Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Since many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us,

²just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word,

³it seemed fitting to me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in an orderly sequence, most excellent Theophilus;

⁴so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.

⁵In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

⁶They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

⁷And yet they had no child, because Elizabeth was infertile, and they were both advanced in years.

⁸Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division,

⁹according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

¹⁰And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering.

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

¹²Zechariah was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him.

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

¹⁴You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice over his birth.

¹⁵For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb.

¹⁶And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God.

¹⁷And it is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF FATHERS BACK TO their children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

¹⁸Zechariah said to the angel, “How will I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in her years.”

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

²⁰And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.”

²¹And meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, and were wondering at his delay in the temple.

²²But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them; and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple, and he repeatedly made signs to them, and remained speechless.

²³When the days of his priestly service were concluded, he went back home.

²⁴Now after these days his wife Elizabeth became pregnant, and she kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying,

²⁵“This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace among people.”

²⁶Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth,

²⁷to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

²⁸And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

²⁹But she was very perplexed at this statement, and was pondering what kind of greeting this was.

³⁰And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

³¹And behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and you shall 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;

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

³⁴But Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

³⁵The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason also the holy Child will be called the Son of God.

³⁶And behold, even your relative Elizabeth herself has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called infertile is now in her sixth month.

³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God.”

³⁸And Mary said, “Behold, the Lord’s bond-servant; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

³⁹Now at this time Mary set out and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah,

⁴⁰and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

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

⁴²And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

⁴³And how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me?

⁴⁴For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.

⁴⁵And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”

⁴⁶And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord,

⁴⁷And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

⁴⁸For He has had regard for the humble state of His bond-servant; For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.

⁴⁹For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name.

⁵⁰And His mercy is to generation after generation Toward those who fear Him.

⁵¹He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

⁵²He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble.

⁵³He has filled the hungry with good things, And sent the rich away empty-handed.

⁵⁴He has given help to His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy,

⁵⁵Just as He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and his descendants forever.”

⁵⁶Mary stayed with her about three months, and then returned to her home.

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

⁵⁸Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had displayed His great mercy toward her; and they were rejoicing with her.

⁵⁹And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zechariah, after his father.

⁶⁰And yet his mother responded and said, “No indeed; but he shall be called John.”

⁶¹And they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.”

⁶²And they made signs to his father, as to what he wanted him called.

⁶³And he asked for a tablet and wrote as follows, “His name is John.” And they were all amazed.

⁶⁴And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began speaking in praise of God.

⁶⁵And fear came on all those who lived around them; and all these matters were being talked about in the entire hill country of Judea.

⁶⁶All who heard them kept them in mind, saying, “What then will this child turn out to be?” For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.

⁶⁷And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying:

⁶⁸“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,

⁶⁹And 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 from ancient times—

⁷¹Salvation from our enemies, And from the hand of all who hate us;

⁷²To show mercy to our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant,

⁷³The oath which He swore to our father Abraham,

⁷⁴To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Would serve Him without fear,

⁷⁵In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.

⁷⁶And you, child, also will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways;

⁷⁷To give His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins,

⁷⁸Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us,

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

⁸⁰Now the child grew and was becoming strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

¹Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²“Speak to the sons of Israel, and obtain from them a staff for each father’s household: twelve staffs, from all their leaders for their fathers’ households. You shall write each man’s name on his staff,

³and write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi; for there is to be one staff for the head of each of their fathers’ households.

⁴You shall then leave them in the tent of meeting in front of the testimony, where I meet with you.

⁵And it will come about that the staff of the man whom I choose will sprout. So I will relieve Myself of the grumblings of the sons of Israel, who are grumbling against you.”

⁶So Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and all their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, for their fathers’ households, twelve staffs in all, with the staff of Aaron among their staffs.

⁷Then Moses left the staffs before the LORD in the tent of the testimony.

⁸Now on the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and behold, Aaron’s staff for the house of Levi had sprouted and produced buds and bloomed with blossoms, and it yielded ripe almonds.

⁹Moses then brought out all the staffs from the presence of the LORD to all the sons of Israel; and they looked, and each man took his staff.

¹⁰But the LORD said to Moses, “Put the staff of Aaron back in front of the testimony to be kept as a sign against the rebels, so that you may put an end to their grumblings against Me and they do not die.”

¹¹Moses did so; just as the LORD had commanded him, so he did.

¹²Then the sons of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, “Behold, we are passing away, we are perishing, we are all perishing!

¹³Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tabernacle of the LORD, must die. Are we to perish completely?”

¹Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;

²and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

³But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints;

⁴and there must be no filthiness or foolish talk, or vulgar joking, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

⁵For this you know with certainty, that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, which amounts to an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

⁶See that no one deceives you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

⁷Therefore do not become partners with them;

⁸for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

⁹(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),

¹⁰as you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

¹¹Do not participate in the useless deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them;

¹²for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.

¹³But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.

¹⁴For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.”

¹⁵So then, be careful how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise,

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

¹⁷Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

¹⁸And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

¹⁹speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord;

²⁰always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father;

²¹and subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.

²²Wives, subject yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

²³For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.

²⁴But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

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

²⁶so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

²⁷that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

²⁸So husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;

²⁹for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,

³⁰because we are parts of His body.

³¹FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.

³²This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

³³Nevertheless, as for you individually, each husband is to love his own wife the same as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

¹“I am disgusted with my own life; I will express my complaint freely; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me; Let me know why You contend with me.

³Is it right for You indeed to oppress, To reject the work of Your hands, And to look favorably on the plan of the wicked?

⁴Do You have eyes of flesh? Or do You see as mankind sees?

⁵Are Your days like the days of a mortal, Or Your years like a man’s year,

⁶That You should search for my guilt And carefully seek my sin?

⁷According to Your knowledge I am indeed not guilty, Yet there is no one to save me from Your hand.

⁸‘Your hands fashioned and made me altogether, Yet would You destroy me?

⁹Remember that You have made me as clay; Yet would You turn me into dust again?

¹⁰Did You not pour me out like milk, And curdle me like cheese,

¹¹Clothe me with skin and flesh, And intertwine me with bones and tendons?

¹²You have granted me life and goodness; And Your care has guarded my spirit.

¹³Yet You have concealed these things in Your heart; I know that this is within You:

¹⁴If I have sinned, You will take note of me, And will not acquit me of my guilt.

¹⁵If I am wicked, woe to me! But if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head. I am full of shame, and conscious of my misery.

¹⁶And should my head be high, You would hunt me like a lion; And You would show Your power against me again.

¹⁷You renew Your witnesses against me And increase Your anger toward me; Hardship after hardship is with me.

¹⁸‘Why then did You bring me out of the womb? If only I had died and no eye had seen me!

¹⁹I should have been as though I had not been, Brought from womb to tomb.’

²⁰Would He not leave my few days alone? Withdraw from me so that I may have a little cheerfulness

²¹Before I go—and I shall not return— To the land of darkness and deep shadow,

²²The land of utter gloom like darkness itself, Of deep shadow without order, And it shines like darkness.”

¹Behold, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, Who serve by night in the house of the LORD!

²Lift up your hands to the sanctuary And bless the LORD.

³May the LORD bless you from Zion, He who made heaven and earth.

¹The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a father glad, But a foolish son is a grief to his mother.

²Ill-gotten gains do not benefit, But righteousness rescues from death.

³The LORD will not allow the righteous to hunger, But He will reject the craving of the wicked.

⁴Poor is one who works with a lazy hand, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.

⁵He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, But he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.

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

⁷The mentioning of the righteous is a blessing, But the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸The wise of heart will receive commands, But a babbling fool will come to ruin.

⁹One who walks in integrity walks securely, But one who perverts his ways will be found out.

¹⁰He who winks the eye causes trouble, And a babbling fool will come to ruin.

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

¹²Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all offenses.

¹³On the lips of the discerning, wisdom is found, But a rod is for the back of him who has no sense.

¹⁴Wise people store up knowledge, But with the mouth of the foolish, ruin is at hand.

¹⁵The rich person’s wealth is his fortress, The ruin of the poor is their poverty.

¹⁶The wages of the righteous is life, The income of the wicked, punishment.

¹⁷One who is on the path of life follows instruction, But one who ignores a rebuke goes astray.

¹⁸One who conceals hatred has lying lips, And one who spreads slander is a fool.

¹⁹When there are many words, wrongdoing is unavoidable, But one who restrains his lips is wise.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver, The heart of the wicked is worth little.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, But fools die for lack of understanding.

²²It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, And He adds no sorrow to it.

²³Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool, And so is wisdom to a person of understanding.

²⁴What the wicked fears will come upon him, But the desire of the righteous will be granted.

²⁵When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more, But the righteous has an everlasting foundation.

²⁶Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, So is the lazy one to those who send him.

²⁷The fear of the LORD prolongs life, But the years of the wicked will be shortened.

²⁸The hope of the righteous is gladness, But the expectation of the wicked perishes.

²⁹The way of the LORD is a stronghold for the upright, But ruin to the workers of injustice.

³⁰The righteous will never be shaken, But the wicked will not live in the land.

³¹The mouth of the righteous flows with wisdom, But the perverted tongue will be cut out.

³²The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, But the mouth of the wicked, what is perverted.

¹Now Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go with your household, and live wherever you can live; for the LORD has called for a famine, and it will indeed come on the land for seven years.”

²So the woman arose and acted in accordance with the word of the man of God: she went with her household and resided in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

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

⁴Now the king was speaking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, “Please report to me all the great things that Elisha has done.”

⁵And as he was reporting to the king how he had restored to life the one who was dead, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and for her field. And Gehazi said, “My lord the king, this is the woman and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.”

⁶When the king asked the woman, she told everything to him. So the king appointed an officer for her, saying, “Restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land even until now.”

⁷Then Elisha came to Damascus. Now Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, was sick, and it was told to him, saying, “The man of God has come here.”

⁸And the king said to Hazael, “Take a gift in your hand and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD by him, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’ ”

⁹So Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand, even every kind of good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ loads; and he came and stood before him and said, “Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’ ”

¹⁰Then Elisha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You will certainly recover’; but the LORD has shown me that he will certainly die.”

¹¹And he stared steadily at him until Hazael was embarrassed, and then the man of God wept.

¹²And Hazael said, “Why is my lord weeping?” And he answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: you will set their fortified cities on fire, you will kill their young men with the sword, their little ones you will smash to pieces, and you will rip up their pregnant women.”

¹³Then Hazael said, “But what is your servant—a lowly dog—that he could do this great thing?” And Elisha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”

¹⁴So he left Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me that you would certainly recover.”

¹⁵But on the following day, he took the cover and dipped it in water, and spread it over his face, so that he died. And Hazael became king in his place.

¹⁶Now in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king.

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

¹⁸He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife; and he did evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁹However, the LORD did not want to destroy Judah, for the sake of David His servant, since He had promised him to give him a lamp through his sons always.

²⁰In his days Edom broke away from the rule of Judah, and appointed a king over themselves.

²¹Then Joram crossed over to Zair, and all his chariots with him. And he got up at night and struck the Edomites who had surrounded him and the captains of the chariots; but his army fled to their tents.

²²So Edom has broken away from Judah to this day. Then Libnah broke away at the same time.

²³Now the rest of the acts of Joram and everything that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²⁴So Joram lay down 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 Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.

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

²⁷He walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the LORD, like the house of Ahab, because he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab.

²⁸Then he went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans wounded Joram.

²⁹So King Joram returned to have himself healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel because he was sick.

¹Now the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the LORD’S house which faced eastward. And behold, there were twenty-five men at the entrance of the gate, and among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.

²Then He said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise wrongdoing and give evil advice in this city,

³who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This city is the pot and we are the meat.’

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

⁵Then the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and He said to me, “Say, ‘This is what the LORD says: “This is how you think, house of Israel, for I know your thoughts.

⁶You have multiplied your slain in this city, and filled its streets with them.”

⁷Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: “Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of the city are the meat and this city is the pot; but I will bring you out of it.

⁸You have feared a sword; so I will bring a sword upon you,” the Lord GOD declares.

⁹“And I will bring you out of the midst of the city, and hand you over to strangers, and execute judgments against you.

¹⁰You will fall by the sword. I will judge you to the border of Israel; so you shall know that I am the LORD.

¹¹This city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be meat in the midst of it; I will judge you to the border of Israel.

¹²So you will know that I am the LORD; for you have not walked in My statutes, nor have you executed My ordinances, but you have acted in accordance with the ordinances of the nations around you.” ’ ”

¹³Now it came about, as I prophesied, that Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell on my face and cried out with a loud voice, and said, “Oh, Lord GOD! Will You bring the remnant of Israel to a complete destruction?”

¹⁴Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

¹⁵“Son of man, your brothers, your relatives, your fellow exiles, and the entire house of Israel, all of them, are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Keep far from the LORD; this land has been given to us as a possession.’

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

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

¹⁸When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it.

¹⁹And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,

²⁰so that they may walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.

²¹But as for those whose hearts go after their detestable things and abominations, I will bring their conduct down on their heads,” declares the Lord GOD.

²²Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them.

²³The glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is east of the city.

²⁴And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God to Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen left me.

²⁵And I told the exiles all the things that the LORD had shown me.

¹“Brothers and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you.”

²And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet; and he *said,

³“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the Law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today.

⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons,

⁵as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brothers, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.

⁶“But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus at about noon, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me,

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

⁸And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’

⁹And those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.

¹⁰And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything that has been appointed for you to do.’

¹¹But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I came into Damascus being led by the hand by those who were with me.

¹²“Now a certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,

¹³came to me, and standing nearby he said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I looked up at him.

¹⁴And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear a message from His mouth.

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

¹⁶Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins by calling on His name.’

¹⁷“It happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I fell into a trance,

¹⁸and I saw Him saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’

¹⁹And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You.

²⁰And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing nearby and approving, and watching over the cloaks of those who were killing him.’

²¹And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’  ”

²²They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a man from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!”

²³And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air,

²⁴the commander ordered that he be brought into the barracks, saying that he was to be interrogated by flogging so that he would find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way.

²⁵But when they stretched him out with straps, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?”

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

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

²⁸The commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.”

²⁹Therefore, those who were about to interrogate him immediately backed away from him; and the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had put him in chains.

³⁰Now on the next day, wanting to know for certain why Paul had been accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the Council to assemble, and he brought Paul down and placed him before them.