Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.

²When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do — blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get.

³But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

⁴Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

⁵“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.

⁶But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

⁷“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.

⁸Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!

⁹Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

¹⁰May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

¹¹Give us today the food we need,

¹²and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

¹³And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

¹⁴“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

¹⁵But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

¹⁶“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get.

¹⁷But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face.

¹⁸Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

¹⁹“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal.

²⁰Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.

²¹Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

²²“Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light.

²³But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

²⁴“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

²⁵“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life — whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?

²⁶Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?

²⁷Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

²⁸“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing,

²⁹yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

³⁰And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

³¹“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’

³²These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.

³³Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

³⁴“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

¹When Moses had finished giving these instructions to all the people of Israel,

²he said, “I am now 120 years old, and I am no longer able to lead you. The LORD has told me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan River.’

³But the LORD your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy the nations living there, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua will lead you across the river, just as the LORD promised.

⁴“The LORD will destroy the nations living in the land, just as he destroyed Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites.

⁵The LORD will hand over to you the people who live there, and you must deal with them as I have commanded you.

⁶So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

⁷Then Moses called for Joshua, and as all Israel watched, he said to him, “Be strong and courageous! For you will lead these people into the land that the LORD swore to their ancestors he would give them. You are the one who will divide it among them as their grants of land.

⁸Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

⁹So Moses wrote this entire body of instruction in a book and gave it to the priests, who carried the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant, and to the elders of Israel.

¹⁰Then Moses gave them this command: “At the end of every seventh year, the Year of Release, during the Festival of Shelters,

¹¹you must read this Book of Instruction to all the people of Israel when they assemble before the LORD your God at the place he chooses.

¹²Call them all together — men, women, children, and the foreigners living in your towns — so they may hear this Book of Instruction and learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully obey all the terms of these instructions.

¹³Do this so that your children who have not known these instructions will hear them and will learn to fear the LORD your God. Do this as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy.”

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “The time has come for you to die. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tabernacle, so that I may commission him there.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tabernacle.

¹⁵And the LORD appeared to them in a pillar of cloud that stood at the entrance to the sacred tent.

¹⁶The LORD said to Moses, “You are about to die and join your ancestors. After you are gone, these people will begin to worship foreign gods, the gods of the land where they are going. They will abandon me and break my covenant that I have made with them.

¹⁷Then my anger will blaze forth against them. I will abandon them, hiding my face from them, and they will be devoured. Terrible trouble will come down on them, and on that day they will say, ‘These disasters have come down on us because God is no longer among us!’

¹⁸At that time I will hide my face from them on account of all the evil they commit by worshiping other gods.

¹⁹“So write down the words of this song, and teach it to the people of Israel. Help them learn it, so it may serve as a witness for me against them.

²⁰For I will bring them into the land I swore to give their ancestors — a land flowing with milk and honey. There they will become prosperous, eat all the food they want, and become fat. But they will begin to worship other gods; they will despise me and break my covenant.

²¹And when great disasters come down on them, this song will stand as evidence against them, for it will never be forgotten by their descendants. I know the intentions of these people, even now before they have entered the land I swore to give them.”

²²So that very day Moses wrote down the words of the song and taught it to the Israelites.

²³Then the LORD commissioned Joshua son of Nun with these words: “Be strong and courageous, for you must bring the people of Israel into the land I swore to give them. I will be with you.”

²⁴When Moses had finished writing this entire body of instruction in a book,

²⁵he gave this command to the Levites who carried the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant:

²⁶“Take this Book of Instruction and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, so it may remain there as a witness against the people of Israel.

²⁷For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Even now, while I am still alive and am here with you, you have rebelled against the LORD. How much more rebellious will you be after my death!

²⁸“Now summon all the elders and officials of your tribes, so that I can speak to them directly and call heaven and earth to witness against them.

²⁹I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and will turn from the way I have commanded you to follow. In the days to come, disaster will come down on you, for you will do what is evil in the LORD’s sight, making him very angry with your actions.”

³⁰So Moses recited this entire song publicly to the assembly of Israel:

¹Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this.

²You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols.

³So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all.

⁵There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.

⁶God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

⁷A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

⁸To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice ; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.

⁹The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing.

¹⁰He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.

¹¹It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

¹²The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.

¹³Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

¹⁴Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.

¹⁵If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body.

¹⁶And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body?

¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?

¹⁸But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.

¹⁹How strange a body would be if it had only one part!

²⁰Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.

²¹The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

²²In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.

²³And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen,

²⁴while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity.

²⁵This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other.

²⁶If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.

²⁷All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.

²⁸Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages.

²⁹Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles?

³⁰Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not!

³¹So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

¹Then I was given a measuring stick, and I was told, “Go and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers.

²But do not measure the outer courtyard, for it has been turned over to the nations. They will trample the holy city for 42 months.

³And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will be clothed in burlap and will prophesy during those 1,260 days.”

⁴These two prophets are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of all the earth.

⁵If anyone tries to harm them, fire flashes from their mouths and consumes their enemies. This is how anyone who tries to harm them must die.

⁶They have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall for as long as they prophesy. And they have the power to turn the rivers and oceans into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.

⁷When they complete their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit will declare war against them, and he will conquer them and kill them.

⁸And their bodies will lie in the main street of Jerusalem, the city that is figuratively called “Sodom” and “Egypt,” the city where their Lord was crucified.

⁹And for three and a half days, all peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will stare at their bodies. No one will be allowed to bury them.

¹⁰All the people who belong to this world will gloat over them and give presents to each other to celebrate the death of the two prophets who had tormented them.

¹¹But after three and a half days, God breathed life into them, and they stood up! Terror struck all who were staring at them.

¹²Then a loud voice from heaven called to the two prophets, “Come up here!” And they rose to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched.

¹³At the same time there was a terrible earthquake that destroyed a tenth of the city. Seven thousand people died in that earthquake, and everyone else was terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

¹⁴The second terror is past, but look, the third terror is coming quickly.

¹⁵Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven: “The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”

¹⁶The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones before God fell with their faces to the ground and worshiped him.

¹⁷And they said, “We give thanks to you, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who always was, for now you have assumed your great power and have begun to reign.

¹⁸The nations were filled with wrath, but now the time of your wrath has come. It is time to judge the dead and reward your servants the prophets, as well as your holy people, and all who fear your name, from the least to the greatest. It is time to destroy all who have caused destruction on the earth.”

¹⁹Then, in heaven, the Temple of God was opened and the Ark of his covenant could be seen inside the Temple. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed and roared, and there was an earthquake and a terrible hailstorm.

¹Where has your lover gone, O woman of rare beauty? Which way did he turn so we can help you find him?

²My lover has gone down to his garden, to his spice beds, to browse in the gardens and gather the lilies.

³I am my lover’s, and my lover is mine. He browses among the lilies.

⁴You are beautiful, my darling, like the lovely city of Tirzah. Yes, as beautiful as Jerusalem, as majestic as an army with billowing banners.

⁵Turn your eyes away, for they overpower me. Your hair falls in waves, like a flock of goats winding down the slopes of Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are as white as sheep that are freshly washed. Your smile is flawless, each tooth matched with its twin.

⁷Your cheeks are like rosy pomegranates behind your veil.

⁸Even among sixty queens and eighty concubines and countless young women,

⁹I would still choose my dove, my perfect one — the favorite of her mother, dearly loved by the one who bore her. The young women see her and praise her; even queens and royal concubines sing her praises:

¹⁰“Who is this, arising like the dawn, as fair as the moon, as bright as the sun, as majestic as an army with billowing banners?”

¹¹I went down to the grove of walnut trees and out to the valley to see the new spring growth, to see whether the grapevines had budded or the pomegranates were in bloom.

¹²Before I realized it, my strong desires had taken me to the chariot of a noble man.

¹³Return, return to us, O maid of Shulam. Come back, come back, that we may see you again. Young Man Why do you stare at this young woman of Shulam, as she moves so gracefully between two lines of dancers?

¹I will praise the LORD at all times. I will constantly speak his praises.

²I will boast only in the LORD; let all who are helpless take heart.

³Come, let us tell of the LORD’s greatness; let us exalt his name together.

⁴I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.

⁵Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.

⁶In my desperation I prayed, and the LORD listened; he saved me from all my troubles.

⁷For the angel of the LORD is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him.

⁸Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!

⁹Fear the LORD, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need.

¹⁰Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the LORD will lack no good thing.

¹¹Come, my children, and listen to me, and I will teach you to fear the LORD.

¹²Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous?

¹³Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies!

¹⁴Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.

¹⁵The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right; his ears are open to their cries for help.

¹⁶But the LORD turns his face against those who do evil; he will erase their memory from the earth.

¹⁷The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles.

¹⁸The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

¹⁹The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time.

²⁰For the LORD protects the bones of the righteous; not one of them is broken!

²¹Calamity will surely destroy the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be punished.

²²But the LORD will redeem those who serve him. No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

¹Whoever stubbornly refuses to accept criticism will suddenly be destroyed beyond recovery.

²When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.

³The man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but if he hangs around with prostitutes, his wealth is wasted.

⁴A just king gives stability to his nation, but one who demands bribes destroys it.

⁵To flatter friends is to lay a trap for their feet.

⁶Evil people are trapped by sin, but the righteous escape, shouting for joy.

⁷The godly care about the rights of the poor; the wicked don’t care at all.

⁸Mockers can get a whole town agitated, but the wise will calm anger.

⁹If a wise person takes a fool to court, there will be ranting and ridicule but no satisfaction.

¹⁰The bloodthirsty hate blameless people, but the upright seek to help them.

¹¹Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back.

¹²If a ruler pays attention to liars, all his advisers will be wicked.

¹³The poor and the oppressor have this in common — the LORD gives sight to the eyes of both.

¹⁴If a king judges the poor fairly, his throne will last forever.

¹⁵To discipline a child produces wisdom, but a mother is disgraced by an undisciplined child.

¹⁶When the wicked are in authority, sin flourishes, but the godly will live to see their downfall.

¹⁷Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad.

¹⁸When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful.

¹⁹Words alone will not discipline a servant; the words may be understood, but they are not heeded.

²⁰There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking.

²¹A servant pampered from childhood will become a rebel.

²²An angry person starts fights; a hot-tempered person commits all kinds of sin.

²³Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor.

²⁴If you assist a thief, you only hurt yourself. You are sworn to tell the truth, but you dare not testify.

²⁵Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the LORD means safety.

²⁶Many seek the ruler’s favor, but justice comes from the LORD.

²⁷The righteous despise the unjust; the wicked despise the godly.

¹Solomon also made a bronze altar 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high.

²Then he cast a great round basin, 15 feet across from rim to rim, called the Sea. It was 7 1⁄2 feet deep and about 45 feet in circumference.

³It was encircled just below its rim by two rows of figures that resembled oxen. There were about six oxen per foot all the way around, and they were cast as part of the basin.

⁴The Sea was placed on a base of twelve bronze oxen, all facing outward. Three faced north, three faced west, three faced south, and three faced east, and the Sea rested on them.

⁵The walls of the Sea were about three inches thick, and its rim flared out like a cup and resembled a water lily blossom. It could hold about 16,500 gallons of water.

⁶He also made ten smaller basins for washing the utensils for the burnt offerings. He set five on the south side and five on the north. But the priests washed themselves in the Sea.

⁷He then cast ten gold lampstands according to the specifications that had been given, and he put them in the Temple. Five were placed against the south wall, and five were placed against the north wall.

⁸He also built ten tables and placed them in the Temple, five along the south wall and five along the north wall. Then he molded 100 gold basins.

⁹He then built a courtyard for the priests, and also the large outer courtyard. He made doors for the courtyard entrances and overlaid them with bronze.

¹⁰The great bronze basin called the Sea was placed near the southeast corner of the Temple.

¹¹Huram-abi also made the necessary washbasins, shovels, and bowls. So at last Huram-abi completed everything King Solomon had assigned him to make for the Temple of God:

¹²the two pillars; the two bowl-shaped capitals on top of the pillars; the two networks of interwoven chains that decorated the capitals;

¹³the 400 pomegranates that hung from the chains on the capitals (two rows of pomegranates for each of the chain networks that decorated the capitals on top of the pillars);

¹⁴the water carts holding the basins;

¹⁵the Sea and the twelve oxen under it;

¹⁶the ash buckets, the shovels, the meat hooks, and all the related articles. Huram-abi made all these things of burnished bronze for the Temple of the LORD, just as King Solomon had directed.

¹⁷The king had them cast in clay molds in the Jordan Valley between Succoth and Zarethan.

¹⁸Solomon used such great quantities of bronze that its weight could not be determined.

¹⁹Solomon also made all the furnishings for the Temple of God: the gold altar; the tables for the Bread of the Presence;

²⁰the lampstands and their lamps of solid gold, to burn in front of the Most Holy Place as prescribed;

²¹the flower decorations, lamps, and tongs — all of the purest gold;

²²the lamp snuffers, bowls, ladles, and incense burners — all of solid gold; the doors for the entrances to the Most Holy Place and the main room of the Temple, overlaid with gold.

¹The LORD gave this message to Hosea son of Beeri during the years when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

²When the LORD first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the LORD and worshiping other gods.”

³So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son.

⁴And the LORD said, “Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu’s dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel’s independence.

⁵I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley.”

⁶Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the LORD said to Hosea, “Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah — ‘Not loved’ — for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them.

⁷But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies — not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the LORD their God.”

⁸After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son.

⁹And the LORD said, “Name him Lo-ammi — ‘Not my people’ — for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God.

¹⁰“Yet the time will come when Israel’s people will be like the sands of the seashore — too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said, ‘You are children of the living God.’

¹¹Then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together. They will choose one leader for themselves, and they will return from exile together. What a day that will be — the day of Jezreel — when God will again plant his people in his land.

¹Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek.

²Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium,

³so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴Then they went from town to town, instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.

⁵So the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew larger every day.

⁶Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time.

⁷Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there.

⁸So instead, they went on through Mysia to the seaport of Troas.

⁹That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”

¹⁰So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there.

¹¹We boarded a boat at Troas and sailed straight across to the island of Samothrace, and the next day we landed at Neapolis.

¹²From there we reached Philippi, a major city of that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. And we stayed there several days.

¹³On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank, where we thought people would be meeting for prayer, and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there.

¹⁴One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying.

¹⁵She and her household were baptized, and she asked us to be her guests. “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my home.” And she urged us until we agreed.

¹⁶One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit that enabled her to tell the future. She earned a lot of money for her masters by telling fortunes.

¹⁷She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.”

¹⁸This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her.

¹⁹Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace.

²⁰“The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials.

²¹“They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.”

²²A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods.

²³They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape.

²⁴So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

²⁵Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.

²⁶Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!

²⁷The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself.

²⁸But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!”

²⁹The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

³⁰Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”

³²And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household.

³³Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.

³⁴He brought them into his house and set a meal before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.

³⁵The next morning the city officials sent the police to tell the jailer, “Let those men go!”

³⁶So the jailer told Paul, “The city officials have said you and Silas are free to leave. Go in peace.”

³⁷But Paul replied, “They have publicly beaten us without a trial and put us in prison — and we are Roman citizens. So now they want us to leave secretly? Certainly not! Let them come themselves to release us!”

³⁸When the police reported this, the city officials were alarmed to learn that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.

³⁹So they came to the jail and apologized to them. Then they brought them out and begged them to leave the city.

⁴⁰When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia. There they met with the believers and encouraged them once more. Then they left town.