Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus summoned His disciples and *said to them,

²“I feel compassion for thepeople because they have remained with Me for three days already and have nothing to eat.

³And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance.”

⁴And His disciples replied to Him, “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?”

⁵And He was asking them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven.”

⁶And He *directed the people to recline on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve, and they served them to the people.

⁷They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He told the disciples to serve these as well.

⁸And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces.

⁹About four thousand men were there; and He dismissed them.

¹⁰And immediately He got into the boat with His disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

¹¹And the Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, demanding from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him.

¹²Sighing deeply in His spirit, He *said, “Why does this generation demand asign? Truly I say to you,nosign will be given to this generation!”

¹³And leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side.

¹⁴And the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them.

¹⁵And He was giving orders to them, saying, “Watch out! Beware of theleaven of the Pharisees, and the leaven of Herod.”

¹⁶And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread.

¹⁷And Jesus, aware of this, *said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet comprehend or understand? Do you still have your hearthardened?

¹⁸HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember,

¹⁹when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They *said to Him, “Twelve.”

²⁰“When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they *said to Him, “Seven.”

²¹And He was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

²²And they *came to Bethsaida. And some people *brought a man who was blind to Jesus and *begged Him to touch him.

²³Taking the man who was blind by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting in his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?”

²⁴And he looked up and said, “I see people, for I see them like trees, walking around.”

²⁵Then again He laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.

²⁶And He sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

²⁷Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?”

²⁸They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”

²⁹And He continued questioning them: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and *said to Him, “You are the Christ.”

³⁰And He warned them to tell no one about Him.

³¹And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise from the dead.

³²And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.

³³But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and *said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind onGod’s purposes, but on man’s.”

³⁴And He summoned the crowd together with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

³⁵For whoever wants to save hislife will lose it, but whoever loses hislife for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.

³⁶For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

³⁷For what could a person give in exchange for his soul?

³⁸For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

¹Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he said to him, “Here I am.”

²Then Isaac said, “Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my death.

³Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me;

⁴and prepare a delicious meal for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”

⁵Now Rebekah was listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game to bring home,

⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Behold, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau, saying,

⁷‘Bring me some game and prepare a delicious meal for me, so that I may eat, and bless you in the presence of the LORD before my death.’

⁸So now, my son, listen to me as I command you.

⁹Go now to the flock and bring me two choice young goats from there, so that I may prepare them as a delicious meal for your father, such as he loves.

¹⁰Then you shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”

¹¹But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am a smooth man.

¹²Perhaps my father will touch me, then I will be like a deceiver in his sight, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing.”

¹³But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get the goats for me.”

¹⁴So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made a delicious meal such as his father loved.

¹⁵Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.

¹⁶And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.

¹⁷She also gave the delicious meal and the bread which she had made to her son Jacob.

¹⁸Then he came to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Come now, sit and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”

²⁰Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the LORD your God made it come to me.”

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come close, so that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

²²So Jacob came close to his father Isaac, and he touched him and said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

²³And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.

²⁴And he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” And he said, “I am.”

²⁵So he said, “Bring it to me, and I will eat of my son’s game, that I may bless you.” And he brought it to him, and he ate; he also brought him wine and he drank.

²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come close and kiss me, my son.”

²⁷So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son Is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed;

²⁸Now may God give you of the dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth, And an abundance of grain and new wine;

²⁹May peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you; Be master of your brothers, And may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, And blessed be those who bless you.”

³⁰Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, that his brother Esau came in from his hunting.

³¹Then he also made a delicious meal, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that you may bless me.”

³²His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

³³Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who then was he who hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate from all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.”

³⁴When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, me as well, my father!”

³⁵And he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.”

³⁶Then Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob, for he has betrayed me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”

³⁷But Isaac replied to Esau, “Behold, I have made him your master, and I have given to him all his relatives as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?”

³⁸Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, me as well, my father.” So Esau raised his voice and wept.

³⁹Then his father Isaac answered and said to him, “Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling, And away from the dew of heaven from above.

⁴⁰And by your sword you shall live, And you shall serve your brother; But it shall come about when you become restless, That you will break his yoke from your neck.”

⁴¹So Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

⁴²Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent word and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, “Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you.

⁴³Now then, my son, obey my voice, and arise, flee to Haran, to my brother Laban!

⁴⁴Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury subsides,

⁴⁵until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send word and get you from there. Why should I lose you both in one day?”

⁴⁶And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth like these from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

¹Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons:

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,

⁴always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,

⁵in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.

⁶For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus.

⁷For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me.

⁸For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

⁹And this I pray, that your love may overflow still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,

¹⁰so that you may discover the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ;

¹¹having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God.

¹²Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel,

¹³so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the praetorian guard and to everyone else,

¹⁴and that most of the brothers and sisters, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.

¹⁵Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill;

¹⁶the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel;

¹⁷the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives, thinking that they are causing me distress in my imprisonment.

¹⁸What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. But not only that, I also will rejoice,

¹⁹for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

²⁰according to my eager expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

²¹For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

²²But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose.

²³But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;

²⁴yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes.

²⁵Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith,

²⁶so that your pride in Christ Jesus may be abundant because of me by my coming to you again.

²⁷Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

²⁸and in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and this too, from God.

²⁹For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer on His behalf,

³⁰experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

¹Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,

²in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,

³but at the proper time revealed His word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior;

⁴To Titus, my true son in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

⁵For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you,

⁶namely, if any man is beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of indecent behavior or rebellion.

⁷For the overseer must be beyond reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not overindulging in wine, not a bully, not greedy for money,

⁸but hospitable, loving what is good, self-controlled, righteous, holy, disciplined,

⁹holding firmly the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it.

¹⁰For there are many rebellious people, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,

¹¹who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain.

¹²One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

¹³This testimony is true. For this reason reprimand them severely so that they may be sound in the faith,

¹⁴not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

¹⁵To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.

¹⁶They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

¹“Certainly there is a mine for silver And a place for refining gold.

²Iron is taken from the dust, And copper is smelted from rock.

³Man puts an end to darkness, And to the farthest limit he searches out The rock in gloom and deep shadow.

⁴He sinks a shaft away from inhabited areas, Forgotten by the foot; They hang and swing, away from people.

⁵From the earth comes food, And underneath, it is turned over like fire.

⁶Its rocks are the source of sapphires, And its dust contains gold.

⁷No bird of prey knows the path, Nor has the falcon’s eye caught sight of it.

⁸The proud animals have not trodden it, Nor has the lion passed over it.

⁹He puts his hand on the flint; He overturns the mountains at the base.

¹⁰He carves out channels through the rocks, And his eye sees anything precious.

¹¹He dams up the streams from flowing, And brings to light what is hidden.

¹²“But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?

¹³Mankind does not know its value, Nor is it found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The ocean depth says, ‘It is not in me’; And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

¹⁵Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it, Nor can silver be weighed as its price.

¹⁶It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx, or sapphire.

¹⁷Gold or glass cannot equal it, Nor can it be exchanged for articles of pure gold.

¹⁸Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned; And the acquisition of wisdom is more valuable than pearls.

¹⁹The topaz of Cush cannot equal it, Nor can it be valued in pure gold.

²⁰Where then does wisdom come from? And where is this place of understanding?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of every living creature, And concealed from the birds of the sky.

²²Abaddon and Death say, ‘With our ears we have heard a report of it.’

²³“God understands its way, And He knows its place.

²⁴For He looks to the ends of the earth; He sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵When He imparted weight to the wind, And assessed the waters by measure,

²⁶When He made a limit for the rain, And a course for the thunderbolt,

²⁷Then He saw it and declared it; He established it and also searched it out.

²⁸And to mankind He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to turn away from evil is understanding.’ ”

¹Hear my voice, God, in my complaint; Protect my life from dread of the enemy.

²Hide me from the secret discussion of evildoers, From the restlessness of the workers of injustice,

³Who have sharpened their tongues like a sword. They aimed bitter speech as their arrows,

⁴To shoot from concealment at the innocent; Suddenly they shoot at him, and do not fear.

⁵They make firm for themselves an evil purpose; They talk of setting snares secretly; They say, “Who can see them?”

⁶They devise injustices, saying, “We are ready with a well-conceived plot”; For the inward thought and the heart of a person are deep.

⁷But God will shoot an arrow at them; Suddenly they will be wounded.

⁸So they will make him stumble; Their own tongue is against them; All who see them will shake their heads.

⁹Then all people will fear, And they will declare the work of God, And will consider what He has done.

¹⁰The righteous person will be glad in the LORD and take refuge in Him; And all the upright in heart will boast.

¹The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, But the righteous are bold as a lion.

²Due to a wrongdoing of a land its leaders are many, But by a person of understanding and knowledge, so it endures.

³A poor man who oppresses the helpless Is like a driving rain which leaves no food.

⁴Those who abandon the Law praise the wicked, But those who keep the Law strive against them.

⁵Evil people do not understand justice, But those who seek the LORD understand everything.

⁶Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity, Than a person who is crooked, though he is rich.

⁷He who keeps the Law is a discerning son, But he who is a companion of gluttons humiliates his father.

⁸One who increases his wealth by interest of any kind, Collects it for one who is gracious to the poor.

⁹One who turns his ear away from listening to the Law, Even his prayer is an abomination.

¹⁰One who leads the upright astray in an evil way Will himself fall into his own pit, But the blameless will inherit good.

¹¹The rich person is wise in his own eyes, But the poor who has understanding sees through him.

¹²When the righteous triumph, there is great glory, But when the wicked rise, people hide themselves.

¹³One who conceals his wrongdoings will not prosper, But one who confesses and abandons them will find compassion.

¹⁴How blessed is the person who fears always, But one who hardens his heart will fall into disaster.

¹⁵Like a roaring lion and a rushing bear Is a wicked ruler over a poor people.

¹⁶A leader who is a great oppressor lacks understanding, But a person who hates unjust gain will prolong his days.

¹⁷A person who is burdened with the guilt of human blood Will be a fugitive until death; no one is to support him!

¹⁸One who walks blamelessly will receive help, But one who is crooked will fall all at once.

¹⁹One who works his land will have plenty of food, But one who follows empty pursuits will have plenty of poverty.

²⁰A faithful person will abound with blessings, But one who hurries to be rich will not go unpunished.

²¹To show partiality is not good, Because for a piece of bread a man will do wrong.

²²A person with an evil eye hurries after wealth And does not know that poverty will come upon him.

²³One who rebukes a person will afterward find more favor Than one who flatters with the tongue.

²⁴He who robs his father or his mother And says, “There is no wrong done,” Is the companion of a person who destroys.

²⁵An arrogant person stirs up strife, But one who trusts in the LORD will prosper.

²⁶One who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But one who walks wisely will flee to safety.

²⁷One who gives to the poor will never lack anything, But one who shuts his eyes will have many curses.

²⁸When the wicked rise, people hide themselves; But when they perish, the righteous increase.

¹Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

²He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or the left.

³For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images, and the cast metal images.

⁴They tore down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he chopped down the incense altars that were high above them; also he broke in pieces the Asherim, the carved images, and the cast metal images, and ground them to powder, and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

⁵Then he burned the bones of the priests on their altars and purged Judah and Jerusalem.

⁶In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their surrounding spaces,

⁷he also tore down the altars and crushed the Asherim and the carved images into powder, and chopped down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

⁸Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah an official of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the secretary, to repair the house of the LORD his God.

⁹They came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the doorkeepers, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰Then they handed it over to the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and the workmen who were working in the house of the LORD used it to restore and repair the house.

¹¹They in turn gave it to the carpenters and the builders to buy quarried stone and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had let go to ruin.

¹²The men did the work faithfully with foremen over them to supervise: Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites of the sons of Merari, Zechariah and Meshullam of the sons of the Kohathites, and the Levites, all who were skillful with musical instruments.

¹³They were also in charge of the burden bearers, and supervised all the workmen from job to job; and some of the Levites were scribes, and officials, and gatekeepers.

¹⁴When they were bringing out the money which had been brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD given by Moses.

¹⁵Hilkiah responded and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.

¹⁶Then Shaphan brought the book to the king and reported further word to the king, saying, “Everything that was entrusted to your servants, they are doing.

¹⁷They have also emptied out the money which was found in the house of the LORD, and have handed it over to the supervisors and the workmen.”

¹⁸Moreover, Shaphan the scribe informed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.

¹⁹When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes.

²⁰Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying,

²¹“Go, inquire of the LORD for me and for those who are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book which has been found; for the wrath of the LORD which has poured out on us is great, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to act in accordance with everything that is written in this book.”

²²So Hilkiah and those whom the king had told went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the wardrobe (she lived in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter); and they spoke to her regarding this.

²³Then she said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘Tell the man who sent you to Me,

²⁴this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am bringing evil on this place and on its inhabitants, all the curses written in the book which they have read in the presence of the king of Judah.

²⁵Since they have abandoned Me and have burned incense to other gods, so that they may provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands, My wrath will be poured out on this place and it will not be quenched.” ’

²⁶But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD, this is what you shall say to him: ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: In regard to the words which you have heard,

²⁷“Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes, and wept before Me, I have indeed heard you,” declares the LORD.

²⁸“Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, so your eyes will not see all the evil which I am bringing on this place and its inhabitants.” ’ ” And they brought back word to the king.

²⁹Then the king sent word and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

³⁰The king went up to the house of the LORD with all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people, from the greatest to the least; and he read in their presence all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.

³¹Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments, His testimonies, and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that are written in this book.

³²Furthermore, he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin stand with him. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem acted in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands belonging to the sons of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. Throughout his lifetime they did not turn from following the LORD God of their fathers.

¹But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry.

²Then he prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore in anticipation of this I fled to Tarshish, since I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in mercy, and One who relents of disaster.

³So now, LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”

⁴But the LORD said, “Do you have a good reason to be angry?”

⁵Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade, until he could see what would happen in the city.

⁶So the LORD God designated a plant, and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head, to relieve him of his discomfort. And Jonah was overjoyed about the plant.

⁷But God designated a worm when dawn came the next day, and it attacked the plant and it withered.

⁸And when the sun came up God designated a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint, and he begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life!”

⁹But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to the point of death!”

¹⁰Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant, for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.

¹¹Should I not also have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 people, who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left, as well as many animals?”

¹After these events Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

²And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them,

³and because he was of the same trade he stayed with them, and they worked together, for they were tent-makers by trade.

⁴And Paul was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

⁵But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

⁶But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood is on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

⁷Then he left the synagogue and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

⁸Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household; and many of the Corinthians, as they listened to Paul, were believing and being baptized.

⁹And the Lord said to Paul by a vision at night, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent;

¹⁰for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city.”

¹¹And he settled there for a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

¹²But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,

¹³saying, “This man is inciting the people to worship God contrary to the law.”

¹⁴But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of some crime or vicious, unscrupulous act, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you;

¹⁵but if there are questions about teaching and persons and your own law, see to it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.”

¹⁶And he drove them away from the judgment seat.

¹⁷But they all took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and began beating him in front of the judgment seat. And yet Gallio was not concerned about any of these things.

¹⁸Now Paul, when he had remained many days longer, took leave of the brothers and sisters and sailed away to Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. Paul first had his hair cut at Cenchrea, for he was keeping a vow.

¹⁹They came to Ephesus, and he left them there. Now he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

²⁰When they asked him to stay for a longer time, he did not consent,

²¹but took leave of them and said, “I will return to you again if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.

²²When he had landed in Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the church, and went down to Antioch.

²³And after spending some time there, he left and passed successively through the Galatian region and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

²⁴Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was proficient in the Scriptures.

²⁵This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was accurately speaking and teaching things about Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John;

²⁶and he began speaking boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the way of God more accurately to him.

²⁷And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace,

²⁸for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.