Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:

²“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

³So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

⁴They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

⁵“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;

⁶they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;

⁷they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

⁸“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.

⁹And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.

¹⁰Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah.

¹¹The greatest among you will be your servant.

¹²For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

¹³“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

¹⁴

¹⁵“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

¹⁶“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’

¹⁷You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

¹⁸You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’

¹⁹You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

²⁰Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

²¹And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.

²²And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

²³“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

²⁴You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

²⁵“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

²⁶Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

²⁷“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

²⁸In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

²⁹“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.

³⁰And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

³¹So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.

³²Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

³³“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

³⁴Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.

³⁵And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

³⁶Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.

³⁷“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

³⁸Look, your house is left to you desolate.

³⁹For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

¹Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old.

²She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.

³Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said,

⁴“I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.”

⁵The Hittites replied to Abraham,

⁶“Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.”

⁷Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites.

⁸He said to them, “If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf

⁹so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you.”

¹⁰Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city.

¹¹“No, my lord,” he said. “Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.”

¹²Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land

¹³and he said to Ephron in their hearing, “Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there.”

¹⁴Ephron answered Abraham,

¹⁵“Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.”

¹⁶Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.

¹⁷So Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre—both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded

¹⁸to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city.

¹⁹Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

²⁰So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.

¹Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”

²But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband.

³The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.

⁴The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife.

⁵Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

⁶I say this as a concession, not as a command.

⁷I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

⁸Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do.

⁹But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

¹⁰To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.

¹¹But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

¹²To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.

¹³And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.

¹⁴For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

¹⁵But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.

¹⁶How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

¹⁷Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.

¹⁸Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised.

¹⁹Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts.

²⁰Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.

²¹Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so.

²²For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave.

²³You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.

²⁴Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.

²⁵Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.

²⁶Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is.

²⁷Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife.

²⁸But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

²⁹What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not;

³⁰those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep;

³¹those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

³²I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord.

³³But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—

³⁴and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.

³⁵I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.

³⁶If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married.

³⁷But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing.

³⁸So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does better.

³⁹A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord.

⁴⁰In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

¹James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.

²Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

³because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

⁴Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

⁶But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

⁷That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

⁸Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

⁹Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position.

¹⁰But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower.

¹¹For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.

¹²Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

¹³When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;

¹⁴but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.

¹⁵Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

¹⁶Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.

¹⁷Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

¹⁸He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

¹⁹My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,

²⁰because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

²¹Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror

²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

²⁵But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

²⁶Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.

²⁷Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

¹Then Job replied:

²“Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

³If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling!

⁴I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say to me.

⁶Would he vigorously oppose me? No, he would not press charges against me.

⁷There the upright can establish their innocence before him, and there I would be delivered forever from my judge.

⁸“But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him.

⁹When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

¹⁰But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

¹¹My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside.

¹²I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.

¹³“But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases.

¹⁴He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he still has in store.

¹⁵That is why I am terrified before him; when I think of all this, I fear him.

¹⁶God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.

¹A psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

²He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,

³he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

⁴Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

⁶Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

¹When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you,

²and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.

³Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.

⁴Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness.

⁵Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

⁶Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies;

⁷for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

⁸You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments.

⁹Do not speak to fools, for they will scorn your prudent words.

¹⁰Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you.

¹²Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.

¹⁴Punish them with the rod and save them from death.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad indeed;

¹⁶my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.

¹⁸There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, and set your heart on the right path:

²⁰Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat,

²¹for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

²²Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy the truth and do not sell it— wisdom, instruction and insight as well.

²⁴The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.

²⁵May your father and mother rejoice; may she who gave you birth be joyful!

²⁶My son, give me your heart and let your eyes delight in my ways,

²⁷for an adulterous woman is a deep pit, and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

²⁸Like a bandit she lies in wait and multiplies the unfaithful among men.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

³⁰Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.

³¹Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly!

³²In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange sights, and your mind will imagine confusing things.

³⁴You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging.

³⁵“They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt! They beat me, but I don’t feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?”

¹After a long time had passed and the LORD had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua, by then a very old man,

²summoned all Israel—their elders, leaders, judges and officials—and said to them: “I am very old.

³You yourselves have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the LORD your God who fought for you.

⁴Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

⁵The LORD your God himself will push them out for your sake. He will drive them out before you, and you will take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you.

⁶“Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left.

⁷Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them.

⁸But you are to hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have until now.

⁹“The LORD has driven out before you great and powerful nations; to this day no one has been able to withstand you.

¹⁰One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised.

¹¹So be very careful to love the LORD your God.

¹²“But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them,

¹³then you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the LORD your God has given you.

¹⁴“Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.

¹⁵But just as all the good things the LORD your God has promised you have come to you, so he will bring on you all the evil things he has threatened, until the LORD your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you.

¹⁶If you violate the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”

¹A prophecy against Tyre: Wail, you ships of Tarshish! For Tyre is destroyed and left without house or harbor. From the land of Cyprus word has come to them.

²Be silent, you people of the island and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched.

³On the great waters came the grain of the Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre, and she became the marketplace of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, Sidon, and you fortress of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have neither been in labor nor given birth; I have neither reared sons nor brought up daughters.”

⁵When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish; wail, you people of the island.

⁷Is this your city of revelry, the old, old city, whose feet have taken her to settle in far-off lands?

⁸Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?

⁹The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring down her pride in all her splendor and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

¹⁰Till your land as they do along the Nile, Daughter Tarshish, for you no longer have a harbor.

¹¹The LORD has stretched out his hand over the sea and made its kingdoms tremble. He has given an order concerning Phoenicia that her fortresses be destroyed.

¹²He said, “No more of your reveling, Virgin Daughter Sidon, now crushed! “Up, cross over to Cyprus; even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Look at the land of the Babylonians, this people that is now of no account! The Assyrians have made it a place for desert creatures; they raised up their siege towers, they stripped its fortresses bare and turned it into a ruin.

¹⁴Wail, you ships of Tarshish; your fortress is destroyed!

¹⁵At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the span of a king’s life. But at the end of these seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

¹⁶“Take up a harp, walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.”

¹⁷At the end of seventy years, the LORD will deal with Tyre. She will return to her lucrative prostitution and will ply her trade with all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

¹⁸Yet her profit and her earnings will be set apart for the LORD; they will not be stored up or hoarded. Her profits will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothes.

¹Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.”

²At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!”

⁴Those who were standing near Paul said, “How dare you insult God’s high priest!”

⁵Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’”

⁶Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.”

⁷When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

⁸(The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.)

⁹There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

¹⁰The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”

¹²The next morning some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³More than forty men were involved in this plot.

¹⁴They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul.

¹⁵Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.”

¹⁶But when the son of Paul’s sister heard of this plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul.

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

¹⁸So he took him to the commander. The centurion said, “Paul, the prisoner, sent for me and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you.”

¹⁹The commander took the young man by the hand, drew him aside and asked, “What is it you want to tell me?”

²⁰He said: “Some Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin tomorrow on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about him.

²¹Don’t give in to them, because more than forty of them are waiting in ambush for him. They have taken an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. They are ready now, waiting for your consent to their request.”

²²The commander dismissed the young man with this warning: “Don’t tell anyone that you have reported this to me.”

²³Then he called two of his centurions and ordered them, “Get ready a detachment of two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at nine tonight.

²⁴Provide horses for Paul so that he may be taken safely to Governor Felix.”

²⁵He wrote a letter as follows:

²⁶Claudius Lysias, To His Excellency, Governor Felix: Greetings.

²⁷This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, but I came with my troops and rescued him, for I had learned that he is a Roman citizen.

²⁸I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him to their Sanhedrin.

²⁹I found that the accusation had to do with questions about their law, but there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment.

³⁰When I was informed of a plot to be carried out against the man, I sent him to you at once. I also ordered his accusers to present to you their case against him.

³¹So the soldiers, carrying out their orders, took Paul with them during the night and brought him as far as Antipatris.

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

³³When the cavalry arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him.

³⁴The governor read the letter and asked what province he was from. Learning that he was from Cilicia,

³⁵he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers get here.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s palace.