Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

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

²Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

³When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,

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

⁵Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray.

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

⁷When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.

⁸For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

⁹“As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them.

¹⁰And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations.

¹¹When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

¹²Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death;

¹³and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

¹⁴“But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains;

¹⁵the one on the housetop must not go down or enter the house to take anything away;

¹⁶the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat.

¹⁷Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days!

¹⁸Pray that it may not be in winter.

¹⁹For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be.

²⁰And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days.

²¹And if anyone says to you at that time, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘Look! There he is!’ — do not believe it.

²²False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.

²³But be alert; I have already told you everything.

²⁴“But in those days, after that suffering, 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.

²⁶Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.

²⁷Then 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 forth 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.

³⁰Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.

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

³²“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

³³Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.

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

³⁵Therefore, keep awake — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn,

³⁶or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.

³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Keep 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 that place Mahanaim.

³Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau 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 lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now;

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

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

⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies,

⁸thinking, “If Esau comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company 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, and I will do you good,’

¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the 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 companies.

¹¹Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children.

¹²Yet you have said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.’”

¹³So he spent that night there, 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 milch camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

¹⁶These he delivered into the hand of 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 foremost, “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 meet 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 afterwards I shall see his face; perhaps he will accept me.”

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

²²The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

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

²⁴Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

²⁵When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the 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 is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”

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

²⁸Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, 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 place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.”

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

³²Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.

¹For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face.

²I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself,

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

⁴I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments.

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

⁶As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives 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 through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

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

¹⁰and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.

¹¹In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ;

¹²when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,

¹⁴erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

¹⁵He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

¹⁶Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths.

¹⁷These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

¹⁸Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,

¹⁹and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

²⁰If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations,

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

²²All these regulations refer to things that perish with use; they are simply human commands and teachings.

²³These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.

¹My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?

²For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in,

³and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,”

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

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

⁶But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court?

⁷Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

⁸You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

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

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

¹¹For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

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

¹³For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?

¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,

¹⁶and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?

¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

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

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

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

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

²²You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works.

²³Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.

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

²⁵Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road?

²⁶For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

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

²See, 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.

⁶See, before God I am as you are; I too was formed from a piece of clay.

⁷No fear of me need terrify you; my pressure will not be heavy on you.

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

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

¹⁰Look, he finds occasions against me, he counts me as his enemy;

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

¹²“But in this you are not right. I will answer you: God is greater than any mortal.

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

¹⁴For God speaks in one way, and in two, though people do not perceive it.

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

¹⁶then he opens their ears, and terrifies them with warnings,

¹⁷that he may turn them aside from their deeds, and keep them from pride,

¹⁸to spare their souls from the Pit, their lives from traversing the River.

¹⁹They are also chastened with pain upon their beds, and with continual strife in their bones,

²⁰so that their lives loathe bread, and their appetites dainty food.

²¹Their flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen; and their bones, once invisible, now stick out.

²²Their souls draw near the Pit, and their lives to those who bring death.

²³Then, if there should be for one of them an angel, a mediator, one of a thousand, one who declares a person upright,

²⁴and he is gracious to that person, 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 he prays to God, and is accepted by him, he comes into his presence with joy, and God repays him for his righteousness.

²⁷That person sings to others and says, ‘I sinned, and perverted what was right, and it was not paid back to me.

²⁸He has redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and my life shall see the light.’

²⁹“God indeed does all these things, twice, three times, with mortals,

³⁰to bring back their souls from the Pit, so that they may see the light of life.

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

³²If you have anything to say, 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; 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; many are those who would destroy me, my enemies who accuse me falsely. 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.

⁶Do not let those who hope in you be put to shame because of me, O Lord GOD of hosts; do not let those who seek you be dishonored because of me, O God of Israel.

⁷It is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that shame has covered my face.

⁸I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s children.

⁹It is zeal for your house that has consumed me; the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

¹⁰When I humbled my soul with fasting, they insulted me for doing so.

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

¹²I am the subject of gossip for 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. With your faithful help

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

¹⁵Do not let 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.

¹⁷Do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress — make haste to answer me.

¹⁸Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free because of my enemies.

¹⁹You know the insults I receive, and my shame and dishonor; my foes are all known to you.

²⁰Insults 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 vinegar to drink.

²²Let their table be a trap for them, a snare for their allies.

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 live in their tents.

²⁶For they persecute those whom you have struck down, and those whom you have wounded, they attack still more.

²⁷Add guilt to their guilt; 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 lowly and in pain; let your salvation, O God, protect me.

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.

³²Let the oppressed see it and be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.

³³For the LORD hears the needy, and does not despise his own that are in bonds.

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

³⁵For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah; and his servants shall live there and possess it;

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

¹My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you,

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

³if you indeed cry 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 blamelessly,

⁸guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones.

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;

¹¹prudence will watch over you; and understanding will guard you.

¹²It will save you from the way of evil, from those who speak perversely,

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;

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

¹⁶You will be saved from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words,

¹⁷who forsakes the partner of her youth and forgets her sacred covenant;

¹⁸for her way leads down to death, and her paths to the shades;

¹⁹those who go to her never come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

²⁰Therefore walk in the way of the good, and keep to the paths of the just.

²¹For the upright will abide in the land, and the innocent 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 Israelites were in the towns, the people gathered together in Jerusalem.

²Then Jeshua son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his kin set out to build the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as prescribed in the law of Moses the man of God.

³They set up the altar on its foundation, because they were in dread of the neighboring peoples, and they offered burnt offerings upon it to the LORD, morning and evening.

⁴And they kept the festival of booths, as prescribed, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the ordinance, as required for each day,

⁵and after that the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the sacred festivals 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 King Cyrus of Persia.

⁸In the second year after their arrival at the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their people, 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 have the oversight of the work on the house of the LORD.

⁹And Jeshua with his sons and his kin, and Kadmiel and his sons, Binnui and Hodaviah along with the sons of Henadad, the Levites, their sons and kin, together took charge of the workers in the house of God.

¹⁰When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments were stationed to praise the LORD with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, according to the directions of King David 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 responded 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 families, old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, 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 so loudly that the sound was heard far away.

¹Now you are walled around with a wall; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel upon the cheek.

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

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

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

⁵and he shall be the one of peace. If the Assyrians come into our land and tread upon our soil, we will raise against them seven shepherds and eight installed as rulers.

⁶They shall rule the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword; they shall rescue us from the Assyrians if they come into our land or tread within our border.

⁷Then the remnant of Jacob, surrounded by many peoples, shall be like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which do not depend upon people or wait for any mortal.

⁸And among the nations the remnant of Jacob, surrounded by many peoples, shall be like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, with no one to deliver.

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

¹⁰In that day, says 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 soothsayers;

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

¹⁴and I will uproot your sacred poles from among you and destroy your towns.

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

¹While Paul was looking intently at the council he said, “Brothers, up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God.”

²Then the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near him to strike him on the mouth.

³At this Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting there to judge me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law you order me to be struck?”

⁴Those standing nearby said, “Do you dare to insult God’s high priest?”

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

⁶When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead.”

⁷When he said this, a dissension began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

⁸(The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three.)

⁹Then a great clamor arose, and certain scribes of the Pharisees’ group stood up and contended, “We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

¹⁰When the dissension became violent, the tribune, fearing that they would tear Paul to pieces, ordered the soldiers to go down, take him by force, and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹That night the Lord stood near him and said, “Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome.”

¹²In the morning the Jews joined in a conspiracy and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³There were more than forty who joined in this conspiracy.

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

¹⁵Now then, you and the council must notify the tribune to bring him down to you, on the pretext that you want to make a more thorough examination of his case. And we are ready to do away with him before he arrives.”

¹⁶Now the son of Paul’s sister heard about the ambush; so he went and gained entrance to 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 report to him.”

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

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

²⁰He answered, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire more thoroughly into his case.

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

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

²³Then he summoned two of the centurions and said, “Get ready to leave by nine o’clock tonight for Caesarea with two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen.

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

²⁵He 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, but when I had learned that he was a Roman citizen, I came with the guard and rescued him.

²⁸Since I wanted to know the charge for which they accused him, I had him brought to their council.

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

³⁰When I was informed 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 during the night to Antipatris.

³²The next day they let the horsemen go on with him, while they returned to the barracks.

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

³⁴On reading the letter, he asked what province he belonged to, and when he learned that he was from Cilicia,

³⁵he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.” Then he ordered that he be kept under guard in Herod’s headquarters.