Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹So then, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that He was making and baptizing more disciples than John

²(although Jesus Himself was not baptizing; rather, His disciples were),

³He left Judea and went away again to Galilee.

⁴And He had to pass through Samaria.

⁵So He *came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph;

⁶and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired from His journey, was just sitting by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷A woman of Samaria *came to draw water. Jesus *said to her, “Give Me a drink.”

⁸For His disciples had gone away to the city to buy food.

⁹So the Samaritan woman *said to Him, “How is it that You, though You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, though I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

¹⁰Jesus replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

¹¹She *said to Him, “Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get this living water?

¹²You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?”

¹³Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again;

¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman *said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw water.”

¹⁶He *said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.”

¹⁷The woman answered and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’;

¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this which you have said is true.”

¹⁹The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and yet you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship.”

²¹Jesus *said to her, “Believe Me, woman, thata time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.

²³Buta time is coming, andeven now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to beHis worshipers.

²⁴God isspirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵The woman *said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”

²⁶Jesus *said to her, “I am He, the One speaking to you.”

²⁷And at this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What are You seeking?” or, “Why are You speaking with her?”

²⁸So the woman left her waterpot and went into the city, and *said to the people,

²⁹“Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is He?”

³⁰They left the city and were coming to Him.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat something.”

³²But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

³³So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?”

³⁴Jesus *said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.

³⁵Do you not say, ‘There are still four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I tell you, raise your eyes and observe the fields, that they are white for harvest.

³⁶Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together.

³⁷For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’

³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you havecome into their labor.”

³⁹Now from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.”

⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.

⁴¹Many more believed because of His word;

⁴²and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One truly is the Savior of the world.”

⁴³And after the two days, He departed from there for Galilee.

⁴⁴For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

⁴⁵So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, only because they had seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.

⁴⁶Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water into wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum.

⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and began asking Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.

⁴⁸Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people seesigns and wonders, you simply will not believe.”

⁴⁹The royal official *said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰Jesus *said to him, “Go; your sonis alive.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went home.

⁵¹And as he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was alive.

⁵²So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”

⁵³So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son is alive”; and he himself believed, and his entire household.

⁵⁴This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come from Judea into Galilee.

¹“All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you may live and increase, and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers.

²And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, in order to humble you, putting you to the test, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

³And He humbled you and let you go hungry, and fed you with the manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, in order to make you understand that man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the LORD.

⁴Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

⁵So you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

⁶Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

⁷For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in valleys and hills;

⁸a land of wheat and barley, of vines, fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey;

⁹a land where you will eat food without shortage, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

¹⁰When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.

¹¹“Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God by failing to keep His commandments, His ordinances, and His statutes which I am commanding you today;

¹²otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, and you build good houses and live in them,

¹³and when your herds and your flocks increase, and your silver and gold increase, and everything that you have increases,

¹⁴then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

¹⁵He who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions, and its thirsty ground where there was no water; He who brought water for you out of the rock of flint.

¹⁶In the wilderness it was He who fed you manna which your fathers did not know, in order to humble you and in order to put you to the test, to do good for you in the end.

¹⁷Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’

¹⁸But you are to remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, in order to confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

¹⁹And it shall come about, if you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and serve and worship them, I testify against you today that you will certainly perish.

²⁰Like the nations that the LORD eliminates from you, so you shall perish, because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.

¹Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

²through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we celebrate in hope of the glory of God.

³And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

⁴and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

⁵and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

⁶For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

⁷For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for the good person someone would even dare to die.

⁸But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

¹⁰For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

¹¹And not only this, but we also celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

¹²Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned—

¹³for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not counted against anyone when there is no law.

¹⁴Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the violation committed by Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

¹⁵But the gracious gift is not like the offense. For if by the offense of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many.

¹⁶The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one offense, resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the gracious gift arose from many offenses, resulting in justification.

¹⁷For if by the offense of the one, death reigned through the one, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸So then, as through one offense the result was condemnation to all mankind, so also through one act of righteousness the result was justification of life to all mankind.

¹⁹For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.

²⁰The Law came in so that the offense would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

²¹so that, as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

²so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human lusts, but for the will of God.

³For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of indecent behavior, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and wanton idolatries.

⁴In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excesses of debauchery, and they slander you;

⁵but they will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

⁶For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as people, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

⁷The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.

⁸Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.

⁹Be hospitable to one another without complaint.

¹⁰As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the multifaceted grace of God.

¹¹Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking actual words of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

¹²Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you;

¹³but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be overjoyed.

¹⁴If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, and of God, rests upon you.

¹⁵Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler;

¹⁶but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.

¹⁷For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

¹⁸AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?

¹⁹Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God are to entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

¹“At this also my heart trembles, And leaps from its place.

²Listen closely to the thunder of His voice, And the rumbling that goes out from His mouth.

³Under the whole heaven He lets it loose, And His lightning travels to the ends of the earth.

⁴After it, a voice roars; He thunders with His majestic voice, And He does not restrain the lightning when His voice is heard.

⁵God thunders wondrously with His voice, Doing great things which we do not comprehend.

⁶For to the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ And to the downpour and the rain, ‘Be strong.’

⁷He seals the hand of every person, So that all people may know His work.

⁸Then the animal goes into its lair And remains in its den.

⁹From the south comes the storm, And from the north wind the cold.

¹⁰From the breath of God ice is made, And the expanse of the waters is frozen.

¹¹He also loads the clouds with moisture; He disperses the cloud of His lightning.

¹²It changes direction, turning around by His guidance, That it may do whatever He commands it On the face of the inhabited earth.

¹³Whether for correction, or for His earth, Or for goodness, He causes it to happen.

¹⁴“Listen to this, Job; Stand and consider the wonders of God.

¹⁵Do you know how God establishes them, And makes the lightning of His clouds to shine?

¹⁶Do you know about the hovering of the clouds, The wonders of One who is perfect in knowledge,

¹⁷You whose garments are hot When the land is still because of the south wind?

¹⁸Can you, with Him, spread out the skies, Strong as a cast metal mirror?

¹⁹Teach us what we are to say to Him; We cannot present our case because of darkness.

²⁰Shall it be told Him that I would speak? Or should a man say that he would be swallowed up?

²¹“Now people do not see the light which is bright in the skies; But the wind has passed and cleared them.

²²From the north comes golden splendor; Around God is awesome majesty.

²³The Almighty—we cannot find Him; He is exalted in power And He will not violate justice and abundant righteousness.

²⁴Therefore people fear Him; He does not regard any who are wise of heart.”

¹In the LORD I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain?

²For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, They have set their arrow on the string To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.

³If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?”

⁴The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven; His eyes see, His eyelids test the sons of mankind.

⁵The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And His soul hates one who loves violence.

⁶He will rain coals of fire upon the wicked, And brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.

⁷For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will see His face.

¹My son, if you have become a guarantor for your neighbor, Or have given a handshake for a stranger,

²If you have been ensnared by the words of your mouth, Or caught by the words of your mouth,

³Then do this, my son, and save yourself: Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and be urgent with your neighbor to free yourself.

⁴Give no sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids;

⁵Save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand, And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, you lazy one, Observe its ways and be wise,

⁷Which, having no chief, Officer, or ruler,

⁸Prepares its food in the summer And gathers its provision in the harvest.

⁹How long will you lie down, you lazy one? When will you arise from your sleep?

¹⁰“A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest,”

¹¹Then your poverty will come in like a drifter, And your need like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man, Is one who walks with a perverse mouth,

¹³Who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, Who points with his fingers;

¹⁴Who, with perversion in his heart, continually devises evil, Who spreads strife.

¹⁵Therefore his disaster will come suddenly; Instantly he will be broken and there will be no healing.

¹⁶There are six things that the LORD hates, Seven that are an abomination to Him:

¹⁷Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that run rapidly to evil,

¹⁹A false witness who declares lies, And one who spreads strife among brothers.

²⁰My son, comply with the commandment of your father, And do not ignore the teaching of your mother;

²¹Bind them continually on your heart; Tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And rebukes for discipline are the way of life

²⁴To keep you from the evil woman, From the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart, Nor let her capture you with her eyelids.

²⁶For the price of a prostitute reduces one to a loaf of bread, And an adulteress hunts for a precious life.

²⁷Can anyone take fire in his lap And his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can a person walk on hot coals And his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her will not go unpunished.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals To satisfy himself when he is hungry;

³¹But when he is found, he must repay seven times as much; He must give up all the property of his house.

³²One who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself commits it.

³³He will find wounds and disgrace, And his shame will not be removed.

³⁴For jealousy enrages a man, And he will not have compassion on the day of vengeance.

³⁵He will not accept any settlement, Nor will he be satisfied though you make it a large gift.

¹Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from the Philistines but fell fatally wounded on Mount Gilboa.

²And the Philistines also overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul.

³The battle became severe against Saul, and the archers found him; and he was wounded by the archers.

⁴Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, otherwise these uncircumcised Philistines will come and abuse me.” But his armor bearer would not, for he was very afraid. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.

⁵When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword and died.

⁶So Saul died with his three sons, and all those of his house died together.

⁷When all the people of Israel who were in the valley saw that they had fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them.

⁸It came about the next day, when the Philistines came to strip those killed, that they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

⁹So they stripped him and took his head and his armor and sent messengers around the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to their idols and to the people.

¹⁰They put his armor in the house of their gods and impaled his head in the house of Dagon.

¹¹When all Jabesh-gilead heard everything that the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹²all the valiant men got up and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh; and they buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.

¹³So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he committed against the LORD, because of the word of the LORD which he did not keep; and also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of her,

¹⁴and did not inquire of the LORD. Therefore He killed him and turned the kingdom over to David, the son of Jesse.

¹Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

³and say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.

⁴So I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them magnificently dressed, a great contingent with shield and buckler, all of them wielding swords;

⁵Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with buckler and helmet;

⁶Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you.

⁷“Be ready, and be prepared, you and all your contingents that are assembled around you, and be a guard for them.

⁸After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual place of ruins; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them.

⁹And you will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.”

¹⁰‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan,

¹¹and you will say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, who live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates,

¹²to capture spoils and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the ruins that are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who live at the center of the world.’

¹³Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will say to you, ‘Have you come to capture spoils? Have you assembled your contingent to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to capture great spoils?’ ” ’

¹⁴“Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “On that day when My people Israel are living securely, will you not know it?

¹⁵You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding horses, a large assembly and a mighty army;

¹⁶and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I show Myself holy through you before their eyes, Gog.”

¹⁷‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them?

¹⁸It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” declares the Lord GOD, “that My fury will mount up in My anger.

¹⁹In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will certainly be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.

²⁰The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all the crawling things that crawl on the earth, and all mankind who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; and the mountains will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground.

²¹And I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains,” declares the Lord GOD. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother.

²²With plague and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

²³So I will prove Myself great, show Myself holy, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the LORD.” ’

¹Now when we had parted from them and had set sail, we ran a straight course to Cos, and on the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara;

²and having found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.

³When we came in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we kept sailing to Syria and landed at Tyre; for the ship was to unload its cargo there.

⁴After looking up the disciples, we stayed there for seven days; and they kept telling Paul, through the Spirit, not to set foot in Jerusalem.

⁵When our days there were ended, we left and started on our journey, while they all, with wives and children, escorted us until we were out of the city. After kneeling down on the beach and praying, we said farewell to one another.

⁶Then we boarded the ship, and they returned home.

⁷When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and after greeting the brothers and sisters, we stayed with them for a day.

⁸On the next day we left and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.

⁹Now this man had four virgin daughters who were prophetesses.

¹⁰As we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

¹¹And he came to us and took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and hand him over to the Gentiles.’ ”

¹²When we had heard this, we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem.

¹³Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

¹⁴And since he would not be persuaded, we became quiet, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!”

¹⁵After these days we got ready and started on our way up to Jerusalem.

¹⁶Some of the disciples from Caesarea also came with us, taking us to Mnason of Cyprus, a disciple of long standing with whom we were to stay.

¹⁷After we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us gladly.

¹⁸And the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.

¹⁹After he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

²⁰And when they heard about them, they began glorifying God; and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law;

²¹and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.

²²So what is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come.

²³Therefore, do as we tell you: we have four men who have a vow upon themselves;

²⁴take them along and purify yourself together with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and then everyone will know that there is nothing to what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also conform, keeping the Law.

²⁵But regarding the Gentiles who have believed, we sent a letter, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and what is strangled, and from sexual immorality.”

²⁶Then Paul took along the men, and the next day, after purifying himself together with them, he went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.

²⁷When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him,

²⁸crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who instructs everyone everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place!”

²⁹For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they thought that Paul had brought him into the temple.

³⁰Then the whole city was provoked and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.

³¹While they were intent on killing him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.

³²He immediately took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to the crowd; and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

³³Then the commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered that he be bound with two chains; and he began asking who he was and what he had done.

³⁴But among the crowd, some were shouting one thing and some another, and when he could not find out the facts because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be brought into the barracks.

³⁵When Paul got to the stairs, it came about that he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob;

³⁶for the multitude of people kept following them, shouting, “Away with him!”

³⁷As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he *said to the commander, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek?

³⁸Then you are not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”

³⁹But Paul said, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.”

⁴⁰When he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the stairs, motioned to the people with his hand; and when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, saying,