Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias ).

²A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick.

³Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples.

⁴Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near.

⁵So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?”

⁶He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.

⁷Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.”

⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him,

⁹“There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish — but what are they for so many?”

¹⁰Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand.

¹¹Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated — so also with the fish, as much as they wanted.

¹²When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.”

¹³So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

¹⁵Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

¹⁶When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea,

¹⁷got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. Darkness had already set in, but Jesus had not yet come to them.

¹⁸A high wind arose, and the sea began to churn.

¹⁹After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid.

²⁰But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

²¹Then they were willing to take him on board, and at once the boat was at the shore where they were heading.

²²The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw there had been only one boat. They also saw that Jesus had not boarded the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone off alone.

²³Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

²⁴When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

²⁵When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

²⁶Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

²⁷Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”

²⁸“What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked.

²⁹Jesus replied, “This is the work of God — that you believe in the one he has sent.”

³⁰“What sign, then, are you going to do so we may see and believe you?” they asked. “What are you going to perform?

³¹Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

³²Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

³³For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴Then they said, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

³⁵“I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again.

³⁶But as I told you, you’ve seen me, and yet you do not believe.

³⁷Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.

³⁸For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

³⁹This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day.

⁴⁰For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

⁴¹Therefore the Jews started complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

⁴²They were saying, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

⁴³Jesus answered them, “Stop complaining among yourselves.

⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

⁴⁵It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to me — 

⁴⁶not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father.

⁴⁷“Truly I tell you, anyone who believes has eternal life.

⁴⁸I am the bread of life.

⁴⁹Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die.

⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵²At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³So Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves.

⁵⁴The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day,

⁵⁵because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.

⁵⁶The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

⁵⁷Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

⁵⁸This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your ancestors ate — and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

⁵⁹He said these things while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

⁶⁰Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?”

⁶¹Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were complaining about this, asked them, “Does this offend you?

⁶²Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

⁶³The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

⁶⁴But there are some among you who don’t believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning those who did not believe and the one who would betray him.)

⁶⁵He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father.”

⁶⁶From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.

⁶⁷So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life.

⁶⁹We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

⁷⁰Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.”

⁷¹He was referring to Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, one of the Twelve, because he was going to betray him.

¹“The LORD said to me at that time, ‘Cut two stone tablets like the first ones and come to me on the mountain and make a wooden ark.

²I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets you broke, and you are to place them in the ark.’

³So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and climbed the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.

⁴Then on the day of the assembly, the LORD wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that he had spoken to you on the mountain from the fire. The LORD gave them to me,

⁵and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made. And they have remained there, as the LORD commanded me.”

⁶The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died and was buried there, and Eleazar his son became priest in his place.

⁷They traveled from there to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams.

⁸“At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the LORD’s covenant, to stand before the LORD to serve him, and to pronounce blessings in his name, as it is today.

⁹For this reason, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance like his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God told him.

¹⁰“I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time. The LORD also listened to me on this occasion; he agreed not to annihilate you.

¹¹Then the LORD said to me, ‘Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, so that they may enter and possess the land I swore to give their fathers.’

¹²“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you except to fear the LORD your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul?

¹³Keep the LORD’s commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good.

¹⁴The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the LORD your God, as does the earth and everything in it.

¹⁵Yet the LORD had his heart set on your fathers and loved them. He chose their descendants after them — he chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today.

¹⁶Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer.

¹⁷For the LORD your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe.

¹⁸He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving him food and clothing.

¹⁹You are also to love the resident alien, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.

²⁰You are to fear the LORD your God and worship him. Remain faithful to him and take oaths in his name.

²¹He is your praise and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awe-inspiring works your eyes have seen.

²²Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy people in all, and now the LORD your God has made you numerous, like the stars of the sky.

¹Since I am speaking to those who know the law, brothers and sisters, don’t you know that the law rules over someone as long as he lives?

²For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband.

³So then, if she is married to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then, if she is married to another man, she is not an adulteress.

⁴Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another. You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

⁵For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions aroused through the law were working in us to bear fruit for death.

⁶But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.

⁷What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet.

⁸And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.

⁹Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life again

¹⁰and I died. The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me.

¹¹For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

¹²So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

¹³Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave to sin.

¹⁵For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.

¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

¹⁷So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.

¹⁸For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.

¹⁹For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.

²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me.

²¹So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me.

²²For in my inner self I delight in God’s law,

²³but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.

²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.

¹Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

²May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

⁴By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge,

⁶knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness,

⁷godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.

¹⁰Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.

¹¹For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

¹²Therefore I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have.

¹³I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder,

¹⁴since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me.

¹⁵And I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure.

¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

¹⁷For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!”

¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

²⁰Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation,

²¹because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

¹Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the deer in labor?

²Can you count the months they are pregnant so you can know the time they give birth?

³They crouch down to give birth to their young; they deliver their newborn.

⁴Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field. They leave and do not return.

⁵Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from its harness?

⁶I made the desert its home, and the salty wasteland its dwelling.

⁷It scoffs at the noise of the village and never hears the shouts of a driver.

⁸It roams the mountains for its pastureland, searching for anything green.

⁹Would the wild ox be willing to serve you? Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?

¹⁰Can you hold the wild ox to a furrow by its harness? Will it plow the valleys behind you?

¹¹Can you depend on it because its strength is great? Would you leave it to do your hard work?

¹²Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?

¹³The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s?

¹⁴She abandons her eggs on the ground and lets them be warmed in the sand.

¹⁵She forgets that a foot may crush them or that some wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own, with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.

¹⁷For God has deprived her of wisdom; he has not endowed her with understanding.

¹⁸When she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

¹⁹Do you give strength to the horse? Do you adorn his neck with a mane?

²⁰Do you make him leap like a locust? His proud snorting fills one with terror.

²¹He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle.

²²He laughs at fear, since he is afraid of nothing; he does not run from the sword.

²³A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and a javelin.

²⁴He charges ahead with trembling rage; he cannot stand still at the trumpet’s sound.

²⁵When the trumpet blasts, he snorts defiantly. He smells the battle from a distance; he hears the officers’ shouts and the battle cry.

²⁶Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread its wings to the south?

²⁷Does the eagle soar at your command and make its nest on high?

²⁸It lives on a cliff where it spends the night; its stronghold is on a rocky crag.

²⁹From there it searches for prey; its eyes penetrate the distance.

³⁰Its brood gulps down blood, and where the slain are, it is there.

¹For the choir director. A psalm of David. [1] How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

²How long will I store up anxious concerns within me, agony in my mind every day? How long will my enemy dominate me?

³Consider me and answer, LORD my God. Restore brightness to my eyes; otherwise, I will sleep in death.

⁴My enemy will say, “I have triumphed over him,” and my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

⁵But I have trusted in your faithful love; my heart will rejoice in your deliverance.

⁶I will sing to the LORD because he has treated me generously.

¹Doesn’t wisdom call out? Doesn’t understanding make her voice heard?

²At the heights overlooking the road, at the crossroads, she takes her stand.

³Beside the gates leading into the city, at the main entrance, she cries out:

⁴“People, I call out to you; my cry is to the children of Adam.

⁵Learn to be shrewd, you who are inexperienced; develop common sense, you who are foolish.

⁶Listen, for I speak of noble things, and what my lips say is right.

⁷For my mouth tells the truth, and wickedness is detestable to my lips.

⁸All the words from my mouth are righteous; none of them are deceptive or perverse.

⁹All of them are clear to the perceptive, and right to those who discover knowledge.

¹⁰Accept my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.

¹¹For wisdom is better than jewels, and nothing desirable can equal it.

¹²I, wisdom, share a home with shrewdness and have knowledge and discretion.

¹³To fear the LORD is to hate evil. I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.

¹⁴I possess good advice and sound wisdom; I have understanding and strength.

¹⁵It is by me that kings reign and rulers enact just law;

¹⁶by me, princes lead, as do nobles and all righteous judges.

¹⁷I love those who love me, and those who search for me find me.

¹⁸With me are riches and honor, lasting wealth and righteousness.

¹⁹My fruit is better than solid gold, and my harvest than pure silver.

²⁰I walk in the ways of righteousness, along the paths of justice,

²¹giving wealth as an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.

²²“The LORD acquired me at the beginning of his creation, before his works of long ago.

²³I was formed before ancient times, from the beginning, before the earth began.

²⁴I was born when there were no watery depths and no springs filled with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were established, prior to the hills, I was given birth —

²⁶before he made the land, the fields, or the first soil on earth.

²⁷I was there when he established the heavens, when he laid out the horizon on the surface of the ocean,

²⁸when he placed the skies above, when the fountains of the ocean gushed out,

²⁹when he set a limit for the sea so that the waters would not violate his command, when he laid out the foundations of the earth.

³⁰I was a skilled craftsman beside him. I was his delight every day, always rejoicing before him.

³¹I was rejoicing in his inhabited world, delighting in the children of Adam.

³²“And now, sons, listen to me; those who keep my ways are happy.

³³Listen to instruction and be wise; don’t ignore it.

³⁴Anyone who listens to me is happy, watching at my doors every day, waiting by the posts of my doorway.

³⁵For the one who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD,

³⁶but the one who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”

¹The following were the men who came to David at Ziklag while he was still banned from the presence of Saul son of Kish. They were among the warriors who helped him in battle.

²They were archers who could use either the right or left hand, both to sling stones and shoot arrows from a bow. They were Saul’s relatives from Benjamin:

³Their chief was Ahiezer son of Shemaah the Gibeathite. Then there was his brother Joash; Jeziel and Pelet sons of Azmaveth; Beracah, Jehu the Anathothite;

⁴Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a warrior among the Thirty and a leader over the Thirty; Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan, Jozabad the Gederathite;

⁵Eluzai, Jerimoth, Bealiah, Shemariah, Shephatiah the Haruphite;

⁶Elkanah, Isshiah, Azarel, Joezer, and Jashobeam, the Korahites;

⁷and Joelah and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham from Gedor.

⁸Some Gadites defected to David at his stronghold in the desert. They were valiant warriors, trained for battle, expert with shield and spear. Their faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as gazelles on the mountains.

⁹Ezer was the chief, Obadiah second, Eliab third,

¹⁰Mishmannah fourth, Jeremiah fifth,

¹¹Attai sixth, Eliel seventh,

¹²Johanan eighth, Elzabad ninth,

¹³Jeremiah tenth, and Machbannai eleventh.

¹⁴These Gadites were army commanders; the least of them was a match for a hundred, and the greatest of them for a thousand.

¹⁵These are the men who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks, and put to flight all those in the valleys to the east and to the west.

¹⁶Other Benjaminites and men from Judah also went to David at the stronghold.

¹⁷David went out to meet them and said to them, “If you have come in peace to help me, my heart will be united with you, but if you have come to betray me to my enemies even though my hands have done no wrong, may the God of our ancestors look on it and judge.”

¹⁸Then the Spirit enveloped Amasai, chief of the Thirty, and he said: We are yours, David, we are with you, son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to him who helps you, for your God helps you. So David received them and made them leaders of his troops.

¹⁹Some Manassites defected to David when he went with the Philistines to fight against Saul. However, they did not help the Philistines because the Philistine rulers sent David away after a discussion. They said, “It will be our heads if he defects to his master Saul.”

²⁰When David went to Ziklag, some men from Manasseh defected to him: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu, and Zillethai, chiefs of thousands in Manasseh.

²¹They helped David against the raiders, for they were all valiant warriors and commanders in the army.

²²At that time, men came day after day to help David until there was a great army, like an army of God.

²³The numbers of the armed troops who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul’s kingdom over to him, according to the LORD’s word, were as follows:

²⁴From the Judahites: 6,800 armed troops bearing shields and spears.

²⁵From the Simeonites: 7,100 valiant warriors ready for war.

²⁶From the Levites: 4,600

²⁷in addition to Jehoiada, leader of the house of Aaron, with 3,700 men;

²⁸and Zadok, a young valiant warrior, with 22 commanders from his father’s family.

²⁹From the Benjaminites, the relatives of Saul: 3,000 (up to that time the majority of the Benjaminites maintained their allegiance to the house of Saul).

³⁰From the Ephraimites: 20,800 valiant warriors who were famous men in their ancestral families.

³¹From half the tribe of Manasseh: 18,000 designated by name to come and make David king.

³²From the Issacharites, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do: 200 chiefs with all their relatives under their command.

³³From Zebulun: 50,000 who could serve in the army, trained for battle with all kinds of weapons of war, with one purpose to help David.

³⁴From Naphtali: 1,000 commanders accompanied by 37,000 men with shield and spear.

³⁵From the Danites: 28,600 trained for battle.

³⁶From Asher: 40,000 who could serve in the army, trained for battle.

³⁷From across the Jordan — from the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh: 120,000 men equipped with all the military weapons of war.

³⁸All these warriors, lined up in battle formation, came to Hebron wholeheartedly determined to make David king over all Israel. All the rest of Israel was also of one mind to make David king.

³⁹They spent three days there eating and drinking with David, for their relatives had provided for them.

⁴⁰In addition, their neighbors from as far away as Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali came and brought food on donkeys, camels, mules, and oxen — abundant provisions of flour, fig cakes, raisins, wine and oil, herds, and flocks. Indeed, there was joy in Israel.

¹In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month in the fourteenth year after Jerusalem had been captured, on that very day the LORD’s hand was on me, and he brought me there.

²In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain. On its southern slope was a structure resembling a city.

³He brought me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. He was standing by the city gate.

⁴He spoke to me: “Son of man, look with your eyes, listen with your ears, and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for you have been brought here so that I might show it to you. Report everything you see to the house of Israel.”

⁵Now there was a wall surrounding the outside of the temple. The measuring rod in the man’s hand was six units of twenty-one inches; each unit was the standard length plus three inches. He measured the thickness of the wall structure; it was 10½ feet, and its height was the same.

⁶Then he came to the gate that faced east and climbed its steps. He measured the threshold of the gate; it was 10½ feet deep — one threshold was 10½ feet deep.

⁷Each recess was 10½ feet long and 10½ feet deep, and there was a space of 8¾ feet between the recesses. The inner threshold of the gate on the temple side next to the gate’s portico was 10½ feet.

⁸Next he measured the gate’s portico;

⁹it was 14 feet, and its jambs were 3½ feet. The gate’s portico was on the temple side.

¹⁰There were three recesses on each side of the east gate, each with the same measurements, and the jambs on either side also had the same measurements.

¹¹Then he measured the width of the gate’s entrance; it was 17½ feet, while the width of the gate was 22¾ feet.

¹²There was a barrier of 21 inches in front of the recesses on both sides, and the recesses on each side were 10½ feet square.

¹³Then he measured the gate from the roof of one recess to the roof of the opposite one; the distance was 43¾ feet. The openings of the recesses faced each other.

¹⁴Next, he measured the porch — 105 feet.

¹⁵The distance from the front of the gate at the entrance to the front of the gate’s portico on the inside was 87½ feet.

¹⁶The recesses and their jambs had beveled windows all around the inside of the gate. The porticoes also had windows all around on the inside. Each jamb was decorated with palm trees.

¹⁷Then he brought me into the outer court, and there were chambers and a paved surface laid out all around the court. Thirty chambers faced the pavement,

¹⁸which flanked the courtyard’s gates and corresponded to the length of the gates; this was the lower pavement.

¹⁹Then he measured the distance from the front of the lower gate to the exterior front of the inner court; it was 175 feet. This was the east; next the north is described.

²⁰He measured the gate of the outer court facing north, both its length and width.

²¹Its three recesses on each side, its jambs, and its portico had the same measurements as the first gate: 87½ feet long and 43¾ feet wide.

²²Its windows, portico, and palm trees had the same measurements as those of the gate that faced east. Seven steps led up to the gate, and its portico was ahead of them.

²³The inner court had a gate facing the north gate, like the one on the east. He measured the distance from gate to gate; it was 175 feet.

²⁴He brought me to the south side, and there was also a gate on the south. He measured its jambs and portico; they had the same measurements as the others.

²⁵Both the gate and its portico had windows all around, like the other windows. It was 87½ feet long and 43¾ feet wide.

²⁶Its stairway had seven steps, and its portico was ahead of them. It had palm trees on its jambs, one on each side.

²⁷The inner court had a gate on the south. He measured from gate to gate on the south; it was 175 feet.

²⁸Then he brought me to the inner court through the south gate. When he measured the south gate, it had the same measurements as the others.

²⁹Its recesses, jambs, and portico had the same measurements as the others. Both it and its portico had windows all around. It was 87½ feet long and 43¾ feet wide.

³⁰(There were porticoes all around, 43¾ feet long and 8¾ feet wide. )

³¹Its portico faced the outer court, and its jambs were decorated with palm trees. Its stairway had eight steps.

³²Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side. When he measured the gate, it had the same measurements as the others.

³³Its recesses, jambs, and portico had the same measurements as the others. Both it and its portico had windows all around. It was 87½ feet long and 43¾ feet wide.

³⁴Its portico faced the outer court, and its jambs were decorated with palm trees on each side. Its stairway had eight steps.

³⁵Then he brought me to the north gate. When he measured it, it had the same measurements as the others,

³⁶as did its recesses, jambs, and portico. It also had windows all around. It was 87½ feet long and 43¾ feet wide.

³⁷Its portico faced the outer court, and its jambs were decorated with palm trees on each side. Its stairway had eight steps.

³⁸There was a chamber whose door opened into the gate’s portico. The burnt offering was to be washed there.

³⁹Inside the gate’s portico there were two tables on each side, on which to slaughter the burnt offering, sin offering, and guilt offering.

⁴⁰Outside, as one approaches the entrance of the north gate, there were two tables on one side and two more tables on the other side of the gate’s portico.

⁴¹So there were four tables inside the gate and four outside, eight tables in all on which the slaughtering was to be done.

⁴²There were also four tables of cut stone for the burnt offering, each 31½ inches long, 31½ inches wide, and 21 inches high. The utensils used to slaughter the burnt offerings and other sacrifices were placed on them.

⁴³There were three-inch hooks fastened all around the inside of the room, and the flesh of the offering was to be laid on the tables.

⁴⁴Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, there were chambers for the singers: one beside the north gate, facing south, and another beside the south gate, facing north.

⁴⁵Then the man said to me: “This chamber that faces south is for the priests who keep charge of the temple.

⁴⁶The chamber that faces north is for the priests who keep charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, the ones from the sons of Levi who may approach the LORD to serve him.”

⁴⁷Next he measured the court. It was square, 175 feet long and 175 feet wide. The altar was in front of the temple.

⁴⁸Then he brought me to the portico of the temple and measured the jambs of the portico; they were 8¾ feet thick on each side. The width of the gate was 24½ feet, and the side walls of the gate were 5¼ feet wide on each side.

⁴⁹The portico was 35 feet across and 21 feet deep, and 10 steps led up to it. There were pillars by the jambs, one on each side.

¹Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience to this day.”

²The high priest Ananias ordered those who were standing next to him to strike him on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! You are sitting there judging me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law are you ordering me to be struck?”

⁴Those standing nearby said, “Do you dare revile God’s high priest?”

⁵“I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest,” replied Paul. “For it is written, You must not speak evil of a ruler of your people.”

⁶When Paul realized that one part of them were Sadducees and the other part were Pharisees, he cried out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am being judged because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead!”

⁷When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

⁸For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, and neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees affirm them all.

⁹The shouting grew loud, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party got up and argued vehemently: “We find nothing evil in this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

¹⁰When the dispute became violent, the commander feared that Paul might be torn apart by them and ordered the troops to go down, take him away from them, and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage! For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so it is necessary for you to testify in Rome.”

¹²When it was morning, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³There were more than forty who had formed this plot.

¹⁴These men went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves under a solemn curse that we won’t eat anything until we have killed Paul.

¹⁵So now you, along with the Sanhedrin, make a request to the commander that he bring him down to you as if you were going to investigate his case more thoroughly. But, before he gets near, we are ready to kill him.”

¹⁶But the son of Paul’s sister, hearing about their ambush, came and entered the barracks and reported it to Paul.

¹⁷Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the commander, because he has something to report to him.”

¹⁸So he took him, brought him to the commander, and said, “The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, because he has something to tell you.”

¹⁹The commander took him by the hand, led him aside, and inquired privately, “What is it you have to report to me?”

²⁰“The Jews,” he said, “have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the Sanhedrin tomorrow, as though they are going to hold a somewhat more careful inquiry about him.

²¹Don’t let them persuade you, because there are more than forty of them lying in ambush — men who have bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they have killed him. Now they are ready, waiting for your consent.”

²²So the commander dismissed the young man and instructed him, “Don’t tell anyone that you have informed me about this.”

²³He summoned two of his centurions and said, “Get two hundred soldiers ready with seventy cavalry and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at nine tonight.

²⁴Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.”

²⁵He wrote the following letter:

²⁶Claudius Lysias, To the most excellent governor Felix: Greetings.

²⁷When this man had been seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, I arrived with my troops and rescued him because I learned that he is a Roman citizen.

²⁸Wanting to know the charge they were accusing him of, I brought him down before their Sanhedrin.

²⁹I found out that the accusations were concerning questions of their law, and that there was no charge that merited death or imprisonment.

³⁰When I was informed that there was a plot against the man, I sent him to you right away. I also ordered his accusers to state their case against him in your presence.

³¹So the soldiers took Paul during the night and brought him to Antipatris as they were ordered.

³²The next day, they returned to the barracks, allowing the cavalry to go on with him.

³³When these men entered Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him.

³⁴After he read it, he asked what province he was from. When he learned he was from Cilicia,

³⁵he said, “I will give you a hearing whenever your accusers also get here.” He ordered that he be kept under guard in Herod’s palace.