Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

²He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.

³And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

⁴For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man,

⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”

⁶And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

⁷And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?

⁸I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

⁹He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:

¹⁰“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

¹¹The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

¹³But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’

¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹⁵Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

¹⁶But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

¹⁷ Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

¹⁸And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

²⁰You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’”

²¹And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”

²²When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

²³But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

²⁴Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?”

²⁷But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

²⁸And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.”

²⁹And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God,

³⁰who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

³¹And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

³²For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.

³³And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

³⁴But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

³⁵As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.

³⁶And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.

³⁷They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”

³⁸And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

³⁹And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁰And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him,

⁴¹ “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.”

⁴²And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.”

⁴³And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

¹Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

²And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

³And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.”

⁴When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”

⁵Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

⁶And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

⁸and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

⁹And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

¹⁰Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

¹¹But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

¹²He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

¹³Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

¹⁴God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

¹⁵God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

¹⁶Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt,

¹⁷and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

¹⁸And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’

¹⁹But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.

²⁰So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.

²¹And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty,

²²but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”

¹What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

²By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

⁷For one who has died has been set free from sin.

⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

¹⁰For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

¹³Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

¹⁴For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

¹⁶Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

¹⁷But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,

¹⁸and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

¹⁹I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

²⁰For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

²¹But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

²²But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

² “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false.

³I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary.

⁴But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

⁵Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

⁶Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

⁸“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.

⁹“‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

¹⁰Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

¹¹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’

¹²“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.

¹³“‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

¹⁴But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.

¹⁵So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

¹⁶Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

¹⁸“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

¹⁹ “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

²⁰But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

²¹I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

²²Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works,

²³and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

²⁴But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.

²⁵Only hold fast what you have until I come.

²⁶ The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations,

²⁷and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.

²⁸And I will give him the morning star.

²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

¹Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

²before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,

³in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed,

⁴and the doors on the street are shut — when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low —

⁵they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets —

⁶before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,

⁷and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

⁸Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.

⁹Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.

¹⁰The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.

¹¹The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd.

¹²My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

¹³The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

¹⁴For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

¹Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

²Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

³You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”

⁴For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

⁵You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:

⁶in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

⁷For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.

⁸You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

⁹For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.

¹⁰The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

¹¹Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?

¹²So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

¹³Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!

¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

¹⁵Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.

¹⁶Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.

¹⁷Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

¹When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you,

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

³Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.

⁴Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist.

⁵When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.

⁶Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies,

⁷for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

⁸You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words.

⁹Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words.

¹⁰Do not move an ancient landmark or enter the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹for their Redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.

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

¹³Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

¹⁴If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.

¹⁶My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.

¹⁸Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.

²⁰Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat,

²¹for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.

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

²³Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.

²⁵Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice.

²⁶My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit; an adulteress is a narrow well.

²⁸She lies in wait like a robber and increases the traitors among mankind.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

³⁰Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine.

³¹Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.

³²In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.

³⁴You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.

³⁵“They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink.”

¹Now in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces,

²in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in Susa, the citadel,

³in the third year of his reign he gave a feast for all his officials and servants. The army of Persia and Media and the nobles and governors of the provinces were before him,

⁴while he showed the riches of his royal glory and the splendor and pomp of his greatness for many days, 180 days.

⁵And when these days were completed, the king gave for all the people present in Susa the citadel, both great and small, a feast lasting for seven days in the court of the garden of the king's palace.

⁶There were white cotton curtains and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rods and marble pillars, and also couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and precious stones.

⁷Drinks were served in golden vessels, vessels of different kinds, and the royal wine was lavished according to the bounty of the king.

⁸And drinking was according to this edict: “There is no compulsion.” For the king had given orders to all the staff of his palace to do as each man desired.

⁹Queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women in the palace that belonged to King Ahasuerus.

¹⁰On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus,

¹¹to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at.

¹²But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs. At this the king became enraged, and his anger burned within him.

¹³Then the king said to the wise men who knew the times (for this was the king's procedure toward all who were versed in law and judgment,

¹⁴the men next to him being Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, and sat first in the kingdom):

¹⁵“According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti, because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the eunuchs?”

¹⁶Then Memucan said in the presence of the king and the officials, “Not only against the king has Queen Vashti done wrong, but also against all the officials and all the peoples who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.

¹⁷For the queen's behavior will be made known to all women, causing them to look at their husbands with contempt, since they will say, ‘King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought before him, and she did not come.’

¹⁸This very day the noble women of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's behavior will say the same to all the king's officials, and there will be contempt and wrath in plenty.

¹⁹If it please the king, let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be repealed, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus. And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she.

²⁰So when the decree made by the king is proclaimed throughout all his kingdom, for it is vast, all women will give honor to their husbands, high and low alike.”

²¹This advice pleased the king and the princes, and the king did as Memucan proposed.

²²He sent letters to all the royal provinces, to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language, that every man be master in his own household and speak according to the language of his people.

¹And the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying,

²“Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.

³Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain.

⁴Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age.

⁵And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.

⁶Thus says the LORD of hosts: If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the LORD of hosts?

⁷Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country,

⁸and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.”

⁹Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Let your hands be strong, you who in these days have been hearing these words from the mouth of the prophets who were present on the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built.

¹⁰For before those days there was no wage for man or any wage for beast, neither was there any safety from the foe for him who went out or came in, for I set every man against his neighbor.

¹¹But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, declares the LORD of hosts.

¹²For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.

¹³And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.”

¹⁴For thus says the LORD of hosts: “As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts,

¹⁵so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not.

¹⁶These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace;

¹⁷do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the LORD.”

¹⁸And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,

¹⁹“Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.

²⁰“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities.

²¹The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.’

²²Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.

²³Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

¹Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.

²He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.

³Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.

⁵So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

⁶And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

⁷And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

⁸So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.

⁹And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”

¹⁰And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

¹¹So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis,

¹²and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days.

¹³And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.

¹⁴One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

¹⁵And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

¹⁶As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling.

¹⁷She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

¹⁸And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

¹⁹But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.

²⁰And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city.

²¹They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.”

²²The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

²³And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.

²⁴Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,

²⁶and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened.

²⁷When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

²⁹And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.

³⁰Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

³²And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

³³And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.

³⁴Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

³⁵But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.”

³⁶And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.”

³⁷But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.”

³⁸The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens.

³⁹So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city.

⁴⁰So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.