Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate.

²And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.”

³So Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so,” Jesus replied.

⁴Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”

⁵But they insisted, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.”

⁶On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean.

⁷When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

⁸When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort.

⁹He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer.

¹⁰The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him.

¹¹Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate.

¹²That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies.

¹³Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people,

¹⁴and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him.

¹⁵Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death.

¹⁶Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.”

¹⁷

¹⁸But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!”

¹⁹(Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)

²⁰Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again.

²¹But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

²²For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”

²³But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.

²⁴So Pilate decided to grant their demand.

²⁵He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

²⁶As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.

²⁷A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him.

²⁸Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.

²⁹For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’

³⁰Then “ ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’

³¹For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

³²Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.

³³When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.

³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

³⁵The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar

³⁷and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

³⁸There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

³⁹One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?

⁴¹We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

⁴³Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

⁴⁴It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,

⁴⁵for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

⁴⁶Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

⁴⁷The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.”

⁴⁸When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.

⁴⁹But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

⁵⁰Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man,

⁵¹who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God.

⁵²Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.

⁵³Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.

⁵⁴It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

⁵⁵The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.

⁵⁶Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

¹Next we turned and went up along the road toward Bashan, and Og king of Bashan with his whole army marched out to meet us in battle at Edrei.

²The LORD said to me, “Do not be afraid of him, for I have delivered him into your hands, along with his whole army and his land. Do to him what you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon.”

³So the LORD our God also gave into our hands Og king of Bashan and all his army. We struck them down, leaving no survivors.

⁴At that time we took all his cities. There was not one of the sixty cities that we did not take from them—the whole region of Argob, Og’s kingdom in Bashan.

⁵All these cities were fortified with high walls and with gates and bars, and there were also a great many unwalled villages.

⁶We completely destroyed them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying every city—men, women and children.

⁷But all the livestock and the plunder from their cities we carried off for ourselves.

⁸So at that time we took from these two kings of the Amorites the territory east of the Jordan, from the Arnon Gorge as far as Mount Hermon.

⁹(Hermon is called Sirion by the Sidonians; the Amorites call it Senir.)

¹⁰We took all the towns on the plateau, and all Gilead, and all Bashan as far as Salekah and Edrei, towns of Og’s kingdom in Bashan.

¹¹(Og king of Bashan was the last of the Rephaites. His bed was decorated with iron and was more than nine cubits long and four cubits wide. It is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

¹²Of the land that we took over at that time, I gave the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory north of Aroer by the Arnon Gorge, including half the hill country of Gilead, together with its towns.

¹³The rest of Gilead and also all of Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (The whole region of Argob in Bashan used to be known as a land of the Rephaites.

¹⁴Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, took the whole region of Argob as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maakathites; it was named after him, so that to this day Bashan is called Havvoth Jair.)

¹⁵And I gave Gilead to Makir.

¹⁶But to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory extending from Gilead down to the Arnon Gorge (the middle of the gorge being the border) and out to the Jabbok River, which is the border of the Ammonites.

¹⁷Its western border was the Jordan in the Arabah, from Kinnereth to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea), below the slopes of Pisgah.

¹⁸I commanded you at that time: “The LORD your God has given you this land to take possession of it. But all your able-bodied men, armed for battle, must cross over ahead of the other Israelites.

¹⁹However, your wives, your children and your livestock (I know you have much livestock) may stay in the towns I have given you,

²⁰until the LORD gives rest to your fellow Israelites as he has to you, and they too have taken over the land that the LORD your God is giving them across the Jordan. After that, each of you may go back to the possession I have given you.”

²¹At that time I commanded Joshua: “You have seen with your own eyes all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. The LORD will do the same to all the kingdoms over there where you are going.

²²Do not be afraid of them; the LORD your God himself will fight for you.”

²³At that time I pleaded with the LORD:

²⁴“Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do?

²⁵Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.”

²⁶But because of you the LORD was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the LORD said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.

²⁷Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan.

²⁸But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.”

²⁹So we stayed in the valley near Beth Peor.

¹Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.

²Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

³Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

⁴Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

⁶So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”

⁷Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

⁹Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.

¹⁰We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

¹¹The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.

¹²And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

¹³Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.

¹⁴For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

¹⁵Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

¹⁶And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

¹⁷Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.

¹⁸Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.

¹⁹I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.

²⁰Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,

²¹equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

²²Brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for in fact I have written to you quite briefly.

²³I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you.

²⁴Greet all your leaders and all the Lord’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings.

²⁵Grace be with you all.

¹What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

²You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.

³When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁴You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

⁵Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us?

⁶But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

⁷Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁸Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

¹¹Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.

¹²There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

¹³Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”

¹⁴Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

¹⁶As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

¹So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

²But Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God.

³He was also angry with the three friends, because they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him.

⁴Now Elihu had waited before speaking to Job because they were older than he.

⁵But when he saw that the three men had nothing more to say, his anger was aroused.

⁶So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite said: “I am young in years, and you are old; that is why I was fearful, not daring to tell you what I know.

⁷I thought, ‘Age should speak; advanced years should teach wisdom.’

⁸But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding.

⁹It is not only the old who are wise, not only the aged who understand what is right.

¹⁰“Therefore I say: Listen to me; I too will tell you what I know.

¹¹I waited while you spoke, I listened to your reasoning; while you were searching for words,

¹²I gave you my full attention. But not one of you has proved Job wrong; none of you has answered his arguments.

¹³Do not say, ‘We have found wisdom; let God, not a man, refute him.’

¹⁴But Job has not marshaled his words against me, and I will not answer him with your arguments.

¹⁵“They are dismayed and have no more to say; words have failed them.

¹⁶Must I wait, now that they are silent, now that they stand there with no reply?

¹⁷I too will have my say; I too will tell what I know.

¹⁸For I am full of words, and the spirit within me compels me;

¹⁹inside I am like bottled-up wine, like new wineskins ready to burst.

²⁰I must speak and find relief; I must open my lips and reply.

²¹I will show no partiality, nor will I flatter anyone;

²²for if I were skilled in flattery, my Maker would soon take me away.

¹For the director of music. With stringed instruments. According to sheminith. A psalm of David. LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.

²Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint; heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony.

³My soul is in deep anguish. How long, LORD, how long?

⁴Turn, LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.

⁵Among the dead no one proclaims your name. Who praises you from the grave?

⁶I am worn out from my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.

⁷My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes.

⁸Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping.

⁹The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.

¹⁰All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish; they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.

¹The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

²for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight;

³for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair;

⁴for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young—

⁵let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance—

⁶for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.

⁷The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

⁹They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.

¹⁰My son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them.

¹¹If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for innocent blood, let’s ambush some harmless soul;

¹²let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit;

¹³we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder;

¹⁴cast lots with us; we will all share the loot”—

¹⁵my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths;

¹⁶for their feet rush into evil, they are swift to shed blood.

¹⁷How useless to spread a net where every bird can see it!

¹⁸These men lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush only themselves!

¹⁹Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the life of those who get it.

²⁰Out in the open wisdom calls aloud, she raises her voice in the public square;

²¹on top of the wall she cries out, at the city gate she makes her speech:

²²“How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?

²³Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you my teachings.

²⁴But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand,

²⁵since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke,

²⁶I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you—

²⁷when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

²⁸“Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me,

²⁹since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD.

³⁰Since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke,

³¹they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.

³²For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them;

³³but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

¹The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (he was the firstborn, but when he defiled his father’s marriage bed, his rights as firstborn were given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel; so he could not be listed in the genealogical record in accordance with his birthright,

²and though Judah was the strongest of his brothers and a ruler came from him, the rights of the firstborn belonged to Joseph)—

³the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel: Hanok, Pallu, Hezron and Karmi.

⁴The descendants of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son,

⁵Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son,

⁶and Beerah his son, whom Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria took into exile. Beerah was a leader of the Reubenites.

⁷Their relatives by clans, listed according to their genealogical records: Jeiel the chief, Zechariah,

⁸and Bela son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel. They settled in the area from Aroer to Nebo and Baal Meon.

⁹To the east they occupied the land up to the edge of the desert that extends to the Euphrates River, because their livestock had increased in Gilead.

¹⁰During Saul’s reign they waged war against the Hagrites, who were defeated at their hands; they occupied the dwellings of the Hagrites throughout the entire region east of Gilead.

¹¹The Gadites lived next to them in Bashan, as far as Salekah:

¹²Joel was the chief, Shapham the second, then Janai and Shaphat, in Bashan.

¹³Their relatives, by families, were: Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jakan, Zia and Eber—seven in all.

¹⁴These were the sons of Abihail son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz.

¹⁵Ahi son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, was head of their family.

¹⁶The Gadites lived in Gilead, in Bashan and its outlying villages, and on all the pasturelands of Sharon as far as they extended.

¹⁷All these were entered in the genealogical records during the reigns of Jotham king of Judah and Jeroboam king of Israel.

¹⁸The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh had 44,760 men ready for military service—able-bodied men who could handle shield and sword, who could use a bow, and who were trained for battle.

¹⁹They waged war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish and Nodab.

²⁰They were helped in fighting them, and God delivered the Hagrites and all their allies into their hands, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in him.

²¹They seized the livestock of the Hagrites—fifty thousand camels, two hundred fifty thousand sheep and two thousand donkeys. They also took one hundred thousand people captive,

²²and many others fell slain, because the battle was God’s. And they occupied the land until the exile.

²³The people of the half-tribe of Manasseh were numerous; they settled in the land from Bashan to Baal Hermon, that is, to Senir (Mount Hermon).

²⁴These were the heads of their families: Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah and Jahdiel. They were brave warriors, famous men, and heads of their families.

²⁵But they were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors and prostituted themselves to the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.

²⁶So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria), who took the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. He took them to Halah, Habor, Hara and the river of Gozan, where they are to this day.

¹The word of the LORD came to me:

²“Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman,

³and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people,

⁴then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head.

⁵Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves.

⁶But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.’

⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.

⁸When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.

⁹But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.

¹⁰“Son of man, say to the Israelites, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?” ’

¹¹Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’

¹²“Therefore, son of man, say to your people, ‘If someone who is righteous disobeys, that person’s former righteousness will count for nothing. And if someone who is wicked repents, that person’s former wickedness will not bring condemnation. The righteous person who sins will not be allowed to live even though they were formerly righteous.’

¹³If I tell a righteous person that they will surely live, but then they trust in their righteousness and do evil, none of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered; they will die for the evil they have done.

¹⁴And if I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but they then turn away from their sin and do what is just and right—

¹⁵if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live; they will not die.

¹⁶None of the sins that person has committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and right; they will surely live.

¹⁷“Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just.

¹⁸If a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, they will die for it.

¹⁹And if a wicked person turns away from their wickedness and does what is just and right, they will live by doing so.

²⁰Yet you Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to your own ways.”

²¹In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month on the fifth day, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has fallen!”

²²Now the evening before the man arrived, the hand of the LORD was on me, and he opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent.

²³Then the word of the LORD came to me:

²⁴“Son of man, the people living in those ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as our possession.’

²⁵Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Since you eat meat with the blood still in it and look to your idols and shed blood, should you then possess the land?

²⁶You rely on your sword, you do detestable things, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’

²⁷“Say this to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: As surely as I live, those who are left in the ruins will fall by the sword, those out in the country I will give to the wild animals to be devoured, and those in strongholds and caves will die of a plague.

²⁸I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will become desolate so that no one will cross them.

²⁹Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land a desolate waste because of all the detestable things they have done.’

³⁰“As for you, son of man, your people are talking together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses, saying to each other, ‘Come and hear the message that has come from the LORD.’

³¹My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to hear your words, but they do not put them into practice. Their mouths speak of love, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain.

³²Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.

³³“When all this comes true—and it surely will—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

¹Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek.

²The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.

³Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.

⁵So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

⁶Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.

⁷When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.

⁸So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.

⁹During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

¹⁰After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

¹¹From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis.

¹²From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

¹³On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.

¹⁴One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

¹⁵When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

¹⁶Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.

¹⁷She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”

¹⁸She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

¹⁹When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities.

²⁰They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar

²¹by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

²²The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.

²³After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

²⁴When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.

²⁷The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

²⁹The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

³⁰He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

³²Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.

³³At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.

³⁴The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

³⁵When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.”

³⁶The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

³⁷But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

³⁸The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed.

³⁹They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city.

⁴⁰After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.