Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching,

²and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people.

³Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve.

⁴And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.

⁵They were delighted and agreed to give him money.

⁶He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.

⁷Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

⁸Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.”

⁹“Where do you want us to prepare for it?” they asked.

¹⁰He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters,

¹¹and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’

¹²He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.”

¹³They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

¹⁴When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table.

¹⁵And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

¹⁶For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

¹⁷After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you.

¹⁸For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

¹⁹And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

²⁰In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

²¹But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table.

²²The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!”

²³They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.

²⁴A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.

²⁵Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.

²⁶But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.

²⁷For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

²⁸You are those who have stood by me in my trials.

²⁹And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me,

³⁰so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

³¹“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.

³²But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

³³But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”

³⁴Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

³⁵Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered.

³⁶He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.

³⁷It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”

³⁸The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.” “That’s enough!” he replied.

³⁹Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.

⁴⁰On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

⁴¹He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed,

⁴²“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

⁴³An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.

⁴⁴And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

⁴⁵When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.

⁴⁶“Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

⁴⁷While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him,

⁴⁸but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

⁴⁹When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?”

⁵⁰And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

⁵¹But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

⁵²Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs?

⁵³Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.”

⁵⁴Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance.

⁵⁵And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them.

⁵⁶A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”

⁵⁷But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.

⁵⁸A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied.

⁵⁹About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”

⁶⁰Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.

⁶¹The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.”

⁶²And he went outside and wept bitterly.

⁶³The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him.

⁶⁴They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?”

⁶⁵And they said many other insulting things to him.

⁶⁶At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them.

⁶⁷“If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.” Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me,

⁶⁸and if I asked you, you would not answer.

⁶⁹But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”

⁷⁰They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” He replied, “You say that I am.”

⁷¹Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

²You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.

³But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt,

⁴he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.

⁵And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.”

⁶Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them.

⁷Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

⁸The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

⁹“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.”

¹⁰So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake.

¹¹Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts:

¹²Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

¹³Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go.

¹⁵Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Confront him on the bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.

¹⁶Then say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness. But until now you have not listened.

¹⁷This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.

¹⁸The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.’ ”

¹⁹The LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs—and they will turn to blood.’ Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in vessels of wood and stone.”

²⁰Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood.

²¹The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.

²²But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.

²³Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart.

²⁴And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.

²⁵Seven days passed after the LORD struck the Nile.

¹Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.

²For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.

³Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

⁴Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

⁵Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.”

⁶But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down)

⁷“or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

⁸But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim:

⁹If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

¹¹As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”

¹²For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,

¹³for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

¹⁵And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

¹⁶But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?”

¹⁷Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

¹⁸But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

¹⁹Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, “I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”

²⁰And Isaiah boldly says, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”

²¹But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

¹I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”

²I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

³When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”

⁴Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.

⁵When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.

⁶Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

⁷When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!”

⁸I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

⁹When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.

¹⁰They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”

¹¹Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.

¹²I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,

¹³and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.

¹⁴The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

¹⁶They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!

¹⁷For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”

¹How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from the hills of Gilead.

²Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin; not one of them is alone.

³Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate.

⁴Your neck is like the tower of David, built with courses of stone; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors.

⁵Your breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies.

⁶Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense.

⁷You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.

⁸Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of leopards.

⁹You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.

¹⁰How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume more than any spice!

¹¹Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.

¹²You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.

¹³Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard,

¹⁴nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices.

¹⁵You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.

¹⁶Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.

¹The LORD is a God who avenges. O God who avenges, shine forth.

²Rise up, Judge of the earth; pay back to the proud what they deserve.

³How long, LORD, will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant?

⁴They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting.

⁵They crush your people, LORD; they oppress your inheritance.

⁶They slay the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless.

⁷They say, “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob takes no notice.”

⁸Take notice, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise?

⁹Does he who fashioned the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see?

¹⁰Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?

¹¹The LORD knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile.

¹²Blessed is the one you discipline, LORD, the one you teach from your law;

¹³you grant them relief from days of trouble, till a pit is dug for the wicked.

¹⁴For the LORD will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance.

¹⁵Judgment will again be founded on righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it.

¹⁶Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?

¹⁷Unless the LORD had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.

¹⁸When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, LORD, supported me.

¹⁹When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.

²⁰Can a corrupt throne be allied with you— a throne that brings on misery by its decrees?

²¹The wicked band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.

²²But the LORD has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.

²³He will repay them for their sins and destroy them for their wickedness; the LORD our God will destroy them.

¹Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

²Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips.

³Stone is heavy and sand a burden, but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.

⁴Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?

⁵Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

⁶Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.

⁷One who is full loathes honey from the comb, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.

⁸Like a bird that flees its nest is anyone who flees from home.

⁹Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.

¹⁰Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you— better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.

¹¹Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart; then I can answer anyone who treats me with contempt.

¹²The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

¹³Take the garment of one who puts up security for a stranger; hold it in pledge if it is done for an outsider.

¹⁴If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.

¹⁵A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm;

¹⁶restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.

¹⁷As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

¹⁸The one who guards a fig tree will eat its fruit, and whoever protects their master will be honored.

¹⁹As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.

²⁰Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes.

²¹The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but people are tested by their praise.

²²Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding them like grain with a pestle, you will not remove their folly from them.

²³Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;

²⁴for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.

²⁵When the hay is removed and new growth appears and the grass from the hills is gathered in,

²⁶the lambs will provide you with clothing, and the goats with the price of a field.

²⁷You will have plenty of goats’ milk to feed your family and to nourish your female servants.

¹On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance.

²When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold scepter that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter.

³Then the king asked, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.”

⁴“If it pleases the king,” replied Esther, “let the king, together with Haman, come today to a banquet I have prepared for him.”

⁵“Bring Haman at once,” the king said, “so that we may do what Esther asks.” So the king and Haman went to the banquet Esther had prepared.

⁶As they were drinking wine, the king again asked Esther, “Now what is your petition? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”

⁷Esther replied, “My petition and my request is this:

⁸If the king regards me with favor and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king’s question.”

⁹Haman went out that day happy and in high spirits. But when he saw Mordecai at the king’s gate and observed that he neither rose nor showed fear in his presence, he was filled with rage against Mordecai.

¹⁰Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Calling together his friends and Zeresh, his wife,

¹¹Haman boasted to them about his vast wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored him and how he had elevated him above the other nobles and officials.

¹²“And that’s not all,” Haman added. “I’m the only person Queen Esther invited to accompany the king to the banquet she gave. And she has invited me along with the king tomorrow.

¹³But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.”

¹⁴His wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a pole set up, reaching to a height of fifty cubits, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai impaled on it. Then go with the king to the banquet and enjoy yourself.” This suggestion delighted Haman, and he had the pole set up.

¹A prophecy: The word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares:

²“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem.

³On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.

⁴On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the LORD. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations.

⁵Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.’

⁶“On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.

⁷“The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah.

⁸On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them.

⁹On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

¹⁰“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

¹¹On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

¹²The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives,

¹³the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives,

¹⁴and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

¹When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia.

²He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece,

³where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him just as he was about to sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia.

⁴He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.

⁵These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas.

⁶But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

⁷On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight.

⁸There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting.

⁹Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead.

¹⁰Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!”

¹¹Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left.

¹²The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

¹³We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had made this arrangement because he was going there on foot.

¹⁴When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene.

¹⁵The next day we set sail from there and arrived off Chios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day arrived at Miletus.

¹⁶Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church.

¹⁸When they arrived, he said to them: “You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia.

¹⁹I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.

²⁰You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house.

²¹I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

²²“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.

²³I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.

²⁴However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

²⁵“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again.

²⁶Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you.

²⁷For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.

²⁸Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

²⁹I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.

³⁰Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

³¹So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

³²“Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

³³I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.

³⁴You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.

³⁵In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

³⁶When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.

³⁷They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him.

³⁸What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.