Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

²This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

³Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”

¹⁰Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

¹²If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

¹⁴And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

²¹But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

²²After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.

²³John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized

²⁴(for John had not yet been put in prison).

²⁵Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification.

²⁶And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness — look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”

²⁷John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.

²⁸You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

²⁹The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.

³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.”

³¹He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.

³²He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.

³³Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.

³⁴For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.

³⁵The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

¹“When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you,

²and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.

³You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,

⁴for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

⁵But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.

⁶“For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

⁷It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

⁸but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

¹⁰and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.

¹¹You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

¹²“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers.

¹³He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.

¹⁴You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your livestock.

¹⁵And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.

¹⁶And you shall consume all the peoples that the LORD your God will give over to you. Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

¹⁷“If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’

¹⁸you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,

¹⁹the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

²⁰Moreover, the LORD your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed.

²¹You shall not be in dread of them, for the LORD your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.

²²The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.

²³But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.

²⁴And he will give their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under heaven. No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them.

²⁵The carved images of their gods you shall burn with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God.

²⁶And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction.

¹What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?

²For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

³For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

⁴Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.

⁵And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

⁶just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

⁷“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;

⁸blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

⁹Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.

¹⁰How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.

¹¹He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well,

¹²and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

¹³For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.

¹⁵For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring — not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

¹⁷as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations” — in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

¹⁸In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

¹⁹He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

²⁰No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,

²¹fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

²²That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”

²³But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,

²⁴but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,

²⁵who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

¹Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,

²when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

³Do not let your adorning be external — the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear —

⁴but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

⁵For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands,

⁶as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

⁷Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

⁸Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

⁹Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

¹⁰For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;

¹¹let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.

¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

¹³Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?

¹⁴But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,

¹⁵but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

¹⁶having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

¹⁷For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

¹⁸For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

¹⁹in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

²⁰because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

²¹Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

²²who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

¹And Elihu continued, and said:

²“Bear with me a little, and I will show you, for I have yet something to say on God's behalf.

³I will get my knowledge from afar and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

⁴For truly my words are not false; one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵“Behold, God is mighty, and does not despise any; he is mighty in strength of understanding.

⁶He does not keep the wicked alive, but gives the afflicted their right.

⁷He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne he sets them forever, and they are exalted.

⁸And if they are bound in chains and caught in the cords of affliction,

⁹then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.

¹⁰He opens their ears to instruction and commands that they return from iniquity.

¹¹If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.

¹²But if they do not listen, they perish by the sword and die without knowledge.

¹³“The godless in heart cherish anger; they do not cry for help when he binds them.

¹⁴They die in youth, and their life ends among the cult prostitutes.

¹⁵He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ear by adversity.

¹⁶He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping, and what was set on your table was full of fatness.

¹⁷“But you are full of the judgment on the wicked; judgment and justice seize you.

¹⁸Beware lest wrath entice you into scoffing, and let not the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.

¹⁹Will your cry for help avail to keep you from distress, or all the force of your strength?

²⁰Do not long for the night, when peoples vanish in their place.

²¹Take care; do not turn to iniquity, for this you have chosen rather than affliction.

²²Behold, God is exalted in his power; who is a teacher like him?

²³Who has prescribed for him his way, or who can say, ‘You have done wrong’?

²⁴“Remember to extol his work, of which men have sung.

²⁵All mankind has looked on it; man beholds it from afar.

²⁶Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.

²⁷For he draws up the drops of water; they distill his mist in rain,

²⁸which the skies pour down and drop on mankind abundantly.

²⁹Can anyone understand the spreading of the clouds, the thunderings of his pavilion?

³⁰Behold, he scatters his lightning about him and covers the roots of the sea.

³¹For by these he judges peoples; he gives food in abundance.

³²He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark.

³³Its crashing declares his presence; the cattle also declare that he rises.

¹Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

²In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.

³For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD.

⁴In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

⁵His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them.

⁶He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”

⁷His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

⁸He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;

⁹he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.

¹⁰The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might.

¹¹He says in his heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

¹²Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.

¹³Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?

¹⁴But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.

¹⁵Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none.

¹⁶The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.

¹⁷O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear

¹⁸to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

¹My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,

²that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.

³For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,

⁴but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;

⁶she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,

⁹lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless,

¹⁰lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

¹¹and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,

¹²and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.

¹⁴I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

¹⁹a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

²⁰Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

²¹For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.

²²The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

²³He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

¹So all Israel was recorded in genealogies, and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith.

²Now the first to dwell again in their possessions in their cities were Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the temple servants.

³And some of the people of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh lived in Jerusalem:

⁴Uthai the son of Ammihud, son of Omri, son of Imri, son of Bani, from the sons of Perez the son of Judah.

⁵And of the Shilonites: Asaiah the firstborn, and his sons.

⁶Of the sons of Zerah: Jeuel and their kinsmen, 690.

⁷Of the Benjaminites: Sallu the son of Meshullam, son of Hodaviah, son of Hassenuah,

⁸Ibneiah the son of Jeroham, Elah the son of Uzzi, son of Michri, and Meshullam the son of Shephatiah, son of Reuel, son of Ibnijah;

⁹and their kinsmen according to their generations, 956. All these were heads of fathers' houses according to their fathers' houses.

¹⁰Of the priests: Jedaiah, Jehoiarib, Jachin,

¹¹and Azariah the son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub, the chief officer of the house of God;

¹²and Adaiah the son of Jeroham, son of Pashhur, son of Malchijah, and Maasai the son of Adiel, son of Jahzerah, son of Meshullam, son of Meshillemith, son of Immer;

¹³besides their kinsmen, heads of their fathers' houses, 1,760, mighty men for the work of the service of the house of God.

¹⁴Of the Levites: Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, son of Azrikam, son of Hashabiah, of the sons of Merari;

¹⁵and Bakbakkar, Heresh, Galal and Mattaniah the son of Mica, son of Zichri, son of Asaph;

¹⁶and Obadiah the son of Shemaiah, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun, and Berechiah the son of Asa, son of Elkanah, who lived in the villages of the Netophathites.

¹⁷The gatekeepers were Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman, and their kinsmen (Shallum was the chief);

¹⁸until then they were in the king's gate on the east side as the gatekeepers of the camps of the Levites.

¹⁹Shallum the son of Kore, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah, and his kinsmen of his fathers' house, the Korahites, were in charge of the work of the service, keepers of the thresholds of the tent, as their fathers had been in charge of the camp of the LORD, keepers of the entrance.

²⁰And Phinehas the son of Eleazar was the chief officer over them in time past; the LORD was with him.

²¹Zechariah the son of Meshelemiah was gatekeeper at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

²²All these, who were chosen as gatekeepers at the thresholds, were 212. They were enrolled by genealogies in their villages. David and Samuel the seer established them in their office of trust.

²³So they and their sons were in charge of the gates of the house of the LORD, that is, the house of the tent, as guards.

²⁴The gatekeepers were on the four sides, east, west, north, and south.

²⁵And their kinsmen who were in their villages were obligated to come in every seven days, in turn, to be with these,

²⁶for the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were entrusted to be over the chambers and the treasures of the house of God.

²⁷And they lodged around the house of God, for on them lay the duty of watching, and they had charge of opening it every morning.

²⁸Some of them had charge of the utensils of service, for they were required to count them when they were brought in and taken out.

²⁹Others of them were appointed over the furniture and over all the holy utensils, also over the fine flour, the wine, the oil, the incense, and the spices.

³⁰Others, of the sons of the priests, prepared the mixing of the spices,

³¹and Mattithiah, one of the Levites, the firstborn of Shallum the Korahite, was entrusted with making the flat cakes.

³²Also some of their kinsmen of the Kohathites had charge of the showbread, to prepare it every Sabbath.

³³Now these, the singers, the heads of fathers' houses of the Levites, were in the chambers of the temple free from other service, for they were on duty day and night.

³⁴These were heads of fathers' houses of the Levites, according to their generations, leaders. These lived in Jerusalem.

³⁵In Gibeon lived the father of Gibeon, Jeiel, and the name of his wife was Maacah,

³⁶and his firstborn son Abdon, then Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab,

³⁷Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, and Mikloth;

³⁸and Mikloth was the father of Shimeam; and these also lived opposite their kinsmen in Jerusalem, with their kinsmen.

³⁹Ner fathered Kish, Kish fathered Saul, Saul fathered Jonathan, Malchi-shua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.

⁴⁰And the son of Jonathan was Merib-baal, and Merib-baal fathered Micah.

⁴¹The sons of Micah: Pithon, Melech, Tahrea, and Ahaz.

⁴²And Ahaz fathered Jarah, and Jarah fathered Alemeth, Azmaveth, and Zimri. And Zimri fathered Moza.

⁴³Moza fathered Binea, and Rephaiah was his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son.

⁴⁴Azel had six sons and these are their names: Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan; these were the sons of Azel.

¹The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.

²And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.

³And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.”

⁴Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

⁵Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.

⁶And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”

⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

⁸And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them.

⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”

¹⁰So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

¹¹Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’

¹²Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.

¹³And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.

¹⁴And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.”

¹⁵The word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁶“Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’

¹⁷And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.

¹⁸And when your people say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what you mean by these?’

¹⁹say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand.

²⁰When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes,

²¹then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land.

²²And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms.

²³They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

²⁴“My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.

²⁵They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever.

²⁶I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore.

²⁷My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

²⁸Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

¹After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.

²When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece.

³There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.

⁴Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus.

⁵These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas,

⁶but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.

⁷On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

⁸There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.

⁹And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.

¹⁰But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.”

¹¹And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed.

¹²And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.

¹³But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land.

¹⁴And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene.

¹⁵And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched at Samos; and the day after that we went to Miletus.

¹⁶For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

¹⁸And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia,

¹⁹serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;

²⁰how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,

²¹testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

²²And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there,

²³except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

²⁴But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

²⁵And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

²⁶Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all,

²⁷for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

²⁸Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

²⁹I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;

³⁰and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

³¹Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.

³²And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

³³I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.

³⁴You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.

³⁵In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

³⁶And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.

³⁷And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him,

³⁸being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.