Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us,

²just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us.

³It also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus,

⁴so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.

⁵In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah’s division named Zechariah. His wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

⁶Both were righteous in God’s sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord.

⁷But they had no children because Elizabeth could not conceive, and both of them were well along in years.

⁸When his division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God,

⁹it happened that he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense.

¹⁰At the hour of incense the whole assembly of the people was praying outside.

¹¹An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.

¹²When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified and overcome with fear.

¹³But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.

¹⁴There will be joy and delight for you, and many will rejoice at his birth.

¹⁵For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and will never drink wine or beer. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb.

¹⁶He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

¹⁷And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people.”

¹⁸“How can I know this?” Zechariah asked the angel. “For I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”

¹⁹The angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and tell you this good news.

²⁰Now listen. You will become silent and unable to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

²¹Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah, amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary.

²²When he did come out, he could not speak to them. Then they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He was making signs to them and remained speechless.

²³When the days of his ministry were completed, he went back home.

²⁴After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and kept herself in seclusion for five months. She said,

²⁵“The Lord has done this for me. He has looked with favor in these days to take away my disgrace among the people.”

²⁶In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,

²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

²⁸And the angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be.

³⁰Then the angel told her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

³¹Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.

³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.

³³He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”

³⁴Mary asked the angel, “How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?”

³⁵The angel replied to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

³⁶And consider your relative Elizabeth — even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless.

³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.”

³⁸“I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary. “May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

³⁹In those days Mary set out and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah

⁴⁰where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth.

⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

⁴²Then she exclaimed with a loud cry: “Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed!

⁴³How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

⁴⁴For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me.

⁴⁵Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her!”

⁴⁶And Mary said: My soul praises the greatness of the Lord,

⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

⁴⁸because he has looked with favor on the humble condition of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed,

⁴⁹because the Mighty One has done great things for me, and his name is holy.

⁵⁰His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear him.

⁵¹He has done a mighty deed with his arm; he has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts;

⁵²he has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly.

⁵³He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.

⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy

⁵⁵to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he spoke to our ancestors.

⁵⁶And Mary stayed with her about three months; then she returned to her home.

⁵⁷Now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she had a son.

⁵⁸Then her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her his great mercy, and they rejoiced with her.

⁵⁹When they came to circumcise the child on the eighth day, they were going to name him Zechariah, after his father.

⁶⁰But his mother responded, “No. He will be called John.”

⁶¹Then they said to her, “None of your relatives has that name.”

⁶²So they motioned to his father to find out what he wanted him to be called.

⁶³He asked for a writing tablet and wrote: “His name is John.” And they were all amazed.

⁶⁴Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God.

⁶⁵Fear came on all those who lived around them, and all these things were being talked about throughout the hill country of Judea.

⁶⁶All who heard about him took it to heart, saying, “What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the Lord’s hand was with him.

⁶⁷Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

⁶⁸Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has visited and provided redemption for his people.

⁶⁹He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,

⁷⁰just as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets in ancient times;

⁷¹salvation from our enemies and from the hand of those who hate us.

⁷²He has dealt mercifully with our fathers and remembered his holy covenant  —

⁷³the oath that he swore to our father Abraham. He has given us the privilege,

⁷⁴since we have been rescued from the hand of our enemies, to serve him without fear

⁷⁵in holiness and righteousness in his presence all our days.

⁷⁶And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

⁷⁷to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.

⁷⁸Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the dawn from on high will visit us

⁷⁹to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

⁸⁰The child grew up and became spiritually strong, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

¹The LORD instructed Moses:

²“Speak to the Israelites and take one staff from them for each ancestral tribe, twelve staffs from all the leaders of their tribes. Write each man’s name on his staff.

³Write Aaron’s name on Levi’s staff, because there is to be one staff for the head of each tribe.

⁴Then place them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony where I meet with you.

⁵The staff of the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of the Israelites’ complaints that they have been making about you.”

⁶So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each of the leaders of their tribes, twelve staffs in all. Aaron’s staff was among them.

⁷Moses placed the staffs before the LORD in the tent of the testimony.

⁸The next day Moses entered the tent of the testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, formed buds, blossomed, and produced almonds!

⁹Moses then brought out all the staffs from the LORD’s presence to all the Israelites. They saw them, and each man took his own staff.

¹⁰The LORD told Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the testimony to be kept as a sign for the rebels, so that you may put an end to their complaints before me, or else they will die.”

¹¹So Moses did as the LORD commanded him.

¹²Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we’re perishing! We’re lost; we’re all lost!

¹³Anyone who comes near the LORD’s tabernacle will die. Will we all perish?”

¹Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children,

²and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

³But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints.

⁴Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks.

⁵For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

⁶Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things.

⁷Therefore, do not become their partners.

⁸For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light  —

⁹for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth  —

¹⁰testing what is pleasing to the Lord.

¹¹Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them.

¹²For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret.

¹³Everything exposed by the light is made visible,

¹⁴for what makes everything visible is light. Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

¹⁵Pay careful attention, then, to how you live — not as unwise people but as wise —

¹⁶making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

¹⁷So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

¹⁸And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit:

¹⁹speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord,

²⁰giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

²¹submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.

²²Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord,

²³because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body.

²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her

²⁶to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word.

²⁷He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.

²⁸In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

²⁹For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church,

³⁰since we are members of his body.

³¹For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

³²This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church.

³³To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.

¹I am disgusted with my life. I will give vent to my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will say to God, “Do not declare me guilty! Let me know why you prosecute me.

³Is it good for you to oppress, to reject the work of your hands, and favor the plans of the wicked?

⁴Do you have eyes of flesh, or do you see as a human sees?

⁵Are your days like those of a human, or your years like those of a man,

⁶that you look for my iniquity and search for my sin,

⁷even though you know that I am not wicked and that there is no one who can rescue from your power?

⁸“Your hands shaped me and formed me. Will you now turn and destroy me?

⁹Please remember that you formed me like clay. Will you now return me to dust?

¹⁰Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?

¹¹You clothed me with skin and flesh, and wove me together with bones and tendons.

¹²You gave me life and faithful love, and your care has guarded my life.

¹³“Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart; I know that this was your hidden plan:

¹⁴if I sin, you would notice, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.

¹⁵If I am wicked, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head. I am filled with shame and have drunk deeply of my affliction.

¹⁶If I am proud, you hunt me like a lion and again display your miraculous power against me.

¹⁷You produce new witnesses against me and multiply your anger toward me. Hardships assault me, wave after wave.

¹⁸“Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have died and never been seen.

¹⁹I wish I had never existed but had been carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰Are my days not few? Stop it! Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little

²¹before I go to a land of darkness and gloom, never to return.

²²It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness, gloomy and chaotic, where even the light is like the darkness.”

¹A song of ascents. [1] Now bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who stand in the LORD’s house at night!

²Lift up your hands in the holy place and bless the LORD!

³May the LORD, Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.

¹Solomon’s proverbs: A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son, heartache to his mother.

²Ill-gotten gains do not profit anyone, but righteousness rescues from death.

³The LORD will not let the righteous go hungry, but he denies the wicked what they crave.

⁴Idle hands make one poor, but diligent hands bring riches.

⁵The son who gathers during summer is prudent; the son who sleeps during harvest is disgraceful.

⁶Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

⁷The remembrance of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸A wise heart accepts commands, but foolish lips will be destroyed.

⁹The one who lives with integrity lives securely, but whoever perverts his ways will be found out.

¹⁰A sly wink of the eye causes grief, and foolish lips will be destroyed.

¹¹The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

¹²Hatred stirs up conflicts, but love covers all offenses.

¹³Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod is for the back of the one who lacks sense.

¹⁴The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of the fool hastens destruction.

¹⁵The wealth of the rich is his fortified city; the poverty of the poor is their destruction.

¹⁶The reward of the righteous is life; the wages of the wicked is punishment.

¹⁷The one who follows instruction is on the path to life, but the one who rejects correction goes astray.

¹⁸The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

¹⁹When there are many words, sin is unavoidable, but the one who controls his lips is prudent.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is pure silver; the heart of the wicked is of little value.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.

²²The LORD’s blessing enriches, and he adds no painful effort to it.

²³As shameful conduct is pleasure for a fool, so wisdom is for a person of understanding.

²⁴What the wicked dreads will come to him, but what the righteous desire will be given to them.

²⁵When the whirlwind passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are secure forever.

²⁶Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so the slacker is to the one who sends him on an errand.

²⁷The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.

²⁸The hope of the righteous is joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish.

²⁹The way of the LORD is a stronghold for the honorable, but destruction awaits the malicious.

³⁰The righteous will never be shaken, but the wicked will not remain on the earth.

³¹The mouth of the righteous produces wisdom, but a perverse tongue will be cut out.

³²The lips of the righteous know what is appropriate, but the mouth of the wicked, only what is perverse.

¹Elisha said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Get ready, you and your household, and go live as a resident alien wherever you can. For the LORD has announced a seven-year famine, and it has already come to the land.”

²So the woman got ready and did what the man of God said. She and her household lived as resident aliens in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

³When the woman returned from the land of the Philistines at the end of seven years, she went to appeal to the king for her house and field.

⁴The king had been speaking to Gehazi, the attendant of the man of God, saying, “Tell me all the great things Elisha has done.”

⁵While he was telling the king how Elisha restored the dead son to life, the woman whose son he had restored to life came to appeal to the king for her house and field. So Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman and this is the son Elisha restored to life.”

⁶When the king asked the woman, she told him the story. So the king appointed a court official for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers, along with all the income from the field from the day she left the country until now.”

⁷Elisha came to Damascus while King Ben-hadad of Aram was sick, and the king was told, “The man of God has come here.”

⁸So the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift with you and go meet the man of God. Inquire of the LORD through him, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

⁹Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him a gift: forty camel-loads of all the finest products of Damascus. When he came and stood before him, he said, “Your son, King Ben-hadad of Aram, has sent me to ask you, ‘Will I recover from this sickness? ’”

¹⁰Elisha told him, “Go say to him, ‘You are sure to recover.’ But the LORD has shown me that he is sure to die.”

¹¹Then he stared steadily at him until he was ashamed. The man of God wept,

¹²and Hazael asked, “Why is my lord weeping?” He replied, “Because I know the evil you will do to the people of Israel. You will set their fortresses on fire. You will kill their young men with the sword. You will dash their children to pieces. You will rip open their pregnant women.”

¹³Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog, do such a mighty deed?” Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”

¹⁴Hazael left Elisha and went to his master, who asked him, “What did Elisha say to you?” He responded, “He told me you are sure to recover.”

¹⁵The next day Hazael took a heavy cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over the king’s face. Ben-hadad died, and Hazael reigned in his place.

¹⁶In the fifth year of Israel’s King Joram son of Ahab, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah, replacing his father.

¹⁷He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

¹⁸He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife. He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight.

¹⁹For the sake of his servant David, the LORD was unwilling to destroy Judah, since he had promised to give a lamp to David and his sons forever.

²⁰During Jehoram’s reign, Edom rebelled against Judah’s control and appointed their own king.

²¹So Jehoram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. Then at night he set out to attack the Edomites who had surrounded him and the chariot commanders, but his troops fled to their tents.

²²So Edom is still in rebellion against Judah’s control today. Libnah also rebelled at that time.

²³The rest of the events of Jehoram’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

²⁴Jehoram rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Ahaziah became king in his place.

²⁵In the twelfth year of Israel’s King Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.

²⁶Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, granddaughter of Israel’s King Omri.

²⁷He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the LORD’s sight like the house of Ahab, for his father had married into the house of Ahab.

²⁸Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to fight against King Hazael of Aram in Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans wounded Joram.

²⁹So King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him in Ramoth-gilead when he fought against Aram’s King Hazael. Then Judah’s King Ahaziah son of Jehoram went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab since Joram was ill.

¹The Spirit then lifted me up and brought me to the eastern gate of the LORD’s house, which faces east, and at the gate’s entrance were twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur, and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.

²The LORD said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who plot evil and give wicked advice in this city.

³They are saying, ‘Isn’t the time near to build houses? The city is the pot, and we are the meat.’

⁴Therefore, prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man!”

⁵Then the Spirit of the LORD came on me, and he told me, “You are to say, ‘This is what the LORD says: That is what you are thinking, house of Israel; and I know the thoughts that arise in your mind.

⁶You have multiplied your slain in this city, filling its streets with them.

⁷“‘Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: The slain you have put within it are the meat, and the city is the pot, but I will take you out of it.

⁸You fear the sword, so I will bring the sword against you. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

⁹I will take you out of the city and hand you over to foreigners; I will execute judgments against you.

¹⁰You will fall by the sword, and I will judge you at the border of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

¹¹The city will not be a pot for you, and you will not be the meat within it. I will judge you at the border of Israel,

¹²so you will know that I am the LORD, whose statutes you have not followed and whose ordinances you have not practiced. Instead, you have acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you.’”

¹³Now while I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out loudly, “Oh, Lord GOD! You are bringing the remnant of Israel to an end!”

¹⁴The word of the LORD came to me again:

¹⁵“Son of man, your own relatives, those who have the right to redeem your property, along with the entire house of Israel — all of them — are those to whom the residents of Jerusalem have said, ‘You are far from the LORD; this land has been given to us as a possession.’

¹⁶“Therefore say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: Though I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.’

¹⁷“Therefore say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’

¹⁸“When they arrive there, they will remove all its abhorrent acts and detestable practices from it.

¹⁹I will give them integrity of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh,

²⁰so that they will follow my statutes, keep my ordinances, and practice them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

²¹But as for those whose hearts pursue their desire for abhorrent acts and detestable practices, I will bring their conduct down on their own heads.” This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

²²Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, lifted their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

²³The glory of the LORD rose up from within the city and stopped on the mountain east of the city.

²⁴The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to Chaldea and to the exiles in a vision from the Spirit of God. After the vision I had seen left me,

²⁵I spoke to the exiles about all the things the LORD had shown me.

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you.”

²When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even quieter.

³He continued, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail,

⁵as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. After I received letters from them to the brothers, I traveled to Damascus to arrest those who were there and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶“As I was traveling and approaching Damascus, about noon an intense light from heaven suddenly flashed around me.

⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’

⁸“I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.’

⁹Now those who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

¹⁰“I said, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ “The Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything that you have been assigned to do.’

¹¹“Since I couldn’t see because of the brightness of the light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and went into Damascus.

¹²Someone named Ananias, a devout man according to the law, who had a good reputation with all the Jews living there,

¹³came and stood by me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ And in that very hour I looked up and saw him.

¹⁴And he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the words from his mouth,

¹⁵since you will be a witness for him to all people of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now, why are you delaying? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

¹⁷“After I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance

¹⁸and saw him telling me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹“But I said, ‘Lord, they know that in synagogue after synagogue I had those who believed in you imprisoned and beaten.

²⁰And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood there giving approval and guarding the clothes of those who killed him.’

²¹“He said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’  ”

²²They listened to him up to this point. Then they raised their voices, shouting, “Wipe this man off the face of the earth! He should not be allowed to live!”

²³As they were yelling and flinging aside their garments and throwing dust into the air,

²⁴the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, directing that he be interrogated with the scourge to discover the reason they were shouting against him like this.

²⁵As they stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing by, “Is it legal for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and is uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went and reported to the commander, saying, “What are you going to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷The commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” he said.

²⁸The commander replied, “I bought this citizenship for a large amount of money.” “But I was born a citizen,” Paul said.

²⁹So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. The commander too was alarmed when he realized Paul was a Roman citizen and he had bound him.

³⁰The next day, since he wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and instructed the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to convene. He brought Paul down and placed him before them.