Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”

²Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.

³His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.

⁴And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

⁵Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—

⁶because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid.

⁷And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”

⁸Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves.

⁹Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

¹⁰So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.

¹¹And they asked Him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

¹²Then He answered and told them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?

¹³But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him.”

¹⁴And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them.

¹⁵Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him.

¹⁶And He asked the scribes, “What are you discussing with them?”

¹⁷Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.

¹⁸And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”

¹⁹He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.”

²⁰Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.

²¹So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.

²²And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

²³Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

²⁴Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

²⁵When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it: “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”

²⁶Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.”

²⁷But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.

²⁸And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”

²⁹So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

³⁰Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it.

³¹For He taught His disciples and said to them, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day.”

³²But they did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him.

³³Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?”

³⁴But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.

³⁵And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

³⁶Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them,

³⁷“Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.”

³⁸Now John answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.”

³⁹But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me.

⁴⁰For he who is not against us is on our side.

⁴¹For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

⁴²“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.

⁴³If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—

⁴⁴where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’

⁴⁵And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—

⁴⁶where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’

⁴⁷And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire—

⁴⁸where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’

⁴⁹“For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.

⁵⁰Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”

¹Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him: “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

²Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.

³“May God Almighty bless you, And make you fruitful and multiply you, That you may be an assembly of peoples;

⁴And give you the blessing of Abraham, To you and your descendants with you, That you may inherit the land In which you are a stranger, Which God gave to Abraham.”

⁵So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban the son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”

⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram.

⁸Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac.

⁹So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

¹⁰Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran.

¹¹So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep.

¹²Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

¹³And behold, the LORD stood above it and said: “I am the LORD God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants.

¹⁴Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

¹⁵Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

¹⁶Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.”

¹⁷And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

¹⁸Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.

¹⁹And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.

²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on,

²¹so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God.

²²And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

¹Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy,

²fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

³Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

⁴Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

⁵Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

⁶who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,

⁷but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

⁸And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

⁹Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,

¹¹and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹²Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

¹³for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

¹⁴Do all things without complaining and disputing,

¹⁵that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

¹⁶holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

¹⁷Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

¹⁸For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.

¹⁹But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state.

²⁰For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state.

²¹For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus.

²²But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel.

²³Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it goes with me.

²⁴But I trust in the Lord that I myself shall also come shortly.

²⁵Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need;

²⁶since he was longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.

²⁷For indeed he was sick almost unto death; but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

²⁸Therefore I sent him the more eagerly, that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful.

²⁹Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in esteem;

³⁰because for the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me.

¹But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine:

²that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience;

³the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—

⁴that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,

⁵to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

⁶Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded,

⁷in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility,

⁸sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

⁹Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back,

¹⁰not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

¹¹For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,

¹²teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,

¹³looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

¹⁴who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

¹⁵Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.

¹Job further continued his discourse, and said:

²“Oh, that I were as in months past, As in the days when God watched over me;

³When His lamp shone upon my head, And when by His light I walked through darkness;

⁴Just as I was in the days of my prime, When the friendly counsel of God was over my tent;

⁵When the Almighty was yet with me, When my children were around me;

⁶When my steps were bathed with cream, And the rock poured out rivers of oil for me!

⁷“When I went out to the gate by the city, When I took my seat in the open square,

⁸The young men saw me and hid, And the aged arose and stood;

⁹The princes refrained from talking, And put their hand on their mouth;

¹⁰The voice of nobles was hushed, And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹When the ear heard, then it blessed me, And when the eye saw, then it approved me;

¹²Because I delivered the poor who cried out, The fatherless and the one who had no helper.

¹³The blessing of a perishing man came upon me, And I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, And I was feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor, And I searched out the case that I did not know.

¹⁷I broke the fangs of the wicked, And plucked the victim from his teeth.

¹⁸“Then I said, ‘I shall die in my nest, And multiply my days as the sand.

¹⁹My root is spread out to the waters, And the dew lies all night on my branch.

²⁰My glory is fresh within me, And my bow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹“Men listened to me and waited, And kept silence for my counsel.

²²After my words they did not speak again, And my speech settled on them as dew.

²³They waited for me as for the rain, And they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.

²⁴If I mocked at them, they did not believe it, And the light of my countenance they did not cast down.

²⁵I chose the way for them, and sat as chief; So I dwelt as a king in the army, As one who comforts mourners.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A Song. [1] Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion; And to You the vow shall be performed.

²O You who hear prayer, To You all flesh will come.

³Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You will provide atonement for them.

⁴Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Of Your holy temple.

⁵By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us, O God of our salvation, You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth, And of the far-off seas;

⁶Who established the mountains by His strength, Being clothed with power;

⁷You who still the noise of the seas, The noise of their waves, And the tumult of the peoples.

⁸They also who dwell in the farthest parts are afraid of Your signs; You make the outgoings of the morning and evening rejoice.

⁹You visit the earth and water it, You greatly enrich it; The river of God is full of water; You provide their grain, For so You have prepared it.

¹⁰You water its ridges abundantly, You settle its furrows; You make it soft with showers, You bless its growth.

¹¹You crown the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with abundance.

¹²They drop on the pastures of the wilderness, And the little hills rejoice on every side.

¹³The pastures are clothed with flocks; The valleys also are covered with grain; They shout for joy, they also sing.

¹He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

²When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.

³Whoever loves wisdom makes his father rejoice, But a companion of harlots wastes his wealth.

⁴The king establishes the land by justice, But he who receives bribes overthrows it.

⁵A man who flatters his neighbor Spreads a net for his feet.

⁶By transgression an evil man is snared, But the righteous sings and rejoices.

⁷The righteous considers the cause of the poor, But the wicked does not understand such knowledge.

⁸Scoffers set a city aflame, But wise men turn away wrath.

⁹If a wise man contends with a foolish man, Whether the fool rages or laughs, there is no peace.

¹⁰The bloodthirsty hate the blameless, But the upright seek his well-being.

¹¹A fool vents all his feelings, But a wise man holds them back.

¹²If a ruler pays attention to lies, All his servants become wicked.

¹³The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The LORD gives light to the eyes of both.

¹⁴The king who judges the poor with truth, His throne will be established forever.

¹⁵The rod and rebuke give wisdom, But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

¹⁶When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases; But the righteous will see their fall.

¹⁷Correct your son, and he will give you rest; Yes, he will give delight to your soul.

¹⁸Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.

¹⁹A servant will not be corrected by mere words; For though he understands, he will not respond.

²⁰Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

²¹He who pampers his servant from childhood Will have him as a son in the end.

²²An angry man stirs up strife, And a furious man abounds in transgression.

²³A man’s pride will bring him low, But the humble in spirit will retain honor.

²⁴Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life; He swears to tell the truth, but reveals nothing.

²⁵The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.

²⁶Many seek the ruler’s favor, But justice for man comes from the LORD.

²⁷An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, And he who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.

¹Now Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month.

²And he set the priests in their duties and encouraged them for the service of the house of the LORD.

³Then he said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the LORD: “Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. It shall no longer be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and His people Israel.

⁴Prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses, according to your divisions, following the written instruction of David king of Israel and the written instruction of Solomon his son.

⁵And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of your brethren the lay people, and according to the division of the father’s house of the Levites.

⁶So slaughter the Passover offerings, consecrate yourselves, and prepare them for your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.”

⁷Then Josiah gave the lay people lambs and young goats from the flock, all for Passover offerings for all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, as well as three thousand cattle; these were from the king’s possessions.

⁸And his leaders gave willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand six hundred from the flock, and three hundred cattle.

⁹Also Conaniah, his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave to the Levites for Passover offerings five thousand from the flock and five hundred cattle.

¹⁰So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their places, and the Levites in their divisions, according to the king’s command.

¹¹And they slaughtered the Passover offerings; and the priests sprinkled the blood with their hands, while the Levites skinned the animals.

¹²Then they removed the burnt offerings that they might give them to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of the lay people, to offer to the LORD, as it is written in the Book of Moses. And so they did with the cattle.

¹³Also they roasted the Passover offerings with fire according to the ordinance; but the other holy offerings they boiled in pots, in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them quickly among all the lay people.

¹⁴Then afterward they prepared portions for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy in offering burnt offerings and fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared portions for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their places, according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer. Also the gatekeepers were at each gate; they did not have to leave their position, because their brethren the Levites prepared portions for them.

¹⁶So all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah.

¹⁷And the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days.

¹⁸There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet; and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests and the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.

²⁰After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.

²¹But he sent messengers to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; for God commanded me to make haste. Refrain from meddling with God, who is with me, lest He destroy you.”

²²Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself so that he might fight with him, and did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo.

²³And the archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am severely wounded.”

²⁴His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to Jerusalem. So he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah. And to this day all the singing men and the singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations. They made it a custom in Israel; and indeed they are written in the Laments.

²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his goodness, according to what was written in the Law of the LORD,

²⁷and his deeds from first to last, indeed they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

¹The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

²Hear, all you peoples! Listen, O earth, and all that is in it! Let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, The Lord from His holy temple.

³For behold, the LORD is coming out of His place; He will come down And tread on the high places of the earth.

⁴The mountains will melt under Him, And the valleys will split Like wax before the fire, Like waters poured down a steep place.

⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob And for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?

⁶“Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field, Places for planting a vineyard; I will pour down her stones into the valley, And I will uncover her foundations.

⁷All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, And all her pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire; All her idols I will lay desolate, For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot, And they shall return to the pay of a harlot.”

⁸Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals And a mourning like the ostriches,

⁹For her wounds are incurable. For it has come to Judah; It has come to the gate of My people— To Jerusalem.

¹⁰Tell it not in Gath, Weep not at all; In Beth Aphrah Roll yourself in the dust.

¹¹Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant of Shaphir; The inhabitant of Zaanan does not go out. Beth Ezel mourns; Its place to stand is taken away from you.

¹²For the inhabitant of Maroth pined for good, But disaster came down from the LORD To the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³O inhabitant of Lachish, Harness the chariot to the swift steeds (She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion), For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

¹⁴Therefore you shall give presents to Moresheth Gath; The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah; The glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.

¹⁶Make yourself bald and cut off your hair, Because of your precious children; Enlarge your baldness like an eagle, For they shall go from you into captivity.

¹And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples

²he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

³And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”

⁴Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

⁷Now the men were about twelve in all.

⁸And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.

⁹But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

¹⁰And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

¹¹Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul,

¹²so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

¹³Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

¹⁴Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.

¹⁵And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

¹⁶Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

¹⁸And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds.

¹⁹Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

²¹When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”

²²So he sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a time.

²³And about that time there arose a great commotion about the Way.

²⁴For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen.

²⁵He called them together with the workers of similar occupation, and said: “Men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade.

²⁶Moreover you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands.

²⁷So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.”

²⁸Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

²⁹So the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul’s travel companions.

³⁰And when Paul wanted to go in to the people, the disciples would not allow him.

³¹Then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater.

³²Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

³³And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander motioned with his hand, and wanted to make his defense to the people.

³⁴But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

³⁵And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said: “Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?

³⁶Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly.

³⁷For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess.

³⁸Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another.

³⁹But if you have any other inquiry to make, it shall be determined in the lawful assembly.

⁴⁰For we are in danger of being called in question for today’s uproar, there being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering.”

⁴¹And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.