Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. It began

²just as the prophet Isaiah had written: “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way.

³He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the LORD’s coming! Clear the road for him!’ ”

⁴This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven.

⁵All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.

⁶His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.

⁷John announced: “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am — so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals.

⁸I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”

⁹One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River.

¹⁰As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove.

¹¹And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”

¹²The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness,

¹³where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him.

¹⁴Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News.

¹⁵“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”

¹⁶One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.

¹⁷Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”

¹⁸And they left their nets at once and followed him.

¹⁹A little farther up the shore Jesus saw Zebedee’s sons, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets.

²⁰He called them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired men.

²¹Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath day came, he went into the synagogue and began to teach.

²²The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority — quite unlike the teachers of religious law.

²³Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out,

²⁴“Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are — the Holy One of God!”

²⁵But Jesus reprimanded him. “Be quiet! Come out of the man,” he ordered.

²⁶At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him.

²⁷Amazement gripped the audience, and they began to discuss what had happened. “What sort of new teaching is this?” they asked excitedly. “It has such authority! Even evil spirits obey his orders!”

²⁸The news about Jesus spread quickly throughout the entire region of Galilee.

²⁹After Jesus left the synagogue with James and John, they went to Simon and Andrew’s home.

³⁰Now Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a high fever. They told Jesus about her right away.

³¹So he went to her bedside, took her by the hand, and helped her sit up. Then the fever left her, and she prepared a meal for them.

³²That evening after sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus.

³³The whole town gathered at the door to watch.

³⁴So Jesus healed many people who were sick with various diseases, and he cast out many demons. But because the demons knew who he was, he did not allow them to speak.

³⁵Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.

³⁶Later Simon and the others went out to find him.

³⁷When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.”

³⁸But Jesus replied, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.”

³⁹So he traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons.

⁴⁰A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said.

⁴¹Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!”

⁴²Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed.

⁴³Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning:

⁴⁴“Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”

⁴⁵But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened. As a result, large crowds soon surrounded Jesus, and he couldn’t publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him.

¹The LORD also said to Moses,

²“Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

³“Each of you must show great respect for your mother and father, and you must always observe my Sabbath days of rest. I am the LORD your God.

⁴“Do not put your trust in idols or make metal images of gods for yourselves. I am the LORD your God.

⁵“When you sacrifice a peace offering to the LORD, offer it properly so you will be accepted by God.

⁶The sacrifice must be eaten on the same day you offer it or on the next day. Whatever is left over until the third day must be completely burned up.

⁷If any of the sacrifice is eaten on the third day, it will be contaminated, and I will not accept it.

⁸Anyone who eats it on the third day will be punished for defiling what is holy to the LORD and will be cut off from the community.

⁹“When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop.

¹⁰It is the same with your grape crop — do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the LORD your God.

¹¹“Do not steal. “Do not deceive or cheat one another.

¹²“Do not bring shame on the name of your God by using it to swear falsely. I am the LORD.

¹³“Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. “Do not make your hired workers wait until the next day to receive their pay.

¹⁴“Do not insult the deaf or cause the blind to stumble. You must fear your God; I am the LORD.

¹⁵“Do not twist justice in legal matters by favoring the poor or being partial to the rich and powerful. Always judge people fairly.

¹⁶“Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people. “Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is threatened. I am the LORD.

¹⁷“Do not nurse hatred in your heart for any of your relatives. Confront people directly so you will not be held guilty for their sin.

¹⁸“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

¹⁹“You must obey all my decrees. “Do not mate two different kinds of animals. Do not plant your field with two different kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven from two different kinds of thread.

²⁰“If a man has sex with a slave girl whose freedom has never been purchased but who is committed to become another man’s wife, he must pay full compensation to her master. But since she is not a free woman, neither the man nor the woman will be put to death.

²¹The man, however, must bring a ram as a guilt offering and present it to the LORD at the entrance of the Tabernacle.

²²The priest will then purify him before the LORD with the ram of the guilt offering, and the man’s sin will be forgiven.

²³“When you enter the land and plant fruit trees, leave the fruit unharvested for the first three years and consider it forbidden. Do not eat it.

²⁴In the fourth year the entire crop must be consecrated to the LORD as a celebration of praise.

²⁵Finally, in the fifth year you may eat the fruit. If you follow this pattern, your harvest will increase. I am the LORD your God.

²⁶“Do not eat meat that has not been drained of its blood. “Do not practice fortune-telling or witchcraft.

²⁷“Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards.

²⁸“Do not cut your bodies for the dead, and do not mark your skin with tattoos. I am the LORD.

²⁹“Do not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be filled with prostitution and wickedness.

³⁰“Keep my Sabbath days of rest, and show reverence toward my sanctuary. I am the LORD.

³¹“Do not defile yourselves by turning to mediums or to those who consult the spirits of the dead. I am the LORD your God.

³²“Stand up in the presence of the elderly, and show respect for the aged. Fear your God. I am the LORD.

³³“Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land.

³⁴Treat them like native-born Israelites, and love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners living in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

³⁵“Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight, or volume.

³⁶Your scales and weights must be accurate. Your containers for measuring dry materials or liquids must be accurate. I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

³⁷“You must be careful to keep all of my decrees and regulations by putting them into practice. I am the LORD.”

¹This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy.

²We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace.

³We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people,

⁵which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.

⁶This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

⁷You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf.

⁸He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.

⁹So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

¹⁰Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

¹¹We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,

¹²always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.

¹³For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,

¹⁴who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

¹⁵Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

¹⁶for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see — such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

¹⁷He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.

¹⁸Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.

¹⁹For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,

²⁰and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

²¹This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.

²²Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

²³But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

²⁴I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.

²⁵God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his entire message to you.

²⁶This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God’s people.

²⁷For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.

²⁸So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.

²⁹That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.

¹We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.

²This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.

³We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

⁴We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

⁵This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

⁶So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.

⁷But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

⁸If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.

⁹But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

¹⁰If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

¹There is another serious tragedy I have seen under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity.

²God gives some people great wealth and honor and everything they could ever want, but then he doesn’t give them the chance to enjoy these things. They die, and someone else, even a stranger, ends up enjoying their wealth! This is meaningless — a sickening tragedy.

³A man might have a hundred children and live to be very old. But if he finds no satisfaction in life and doesn’t even get a decent burial, it would have been better for him to be born dead.

⁴His birth would have been meaningless, and he would have ended in darkness. He wouldn’t even have had a name,

⁵and he would never have seen the sun or known of its existence. Yet he would have had more peace than in growing up to be an unhappy man.

⁶He might live a thousand years twice over but still not find contentment. And since he must die like everyone else — well, what’s the use?

⁷All people spend their lives scratching for food, but they never seem to have enough.

⁸So are wise people really better off than fools? Do poor people gain anything by being wise and knowing how to act in front of others?

⁹Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless — like chasing the wind.

¹⁰Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny.

¹¹The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they?

¹²In the few days of our meaningless lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone?

¹Praise the LORD! Let all that I am praise the LORD.

²I will praise the LORD as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.

³Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.

⁴When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.

⁵But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the LORD their God.

⁶He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps every promise forever.

⁷He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The LORD frees the prisoners.

⁸The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are weighed down. The LORD loves the godly.

⁹The LORD protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and widows, but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.

¹⁰The LORD will reign forever. He will be your God, O Jerusalem, throughout the generations. Praise the LORD!

¹Better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting — and conflict.

²A wise servant will rule over the master’s disgraceful son and will share the inheritance of the master’s children.

³Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the LORD tests the heart.

⁴Wrongdoers eagerly listen to gossip; liars pay close attention to slander.

⁵Those who mock the poor insult their Maker; those who rejoice at the misfortune of others will be punished.

⁶Grandchildren are the crowning glory of the aged; parents are the pride of their children.

⁷Eloquent words are not fitting for a fool; even less are lies fitting for a ruler.

⁸A bribe is like a lucky charm; whoever gives one will prosper!

⁹Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.

¹⁰A single rebuke does more for a person of understanding than a hundred lashes on the back of a fool.

¹¹Evil people are eager for rebellion, but they will be severely punished.

¹²It is safer to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than to confront a fool caught in foolishness.

¹³If you repay good with evil, evil will never leave your house.

¹⁴Starting a quarrel is like opening a floodgate, so stop before a dispute breaks out.

¹⁵Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent — both are detestable to the LORD.

¹⁶It is senseless to pay to educate a fool, since he has no heart for learning.

¹⁷A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.

¹⁸It’s poor judgment to guarantee another person’s debt or put up security for a friend.

¹⁹Anyone who loves to quarrel loves sin; anyone who trusts in high walls invites disaster.

²⁰The crooked heart will not prosper; the lying tongue tumbles into trouble.

²¹It is painful to be the parent of a fool; there is no joy for the father of a rebel.

²²A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

²³The wicked take secret bribes to pervert the course of justice.

²⁴Sensible people keep their eyes glued on wisdom, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth.

²⁵Foolish children bring grief to their father and bitterness to the one who gave them birth.

²⁶It is wrong to punish the godly for being good or to flog leaders for being honest.

²⁷A truly wise person uses few words; a person with understanding is even-tempered.

²⁸Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouths shut, they seem intelligent.

¹Now there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz, who was a relative of Naomi’s husband, Elimelech.

²One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it.” Naomi replied, “All right, my daughter, go ahead.”

³So Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters. And as it happened, she found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz, the relative of her father-in-law, Elimelech.

⁴While she was there, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. “The LORD be with you!” he said. “The LORD bless you!” the harvesters replied.

⁵Then Boaz asked his foreman, “Who is that young woman over there? Who does she belong to?”

⁶And the foreman replied, “She is the young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi.

⁷She asked me this morning if she could gather grain behind the harvesters. She has been hard at work ever since, except for a few minutes’ rest in the shelter.”

⁸Boaz went over and said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Stay right here with us when you gather grain; don’t go to any other fields. Stay right behind the young women working in my field.

⁹See which part of the field they are harvesting, and then follow them. I have warned the young men not to treat you roughly. And when you are thirsty, help yourself to the water they have drawn from the well.”

¹⁰Ruth fell at his feet and thanked him warmly. “What have I done to deserve such kindness?” she asked. “I am only a foreigner.”

¹¹“Yes, I know,” Boaz replied. “But I also know about everything you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. I have heard how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers.

¹²May the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.”

¹³“I hope I continue to please you, sir,” she replied. “You have comforted me by speaking so kindly to me, even though I am not one of your workers.”

¹⁴At mealtime Boaz called to her, “Come over here, and help yourself to some food. You can dip your bread in the sour wine.” So she sat with his harvesters, and Boaz gave her some roasted grain to eat. She ate all she wanted and still had some left over.

¹⁵When Ruth went back to work again, Boaz ordered his young men, “Let her gather grain right among the sheaves without stopping her.

¹⁶And pull out some heads of barley from the bundles and drop them on purpose for her. Let her pick them up, and don’t give her a hard time!”

¹⁷So Ruth gathered barley there all day, and when she beat out the grain that evening, it filled an entire basket.

¹⁸She carried it back into town and showed it to her mother-in-law. Ruth also gave her the roasted grain that was left over from her meal.

¹⁹“Where did you gather all this grain today?” Naomi asked. “Where did you work? May the LORD bless the one who helped you!” So Ruth told her mother-in-law about the man in whose field she had worked. She said, “The man I worked with today is named Boaz.”

²⁰“May the LORD bless him!” Naomi told her daughter-in-law. “He is showing his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband. That man is one of our closest relatives, one of our family redeemers.”

²¹Then Ruth said, “What’s more, Boaz even told me to come back and stay with his harvesters until the entire harvest is completed.”

²²“Good!” Naomi exclaimed. “Do as he said, my daughter. Stay with his young women right through the whole harvest. You might be harassed in other fields, but you’ll be safe with him.”

²³So Ruth worked alongside the women in Boaz’s fields and gathered grain with them until the end of the barley harvest. Then she continued working with them through the wheat harvest in early summer. And all the while she lived with her mother-in-law.

¹Bel and Nebo, the gods of Babylon, bow as they are lowered to the ground. They are being hauled away on ox carts. The poor beasts stagger under the weight.

²Both the idols and their owners are bowed down. The gods cannot protect the people, and the people cannot protect the gods. They go off into captivity together.

³“Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel. I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born.

⁴I will be your God throughout your lifetime — until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.

⁵“To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?

⁶Some people pour out their silver and gold and hire a craftsman to make a god from it. Then they bow down and worship it!

⁷They carry it around on their shoulders, and when they set it down, it stays there. It can’t even move! And when someone prays to it, there is no answer. It can’t rescue anyone from trouble.

⁸“Do not forget this! Keep it in mind! Remember this, you guilty ones.

⁹Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me.

¹⁰Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.

¹¹I will call a swift bird of prey from the east — a leader from a distant land to come and do my bidding. I have said what I would do, and I will do it.

¹²“Listen to me, you stubborn people who are so far from doing right.

¹³For I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future, but right now! I am ready to save Jerusalem and show my glory to Israel.

¹Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek.

²Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium,

³so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴Then they went from town to town, instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.

⁵So the churches were strengthened in their faith and grew larger every day.

⁶Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time.

⁷Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there.

⁸So instead, they went on through Mysia to the seaport of Troas.

⁹That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”

¹⁰So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there.

¹¹We boarded a boat at Troas and sailed straight across to the island of Samothrace, and the next day we landed at Neapolis.

¹²From there we reached Philippi, a major city of that district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. And we stayed there several days.

¹³On the Sabbath we went a little way outside the city to a riverbank, where we thought people would be meeting for prayer, and we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there.

¹⁴One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying.

¹⁵She and her household were baptized, and she asked us to be her guests. “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my home.” And she urged us until we agreed.

¹⁶One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit that enabled her to tell the future. She earned a lot of money for her masters by telling fortunes.

¹⁷She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.”

¹⁸This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her.

¹⁹Her masters’ hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace.

²⁰“The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials.

²¹“They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.”

²²A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods.

²³They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape.

²⁴So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

²⁵Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.

²⁶Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!

²⁷The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself.

²⁸But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!”

²⁹The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

³⁰Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

³¹They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”

³²And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household.

³³Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.

³⁴He brought them into his house and set a meal before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.

³⁵The next morning the city officials sent the police to tell the jailer, “Let those men go!”

³⁶So the jailer told Paul, “The city officials have said you and Silas are free to leave. Go in peace.”

³⁷But Paul replied, “They have publicly beaten us without a trial and put us in prison — and we are Roman citizens. So now they want us to leave secretly? Certainly not! Let them come themselves to release us!”

³⁸When the police reported this, the city officials were alarmed to learn that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.

³⁹So they came to the jail and apologized to them. Then they brought them out and begged them to leave the city.

⁴⁰When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia. There they met with the believers and encouraged them once more. Then they left town.