Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.

²So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

³“Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.

⁴I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

⁵“So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So 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?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

⁸So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

⁹“And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.

¹⁰He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

¹¹Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

¹²And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

¹³“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

¹⁴Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him.

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

¹⁶“The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.

¹⁷And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.

¹⁸“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.

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

²⁰But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate,

²¹desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

²²So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.

²³And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

²⁴“Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’

²⁵But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.

²⁶And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

²⁷“Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house,

²⁸for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’

²⁹Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’

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

³¹But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”

¹Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock; and when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock,

²the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying,

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

⁴the country which the LORD defeated before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”

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

⁶And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: “Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here?

⁷Now why will you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD has given them?

⁸Thus your fathers did when I sent them away 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 children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the LORD had given them.

¹⁰So the LORD’s anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying,

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

¹²except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.’

¹³So the LORD’s anger was aroused 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 look! 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 once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these 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 ourselves will be armed, ready to go before the children of Israel until we have brought them to their place; and our little ones will dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁸We will not return to our homes until every one of the children of Israel has received his inheritance.

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

²⁰Then Moses said to them: “If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the LORD for the war,

²¹and all your armed men cross 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 afterward you may return and be blameless before the LORD and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the LORD.

²³But if you do not do so, then take note, 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 has proceeded out of your mouth.”

²⁵And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying: “Your servants will do as my lord commands.

²⁶Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gilead;

²⁷but your servants will cross over, every man armed for war, before the LORD to battle, just as my lord says.”

²⁸So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel.

²⁹And Moses said to them: “If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben cross over the Jordan with you, every man armed for battle before the LORD, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead as a possession.

³⁰But if they do not cross over armed with you, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.”

³¹Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying: “As the LORD has said to your servants, so we will do.

³²We will cross over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, but the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us on this side of the Jordan.”

³³So Moses gave to the children of Gad, to the children of Reuben, and to half the 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 with its cities within the borders, the cities of the surrounding country.

³⁴And the children of Gad built Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer,

³⁵Atroth and Shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah,

³⁶Beth Nimrah and Beth Haran, fortified cities, and folds for sheep.

³⁷And the children of Reuben built Heshbon and Elealeh and Kirjathaim,

³⁸Nebo and Baal Meon (their names being changed) and Shibmah; and they gave other names to the cities which they built.

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

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

⁴¹Also Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its small towns, and called them Havoth Jair.

⁴²Then Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and he called it Nobah, after his own name.

¹Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

²of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

³And this we will do if God permits.

⁴For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,

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

⁶if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

⁷For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;

⁸but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

⁹But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.

¹⁰For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

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

¹²that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

¹³For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,

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

¹⁵And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

¹⁶For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.

¹⁷Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath,

¹⁸that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

¹⁹This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,

²⁰where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

¹Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness,

²in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,

³but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior;

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

⁵For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you—

⁶if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination.

⁷For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money,

⁸but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled,

⁹holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.

¹⁰For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,

¹¹whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.

¹²One of them, 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 giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.

¹⁵To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.

¹⁶They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

²“Dominion and fear belong to Him; He makes peace in His high places.

³Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does His light not rise?

⁴How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?

⁵If even the moon does not shine, And the stars are not pure in His sight,

⁶How much less man, who is a maggot, And a son of man, who is a worm?”

¹Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, And His praise in the assembly of saints.

²Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

³Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.

⁴For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.

⁵Let the saints be joyful in glory; Let them sing aloud on their beds.

⁶Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand,

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 written judgment— This honor have all His saints. 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 a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

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

⁴Take away the dross from silver, And it will go to the silversmith for jewelry.

⁵Take away the wicked from before the king, And his throne will be established in righteousness.

⁶Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king, And do not stand in the place of the great;

⁷For it is better that he say to you, “Come up here,” Than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, Whom your eyes have seen.

⁸Do not go hastily to court; For what will you do in the end, When your neighbor has put you to shame?

⁹Debate your case with your neighbor, And do not disclose the secret to another;

¹⁰Lest he who hears it expose your shame, And your reputation be ruined.

¹¹A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold In settings of silver.

¹²Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold Is a wise rebuker to an obedient ear.

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

¹⁴Whoever falsely boasts of giving Is like clouds and wind without rain.

¹⁵By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded, And a gentle tongue breaks a bone.

¹⁶Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, Lest you be filled with it and vomit.

¹⁷Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house, Lest he become weary of you and hate you.

¹⁸A man who bears false witness against his neighbor Is like a club, a sword, and a sharp arrow.

¹⁹Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble Is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.

²⁰Like one who takes away a garment in cold weather, And like vinegar on soda, Is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

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

²²For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And the LORD will reward you.

²³The north wind brings forth rain, And a backbiting tongue an angry countenance.

²⁴It is better to dwell in a corner of a housetop, Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

²⁵As cold water to a weary soul, So is good news from a far country.

²⁶A righteous man who falters before the wicked Is like a murky spring and a polluted well.

²⁷It is not good to eat much honey; So to seek one’s own glory is not glory.

²⁸Whoever has no rule over his own spirit Is like a city broken down, without walls.

¹Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him.

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

³Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow 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 took a stand for the covenant.

⁴And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

⁵Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

⁶And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the LORD, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people.

⁷Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image.

⁸And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate.

⁹Nevertheless 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 brethren.

¹⁰And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech.

¹¹Then 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 officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

¹²The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron.

¹³Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon.

¹⁴And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image.

¹⁶As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. 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 which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

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

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

¹⁹Now Josiah also took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger; and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel.

²⁰He executed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned men’s bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

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

²²Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

²³But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was held before the LORD in Jerusalem.

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

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

²⁶Nevertheless the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.

²⁷And the LORD said, “I will also remove Judah from My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, 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 Necho king of Egypt went to the aid of the king of Assyria, to the River Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him.

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

³¹Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

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

³³Now Pharaoh Necho put him in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

³⁴Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he died there.

³⁵So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give money according to the command of Pharaoh; he exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from every one according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necho.

³⁶Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

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

¹And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha! She is broken who was the gateway of the peoples; now she is turned over to me; I shall be filled; she is laid waste.’

³“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up.

⁴And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.

⁵It shall be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD; ‘it shall become plunder for the nations.

⁶Also her daughter villages which are in the fields shall be slain by the sword. Then they shall 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, with chariots, and with horsemen, and an army with many people.

⁸He will slay with the sword your daughter villages in the fields; he will heap up a siege mound against you, build a wall against you, and raise a defense against you.

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

¹⁰Because of the abundance of his horses, their dust will cover you; your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, the wagons, and the chariots, when he enters your gates, as men enter a city that has been breached.

¹¹With the hooves of his horses he will trample all your streets; he will slay your people by the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground.

¹²They will plunder your riches and pillage your merchandise; they will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses; they will lay your stones, your timber, and your soil in the midst of the water.

¹³I will put an end to the sound of your songs, and the sound of your harps shall be heard no more.

¹⁴I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place for spreading nets, and you shall never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken,’ says the Lord GOD.

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

¹⁶Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, lay aside their robes, and take off their embroidered garments; they will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground, tremble every moment, and be astonished at you.

¹⁷And they will take up a lamentation for you, and say to you: “How you have perished, O one inhabited by seafaring men, O renowned city, Who was strong at sea, She and her inhabitants, Who caused their terror to be on all her inhabitants!

¹⁸Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your fall; Yes, the coastlands by the sea are troubled at your departure.” ’

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

²⁰then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lowest part of the earth, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you may never be inhabited; and I shall establish glory in the land of the living.

²¹I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more; though you are sought for, you will never be found again,’ says the Lord GOD.”

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

²and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

³As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.

⁴Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

⁵And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

⁶So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

⁷And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one.

⁸Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

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

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

¹¹So the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying.

¹²And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”

¹³Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in 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 vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.

¹⁶For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

¹⁷And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

¹⁸Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.

¹⁹So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.

²⁰Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.

²¹Then all who heard were amazed, and said, “Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem, and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests?”

²²But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

²³Now after many days were past, the Jews plotted to kill him.

²⁴But their plot became known to Saul. And they watched the gates day and night, to kill him.

²⁵Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket.

²⁶And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple.

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

²⁸So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out.

²⁹And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him.

³⁰When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus.

³¹Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

³²Now it came to pass, as Peter went through all parts of the country, that he also came down to the saints who dwelt in Lydda.

³³There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed.

³⁴And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.” Then he arose immediately.

³⁵So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

³⁶At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds which she did.

³⁷But it happened in those days that she became sick and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.

³⁸And since Lydda was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them.

³⁹Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room. And all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them.

⁴⁰But Peter put them all out, 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.

⁴¹Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive.

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

⁴³So it was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon, a tanner.