Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region.

²John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus,

³“Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

⁴Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen —

⁵the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.”

⁶And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me. ”

⁷As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. “What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed, swayed by every breath of wind?

⁸Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people with expensive clothes live in palaces.

⁹Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet.

¹⁰John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you.’

¹¹“I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is!

¹²And from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it.

¹³For before John came, all the prophets and the law of Moses looked forward to this present time.

¹⁴And if you are willing to accept what I say, he is Elijah, the one the prophets said would come.

¹⁵Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

¹⁶“To what can I compare this generation? It is like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends,

¹⁷‘We played wedding songs, and you didn’t dance, so we played funeral songs, and you didn’t mourn.’

¹⁸For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’

¹⁹The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”

²⁰Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where he had done so many of his miracles, because they hadn’t repented of their sins and turned to God.

²¹“What sorrow awaits you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse.

²²I tell you, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you.

²³“And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in wicked Sodom, it would still be here today.

²⁴I tell you, even Sodom will be better off on judgment day than you.”

²⁵At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike.

²⁶Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!

²⁷“My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

²⁸Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

²⁹Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

³⁰For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

¹So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed.

²On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work.

³And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

⁴This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. The Man and Woman in Eden When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

⁵neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the LORD God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil.

⁶Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land.

⁷Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

⁸Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.

⁹The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground — trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches.

¹¹The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found.

¹²The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there.

¹³The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush.

¹⁴The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates.

¹⁵The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.

¹⁶But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden —

¹⁷except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

¹⁸Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

¹⁹So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one.

²⁰He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.

²¹So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening.

²²Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

²³“At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’”

²⁴This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

²⁵Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

¹This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth and to all of his holy people throughout Greece.

²May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

³All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.

⁴He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

⁵For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.

⁶Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer.

⁷We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.

⁸We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it.

⁹In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.

¹⁰And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.

¹¹And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.

¹²We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given holiness and sincerity in all our dealings. We have depended on God’s grace, not on our own human wisdom. That is how we have conducted ourselves before the world, and especially toward you.

¹³Our letters have been straightforward, and there is nothing written between the lines and nothing you can’t understand. I hope someday you will fully understand us,

¹⁴even if you don’t understand us now. Then on the day when the Lord Jesus returns, you will be proud of us in the same way we are proud of you.

¹⁵Since I was so sure of your understanding and trust, I wanted to give you a double blessing by visiting you twice —

¹⁶first on my way to Macedonia and again when I returned from Macedonia. Then you could send me on my way to Judea.

¹⁷You may be asking why I changed my plan. Do you think I make my plans carelessly? Do you think I am like people of the world who say “Yes” when they really mean “No”?

¹⁸As surely as God is faithful, our word to you does not waver between “Yes” and “No.”

¹⁹For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between “Yes” and “No.” He is the one whom Silas, Timothy, and I preached to you, and as God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says.

²⁰For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.

²¹It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us,

²²and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.

²³Now I call upon God as my witness that I am telling the truth. The reason I didn’t return to Corinth was to spare you from a severe rebuke.

²⁴But that does not mean we want to dominate you by telling you how to put your faith into practice. We want to work together with you so you will be full of joy, for it is by your own faith that you stand firm.

¹Then I heard a mighty voice from the Temple say to the seven angels, “Go your ways and pour out on the earth the seven bowls containing God’s wrath.”

²So the first angel left the Temple and poured out his bowl on the earth, and horrible, malignant sores broke out on everyone who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue.

³Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse. And everything in the sea died.

⁴Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs, and they became blood.

⁵And I heard the angel who had authority over all water saying, “You are just, O Holy One, who is and who always was, because you have sent these judgments.

⁶Since they shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets, you have given them blood to drink. It is their just reward.”

⁷And I heard a voice from the altar, saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, your judgments are true and just.”

⁸Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, causing it to scorch everyone with its fire.

⁹Everyone was burned by this blast of heat, and they cursed the name of God, who had control over all these plagues. They did not repent of their sins and turn to God and give him glory.

¹⁰Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. His subjects ground their teeth in anguish,

¹¹and they cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they did not repent of their evil deeds and turn to God.

¹²Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River, and it dried up so that the kings from the east could march their armies toward the west without hindrance.

¹³And I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs leap from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.

¹⁴They are demonic spirits who work miracles and go out to all the rulers of the world to gather them for battle against the Lord on that great judgment day of God the Almighty.

¹⁵“Look, I will come as unexpectedly as a thief! Blessed are all who are watching for me, who keep their clothing ready so they will not have to walk around naked and ashamed.”

¹⁶And the demonic spirits gathered all the rulers and their armies to a place with the Hebrew name Armageddon.

¹⁷Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a mighty shout came from the throne in the Temple, saying, “It is finished!”

¹⁸Then the thunder crashed and rolled, and lightning flashed. And a great earthquake struck — the worst since people were placed on the earth.

¹⁹The great city of Babylon split into three sections, and the cities of many nations fell into heaps of rubble. So God remembered all of Babylon’s sins, and he made her drink the cup that was filled with the wine of his fierce wrath.

²⁰And every island disappeared, and all the mountains were leveled.

²¹There was a terrible hailstorm, and hailstones weighing as much as seventy-five pounds fell from the sky onto the people below. They cursed God because of the terrible plague of the hailstorm.

¹At last Job spoke, and he cursed the day of his birth.

²He said:

³“Let the day of my birth be erased, and the night I was conceived.

⁴Let that day be turned to darkness. Let it be lost even to God on high, and let no light shine on it.

⁵Let the darkness and utter gloom claim that day for its own. Let a black cloud overshadow it, and let the darkness terrify it.

⁶Let that night be blotted off the calendar, never again to be counted among the days of the year, never again to appear among the months.

⁷Let that night be childless. Let it have no joy.

⁸Let those who are experts at cursing — whose cursing could rouse Leviathan — curse that day.

⁹Let its morning stars remain dark. Let it hope for light, but in vain; may it never see the morning light.

¹⁰Curse that day for failing to shut my mother’s womb, for letting me be born to see all this trouble.

¹¹“Why wasn’t I born dead? Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?

¹²Why was I laid on my mother’s lap? Why did she nurse me at her breasts?

¹³Had I died at birth, I would now be at peace. I would be asleep and at rest.

¹⁴I would rest with the world’s kings and prime ministers, whose great buildings now lie in ruins.

¹⁵I would rest with princes, rich in gold, whose palaces were filled with silver.

¹⁶Why wasn’t I buried like a stillborn child, like a baby who never lives to see the light?

¹⁷For in death the wicked cause no trouble, and the weary are at rest.

¹⁸Even captives are at ease in death, with no guards to curse them.

¹⁹Rich and poor are both there, and the slave is free from his master.

²⁰“Oh, why give light to those in misery, and life to those who are bitter?

²¹They long for death, and it won’t come. They search for death more eagerly than for hidden treasure.

²²They’re filled with joy when they finally die, and rejoice when they find the grave.

²³Why is life given to those with no future, those God has surrounded with difficulties?

²⁴I cannot eat for sighing; my groans pour out like water.

²⁵What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true.

²⁶I have no peace, no quietness. I have no rest; only trouble comes.”

¹I said to myself, “I will watch what I do and not sin in what I say. I will hold my tongue when the ungodly are around me.”

²But as I stood there in silence — not even speaking of good things — the turmoil within me grew worse.

³The more I thought about it, the hotter I got, igniting a fire of words:

⁴“LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered — how fleeting my life is.

⁵You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.” Interlude

⁶We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.

⁷And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.

⁸Rescue me from my rebellion. Do not let fools mock me.

⁹I am silent before you; I won’t say a word, for my punishment is from you.

¹⁰But please stop striking me! I am exhausted by the blows from your hand.

¹¹When you discipline us for our sins, you consume like a moth what is precious to us. Each of us is but a breath. Interlude

¹²Hear my prayer, O LORD! Listen to my cries for help! Don’t ignore my tears. For I am your guest — a traveler passing through, as my ancestors were before me.

¹³Leave me alone so I can smile again before I am gone and exist no more.

¹My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart.

²If you do this, you will live many years, and your life will be satisfying.

³Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.

⁴Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation.

⁵Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

⁶Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

⁷Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil.

⁸Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.

⁹Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce.

¹⁰Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.

¹¹My child, don’t reject the LORD’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you.

¹²For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.

¹³Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding.

¹⁴For wisdom is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold.

¹⁵Wisdom is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.

¹⁶She offers you long life in her right hand, and riches and honor in her left.

¹⁷She will guide you down delightful paths; all her ways are satisfying.

¹⁸Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her; happy are those who hold her tightly.

¹⁹By wisdom the LORD founded the earth; by understanding he created the heavens.

²⁰By his knowledge the deep fountains of the earth burst forth, and the dew settles beneath the night sky.

²¹My child, don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment. Hang on to them,

²²for they will refresh your soul. They are like jewels on a necklace.

²³They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble.

²⁴You can go to bed without fear; you will lie down and sleep soundly.

²⁵You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked,

²⁶for the LORD is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.

²⁷Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them.

²⁸If you can help your neighbor now, don’t say, “Come back tomorrow, and then I’ll help you.”

²⁹Don’t plot harm against your neighbor, for those who live nearby trust you.

³⁰Don’t pick a fight without reason, when no one has done you harm.

³¹Don’t envy violent people or copy their ways.

³²Such wicked people are detestable to the LORD, but he offers his friendship to the godly.

³³The LORD curses the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the upright.

³⁴The LORD mocks the mockers but is gracious to the humble.

³⁵The wise inherit honor, but fools are put to shame!

¹When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. She arrived with a large group of attendants and a great caravan of camels loaded with spices, large quantities of gold, and precious jewels. When she met with Solomon, she talked with him about everything she had on her mind.

²Solomon had answers for all her questions; nothing was too hard for him to explain to her.

³When the queen of Sheba realized how wise Solomon was, and when she saw the palace he had built,

⁴she was overwhelmed. She was also amazed at the food on his tables, the organization of his officials and their splendid clothing, the cup-bearers and their robes, and the burnt offerings Solomon made at the Temple of the LORD.

⁵She exclaimed to the king, “Everything I heard in my country about your achievements and wisdom is true!

⁶I didn’t believe what was said until I arrived here and saw it with my own eyes. In fact, I had not heard the half of your great wisdom! It is far beyond what I was told.

⁷How happy your people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom!

⁸Praise the LORD your God, who delights in you and has placed you on the throne as king to rule for him. Because God loves Israel and desires this kingdom to last forever, he has made you king over them so you can rule with justice and righteousness.”

⁹Then she gave the king a gift of 9,000 pounds of gold, great quantities of spices, and precious jewels. Never before had there been spices as fine as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰(In addition, the crews of Hiram and Solomon brought gold from Ophir, and they also brought red sandalwood and precious jewels.

¹¹The king used the sandalwood to make steps for the Temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and to construct lyres and harps for the musicians. Never before had such beautiful things been seen in Judah.)

¹²King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba whatever she asked for — gifts of greater value than the gifts she had given him. Then she and all her attendants returned to their own land.

¹³Each year Solomon received about 25 tons of gold.

¹⁴This did not include the additional revenue he received from merchants and traders. All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the provinces also brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold, each weighing more than 15 pounds.

¹⁶He also made 300 smaller shields of hammered gold, each weighing more than 7 1⁄2 pounds. The king placed these shields in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷Then the king made a huge throne, decorated with ivory and overlaid with pure gold.

¹⁸The throne had six steps, with a footstool of gold. There were armrests on both sides of the seat, and the figure of a lion stood on each side of the throne.

¹⁹There were also twelve other lions, one standing on each end of the six steps. No other throne in all the world could be compared with it!

²⁰All of King Solomon’s drinking cups were solid gold, as were all the utensils in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. They were not made of silver, for silver was considered worthless in Solomon’s day!

²¹The king had a fleet of trading ships of Tarshish manned by the sailors sent by Hiram. Once every three years the ships returned, loaded with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

²²So King Solomon became richer and wiser than any other king on earth.

²³Kings from every nation came to consult him and to hear the wisdom God had given him.

²⁴Year after year everyone who visited brought him gifts of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

²⁵Solomon had 4,000 stalls for his horses and chariots, and he had 12,000 horses. He stationed some of them in the chariot cities, and some near him in Jerusalem.

²⁶He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates River in the north to the land of the Philistines and the border of Egypt in the south.

²⁷The king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stone. And valuable cedar timber was as common as the sycamore-fig trees that grow in the foothills of Judah.

²⁸Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and many other countries.

²⁹The rest of the events of Solomon’s reign, from beginning to end, are recorded in The Record of Nathan the Prophet, and The Prophecy of Ahijah from Shiloh, and also in The Visions of Iddo the Seer, concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat.

³⁰Solomon ruled in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.

³¹When he died, he was buried in the City of David, named for his father. Then his son Rehoboam became the next king.

¹“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds.

²In just a short time he will restore us, so that we may live in his presence.

³Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”

⁴“O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?” asks the LORD. “For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight.

⁵I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces — to slaughter you with my words, with judgments as inescapable as light.

⁶I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.

⁷But like Adam, you broke my covenant and betrayed my trust.

⁸“Gilead is a city of sinners, tracked with footprints of blood.

⁹Priests form bands of robbers, waiting in ambush for their victims. They murder travelers along the road to Shechem and practice every kind of sin.

¹⁰Yes, I have seen something horrible in Ephraim and Israel: My people are defiled by prostituting themselves with other gods!

¹¹“O Judah, a harvest of punishment is also waiting for you, though I wanted to restore the fortunes of my people.

¹After saying farewell to the Ephesian elders, we sailed straight to the island of Cos. The next day we reached Rhodes and then went to Patara.

²There we boarded a ship sailing for Phoenicia.

³We sighted the island of Cyprus, passed it on our left, and landed at the harbor of Tyre, in Syria, where the ship was to unload its cargo.

⁴We went ashore, found the local believers, and stayed with them a week. These believers prophesied through the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem.

⁵When we returned to the ship at the end of the week, the entire congregation, including women and children, left the city and came down to the shore with us. There we knelt, prayed,

⁶and said our farewells. Then we went aboard, and they returned home.

⁷The next stop after leaving Tyre was Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed for one day.

⁸The next day we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven men who had been chosen to distribute food.

⁹He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy.

¹⁰Several days later a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea.

¹¹He came over, took Paul’s belt, and bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles.’”

¹²When we heard this, we and the local believers all begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

¹³But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.”

¹⁴When it was clear that we couldn’t persuade him, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

¹⁵After this we packed our things and left for Jerusalem.

¹⁶Some believers from Caesarea accompanied us, and they took us to the home of Mnason, a man originally from Cyprus and one of the early believers.

¹⁷When we arrived, the brothers and sisters in Jerusalem welcomed us warmly.

¹⁸The next day Paul went with us to meet with James, and all the elders of the Jerusalem church were present.

¹⁹After greeting them, Paul gave a detailed account of the things God had accomplished among the Gentiles through his ministry.

²⁰After hearing this, they praised God. And then they said, “You know, dear brother, how many thousands of Jews have also believed, and they all follow the law of Moses very seriously.

²¹But the Jewish believers here in Jerusalem have been told that you are teaching all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn their backs on the laws of Moses. They’ve heard that you teach them not to circumcise their children or follow other Jewish customs.

²²What should we do? They will certainly hear that you have come.

²³“Here’s what we want you to do. We have four men here who have completed their vow.

²⁴Go with them to the Temple and join them in the purification ceremony, paying for them to have their heads ritually shaved. Then everyone will know that the rumors are all false and that you yourself observe the Jewish laws.

²⁵“As for the Gentile believers, they should do what we already told them in a letter: They should abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.”

²⁶So Paul went to the Temple the next day with the other men. They had already started the purification ritual, so he publicly announced the date when their vows would end and sacrifices would be offered for each of them.

²⁷The seven days were almost ended when some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the Temple and roused a mob against him. They grabbed him,

²⁸yelling, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who preaches against our people everywhere and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. He speaks against the Temple — and even defiles this holy place by bringing in Gentiles. ”

²⁹(For earlier that day they had seen him in the city with Trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus, and they assumed Paul had taken him into the Temple.)

³⁰The whole city was rocked by these accusations, and a great riot followed. Paul was grabbed and dragged out of the Temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him.

³¹As they were trying to kill him, word reached the commander of the Roman regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

³²He immediately called out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd. When the mob saw the commander and the troops coming, they stopped beating Paul.

³³Then the commander arrested him and ordered him bound with two chains. He asked the crowd who he was and what he had done.

³⁴Some shouted one thing and some another. Since he couldn’t find out the truth in all the uproar and confusion, he ordered that Paul be taken to the fortress.

³⁵As Paul reached the stairs, the mob grew so violent the soldiers had to lift him to their shoulders to protect him.

³⁶And the crowd followed behind, shouting, “Kill him, kill him!”

³⁷As Paul was about to be taken inside, he said to the commander, “May I have a word with you?” “Do you know Greek?” the commander asked, surprised.

³⁸“Aren’t you the Egyptian who led a rebellion some time ago and took 4,000 members of the Assassins out into the desert?”

³⁹“No,” Paul replied, “I am a Jew and a citizen of Tarsus in Cilicia, which is an important city. Please, let me talk to these people.”

⁴⁰The commander agreed, so Paul stood on the stairs and motioned to the people to be quiet. Soon a deep silence enveloped the crowd, and he addressed them in their own language, Aramaic.