Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades.

³Within these lay a large number of the disabled — blind, lame, and paralyzed.

⁴

⁵One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.

⁶When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷“Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

⁸“Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.”

⁹Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath,

¹⁰and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.”

¹¹He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹²“Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked.

¹³But the man who was healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”

¹⁵The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

¹⁶Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

¹⁷Jesus responded to them, “My Father is still working, and I am working also.”

¹⁸This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill him: Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.

¹⁹Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.

²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him greater works than these so that you will be amazed.

²¹And just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants.

²²The Father, in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son,

²³so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

²⁴“Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.

²⁵“Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

²⁶For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son to have life in himself.

²⁷And he has granted him the right to pass judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice

²⁹and come out — those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.

³⁰“I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

³¹“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.

³²There is another who testifies about me, and I know that the testimony he gives about me is true.

³³You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth.

³⁴I don’t receive human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

³⁵John was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

³⁶“But I have a greater testimony than John’s because of the works that the Father has given me to accomplish. These very works I am doing testify about me that the Father has sent me.

³⁷The Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You have not heard his voice at any time, and you haven’t seen his form.

³⁸You don’t have his word residing in you, because you don’t believe the one he sent.

³⁹You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me.

⁴⁰But you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.

⁴¹“I do not accept glory from people,

⁴²but I know you — that you have no love for God within you.

⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and yet you don’t accept me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.

⁴⁴How can you believe, since you accept glory from one another but don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

⁴⁶For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.

⁴⁷But if you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe my words?”

¹“Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and drive out nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens.

²The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them and you have heard it said about them, ‘Who can stand up to the sons of Anak? ’

³But understand that today the LORD your God will cross over ahead of you as a consuming fire; he will devastate and subdue them before you. You will drive them out and destroy them swiftly, as the LORD has told you.

⁴When the LORD your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The LORD brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the LORD will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

⁵You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the LORD your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶Understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

⁷“Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. You have been rebelling against the LORD from the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place.

⁸You provoked the LORD at Horeb, and he was angry enough with you to destroy you.

⁹When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I did not eat food or drink water.

¹⁰On the day of the assembly the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by God’s finger. The exact words were on them, which the LORD spoke to you from the fire on the mountain.

¹¹The LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, at the end of the forty days and forty nights.

¹²“The LORD said to me, ‘Get up and go down immediately from here. For your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast image for themselves.’

¹³The LORD also said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, they are a stiff-necked people.

¹⁴Leave me alone, and I will destroy them and blot out their name under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.’

¹⁵“So I went back down the mountain, while it was blazing with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.

¹⁶I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made a calf image for yourselves. You had quickly turned from the way the LORD had commanded for you.

¹⁷So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands, shattering them before your eyes.

¹⁸I fell down like the first time in the presence of the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food or drink water because of all the sin you committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and angering him.

¹⁹I was afraid of the fierce anger the LORD had directed against you, because he was about to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me on that occasion.

²⁰The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. But I prayed for Aaron at that time also.

²¹I took the sinful calf you had made and burned it. I crushed it, thoroughly grinding it to powder as fine as dust, and threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

²²“You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah.

²³When the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, he said, ‘Go up and possess the land I have given you’; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not believe or obey him.

²⁴You have been rebelling against the LORD ever since I have known you.

²⁵“I fell down in the presence of the LORD forty days and forty nights because the LORD had threatened to destroy you.

²⁶I prayed to the LORD: Lord GOD, do not annihilate your people, your inheritance, whom you redeemed through your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

²⁷Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Disregard this people’s stubbornness, and their wickedness and sin.

²⁸Otherwise, those in the land you brought us from will say, ‘Because the LORD wasn’t able to bring them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’

²⁹But they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and outstretched arm.

¹What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?

²Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

³Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,

⁷since a person who has died is freed from sin.

⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,

⁹because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him.

¹⁰For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.

¹³And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.

¹⁴For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not!

¹⁶Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey  — either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?

¹⁷But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over,

¹⁸and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

¹⁹I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.

²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.

²¹So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death.

²²But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification  — and the outcome is eternal life!

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed:

²Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed for money but eagerly;

³not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

⁴And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

⁵In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time,

⁷casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.

⁸Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.

⁹Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

¹⁰The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.

¹¹To him be dominion forever. Amen.

¹²Through Silvanus, a faithful brother (as I consider him), I have written to you briefly in order to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!

¹³She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, as does Mark, my son.

¹⁴Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

¹Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind. He said:

²Who is this who obscures my counsel with ignorant words?

³Get ready to answer me like a man; when I question you, you will inform me.

⁴Where were you when I established the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶What supports its foundations? Or who laid its cornerstone

⁷while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst from the womb,

⁹when I made the clouds its garment and total darkness its blanket,

¹⁰when I determined its boundaries and put its bars and doors in place,

¹¹when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther; your proud waves stop here”?

¹²Have you ever in your life commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,

¹³so it may seize the edges of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴The earth is changed as clay is by a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked, and the arm raised in violence is broken.

¹⁶Have you traveled to the sources of the sea or walked in the depths of the oceans?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the extent of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.

¹⁹Where is the road to the home of light? Do you know where darkness lives,

²⁰so you can lead it back to its border? Are you familiar with the paths to its home?

²¹Don’t you know? You were already born; you have lived so long!

²²Have you entered the place where the snow is stored? Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,

²³which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of warfare and battle?

²⁴What road leads to the place where light is dispersed? Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?

²⁵Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain or clears the way for lightning,

²⁶to bring rain on an uninhabited land, on a desert with no human life,

²⁷to satisfy the parched wasteland and cause the grass to sprout?

²⁸Does the rain have a father? Who fathered the drops of dew?

²⁹Whose womb did the ice come from? Who gave birth to the frost of heaven

³⁰when water becomes as hard as stone, and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?

³¹Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?

³²Can you bring out the constellations in their season and lead the Bear and her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of heaven? Can you impose its authority on earth?

³⁴Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?

³⁵Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go? Do they report to you: “Here we are”?

³⁶Who put wisdom in the heart or gave the mind understanding?

³⁷Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven

³⁸when the dust hardens like cast metal and the clods of dirt stick together?

³⁹Can you hunt prey for a lioness or satisfy the appetite of young lions

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait within their lairs?

⁴¹Who provides the raven’s food when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?

¹For the choir director: according to . A psalm of David. [1] Help, LORD, for no faithful one remains; the loyal have disappeared from the human race.

²They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and deceptive hearts.

³May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks boastfully.

⁴They say, “Through our tongues we have power; our lips are our own — who can be our master?”

⁵“Because of the devastation of the needy and the groaning of the poor, I will now rise up,” says the LORD. “I will provide safety for the one who longs for it.”

⁶The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in an earthen furnace, purified seven times.

⁷You, LORD, will guard us; you will protect us from this generation forever.

⁸The wicked prowl all around, and what is worthless is exalted by the human race.

¹My son, obey my words, and treasure my commands.

²Keep my commands and live, and guard my instructions as you would the pupil of your eye.

³Tie them to your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your relative.

⁵She will keep you from a forbidden woman, a wayward woman with her flattering talk.

⁶At the window of my house I looked through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the inexperienced, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking sense.

⁸Crossing the street near her corner, he strolled down the road to her house

⁹at twilight, in the evening, in the dark of the night.

¹⁰A woman came to meet him dressed like a prostitute, having a hidden agenda.

¹¹She is loud and defiant; her feet do not stay at home.

¹²Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.

¹³She grabs him and kisses him; she brazenly says to him,

¹⁴“I’ve made fellowship offerings; today I’ve fulfilled my vows.

¹⁵So I came out to meet you, to search for you, and I’ve found you.

¹⁶I’ve spread coverings on my bed  — richly colored linen from Egypt.

¹⁷I’ve perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning. Let’s feast on each other’s love!

¹⁹My husband isn’t home; he went on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of silver with him and will come home at the time of the full moon.”

²¹She seduces him with her persistent pleading; she lures with her flattering talk.

²²He follows her impulsively like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding toward a trap

²³until an arrow pierces its liver, like a bird darting into a snare  — he doesn’t know it will cost him his life.

²⁴Now, sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words from my mouth.

²⁵Don’t let your heart turn aside to her ways; don’t stray onto her paths.

²⁶For she has brought many down to death; her victims are countless.

²⁷Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

¹All Israel came together to David at Hebron and said, “Here we are, your own flesh and blood.

²Even previously when Saul was king, you were leading Israel out to battle and bringing us back. The LORD your God also said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will be ruler over my people Israel.’”

³So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron. David made a covenant with them at Hebron in the LORD’s presence, and they anointed David king over Israel, in keeping with the LORD’s word through Samuel.

⁴David and all Israel marched to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus); the Jebusites who inhabited the land were there.

⁵The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, “You will never get in here.” Yet David did capture the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David.

⁶David said, “Whoever is the first to kill a Jebusite will become chief commander.” Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, so he became the chief.

⁷Then David took up residence in the stronghold; therefore, it was called the city of David.

⁸He built up the city all the way around, from the supporting terraces to the surrounding parts, and Joab restored the rest of the city.

⁹David steadily grew more powerful, and the LORD of Armies was with him.

¹⁰The following were the chiefs of David’s warriors who, together with all Israel, strongly supported him in his reign to make him king according to the LORD’s word about Israel.

¹¹This is the list of David’s warriors: Jashobeam son of Hachmoni was chief of the Thirty; he wielded his spear against three hundred and killed them at one time.

¹²After him, Eleazar son of Dodo the Ahohite was one of the three warriors.

¹³He was with David at Pas-dammim when the Philistines had gathered there for battle. There was a portion of a field full of barley, where the troops had fled from the Philistines.

¹⁴But Eleazar and David took their stand in the middle of the field and defended it. They killed the Philistines, and the LORD gave them a great victory.

¹⁵Three of the thirty chief men went down to David, to the rock at the cave of Adullam, while the Philistine army was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁶At that time David was in the stronghold, and a Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem.

¹⁷David was extremely thirsty and said, “If only someone would bring me water to drink from the well at the city gate of Bethlehem!”

¹⁸So the Three broke through the Philistine camp and drew water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem. They brought it back to David, but he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out to the LORD.

¹⁹David said, “I would never do such a thing in the presence of my God! How can I drink the blood of these men who risked their lives?” For they brought it at the risk of their lives. So he would not drink it. Such were the exploits of the three warriors.

²⁰Abishai, Joab’s brother, was the leader of the Three. He raised his spear against three hundred men and killed them, gaining a reputation among the Three.

²¹He was more honored than the Three and became their commander even though he did not become one of the Three.

²²Benaiah son of Jehoiada was the son of a brave man from Kabzeel, a man of many exploits. Benaiah killed two sons of Ariel of Moab, and he went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.

²³He also killed an Egyptian who was seven and a half feet tall. Even though the Egyptian had a spear in his hand like a weaver’s beam, Benaiah went down to him with a club, snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and then killed him with his own spear.

²⁴These were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who had a reputation among the three warriors.

²⁵He was the most honored of the Thirty, but he did not become one of the Three. David put him in charge of his bodyguard.

²⁶The best soldiers were Joab’s brother Asahel, Elhanan son of Dodo of Bethlehem,

²⁷Shammoth the Harorite, Helez the Pelonite,

²⁸Ira son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, Abiezer the Anathothite,

²⁹Sibbecai the Hushathite, Ilai the Ahohite,

³⁰Maharai the Netophathite, Heled son of Baanah the Netophathite,

³¹Ithai son of Ribai from Gibeah of the Benjaminites, Benaiah the Pirathonite,

³²Hurai from the wadis of Gaash, Abiel the Arbathite,

³³Azmaveth the Baharumite, Eliahba the Shaalbonite,

³⁴the sons of Hashem the Gizonite, Jonathan son of Shagee the Hararite,

³⁵Ahiam son of Sachar the Hararite, Eliphal son of Ur,

³⁶Hepher the Mecherathite, Ahijah the Pelonite,

³⁷Hezro the Carmelite, Naarai son of Ezbai,

³⁸Joel the brother of Nathan, Mibhar son of Hagri,

³⁹Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, the armor-bearer for Joab son of Zeruiah,

⁴⁰Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

⁴¹Uriah the Hethite, Zabad son of Ahlai,

⁴²Adina son of Shiza the Reubenite, chief of the Reubenites, and thirty with him,

⁴³Hanan son of Maacah, Joshaphat the Mithnite,

⁴⁴Uzzia the Ashterathite, Shama and Jeiel the sons of Hotham the Aroerite,

⁴⁵Jediael son of Shimri and his brother Joha the Tizite,

⁴⁶Eliel the Mahavite, Jeribai and Joshaviah, the sons of Elnaam, Ithmah the Moabite,

⁴⁷Eliel, Obed, and Jaasiel the Mezobaite.

¹“As for you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.

²I will turn you around, drive you on, and lead you up from the remotest parts of the north. I will bring you against the mountains of Israel.

³Then I will knock your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand.

⁴You, all your troops, and the peoples who are with you will fall on the mountains of Israel. I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and to the wild animals.

⁵You will fall on the open field, for I have spoken. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

⁶“‘I will send fire against Magog and those who live securely on the coasts and islands. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

⁷So I will make my holy name known among my people Israel and will no longer allow it to be profaned. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

⁸Yes, it is coming, and it will happen. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD. This is the day I have spoken about.

⁹“‘Then the inhabitants of Israel’s cities will go out, kindle fires, and burn the weapons — the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them to make fires.

¹⁰They will not gather wood from the countryside or cut it down from the forests, for they will use the weapons to make fires. They will take the loot from those who looted them and plunder those who plundered them. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

¹¹“‘Now on that day I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel — the Travelers’ Valley east of the Sea. It will block those who travel through, for Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called Hordes of Gog Valley.

¹²The house of Israel will spend seven months burying them in order to cleanse the land.

¹³All the people of the land will bury them and their fame will spread on the day I display my glory. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

¹⁴“‘They will appoint men on a full-time basis to pass through the land and bury the invaders who remain on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. They will make their search at the end of the seven months.

¹⁵When they pass through the land and one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker next to it until the buriers have buried it in Hordes of Gog Valley.

¹⁶There will even be a city named Hamonah there. So they will cleanse the land.’

¹⁷“Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: Tell every kind of bird and all the wild animals, ‘Assemble and come! Gather from all around to my sacrificial feast that I am slaughtering for you, a great feast on the mountains of Israel; you will eat flesh and drink blood.

¹⁸You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the earth’s princes: rams, lambs, male goats, and all the fattened bulls of Bashan.

¹⁹You will eat fat until you are satisfied and drink blood until you are drunk, at my sacrificial feast that I have prepared for you.

²⁰At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, of mighty men and all the warriors. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.’

²¹“I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the judgment I have executed and the hand I have laid on them.

²²From that day forward the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God.

²³And the nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile on account of their iniquity, because they dealt unfaithfully with me. Therefore, I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, so that they all fell by the sword.

²⁴I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and transgressions, and I hid my face from them.

²⁵“So this is what the Lord GOD says: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have compassion on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.

²⁶They will feel remorse for their disgrace and all the unfaithfulness they committed against me, when they live securely in their land with no one to frighten them.

²⁷When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the countries of their enemies, I will demonstrate my holiness through them in the sight of many nations.

²⁸They will know that I am the LORD their God when I regather them to their own land after having exiled them among the nations. I will leave none of them behind.

²⁹I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel.” This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you.”

²When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even quieter.

³He continued, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail,

⁵as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. After I received letters from them to the brothers, I traveled to Damascus to arrest those who were there and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶“As I was traveling and approaching Damascus, about noon an intense light from heaven suddenly flashed around me.

⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’

⁸“I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.’

⁹Now those who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

¹⁰“I said, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ “The Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything that you have been assigned to do.’

¹¹“Since I couldn’t see because of the brightness of the light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and went into Damascus.

¹²Someone named Ananias, a devout man according to the law, who had a good reputation with all the Jews living there,

¹³came and stood by me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ And in that very hour I looked up and saw him.

¹⁴And he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the words from his mouth,

¹⁵since you will be a witness for him to all people of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now, why are you delaying? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

¹⁷“After I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance

¹⁸and saw him telling me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹“But I said, ‘Lord, they know that in synagogue after synagogue I had those who believed in you imprisoned and beaten.

²⁰And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood there giving approval and guarding the clothes of those who killed him.’

²¹“He said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’  ”

²²They listened to him up to this point. Then they raised their voices, shouting, “Wipe this man off the face of the earth! He should not be allowed to live!”

²³As they were yelling and flinging aside their garments and throwing dust into the air,

²⁴the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, directing that he be interrogated with the scourge to discover the reason they were shouting against him like this.

²⁵As they stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing by, “Is it legal for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and is uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went and reported to the commander, saying, “What are you going to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷The commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” he said.

²⁸The commander replied, “I bought this citizenship for a large amount of money.” “But I was born a citizen,” Paul said.

²⁹So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. The commander too was alarmed when he realized Paul was a Roman citizen and he had bound him.

³⁰The next day, since he wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and instructed the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to convene. He brought Paul down and placed him before them.