Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

²Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.

³Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,

⁴they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.

⁵Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”

⁶This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

⁷So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

⁸And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

⁹Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

¹⁰When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

¹¹She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

¹²Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

¹³The Pharisees therefore said to Him, “You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true.”

¹⁴Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.

¹⁵You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

¹⁶And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.

¹⁷It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.

¹⁸I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.”

¹⁹Then they said to Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”

²⁰These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.

²¹Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.”

²²So the Jews said, “Will He kill Himself, because He says, ‘Where I go you cannot come’?”

²³And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

²⁴Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

²⁵Then they said to Him, “Who are You?” And Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.

²⁶I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.”

²⁷They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father.

²⁸Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.

²⁹And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.”

³⁰As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.

³¹Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.

³²And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

³³They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

³⁵And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.

³⁶Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

³⁷“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.

³⁸I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.”

³⁹They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.

⁴⁰But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.

⁴¹You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.

⁴³Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.

⁴⁴You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

⁴⁵But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.

⁴⁶Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?

⁴⁷He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

⁴⁸Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

⁴⁹Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.

⁵⁰And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges.

⁵¹Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”

⁵²Then the Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death.’

⁵³Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?”

⁵⁴Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God.

⁵⁵Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word.

⁵⁶Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”

⁵⁸Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

⁵⁹Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

¹“These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth.

²You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.

³And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place.

⁴You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things.

⁵“But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.

⁶There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

⁷And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

⁸“You shall not at all do as we are doing here today— every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—

⁹for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁰But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety,

¹¹then there will be the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the LORD.

¹²And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

¹³Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;

¹⁴but in the place which the LORD chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike.

¹⁶Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water.

¹⁷You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand.

¹⁸But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands.

¹⁹Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰“When the LORD your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, ‘Let me eat meat,’ because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires.

²¹If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the LORD has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires.

²²Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat them.

²³Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life; you may not eat the life with the meat.

²⁴You shall not eat it; you shall pour it on the earth like water.

²⁵You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

²⁶Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the LORD chooses.

²⁷And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the meat.

²⁸Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

²⁹“When the LORD your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land,

³⁰take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’

³¹You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

³²“Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

¹I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,

²that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.

³For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,

⁴who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;

⁵of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

⁶But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,

⁷nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.”

⁸That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

⁹For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”

¹⁰And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac

¹¹(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),

¹²it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”

¹³As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

¹⁴What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!

¹⁵For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”

¹⁶So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

¹⁷For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”

¹⁸Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

¹⁹You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”

²⁰But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”

²¹Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

²²What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

²³and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,

²⁴even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

²⁵As He says also in Hosea: “I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved.”

²⁶“And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

²⁷Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved.

²⁸For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.”

²⁹And as Isaiah said before: “Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”

³⁰What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;

³¹but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.

³²Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.

³³As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

¹Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),

²that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,

³knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,

⁴and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”

⁵For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,

⁶by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.

⁷But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

⁸But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

¹¹Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,

¹²looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

¹³Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

¹⁴Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;

¹⁵and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,

¹⁶as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

¹⁷You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;

¹⁸but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

¹“Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower?

²Can you put a reed through his nose, Or pierce his jaw with a hook?

³Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever?

⁵Will you play with him as with a bird, Or will you leash him for your maidens?

⁶Will your companions make a banquet of him? Will they apportion him among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears?

⁸Lay your hand on him; Remember the battle— Never do it again!

⁹Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false; Shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him?

¹⁰No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against Me?

¹¹Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.

¹²“I will not conceal his limbs, His mighty power, or his graceful proportions.

¹³Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of his face, With his terrible teeth all around?

¹⁵His rows of scales are his pride, Shut up tightly as with a seal;

¹⁶One is so near another That no air can come between them;

¹⁷They are joined one to another, They stick together and cannot be parted.

¹⁸His sneezings flash forth light, And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

¹⁹Out of his mouth go burning lights; Sparks of fire shoot out.

²⁰Smoke goes out of his nostrils, As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

²¹His breath kindles coals, And a flame goes out of his mouth.

²²Strength dwells in his neck, And sorrow dances before him.

²³The folds of his flesh are joined together; They are firm on him and cannot be moved.

²⁴His heart is as hard as stone, Even as hard as the lower millstone.

²⁵When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; Because of his crashings they are beside themselves.

²⁶Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail; Nor does spear, dart, or javelin.

²⁷He regards iron as straw, And bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow cannot make him flee; Slingstones become like stubble to him.

²⁹Darts are regarded as straw; He laughs at the threat of javelins.

³⁰His undersides are like sharp potsherds; He spreads pointed marks in the mire.

³¹He makes the deep boil like a pot; He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

³²He leaves a shining wake behind him; One would think the deep had white hair.

³³On earth there is nothing like him, Which is made without fear.

³⁴He beholds every high thing; He is king over all the children of pride.”

¹A Psalm of David. [1] LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill?

²He who walks uprightly, And works righteousness, And speaks the truth in his heart;

³He who does not backbite with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;

⁴In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the LORD; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;

⁵He who does not put out his money at usury, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

¹The proverbs of Solomon: A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.

²Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, But righteousness delivers from death.

³The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, But He casts away the desire of the wicked.

⁴He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.

⁵He who gathers in summer is a wise son; He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.

⁶Blessings are on the head of the righteous, But violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

⁷The memory of the righteous is blessed, But the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸The wise in heart will receive commands, But a prating fool will fall.

⁹He who walks with integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will become known.

¹⁰He who winks with the eye causes trouble, But a prating fool will fall.

¹¹The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, But violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

¹²Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins.

¹³Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has understanding, But a rod is for the back of him who is devoid of understanding.

¹⁴Wise people store up knowledge, But the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.

¹⁵The rich man’s wealth is his strong city; The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

¹⁶The labor of the righteous leads to life, The wages of the wicked to sin.

¹⁷He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, But he who refuses correction goes astray.

¹⁸Whoever hides hatred has lying lips, And whoever spreads slander is a fool.

¹⁹In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; The heart of the wicked is worth little.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, But fools die for lack of wisdom.

²²The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.

²³To do evil is like sport to a fool, But a man of understanding has wisdom.

²⁴The fear of the wicked will come upon him, And the desire of the righteous will be granted.

²⁵When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more, But the righteous has an everlasting foundation.

²⁶As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, So is the lazy man to those who send him.

²⁷The fear of the LORD prolongs days, But the years of the wicked will be shortened.

²⁸The hope of the righteous will be gladness, But the expectation of the wicked will perish.

²⁹The way of the LORD is strength for the upright, But destruction will come to the workers of iniquity.

³⁰The righteous will never be removed, But the wicked will not inhabit the earth.

³¹The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, But the perverse tongue will be cut out.

³²The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, But the mouth of the wicked what is perverse.

¹Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, with masons and carpenters, to build him a house.

²So David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel, for his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of His people Israel.

³Then David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David begot more sons and daughters.

⁴And these are the names of his children whom he had in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

⁵Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet,

⁶Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia,

⁷Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphelet.

⁸Now when the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and went out against them.

⁹Then the Philistines went and made a raid on the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁰And David inquired of God, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” The LORD said to him, “Go up, for I will deliver them into your hand.”

¹¹So they went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, “God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore they called the name of that place Baal Perazim.

¹²And when they left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire.

¹³Then the Philistines once again made a raid on the valley.

¹⁴Therefore David inquired again of God, and God said to him, “You shall not go up after them; circle around them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees.

¹⁵And it shall be, when you hear a sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall go out to battle, for God has gone out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.”

¹⁶So David did as God commanded him, and they drove back the army of the Philistines from Gibeon as far as Gezer.

¹⁷Then the fame of David went out into all lands, and the LORD brought the fear of him upon all nations.

¹Then he brought me out into the outer court, by the way toward the north; and he brought me into the chamber which was opposite the separating courtyard, and which was opposite the building toward the north.

²Facing the length, which was one hundred cubits (the width was fifty cubits), was the north door.

³Opposite the inner court of twenty cubits, and opposite the pavement of the outer court, was gallery against gallery in three stories.

⁴In front of the chambers, toward the inside, was a walk ten cubits wide, at a distance of one cubit; and their doors faced north.

⁵Now the upper chambers were shorter, because the galleries took away space from them more than from the lower and middle stories of the building.

⁶For they were in three stories and did not have pillars like the pillars of the courts; therefore the upper level was shortened more than the lower and middle levels from the ground up.

⁷And a wall which was outside ran parallel to the chambers, at the front of the chambers, toward the outer court; its length was fifty cubits.

⁸The length of the chambers toward the outer court was fifty cubits, whereas that facing the temple was one hundred cubits.

⁹At the lower chambers was the entrance on the east side, as one goes into them from the outer court.

¹⁰Also there were chambers in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, opposite the separating courtyard and opposite the building.

¹¹There was a walk in front of them also, and their appearance was like the chambers which were toward the north; they were as long and as wide as the others, and all their exits and entrances were according to plan.

¹²And corresponding to the doors of the chambers that were facing south, as one enters them, there was a door in front of the walk, the way directly in front of the wall toward the east.

¹³Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers, which are opposite the separating courtyard, are the holy chambers where the priests who approach the LORD shall eat the most holy offerings. There they shall lay the most holy offerings— the grain offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering—for the place is holy.

¹⁴When the priests enter them, they shall not go out of the holy chamber into the outer court; but there they shall leave their garments in which they minister, for they are holy. They shall put on other garments; then they may approach that which is for the people.”

¹⁵Now when he had finished measuring the inner temple, he brought me out through the gateway that faces toward the east, and measured it all around.

¹⁶He measured the east side with the measuring rod, five hundred rods by the measuring rod all around.

¹⁷He measured the north side, five hundred rods by the measuring rod all around.

¹⁸He measured the south side, five hundred rods by the measuring rod.

¹⁹He came around to the west side and measured five hundred rods by the measuring rod.

²⁰He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall all around, five hundred cubits long and five hundred wide, to separate the holy areas from the common.

¹Now when Festus had come to the province, after three days he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem.

²Then the high priest and the chief men of the Jews informed him against Paul; and they petitioned him,

³asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem— while they lay in ambush along the road to kill him.

⁴But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was going there shortly.

⁵“Therefore,” he said, “let those who have authority among you go down with me and accuse this man, to see if there is any fault in him.”

⁶And when he had remained among them more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, he commanded Paul to be brought.

⁷When he had come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood about and laid many serious complaints against Paul, which they could not prove,

⁸while he answered for himself, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I offended in anything at all.”

⁹But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and there be judged before me concerning these things?”

¹⁰So Paul said, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you very well know.

¹¹For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.”

¹²Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, “You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!”

¹³And after some days King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet Festus.

¹⁴When they had been there many days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying: “There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix,

¹⁵about whom the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, when I was in Jerusalem, asking for a judgment against him.

¹⁶To them I answered, ‘It is not the custom of the Romans to deliver any man to destruction before the accused meets the accusers face to face, and has opportunity to answer for himself concerning the charge against him.’

¹⁷Therefore when they had come together, without any delay, the next day I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought in.

¹⁸When the accusers stood up, they brought no accusation against him of such things as I supposed,

¹⁹but had some questions against him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

²⁰And because I was uncertain of such questions, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there be judged concerning these matters.

²¹But when Paul appealed to be reserved for the decision of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I could send him to Caesar.”

²²Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I also would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he said, “you shall hear him.”

²³So the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp, and had entered the auditorium with the commanders and the prominent men of the city, at Festus’ command Paul was brought in.

²⁴And Festus said: “King Agrippa and all the men who are here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole assembly of the Jews petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he was not fit to live any longer.

²⁵But when I found that he had committed nothing deserving of death, and that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I decided to send him.

²⁶I have nothing certain to write to my lord concerning him. Therefore I have brought him out before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the examination has taken place I may have something to write.

²⁷For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to specify the charges against him.”