Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said,

²“I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.

³If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.”

⁴His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”

⁵“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied.

⁶He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so.

⁷They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them.

⁸The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

⁹About four thousand were present. After he had sent them away,

¹⁰he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha.

¹¹The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven.

¹²He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.”

¹³Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.

¹⁴The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.

¹⁵“Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”

¹⁶They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”

¹⁷Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?

¹⁸Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?

¹⁹When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied.

²⁰“And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.”

²¹He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

²²They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.

²³He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

²⁴He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

²⁵Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

²⁶Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”

²⁷Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

²⁸They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

²⁹“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

³⁰Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

³¹He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

³²He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

³³But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

³⁴Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

³⁵For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

³⁶What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

³⁷Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

³⁸If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

¹When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” “Here I am,” he answered.

²Isaac said, “I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death.

³Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.

⁴Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.”

⁵Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back,

⁶Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “Look, I overheard your father say to your brother Esau,

⁷‘Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the LORD before I die.’

⁸Now, my son, listen carefully and do what I tell you:

⁹Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it.

¹⁰Then take it to your father to eat, so that he may give you his blessing before he dies.”

¹¹Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man while I have smooth skin.

¹²What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing.”

¹³His mother said to him, “My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me.”

¹⁴So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it.

¹⁵Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.

¹⁶She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins.

¹⁷Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.

¹⁸He went to his father and said, “My father.” “Yes, my son,” he answered. “Who is it?”

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

²⁰Isaac asked his son, “How did you find it so quickly, my son?” “The LORD your God gave me success,” he replied.

²¹Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.”

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

²³He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he proceeded to bless him.

²⁴“Are you really my son Esau?” he asked. “I am,” he replied.

²⁵Then he said, “My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing.” Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank.

²⁶Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here, my son, and kiss me.”

²⁷So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.

²⁸May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine.

²⁹May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”

³⁰After Isaac finished blessing him, and Jacob had scarcely left his father’s presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.

³¹He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, “My father, please sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing.”

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

³³Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him—and indeed he will be blessed!”

³⁴When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!”

³⁵But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.”

³⁶Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”

³⁷Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”

³⁸Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!” Then Esau wept aloud.

³⁹His father Isaac answered him, “Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above.

⁴⁰You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.”

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

⁴²When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is planning to avenge himself by killing you.

⁴³Now then, my son, do what I say: Flee at once to my brother Laban in Harran.

⁴⁴Stay with him for a while until your brother’s fury subsides.

⁴⁵When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I’ll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I’m disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living.”

¹Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all God’s holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

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

³I thank my God every time I remember you.

⁴In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy

⁵because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,

⁶being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

⁷It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.

⁸God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

⁹And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,

¹⁰so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

¹²Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.

¹³As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.

¹⁴And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.

¹⁵It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.

¹⁶The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

¹⁷The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.

¹⁸But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,

¹⁹for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.

²⁰I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

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

²²If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!

²³I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;

²⁴but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

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

²⁶so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

²⁷Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel

²⁸without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.

²⁹For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,

³⁰since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

¹Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—

²in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,

³and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,

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

⁵The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.

⁶An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.

⁷Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.

⁸Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

⁹He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

¹⁰For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group.

¹¹They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.

¹²One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”

¹³This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith

¹⁴and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth.

¹⁵To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.

¹⁶They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.

¹There is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.

²Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore.

³Mortals put an end to the darkness; they search out the farthest recesses for ore in the blackest darkness.

⁴Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft, in places untouched by human feet; far from other people they dangle and sway.

⁵The earth, from which food comes, is transformed below as by fire;

⁶lapis lazuli comes from its rocks, and its dust contains nuggets of gold.

⁷No bird of prey knows that hidden path, no falcon’s eye has seen it.

⁸Proud beasts do not set foot on it, and no lion prowls there.

⁹People assault the flinty rock with their hands and lay bare the roots of the mountains.

¹⁰They tunnel through the rock; their eyes see all its treasures.

¹¹They search the sources of the rivers and bring hidden things to light.

¹²But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell?

¹³No mortal comprehends its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, “It is not in me”; the sea says, “It is not with me.”

¹⁵It cannot be bought with the finest gold, nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

¹⁶It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir, with precious onyx or lapis lazuli.

¹⁷Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it, nor can it be had for jewels of gold.

¹⁸Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention; the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.

¹⁹The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it; it cannot be bought with pure gold.

²⁰Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds in the sky.

²²Destruction and Death say, “Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”

²³God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells,

²⁴for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters,

²⁶when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm,

²⁷then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it.

²⁸And he said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”

¹For the director of music. A psalm of David. Hear me, my God, as I voice my complaint; protect my life from the threat of the enemy.

²Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the plots of evildoers.

³They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows.

⁴They shoot from ambush at the innocent; they shoot suddenly, without fear.

⁵They encourage each other in evil plans, they talk about hiding their snares; they say, “Who will see it?”

⁶They plot injustice and say, “We have devised a perfect plan!” Surely the human mind and heart are cunning.

⁷But God will shoot them with his arrows; they will suddenly be struck down.

⁸He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.

⁹All people will fear; they will proclaim the works of God and ponder what he has done.

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in him; all the upright in heart will glory in him!

¹The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

²When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a ruler with discernment and knowledge maintains order.

³A ruler who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no crops.

⁴Those who forsake instruction praise the wicked, but those who heed it resist them.

⁵Evildoers do not understand what is right, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.

⁶Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.

⁷A discerning son heeds instruction, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father.

⁸Whoever increases wealth by taking interest or profit from the poor amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.

⁹If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.

¹⁰Whoever leads the upright along an evil path will fall into their own trap, but the blameless will receive a good inheritance.

¹¹The rich are wise in their own eyes; one who is poor and discerning sees how deluded they are.

¹²When the righteous triumph, there is great elation; but when the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding.

¹³Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

¹⁴Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.

¹⁵Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a helpless people.

¹⁶A tyrannical ruler practices extortion, but one who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long reign.

¹⁷Anyone tormented by the guilt of murder will seek refuge in the grave; let no one hold them back.

¹⁸The one whose walk is blameless is kept safe, but the one whose ways are perverse will fall into the pit.

¹⁹Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty.

²⁰A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.

²¹To show partiality is not good— yet a person will do wrong for a piece of bread.

²²The stingy are eager to get rich and are unaware that poverty awaits them.

²³Whoever rebukes a person will in the end gain favor rather than one who has a flattering tongue.

²⁴Whoever robs their father or mother and says, “It’s not wrong,” is partner to one who destroys.

²⁵The greedy stir up conflict, but those who trust in the LORD will prosper.

²⁶Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.

²⁷Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses.

²⁸When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding; but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive.

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

²He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and followed the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.

³In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols.

⁴Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

⁵He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem.

⁶In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them,

⁷he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

⁸In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the LORD his God.

⁹They went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the temple of God, which the Levites who were the gatekeepers had collected from the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the entire remnant of Israel and from all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰Then they entrusted it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the LORD’s temple. These men paid the workers who repaired and restored the temple.

¹¹They also gave money to the carpenters and builders to purchase dressed stone, and timber for joists and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin.

¹²The workers labored faithfully. Over them to direct them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites descended from Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, descended from Kohath. The Levites—all who were skilled in playing musical instruments—

¹³had charge of the laborers and supervised all the workers from job to job. Some of the Levites were secretaries, scribes and gatekeepers.

¹⁴While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD that had been given through Moses.

¹⁵Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” He gave it to Shaphan.

¹⁶Then Shaphan took the book to the king and reported to him: “Your officials are doing everything that has been committed to them.

¹⁷They have paid out the money that was in the temple of the LORD and have entrusted it to the supervisors and workers.”

¹⁸Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given 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 robes.

²⁰He gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant:

²¹“Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD’s anger that is poured out on us because those who have gone before us have not kept the word of the LORD; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book.”

²²Hilkiah and those the king had sent with him went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter.

²³She said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me,

²⁴‘This is what the LORD says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people—all the curses written in the book that has been read in the presence of the king of Judah.

²⁵Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all that their hands have made, my anger will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.’

²⁶Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard:

²⁷Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD.

²⁸Now I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here.’ ” So they took her answer back to the king.

²⁹Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

³⁰He went up to the temple of the LORD with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD.

³¹The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD—to follow the LORD and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book.

³²Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it; the people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.

³³Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the LORD, the God of their ancestors.

¹But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.

²He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

³Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁴But the LORD replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

⁵Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.

⁶Then the LORD God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.

⁷But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered.

⁸When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

⁹But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

¹⁰But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.

¹¹And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

¹After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

²There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

³and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.

⁴Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

⁵When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.

⁶But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

⁷Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.

⁸Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.

⁹One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.

¹⁰For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”

¹¹So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

¹²While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment.

¹³“This man,” they charged, “is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”

¹⁴Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to them, “If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you.

¹⁵But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law—settle the matter yourselves. I will not be a judge of such things.”

¹⁶So he drove them off.

¹⁷Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes the synagogue leader and beat him in front of the proconsul; and Gallio showed no concern whatever.

¹⁸Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sisters and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken.

¹⁹They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

²⁰When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined.

²¹But as he left, he promised, “I will come back if it is God’s will.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.

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

²³After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

²⁴Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.

²⁵He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.

²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

²⁷When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed.

²⁸For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.