Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum.

²There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die.

³The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant.

⁴When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this,

⁵because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.”

⁶So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.

⁷That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed.

⁸For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

⁹When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”

¹⁰Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

¹¹Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.

¹²As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.

¹³When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”

¹⁴Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”

¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

¹⁶They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”

¹⁷This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

¹⁸John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them,

¹⁹he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

²⁰When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’ ”

²¹At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.

²²So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

²³Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

²⁴After John’s messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind?

²⁵If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces.

²⁶But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

²⁷This is the one about whom it is written: “ ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’

²⁸I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”

²⁹(All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus’ words, acknowledged that God’s way was right, because they had been baptized by John.

³⁰But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)

³¹Jesus went on to say, “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like?

³²They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: “ ‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’

³³For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’

³⁴The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’

³⁵But wisdom is proved right by all her children.”

³⁶When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.

³⁷A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.

³⁸As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

³⁹When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

⁴⁰Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said.

⁴¹“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

⁴²Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

⁴³Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

⁴⁴Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

⁴⁵You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.

⁴⁶You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.

⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

⁴⁸Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁹The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

⁵⁰Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

¹Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”

²Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.” Then he went off to a barren height.

⁴God met with him, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”

⁵The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”

⁶So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials.

⁷Then Balaam spoke his message: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’

⁸How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?

⁹From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations.

¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!”

¹¹Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!”

¹²He answered, “Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

¹³Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp. And from there, curse them for me.”

¹⁴So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”

¹⁶The LORD met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”

¹⁷So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials. Balak asked him, “What did the LORD say?”

¹⁸Then he spoke his message: “Arise, Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor.

¹⁹God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

²⁰I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.

²¹“No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The LORD their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them.

²²God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox.

²³There is no divination against Jacob, no evil omens against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’

²⁴The people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion that does not rest till it devours its prey and drinks the blood of its victims.”

²⁵Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”

²⁶Balaam answered, “Did I not tell you I must do whatever the LORD says?”

²⁷Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there.”

²⁸And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.

²⁹Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”

³⁰Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

²To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

³We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

⁴because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—

⁵the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel

⁶that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.

⁷You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf,

⁸and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

⁹For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,

¹⁰so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

¹¹being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,

¹²and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

¹³For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,

¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

¹⁶For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,

²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

²¹Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

²²But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—

²³if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

²⁴Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

²⁵I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—

²⁶the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.

²⁷To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

²⁸He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

²⁹To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

¹I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—

²for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

³This is good, and pleases God our Savior,

⁴who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

⁵For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,

⁶who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

⁷And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

⁸Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.

⁹I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,

¹⁰but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

¹¹A woman should learn in quietness and full submission.

¹²I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.

¹³For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

¹⁴And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

¹⁵But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

¹Then Job replied:

²“I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you!

³Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?

⁴I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.

⁵But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.

⁶“Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved; and if I refrain, it does not go away.

⁷Surely, God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household.

⁸You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness; my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.

⁹God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me; my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.

¹⁰People open their mouths to jeer at me; they strike my cheek in scorn and unite together against me.

¹¹God has turned me over to the ungodly and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.

¹²All was well with me, but he shattered me; he seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target;

¹³his archers surround me. Without pity, he pierces my kidneys and spills my gall on the ground.

¹⁴Again and again he bursts upon me; he rushes at me like a warrior.

¹⁵“I have sewed sackcloth over my skin and buried my brow in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red with weeping, dark shadows ring my eyes;

¹⁷yet my hands have been free of violence and my prayer is pure.

¹⁸“Earth, do not cover my blood; may my cry never be laid to rest!

¹⁹Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high.

²⁰My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God;

²¹on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.

²²“Only a few years will pass before I take the path of no return.

¹For the director of music. A psalm of David. Rescue me, LORD, from evildoers; protect me from the violent,

²who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day.

³They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips.

⁴Keep me safe, LORD, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent, who devise ways to trip my feet.

⁵The arrogant have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path.

⁶I say to the LORD, “You are my God.” Hear, LORD, my cry for mercy.

⁷Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, you shield my head in the day of battle.

⁸Do not grant the wicked their desires, LORD; do not let their plans succeed.

⁹Those who surround me proudly rear their heads; may the mischief of their lips engulf them.

¹⁰May burning coals fall on them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise.

¹¹May slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down the violent.

¹²I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.

¹³Surely the righteous will praise your name, and the upright will live in your presence.

¹To humans belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the proper answer of the tongue.

²All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD.

³Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

⁴The LORD works out everything to its proper end— even the wicked for a day of disaster.

⁵The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.

⁶Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD evil is avoided.

⁷When the LORD takes pleasure in anyone’s way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them.

⁸Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice.

⁹In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.

¹⁰The lips of a king speak as an oracle, and his mouth does not betray justice.

¹¹Honest scales and balances belong to the LORD; all the weights in the bag are of his making.

¹²Kings detest wrongdoing, for a throne is established through righteousness.

¹³Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value the one who speaks what is right.

¹⁴A king’s wrath is a messenger of death, but the wise will appease it.

¹⁵When a king’s face brightens, it means life; his favor is like a rain cloud in spring.

¹⁶How much better to get wisdom than gold, to get insight rather than silver!

¹⁷The highway of the upright avoids evil; those who guard their ways preserve their lives.

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

¹⁹Better to be lowly in spirit along with the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.

²⁰Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD.

²¹The wise in heart are called discerning, and gracious words promote instruction.

²²Prudence is a fountain of life to the prudent, but folly brings punishment to fools.

²³The hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent, and their lips promote instruction.

²⁴Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

²⁵There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

²⁶The appetite of laborers works for them; their hunger drives them on.

²⁷A scoundrel plots evil, and on their lips it is like a scorching fire.

²⁸A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.

²⁹A violent person entices their neighbor and leads them down a path that is not good.

³⁰Whoever winks with their eye is plotting perversity; whoever purses their lips is bent on evil.

³¹Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.

³²Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.

³³The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

¹In the second year of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah began to reign.

²He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem.

³He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not as his father David had done. In everything he followed the example of his father Joash.

⁴The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

⁵After the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king.

⁶Yet he did not put the children of the assassins to death, in accordance with what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses where the LORD commanded: “Parents are not to be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.”

⁷He was the one who defeated ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt and captured Sela in battle, calling it Joktheel, the name it has to this day.

⁸Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, with the challenge: “Come, let us face each other in battle.”

⁹But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle underfoot.

¹⁰You have indeed defeated Edom and now you are arrogant. Glory in your victory, but stay at home! Why ask for trouble and cause your own downfall and that of Judah also?”

¹¹Amaziah, however, would not listen, so Jehoash king of Israel attacked. He and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other at Beth Shemesh in Judah.

¹²Judah was routed by Israel, and every man fled to his home.

¹³Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemesh. Then Jehoash went to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate—a section about four hundred cubits long.

¹⁴He took all the gold and silver and all the articles found in the temple of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace. He also took hostages and returned to Samaria.

¹⁵As for the other events of the reign of Jehoash, what he did and his achievements, including his war against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

¹⁶Jehoash rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. And Jeroboam his son succeeded him as king.

¹⁷Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel.

¹⁸As for the other events of Amaziah’s reign, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

¹⁹They conspired against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish, but they sent men after him to Lachish and killed him there.

²⁰He was brought back by horse and was buried in Jerusalem with his ancestors, in the City of David.

²¹Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

²²He was the one who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after Amaziah rested with his ancestors.

²³In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years.

²⁴He did evil in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit.

²⁵He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea, in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

²⁶The LORD had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering; there was no one to help them.

²⁷And since the LORD had not said he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash.

²⁸As for the other events of Jeroboam’s reign, all he did, and his military achievements, including how he recovered for Israel both Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

²⁹Jeroboam rested with his ancestors, the kings of Israel. And Zechariah his son succeeded him as king.

¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²“Son of man, set forth an allegory and tell it to the Israelites as a parable.

³Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: A great eagle with powerful wings, long feathers and full plumage of varied colors came to Lebanon. Taking hold of the top of a cedar,

⁴he broke off its topmost shoot and carried it away to a land of merchants, where he planted it in a city of traders.

⁵“ ‘He took one of the seedlings of the land and put it in fertile soil. He planted it like a willow by abundant water,

⁶and it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine. Its branches turned toward him, but its roots remained under it. So it became a vine and produced branches and put out leafy boughs.

⁷“ ‘But there was another great eagle with powerful wings and full plumage. The vine now sent out its roots toward him from the plot where it was planted and stretched out its branches to him for water.

⁸It had been planted in good soil by abundant water so that it would produce branches, bear fruit and become a splendid vine.’

⁹“Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Will it thrive? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it withers? All its new growth will wither. It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by the roots.

¹⁰It has been planted, but will it thrive? Will it not wither completely when the east wind strikes it—wither away in the plot where it grew?’ ”

¹¹Then the word of the LORD came to me:

¹²“Say to this rebellious people, ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Say to them: ‘The king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and carried off her king and her nobles, bringing them back with him to Babylon.

¹³Then he took a member of the royal family and made a treaty with him, putting him under oath. He also carried away the leading men of the land,

¹⁴so that the kingdom would be brought low, unable to rise again, surviving only by keeping his treaty.

¹⁵But the king rebelled against him by sending his envoys to Egypt to get horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape? Will he break the treaty and yet escape?

¹⁶“ ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, he shall die in Babylon, in the land of the king who put him on the throne, whose oath he despised and whose treaty he broke.

¹⁷Pharaoh with his mighty army and great horde will be of no help to him in war, when ramps are built and siege works erected to destroy many lives.

¹⁸He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Because he had given his hand in pledge and yet did all these things, he shall not escape.

¹⁹“ ‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: As surely as I live, I will repay him for despising my oath and breaking my covenant.

²⁰I will spread my net for him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon and execute judgment on him there because he was unfaithful to me.

²¹All his choice troops will fall by the sword, and the survivors will be scattered to the winds. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken.

²²“ ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain.

²³On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches.

²⁴All the trees of the forest will know that I the LORD bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. “ ‘I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.’ ”

¹Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta.

²The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.

³Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.

⁴When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.”

⁵But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.

⁶The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

⁷There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days.

⁸His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.

⁹When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured.

¹⁰They honored us in many ways; and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.

¹¹After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island—it was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux.

¹²We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days.

¹³From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli.

¹⁴There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome.

¹⁵The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged.

¹⁶When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

¹⁷Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.

¹⁸They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.

¹⁹The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar. I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people.

²⁰For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

²¹They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.

²²But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”

²³They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus.

²⁴Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.

²⁵They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:

²⁶“ ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”

²⁷For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

²⁸“Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”

²⁹

³⁰For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.

³¹He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!