Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

²And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe.

³They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face.

⁴Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.”

⁵So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

⁶When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.”

⁷The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”

⁸Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever.

⁹He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.

¹⁰Pilate therefore said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?”

¹¹Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

¹²From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.”

¹³When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha.

¹⁴Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!”

¹⁵They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.”

¹⁶Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. The Crucifixion of Jesus So they took Jesus;

¹⁷and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.

¹⁸There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them.

¹⁹Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

²⁰Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

²¹Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’”

²²Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

²³When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top.

²⁴So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says, “They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

²⁵And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

²⁶When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”

²⁷Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

²⁸After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.”

²⁹A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.

³⁰When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

³¹Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed.

³²Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him.

³³But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

³⁴Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.

³⁵(He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.)

³⁶These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “None of his bones shall be broken.”

³⁷And again another passage of scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”

³⁸After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body.

³⁹Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.

⁴⁰They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.

⁴¹Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid.

⁴²And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

¹Then bring near to you your brother Aaron, and his sons with him, from among the Israelites, to serve me as priests — Aaron and Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²You shall make sacred vestments for the glorious adornment of your brother Aaron.

³And you shall speak to all who have ability, whom I have endowed with skill, that they make Aaron’s vestments to consecrate him for my priesthood.

⁴These are the vestments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a checkered tunic, a turban, and a sash. When they make these sacred vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests,

⁵they shall use gold, blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine linen.

⁶They shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen, skillfully worked.

⁷It shall have two shoulder-pieces attached to its two edges, so that it may be joined together.

⁸The decorated band on it shall be of the same workmanship and materials, of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen.

⁹You shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel,

¹⁰six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, in the order of their birth.

¹¹As a gem-cutter engraves signets, so you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel; you shall mount them in settings of gold filigree.

¹²You shall set the two stones on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel; and Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders for remembrance.

¹³You shall make settings of gold filigree,

¹⁴and two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords; and you shall attach the corded chains to the settings.

¹⁵You shall make a breastpiece of judgment, in skilled work; you shall make it in the style of the ephod; of gold, of blue and purple and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen you shall make it.

¹⁶It shall be square and doubled, a span in length and a span in width.

¹⁷You shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of carnelian, chrysolite, and emerald shall be the first row;

¹⁸and the second row a turquoise, a sapphire, and a moonstone;

¹⁹and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;

²⁰and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper; they shall be set in gold filigree.

²¹There shall be twelve stones with names corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they shall be like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes.

²²You shall make for the breastpiece chains of pure gold, twisted like cords;

²³and you shall make for the breastpiece two rings of gold, and put the two rings on the two edges of the breastpiece.

²⁴You shall put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece;

²⁵the two ends of the two cords you shall attach to the two settings, and so attach it in front to the shoulder-pieces of the ephod.

²⁶You shall make two rings of gold, and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece, on its inside edge next to the ephod.

²⁷You shall make two rings of gold, and attach them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod, at its joining above the decorated band of the ephod.

²⁸The breastpiece shall be bound by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a blue cord, so that it may lie on the decorated band of the ephod, and so that the breastpiece shall not come loose from the ephod.

²⁹So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart when he goes into the holy place, for a continual remembrance before the LORD.

³⁰In the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the LORD; thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the Israelites on his heart before the LORD continually.

³¹You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue.

³²It shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it, with a woven binding around the opening, like the opening in a coat of mail, so that it may not be torn.

³³On its lower hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, all around the lower hem, with bells of gold between them all around —

³⁴a golden bell and a pomegranate alternating all around the lower hem of the robe.

³⁵Aaron shall wear it when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the LORD, and when he comes out, so that he may not die.

³⁶You shall make a rosette of pure gold, and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, “Holy to the LORD.”

³⁷You shall fasten it on the turban with a blue cord; it shall be on the front of the turban.

³⁸It shall be on Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall take on himself any guilt incurred in the holy offering that the Israelites consecrate as their sacred donations; it shall always be on his forehead, in order that they may find favor before the LORD.

³⁹You shall make the checkered tunic of fine linen, and you shall make a turban of fine linen, and you shall make a sash embroidered with needlework.

⁴⁰For Aaron’s sons you shall make tunics and sashes and headdresses; you shall make them for their glorious adornment.

⁴¹You shall put them on your brother Aaron, and on his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, so that they may serve me as priests.

⁴²You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh; they shall reach from the hips to the thighs;

⁴³Aaron and his sons shall wear them when they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place; or they will bring guilt on themselves and die. This shall be a perpetual ordinance for him and for his descendants after him.

¹Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,

²through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you — unless you have come to believe in vain.

³For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,

⁴and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,

⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.

⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

⁸Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

⁹For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them — though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

¹¹Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

¹²Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;

¹⁴and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.

¹⁵We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ — whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.

¹⁷If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

¹⁸Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.

¹⁹If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

²¹For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being;

²²for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

²³But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

²⁴Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power.

²⁵For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

²⁶The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

²⁷For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him.

²⁸When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.

²⁹Otherwise, what will those people do who receive baptism on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

³⁰And why are we putting ourselves in danger every hour?

³¹I die every day! That is as certain, brothers and sisters, as my boasting of you — a boast that I make in Christ Jesus our Lord.

³²If with merely human hopes I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what would I have gained by it? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

³³Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

³⁴Come to a sober and right mind, and sin no more; for some people have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

³⁵But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”

³⁶Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

³⁷And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

³⁸But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

³⁹Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

⁴⁰There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another.

⁴¹There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.

⁴²So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.

⁴³It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

⁴⁴It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.

⁴⁵Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

⁴⁶But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.

⁴⁷The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

⁴⁸As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.

⁴⁹Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.

⁵⁰What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

⁵¹Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed,

⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

⁵³For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

⁵⁴When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁵“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

¹My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.

²Surely there are mockers around me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.

³“Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will give surety for me?

⁴Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.

⁵Those who denounce friends for reward — the eyes of their children will fail.

⁶“He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit.

⁷My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow.

⁸The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.

⁹Yet the righteous hold to their way, and they that have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.

¹⁰But you, come back now, all of you, and I shall not find a sensible person among you.

¹¹My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.

¹²They make night into day; ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’

¹³If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,

¹⁴if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

¹⁵where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?

¹⁶Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?”

¹Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

²Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”

³Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases.

⁴Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

⁵They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.

⁶They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.

⁷They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats.

⁸Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them.

⁹O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.

¹⁰O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.

¹¹You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.

¹²The LORD has been mindful of us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;

¹³he will bless those who fear the LORD, both small and great.

¹⁴May the LORD give you increase, both you and your children.

¹⁵May you be blessed by the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

¹⁶The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but the earth he has given to human beings.

¹⁷The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any that go down into silence.

¹⁸But we will bless the LORD from this time on and forevermore. Praise the LORD!

¹Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.

²A slave who deals wisely will rule over a child who acts shamefully, and will share the inheritance as one of the family.

³The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.

⁴An evildoer listens to wicked lips; and a liar gives heed to a mischievous tongue.

⁵Those who mock the poor insult their Maker; those who are glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

⁶Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their parents.

⁷Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a ruler.

⁸A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of those who give it; wherever they turn they prosper.

⁹One who forgives an affront fosters friendship, but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend.

¹⁰A rebuke strikes deeper into a discerning person than a hundred blows into a fool.

¹¹Evil people seek only rebellion, but a cruel messenger will be sent against them.

¹²Better to meet a she-bear robbed of its cubs than to confront a fool immersed in folly.

¹³Evil will not depart from the house of one who returns evil for good.

¹⁴The beginning of strife is like letting out water; so stop before the quarrel breaks out.

¹⁵One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

¹⁶Why should fools have a price in hand to buy wisdom, when they have no mind to learn?

¹⁷A friend loves at all times, and kinsfolk are born to share adversity.

¹⁸It is senseless to give a pledge, to become surety for a neighbor.

¹⁹One who loves transgression loves strife; one who builds a high threshold invites broken bones.

²⁰The crooked of mind do not prosper, and the perverse of tongue fall into calamity.

²¹The one who begets a fool gets trouble; the parent of a fool has no joy.

²²A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.

²³The wicked accept a concealed bribe to pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴The discerning person looks to wisdom, but the eyes of a fool to the ends of the earth.

²⁵Foolish children are a grief to their father and bitterness to her who bore them.

²⁶To impose a fine on the innocent is not right, or to flog the noble for their integrity.

²⁷One who spares words is knowledgeable; one who is cool in spirit has understanding.

²⁸Even fools who keep silent are considered wise; when they close their lips, they are deemed intelligent.

¹The allotment of the Josephites went from the Jordan by Jericho, east of the waters of Jericho, into the wilderness, going up from Jericho into the hill country to Bethel;

²then going from Bethel to Luz, it passes along to Ataroth, the territory of the Archites;

³then it goes down westward to the territory of the Japhletites, as far as the territory of Lower Beth-horon, then to Gezer, and it ends at the sea.

⁴The Josephites — Manasseh and Ephraim — received their inheritance.

⁵The territory of the Ephraimites by their families was as follows: the boundary of their inheritance on the east was Ataroth-addar as far as Upper Beth-horon,

⁶and the boundary goes from there to the sea; on the north is Michmethath; then on the east the boundary makes a turn toward Taanath-shiloh, and passes along beyond it on the east to Janoah,

⁷then it goes down from Janoah to Ataroth and to Naarah, and touches Jericho, ending at the Jordan.

⁸From Tappuah the boundary goes westward to the Wadi Kanah, and ends at the sea. Such is the inheritance of the tribe of the Ephraimites by their families,

⁹together with the towns that were set apart for the Ephraimites within the inheritance of the Manassites, all those towns with their villages.

¹⁰They did not, however, drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer: so the Canaanites have lived within Ephraim to this day but have been made to do forced labor.

¹An oracle concerning Moab. Because Ar is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone; because Kir is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone.

²Dibon has gone up to the temple, to the high places to weep; over Nebo and over Medeba Moab wails. On every head is baldness, every beard is shorn;

³in the streets they bind on sackcloth; on the housetops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears.

⁴Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard as far as Jahaz; therefore the loins of Moab quiver; his soul trembles.

⁵My heart cries out for Moab; his fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction;

⁶the waters of Nimrim are a desolation; the grass is withered, the new growth fails, the verdure is no more.

⁷Therefore the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up they carry away over the Wadi of the Willows.

⁸For a cry has gone around the land of Moab; the wailing reaches to Eglaim, the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

⁹For the waters of Dibon are full of blood; yet I will bring upon Dibon even more — a lion for those of Moab who escape, for the remnant of the land.

¹Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul.

²While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

³Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

⁴So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

⁵When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them.

⁶When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus.

⁷He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God.

⁸But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

⁹But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him

¹⁰and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

¹¹And now listen — the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand.

¹²When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.

¹³Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem;

¹⁴but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.

¹⁵After the reading of the law and the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, give it.”

¹⁶So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak: “You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen.

¹⁷The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it.

¹⁸For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.

¹⁹After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance

²⁰for about four hundred fifty years. After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel.

²¹Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years.

²²When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.’

²³Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised;

²⁴before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

²⁵And as John was finishing his work, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals on his feet.’

²⁶“My brothers, you descendants of Abraham’s family, and others who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent.

²⁷Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him.

²⁸Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed.

²⁹When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

³⁰But God raised him from the dead;

³¹and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to the people.

³²And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors

³³he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’

³⁴As to his raising him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, ‘I will give you the holy promises made to David.’

³⁵Therefore he has also said in another psalm, ‘You will not let your Holy One experience corruption.’

³⁶For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died, was laid beside his ancestors, and experienced corruption;

³⁷but he whom God raised up experienced no corruption.

³⁸Let it be known to you therefore, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you;

³⁹by this Jesus everyone who believes is set free from all those sins from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

⁴⁰Beware, therefore, that what the prophets said does not happen to you:

⁴¹‘Look, you scoffers! Be amazed and perish, for in your days I am doing a work, a work that you will never believe, even if someone tells you.’”

⁴²As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people urged them to speak about these things again the next sabbath.

⁴³When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴The next sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; and blaspheming, they contradicted what was spoken by Paul.

⁴⁶Then both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

⁴⁸When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers.

⁴⁹Thus the word of the Lord spread throughout the region.

⁵⁰But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their region.

⁵¹So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them, and went to Iconium.

⁵²And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.