city said to Elisha, “My lord can see that even though the city’s location is good, the water is bad and the land unfruitful.”

²⁰He replied, “Bring me a new bowl and put salt in it.” After they had brought him one,

²¹Elisha went out to the spring, threw salt in it, and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘I have healed this water. No longer will death or unfruitfulness result from it.’”

²²Therefore, the water still remains healthy today according to the word that Elisha spoke.

²³From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking up the path, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, chanting, “Go up, baldy! Go up, baldy!”

²⁴He turned around, looked at them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the children.

²⁵From there Elisha went to Mount Carmel, and then he returned to Samaria.

¹“Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as you would a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair.

²You are to burn a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended; you are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them.

³But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your robe.

⁴Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it. A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.

⁵“This is what the Lord GOD says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

⁶She has rebelled against my ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected my ordinances and have not walked in my statutes.

⁷“Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around you  — you have not walked in my statutes or kept my ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you —

⁸therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: See, I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations.

⁹Because of all your detestable practices, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again.

¹⁰As a result, fathers will eat their sons within Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.

¹¹“Therefore, as I live” — this is the declaration of the Lord GOD  — “I will withdraw and show you no pity, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your abhorrent acts and detestable practices. Yes, I will not spare you.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you; a third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter a third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.

¹³When my anger is spent and I have vented my wrath on them, I will be appeased. Then after I have spent my wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in my jealousy.

¹⁴“I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.

¹⁵So you will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken.

¹⁶When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows for destruction that I will send to destroy you, inhabitants of Jerusalem, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of bread.

¹⁷I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

¹Paul went on to Derbe and Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, but his father was a Greek.

²The brothers and sisters at Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him.

³Paul wanted Timothy to go with him; so he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴As they traveled through the towns, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem for the people to observe.

⁵So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

⁶They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia; they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

⁷When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

⁸Passing by Mysia they went down to Troas.

⁹During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!”

¹⁰After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

¹¹From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis,

¹²and from there to Philippi, a Roman colony and a leading city of the district of Macedonia. We stayed in that city for several days.

¹³On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate by the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there.

¹⁴A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying.

¹⁵After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

¹⁶Once, as we were on our way to prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She made a large profit for her owners by fortune-telling.

¹⁷As she followed Paul and us she cried out, “These men, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation, are the servants of the Most High God.”

¹⁸She did this for many days. Paul was greatly annoyed. Turning to the spirit, he said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out right away.

¹⁹When her owners realized that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

²⁰Bringing them before the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews

²¹and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.”

²²The crowd joined in the attack against them, and the chief magistrates stripped off their clothes and ordered them to be beaten with rods.

²³After they had severely flogged them, they threw them in jail, ordering the jailer to guard them carefully.

²⁴Receiving such an order, he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.

²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains came loose.

²⁷When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, since he thought the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸But Paul called out in a loud voice, “Don’t harm yourself, because we’re all here!”

²⁹The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

³⁰He escorted them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household.”

³²And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house.

³³He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Right away he and all his family were baptized.

³⁴He brought them into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come to believe in God with his entire household.

³⁵When daylight came, the chief magistrates sent the police to say, “Release those men.”

³⁶The jailer reported these words to Paul: “The magistrates have sent orders for you to be released. So come out now and go in peace.”

³⁷But Paul said to them, “They beat us in public without a trial, although we are Roman citizens, and threw us in jail. And now are they going to send us away secretly? Certainly not! On the contrary, let them come themselves and escort us out.”

³⁸The police reported these words to the magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.

³⁹So they came to appease them, and escorting them from prison, they urged them to leave town.

⁴⁰After leaving the jail, they came to Lydia’s house, where they saw and encouraged the brothers and sisters, and departed.