Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God,

²as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”—

³“a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”

⁴And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

⁵The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

⁶John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

⁷And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

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

⁹At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

¹⁰Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

¹¹And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

¹²At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness,

¹³and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

¹⁴After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.

¹⁵“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

¹⁶As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

¹⁷“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

¹⁸At once they left their nets and followed him.

¹⁹When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.

²⁰Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

²¹They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.

²²The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

²³Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out,

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

²⁵“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!”

²⁶The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

²⁷The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.”

²⁸News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew.

³⁰Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her.

³¹So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

³²That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.

³³The whole town gathered at the door,

³⁴and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

³⁵Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

³⁶Simon and his companions went to look for him,

³⁷and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

³⁸Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

³⁹So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

⁴⁰A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

⁴¹Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

⁴³Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:

⁴⁴“See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

⁴⁵Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

¹Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples.

²There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large.

³When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.

⁴Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?” “We’re from Harran,” they replied.

⁵He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?” “Yes, we know him,” they answered.

⁶Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?” “Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

⁷“Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”

⁸“We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”

⁹While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd.

¹⁰When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.

¹¹Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud.

¹²He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.

¹³As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things.

¹⁴Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.” After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month,

¹⁵Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

¹⁶Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

¹⁷Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful.

¹⁸Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”

¹⁹Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.”

²⁰So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

²¹Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.”

²²So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast.

²³But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her.

²⁴And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant.

²⁵When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”

²⁶Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one.

²⁷Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”

²⁸And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.

²⁹Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant.

³⁰Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

³¹When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless.

³²Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, “It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”

³³She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.

³⁴Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.

³⁵She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

¹If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

³If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

¹⁰but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

¹²For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

¹Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.

²Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

³now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

⁴As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—

⁵you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

⁶For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

⁷Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

⁸and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

¹²Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

¹³Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority,

¹⁴or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

¹⁵For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

¹⁶Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.

¹⁷Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

¹⁸Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.

¹⁹For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.

²⁰But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

²¹To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

²²“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

²³When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

²⁴“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

²⁵For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

¹Job continued his discourse:

²“How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me,

³when his lamp shone on my head and by his light I walked through darkness!

⁴Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house,

⁵when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me,

⁶when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.

⁷“When I went to the gate of the city and took my seat in the public square,

⁸the young men saw me and stepped aside and the old men rose to their feet;

⁹the chief men refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands;

¹⁰the voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

¹¹Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me,

¹²because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them.

¹³The one who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing.

¹⁴I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger.

¹⁷I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth.

¹⁸“I thought, ‘I will die in my own house, my days as numerous as the grains of sand.

¹⁹My roots will reach to the water, and the dew will lie all night on my branches.

²⁰My glory will not fade; the bow will be ever new in my hand.’

²¹“People listened to me expectantly, waiting in silence for my counsel.

²²After I had spoken, they spoke no more; my words fell gently on their ears.

²³They waited for me as for showers and drank in my words as the spring rain.

²⁴When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it; the light of my face was precious to them.

²⁵I chose the way for them and sat as their chief; I dwelt as a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners.

¹A psalm of David. Ascribe to the LORD, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

²Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.

³The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.

⁴The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic.

⁵The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

⁶He makes Lebanon leap like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox.

⁷The voice of the LORD strikes with flashes of lightning.

⁸The voice of the LORD shakes the desert; the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh.

⁹The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

¹⁰The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever.

¹¹The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.

¹Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.

²When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.

³A man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.

⁴By justice a king gives a country stability, but those who are greedy for bribes tear it down.

⁵Those who flatter their neighbors are spreading nets for their feet.

⁶Evildoers are snared by their own sin, but the righteous shout for joy and are glad.

⁷The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.

⁸Mockers stir up a city, but the wise turn away anger.

⁹If a wise person goes to court with a fool, the fool rages and scoffs, and there is no peace.

¹⁰The bloodthirsty hate a person of integrity and seek to kill the upright.

¹¹Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.

¹²If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.

¹³The poor and the oppressor have this in common: The LORD gives sight to the eyes of both.

¹⁴If a king judges the poor with fairness, his throne will be established forever.

¹⁵A rod and a reprimand impart wisdom, but a child left undisciplined disgraces its mother.

¹⁶When the wicked thrive, so does sin, but the righteous will see their downfall.

¹⁷Discipline your children, and they will give you peace; they will bring you the delights you desire.

¹⁸Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction.

¹⁹Servants cannot be corrected by mere words; though they understand, they will not respond.

²⁰Do you see someone who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for them.

²¹A servant pampered from youth will turn out to be insolent.

²²An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins.

²³Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor.

²⁴The accomplices of thieves are their own enemies; they are put under oath and dare not testify.

²⁵Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.

²⁶Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the LORD that one gets justice.

²⁷The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.

¹On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:

²“When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves— praise the LORD!

³“Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers! I, even I, will sing to the LORD; I will praise the LORD, the God of Israel, in song.

⁴“When you, LORD, went out from Seir, when you marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured down water.

⁵The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai, before the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁶“In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned; travelers took to winding paths.

⁷Villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel.

⁸God chose new leaders when war came to the city gates, but not a shield or spear was seen among forty thousand in Israel.

⁹My heart is with Israel’s princes, with the willing volunteers among the people. Praise the LORD!

¹⁰“You who ride on white donkeys, sitting on your saddle blankets, and you who walk along the road, consider

¹¹the voice of the singers at the watering places. They recite the victories of the LORD, the victories of his villagers in Israel. “Then the people of the LORD went down to the city gates.

¹²‘Wake up, wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, break out in song! Arise, Barak! Take captive your captives, son of Abinoam.’

¹³“The remnant of the nobles came down; the people of the LORD came down to me against the mighty.

¹⁴Some came from Ephraim, whose roots were in Amalek; Benjamin was with the people who followed you. From Makir captains came down, from Zebulun those who bear a commander’s staff.

¹⁵The princes of Issachar were with Deborah; yes, Issachar was with Barak, sent under his command into the valley. In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart.

¹⁶Why did you stay among the sheep pens to hear the whistling for the flocks? In the districts of Reuben there was much searching of heart.

¹⁷Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan. And Dan, why did he linger by the ships? Asher remained on the coast and stayed in his coves.

¹⁸The people of Zebulun risked their very lives; so did Naphtali on the terraced fields.

¹⁹“Kings came, they fought, the kings of Canaan fought. At Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo, they took no plunder of silver.

²⁰From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.

²¹The river Kishon swept them away, the age-old river, the river Kishon. March on, my soul; be strong!

²²Then thundered the horses’ hooves— galloping, galloping go his mighty steeds.

²³‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the LORD. ‘Curse its people bitterly, because they did not come to help the LORD, to help the LORD against the mighty.’

²⁴“Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women.

²⁵He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.

²⁶Her hand reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman’s hammer. She struck Sisera, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple.

²⁷At her feet he sank, he fell; there he lay. At her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead.

²⁸“Through the window peered Sisera’s mother; behind the lattice she cried out, ‘Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’

²⁹The wisest of her ladies answer her; indeed, she keeps saying to herself,

³⁰‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoils: a woman or two for each man, colorful garments as plunder for Sisera, colorful garments embroidered, highly embroidered garments for my neck— all this as plunder?’

³¹“So may all your enemies perish, LORD! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.” Then the land had peace forty years.

¹Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.

²Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.

³I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.

⁴Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.

⁵But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant,

⁶the LORD Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.

⁷Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night—

⁸as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer.

¹⁰The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers).

¹¹For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”

¹²Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

¹³The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

¹⁴Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

¹⁵Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?”

¹⁶You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?

¹⁷In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest?

¹⁸In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

¹⁹Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—

²¹those who with a word make someone out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.

²²Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale.

²³When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”

¹In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach

²until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

³After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

⁴On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

⁵For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

⁶Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁹After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

¹⁰They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

¹¹“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

¹²Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city.

¹³When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.

¹⁴They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

¹⁵In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)

¹⁶and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus.

¹⁷He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.”

¹⁸(With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.

¹⁹Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

²⁰“For,” said Peter, “it is written in the Book of Psalms: “ ‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, “ ‘May another take his place of leadership.’

²¹Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us,

²²beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”

²³So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias.

²⁴Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen

²⁵to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.”

²⁶Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.