Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples,

² “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

³Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,

⁴and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.

⁵But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

⁶Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,

⁷a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table.

⁸And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?

⁹For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”

¹⁰But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.

¹¹For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

¹²In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.

¹³Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

¹⁴Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests

¹⁵and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.

¹⁶And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

¹⁷Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?”

¹⁸He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’”

¹⁹And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.

²⁰When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve.

²¹And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

²²And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?”

²³He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.

²⁴The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

²⁵Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”

²⁶Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

²⁷And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you,

²⁸for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

²⁹I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.”

³⁰And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

³¹Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

³²But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”

³³Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”

³⁴Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”

³⁵Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

³⁶Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”

³⁷And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

³⁸Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”

³⁹And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

⁴⁰And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?

⁴¹ Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

⁴²Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

⁴³And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

⁴⁴So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.

⁴⁵Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

⁴⁶Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

⁴⁸Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.”

⁴⁹And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him.

⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.

⁵¹And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

⁵²Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

⁵³ Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

⁵⁴ But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

⁵⁵At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me.

⁵⁶But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.

⁵⁷Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered.

⁵⁸And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end.

⁵⁹Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death,

⁶⁰but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward

⁶¹and said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’”

⁶²And the high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?”

⁶³But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

⁶⁴Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy.

⁶⁶What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.”

⁶⁷Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him,

⁶⁸saying, “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?”

⁶⁹Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.”

⁷⁰But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.”

⁷¹And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

⁷²And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.”

⁷³After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.”

⁷⁴Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed.

⁷⁵And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

¹Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines.

²And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.

³Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.

⁴I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,

⁵because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

⁶So Isaac settled in Gerar.

⁷When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance.

⁸When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife.

⁹So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”

¹⁰Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

¹¹So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

¹²And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him,

¹³and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy.

¹⁴He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him.

¹⁵(Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.)

¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

¹⁷So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.

¹⁸And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them.

¹⁹But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water,

²⁰the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.

²¹Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah.

²²And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

²³From there he went up to Beersheba.

²⁴And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.”

²⁵So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well.

²⁶When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army,

²⁷Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?”

²⁸They said, “We see plainly that the LORD has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you,

²⁹that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.”

³⁰So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

³¹In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.

³²That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.”

³³He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite,

³⁵and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

¹For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,

²and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,

³and all ate the same spiritual food,

⁴and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

⁵Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

⁶Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

⁷Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

⁸We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.

⁹We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,

¹⁰nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

¹¹Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

¹²Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

¹³No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

¹⁵I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.

¹⁶The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

¹⁷Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.

¹⁸Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?

¹⁹What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?

²⁰No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.

²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

²²Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

²³“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

²⁴Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

²⁵Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

²⁶For “the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.”

²⁷If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.

²⁸But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience —

²⁹I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience?

³⁰If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

³¹So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

³²Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,

³³just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

¹What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

²You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.

³You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

⁴You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

⁵Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

⁶But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

¹²There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” —

¹⁴yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

¹⁵Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

¹⁶As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

¹Then Job answered and said:

²“How you have helped him who has no power! How you have saved the arm that has no strength!

³How you have counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

⁴With whose help have you uttered words, and whose breath has come out from you?

⁵The dead tremble under the waters and their inhabitants.

⁶Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

⁷He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.

⁸He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not split open under them.

⁹He covers the face of the full moon and spreads over it his cloud.

¹⁰He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars of heaven tremble and are astounded at his rebuke.

¹²By his power he stilled the sea; by his understanding he shattered Rahab.

¹³By his wind the heavens were made fair; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

¹⁴Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

¹Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.

²Prove me, O LORD, and try me; test my heart and my mind.

³For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.

⁴I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites.

⁵I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.

⁶I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O LORD,

⁷proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds.

⁸O LORD, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.

⁹Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men,

¹⁰in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes.

¹¹But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me.

¹²My foot stands on level ground; in the great assembly I will bless the LORD.

¹Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.

²Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight.

³A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.

⁴Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.

⁵Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

⁶Whoever sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.

⁷Like a lame man's legs, which hang useless, is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

⁸Like one who binds the stone in the sling is one who gives honor to a fool.

⁹Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.

¹⁰Like an archer who wounds everyone is one who hires a passing fool or drunkard.

¹¹Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

¹²Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

¹³The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!”

¹⁴As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed.

¹⁵The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.

¹⁶The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.

¹⁷Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.

¹⁸Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death

¹⁹is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I am only joking!”

²⁰For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.

²¹As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

²²The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.

²³Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are fervent lips with an evil heart.

²⁴Whoever hates disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart;

²⁵when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart;

²⁶though his hatred be covered with deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

²⁷Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.

²⁸A lying tongue hates its victims, and a flattering mouth works ruin.

¹Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you,

²and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?

³So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”

⁴As soon as the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.

⁵And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the LORD.

⁶When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land.

⁷And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel.

⁸And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years.

⁹And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash.

¹⁰And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.

¹¹And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.

¹²And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger.

¹³They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

¹⁴So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.

¹⁵Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

¹⁶Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

¹⁷Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so.

¹⁸Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.

¹⁹But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

²⁰So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice,

²¹I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,

²²in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not.”

²³So the LORD left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.

¹In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks.

²Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.

³You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

⁴Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

⁵For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.

⁶The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”

⁷The path of the righteous is level; you make level the way of the righteous.

⁸In the path of your judgments, O LORD, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.

⁹My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the LORD.

¹¹O LORD, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.

¹²O LORD, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works.

¹³O LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance.

¹⁴They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.

¹⁵But you have increased the nation, O LORD, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶O LORD, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.

¹⁷Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O LORD;

¹⁸we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

¹⁹Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

²⁰Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.

²¹For behold, the LORD is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.

¹So Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense:

²“I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews,

³especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews.

⁵They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.

⁶And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers,

⁷to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king!

⁸Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

⁹“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them.

¹¹And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

¹²“In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

¹³At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

¹⁴And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you,

¹⁷ delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles — to whom I am sending you

¹⁸ to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

¹⁹“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

²¹For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

²²To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass:

²³that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.”

²⁵But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.

²⁶For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”

²⁸And Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”

²⁹And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am — except for these chains.”

³⁰Then the king rose, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them.

³¹And when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”