Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Again He began to teach by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat on the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land.

²And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching,

³“Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow;

⁴as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.

⁵Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.

⁶And when the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

⁷Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

⁸Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”

⁹And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear,let him hear.”

¹⁰As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve disciples, began asking Him about the parables.

¹¹And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for those who are outside, everything comes in parables,

¹²so that WHILE SEEING THEY MAY SEE, AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR, AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND IT WOULD BE FORGIVEN THEM.”

¹³And He *said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?

¹⁴The sower sows the word.

¹⁵These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.

¹⁶And in a similar way these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;

¹⁷and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately theyfall away.

¹⁸And others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,

¹⁹but the worries of theworld, and the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and choke the word, and itbecomes unfruitful.

²⁰And those are the ones sown with seed on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”

²¹And He was saying to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under abasket, or under a bed, is it? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand?

²²For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.

²³If anyone has ears to hear,let him hear.”

²⁴And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to.By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.

²⁵For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

²⁶And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;

²⁷and he goes to bed at night and gets up daily, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.

²⁸The soil produces crops by itself; first the stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

²⁹Now when the crop permits, he immediatelyputs in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰And He was saying, “How shall wepicture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?

³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil,

³²yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that THE BIRDS OF THE SKY can NEST UNDER its shade.”

³³And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to understand it;

³⁴and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

³⁵On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.”

³⁶After dismissing the crowd, they *took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.

³⁷And a fierce gale of wind *developed, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling with water.

³⁸And yet Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they *woke Him and *said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

³⁹And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.

⁴⁰And He said to them, “Why are youafraid? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

¹Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²“Tell Aaron and his sons to be careful with the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, which they dedicate to Me, so as not to profane My holy name; I am the LORD.

³Say to them, ‘Any man among all your descendants throughout your generations who approaches the holy gifts which the sons of Israel consecrate to the LORD, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from My presence; I am the LORD.

⁴No man of the descendants of Aaron, who has leprosy or has a discharge, may eat of the holy gifts until he is clean. And one who touches anything made unclean by a corpse, or a man who has a seminal emission,

⁵or a man who touches any swarming things by which he is made unclean, or touches any person by whom he is made unclean, whatever his uncleanness;

⁶a person who touches any such thing shall be unclean until evening, and shall not eat of the holy gifts unless he has bathed his body in water.

⁷But when the sun sets, he will be clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy gifts, for it is his food.

⁸He shall not eat an animal which dies or is torn by animals, becoming unclean by it; I am the LORD.

⁹They shall therefore perform their duty to Me, so that they do not bear sin because of it and die by it because they profane it; I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

¹⁰‘No layman, however, is to eat the holy gift; a foreign resident with the priest or a hired worker shall not eat the holy gift.

¹¹But if a priest buys a slave as his property with his money, that person may eat of it, and those who are born in his house may eat of his food.

¹²If a priest’s daughter is married to a layman, she shall not eat of the offering of the holy gifts.

¹³But if a priest’s daughter becomes a widow or divorced, and has no child and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food; but no layman shall eat of it.

¹⁴If, however, someone eats a holy food unintentionally, then he shall add to it a fifth of it and shall give the holy food to the priest.

¹⁵And they shall not profane the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, which they offer to the LORD,

¹⁶and thereby bring upon them punishment for guilt by eating their holy gifts; for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.’ ”

¹⁷Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁸“Speak to Aaron and to his sons, and to all the sons of Israel, and say to them, ‘Anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers in Israel who presents his offering, whether it is any of their vows or any of their voluntary offerings, which they present to the LORD as a burnt offering—

¹⁹for you to be accepted—it must be a male without defect from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats.

²⁰Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it will not be accepted for you.

²¹When someone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfill a special vow or for a voluntary offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be without defect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it.

²²Those that are blind, fractured, maimed, or have a wart, a festering rash, or scabs, you shall not offer to the LORD, nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to the LORD.

²³Now as for an ox or a lamb which has an overgrown or stunted member, you may present it as a voluntary offering, but for a vow it will not be accepted.

²⁴Also anything with its testicles squashed, crushed, torn off, or cut off, you shall not offer to the LORD, nor sacrifice in your land,

²⁵nor shall you offer any of these animals taken from the hand of a foreigner as the food of your God; for their deformity is in them, they have an impairment. They will not be accepted for you.’ ”

²⁶Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁷“When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it will be considered acceptable as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to the LORD.

²⁸But, whether it is an ox or a sheep, you shall not slaughter both it and its young in one day.

²⁹When you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the LORD, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted.

³⁰It shall be eaten on the same day; you shall leave none of it until morning. I am the LORD.

³¹So you shall keep My commandments, and do them; I am the LORD.

³²“And you shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel; I am the LORD who sanctifies you,

³³who brought you out from the land of Egypt, to be your God; I am the LORD.”

¹Masters, grant your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

²Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;

³praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned;

⁴that I may make it clear in the way that I ought to proclaim it.

⁵Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.

⁶Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

⁷As to all my affairs, Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond-servant in the Lord, will bring you information.

⁸For I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts;

⁹and with him is Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your own. They will inform you about the whole situation here.

¹⁰Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings; and also Barnabas’ cousin Mark (about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him);

¹¹and also Jesus who is called Justus; these are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are from the circumcision, and they have proved to be an encouragement to me.

¹²Epaphras, who is one of your own, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings, always striving earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

¹³For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

¹⁴Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings, and Demas does also.

¹⁵Greet the brothers and sisters who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church that is in her house.

¹⁶When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part, read my letter that is coming from Laodicea.

¹⁷Tell Archippus, “See to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, so that you may fulfill it.”

¹⁸I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you.

¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

²By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;

³and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world.

⁴You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

⁵They are from the world, therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.

⁶We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us; the one who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

⁷Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

⁸The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

⁹By this the love of God was revealed in us, that God has sent His only Son into the world so that we may live through Him.

¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.

¹³By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit.

¹⁴We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.

¹⁶We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

¹⁷By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world.

¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

¹⁹We love, because He first loved us.

²⁰If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

²¹And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

¹For I have taken all this to my heart, even to examine it all, that righteous people, wise people, and their deeds are in the hand of God. People do not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits them.

²It is the same for all. There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and the unclean; for the person who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good person is, so is the sinner; the one who swears an oath is just as the one who is afraid to swear an oath.

³This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of mankind are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterward they go to the dead.

⁴For whoever is joined to all the living, there is hope; for better a live dog, than a dead lion.

⁵For the living know that they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor do they have a reward any longer, for their memory is forgotten.

⁶Indeed their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.

⁷Go then, eat your bread in happiness, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works.

⁸See that your clothes are white all the time, and that there is no lack of oil on your head.

⁹Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your futile life which He has given you under the sun, all the days of your futility; for this is your reward in life and in your work which you have labored under the sun.

¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

¹¹I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning, nor favor to the skillful; for time and chance overtake them all.

¹²For indeed, a person does not know his time: like fish that are caught in a treacherous net and birds caught in a snare, so the sons of mankind are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.

¹³This too I saw as wisdom under the sun, and it impressed me:

¹⁴there was a small city with few men in it, and a great king came to it, surrounded it, and constructed large siegeworks against it.

¹⁵But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he saved the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

¹⁶So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are ignored.

¹⁷The words of the wise heard in calm are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.

¹⁸Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

¹Praise the LORD! Sing a new song to the LORD, And His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.

²Israel shall be joyful in his Maker; The sons of Zion shall rejoice in their King.

³They shall praise His name with dancing; They shall sing praises to Him with tambourine and lyre.

⁴For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will glorify the lowly with salvation.

⁵The godly ones shall be jubilant in glory; They shall sing for joy on their beds.

⁶The high praises of God shall be in their mouths, And a two-edged sword in their hands,

⁷To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishment on the peoples,

⁸To bind their kings with chains, And their dignitaries with shackles of iron,

⁹To execute against them the judgment written. This is an honor for all His godly ones. Praise the LORD!

¹Wine is a mocker, intoxicating drink a brawler, And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise.

²The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion; One who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.

³Avoiding strife is an honor for a person, But any fool will quarrel.

⁴The lazy one does not plow after the autumn, So he begs during the harvest and has nothing.

⁵A plan in the heart of a person is like deep water, But a person of understanding draws it out.

⁶Many a person proclaims his own loyalty, But who can find a trustworthy person?

⁷A righteous person who walks in his integrity— How blessed are his sons after him.

⁸A king who sits on the throne of justice Disperses all evil with his eyes.

⁹Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin”?

¹⁰Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them are abominable to the LORD.

¹¹It is by his deeds that a boy distinguishes himself, If his conduct is pure and right.

¹²The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The LORD has made both of them.

¹³Do not love sleep, or you will become poor; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food.

¹⁴“Bad, bad,” says the buyer, But when he goes his way, then he boasts.

¹⁵There is gold, and an abundance of jewels; But lips of knowledge are a more precious thing.

¹⁶Take his garment when he becomes guarantor for a stranger; And for foreigners, seize a pledge from him.

¹⁷Bread obtained by a lie is sweet to a person, But afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.

¹⁸Prepare plans by consultation, And make war by wise guidance.

¹⁹One who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets; Therefore do not associate with a gossip.

²⁰He who curses his father or his mother, His lamp will go out in time of darkness.

²¹An inheritance gained in a hurry at the beginning Will not be blessed in the end.

²²Do not say, “I will repay evil”; Wait for the LORD, and He will save you.

²³Differing weights are an abomination to the LORD, And a false scale is not good.

²⁴A man’s steps are ordained by the LORD; How then can a person understand his way?

²⁵It is a trap for a person to say carelessly, “It is holy!” And after the vows to make inquiry.

²⁶A wise king scatters the wicked, And drives a threshing wheel over them.

²⁷The spirit of a person is the lamp of the LORD, Searching all the innermost parts of his being.

²⁸Loyalty and truth watch over the king, And he upholds his throne by loyalty.

²⁹The glory of young men is their strength, And the honor of old men is their gray hair.

³⁰Bruising wounds clean away evil, And blows cleanse the innermost parts.

¹Now there was a man from Ramathaim-zophim from the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

²And he had two wives: the name of one was Hannah and the name of the other Peninnah; and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

³Now this man would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of armies in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the LORD there.

⁴When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters;

⁵but to Hannah he would give a double portion, because he loved Hannah, but the LORD had closed her womb.

⁶Her rival, moreover, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb.

⁷And it happened year after year, as often as she went up to the house of the LORD, that she would provoke her; so she wept and would not eat.

⁸Then Elkanah her husband would say to her, “Hannah, why do you weep, and why do you not eat, and why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

⁹Then Hannah got up after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.

¹⁰She, greatly distressed, prayed to the LORD and wept bitterly.

¹¹And she made a vow and said, “LORD of armies, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your bond-servant and remember me, and not forget Your bond-servant, but will give Your bond-servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head.”

¹²Now it came about, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli was watching her mouth.

¹³As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were quivering, but her voice was not heard. So Eli thought that she was drunk.

¹⁴Then Eli said to her, “How long will you behave like a drunk? Get rid of your wine!”

¹⁵But Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I am a woman despairing in spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD.

¹⁶Do not consider your bond-servant a useless woman, for I have spoken until now out of my great concern and provocation.”

¹⁷Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your request that you have asked of Him.”

¹⁸She said, “Let your bond-servant find favor in your sight.” So the woman went on her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

¹⁹Then they got up early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD, and returned again to their house in Ramah. And Elkanah had relations with Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her.

²⁰It came about in due time, after Hannah had conceived, that she gave birth to a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked for him of the LORD.”

²¹Then the man Elkanah went up with all his household to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.

²²But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “I will not go until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, so that he may appear before the LORD and stay there for life.”

²³Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you. Stay until you have weaned him; only may the LORD confirm His word.” So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she weaned him.

²⁴Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with a three-year-old bull, one ephah of flour, and a jug of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD in Shiloh, although the child was young.

²⁵Then they slaughtered the bull, and brought the boy to Eli.

²⁶And she said, “Pardon me, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the LORD.

²⁷For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my request which I asked of Him.

²⁸So I have also dedicated him to the LORD; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.

¹Listen to Me, you islands, And pay attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me.

²He has made My mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also made Me a sharpened arrow, He has hidden Me in His quiver.

³He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel, In whom I will show My glory.”

⁴But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and futility; Nevertheless, the justice due to Me is with the LORD, And My reward is with My God.”

⁵And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength),

⁶He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the protected ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

⁷This is what the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, Says to the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers: “Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

⁸This is what the LORD says: “At a favorable time I answered You, And on a day of salvation I helped You; And I will watch over You and make You a covenant of the people, To restore the land, to give as inheritances the deserted hereditary lands;

⁹Saying to those who are bound, ‘Go free,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed along the roads, And their pasture will be on all bare heights.

¹⁰They will not hunger or thirst, Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; For He who has compassion on them will lead them, And He will guide them to springs of water.

¹¹I will make all My mountains a road, And My highways will be raised up.

¹²Behold, these will come from afar; And behold, these will come from the north and from the west, And these from the land of Aswan.”

¹³Shout for joy, you heavens! And rejoice, you earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted.

¹⁴But Zion said, “The LORD has abandoned me, And the Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵“Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

¹⁶Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.

¹⁷Your builders hurry; Your destroyers and devastators Will leave you.

¹⁸Raise your eyes and look around; All of them gather together, they come to you. As I live,” declares the LORD, “You will certainly put them all on as jewelry and bind them on as a bride.

¹⁹For your ruins and deserted places and your destroyed land— Now you will certainly be too cramped for the inhabitants, And those who swallowed you will be far away.

²⁰The children you lost will yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too cramped for me; Make room for me that I may live here.’

²¹Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has fathered these for me, Since I have been bereaved of my children And cannot conceive, and I am an exile, and a wanderer? And who has raised these? Behold, I was left alone; Where are these from?’ ”

²²This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations And set up My flag to the peoples; And they will bring your sons in their arms, And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.

²³Kings will be your guardians, And their princesses your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the ground And lick the dust from your feet; And you will know that I am the LORD; Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.

²⁴“Can the prey be taken from a mighty man, Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”

²⁵Indeed, this is what the LORD says: “Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away, And the prey of a tyrant will be rescued; For I will contend with the one who contends with you, And I will save your sons.

²⁶I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh, And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine; And humanity will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

¹Now it happened that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples.

²He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “On the contrary, we have not even heard if there is a Holy Spirit.”

³And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.”

⁴Paul said, “John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”

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

⁶And when Paul had laid hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.

⁷There were about twelve men in all.

⁸And he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, having discussions and persuading them about the kingdom of God.

⁹But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the people, he withdrew from them and took the disciples away with him, and had discussions daily in the school of Tyrannus.

¹⁰This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

¹¹God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,

¹²so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.

¹³But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had the evil spirits, saying, “I order you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches!”

¹⁴Now there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, doing this.

¹⁵But the evil spirit responded and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know of Paul, but who are you?”

¹⁶And the man in whom was the evil spirit, pounced on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified.

¹⁸Also many of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.

¹⁹And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they added up the prices of the books and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰So the word of the Lord was growing and prevailing mightily.

²¹Now after these things were finished, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”

²²And after he sent into Macedonia two of those who assisted him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

²³About that time a major disturbance occurred in regard to the Way.

²⁴For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing considerable business to the craftsmen;

²⁵he gathered these men together with the workmen of similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business.

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

²⁷Not only is there danger that this trade of ours will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be regarded as worthless, and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will even be dethroned from her magnificence.”

²⁸When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began shouting, saying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

²⁹The city was filled with the confusion, and they rushed together into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s Macedonian traveling companions.

³⁰And when Paul wanted to go into the assembly, the disciples would not let him.

³¹Also some of the Asiarchs who were friends of his sent word to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater.

³²So then, some were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what reason they had come together.

³³Some of the crowd concluded it was Alexander, since the Jews had put him forward; and having motioned with his hand, Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly.

³⁴But when they recognized that he was a Jew, a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”

³⁵After quieting the crowd, the town clerk *said, “Men of Ephesus, what person is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell down from the sky?

³⁶So, since these are undeniable facts, you ought to keep calm and to do nothing rash.

³⁷For you have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of our goddess.

³⁸So then, if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are in session and proconsuls are available; have them bring charges against one another.

³⁹But if you want anything beyond this, it shall be settled in the lawful assembly.

⁴⁰For indeed, we are in danger of being accused of a riot in connection with today’s events, since there is no real reason for it, and in this connection we will be unable to account for this disorderly gathering.”

⁴¹After saying this he dismissed the assembly.