Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.

²This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.

³All went to their own towns to be registered.

⁴Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David.

⁵He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.

⁶While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child.

⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

⁸In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:

¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”

¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.”

¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.

¹⁷When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child;

¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them.

¹⁹But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

²¹After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

²²When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord

²³(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”),

²⁴and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.

²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

²⁷Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law,

²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,

²⁹“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word;

³⁰for my eyes have seen your salvation,

³¹which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

³³And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.

³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed

³⁵so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed — and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

³⁶There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,

³⁷then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day.

³⁸At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

³⁹When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

⁴⁰The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

⁴¹Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover.

⁴²And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival.

⁴³When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.

⁴⁴Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends.

⁴⁵When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.

⁴⁶After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

⁴⁷And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

⁴⁸When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.”

⁴⁹He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

⁵⁰But they did not understand what he said to them.

⁵¹Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

⁵²And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

¹Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan.

²This is the story of the family of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.

³Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves.

⁴But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

⁵Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

⁶He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed.

⁷There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf.”

⁸His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

⁹He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

¹⁰But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, “What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?”

¹¹So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

¹²Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem.

¹³And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.”

¹⁴So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron. He came to Shechem,

¹⁵and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, “What are you seeking?”

¹⁶“I am seeking my brothers,” he said; “tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.”

¹⁷The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan.

¹⁸They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him.

¹⁹They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer.

²⁰Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.”

²¹But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.”

²²Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him” — that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father.

²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleeves that he wore;

²⁴and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.

²⁶Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?

²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed.

²⁸When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

²⁹When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes.

³⁰He returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone; and I, where can I turn?”

³¹Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood.

³²They had the long robe with sleeves taken to their father, and they said, “This we have found; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.”

³³He recognized it, and said, “It is my son’s robe! A wild animal has devoured him; Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”

³⁴Then Jacob tore his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days.

³⁵All his sons and all his daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father bewailed him.

³⁶Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.

¹Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,

²was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also “was faithful in all God’s house.”

³Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

⁴(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)

⁵Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later.

⁶Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.

⁷Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,

⁸do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness,

⁹where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works

¹⁰for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.’

¹¹As in my anger I swore, ‘They will not enter my rest.’”

¹²Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

¹³But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

¹⁴For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.

¹⁵As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

¹⁶Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses?

¹⁷But with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

¹⁸And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient?

¹⁹So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

¹Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander.

²Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation —

³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

⁴Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and

⁵like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

⁶For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,”

⁸and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

¹²Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.

¹³For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme,

¹⁴or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right.

¹⁵For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish.

¹⁶As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.

¹⁷Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

¹⁸Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh.

¹⁹For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly.

²⁰If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.

²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

²²“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

²³When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.

²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

²⁵For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

¹Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:

²“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

³Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

⁴“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who determined its measurements — surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?

⁶On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone

⁷when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

⁸“Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? —

⁹when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,

¹⁰and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors,

¹¹and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?

¹²“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,

¹³so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?

¹⁴It is changed like clay under the seal, and it is dyed like a garment.

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked, and their uplifted arm is broken.

¹⁶“Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.

¹⁹“Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness,

²⁰that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home?

²¹Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!

²²“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

²³which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?

²⁴What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

²⁵“Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt,

²⁶to bring rain on a land where no one lives, on the desert, which is empty of human life,

²⁷to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground put forth grass?

²⁸“Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?

³⁰The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

³¹“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion?

³²Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children?

³³Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?

³⁴“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that a flood of waters may cover you?

³⁵Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the inward parts, or given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

³⁸when the dust runs into a mass and the clods cling together?

³⁹“Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens, or lie in wait in their covert?

⁴¹Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food?

¹O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.

³Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.

⁴Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there.

⁵At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.

⁶And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work.

⁷They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground.

⁸They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

⁹We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.

¹⁰How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?

¹¹Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?

¹²Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.

¹⁴You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

¹⁵You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.

¹⁶Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun.

¹⁷You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.

¹⁹Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.

²¹Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.

²³Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.

¹My child, keep my words and store up my commandments with you;

²keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;

³bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend,

⁵that they may keep you from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.

⁶For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice,

⁷and I saw among the simple ones, I observed among the youths, a young man without sense,

⁸passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house

⁹in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.

¹⁰Then a woman comes toward him, decked out like a prostitute, wily of heart.

¹¹She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home;

¹²now in the street, now in the squares, and at every corner she lies in wait.

¹³She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him:

¹⁴“I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;

¹⁵so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!

¹⁶I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen;

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love.

¹⁹For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of money with him; he will not come home until full moon.”

²¹With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.

²²Right away he follows her, and goes like an ox to the slaughter, or bounds like a stag toward the trap

²³until an arrow pierces its entrails. He is like a bird rushing into a snare, not knowing that it will cost him his life.

²⁴And now, my children, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths.

²⁶For many are those she has laid low, and numerous are her victims.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

¹These are their family heads, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylonia, in the reign of King Artaxerxes:

²Of the descendants of Phinehas, Gershom. Of Ithamar, Daniel. Of David, Hattush,

³of the descendants of Shecaniah. Of Parosh, Zechariah, with whom were registered one hundred fifty males.

⁴Of the descendants of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males.

⁵Of the descendants of Zattu, Shecaniah son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males.

⁶Of the descendants of Adin, Ebed son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males.

⁷Of the descendants of Elam, Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males.

⁸Of the descendants of Shephatiah, Zebadiah son of Michael, and with him eighty males.

⁹Of the descendants of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred eighteen males.

¹⁰Of the descendants of Bani, Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him one hundred sixty males.

¹¹Of the descendants of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males.

¹²Of the descendants of Azgad, Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him one hundred ten males.

¹³Of the descendants of Adonikam, those who came later, their names being Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males.

¹⁴Of the descendants of Bigvai, Uthai and Zaccur, and with them seventy males.

¹⁵I gathered them by the river that runs to Ahava, and there we camped three days. As I reviewed the people and the priests, I found there none of the descendants of Levi.

¹⁶Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, who were leaders, and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were wise,

¹⁷and sent them to Iddo, the leader at the place called Casiphia, telling them what to say to Iddo and his colleagues the temple servants at Casiphia, namely, to send us ministers for the house of our God.

¹⁸Since the gracious hand of our God was upon us, they brought us a man of discretion, of the descendants of Mahli son of Levi son of Israel, namely Sherebiah, with his sons and kin, eighteen;

¹⁹also Hashabiah and with him Jeshaiah of the descendants of Merari, with his kin and their sons, twenty;

²⁰besides two hundred twenty of the temple servants, whom David and his officials had set apart to attend the Levites. These were all mentioned by name.

²¹Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might deny ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions.

²²For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and cavalry to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king that the hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him.

²³So we fasted and petitioned our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.

²⁴Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their kin with them.

²⁵And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God that the king, his counselors, his lords, and all Israel there present had offered;

²⁶I weighed out into their hand six hundred fifty talents of silver, and one hundred silver vessels worth . . . talents, and one hundred talents of gold,

²⁷twenty gold bowls worth a thousand darics, and two vessels of fine polished bronze as precious as gold.

²⁸And I said to them, “You are holy to the LORD, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of your ancestors.

²⁹Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of families in Israel at Jerusalem, within the chambers of the house of the LORD.”

³⁰So the priests and the Levites took over the silver, the gold, and the vessels as they were weighed out, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.

³¹Then we left the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem; the hand of our God was upon us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambushes along the way.

³²We came to Jerusalem and remained there three days.

³³On the fourth day, within the house of our God, the silver, the gold, and the vessels were weighed into the hands of the priest Meremoth son of Uriah, and with him was Eleazar son of Phinehas, and with them were the Levites, Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui.

³⁴The total was counted and weighed, and the weight of everything was recorded.

³⁵At that time those who had come from captivity, the returned exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and as a sin offering twelve male goats; all this was a burnt offering to the LORD.

³⁶They also delivered the king’s commissions to the king’s satraps and to the governors of the province Beyond the River; and they supported the people and the house of God.

¹After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta.

²The natives showed us unusual kindness. Since it had begun to rain and was cold, they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us around it.

³Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire, when a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.

⁴When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man must be a murderer; though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.”

⁵He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

⁶They were expecting him to swell up or drop dead, but after they had waited a long time and saw that nothing unusual had happened to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.

⁷Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the leading man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days.

⁸It so happened that the father of Publius lay sick in bed with fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and cured him by praying and putting his hands on him.

⁹After this happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured.

¹⁰They bestowed many honors on us, and when we were about to sail, they put on board all the provisions we needed.

¹¹Three months later we set sail on a ship that had wintered at the island, an Alexandrian ship with the Twin Brothers as its figurehead.

¹²We put in at Syracuse and stayed there for three days;

¹³then we weighed anchor and came to Rhegium. After one day there a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli.

¹⁴There we found believers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome.

¹⁵The believers from there, when they heard of us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage.

¹⁶When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him.

¹⁷Three days later he called together the local leaders of the Jews. When they had assembled, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, yet I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.

¹⁸When they had examined me, the Romans wanted to release me, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case.

¹⁹But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to the emperor — even though I had no charge to bring against my nation.

²⁰For this reason therefore I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is for the sake of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

²¹They replied, “We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken anything evil about you.

²²But we would like to hear from you what you think, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”

²³After they had set a day to meet with him, they came to him at his lodgings in great numbers. From morning until evening he explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.

²⁴Some were convinced by what he had said, while others refused to believe.

²⁵So they disagreed with each other; and as they were leaving, Paul made one further statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah,

²⁶‘Go to this people and say, You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive.

²⁷For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn — and I would heal them.’

²⁸Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”

²⁹

³⁰He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him,

³¹proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.