Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from Jerusalem.

²Now when they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands, they found fault.

³For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders.

⁴When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.

⁵Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”

⁶He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.

⁷And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men —the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

⁹He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’

¹¹But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God),

¹²then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother,

¹³making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

¹⁴When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand:

¹⁵There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man.

¹⁶If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”

¹⁷When He had entered a house away from the crowd, His disciples asked Him concerning the parable.

¹⁸So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him,

¹⁹because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”

²⁰And He said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.

²¹For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

²²thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.

²³All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

²⁴From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.

²⁵For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet.

²⁶The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.”

²⁸And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.”

³⁰And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.

³¹Again, departing from the region of Tyre and Sidon, He came through the midst of the region of Decapolis to the Sea of Galilee.

³²Then they brought to Him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they begged Him to put His hand on him.

³³And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.

³⁴Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

³⁵Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.

³⁶Then He commanded them that they should tell no one; but the more He commanded them, the more widely they proclaimed it.

³⁷And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

¹And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,

²“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD.

³Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit;

⁴but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.

⁵What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land.

⁶And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you,

⁷for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food.

⁸‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years.

⁹Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land.

¹⁰And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.

¹¹That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine.

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

¹³‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession.

¹⁴And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not oppress one another.

¹⁵According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you.

¹⁶According to the multitude of years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewer number of years you shall diminish its price; for he sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops.

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

¹⁸‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety.

¹⁹Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety.

²⁰‘And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?”

²¹Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years.

²²And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.

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

²⁴And in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land.

²⁵‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold.

²⁶Or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it,

²⁷then let him count the years since its sale, and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession.

²⁸But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of Jubilee; and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.

²⁹‘If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year he may redeem it.

³⁰But if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee.

³¹However the houses of villages which have no wall around them shall be counted as the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.

³²Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, and the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.

³³And if a man purchases a house from the Levites, then the house that was sold in the city of his possession shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.

³⁴But the field of the common-land of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.

³⁵‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.

³⁶Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you.

³⁷You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a 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‘And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave.

⁴⁰As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee.

⁴¹And then he shall depart from you—he and his children with him—and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers.

⁴²For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves.

⁴³You shall not rule over him with rigor, but you shall fear your God.

⁴⁴And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.

⁴⁵Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property.

⁴⁶And you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.

⁴⁷‘Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger’s family,

⁴⁸after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him;

⁴⁹or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him; or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him; or if he is able he may redeem himself.

⁵⁰Thus he shall reckon with him who bought him: The price of his release shall be according to the number of years, from the year that he was sold to him until the Year of Jubilee; it shall be according to the time of a hired servant for him.

⁵¹If there are still many years remaining, according to them he shall repay the price of his redemption from the money with which he was bought.

⁵²And if there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him, and according to his years he shall repay him the price of his redemption.

⁵³He shall be with him as a yearly hired servant, and he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight.

⁵⁴And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee—he and his children with him.

⁵⁵For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

¹Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,

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

³For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.

⁴For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.

⁵And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward,

⁶but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

⁷Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice,

⁸Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,

⁹Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years.

¹⁰Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’

¹¹So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

¹²Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;

¹³but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

¹⁴For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end,

¹⁵while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

¹⁶For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?

¹⁷Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?

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

¹⁹So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

¹The Elder, To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth:

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

³For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth.

⁴I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

⁵Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers,

⁶who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well,

⁷because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles.

⁸We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.

⁹I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us.

¹⁰Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.

¹¹Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.

¹²Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself. And we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true.

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

¹⁴but I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.

¹Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”:

²While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain;

³In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, And the strong men bow down; When the grinders cease because they are few, And those that look through the windows grow dim;

⁴When the doors are shut in the streets, And the sound of grinding is low; When one rises up at the sound of a bird, And all the daughters of music are brought low.

⁵Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets.

⁶Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well.

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

⁸“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.”

⁹And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs.

¹⁰The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth.

¹¹The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd.

¹²And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.

¹³Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.

¹⁴For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.

¹Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing?

²The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

³“Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.”

⁴He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision.

⁵Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure:

⁶“Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.”

⁷“I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.

⁸Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession.

⁹You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ ”

¹⁰Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

¹¹Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling.

¹²Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

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

²And put a knife to your throat If you are a man given to appetite.

³Do not desire his delicacies, For they are deceptive food.

⁴Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease!

⁵Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.

⁶Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies;

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

⁸The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, And waste your pleasant words.

⁹Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not remove the ancient landmark, Nor enter the fields of the fatherless;

¹¹For their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you.

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

¹³Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.

¹⁴You shall beat him with a rod, And deliver his soul from hell.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, My heart will rejoice—indeed, I myself;

¹⁶Yes, my inmost being will rejoice When your lips speak right things.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day;

¹⁸For surely there is a hereafter, And your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Hear, my son, and be wise; And guide your heart in the way.

²⁰Do not mix with winebibbers, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;

²¹For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

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

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

²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.

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

²⁶My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways.

²⁷For a harlot is a deep pit, And a seductress is a narrow well.

²⁸She also lies in wait as for a victim, And increases the unfaithful among men.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

³⁰Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine.

³¹Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly;

³²At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things.

³⁴Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:

³⁵“They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?”

¹And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek.

²Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel. And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field.

³And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies.”

⁴So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

⁵And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook.

⁶Now when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the sound 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 such a thing has never happened before.

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

⁹Be strong and conduct yourselves like men, you Philistines, that you do not become servants of the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Conduct yourselves like men, and fight!”

¹⁰So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers.

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

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

¹³Now when he came, there was Eli, sitting on a seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told it, all the city cried out.

¹⁴When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, “What does the sound of this tumult mean?” And the man came quickly and told Eli.

¹⁵Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were so dim that he could not see.

¹⁶Then the man said to Eli, “I am he who came from the battle. And I fled today from the battle line.” And he said, “What happened, my son?”

¹⁷So the messenger answered and said, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead; and the ark of God has been captured.”

¹⁸Then it happened, when he made mention of the ark of God, that Eli fell off the seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.

¹⁹Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas’s wife, was with child, due to be delivered; and when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth, for her labor pains came upon her.

²⁰And about the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, “Do not fear, for you have borne a son.” But she did not answer, nor did she regard it.

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

²²And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”

¹Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean Shall no longer come to you.

²Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!

³For thus says the LORD: “You have sold yourselves for nothing, And you shall be redeemed without money.”

⁴For thus says the Lord GOD: “My people went down at first Into Egypt to dwell there; Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

⁵Now therefore, what have I here,” says the LORD, “That My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them Make them wail,” says the LORD, “And My name is blasphemed continually every day.

⁶Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day That I am He who speaks: ‘Behold, it is I.’ ”

⁷How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

⁸Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, With their voices they shall sing together; For they shall see eye to eye When the LORD brings back Zion.

⁹Break forth into joy, sing together, You waste places of Jerusalem! For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰The LORD has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God.

¹¹Depart! Depart! Go out from there, Touch no unclean thing; Go out from the midst of her, Be clean, You who bear the vessels of the LORD.

¹²For you shall not go out with haste, Nor go by flight; For the LORD will go before you, And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

¹³Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.

¹⁴Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men;

¹⁵So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider.

¹“Brethren and fathers, hear my defense before you now.”

²And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept all the more silent. Then he said:

³“I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today.

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

⁵as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶“Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me.

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

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

⁹“And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me.

¹⁰So I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.’

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

¹²“Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there,

¹³came to me; and he stood and said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that same hour I looked up at him.

¹⁴Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth.

¹⁵For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

¹⁷“Now it happened, when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I was in a trance

¹⁸and saw Him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me.’

¹⁹So I said, ‘Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on You.

²⁰And when the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’

²¹Then He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.’ ”

²²And they listened to him until this word, and then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live!”

²³Then, as they cried out and tore off their clothes and threw dust into the air,

²⁴the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, and said that he should be examined under scourging, so that he might know why they shouted so against him.

²⁵And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying, “Take care what you do, for this man is a Roman.”

²⁷Then the commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” He said, “Yes.”

²⁸The commander answered, “With a large sum I obtained this citizenship.” And Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.”

²⁹Then immediately those who were about to examine him withdrew from him; and the commander was also afraid after he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.

³⁰The next day, because he wanted to know for certain why he was accused by the Jews, he released him from his bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down and set him before them.