Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead.

²“Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As soon as you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

³If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it and will return it soon.’”

⁴The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside the front door.

⁵As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”

⁶They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it.

⁷Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it, and he sat on it.

⁸Many in the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields.

⁹Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting, “Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the LORD!

¹⁰Blessings on the coming Kingdom of our ancestor David! Praise God in highest heaven!”

¹¹So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples.

¹²The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.

¹³He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so he went over to see if he could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit.

¹⁴Then Jesus said to the tree, “May no one ever eat your fruit again!” And the disciples heard him say it.

¹⁵When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,

¹⁶and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace.

¹⁷He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”

¹⁸When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so amazed at his teaching.

¹⁹That evening Jesus and the disciples left the city.

²⁰The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it had withered from the roots up.

²¹Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, “Look, Rabbi! The fig tree you cursed has withered and died!”

²²Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God.

²³I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart.

²⁴I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.

²⁵But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too. ”

²⁶

²⁷Again they entered Jerusalem. As Jesus was walking through the Temple area, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders came up to him.

²⁸They demanded, “By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right to do them?”

²⁹“I’ll tell you by what authority I do these things if you answer one question,” Jesus replied.

³⁰“Did John’s authority to baptize come from heaven, or was it merely human? Answer me!”

³¹They talked it over among themselves. “If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn’t believe John.

³²But do we dare say it was merely human?” For they were afraid of what the people would do, because everyone believed that John was a prophet.

³³So they finally replied, “We don’t know.” And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.”

¹Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the LORD heard everything they said. Then the LORD’s anger blazed against them, and he sent a fire to rage among them, and he destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.

²Then the people screamed to Moses for help, and when he prayed to the LORD, the fire stopped.

³After that, the area was known as Taberah (which means “the place of burning”), because fire from the LORD had burned among them there.

⁴Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed.

⁵“We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted.

⁶But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”

⁷The manna looked like small coriander seeds, and it was pale yellow like gum resin.

⁸The people would go out and gather it from the ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars. Then they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil.

⁹The manna came down on the camp with the dew during the night.

¹⁰Moses heard all the families standing in the doorways of their tents whining, and the LORD became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated.

¹¹And Moses said to the LORD, “Why are you treating me, your servant, so harshly? Have mercy on me! What did I do to deserve the burden of all these people?

¹²Did I give birth to them? Did I bring them into the world? Why did you tell me to carry them in my arms like a mother carries a nursing baby? How can I carry them to the land you swore to give their ancestors?

¹³Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep whining to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’

¹⁴I can’t carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy!

¹⁵If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!”

¹⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather before me seventy men who are recognized as elders and leaders of Israel. Bring them to the Tabernacle to stand there with you.

¹⁷I will come down and talk to you there. I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you, and I will put the Spirit upon them also. They will bear the burden of the people along with you, so you will not have to carry it alone.

¹⁸“And say to the people, ‘Purify yourselves, for tomorrow you will have meat to eat. You were whining, and the LORD heard you when you cried, “Oh, for some meat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will have to eat it.

¹⁹And it won’t be for just a day or two, or for five or ten or even twenty.

²⁰You will eat it for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it. For you have rejected the LORD, who is here among you, and you have whined to him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

²¹But Moses responded to the LORD, “There are 600,000 foot soldiers here with me, and yet you say, ‘I will give them meat for a whole month!’

²²Even if we butchered all our flocks and herds, would that satisfy them? Even if we caught all the fish in the sea, would that be enough?”

²³Then the LORD said to Moses, “Has my arm lost its power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!”

²⁴So Moses went out and reported the LORD’s words to the people. He gathered the seventy elders and stationed them around the Tabernacle.

²⁵And the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. Then he gave the seventy elders the same Spirit that was upon Moses. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But this never happened again.

²⁶Two men, Eldad and Medad, had stayed behind in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but they had not gone out to the Tabernacle. Yet the Spirit rested upon them as well, so they prophesied there in the camp.

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

²⁸Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ assistant since his youth, protested, “Moses, my master, make them stop!”

²⁹But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit upon them all!”

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

³¹Now the LORD sent a wind that brought quail from the sea and let them fall all around the camp. For miles in every direction there were quail flying about three feet above the ground.

³²So the people went out and caught quail all that day and throughout the night and all the next day, too. No one gathered less than fifty bushels ! They spread the quail all around the camp to dry.

³³But while they were gorging themselves on the meat — while it was still in their mouths — the anger of the LORD blazed against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague.

³⁴So that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah (which means “graves of gluttony”) because there they buried the people who had craved meat from Egypt.

³⁵From Kibroth-hattaavah the Israelites traveled to Hazeroth, where they stayed for some time.

¹So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

²Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you.

³I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.

⁴For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.

⁵But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.

⁶For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

⁷You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth?

⁸It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom.

⁹This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!

¹⁰I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.

¹¹Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised — as some say I do — why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended.

¹²I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.

¹³For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

¹⁴For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

¹⁵But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.

¹⁶So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

¹⁷The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

¹⁸But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

¹⁹When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,

²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,

²¹envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

²²But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

²⁵Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

²⁶Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

¹Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand.

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

³The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterward he must be released for a little while.

⁴Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

⁵This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.)

⁶Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years.

⁷When the thousand years come to an end, Satan will be let out of his prison.

⁸He will go out to deceive the nations — called Gog and Magog — in every corner of the earth. He will gather them together for battle — a mighty army, as numberless as sand along the seashore.

⁹And I saw them as they went up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded God’s people and the beloved city. But fire from heaven came down on the attacking armies and consumed them.

¹⁰Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

¹¹And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide.

¹²I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books.

¹³The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds.

¹⁴Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death.

¹⁵And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied to Job:

²“Will you be patient and let me say a word? For who could keep from speaking out?

³“In the past you have encouraged many people; you have strengthened those who were weak.

⁴Your words have supported those who were falling; you encouraged those with shaky knees.

⁵But now when trouble strikes, you lose heart. You are terrified when it touches you.

⁶Doesn’t your reverence for God give you confidence? Doesn’t your life of integrity give you hope?

⁷“Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed?

⁸My experience shows that those who plant trouble and cultivate evil will harvest the same.

⁹A breath from God destroys them. They vanish in a blast of his anger.

¹⁰The lion roars and the wildcat snarls, but the teeth of strong lions will be broken.

¹¹The fierce lion will starve for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness will be scattered.

¹²“This truth was given to me in secret, as though whispered in my ear.

¹³It came to me in a disturbing vision at night, when people are in a deep sleep.

¹⁴Fear gripped me, and my bones trembled.

¹⁵A spirit swept past my face, and my hair stood on end.

¹⁶The spirit stopped, but I couldn’t see its shape. There was a form before my eyes. In the silence I heard a voice say,

¹⁷‘Can a mortal be innocent before God? Can anyone be pure before the Creator?’

¹⁸“If God does not trust his own angels and has charged his messengers with foolishness,

¹⁹how much less will he trust people made of clay! They are made of dust, crushed as easily as a moth.

²⁰They are alive in the morning but dead by evening, gone forever without a trace.

²¹Their tent-cords are pulled and the tent collapses, and they die in ignorance.

¹How joyful are those who fear the LORD — all who follow his ways!

²You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How joyful and prosperous you will be!

³Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table.

⁴That is the LORD’s blessing for those who fear him.

⁵May the LORD continually bless you from Zion. May you see Jerusalem prosper as long as you live.

⁶May you live to enjoy your grandchildren. May Israel have peace!

¹My children, listen when your father corrects you. Pay attention and learn good judgment,

²for I am giving you good guidance. Don’t turn away from my instructions.

³For I, too, was once my father’s son, tenderly loved as my mother’s only child.

⁴My father taught me, “Take my words to heart. Follow my commands, and you will live.

⁵Get wisdom; develop good judgment. Don’t forget my words or turn away from them.

⁶Don’t turn your back on wisdom, for she will protect you. Love her, and she will guard you.

⁷Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment.

⁸If you prize wisdom, she will make you great. Embrace her, and she will honor you.

⁹She will place a lovely wreath on your head; she will present you with a beautiful crown.”

¹⁰My child, listen to me and do as I say, and you will have a long, good life.

¹¹I will teach you wisdom’s ways and lead you in straight paths.

¹²When you walk, you won’t be held back; when you run, you won’t stumble.

¹³Take hold of my instructions; don’t let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life.

¹⁴Don’t do as the wicked do, and don’t follow the path of evildoers.

¹⁵Don’t even think about it; don’t go that way. Turn away and keep moving.

¹⁶For evil people can’t sleep until they’ve done their evil deed for the day. They can’t rest until they’ve caused someone to stumble.

¹⁷They eat the food of wickedness and drink the wine of violence!

¹⁸The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day.

¹⁹But the way of the wicked is like total darkness. They have no idea what they are stumbling over.

²⁰My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words.

²¹Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart,

²²for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body.

²³Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

²⁴Avoid all perverse talk; stay away from corrupt speech.

²⁵Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you.

²⁶Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path.

²⁷Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.

¹When the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal.

²And Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the LORD has told me to go to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you!” So they went down together to Bethel.

³The group of prophets from Bethel came to Elisha and asked him, “Did you know that the LORD is going to take your master away from you today?” “Of course I know,” Elisha answered. “But be quiet about it.”

⁴Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the LORD has told me to go to Jericho.” But Elisha replied again, “As surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you.” So they went on together to Jericho.

⁵Then the group of prophets from Jericho came to Elisha and asked him, “Did you know that the LORD is going to take your master away from you today?” “Of course I know,” Elisha answered. “But be quiet about it.”

⁶Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the LORD has told me to go to the Jordan River.” But again Elisha replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you.” So they went on together.

⁷Fifty men from the group of prophets also went and watched from a distance as Elijah and Elisha stopped beside the Jordan River.

⁸Then Elijah folded his cloak together and struck the water with it. The river divided, and the two of them went across on dry ground!

⁹When they came to the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away.” And Elisha replied, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit and become your successor.”

¹⁰“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah replied. “If you see me when I am taken from you, then you will get your request. But if not, then you won’t.”

¹¹As they were walking along and talking, suddenly a chariot of fire appeared, drawn by horses of fire. It drove between the two men, separating them, and Elijah was carried by a whirlwind into heaven.

¹²Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father! My father! I see the chariots and charioteers of Israel!” And as they disappeared from sight, Elisha tore his clothes in distress.

¹³Elisha picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen when he was taken up. Then Elisha returned to the bank of the Jordan River.

¹⁴He struck the water with Elijah’s cloak and cried out, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” Then the river divided, and Elisha went across.

¹⁵When the group of prophets from Jericho saw from a distance what happened, they exclaimed, “Elijah’s spirit rests upon Elisha!” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

¹⁶“Sir,” they said, “just say the word and fifty of our strongest men will search the wilderness for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has left him on some mountain or in some valley.” “No,” Elisha said, “don’t send them.”

¹⁷But they kept urging him until they shamed him into agreeing, and he finally said, “All right, send them.” So fifty men searched for three days but did not find Elijah.

¹⁸Elisha was still at Jericho when they returned. “Didn’t I tell you not to go?” he asked.

¹⁹One day the leaders of the town of Jericho visited Elisha. “We have a problem, my lord,” they told him. “This town is located in pleasant surroundings, as you can see. But the water is bad, and the land is unproductive.”

²⁰Elisha said, “Bring me a new bowl with salt in it.” So they brought it to him.

²¹Then he went out to the spring that supplied the town with water and threw the salt into it. And he said, “This is what the LORD says: I have purified this water. It will no longer cause death or infertility. ”

²²And the water has remained pure ever since, just as Elisha said.

²³Elisha left Jericho and went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, a group of boys from the town began mocking and making fun of him. “Go away, baldy!” they chanted. “Go away, baldy!”

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

²⁵From there Elisha went to Mount Carmel and finally returned to Samaria.

¹“Son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a razor to shave your head and beard. Use a scale to weigh the hair into three equal parts.

²Place a third of it at the center of your map of Jerusalem. After acting out the siege, burn it there. Scatter another third across your map and chop it with a sword. Scatter the last third to the wind, for I will scatter my people with the sword.

³Keep just a bit of the hair and tie it up in your robe.

⁴Then take some of these hairs out and throw them into the fire, burning them up. A fire will then spread from this remnant and destroy all of Israel.

⁵“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is an illustration of what will happen to Jerusalem. I placed her at the center of the nations,

⁶but she has rebelled against my regulations and decrees and has been even more wicked than the surrounding nations. She has refused to obey the regulations and decrees I gave her to follow.

⁷“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: You people have behaved worse than your neighbors and have refused to obey my decrees and regulations. You have not even lived up to the standards of the nations around you.

⁸Therefore, I myself, the Sovereign LORD, am now your enemy. I will punish you publicly while all the nations watch.

⁹Because of your detestable idols, I will punish you like I have never punished anyone before or ever will again.

¹⁰Parents will eat their own children, and children will eat their parents. I will punish you and scatter to the winds the few who survive.

¹¹“As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I will cut you off completely. I will show you no pity at all because you have defiled my Temple with your vile images and detestable sins.

¹²A third of your people will die in the city from disease and famine. A third of them will be slaughtered by the enemy outside the city walls. And I will scatter a third to the winds, chasing them with my sword.

¹³Then at last my anger will be spent, and I will be satisfied. And when my fury against them has subsided, all Israel will know that I, the LORD, have spoken to them in my jealous anger.

¹⁴“So I will turn you into a ruin, a mockery in the eyes of the surrounding nations and to all who pass by.

¹⁵You will become an object of mockery and taunting and horror. You will be a warning to all the nations around you. They will see what happens when the LORD punishes a nation in anger and rebukes it, says the LORD.

¹⁶“I will shower you with the deadly arrows of famine to destroy you. The famine will become more and more severe until every crumb of food is gone.

¹⁷And along with the famine, wild animals will attack you and rob you of your children. Disease and war will stalk your land, and I will bring the sword of the enemy against you. I, the LORD, have spoken!”

¹Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek.

²Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium,

³so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴Then they went from town to town, instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.

⁵So the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew larger every day.

⁶Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time.

⁷Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there.

⁸So instead, they went on through Mysia to the seaport of Troas.

⁹That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”

¹⁰So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there.

¹¹We boarded a boat at Troas and sailed straight across to the island of Samothrace, and the next day we landed at Neapolis.

¹²From there we reached Philippi, a major city of that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. And we stayed there several days.

¹³On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank, where we thought people would be meeting for prayer, and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there.

¹⁴One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying.

¹⁵She and her household were baptized, and she asked us to be her guests. “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my home.” And she urged us until we agreed.

¹⁶One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit that enabled her to tell the future. She earned a lot of money for her masters by telling fortunes.

¹⁷She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.”

¹⁸This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her.

¹⁹Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace.

²⁰“The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials.

²¹“They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.”

²²A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods.

²³They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape.

²⁴So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

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

²⁶Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!

²⁷The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself.

²⁸But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!”

²⁹The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

³⁰Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”

³²And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household.

³³Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.

³⁴He brought them into his house and set a meal before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.

³⁵The next morning the city officials sent the police to tell the jailer, “Let those men go!”

³⁶So the jailer told Paul, “The city officials have said you and Silas are free to leave. Go in peace.”

³⁷But Paul replied, “They have publicly beaten us without a trial and put us in prison — and we are Roman citizens. So now they want us to leave secretly? Certainly not! Let them come themselves to release us!”

³⁸When the police reported this, the city officials were alarmed to learn that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.

³⁹So they came to the jail and apologized to them. Then they brought them out and begged them to leave the city.

⁴⁰When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia. There they met with the believers and encouraged them once more. Then they left town.