Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

²Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, Heprunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

³You are alreadyclean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

⁴Remain in Me,and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruitof itselfbut must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.

⁵I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in himbears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

⁶If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

⁷If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and soprove to be My disciples.

⁹Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; remain in My love.

¹⁰If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.

¹¹These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

¹²“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

¹³Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.

¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command you.

¹⁵No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

¹⁶You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

¹⁷This I command you, that you love one another.

¹⁸“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

¹⁹If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

²⁰Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also.

²¹But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me.

²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not havesin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

²³The one who hates Me hates My Father also.

²⁴If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not havesin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

²⁵But this has happened so that the word that is written in their Law will be fulfilled: ‘THEY HATED ME FOR NO REASON.’

²⁶“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, namely, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, He will testify about Me,

²⁷andyou are testifying as well, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

¹“When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and settle in their cities and in their houses,

²you shall set aside for yourself three cities in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

³You shall prepare the roads for yourself, and divide into three regions the territory of your land which the LORD your God will give you as an inheritance, so that anyone who commits manslaughter may flee there.

⁴“Now this is the case of the one who commits manslaughter, who may flee there and live: when he kills his friend unintentionally, not hating him previously—

⁵as when a person goes into the forest with his friend to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron head slips off the handle and strikes his friend so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live.

⁶Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue him in the heat of his anger, and overtake him because the way is long, and take his life, though he was not sentenced to death since he had not hated him previously.

⁷Therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall set aside for yourself three cities.’

⁸“And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, just as He has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that He promised to give your fathers—

⁹if you carefully follow all of this commandment which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in His ways always—then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.

¹⁰So innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and guilt for bloodshed will not be on you.

¹¹“But if there is a person who hates his neighbor, and waits in ambush for him and rises up against him and strikes him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

¹²then the elders of his city shall send men and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.

¹³You shall not pity him, but you shall eliminate the guilt for the bloodshed of the innocent from Israel, so that it may go well for you.

¹⁴“You shall not displace your neighbor’s boundary marker, which the ancestors have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.

¹⁵“A single witness shall not rise up against a person regarding any wrongdoing or any sin that he commits; on the testimony of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

¹⁶If a malicious witness rises up against a person to testify against him of wrongdoing,

¹⁷then both people who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.

¹⁸And the judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has testified against his brother falsely,

¹⁹then you shall do to him just as he had planned to do to his brother. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you.

²⁰And the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you.

²¹So you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

¹I recommend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea,

²that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well.

³Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,

⁴who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles;

⁵also greet the church that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.

⁶Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.

⁷Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsfolk and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding in the view of the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

⁸Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.

⁹Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.

¹⁰Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.

¹¹Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.

¹²Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord. Greet Persis the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord.

¹³Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine.

¹⁴Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers and sisters with them.

¹⁵Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.

¹⁶Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.

¹⁷Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.

¹⁸For such people are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

¹⁹For the report of your obedience has reached everyone; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil.

²⁰The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

²¹Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, and so do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen.

²²I, Tertius, who have written this letter, greet you in the Lord.

²³Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, greets you, and Quartus, the brother.

²⁴

²⁵Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past,

²⁶but now has been disclosed, and through the Scriptures of the prophets, in accordance with the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;

²⁷to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.

¹The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.

²Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

³For I was overjoyed when brothers came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth.

⁴I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.

⁵Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brothers and sisters, and especially when they are strangers;

⁶and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.

⁷For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

⁸Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may prove to be fellow workers with the truth.

⁹I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say.

¹⁰For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with malicious words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brothers either, and he forbids those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

¹¹Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does what is good is of God; the one who does what is evil has not seen God.

¹²Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we testify too, and you know that our testimony is true.

¹³I had many things to write to you, but I do not want to write to you with pen and ink;

¹⁴but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face.

¹⁵Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.

¹There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is widespread among mankind:

²a person to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honor, so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God has not given him the opportunity to enjoy these things, but a foreigner enjoys them. This is futility and a severe affliction.

³If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, however many they may be, but his soul is not satisfied with good things and he does not even have a proper burial, then I say, “Better the miscarriage than he,

⁴for a miscarriage comes in futility and goes into darkness; and its name is covered in darkness.

⁵It has not even seen the sun nor does it know it; yet it is better off than that man.

⁶Even if the man lives a thousand years twice, but does not see good things—do not all go to one and the same place?”

⁷All a person’s labor is for his mouth, and yet his appetite is not satisfied.

⁸For what advantage does the wise person have over the fool? What does the poor person have, knowing how to walk before the living?

⁹What the eyes see is better than what the soul desires. This too is futility and striving after wind.

¹⁰Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with the one who is mightier than he is.

¹¹For there are many words which increase futility. What then is the advantage to a person?

¹²For who knows what is good for a person during his lifetime, during the few years of his futile life? He will spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a person what will happen after him under the sun?

¹My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my help are the words of my groaning.

²My God, I cry out by day, but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no rest.

³Yet You are holy, You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

⁴In You our fathers trusted; They trusted and You rescued them.

⁵To You they cried out and they fled to safety; In You they trusted and were not disappointed.

⁶But I am a worm and not a person, A disgrace of mankind and despised by the people.

⁷All who see me deride me; They sneer, they shake their heads, saying,

⁸“Turn him over to the LORD; let Him save him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”

⁹Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb; You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.

¹⁰I was cast upon You from birth; You have been my God from my mother’s womb.

¹¹Do not be far from me, for trouble is near; For there is no one to help.

¹²Many bulls have surrounded me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

¹³They open their mouths wide at me, As a ravening and roaring lion.

¹⁴I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.

¹⁵My strength is dried up like a piece of pottery, And my tongue clings to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.

¹⁷I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;

¹⁸They divide my garments among them, And they cast lots for my clothing.

¹⁹But You, LORD, do not be far away; You who are my help, hurry to my assistance.

²⁰Save my soul from the sword, My only life from the power of the dog.

²¹Save me from the lion’s mouth; From the horns of the wild oxen You answer me.

²²I will proclaim Your name to my brothers; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.

²³You who fear the LORD, praise Him; All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, And stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of Israel.

²⁴For He has not despised nor scorned the suffering of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.

²⁵From You comes my praise in the great assembly; I shall pay my vows before those who fear Him.

²⁶The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the LORD. May your heart live forever!

²⁷All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations will worship before You.

²⁸For the kingdom is the LORD’S And He rules over the nations.

²⁹All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship, All those who go down to the dust will kneel before Him, Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.

³⁰A posterity will serve Him; It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation.

³¹They will come and will declare His righteousness To a people who will be born, that He has performed it.

¹Better is a dry morsel and quietness with it Than a house full of feasting with strife.

²A servant who acts wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully, And will share in the inheritance among brothers.

³The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests hearts.

⁴An evildoer listens to wicked lips; A liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.

⁵One who mocks the poor taunts his Maker; One who rejoices at disaster will not go unpunished.

⁶Grandchildren are the crown of the old, And the glory of sons is their fathers.

⁷Excellent speech is not fitting for a fool, Much less are lying lips to a prince.

⁸A bribe is a charm in the sight of its owner; Wherever he turns, he prospers.

⁹One who conceals an offense seeks love, But one who repeats a matter separates close friends.

¹⁰A rebuke goes deeper into one who has understanding Than a hundred blows into a fool.

¹¹A rebellious person seeks only evil, So a cruel messenger will be sent against him.

¹²Let a person meet a bear robbed of her cubs, Rather than a fool in his foolishness.

¹³One who returns evil for good, Evil will not depart from his house.

¹⁴The beginning of strife is like letting out water, So abandon the quarrel before it breaks out.

¹⁵One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.

¹⁶Why is there money in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, When he has no sense?

¹⁷A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.

¹⁸A person lacking in sense shakes hands And becomes guarantor in the presence of his neighbor.

¹⁹One who loves wrongdoing loves strife; One who makes his doorway high seeks destruction.

²⁰One who has a crooked mind finds nothing good, And one who is corrupted in his language falls into evil.

²¹He who fathers a fool does so to his sorrow, And the father of a fool has no joy.

²²A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

²³A wicked person accepts a bribe from an inside pocket To pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴Wisdom is in the presence of one who has understanding, But the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.

²⁵A foolish son is a grief to his father, And bitterness to her who gave birth to him.

²⁶It is also not good to fine the righteous, Nor to strike the noble for their uprightness.

²⁷One who withholds his words has knowledge, And one who has a cool spirit is a person of understanding.

²⁸Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent.

¹Then Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel.

²So David said to Joab and to the leaders of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me word so that I may know their number.”

³But Joab said, “May the LORD add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord seek this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel?”

⁴Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab. Therefore, Joab departed and went throughout Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

⁵Then Joab gave the number of the census of the people to David. Israel was 1,100,000 men in all who drew the sword; and Judah was 470,000 men who drew the sword.

⁶But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, because the king’s command was abhorrent to Joab.

⁷Now God was displeased with this thing, so He struck Israel.

⁸David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, by doing this thing. But now, please overlook Your servant’s guilt, for I have behaved very foolishly.”

⁹The LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,

¹⁰“Go and speak to David, saying, ‘This is what the LORD says: “I extend to you three choices; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.” ’ ”

¹¹So Gad came to David and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Take for yourself

¹²three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD: a plague in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout the territory of Israel.’ Now, therefore, consider what answer I shall bring back to Him who sent me.”

¹³David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into human hands.”

¹⁴So the LORD sent a plague on Israel; seventy thousand men of Israel fell.

¹⁵And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was about to destroy it, the LORD saw and was sorry about the catastrophe, and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough; now relax your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁶Then David raised his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces.

¹⁷And David said to God, “Is it not I who commanded to count the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and acted very wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? LORD, my God, just let Your hand be against me and my father’s household, and not against Your people as a plague.”

¹⁸Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David was to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁹So David went up at the word of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the LORD.

²⁰Now Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. And Ornan was threshing wheat.

²¹As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out from the threshing floor and prostrated himself to David with his face to the ground.

²²Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of this threshing floor, so that I may build on it an altar to the LORD; you shall give it to me for the full price, so that the plague may be brought to a halt from the people.”

²³But Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and may my lord the king do what is good in his sight. See, I am giving the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the grain offering; I am giving it all.”

²⁴Nevertheless, King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will certainly buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.”

²⁵So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site.

²⁶Then David built an altar there to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called to the LORD, and He answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

²⁷The LORD commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath.

²⁸At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifice there.

²⁹For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were on the high place at Gibeon at that time.

³⁰But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was terrified by the sword of the angel of the LORD.

¹In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

²And the Lord handed Jehoiakim king of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.

³Then the king told Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles,

⁴youths in whom there was no impairment, who were good-looking, suitable for instruction in every kind of expertise, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability to serve in the king’s court; and he ordered Ashpenaz to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

⁵The king also allotted for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and ordered that they be educated for three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service.

⁶Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

⁷Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abed-nego.

⁸But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.

⁹Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials.

¹⁰The commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has allotted your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking gaunt in comparison to the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.”

¹¹But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

¹²“Please put your servants to the test for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

¹³Then let our appearance be examined in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

¹⁴So he listened to them in this matter, and put them to the test for ten days.

¹⁵And at the end of ten days their appearance seemed better, and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food.

¹⁶So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.

¹⁷And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every kind of literature and expertise; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.

¹⁸Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar.

¹⁹And the king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they entered the king’s personal service.

²⁰As for every matter of expertise and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the soothsayer priests and conjurers who were in all his realm.

²¹And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.

¹As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,

²being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

³And they laid hands on them and put them in prison until the next day, for it was already evening.

⁴But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

⁵On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem;

⁶and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent.

⁷When they had placed them in the center, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?”

⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people,

⁹if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well,

¹⁰let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health.

¹¹He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE.

¹²And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.”

¹³Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.

¹⁴And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.

¹⁵But when they had ordered them to leave the Council, they began to confer with one another,

¹⁶saying, “What are we to do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

¹⁷But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let’s warn them not to speak any longer to any person in this name.”

¹⁸And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, make your own judgment;

²⁰for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

²¹When they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened;

²²for the man on whom this miracle of healing had been performed was more than forty years old.

²³When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported everything that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

²⁴And when they heard this, they raised their voices to God with one mind and said, “Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND EVERYTHING THAT IS IN THEM,

²⁵who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, ‘WHY WERE THE NATIONS INSOLENT, AND THE PEOPLES PLOTTING IN VAIN?

²⁶THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.’

²⁷For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,

²⁸to do whatever Your hand and purpose predestined to occur.

²⁹And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant it to Your bond-servants to speak Your word with all confidence,

³⁰while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

³²And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.

³³And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.

³⁴For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales

³⁵and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each to the extent that any had need.

³⁶Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement),

³⁷owned a tract of land. So he sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.