Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The Pharisees and some of the scribes *gathered to Him after they came from Jerusalem,

²and saw that some of His disciples were eating their bread with unholy hands, that is, unwashed.

³(For the Pharisees and all the other Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thereby holding firmly to the tradition of the elders;

⁴and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they completely cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received as traditions to firmly hold, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, and copper pots.)

⁵And the Pharisees and the scribes *asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk in accordance with the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unholy hands?”

⁶But He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.

⁷AND IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN.’

⁸Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

¹⁰For Moses said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER’; and, ‘THE ONE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, ISCERTAINLY TO BE PUT TO DEATH’;

¹¹but you say, ‘If a person says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is, given to God),’

¹²you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother;

¹³thereby invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”

¹⁴After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:

¹⁵there is nothing outside the person which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which come out of the person are what defile the person.”

¹⁶

¹⁷And when He later entered a house, away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him about the parable.

¹⁸And He *said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding as well? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the person from outside cannot defile him,

¹⁹because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, andis eliminated?” (Thereby He declared all foods clean.)

²⁰And He was saying, “That which comes out of the person, that is what defiles the person.

²¹For from within, out of thehearts of people, come the evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, acts of adultery,

²²deeds of greed, wickedness, deceit, indecent behavior,envy, slander,pride, and foolishness.

²³All these evil things come from within and defile the person.”

²⁴Now Jesus got up and went from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know about it; and yet He could not escape notice.

²⁵But after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet.

²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician descent. And she repeatedly asked Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is notgood to take the children’s bread and throw it to thedogs.”

²⁸But she answered and *said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹And He said to her, “Because of thisanswer, go; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

³⁰And after going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹Again He left the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis.

³²And they *brought to Him one who was deaf and had difficulty speaking, and they *begged Him to lay His hand on him.

³³And Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers in his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva;

³⁴and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He *said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!”

³⁵And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly.

³⁶And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it.

³⁷And they were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even those who are deaf hear, and those who are unable to talk, speak.”

¹The LORD then spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,

²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I am going to give you, then the land shall have a Sabbath to the LORD.

³For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its produce,

⁴but during the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.

⁵You shall not reap your harvest’s aftergrowth, and you shall not gather your grapes of untrimmed vines; the land shall have a sabbatical year.

⁶All of you shall have the Sabbath produce of the land as food; for yourself, your male and female slaves, and your hired worker and your foreign resident, those who live as strangers among you.

⁷Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its produce to eat.

⁸‘You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, that is, forty-nine years.

⁹You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land.

¹⁰So you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.

¹¹You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor harvest its aftergrowth, nor gather grapes from its untrimmed vines.

¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the field.

¹³‘On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property.

¹⁴Furthermore, if you make a sale to your friend, or buy from your friend’s hand, you shall not wrong one another.

¹⁵Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops.

¹⁶In proportion to a greater number of years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to fewer years you shall decrease its price, because it is the number of crops that he is selling to you.

¹⁷So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

¹⁸‘You shall therefore follow My statutes and keep My judgments so as to carry them out, so that you may live securely on the land.

¹⁹Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it.

²⁰But if you say, “What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we do not sow nor gather in our produce?”

²¹then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the produce for three years.

²²When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the produce, eating the old until the ninth year when its produce comes in.

²³‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, because the land is Mine; for you are only strangers and residents with Me.

²⁴So for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.

²⁵‘If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor that he sells part of his property, then his closest redeemer is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.

²⁶Or in case someone has no redeemer, but recovers to find sufficient means for its redemption,

²⁷then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his property.

²⁸But if he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall revert, so that he may return to his property.

²⁹‘Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year after its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year.

³⁰But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not revert in the jubilee.

³¹The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall, shall be regarded as open fields; they have redemption rights and revert in the jubilee.

³²As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession.

³³What, therefore, belongs to the Levites may be redeemed, and a house sale in the city of this possession reverts in the jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.

³⁴But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their permanent possession.

³⁵‘Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means among you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a resident, so that he may live with you.

³⁶Do not take any kind of interest from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may live with you.

³⁷You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for profit.

³⁸I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

³⁹‘Now if a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service.

⁴⁰He shall be with you as a hired worker, as if he were a foreign resident; he shall serve with you up to the year of jubilee.

⁴¹He shall then leave you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, so that he may return to the property of his forefathers.

⁴²For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale.

⁴³You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your God.

⁴⁴As for your male and female slaves whom you may have—you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you.

⁴⁵You may also acquire them from the sons of the foreign residents who reside among you, and from their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession.

⁴⁶You may also pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.

⁴⁷‘Now if the means of a stranger or of a foreign resident with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes poor in relation to him and sells himself to a stranger who is residing with you, or to the descendants of a stranger’s family,

⁴⁸then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him,

⁴⁹or his uncle, or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.

⁵⁰He then, with his purchaser, shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years calculated. It is like the days of a hired worker that he will be with him.

⁵¹If there are still many years remaining, he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption;

⁵²but if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years he is to refund the amount for his redemption.

⁵³He shall be with him like a worker hired year by year; he shall not rule over him with severity in your sight.

⁵⁴Even if he is not redeemed by these means, he shall still leave in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.

⁵⁵For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

¹Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus;

²He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.

³For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

⁴For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

⁵Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later;

⁶but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the boast of our hope.

⁷Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE,

⁸DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS ON THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,

⁹WHERE YOUR FATHERS PUT ME to the test, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.

¹⁰THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’;

¹¹AS I SWORE IN MY ANGER, ‘THEY CERTAINLY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.’ ”

¹²Take care, brothers and sisters, that there will not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

¹³But encourage one another every day, as long as it is still called “today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

¹⁴For we have become partakers of Christ if we keep the beginning of our commitment firm until the end,

¹⁵while it is said, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS, AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME.”

¹⁶For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?

¹⁷And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies fell in the wilderness?

¹⁸And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?

¹⁹And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

¹The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.

²Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.

³For I was overjoyed when brothers came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth.

⁴I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.

⁵Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brothers and sisters, and especially when they are strangers;

⁶and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.

⁷For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

⁸Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may prove to be fellow workers with the truth.

⁹I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say.

¹⁰For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with malicious words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brothers either, and he forbids those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

¹¹Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does what is good is of God; the one who does what is evil has not seen God.

¹²Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we testify too, and you know that our testimony is true.

¹³I had many things to write to you, but I do not want to write to you with pen and ink;

¹⁴but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face.

¹⁵Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.

¹Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years approach when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

²before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain;

³on the day that the watchmen of the house tremble, and strong men are bent over, the grinders stop working because they are few, and those who look through windows grow dim;

⁴and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly.

⁵Furthermore, people are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and the caper berry is ineffective. For man goes to his eternal home while the mourners move around in the street.

⁶Remember your Creator before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the spring is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed;

⁷then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

⁸“Futility of futilities,” says the Preacher, “all is futility!”

⁹In addition to being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out, and arranged many proverbs.

¹⁰The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly.

¹¹The words of the wise are like goads, and masters of these collections are like driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.

¹²But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive study is wearying to the body.

¹³The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.

¹⁴For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

¹Why are the nations restless And the peoples plotting in vain?

²The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers conspire together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

³“Let’s tear their shackles apart And throw their ropes away from us!”

⁴He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.

⁵Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying,

⁶“But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”

⁷“I will announce the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have fathered You.

⁸Ask it of Me, and I will certainly give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as Your possession.

⁹You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ ”

¹⁰Now then, you kings, use insight; Let yourselves be instructed, you judges of the earth.

¹¹Serve the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling.

¹²Kiss the Son, that He not be angry and you perish on the way, For His wrath may be kindled quickly. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

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

²And put a knife to your throat If you are a person of great appetite.

³Do not desire his delicacies, For it is deceptive food.

⁴Do not weary yourself to gain wealth; Stop dwelling on it.

⁵When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

⁶Do not eat the bread of a selfish person; Or desire his delicacies;

⁷For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.

⁸You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten And waste your compliments.

⁹Do not speak to be heard by a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not move the ancient boundary Or go into the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹For their Redeemer is strong; He will plead their case against you.

¹²Apply your heart to discipline, And your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³Do not withhold discipline from a child; Though you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴You shall strike him with the rod And rescue his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, My own heart also will be glad,

¹⁶And my innermost being will rejoice When your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the LORD always.

¹⁸Certainly there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way.

²⁰Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;

²¹For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe one with rags.

²²Listen to your father, who fathered you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.

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

²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.

²⁶Give me your heart, my son, And let your eyes delight in my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, And a strange woman is a narrow well.

²⁸Certainly she lurks as a robber, And increases the treacherous among mankind.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has red eyes?

³⁰Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to taste mixed wine.

³¹Do not look at wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly;

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

³³Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will say perverse things.

³⁴And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.

³⁵“They struck me, but I did not become ill; They beat me, but I did not know it. When will I awake? I will seek another drink.”

¹So the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle, and they camped beside Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped in Aphek.

²Then the Philistines drew up in battle formation to meet Israel. When the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield.

³When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let’s take the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that He may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”

⁴So the people sent men to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD of armies who is enthroned above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

⁵And as the ark of the covenant of the LORD was coming into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded.

⁶And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” Then they understood that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp.

⁷So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “God has come into the camp!” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before.

⁸Woe to us! Who will save us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.

⁹Take courage and be men, Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews, as they have been slaves to you; so be men and fight!”

¹⁰So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent; and the defeat was very great, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell.

¹¹Moreover, the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

¹²Now a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn, and dust on his head.

¹³When he came, behold, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road keeping watch, because his heart was anxious about the ark of God. And the man came to give a report in the city, and all the city cried out.

¹⁴When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, “What does the noise of this commotion mean?” Then the man came hurriedly and told Eli.

¹⁵Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were fixed and he could not see.

¹⁶The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle line. Indeed, I escaped from the battle line today.” And he said, “How are things, my son?”

¹⁷Then the one who brought the news replied, “Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great defeat among the people, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas are also dead; and the ark of God has been taken.”

¹⁸When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell off the seat backward beside the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for he was old and heavy. And so he judged Israel for forty years.

¹⁹Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, was pregnant and about to give birth; and when she heard the news that the ark of God had been taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she kneeled down and gave birth, because her pains came upon her.

²⁰And about the time of her death the women who were standing by her said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son.” But she did not answer or pay attention.

²¹And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

²²So she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, because the ark of God has been taken.”

¹Awake, awake, Clothe yourself in your strength, Zion; Clothe yourself with your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city; For the uncircumcised and the unclean Will no longer come into you.

²Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, Captive Jerusalem; Release yourself from the chains around your neck, Captive daughter of Zion.

³For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money.”

⁴For this is what the Lord GOD says: “My people went down to Egypt first to reside there; then the Assyrian oppressed them without reason.

⁵And now, what do I have here,” declares the LORD, “seeing that My people have been taken away without reason?” Again the LORD declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually reviled all day long.

⁶Therefore, My people shall know My name; therefore on that day I am the one who is speaking, ‘Here I am.’ ”

⁷How delightful on the mountains Are the feet of one who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

⁸Listen! Your watchmen raise their voices, They shout joyfully together; For they will see with their own eyes When the LORD restores Zion.

⁹Be cheerful, shout joyfully together, You ruins of Jerusalem; For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰The LORD has bared His holy arm In the sight of all the nations, So that all the ends of the earth may see The salvation of our God.

¹¹Depart, depart, go out from there, Do not touch what is unclean; Go out of the midst of her, purify yourselves, You who carry the vessels of the LORD.

¹²But you will not go out in a hurry, Nor will you go as fugitives; For the LORD will go before you, And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

¹³Behold, My Servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.

¹⁴Just as many were appalled at you, My people, So His appearance was marred beyond that of a man, And His form beyond the sons of mankind.

¹⁵So He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what they had not been told, they will see, And what they had not heard, they will understand.

¹“Brothers and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you.”

²And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet; and he *said,

³“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the Law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today.

⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons,

⁵as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brothers, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.

⁶“But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus at about noon, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me,

⁷and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’

⁸And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’

⁹And those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.

¹⁰And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything that has been appointed for you to do.’

¹¹But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I came into Damascus being led by the hand by those who were with me.

¹²“Now a certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,

¹³came to me, and standing nearby he said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I looked up at him.

¹⁴And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear a message from His mouth.

¹⁵For you will be a witness for Him to all people of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins by calling on His name.’

¹⁷“It happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I fell into a trance,

¹⁸and I saw Him saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’

¹⁹And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You.

²⁰And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing nearby and approving, and watching over the cloaks of those who were killing him.’

²¹And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’  ”

²²They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a man from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!”

²³And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air,

²⁴the commander ordered that he be brought into the barracks, saying that he was to be interrogated by flogging so that he would find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way.

²⁵But when they stretched him out with straps, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, saying, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.”

²⁷The commander came and said to Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.”

²⁸The commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.”

²⁹Therefore, those who were about to interrogate him immediately backed away from him; and the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had put him in chains.

³⁰Now on the next day, wanting to know for certain why Paul had been accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the Council to assemble, and he brought Paul down and placed him before them.