Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.

²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

³Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”

⁴Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.

⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’

⁸The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, 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 a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.

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

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

¹⁴And just 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, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

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

¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

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

²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.

²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

²²After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized.

²³John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized

²⁴— John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.

²⁵Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew.

²⁶They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”

²⁷John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.

²⁸You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’

²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled.

³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.”

³¹The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all.

³²He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony.

³³Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true.

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

³⁵The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands.

³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.

¹When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you — the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you —

²and when the LORD your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.

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

⁴for that would turn away your children 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 this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire.

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

⁷It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you — for you were the fewest of all peoples.

⁸It was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, 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 maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

¹⁰and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him.

¹¹Therefore, observe diligently the commandment — the statutes and the ordinances — that I am commanding you today.

¹²If you heed these ordinances, by diligently observing them, the LORD your God will maintain with you the covenant loyalty that he swore to your ancestors;

¹³he will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, in the land that he swore to your ancestors to give you.

¹⁴You shall be the most blessed of peoples, with neither sterility nor barrenness among you or your livestock.

¹⁵The LORD will turn away from you every illness; all the dread diseases of Egypt that you experienced, he will not inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.

¹⁶You shall devour all the peoples that the LORD your God is giving over to you, showing them no pity; you shall not serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you.

¹⁷If you say to yourself, “These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?”

¹⁸do not be afraid of them. Just remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt,

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

²⁰Moreover, the LORD your God will send the pestilence against them, until even the survivors and the fugitives are destroyed.

²¹Have no dread of them, for the LORD your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.

²²The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you.

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

²⁴He will hand their kings over to you and you shall blot out their name from under heaven; no one will be able to stand against you, until you have destroyed them.

²⁵The images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them and take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the LORD your God.

²⁶Do not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set apart for destruction.

¹What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor 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 reckoned to him as righteousness.”

⁴Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due.

⁵But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

⁶So also David speaks of the blessedness of those to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works:

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

⁸blessed is the one against whom the Lord will not reckon sin.”

⁹Is this blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.”

¹⁰How then was it reckoned 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 ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them,

¹²and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

¹³For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴If 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, neither is there violation.

¹⁶For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us,

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.

¹⁸Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.”

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

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

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

²²Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

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

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

²⁵who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

¹Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands, so that, even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives’ conduct,

²when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

³Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing;

⁴rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God’s sight.

⁵It was in this way long ago that the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by accepting the authority of their husbands.

⁶Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You have become her daughters as long as you do what is good and never let fears alarm you.

⁷Husbands, in the same way, show consideration for your wives in your life together, paying honor to the woman as the weaker sex, since they too are also heirs of the gracious gift of life — so that nothing may hinder your prayers.

⁸Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

⁹Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called — that you might inherit a blessing.

¹⁰For “Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit;

¹¹let them turn away from evil and do good; let them 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 will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?

¹⁴But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated,

¹⁵but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you;

¹⁶yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.

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

¹⁸For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,

¹⁹in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison,

²⁰who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

²¹And baptism, which this prefigured, 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 made subject to him.

¹Elihu 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 bring my knowledge from far away, and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

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

⁵“Surely 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 fetters 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 shall 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 their youth, and their life ends in shame.

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 constraint, and what was set on your table was full of fatness.

¹⁷“But you are obsessed with the case of the wicked; judgment and justice seize you.

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

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

²⁰Do not long for the night, when peoples are cut off in their place.

²¹Beware! Do not turn to iniquity; because of that you have been tried by affliction.

²²See, 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 mortals have sung.

²⁵All people have looked on it; everyone watches it from far away.

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

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

²⁸which the skies pour down and drop upon mortals abundantly.

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

³⁰See, he scatters his lightning around him and covers the roots of the sea.

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

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

³³Its crashing tells about him; he is jealous with anger against iniquity.

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

²In arrogance the wicked persecute the poor — let them be caught in the schemes they have devised.

³For the wicked boast of the desires of their heart, those greedy for gain curse and renounce the LORD.

⁴In the pride of their countenance the wicked say, “God will not seek it out”; all their thoughts are, “There is no God.”

⁵Their ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of their sight; as for their foes, they scoff at them.

⁶They think in their heart, “We shall not be moved; throughout all generations we shall not meet adversity.”

⁷Their mouths are filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under their tongues are mischief and iniquity.

⁸They sit in ambush in the villages; in hiding places they murder the innocent. Their eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;

⁹they lurk in secret like a lion in its covert; they lurk that they may seize the poor; they seize the poor and drag them off in their net.

¹⁰They stoop, they crouch, and the helpless fall by their might.

¹¹They think in their heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

¹²Rise up, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; do not forget the oppressed.

¹³Why do the wicked renounce God, and say in their hearts, “You will not call us to account”?

¹⁴But you do see! Indeed you note trouble and grief, that you may take it into your hands; the helpless commit themselves to you; you have been the helper of the orphan.

¹⁵Break the arm of the wicked and evildoers; seek out their wickedness until you find none.

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

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

¹⁸to do justice for the orphan and the oppressed, so that those from earth may strike terror no more.

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

²so that you may hold on to prudence, and your lips may guard knowledge.

³For the lips of a loose 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 keep straight to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And now, my child, 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;

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

¹⁰and strangers will take their fill of your wealth, and your labors will go to the house of an alien;

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

¹²and you say, “Oh, 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.

¹⁴Now I am at the point of utter ruin in the public assembly.”

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 sharing with strangers.

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

¹⁹a lovely deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts satisfy you at all times; may you be intoxicated always by her love.

²⁰Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

²¹For human ways are under the eyes of the LORD, and he examines all their paths.

²²The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them, and they are caught in the toils of their sin.

²³They die for lack of discipline, and because of their great folly they are lost.

¹So all Israel was enrolled by genealogies; and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.

²Now the first to live again in their possessions in their towns were Israelites, priests, Levites, and temple servants.

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

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

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

⁶Of the sons of Zerah: Jeuel and their kin, six hundred ninety.

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

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

⁹and their kindred according to their generations, nine hundred fifty-six. All these were heads of families according to their ancestral houses.

¹⁰Of the priests: Jedaiah, Jehoiarib, Jachin,

¹¹and Azariah 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 son of Jeroham, son of Pashhur, son of Malchijah, and Maasai son of Adiel, son of Jahzerah, son of Meshullam, son of Meshillemith, son of Immer;

¹³besides their kindred, heads of their ancestral houses, one thousand seven hundred sixty, qualified for the work of the service of the house of God.

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

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

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

¹⁷The gatekeepers were: Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman; and their kindred Shallum was the chief,

¹⁸stationed previously in the king’s gate on the east side. These were the gatekeepers of the camp of the Levites.

¹⁹Shallum son of Kore, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah, and his kindred of his ancestral house, the Korahites, were in charge of the work of the service, guardians of the thresholds of the tent, as their ancestors had been in charge of the camp of the LORD, guardians of the entrance.

²⁰And Phinehas son of Eleazar was chief over them in former times; the LORD was with him.

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

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

²³So they and their descendants 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 kindred who were in their villages were obliged to come in every seven days, in turn, to be with them;

²⁶for the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were in charge of the chambers and the treasures of the house of God.

²⁷And they would spend the night near 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 choice 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 in charge of making the flat cakes.

³²Also some of their kindred of the Kohathites had charge of the rows of bread, to prepare them for each sabbath.

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

³⁴These were heads of ancestral houses of the Levites, according to their generations; these leaders lived in Jerusalem.

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

³⁶His firstborn son was Abdon, then Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab,

³⁷Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, and Mikloth;

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

³⁹Ner became the father of Kish, Kish of Saul, Saul of Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Esh-baal;

⁴⁰and the son of Jonathan was Merib-baal; and Merib-baal became the father of Micah.

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

⁴²and Ahaz became the father of Jarah, and Jarah of Alemeth, Azmaveth, and Zimri; and Zimri became the father of Moza.

⁴³Moza became the father of 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 came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.

²He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.

³He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.”

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

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

⁶I will lay sinews on 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 had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

⁸I looked, and 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, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.”

¹⁰I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

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

¹²Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.

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

¹⁴I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD.”

¹⁵The word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁶Mortal, take a stick and write on it, “For Judah, and the Israelites associated with it”; then take another stick and write on it, “For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with it”;

¹⁷and join them together into one stick, so that they may become one in your hand.

¹⁸And when your people say to you, “Will you not show us what you mean by these?”

¹⁹say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with it; and I will put the stick of Judah upon it, and make them one stick, in order 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: I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from every quarter, and bring them to their own land.

²²I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.

²³They shall never again defile themselves with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all the apostasies into which they have fallen, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

²⁴My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes.

²⁵They shall live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your ancestors lived; they and their children and their children’s children shall live there forever; and my servant David 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 bless them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary among them forevermore.

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

²⁸Then the nations shall know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is among them forevermore.

¹After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples; and after encouraging them and saying farewell, he left for Macedonia.

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

³where he stayed for three months. He was about to set sail for Syria when a plot was made against him by the Jews, and so he decided to return through Macedonia.

⁴He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Beroea, by Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, by Gaius from Derbe, and by Timothy, as well as by Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia.

⁵They went ahead and were waiting for us in Troas;

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

⁷On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight.

⁸There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were meeting.

⁹A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, began to sink off into a deep sleep while Paul talked still longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell to the ground three floors below and was picked up dead.

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

¹¹Then Paul went upstairs, and after he had broken bread and eaten, he continued to converse with them until dawn; then he left.

¹²Meanwhile they had taken the boy away alive and were not a little comforted.

¹³We went ahead to the ship and set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul on board there; for he had made this arrangement, intending to go by land himself.

¹⁴When he met us in Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene.

¹⁵We sailed from there, and on the following day we arrived opposite Chios. The next day we touched at Samos, and the day after that we came to Miletus.

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

¹⁷From Miletus he sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him.

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

¹⁹serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews.

²⁰I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house,

²¹as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus.

²²And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,

²³except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me.

²⁴But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God’s grace.

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

²⁶Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,

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

²⁸Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son.

²⁹I know that after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

³⁰Some even from your own group will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them.

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

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

³³I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing.

³⁴You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions.

³⁵In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

³⁶When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed.

³⁷There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him,

³⁸grieving especially because of what he had said, that they would not see him again. Then they brought him to the ship.