Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:

²“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.

³He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

⁴“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

⁵“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business.

⁶The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.

⁷The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

⁸“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come.

⁹So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’

¹⁰So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.

¹²He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

¹³“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹⁴“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.

¹⁶They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are.

¹⁷Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

¹⁸But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?

¹⁹Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius,

²⁰and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

²¹“Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

²²When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

²³That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.

²⁴“Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.

²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.

²⁶The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.

²⁷Finally, the woman died.

²⁸Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

²⁹Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

³⁰At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

³¹But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you,

³²‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

³³When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

³⁴Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.

³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

³⁶“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment.

³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

⁴¹While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

⁴²“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied.

⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

⁴⁴“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’

⁴⁵If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”

⁴⁶No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

¹So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him.

²Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.

³From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier

⁴and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the LORD.

⁵Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.

⁶But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.

⁷And quarreling arose between Abram’s herders and Lot’s. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.

⁸So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives.

⁹Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”

¹⁰Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

¹¹So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company:

¹²Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.

¹³Now the people of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.

¹⁴The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west.

¹⁵All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.

¹⁶I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.

¹⁷Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”

¹⁸So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the LORD.

¹I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.

²I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.

³And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—

⁴was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.

⁵I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.

⁶Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say,

⁷or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

⁹But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

¹⁰That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

¹¹I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.

¹²I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles.

¹³How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!

¹⁴Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

¹⁵So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less?

¹⁶Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you. Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery!

¹⁷Did I exploit you through any of the men I sent to you?

¹⁸I urged Titus to go to you and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not walk in the same footsteps by the same Spirit?

¹⁹Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ; and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening.

²⁰For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.

²¹I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.

¹“Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble.

²They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.

³Do you fix your eye on them? Will you bring them before you for judgment?

⁴Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one!

⁵A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.

⁶So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.

⁷“At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.

⁸Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil,

⁹yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.

¹⁰But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more.

¹¹As the water of a lake dries up or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,

¹²so he lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, people will not awake or be roused from their sleep.

¹³“If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me!

¹⁴If someone dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come.

¹⁵You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made.

¹⁶Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin.

¹⁷My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.

¹⁸“But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place,

¹⁹as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy a person’s hope.

²⁰You overpower them once for all, and they are gone; you change their countenance and send them away.

²¹If their children are honored, they do not know it; if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.

²²They feel but the pain of their own bodies and mourn only for themselves.”

¹A psalm of Asaph. The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets.

²From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.

³Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a tempest rages.

⁴He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people:

⁵“Gather to me this consecrated people, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

⁶And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice.

⁷“Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God.

⁸I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.

⁹I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens,

¹⁰for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.

¹¹I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.

¹²If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High,

¹⁵and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

¹⁶But to the wicked person, God says: “What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips?

¹⁷You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you.

¹⁸When you see a thief, you join with him; you throw in your lot with adulterers.

¹⁹You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit.

²⁰You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother’s son.

²¹When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But I now arraign you and set my accusations before you.

²²“Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:

²³Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.”

¹The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.

²Whoever fears the LORD walks uprightly, but those who despise him are devious in their ways.

³A fool’s mouth lashes out with pride, but the lips of the wise protect them.

⁴Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox come abundant harvests.

⁵An honest witness does not deceive, but a false witness pours out lies.

⁶The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.

⁷Stay away from a fool, for you will not find knowledge on their lips.

⁸The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways, but the folly of fools is deception.

⁹Fools mock at making amends for sin, but goodwill is found among the upright.

¹⁰Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy.

¹¹The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish.

¹²There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

¹³Even in laughter the heart may ache, and rejoicing may end in grief.

¹⁴The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways, and the good rewarded for theirs.

¹⁵The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps.

¹⁶The wise fear the LORD and shun evil, but a fool is hotheaded and yet feels secure.

¹⁷A quick-tempered person does foolish things, and the one who devises evil schemes is hated.

¹⁸The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

¹⁹Evildoers will bow down in the presence of the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

²⁰The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.

²¹It is a sin to despise one’s neighbor, but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy.

²²Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.

²³All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

²⁴The wealth of the wise is their crown, but the folly of fools yields folly.

²⁵A truthful witness saves lives, but a false witness is deceitful.

²⁶Whoever fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge.

²⁷The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.

²⁸A large population is a king’s glory, but without subjects a prince is ruined.

²⁹Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly.

³⁰A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

³¹Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

³²When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down, but even in death the righteous seek refuge in God.

³³Wisdom reposes in the heart of the discerning and even among fools she lets herself be known.

³⁴Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.

³⁵A king delights in a wise servant, but a shameful servant arouses his fury.

¹After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to wage war against Jehoshaphat.

²Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi).

³Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.

⁴The people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.

⁵Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard

⁶and said: “LORD, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.

⁷Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?

⁸They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying,

⁹‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’

¹⁰“But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them.

¹¹See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance.

¹²Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

¹³All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the LORD.

¹⁴Then the Spirit of the LORD came on Jahaziel son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph, as he stood in the assembly.

¹⁵He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.

¹⁶Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel.

¹⁷You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.’ ”

¹⁸Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the LORD.

¹⁹Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.

²⁰Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the LORD your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.”

²¹After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.”

²²As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.

²³The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another.

²⁴When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped.

²⁵So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value—more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it.

²⁶On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berakah, where they praised the LORD. This is why it is called the Valley of Berakah to this day.

²⁷Then, led by Jehoshaphat, all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the LORD had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies.

²⁸They entered Jerusalem and went to the temple of the LORD with harps and lyres and trumpets.

²⁹The fear of God came on all the surrounding kingdoms when they heard how the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel.

³⁰And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.

³¹So Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.

³²He followed the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.

³³The high places, however, were not removed, and the people still had not set their hearts on the God of their ancestors.

³⁴The other events of Jehoshaphat’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the annals of Jehu son of Hanani, which are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel.

³⁵Later, Jehoshaphat king of Judah made an alliance with Ahaziah king of Israel, whose ways were wicked.

³⁶He agreed with him to construct a fleet of trading ships. After these were built at Ezion Geber,

³⁷Eliezer son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have made an alliance with Ahaziah, the LORD will destroy what you have made.” The ships were wrecked and were not able to set sail to trade.

¹“In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

²I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.

³They cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes; they sold girls for wine to drink.

⁴“Now what have you against me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Are you repaying me for something I have done? If you are paying me back, I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads what you have done.

⁵For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasures to your temples.

⁶You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, that you might send them far from their homeland.

⁷“See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them, and I will return on your own heads what you have done.

⁸I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” The LORD has spoken.

⁹Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.

¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, “I am strong!”

¹¹Come quickly, all you nations from every side, and assemble there. Bring down your warriors, LORD!

¹²“Let the nations be roused; let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side.

¹³Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow— so great is their wickedness!”

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

¹⁵The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine.

¹⁶The LORD will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the heavens will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

¹⁷“Then you will know that I, the LORD your God, dwell in Zion, my holy hill. Jerusalem will be holy; never again will foreigners invade her.

¹⁸“In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow out of the LORD’s house and will water the valley of acacias.

¹⁹But Egypt will be desolate, Edom a desert waste, because of violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.

²⁰Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations.

²¹Shall I leave their innocent blood unavenged? No, I will not.” The LORD dwells in Zion!

¹The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people.

²They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

³They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.

⁴But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.

⁵The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem.

⁶Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family.

⁷They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people!

⁹If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed,

¹⁰then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

¹¹Jesus is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’

¹²Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

¹³When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

¹⁴But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.

¹⁵So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together.

¹⁶“What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it.

¹⁷But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”

¹⁸Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges!

²⁰As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

²¹After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.

²²For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

²³On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

²⁴When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.

²⁵You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “ ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

²⁶The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.’

²⁷Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.

²⁸They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.

²⁹Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

³⁰Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

³²All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.

³³With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all

³⁴that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales

³⁵and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

³⁶Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”),

³⁷sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.