Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹On that day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea.

²Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, while the whole crowd stood on the shore.

³Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “Consider the sower who went out to sow.

⁴As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.

⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep.

⁶But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.

⁷Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it.

⁸Still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit: some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times what was sown.

⁹Let anyone who has ears listen.”

¹⁰Then the disciples came up and asked him, “Why are you speaking to them in parables?”

¹¹He answered, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them.

¹²For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

¹³That is why I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand.

¹⁴Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: You will listen and listen, but never understand; you will look and look, but never perceive.

¹⁵ For this people’s heart has grown callous; their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back — and I would heal them.

¹⁶“Blessed are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear.

¹⁷For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but didn’t see them, to hear the things you hear but didn’t hear them.

¹⁸“So listen to the parable of the sower:

¹⁹When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path.

²⁰And the one sown on rocky ground — this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

²¹But he has no root and is short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away.

²²Now the one sown among the thorns — this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

²³But the one sown on the good ground — this is one who hears and understands the word, who does produce fruit and yields: some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”

²⁴He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

²⁵But while people were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left.

²⁶When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared.

²⁷The landowner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’

²⁸“‘An enemy did this,’ he told them. “‘So, do you want us to go and pull them up? ’ the servants asked him.

²⁹“‘No,’ he said. ‘When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them.

³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I’ll tell the reapers: Gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat in my barn.’”

³¹He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.

³²It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.”

³³He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened.”

³⁴Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables, and he did not tell them anything without a parable,

³⁵so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: I will open my mouth in parables; I will declare things kept secret from the foundation of the world.

³⁶Then he left the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

³⁷He replied: “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;

³⁸the field is the world; and the good seed — these are the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one,

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

⁴⁰Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.

⁴¹The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom all who cause sin and those guilty of lawlessness.

⁴²They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Let anyone who has ears listen.

⁴⁴“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.

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

⁴⁶When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it.

⁴⁷“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a large net thrown into the sea. It collected every kind of fish,

⁴⁸and when it was full, they dragged it ashore, sat down, and gathered the good fish into containers, but threw out the worthless ones.

⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out, separate the evil people from the righteous,

⁵⁰and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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

⁵²“Therefore,” he said to them, “every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom treasures new and old.”

⁵³When Jesus had finished these parables, he left there.

⁵⁴He went to his hometown and began to teach them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

⁵⁵Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?

⁵⁶And his sisters, aren’t they all with us? So where does he get all these things?”

⁵⁷And they were offended by him. Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his household.”

⁵⁸And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.

¹The man was intimate with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, “I have had a male child with the LORD’s help.”

²She also gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel became a shepherd of flocks, but Cain worked the ground.

³In the course of time Cain presented some of the land’s produce as an offering to the LORD.

⁴And Abel also presented an offering — some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The LORD had regard for Abel and his offering,

⁵but he did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he looked despondent.

⁶Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent?

⁷If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

⁸Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

¹⁰Then he said, “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!

¹¹So now you are cursed, alienated from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood you have shed.

¹²If you work the ground, it will never again give you its yield. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

¹³But Cain answered the LORD, “My punishment is too great to bear!

¹⁴Since you are banishing me today from the face of the earth, and I must hide from your presence and become a restless wanderer on the earth, whoever finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵Then the LORD replied to him, “In that case, whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” And he placed a mark on Cain so that whoever found him would not kill him.

¹⁶Then Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

¹⁷Cain was intimate with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Then Cain became the builder of a city, and he named the city Enoch after his son.

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

¹⁹Lamech took two wives for himself, one named Adah and the other named Zillah.

²⁰Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of the nomadic herdsmen.

²¹His brother was named Jubal; he was the father of all who play the lyre and the flute.

²²Zillah bore Tubal-cain, who made all kinds of bronze and iron tools. Tubal-cain’s sister was Naamah.

²³Lamech said to his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, pay attention to my words. For I killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.

²⁴If Cain is to be avenged seven times over, then for Lamech it will be seventy-seven times!

²⁵Adam was intimate with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, for she said, “God has given me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”

²⁶A son was born to Seth also, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.

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

²You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.

³You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us, not written 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 we have through Christ before God.

⁵It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.

⁶He has made us competent 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 that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside,

⁸how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

⁹For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory.

¹⁰In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it.

¹¹For if what was set aside was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

¹²Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness.

¹³We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end of the glory of what was being set aside,

¹⁴but their minds were hardened. For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ.

¹⁵Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts,

¹⁶but whenever a person 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.

¹⁸We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

¹After this I saw another angel with great authority coming down from heaven, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.

²He called out in a mighty voice: It has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen! She has become a home for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, and a haunt for every unclean and despicable beast.

³For all the nations have drunk the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath. The kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from her sensuality and excess.

⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven: Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins or receive any of her plagues.

⁵For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.

⁶Pay her back the way she also paid, and double it according to her works. In the cup in which she mixed, mix a double portion for her.

⁷As much as she glorified herself and indulged her sensual and excessive ways, give her that much torment and grief. For she says in her heart, “I sit as a queen; I am not a widow, and I will never see grief.”

⁸For this reason her plagues will come in just one day — death and grief and famine. She will be burned up with fire, because the Lord God who judges her is mighty.

⁹The kings of the earth who have committed sexual immorality and shared her sensual and excessive ways will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke from her burning.

¹⁰They will stand far off in fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! For in a single hour your judgment has come.

¹¹The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo any longer —

¹²cargo of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; all kinds of fragrant wood products; objects of ivory; objects of expensive wood, brass, iron, and marble;

¹³cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine, olive oil, fine flour, and grain; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and slaves — human lives.

¹⁴The fruit you craved has left you. All your splendid and glamorous things are gone; they will never find them again.

¹⁵The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand far off in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning,

¹⁶saying, Woe, woe, the great city, dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls;

¹⁷for in a single hour such fabulous wealth was destroyed! And every shipmaster, seafarer, the sailors, and all who do business by sea, stood far off

¹⁸as they watched the smoke from her burning and kept crying out: “Who was like the great city?”

¹⁹They threw dust on their heads and kept crying out, weeping, and mourning, Woe, woe, the great city, where all those who have ships on the sea became rich from her wealth; for in a single hour she was destroyed.

²⁰Rejoice over her, heaven, and you saints, apostles, and prophets, because God has pronounced on her the judgment she passed on you!

²¹Then a mighty angel picked up a stone like a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, In this way, Babylon the great city will be thrown down violently and never be found again.

²²The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters will never be heard in you again; no craftsman of any trade will ever be found in you again; the sound of a mill will never be heard in you again;

²³the light of a lamp will never shine in you again; and the voice of a groom and bride will never be heard in you again. All this will happen because your merchants were the nobility of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.

²⁴In her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all those slaughtered on the earth.

¹Call out! Will anyone answer you? Which of the holy ones will you turn to?

²For anger kills a fool, and jealousy slays the gullible.

³I have seen a fool taking root, but I immediately pronounced a curse on his home.

⁴His children are far from safety. They are crushed at the city gate, with no one to rescue them.

⁵The hungry consume his harvest, even taking it out of the thorns. The thirsty pant for his children’s wealth.

⁶For distress does not grow out of the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.

⁷But humans are born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

⁸However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to him.

⁹He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

¹⁰He gives rain to the earth and sends water to the fields.

¹¹He sets the lowly on high, and mourners are lifted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success.

¹³He traps the wise in their craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly brought to an end.

¹⁴They encounter darkness by day, and they grope at noon as if it were night.

¹⁵He saves the needy from their sharp words and from the clutches of the powerful.

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

¹⁷See how happy is the person whom God corrects; so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds but he also bandages; he strikes, but his hands also heal.

¹⁹He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.

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

²¹You will be safe from slander and not fear destruction when it comes.

²²You will laugh at destruction and hunger and not fear the land’s wild creatures.

²³For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

²⁴You will know that your tent is secure, and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.

²⁵You will also know that your offspring will be many and your descendants like the grass of the earth.

²⁶You will approach the grave in full vigor, as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.

²⁷We have investigated this, and it is true! Hear it and understand it for yourself.

¹For the choir director. A psalm of David. [1] Happy is one who is considerate of the poor; the LORD will save him in a day of adversity.

²The LORD will keep him and preserve him; he will be blessed in the land. You will not give him over to the desire of his enemies.

³The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed; you will heal him on the bed where he lies.

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

⁵My enemies speak maliciously about me: “When will he die and be forgotten?”

⁶When one of them comes to visit, he speaks deceitfully; he stores up evil in his heart; he goes out and talks.

⁷All who hate me whisper together about me; they plan to harm me.

⁸“Something awful has overwhelmed him, and he won’t rise again from where he lies!”

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

¹⁰But you, LORD, be gracious to me and raise me up; then I will repay them.

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

¹²You supported me because of my integrity and set me in your presence forever.

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

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding

²so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge.

³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil,

⁴in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps head straight for Sheol.

⁶She doesn’t consider the path of life; she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.

⁷So now, sons, listen to me, and don’t turn away from the words from my mouth.

⁸Keep your way far from her. Don’t go near the door of her house.

⁹Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others and your years to someone cruel;

¹⁰strangers will drain your resources, and your hard-earned pay will end up in a foreigner’s house.

¹¹At the end of your life, you will lament when your physical body has been consumed,

¹²and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and how my heart despised correction.

¹³I didn’t obey my teachers or listen closely to my instructors.

¹⁴I am on the verge of complete ruin before the entire community.”

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

¹⁶Should your springs flow in the streets, streams in the public squares?

¹⁷They should be for you alone and not for you to share with strangers.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹A loving deer, a graceful doe  — let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever.

²⁰Why, my son, would you lose yourself with a forbidden woman or embrace a wayward woman?

²¹For a man’s ways are before the LORD’s eyes, and he considers all his paths.

²²A wicked man’s iniquities will trap him; he will become tangled in the ropes of his own sin.

²³He will die because there is no discipline, and be lost because of his great stupidity.

¹When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the house of Judah and Benjamin — one hundred eighty thousand fit young soldiers — to fight against Israel to restore the reign to Rehoboam.

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

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

⁴‘This is what the LORD says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers. Each of you return home, for this incident has come from me.’” So they listened to what the LORD said and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

⁵Rehoboam stayed in Jerusalem, and he fortified cities in Judah.

⁶He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

⁷Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam,

⁸Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

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

¹¹He strengthened their fortifications and put leaders in them with supplies of food, oil, and wine.

¹²He also put large shields and spears in each and every city to make them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were his.

¹³The priests and Levites from all their regions throughout Israel took their stand with Rehoboam,

¹⁴for the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests of the LORD.

¹⁵Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places, the goat-demons, and the golden calves he had made.

¹⁶Those from every tribe of Israel who had determined in their hearts to seek the LORD their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁷So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, because they walked in the ways of David and Solomon for three years.

¹⁸Rehoboam married Mahalath, daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab.

¹⁹She bore sons to him: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

²⁰After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom. She bore Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith to him.

²¹Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines. He acquired eighteen wives and sixty concubines and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²²Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief, leader among his brothers, intending to make him king.

²³Rehoboam also showed discernment by dispersing some of his sons to all the regions of Judah and Benjamin and to all the fortified cities. He gave them plenty of provisions and sought many wives for them.

¹Put the horn to your mouth! One like an eagle comes against the house of the LORD, because they transgress my covenant and rebel against my law.

²Israel cries out to me, “My God, we know you!”

³Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him.

⁴They have installed kings, but not through me. They have appointed leaders, but without my approval. They make their silver and gold into idols for themselves for their own destruction.

⁵Your calf-idol is rejected, Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?

⁶For this thing is from Israel — a craftsman made it, and it is not God. The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits!

⁷Indeed, they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if they did, foreigners would swallow it up.

⁸Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like discarded pottery.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey going off on its own. Ephraim has paid for love.

¹⁰Even though they hire lovers among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to decrease in number under the burden of the king and leaders.

¹¹When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.

¹²Though I were to write out for him ten thousand points of my instruction, they would be regarded as something strange.

¹³Though they offer sacrificial gifts and eat the flesh, the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their guilt and punish their sins; they will return to Egypt.

¹⁴Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has also multiplied fortified cities. I will send fire on their cities, and it will consume their citadels.

¹Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience to this day.”

²The high priest Ananias ordered those who were standing next to him to strike him on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! You are sitting there judging me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law are you ordering me to be struck?”

⁴Those standing nearby said, “Do you dare revile God’s high priest?”

⁵“I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest,” replied Paul. “For it is written, You must not speak evil of a ruler of your people.”

⁶When Paul realized that one part of them were Sadducees and the other part were Pharisees, he cried out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am being judged because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead!”

⁷When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

⁸For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, and neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees affirm them all.

⁹The shouting grew loud, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party got up and argued vehemently: “We find nothing evil in this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

¹⁰When the dispute became violent, the commander feared that Paul might be torn apart by them and ordered the troops to go down, take him away from them, and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage! For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so it is necessary for you to testify in Rome.”

¹²When it was morning, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³There were more than forty who had formed this plot.

¹⁴These men went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves under a solemn curse that we won’t eat anything until we have killed Paul.

¹⁵So now you, along with the Sanhedrin, make a request to the commander that he bring him down to you as if you were going to investigate his case more thoroughly. But, before he gets near, we are ready to kill him.”

¹⁶But the son of Paul’s sister, hearing about their ambush, came and entered the barracks and reported it to Paul.

¹⁷Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the commander, because he has something to report to him.”

¹⁸So he took him, brought him to the commander, and said, “The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, because he has something to tell you.”

¹⁹The commander took him by the hand, led him aside, and inquired privately, “What is it you have to report to me?”

²⁰“The Jews,” he said, “have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the Sanhedrin tomorrow, as though they are going to hold a somewhat more careful inquiry about him.

²¹Don’t let them persuade you, because there are more than forty of them lying in ambush — men who have bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they have killed him. Now they are ready, waiting for your consent.”

²²So the commander dismissed the young man and instructed him, “Don’t tell anyone that you have informed me about this.”

²³He summoned two of his centurions and said, “Get two hundred soldiers ready with seventy cavalry and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at nine tonight.

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

²⁵He wrote the following letter:

²⁶Claudius Lysias, To the most excellent governor Felix: Greetings.

²⁷When this man had been seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, I arrived with my troops and rescued him because I learned that he is a Roman citizen.

²⁸Wanting to know the charge they were accusing him of, I brought him down before their Sanhedrin.

²⁹I found out that the accusations were concerning questions of their law, and that there was no charge that merited death or imprisonment.

³⁰When I was informed that there was a plot against the man, I sent him to you right away. I also ordered his accusers to state their case against him in your presence.

³¹So the soldiers took Paul during the night and brought him to Antipatris as they were ordered.

³²The next day, they returned to the barracks, allowing the cavalry to go on with him.

³³When these men entered Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him.

³⁴After he read it, he asked what province he was from. When he learned he was from Cilicia,

³⁵he said, “I will give you a hearing whenever your accusers also get here.” He ordered that he be kept under guard in Herod’s palace.