Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

²After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

³Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,

⁶and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

⁷Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”

⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

⁹And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”

¹⁰Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”

¹¹Then the devil left him, and angels came and began to serve him.

¹²When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.

¹³He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.

¹⁴This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

¹⁵Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

¹⁶The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

¹⁷From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

¹⁸As he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter), and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen.

¹⁹“Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.”

²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

²¹Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, preparing their nets, and he called them.

²²Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

²³Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

²⁴Then the news about him spread throughout Syria. So they brought to him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And he healed them.

²⁵Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

¹The LORD said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

²Be prepared by morning. Come up Mount Sinai in the morning and stand before me on the mountaintop.

³No one may go up with you; in fact, no one should be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.”

⁴Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai, just as the LORD had commanded him.

⁵The LORD came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the LORD.”

⁶The LORD passed in front of him and proclaimed: The LORD  — the LORD is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,

⁷maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

⁸Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped.

⁹Then he said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor with you, my Lord, please go with us (even though this is a stiff-necked people), forgive our iniquity and our sin, and accept us as your own possession.”

¹⁰And the LORD responded: “Look, I am making a covenant. I will perform wonders in the presence of all your people that have never been done in the whole earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see the LORD’s work, for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring.

¹¹Observe what I command you today. I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

¹²Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are going to enter; otherwise, they will become a snare among you.

¹³Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles.

¹⁴Because the LORD is jealous for his reputation, you are never to bow down to another god. He is a jealous God.

¹⁵“Do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land, or else when they prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.

¹⁶Then you will take some of their daughters as brides for your sons. Their daughters will prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods.

¹⁷“Do not make cast images of gods for yourselves.

¹⁸“Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, as I commanded you, for you came out of Egypt in the month of Abib.

¹⁹“The firstborn male from every womb belongs to me, including all your male livestock, the firstborn of cattle or sheep.

²⁰You may redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a sheep, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

²¹“You are to labor six days but you must rest on the seventh day; you must even rest during plowing and harvesting times.

²²“Observe the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the agricultural year.

²³Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.

²⁴For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory. No one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God.

²⁵“Do not present the blood for my sacrifice with anything leavened. The sacrifice of the Passover Festival must not remain until morning.

²⁶“Bring the best firstfruits of your land to the house of the LORD your God. “You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷The LORD also said to Moses, “Write down these words, for I have made a covenant with you and with Israel based on these words.”

²⁸Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did not eat food or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant, on the tablets.

²⁹As Moses descended from Mount Sinai — with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain — he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the LORD.

³⁰When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone! They were afraid to come near him.

³¹But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them.

³²Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai.

³³When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

³⁴But whenever Moses went before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded,

³⁵and the Israelites would see that Moses’s face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the LORD.

¹For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands.

²Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling,

³since, when we have taken it off, we will not be found naked.

⁴Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

⁵Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

⁶So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

⁷For we walk by faith, not by sight.

⁸In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

⁹Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.

¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

¹¹Therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your consciences.

¹²We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in outward appearance rather than in the heart.

¹³For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

¹⁴For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If one died for all, then all died.

¹⁵And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

¹⁶From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

¹⁸Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

¹⁹That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

²⁰Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.”

²¹He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

¹This saying is trustworthy: “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.”

²An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

³not an excessive drinker, not a bully but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy.

⁴He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity.

⁵(If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God’s church?)

⁶He must not be a new convert, or he might become conceited and incur the same condemnation as the devil.

⁷Furthermore, he must have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he does not fall into disgrace and the devil’s trap.

⁸Deacons, likewise, should be worthy of respect, not hypocritical, not drinking a lot of wine, not greedy for money,

⁹holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

¹⁰They must also be tested first; if they prove blameless, then they can serve as deacons.

¹¹Wives, too, must be worthy of respect, not slanderers, self-controlled, faithful in everything.

¹²Deacons are to be husbands of one wife, managing their children and their own households competently.

¹³For those who have served well as deacons acquire a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon.

¹⁵But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

¹⁶And most certainly, the mystery of godliness is great: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

¹Then Job answered:

²Today also my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

³If only I knew how to find him, so that I could go to his throne.

⁴I would plead my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would learn how he would answer me; and understand what he would say to me.

⁶Would he prosecute me forcefully? No, he would certainly pay attention to me.

⁷Then an upright man could reason with him, and I would escape from my Judge forever.

⁸If I go east, he is not there, and if I go west, I cannot perceive him.

⁹When he is at work to the north, I cannot see him; when he turns south, I cannot find him.

¹⁰Yet he knows the way I have taken; when he has tested me, I will emerge as pure gold.

¹¹My feet have followed in his tracks; I have kept to his way and not turned aside.

¹²I have not departed from the commands from his lips; I have treasured the words from his mouth more than my daily food.

¹³But he is unchangeable; who can oppose him? He does what he desires.

¹⁴He will certainly accomplish what he has decreed for me, and he has many more things like these in mind.

¹⁵Therefore I am terrified in his presence; when I consider this, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷Yet I am not destroyed by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.

¹A song of ascents. [1] I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from?

²My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

³He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber.

⁴Indeed, the Protector of Israel does not slumber or sleep.

⁵The LORD protects you; the LORD is a shelter right by your side.

⁶The sun will not strike you by day or the moon by night.

⁷The LORD will protect you from all harm; he will protect your life.

⁸The LORD will protect your coming and going both now and forever.

¹When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you,

²and put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite;

³don’t desire his choice food, for that food is deceptive.

⁴Don’t wear yourself out to get rich; because you know better, stop!

⁵As soon as your eyes fly to it, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.

⁶Don’t eat a stingy person’s bread, and don’t desire his choice food,

⁷for it’s like someone calculating inwardly. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

⁸You will vomit the little you’ve eaten and waste your pleasant words.

⁹Don’t speak to a fool, for he will despise the insight of your words.

¹⁰Don’t move an ancient boundary marker, and don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹for their Redeemer is strong, and he will champion their cause against you.

¹²Apply yourself to discipline and listen to words of knowledge.

¹³Don’t withhold discipline from a youth; if you punish him with a rod, he will not die.

¹⁴Punish him with a rod, and you will rescue his life from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will indeed rejoice.

¹⁶My innermost being will celebrate when your lips say what is right.

¹⁷Don’t let your heart envy sinners; instead, always fear the LORD.

¹⁸For then you will have a future, and your hope will not be dashed.

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise; keep your mind on the right course.

²⁰Don’t associate with those who drink too much wine or with those who gorge themselves on meat.

²¹For the drunkard and the glutton will become poor, and grogginess will clothe them in rags.

²²Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy — and do not sell — truth, wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

²⁴The father of a righteous son will rejoice greatly, and one who fathers a wise son will delight in him.

²⁵Let your father and mother have joy, and let her who gave birth to you rejoice.

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

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, and a wayward woman is a narrow well;

²⁸indeed, she sets an ambush like a robber and increases the number of unfaithful people.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has conflicts? Who has complaints? Who has wounds for no reason? Who has red eyes?

³⁰Those who linger over wine; those who go looking for mixed wine.

³¹Don’t gaze at wine because it is red, because it gleams in the cup and goes down smoothly.

³²In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say absurd things.

³⁴You’ll be like someone sleeping out at sea or lying down on the top of a ship’s mast.

³⁵“They struck me, but I feel no pain! They beat me, but I didn’t know it! When will I wake up? I’ll look for another drink.”

¹Joshua summoned the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh

²and told them, “You have done everything Moses the LORD’s servant commanded you and have obeyed me in everything I commanded you.

³You have not deserted your brothers even once this whole time but have carried out the requirement of the command of the LORD your God.

⁴Now that he has given your brothers rest, just as he promised them, return to your homes in your own land that Moses the LORD’s servant gave you across the Jordan.

⁵Only carefully obey the command and instruction that Moses the LORD’s servant gave you: to love the LORD your God, walk in all his ways, keep his commands, be loyal to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”

⁶Joshua blessed them and sent them on their way, and they went to their homes.

⁷Moses had given territory to half the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, but Joshua had given territory to the other half, with their brothers, on the west side of the Jordan. When Joshua sent them to their homes and blessed them,

⁸he said, “Return to your homes with great wealth: a huge number of cattle, and silver, gold, bronze, iron, and a large quantity of clothing. Share the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”

⁹The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh left the Israelites at Shiloh in the land of Canaan to return to their own land of Gilead, which they took possession of according to the LORD’s command through Moses.

¹⁰When they came to the region of the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh built a large, impressive altar there by the Jordan.

¹¹Then the Israelites heard it said, “Look, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of Canaan at the region of the Jordan, on the Israelite side.”

¹²When the Israelites heard this, the entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh to go to war against them.

¹³The Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead.

¹⁴They sent ten leaders with him — one family leader for each tribe of Israel. All of them were heads of their ancestral families among the clans of Israel.

¹⁵They went to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and told them,

¹⁶“This is what the LORD’s entire community says: ‘What is this treachery you have committed today against the God of Israel by turning away from the LORD and building an altar for yourselves, so that you are in rebellion against the LORD today?

¹⁷Wasn’t the iniquity of Peor, which brought a plague on the LORD’s community, enough for us? We have not cleansed ourselves from it even to this day,

¹⁸and now would you turn away from the LORD? If you rebel against the LORD today, tomorrow he will be angry with the entire community of Israel.

¹⁹But if the land you possess is defiled, cross over to the land the LORD possesses where the LORD’s tabernacle stands, and take possession of it among us. But don’t rebel against the LORD or against us by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God.

²⁰Wasn’t Achan son of Zerah unfaithful regarding what was set apart for destruction, bringing wrath on the entire community of Israel? He was not the only one who perished because of his iniquity.’”

²¹The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh answered the heads of the Israelite clans,

²²“The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows, and may Israel also know. Do not spare us today, if it was in rebellion or treachery against the LORD

²³that we have built for ourselves an altar to turn away from him. May the LORD himself hold us accountable if we intended to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it.

²⁴We actually did this from a specific concern that in the future your descendants might say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the LORD, the God of Israel?

²⁵For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you descendants of Reuben and Gad. You have no share in the LORD! ’ So your descendants may cause our descendants to stop fearing the LORD.

²⁶“Therefore we said: Let us take action and build an altar for ourselves, but not for burnt offering or sacrifice.

²⁷Instead, it is to be a witness between us and you, and between the generations after us, so that we may carry out the worship of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and fellowship offerings. Then in the future, your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, ‘You have no share in the LORD!’

²⁸We thought that if they said this to us or to our generations in the future, we would reply: Look at the replica of the LORD’s altar that our fathers made, not for burnt offering or sacrifice, but as a witness between us and you.

²⁹We would never ever rebel against the LORD or turn away from him today by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the LORD our God, which is in front of his tabernacle.”

³⁰When the priest Phinehas and the community leaders, the heads of Israel’s clans who were with him, heard what the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had to say, they were pleased.

³¹Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is among us, because you have not committed this treachery against him. As a result, you have rescued the Israelites from the LORD’s power.”

³²Then the priest Phinehas son of Eleazar and the leaders returned from the Reubenites and Gadites in the land of Gilead to the Israelites in the land of Canaan and brought back a report to them.

³³The Israelites were pleased with the report, and they blessed God. They spoke no more about going to war against them to ravage the land where the Reubenites and Gadites lived.

³⁴So the Reubenites and Gadites named the altar: It is a witness between us that the LORD is God.

¹A pronouncement concerning the desert by the sea: Like storms that pass over the Negev, it comes from the desert, from the land of terror.

²A troubling vision is declared to me: “The treacherous one acts treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Advance, Elam! Lay siege, you Medes! I will put an end to all the groaning.”

³Therefore I am filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pain of a woman in labor. I am too perplexed to hear, too dismayed to see.

⁴My heart staggers; horror terrifies me. He has turned my last glimmer of hope into sheer terror.

⁵Prepare a table, and spread out a carpet! Eat and drink! Rise up, you princes, and oil the shields!

⁶For the Lord has said to me, “Go, post a lookout; let him report what he sees.

⁷When he sees riders — pairs of horsemen, riders on donkeys, riders on camels — he must pay close attention.”

⁸Then the lookout reported, “Lord, I stand on the watchtower all day, and I stay at my post all night.

⁹Look, riders come — horsemen in pairs.” And he answered, saying, “Babylon has fallen, has fallen. All the images of her gods have been shattered on the ground.”

¹⁰My people who have been crushed on the threshing floor, I have declared to you what I have heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel.

¹¹A pronouncement concerning Dumah: One calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?”

¹²The watchman said, “Morning has come, and also night. If you want to ask, ask! Come back again.”

¹³A pronouncement concerning Arabia: In the desert brush you will camp for the night, you caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴Bring water for the thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema meet the refugees with food.

¹⁵For they have fled from swords, from the drawn sword, from the bow that is strung, and from the stress of battle.

¹⁶For the Lord said this to me: “Within one year, as a hired worker counts years, all the glory of Kedar will be gone.

¹⁷The remaining Kedarite archers will be few in number.” For the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.

¹While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples

²and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” “No,” they told him, “we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

³“Into what then were you baptized?” he asked them. “Into John’s baptism,” they replied.

⁴Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Jesus.”

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak in other tongues and to prophesy.

⁷Now there were about twelve men in all.

⁸Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly over a period of three months, arguing and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

⁹But when some became hardened and would not believe, slandering the Way in front of the crowd, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples, and conducted discussions every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

¹⁰This went on for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.

¹¹God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands,

¹²so that even facecloths or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

¹³Now some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists also attempted to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches!”

¹⁴Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this.

¹⁵The evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul — but who are you?”

¹⁶Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷When this became known to everyone who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, they became afraid, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high esteem.

¹⁸And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices,

¹⁹while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰In this way the word of the Lord flourished and prevailed.

²¹After these events, Paul resolved by the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem. “After I’ve been there,” he said, “It is necessary for me to see Rome as well.”

²²After sending to Macedonia two of those who assisted him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

²³About that time there was a major disturbance about the Way.

²⁴For a person named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, provided a great deal of business for the craftsmen.

²⁵When he had assembled them, as well as the workers engaged in this type of business, he said: “Men, you know that our prosperity is derived from this business.

²⁶You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods.

²⁷Not only do we run a risk that our business may be discredited, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be despised and her magnificence come to the verge of ruin — the very one all of Asia and the world worship.”

²⁸When they had heard this, they were filled with rage and began to cry out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

²⁹So the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed all together into the amphitheater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were Paul’s traveling companions.

³⁰Although Paul wanted to go in before the people, the disciples did not let him.

³¹Even some of the provincial officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent word to him, pleading with him not to venture into the amphitheater.

³²Some were shouting one thing and some another, because the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

³³Some Jews in the crowd gave instructions to Alexander after they pushed him to the front. Motioning with his hand, Alexander wanted to make his defense to the people.

³⁴But when they recognized that he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³⁵When the city clerk had calmed the crowd down, he said, “People of Ephesus! What person is there who doesn’t know that the city of the Ephesians is the temple guardian of the great Artemis, and of the image that fell from heaven?

³⁶Therefore, since these things are undeniable, you must keep calm and not do anything rash.

³⁷For you have brought these men here who are not temple robbers or blasphemers of our goddess.

³⁸So if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a case against anyone, the courts are in session, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another.

³⁹But if you seek anything further, it must be decided in a legal assembly.

⁴⁰In fact, we run a risk of being charged with rioting for what happened today, since there is no justification that we can give as a reason for this disturbance.”

⁴¹After saying this, he dismissed the assembly.