Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.

²And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’

³And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

⁴I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’

⁵So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’

⁷Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

⁸The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

¹¹If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

¹²And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?

¹³ No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

¹⁴The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.

¹⁵And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

¹⁶ “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.

¹⁷But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.

¹⁸ “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

¹⁹“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.

²⁰And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,

²¹who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²²The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried,

²³and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.

²⁴And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’

²⁵But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.

²⁶And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’

²⁷And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house —

²⁸for I have five brothers — so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’

²⁹But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’

³⁰And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’

³¹He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

¹Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock.

²So the people of Gad and the people of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the congregation,

³“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,

⁴the land that the LORD struck down before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”

⁵And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan.”

⁶But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here?

⁷Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the LORD has given them?

⁸Your fathers did this, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.

⁹For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the people of Israel from going into the land that the LORD had given them.

¹⁰And the LORD's anger was kindled on that day, and he swore, saying,

¹¹‘Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me,

¹²none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.’

¹³And the LORD's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone.

¹⁴And behold, you have risen in your fathers' place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the LORD against Israel!

¹⁵For if you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people.”

¹⁶Then they came near to him and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones,

¹⁷but we will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁸We will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance.

¹⁹For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east.”

²⁰So Moses said to them, “If you will do this, if you will take up arms to go before the LORD for the war,

²¹and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the LORD, until he has driven out his enemies from before him

²²and the land is subdued before the LORD; then after that you shall return and be free of obligation to the LORD and to Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the LORD.

²³But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.

²⁴Build cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do what you have promised.”

²⁵And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben said to Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands.

²⁶Our little ones, our wives, our livestock, and all our cattle shall remain there in the cities of Gilead,

²⁷but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before the LORD to battle, as my lord orders.”

²⁸So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the people of Israel.

²⁹And Moses said to them, “If the people of Gad and the people of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the LORD, will pass with you over the Jordan and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession.

³⁰However, if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.”

³¹And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben answered, “What the LORD has said to your servants, we will do.

³²We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”

³³And Moses gave to them, to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land and its cities with their territories, the cities of the land throughout the country.

³⁴And the people of Gad built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,

³⁵Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah,

³⁶Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran, fortified cities, and folds for sheep.

³⁷And the people of Reuben built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim,

³⁸Nebo, and Baal-meon (their names were changed), and Sibmah. And they gave other names to the cities that they built.

³⁹And the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and captured it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it.

⁴⁰And Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he settled in it.

⁴¹And Jair the son of Manasseh went and captured their villages, and called them Havvoth-jair.

⁴²And Nobah went and captured Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.

¹Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

²and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

³And this we will do if God permits.

⁴For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,

⁵and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,

⁶and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

⁷For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.

⁸But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

⁹Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things — things that belong to salvation.

¹⁰For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

¹¹And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,

¹²so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

¹³For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,

¹⁴saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”

¹⁵And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

¹⁶For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.

¹⁷So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,

¹⁸so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

¹⁹We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,

²⁰where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

¹Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness,

²in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

³and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;

⁴To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

⁵This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you —

⁶if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

⁷For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,

⁸but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

⁹He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

¹⁰For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

¹¹They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

¹²One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

¹³This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,

¹⁴not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

¹⁵To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

¹⁶They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

²“Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven.

³Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise?

⁴How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure?

⁵Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes;

⁶how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”

¹Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly!

²Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!

³Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!

⁴For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.

⁵Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds.

⁶Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands,

⁷to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples,

⁸to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron,

⁹to execute on them the judgment written! This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the LORD!

¹These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied.

²It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

³As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable.

⁴Take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel;

⁵take away the wicked from the presence of the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.

⁶Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great,

⁷for it is better to be told, “Come up here,” than to be put lower in the presence of a noble. What your eyes have seen

⁸do not hastily bring into court, for what will you do in the end, when your neighbor puts you to shame?

⁹Argue your case with your neighbor himself, and do not reveal another's secret,

¹⁰lest he who hears you bring shame upon you, and your ill repute have no end.

¹¹A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

¹²Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold is a wise reprover to a listening ear.

¹³Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him; he refreshes the soul of his masters.

¹⁴Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.

¹⁵With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone.

¹⁶If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.

¹⁷Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you.

¹⁸A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.

¹⁹Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips.

²⁰Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda.

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,

²²for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.

²³The north wind brings forth rain, and a backbiting tongue, angry looks.

²⁴It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.

²⁵Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.

²⁶Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.

²⁷It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one's own glory.

²⁸A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

¹Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him.

²And the king went up to the house of the LORD, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.

³And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

⁴And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

⁵And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens.

⁶And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.

⁷And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.

⁸And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one's left at the gate of the city.

⁹However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.

¹⁰And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.

¹¹And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

¹²And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, he pulled down and broke in pieces and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

¹³And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

¹⁴And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah.

¹⁶And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the LORD that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things.

¹⁷Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.”

¹⁸And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.

¹⁹And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the LORD to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel.

²⁰And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”

²²For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah.

²³But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem.

²⁴Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.

²⁵Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.

²⁶Still the LORD did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.

²⁷And the LORD said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”

²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²⁹In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo, as soon as he saw him.

³⁰And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's place.

³¹Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

³²And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

³³And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

³⁴And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there.

³⁵And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

³⁶Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

³⁷And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

¹In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me:

²“Son of man, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem, ‘Aha, the gate of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste,’

³therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.

⁴They shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers, and I will scrape her soil from her and make her a bare rock.

⁵She shall be in the midst of the sea a place for the spreading of nets, for I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD. And she shall become plunder for the nations,

⁶and her daughters on the mainland shall be killed by the sword. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

⁷“For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, and with horsemen and a host of many soldiers.

⁸He will kill with the sword your daughters on the mainland. He will set up a siege wall against you and throw up a mound against you, and raise a roof of shields against you.

⁹He will direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers.

¹⁰His horses will be so many that their dust will cover you. Your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen and wagons and chariots, when he enters your gates as men enter a city that has been breached.

¹¹With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets. He will kill your people with the sword, and your mighty pillars will fall to the ground.

¹²They will plunder your riches and loot your merchandise. They will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses. Your stones and timber and soil they will cast into the midst of the waters.

¹³And I will stop the music of your songs, and the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more.

¹⁴I will make you a bare rock. You shall be a place for the spreading of nets. You shall never be rebuilt, for I am the LORD; I have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.

¹⁵“Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre: Will not the coastlands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when slaughter is made in your midst?

¹⁶Then all the princes of the sea will step down from their thrones and remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground and tremble every moment and be appalled at you.

¹⁷And they will raise a lamentation over you and say to you, “‘How you have perished, you who were inhabited from the seas, O city renowned, who was mighty on the sea; she and her inhabitants imposed their terror on all her inhabitants!

¹⁸Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall, and the coastlands that are on the sea are dismayed at your passing.’

¹⁹“For thus says the Lord GOD: When I make you a city laid waste, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you, and the great waters cover you,

²⁰then I will make you go down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you to dwell in the world below, among ruins from of old, with those who go down to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited; but I will set beauty in the land of the living.

²¹I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more. Though you be sought for, you will never be found again, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

²and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

³Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.

⁴And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

⁵And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

⁶But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

⁷The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.

⁸Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

⁹And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”

¹¹And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying,

¹²and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”

¹³But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.

¹⁴And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”

¹⁵But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

¹⁶For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

¹⁷So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

¹⁸And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;

¹⁹and taking food, he was strengthened. Saul Proclaims Jesus in Synagogues For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

²⁰And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

²¹And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?”

²²But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

²³When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him,

²⁴but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him,

²⁵but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

²⁶And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

²⁷But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

²⁸So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

²⁹And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him.

³⁰And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

³¹So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

³²Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.

³³There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed.

³⁴And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” And immediately he rose.

³⁵And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

³⁶Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity.

³⁷In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.

³⁸Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.”

³⁹So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them.

⁴⁰But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up.

⁴¹And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then, calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.

⁴²And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

⁴³And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.