Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

²There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.

³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

⁴The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

⁵The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

⁶He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

⁸So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

⁹Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.

¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

¹¹While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened.

¹²When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money,

¹³telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’

¹⁴If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”

¹⁵So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

¹⁶Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

¹So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman.

²Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

³May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.

⁴May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”

⁵Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

⁶Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,”

⁷and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram.

⁸Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac;

⁹so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

¹⁰Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran.

¹¹When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

¹²He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

¹³There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.

¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

¹⁵I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

¹⁶When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”

¹⁷He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

¹⁸Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.

¹⁹He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.

²⁰Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear

²¹so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the LORD will be my God

²²and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

¹Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.

²You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.

³Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.

⁵There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

⁶There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

⁷Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

⁸To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,

⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,

¹⁰to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

¹¹All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

¹²Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

¹³For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

¹⁵Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.

¹⁶And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.

¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

¹⁸But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be?

²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”

²²On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,

²³and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,

²⁴while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it,

²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

²⁸And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.

²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

³⁰Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?

³¹Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. And yet I will show you the most excellent way.

¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,

²who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,

⁵who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

⁶In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

⁷These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

⁹for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,

¹¹trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

¹²It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

¹³Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

¹⁴As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

¹⁵But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;

¹⁶for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

¹⁷Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

¹⁸For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,

¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

²⁰He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

²¹Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

²²Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.

²³For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

²⁴For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,

²⁵but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.

¹There is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.

²Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore.

³Mortals put an end to the darkness; they search out the farthest recesses for ore in the blackest darkness.

⁴Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft, in places untouched by human feet; far from other people they dangle and sway.

⁵The earth, from which food comes, is transformed below as by fire;

⁶lapis lazuli comes from its rocks, and its dust contains nuggets of gold.

⁷No bird of prey knows that hidden path, no falcon’s eye has seen it.

⁸Proud beasts do not set foot on it, and no lion prowls there.

⁹People assault the flinty rock with their hands and lay bare the roots of the mountains.

¹⁰They tunnel through the rock; their eyes see all its treasures.

¹¹They search the sources of the rivers and bring hidden things to light.

¹²But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell?

¹³No mortal comprehends its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, “It is not in me”; the sea says, “It is not with me.”

¹⁵It cannot be bought with the finest gold, nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

¹⁶It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir, with precious onyx or lapis lazuli.

¹⁷Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it, nor can it be had for jewels of gold.

¹⁸Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention; the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.

¹⁹The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it; it cannot be bought with pure gold.

²⁰Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell?

²¹It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds in the sky.

²²Destruction and Death say, “Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”

²³God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells,

²⁴for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters,

²⁶when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm,

²⁷then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it.

²⁸And he said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”

¹Of David. To you, LORD, I call; you are my Rock, do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit.

²Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.

³Do not drag me away with the wicked, with those who do evil, who speak cordially with their neighbors but harbor malice in their hearts.

⁴Repay them for their deeds and for their evil work; repay them for what their hands have done and bring back on them what they deserve.

⁵Because they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD and what his hands have done, he will tear them down and never build them up again.

⁶Praise be to the LORD, for he has heard my cry for mercy.

⁷The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

⁸The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.

⁹Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever.

¹The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

²When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers, but a ruler with discernment and knowledge maintains order.

³A ruler who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no crops.

⁴Those who forsake instruction praise the wicked, but those who heed it resist them.

⁵Evildoers do not understand what is right, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.

⁶Better the poor whose walk is blameless than the rich whose ways are perverse.

⁷A discerning son heeds instruction, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father.

⁸Whoever increases wealth by taking interest or profit from the poor amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.

⁹If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable.

¹⁰Whoever leads the upright along an evil path will fall into their own trap, but the blameless will receive a good inheritance.

¹¹The rich are wise in their own eyes; one who is poor and discerning sees how deluded they are.

¹²When the righteous triumph, there is great elation; but when the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding.

¹³Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

¹⁴Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.

¹⁵Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a helpless people.

¹⁶A tyrannical ruler practices extortion, but one who hates ill-gotten gain will enjoy a long reign.

¹⁷Anyone tormented by the guilt of murder will seek refuge in the grave; let no one hold them back.

¹⁸The one whose walk is blameless is kept safe, but the one whose ways are perverse will fall into the pit.

¹⁹Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies will have their fill of poverty.

²⁰A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished.

²¹To show partiality is not good— yet a person will do wrong for a piece of bread.

²²The stingy are eager to get rich and are unaware that poverty awaits them.

²³Whoever rebukes a person will in the end gain favor rather than one who has a flattering tongue.

²⁴Whoever robs their father or mother and says, “It’s not wrong,” is partner to one who destroys.

²⁵The greedy stir up conflict, but those who trust in the LORD will prosper.

²⁶Those who trust in themselves are fools, but those who walk in wisdom are kept safe.

²⁷Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses.

²⁸When the wicked rise to power, people go into hiding; but when the wicked perish, the righteous thrive.

¹Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, now that Ehud was dead.

²So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commander of his army, was based in Harosheth Haggoyim.

³Because he had nine hundred chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.

⁴Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.

⁵She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided.

⁶She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor.

⁷I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’ ”

⁸Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.”

⁹“Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh.

¹⁰There Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand men went up under his command. Deborah also went up with him.

¹¹Now Heber the Kenite had left the other Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ brother-in-law, and pitched his tent by the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.

¹²When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,

¹³Sisera summoned from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River all his men and his nine hundred chariots fitted with iron.

¹⁴Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, with ten thousand men following him.

¹⁵At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all Sisera’s troops fell by the sword; not a man was left.

¹⁷Sisera, meanwhile, fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was an alliance between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come, my lord, come right in. Don’t be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

¹⁹“I’m thirsty,” he said. “Please give me some water.” She opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.

²⁰“Stand in the doorway of the tent,” he told her. “If someone comes by and asks you, ‘Is anyone in there?’ say ‘No.’ ”

²¹But Jael, Heber’s wife, picked up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay fast asleep, exhausted. She drove the peg through his temple into the ground, and he died.

²²Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera with the tent peg through his temple—dead.

²³On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.

²⁴And the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and harder against Jabin king of Canaan until they destroyed him.

¹Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, to the fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley— to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!

²See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong. Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind, like a driving rain and a flooding downpour, he will throw it forcefully to the ground.

³That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, will be trampled underfoot.

⁴That fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley, will be like figs ripe before harvest— as soon as people see them and take them in hand, they swallow them.

⁵In that day the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.

⁶He will be a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷And these also stagger from wine and reel from beer: Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine; they reel from beer, they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions.

⁸All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth.

⁹“Who is it he is trying to teach? To whom is he explaining his message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast?

¹⁰For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.”

¹¹Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people,

¹²to whom he said, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”; and, “This is the place of repose”— but they would not listen.

¹³So then, the word of the LORD to them will become: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there— so that as they go they will fall backward; they will be injured and snared and captured.

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.

¹⁵You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”

¹⁶So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.

¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.

¹⁸Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it.

¹⁹As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through.” The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.

²⁰The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.

²¹The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon— to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task.

²²Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land.

²³Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say.

²⁴When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?

²⁵When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field?

²⁶His God instructs him and teaches him the right way.

²⁷Caraway is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin; caraway is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a stick.

²⁸Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever. The wheels of a threshing cart may be rolled over it, but one does not use horses to grind grain.

²⁹All this also comes from the LORD Almighty, whose plan is wonderful, whose wisdom is magnificent.

¹Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta.

²The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.

³Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.

⁴When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.”

⁵But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.

⁶The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

⁷There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days.

⁸His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.

⁹When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured.

¹⁰They honored us in many ways; and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.

¹¹After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island—it was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux.

¹²We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days.

¹³From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli.

¹⁴There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome.

¹⁵The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged.

¹⁶When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

¹⁷Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.

¹⁸They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.

¹⁹The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar. I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people.

²⁰For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

²¹They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.

²²But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”

²³They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus.

²⁴Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.

²⁵They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:

²⁶“ ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”

²⁷For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

²⁸“Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”

²⁹

³⁰For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.

³¹He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!