Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.

²And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach.

³And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.

⁴And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.

⁵Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,

⁶but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.

⁷Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

⁸Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

⁹ He who has ears, let him hear.”

¹⁰Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

¹¹And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

¹² For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

¹³This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

¹⁴Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “‘“You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”

¹⁵For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

¹⁶But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

¹⁷ For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

¹⁸ “Hear then the parable of the sower:

¹⁹When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.

²⁰As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,

²¹yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

²²As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

²³As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

²⁴He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,

²⁵but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

²⁶So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.

²⁷And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’

²⁸He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’

²⁹But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.

³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

³¹He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.

³²It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

³³He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

³⁴All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable.

³⁵This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

³⁶Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”

³⁷He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.

³⁸The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,

³⁹and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

⁴⁰Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.

⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,

⁴² and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

⁴⁴“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

⁴⁵“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,

⁴⁶who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

⁴⁷“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.

⁴⁸When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.

⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous

⁵⁰ and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

⁵¹ “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.”

⁵²And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

⁵³And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there,

⁵⁴and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?

⁵⁵Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

⁵⁶And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”

⁵⁷And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.”

⁵⁸And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.

¹Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.”

²And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.

³In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground,

⁴and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering,

⁵but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

⁶The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?

⁷If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

⁸Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?”

¹⁰And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.

¹¹And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

¹²When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

¹³Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.

¹⁴Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵Then the LORD said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.

¹⁶Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

¹⁷Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.

¹⁸To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech.

¹⁹And Lamech took two wives. The name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

²⁰Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.

²¹His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.

²²Zillah also bore Tubal-cain; he was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

²³Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.

²⁴If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold.”

²⁵And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”

²⁶To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD.

¹Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?

²You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all.

³And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

⁵Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

⁶who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end,

⁸will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?

⁹For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

¹⁰Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it.

¹¹For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

¹²Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,

¹³not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.

¹⁴But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.

¹⁵Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.

¹⁶But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

¹⁸And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

¹After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory.

²And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.

³For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”

⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;

⁵for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

⁶Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.

⁷As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’

⁸For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.”

⁹And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.

¹⁰They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

¹¹And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore,

¹²cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble,

¹³cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.

¹⁴“The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!”

¹⁵The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,

¹⁶“Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls!

¹⁷For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.” And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off

¹⁸and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?”

¹⁹And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste.

²⁰Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!”

²¹Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more;

²²and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more, and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more,

²³and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.

²⁴And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.”

¹“Call now; is there anyone who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

²Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.

³I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.

⁴His children are far from safety; they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them.

⁵The hungry eat his harvest, and he takes it even out of thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.

⁶For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground,

⁷but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.

⁸“As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause,

⁹who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number:

¹⁰he gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields;

¹¹he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success.

¹³He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

¹⁴They meet with darkness in the daytime and grope at noonday as in the night.

¹⁵But he saves the needy from the sword of their mouth and from the hand of the mighty.

¹⁶So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.

¹⁷“Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.

¹⁹He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no evil shall touch you.

²⁰In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.

²¹You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes.

²²At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.

²³For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.

²⁴You shall know that your tent is at peace, and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.

²⁵You shall know also that your offspring shall be many, and your descendants as the grass of the earth.

²⁶You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, like a sheaf gathered up in its season.

²⁷Behold, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear, and know it for your good.”

¹Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him;

²the LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.

³The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.

⁴As for me, I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!”

⁵My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die, and his name perish?”

⁶And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad.

⁷All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me.

⁸They say, “A deadly thing is poured out on him; he will not rise again from where he lies.”

⁹Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

¹⁰But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them!

¹¹By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.

¹²But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.

¹³Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.

¹My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,

²that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.

³For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,

⁴but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;

⁶she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,

⁹lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless,

¹⁰lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

¹¹and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,

¹²and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.

¹⁴I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

¹⁹a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

²⁰Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

²¹For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.

²²The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

²³He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

¹When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, 180,000 chosen warriors, to fight against Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam.

²But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God:

³“Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin,

⁴‘Thus says the LORD, You shall not go up or fight against your relatives. Return every man to his home, for this thing is from me.’” So they listened to the word of the LORD and returned and did not go against Jeroboam.

⁵Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built cities for defense in Judah.

⁶He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

⁷Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam,

⁸Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

¹⁰Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, fortified cities that are in Judah and in Benjamin.

¹¹He made the fortresses strong, and put commanders in them, and stores of food, oil, and wine.

¹²And he put shields and spears in all the cities and made them very strong. So he held Judah and Benjamin.

¹³And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel presented themselves to him from all places where they lived.

¹⁴For the Levites left their common lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons cast them out from serving as priests of the LORD,

¹⁵and he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat idols and for the calves that he had made.

¹⁶And those who had set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers.

¹⁷They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam the son of Solomon secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.

¹⁸Rehoboam took as wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse,

¹⁹and she bore him sons, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

²⁰After her he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.

²¹Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and concubines (he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).

²²And Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah as chief prince among his brothers, for he intended to make him king.

²³And he dealt wisely and distributed some of his sons through all the districts of Judah and Benjamin, in all the fortified cities, and he gave them abundant provisions and procured wives for them.

¹Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law.

²To me they cry, “My God, we — Israel — know you.”

³Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction.

⁵I have spurned your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?

⁶For it is from Israel; a craftsman made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

⁷For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it.

⁸Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey wandering alone; Ephraim has hired lovers.

¹⁰Though they hire allies among the nations, I will soon gather them up. And the king and princes shall soon writhe because of the tribute.

¹¹Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they have become to him altars for sinning.

¹²Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing.

¹³As for my sacrificial offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt.

¹⁴For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds.

¹And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”

²And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?”

⁴Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God's high priest?”

⁵And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

⁶Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”

⁷And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

⁸For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

⁹Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?”

¹⁰And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

¹²When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.

¹³There were more than forty who made this conspiracy.

¹⁴They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul.

¹⁵Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near.”

¹⁶Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.

¹⁷Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.”

¹⁸So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, “Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you.”

¹⁹The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?”

²⁰And he said, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him.

²¹But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.”

²²So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.”

²³Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night.

²⁴Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.”

²⁵And he wrote a letter to this effect:

²⁶“Claudius Lysias, to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings.

²⁷This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen.

²⁸And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council.

²⁹I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment.

³⁰And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.”

³¹So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.

³²And on the next day they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him.

³³When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him.

³⁴On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from. And when he learned that he was from Cilicia,

³⁵he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod's praetorium.