Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.

²And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick.

³Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.

⁴Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

⁵Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”

⁶He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

⁷Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.”

⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,

⁹“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”

¹⁰Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.

¹¹Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

¹²And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”

¹³So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.

¹⁴When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

¹⁵Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

¹⁶When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea,

¹⁷got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

¹⁸The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.

¹⁹When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.

²⁰But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”

²¹Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

²²On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.

²³Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

²⁴So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

²⁵When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”

²⁶Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

²⁷ Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

²⁸Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

²⁹Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

³⁰So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?

³¹Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

³²Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

³³For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

³⁶But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

³⁷ All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

³⁸For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

⁴⁰For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

⁴¹So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

⁴²They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

⁴³Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.

⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

⁴⁵It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me —

⁴⁶ not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.

⁴⁷Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

⁴⁸ I am the bread of life.

⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵²The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

⁵³So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

⁵⁴Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

⁵⁵For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

⁵⁶Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

⁵⁷As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

⁵⁹Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

⁶⁰When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”

⁶¹But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?

⁶²Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

⁶⁴But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)

⁶⁵And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

⁶⁶After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

⁶⁷So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,

⁶⁹and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

⁷⁰Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”

⁷¹He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

¹Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

²The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.

³The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name.

⁴“Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

⁵The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.

⁶Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.

⁷In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.

⁸At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

⁹The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’

¹⁰You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

¹¹“Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

¹²You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.

¹³“You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

¹⁴The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

¹⁵Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.

¹⁶Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your people, O LORD, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased.

¹⁷You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.

¹⁸The LORD will reign forever and ever.”

¹⁹For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea.

²⁰Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.

²¹And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

²²Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

²³When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah.

²⁴And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

²⁵And he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them,

²⁶saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”

²⁷Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

¹And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

²For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

³And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

⁴and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

⁵so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

⁶Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

⁷But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

⁸None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” —

¹⁰these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

¹¹For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

¹²Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

¹³And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

¹⁴The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

¹⁵The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

¹⁶“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

¹Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.

²And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps,

³and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

⁴It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb,

⁵and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.

⁶Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.

⁷And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

⁸Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”

⁹And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,

¹⁰he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

¹¹And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

¹²Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

¹³And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

¹⁴Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.

¹⁵And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”

¹⁶So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

¹⁷Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.

¹⁸And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.”

¹⁹So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

²⁰And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

²“If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking?

³Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands.

⁴Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.

⁵But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.

⁶Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷“Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off?

⁸As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

⁹By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

¹⁰The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions are broken.

¹¹The strong lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹²“Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it.

¹³Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

¹⁴dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.

¹⁵A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up.

¹⁶It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:

¹⁷‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

¹⁸Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;

¹⁹how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth.

²⁰Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever without anyone regarding it.

²¹Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?’

¹Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you!

²Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!

³For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.

⁴My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread.

⁵Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh.

⁶I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places;

⁷I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.

⁸All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse.

⁹For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink,

¹⁰because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down.

¹¹My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.

¹²But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.

¹³You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come.

¹⁴For your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust.

¹⁵Nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.

¹⁶For the LORD builds up Zion; he appears in his glory;

¹⁷he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.

¹⁸Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:

¹⁹that he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,

²⁰to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die,

²¹that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem his praise,

²²when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.

²³He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days.

²⁴“O my God,” I say, “take me not away in the midst of my days — you whose years endure throughout all generations!”

²⁵Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

²⁶They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,

²⁷but you are the same, and your years have no end.

²⁸The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.

¹Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight,

²for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching.

³When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,

⁴he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.

⁵Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

⁶Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.

⁷The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.

⁸Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her.

⁹She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

¹⁰Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.

¹¹I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness.

¹²When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.

¹⁴Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil.

¹⁵Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.

¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.

¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.

²⁰My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

²¹Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

²³Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

²⁴Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.

²⁵Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

²⁶Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.

²⁷Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

¹Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.

²At the end of three days the officers went through the camp

³and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.

⁴Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”

⁵Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

⁶And Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

⁷The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

⁸And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’”

⁹And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.”

¹⁰And Joshua said, “Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.

¹¹Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan.

¹²Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man.

¹³And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.”

¹⁴So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people,

¹⁵and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest),

¹⁶the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho.

¹⁷Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.

¹The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,

³and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

⁴He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

⁵O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

⁶For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.

⁷Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.

⁸Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.

⁹So man is humbled, and each one is brought low — do not forgive them!

¹⁰Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty.

¹¹The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

¹²For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up — and it shall be brought low;

¹³against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan;

¹⁴against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills;

¹⁵against every high tower, and against every fortified wall;

¹⁶against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft.

¹⁷And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

¹⁸And the idols shall utterly pass away.

¹⁹And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

²⁰In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats,

²¹to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

²²Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

¹After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta.

²The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold.

³When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand.

⁴When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”

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

⁶They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

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

⁸It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him, healed him.

⁹And when this had taken place, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured.

¹⁰They also honored us greatly, and when we were about to sail, they put on board whatever we needed.

¹¹After three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island, a ship of Alexandria, with the twin gods as a figurehead.

¹²Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there for three days.

¹³And from there we made a circuit and arrived at Rhegium. And after one day a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli.

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

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

¹⁶And when we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to stay by himself, with the soldier who guarded him.

¹⁷After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews, and when they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.

¹⁸When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case.

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

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

²¹And they said to him, “We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you.

²²But we desire to hear from you what your views are, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”

²³When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.

²⁴And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved.

²⁵And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:

²⁶“‘Go to this people, and say, “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”

²⁷For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

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

²⁹

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

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