Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!”

²And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

³And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,

⁴“Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?”

⁵And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray.

⁶ Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.

⁷And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet.

⁸For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.

⁹ “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them.

¹⁰And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.

¹¹And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

¹² And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.

¹³ And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

¹⁴“But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

¹⁵ Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out,

¹⁶and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.

¹⁷And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!

¹⁸Pray that it may not happen in winter.

¹⁹For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be.

²⁰And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days.

²¹And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it.

²² For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.

²³But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.

²⁴“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,

²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

²⁶And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.

²⁷And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

²⁸“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

²⁹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.

³⁰ Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³²“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

³³ Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.

³⁴ It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.

³⁵ Therefore stay awake — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning —

³⁶lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.

³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

¹Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

²And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God's camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.

³And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,

⁴instructing them, “Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, ‘I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now.

⁵I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.’”

⁶And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.”

⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps,

⁸thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.”

⁹And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’

¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.

¹²But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

¹³So he stayed there that night, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother Esau,

¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

¹⁵thirty milking camels and their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

¹⁶These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove.”

¹⁷He instructed the first, “When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?’

¹⁸then you shall say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a present sent to my lord Esau. And moreover, he is behind us.’”

¹⁹He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, “You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him,

²⁰and you shall say, ‘Moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us.’” For he thought, “I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”

²¹So the present passed on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

²²The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

²³He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.

²⁴And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

²⁵When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

²⁶Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”

²⁸Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

²⁹Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.

³⁰So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

³¹The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

³²Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.

¹For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,

²that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ,

³in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

⁴I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

⁵For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

⁶Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,

⁷rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

⁹For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

¹⁰and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

¹¹In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,

¹²having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

¹⁴by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

¹⁶Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

¹⁷These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

¹⁸Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,

¹⁹and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

²⁰If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations —

²¹“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”

²²(referring to things that all perish as they are used) — according to human precepts and teachings?

²³These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

¹My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

²For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in,

³and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,”

⁴have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

⁶But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?

⁷Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?

⁸If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

⁹But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

¹¹For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

¹²So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

¹³For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

¹⁵If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,

¹⁶and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

¹⁷So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

¹⁹You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder!

²⁰Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

²¹Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

²²You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;

²³and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” — and he was called a friend of God.

²⁴You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

²⁵And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

²⁶For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

¹“But now, hear my speech, O Job, and listen to all my words.

²Behold, I open my mouth; the tongue in my mouth speaks.

³My words declare the uprightness of my heart, and what my lips know they speak sincerely.

⁴The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

⁵Answer me, if you can; set your words in order before me; take your stand.

⁶Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.

⁷Behold, no fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy upon you.

⁸“Surely you have spoken in my ears, and I have heard the sound of your words.

⁹You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.

¹⁰Behold, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy,

¹¹he puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths.’

¹²“Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.

¹³Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of man's words’?

¹⁴For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.

¹⁵In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds,

¹⁶then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings,

¹⁷that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man;

¹⁸he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.

¹⁹“Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones,

²⁰so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite the choicest food.

²¹His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out.

²²His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death.

²³If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him,

²⁴and he is merciful to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom;

²⁵let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;

²⁶then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness.

²⁷He sings before men and says: ‘I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me.

²⁸He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.’

²⁹“Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man,

³⁰to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life.

³¹Pay attention, O Job, listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.

³²If you have any words, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you.

³³If not, listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”

¹Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.

²I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.

³I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

⁴More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore?

⁵O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

⁶Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.

⁷For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.

⁸I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons.

⁹For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

¹⁰When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.

¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

¹²I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.

¹⁴Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.

¹⁵Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.

¹⁶Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.

¹⁷Hide not your face from your servant, for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.

¹⁸Draw near to my soul, redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies!

¹⁹You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you.

²⁰Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.

²¹They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

²²Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.

²³Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually.

²⁴Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.

²⁵May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.

²⁶For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.

²⁷Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you.

²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

²⁹But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high!

³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹This will please the LORD more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.

³²When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.

³³For the LORD hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.

³⁵For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it;

³⁶the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

¹My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,

²making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;

³yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,

⁴if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,

⁵then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;

⁷he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

⁸guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;

¹⁰for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

¹¹discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you,

¹²delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness,

¹⁴who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,

¹⁵men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways.

¹⁶So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,

¹⁷who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;

¹⁸for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed;

¹⁹none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

²⁰So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will inhabit the land, and those with integrity will remain in it,

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the treacherous will be rooted out of it.

¹When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem.

²Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.

³They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, burnt offerings morning and evening.

⁴And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the rule, as each day required,

⁵and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the LORD, and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the LORD.

⁶From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.

⁷So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters, and food, drink, and oil to the Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus king of Persia.

⁸Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to supervise the work of the house of the LORD.

⁹And Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together supervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the sons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.

¹⁰And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel.

¹¹And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

¹²But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy,

¹³so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people's weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.

¹Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek.

²But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

³Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.

⁴And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.

⁵And he shall be their peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men;

⁶they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances; and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and treads within our border.

⁷Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man.

⁸And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

⁹Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.

¹⁰And in that day, declares the LORD, I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots;

¹¹and I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds;

¹²and I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;

¹³and I will cut off your carved images and your pillars from among you, and you shall bow down no more to the work of your hands;

¹⁴and I will root out your Asherah images from among you and destroy your cities.

¹⁵And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance on the nations that did not obey.

¹And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”

²And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?”

⁴Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God's high priest?”

⁵And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

⁶Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”

⁷And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

⁸For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

⁹Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?”

¹⁰And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

¹²When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.

¹³There were more than forty who made this conspiracy.

¹⁴They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul.

¹⁵Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near.”

¹⁶Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.

¹⁷Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.”

¹⁸So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, “Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you.”

¹⁹The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?”

²⁰And he said, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him.

²¹But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.”

²²So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.”

²³Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night.

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

²⁵And he wrote a letter to this effect:

²⁶“Claudius Lysias, to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings.

²⁷This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen.

²⁸And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council.

²⁹I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment.

³⁰And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.”

³¹So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.

³²And on the next day they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him.

³³When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him.

³⁴On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from. And when he learned that he was from Cilicia,

³⁵he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod's praetorium.