Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

²Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers.

³Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, and Hezron fathered Ram.

⁴Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon.

⁵Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, and Obed fathered Jesse.

⁶Jesse fathered David the king. David fathered Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.

⁷Solomon fathered Rehoboam, Rehoboam fathered Abijah, and Abijah fathered Asa.

⁸Asa fathered Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat fathered Joram, and Joram fathered Uzziah.

⁹Uzziah fathered Jotham, Jotham fathered Ahaz, and Ahaz fathered Hezekiah.

¹⁰Hezekiah fathered Manasseh, Manasseh fathered Amon, and Amon fathered Josiah.

¹¹Josiah fathered Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

¹²After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah fathered Shealtiel, and Shealtiel fathered Zerubbabel.

¹³Zerubbabel fathered Abihud, Abihud fathered Eliakim, and Eliakim fathered Azor.

¹⁴Azor fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Achim, and Achim fathered Eliud.

¹⁵Eliud fathered Eleazar, Eleazar fathered Matthan, and Matthan fathered Jacob.

¹⁶Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁹And her husband Joseph, since he was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

²⁰But when he had thought this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

²¹She will give birth to a Son; and you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

²²Now all this took place so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled:

²³“BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN WILL CONCEIVE AND GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND THEY SHALL NAME HIM IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”

²⁴And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife,

²⁵but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he named Him Jesus.

¹“Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and live in it,

²that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the LORD your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to establish His name.

³And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the LORD my God that I have entered the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.’

⁴Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it before the altar of the LORD your God.

⁵And you shall respond and say before the LORD your God, ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and resided there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.

⁶And the Egyptians treated us badly and oppressed us, and imposed hard labor on us.

⁷Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our wretched condition, our trouble, and our oppression;

⁸and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and with signs and wonders;

⁹and He has brought us to this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰And now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, LORD have given me.’ Then you shall set it before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God;

¹¹and you, the Levite, and the stranger who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has given you and your household.

¹²“When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

¹³And you shall say before the LORD your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and have also given it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, in accordance with all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not violated or forgotten any of Your commandments.

¹⁴I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God; I have acted in accordance with everything that You have commanded me.

¹⁵Look down from Your holy dwelling place, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey just as You swore to our fathers.’

¹⁶“This day the LORD your God commands you to perform these statutes and ordinances. Therefore you shall be careful to perform them with all your heart and with all your soul.

¹⁷Today you have declared the LORD to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His ordinances, and listen to His voice.

¹⁸And the LORD has today declared you to be His people, His personal possession, just as He promised you, and that you are to keep all His commandments;

¹⁹and that He will put you high above all the nations which He has made, for glory, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the LORD your God, just as He has spoken.”

¹Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

²But because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.

³The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise the wife also to her husband.

⁴The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise the husband also does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

⁵Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

⁶But this I say by way of concession, not of command.

⁷Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each has his own gift from God, one in this way, and another in that.

⁸But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I.

⁹But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

¹⁰But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife is not to leave her husband

¹¹(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband is not to divorce his wife.

¹²But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her.

¹³And if any woman has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not divorce her husband.

¹⁴For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.

¹⁵Yet if the unbelieving one is leaving, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace.

¹⁶For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

¹⁷Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this way let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches.

¹⁸Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised.

¹⁹Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.

²⁰Each person is to remain in that state in which he was called.

²¹Were you called as a slave? Do not let it concern you. But if you are also able to become free, take advantage of that.

²²For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave, is the Lord’s freed person; likewise the one who was called as free, is Christ’s slave.

²³You were bought for a price; do not become slaves of people.

²⁴Brothers and sisters, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called.

²⁵Now concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I am offering direction as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.

²⁶I think, then, that this is good in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is.

²⁷Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife.

²⁸But if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such people as yourselves will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.

²⁹But this I say, brothers, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none;

³⁰and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess;

³¹and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the present form of this world is passing away.

³²But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

³³but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,

³⁴and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

³⁵I say this for your own benefit, not to put a restraint on you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.

³⁶But if anyone thinks that he is acting dishonorably toward his virgin, if she is past her youth and it ought to be so, let him do what he wishes, he is not sinning; let them marry.

³⁷But the one who stands firm in his heart, if he is not under constraint, but has authority over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin, he will do well.

³⁸So then, both the one who gives his own virgin in marriage does well, and the one who does not give her in marriage will do better.

³⁹A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

⁴⁰But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

¹Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come!”

²I looked, and behold, a white horse, and the one who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.

³When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come!”

⁴And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that people would kill one another; and a large sword was given to him.

⁵When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come!” I looked, and behold, a black horse, and the one who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.

⁶And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

⁷When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come!”

⁸I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and the one who sat on it had the name Death, and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, and famine, and plague, and by the wild animals of the earth.

⁹When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained;

¹⁰and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who live on the earth?”

¹¹And a white robe was given to each of them; and they were told that they were to rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters who were to be killed even as they had been, was completed also.

¹²And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;

¹³and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.

¹⁴The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth and the eminent people, and the commanders and the wealthy and the strong, and every slave and free person hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;

¹⁶and they *said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the sight of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;

¹⁷for the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

¹The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.

²“May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is sweeter than wine.

³Your oils have a pleasing fragrance, Your name is like purified oil; Therefore the young women love you.

⁴Draw me after you and let’s run together! The king has brought me into his chambers.” “We will rejoice in you and be joyful; We will praise your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you.”

⁵“I am black and beautiful, You daughters of Jerusalem, Like the tents of Kedar, Like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do not stare at me because I am dark, For the sun has tanned me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; They made me caretaker of the vineyards, But I have not taken care of my own vineyard.

⁷Tell me, you whom my soul loves, Where do you pasture your flock, Where do you have it lie down at noon? For why should I be like one who veils herself Beside the flocks of your companions?”

⁸“If you yourself do not know, Most beautiful among women, Go out on the trail of the flock, And pasture your young goats By the tents of the shepherds.

⁹“To me, my darling, you are like My mare among the chariots of Pharaoh.

¹⁰Your cheeks are delightful with jewelry, Your neck with strings of beads.”

¹¹“We will make for you jewelry of gold With beads of silver.”

¹²“While the king was at his table, My perfume gave forth its fragrance.

¹³My beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh Which lies all night between my breasts.

¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms In the vineyards of Engedi.”

¹⁵“How beautiful you are, my darling, How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves.”

¹⁶“How handsome you are, my beloved, And so delightful! Indeed, our bed is luxuriant!

¹⁷The beams of our house are cedars, Our rafters, junipers.

¹Ascribe to the LORD, sons of the mighty, Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

²Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; Worship the LORD in holy attire.

³The voice of the LORD is on the waters; The God of glory thunders, The LORD is over many waters.

⁴The voice of the LORD is powerful, The voice of the LORD is majestic.

⁵The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; Yes, the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon in pieces.

⁶He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, And Sirion like a young wild ox.

⁷The voice of the LORD divides flames of fire.

⁸The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

⁹The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everything says, “Glory!”

¹⁰The LORD sat as King at the flood; Yes, the LORD sits as King forever.

¹¹The LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with peace.

¹Do not be envious of evil people, Nor desire to be with them;

²For their minds plot violence, And their lips talk of trouble.

³By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established;

⁴And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches.

⁵A wise man is strong, And a person of knowledge increases power.

⁶For by wise guidance you will wage war, And in an abundance of counselors there is victory.

⁷Wisdom is too exalted for a fool, He does not open his mouth at the gate.

⁸One who plans to do evil, People will call a schemer.

⁹The devising of foolishness is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to humanity.

¹⁰If you show yourself lacking courage on the day of distress, Your strength is meager.

¹¹Rescue those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to the slaughter, Oh hold them back!

¹²If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He who weighs the hearts not consider it? And does He who watches over your soul not know it? And will He not repay a person according to his work?

¹³My son, eat honey, for it is good; Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste;

¹⁴Know that wisdom is the same for your soul; If you find it, then there will be a future, And your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Do not lie in ambush, you wicked person, against the home of the righteous; Do not destroy his resting place;

¹⁶For a righteous person falls seven times and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of disaster.

¹⁷Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,

¹⁸Otherwise, the LORD will see and be displeased, And turn His anger away from him.

¹⁹Do not get upset because of evildoers Or be envious of the wicked;

²⁰For there will be no future for the evil person; The lamp of the wicked will be put out.

²¹My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not get involved with those of high rank,

²²For their disaster will rise suddenly, And who knows the ruin that can come from both of them?

²³These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good.

²⁴One who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” Peoples will curse him, nations will scold him;

²⁵But for those who rebuke the wicked there will be delight, And a good blessing will come upon them.

²⁶One who gives a right answer Kisses the lips.

²⁷Prepare your work outside, And make it ready for yourself in the field; Afterward, then, build your house.

²⁸Do not be a witness against your neighbor for no reason, And do not deceive with your lips.

²⁹Do not say, “I shall do the same to him as he has done to me; I will repay the person according to his work.”

³⁰I passed by the field of a lazy one, And by the vineyard of a person lacking sense,

³¹And behold, it was completely overgrown with weeds; Its surface was covered with weeds, And its stone wall was broken down.

³²When I saw, I reflected upon it; I looked, and received instruction.

³³“A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest,”

³⁴Then your poverty will come like a drifter, And your need like an armed man.

¹Now David assembled at Jerusalem all the officials of Israel, the leaders of the tribes, and the commanders of the divisions that served the king, the commanders of thousands, and the commanders of hundreds, and the overseers of all the property and livestock belonging to the king and his sons, with the officials and the mighty men, all the valiant warriors.

²Then King David rose to his feet and said, “Listen to me, my brothers and my people; I had intended to build a permanent home for the ark of the covenant of the LORD and for the footstool of our God. So I had made preparations to build it.

³But God said to me, ‘You shall not build a house for My name, because you are a man of war and have shed blood.’

⁴Yet, the LORD, the God of Israel, chose me from all the household of my father to be king over Israel forever. For He has chosen Judah to be a leader; and in the house of Judah, my father’s house, and among the sons of my father He took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel.

⁵Of all my sons (for the LORD has given me many sons), He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.

⁶He said to me, ‘Your son Solomon is the one who shall build My house and My courtyards; for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a Father to him.

⁷I will establish his kingdom forever if he resolutely performs My commandments and My ordinances, as is done now.’

⁸So now, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the LORD, and in the presence of our God, keep and seek after all the commandments of the LORD your God so that you may possess the good land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons after you forever.

⁹“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

¹⁰Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be courageous and act.”

¹¹Then David gave to his son Solomon the plan of the porch of the temple, its buildings, its storehouses, its upper rooms, its inner rooms, and the room for the atoning cover;

¹²and the plan of all that he had in mind, for the courtyards of the house of the LORD, and for all the surrounding rooms, for the storehouses of the house of God and for the storehouses of the dedicated things;

¹³also for the divisions of the priests and the Levites and for all the work of the service of the house of the LORD and for all the utensils of service in the house of the LORD;

¹⁴for the golden utensils, by weight of gold for all utensils for every service; for all the silver utensils, by weight of silver for all utensils for every service;

¹⁵and the weight of gold for the golden lampstands and their golden lamps, with the weight of each lampstand and its lamps; and the weight of silver for the silver lampstands, with the weight of each lampstand and its lamps according to the use of each lampstand;

¹⁶and the gold by weight for the tables of the showbread, for each table; and silver for the silver tables;

¹⁷and the forks, the basins, and the pitchers of pure gold; and for the golden bowls with the weight for each bowl; and for the silver bowls with the weight for each bowl;

¹⁸and for the altar of incense, refined gold by weight; and gold for the model of the chariot, and the cherubim that spread out their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

¹⁹“All this,” said David, “the LORD made me understand in writing by His hand upon me, all the details of this pattern.”

²⁰Then David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and courageous, and act; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the LORD is finished.

²¹Now behold, there are the divisions of the priests and the Levites for all the service of the house of God, and every willing man of any skill will be with you in all the work for all kinds of service. The officials also and all the people will be entirely at your command.”

¹In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one which appeared to me previously.

²I looked in the vision, and while I was looking, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam; and I looked in the vision, and I myself was beside the Ulai Canal.

³Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other, with the longer one coming up last.

⁴I saw the ram butting westward, northward, and southward, and no other beasts could stand against him nor was there anyone to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased and made himself great.

⁵While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the entire earth without touching the ground; and the goat had a prominent horn between his eyes.

⁶He came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty wrath.

⁷And I saw him come up beside the ram, and he was enraged at him; and he struck the ram and smashed his two horns, and the ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was no one to rescue the ram from his power.

⁸Then the male goat made himself exceedingly great. But once he became powerful, the large horn was broken; and in its place four prominent horns came up toward the four winds of heaven.

⁹And out of one of them came a rather small horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Beautiful Land.

¹⁰It grew up to the heavenly lights, and some of the lights, that is, some of the stars it threw down to the earth, and it trampled them.

¹¹It even exalted itself to be equal with the Commander of the army; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was overthrown.

¹²And because of an offense the army will be given to the horn along with the regular sacrifice; and it will hurl truth to the ground and do as it pleases and be successful.

¹³Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, “How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the offense causes horror, so as to allow both the sanctuary and the army to be trampled?”

¹⁴And he said to me, “For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be properly restored.”

¹⁵When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it; and behold, standing before me was one who looked like a man.

¹⁶And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulai, and he called out and said, “Gabriel, explain the vision to this man.”

¹⁷So he came near to where I was standing, and when he came I was frightened and fell on my face; and he said to me, “Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end.”

¹⁸Now while he was talking with me, I was dazed with my face to the ground; but he touched me and made me stand at my place.

¹⁹And he said, “Behold, I am going to inform you of what will occur at the final period of the indignation, because it pertains to the appointed time of the end.

²⁰The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia.

²¹The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

²²The broken horn and the four horns that came up in its place represent four kingdoms which will arise from his nation, although not with his power.

²³And in the latter period of their dominion, When the wrongdoers have run their course, A king will arise, Insolent and skilled in intrigue.

²⁴And his power will be mighty, but not by his own power, And he will destroy to an extraordinary degree And be successful and do as he pleases; He will destroy mighty men and the holy people.

²⁵And through his shrewdness He will make deceit a success by his influence; And he will make himself great in his own mind, And he will destroy many while they are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, But he will be broken without human agency.

²⁶And the vision of the evenings and mornings Which has been told is true; But as for you, keep the vision secret, Because it pertains to many days in the future.”

²⁷Then I, Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days. Then I got up and carried on the king’s business; but I was astounded at the vision, and there was no one to explain it.

¹Now the apostles and the brothers and sisters who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

²And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, the Jewish believers took issue with him,

³saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

⁴But Peter began and explained at length to them in an orderly sequence, saying,

⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky; and it came to where I was,

⁶and I stared at it and was thinking about it, and I saw the four-footed animals of the earth, the wild animals, the crawling creatures, and the birds of the sky.

⁷I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’

⁸But I said, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’

¹⁰This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky.

¹¹And behold, at that moment three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea came up to the house where we were staying.

¹²And the Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.

¹³And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send some men to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here;

¹⁴and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’

¹⁵And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning.

¹⁶And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptizedwith the Holy Spirit.’

¹⁷Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as He also gave to us after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

¹⁸When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has also granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

¹⁹So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.

²⁰But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks as well, preaching the good news of the Lord Jesus.

²¹And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

²²The news about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch.

²³Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord;

²⁴for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And considerable numbers were added to the Lord.

²⁵And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul;

²⁶and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers of people; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

²⁷Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸One of them, named Agabus, stood up and indicated by the Spirit that there would definitely be a severe famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius.

²⁹And to the extent that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brothers and sisters living in Judea.

³⁰And they did this, sending it with Barnabas and Saul to the elders.