Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,

²they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.

³(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;

⁴and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)

⁵So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

⁶He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;

⁷in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

⁹Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition!

¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’

¹¹But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God) —

¹²then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother,

¹³thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”

¹⁴Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand:

¹⁵there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

¹⁶

¹⁷When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable.

¹⁸He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile,

¹⁹since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

²⁰And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles.

²¹For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder,

²²adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.

²³All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

²⁴From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice,

²⁵but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.

²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go — the demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.

³²They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.

³³He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into 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.”

³⁵And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

³⁶Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

³⁷They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

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

²Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the LORD.

³Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield;

⁴but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the LORD: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.

⁵You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land.

⁶You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath — you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you;

⁷for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.

⁸You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years.

⁹Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month — on the day of atonement — you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land.

¹⁰And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.

¹¹That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines.

¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.

¹³In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property.

¹⁴When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another.

¹⁵When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years since the jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years.

¹⁶If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price; for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you.

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

¹⁸You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely.

¹⁹The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely.

²⁰Should you ask, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?”

²¹I will order my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop for three years.

²²When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the old crop; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old.

²³The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.

²⁴Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.

²⁵If anyone of your kin falls into difficulty and sells a piece of property, then the next of kin shall come and redeem what the relative has sold.

²⁶If the person has no one to redeem it, but then prospers and finds sufficient means to do so,

²⁷the years since its sale shall be computed and the difference shall be refunded to the person to whom it was sold, and the property shall be returned.

²⁸But if there are not sufficient means to recover it, what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and the property shall be returned.

²⁹If anyone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, it may be redeemed until a year has elapsed since its sale; the right of redemption shall be one year.

³⁰If it is not redeemed before a full year has elapsed, a house that is in a walled city shall pass in perpetuity to the purchaser, throughout the generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee.

³¹But houses in villages that have no walls around them shall be classed as open country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee.

³²As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption of the houses in the cities belonging to them.

³³Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites — houses sold in a city belonging to them — shall be released in the jubilee; because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel.

³⁴But the open land around their cities may not be sold; for that is their possession for all time.

³⁵If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens.

³⁶Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you.

³⁷You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them 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, to be your God.

³⁹If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves.

⁴⁰They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee.

⁴¹Then they and their children with them shall be free from your authority; they shall go back to their own family and return to their ancestral property.

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

⁴³You shall not rule over them with harshness, but shall fear your God.

⁴⁴As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves.

⁴⁵You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property.

⁴⁶You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.

⁴⁷If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien, or to a branch of the alien’s family,

⁴⁸after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them,

⁴⁹or their uncle or their uncle’s son may redeem them, or anyone of their family who is of their own flesh may redeem them; or if they prosper they may redeem themselves.

⁵⁰They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer.

⁵¹If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price;

⁵²and if few years remain until the jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption.

⁵³As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien’s authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight.

⁵⁴And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go free in the jubilee year.

⁵⁵For to me the people of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

¹Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,

²was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also “was faithful in all God’s house.”

³Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

⁴(For 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, to testify to the things that would be spoken later.

⁶Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.

⁷Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice,

⁸do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness,

⁹where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works

¹⁰for forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known my ways.’

¹¹As in my anger I swore, ‘They will not enter my rest.’”

¹²Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

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

¹⁴For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.

¹⁵As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

¹⁶Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses?

¹⁷But with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

¹⁸And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient?

¹⁹So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

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

²Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul.

³I was overjoyed when some of the friends arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely how you walk in the truth.

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

⁵Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends, even though they are strangers to you;

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

⁷for they began their journey for the sake of Christ, accepting no support from non-believers.

⁸Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may become co-workers with the truth.

⁹I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.

¹⁰So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the friends, and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.

¹¹Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.

¹²Everyone has testified favorably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself. We also testify for him, and you know that our testimony is true.

¹³I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink;

¹⁴instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face.

¹⁵Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name.

¹Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

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

³in the day when the guards of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly;

⁴when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low;

⁵when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets;

⁶before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern,

⁷and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.

⁸Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher; all is vanity.

⁹Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs.

¹⁰The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly.

¹¹The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd.

¹²Of anything beyond these, my child, beware. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

¹³The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone.

¹⁴For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.

¹Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain?

²The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and his anointed, saying,

³“Let us burst their bonds asunder, and cast their cords from us.”

⁴He who sits in the heavens laughs; the LORD has them in derision.

⁵Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,

⁶“I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.”

⁷I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.

⁸Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

⁹You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

¹⁰Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.

¹¹Serve the LORD with fear, with trembling

¹²kiss his feet, or he will be angry, and you will perish in the way; for his wrath is quickly kindled. Happy are all who take refuge in him.

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

²and put a knife to your throat if you have a big appetite.

³Do not desire the ruler’s delicacies, for they are deceptive food.

⁴Do not wear yourself out to get rich; be wise enough to desist.

⁵When your eyes light upon it, it is gone; for suddenly it takes wings to itself, flying like an eagle toward heaven.

⁶Do not eat the bread of the stingy; do not desire their delicacies;

⁷for like a hair in the throat, so are they. “Eat and drink!” they say to you; but they do not mean it.

⁸You will vomit up the little you have eaten, and you will waste your pleasant words.

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

¹⁰Do not remove an ancient landmark or encroach on the fields of orphans,

¹¹for their redeemer is strong; he will plead their cause against you.

¹²Apply your mind to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.

¹³Do not withhold discipline from your children; if you beat them with a rod, they will not die.

¹⁴If you beat them with the rod, you will save their lives from Sheol.

¹⁵My child, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.

¹⁶My soul will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.

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

¹⁸Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Hear, my child, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way.

²⁰Do not be among winebibbers, or among gluttonous eaters of meat;

²¹for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe them with rags.

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

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

²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who begets a wise son will be glad in him.

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

²⁶My child, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit; an adulteress is a narrow well.

²⁸She lies in wait like a robber and increases the number of the faithless.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

³⁰Those who linger late over wine, those who keep trying mixed wines.

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

³²At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind utter perverse things.

³⁴You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.

³⁵“They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.”

¹And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. The Ark of God Captured In those days the Philistines mustered for war against Israel, and Israel went out to battle against them; they encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek.

²The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle was joined, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle.

³When the troops came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD put us to rout today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh, so that he may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”

⁴So the people sent to Shiloh, and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

⁵When the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded.

⁶When the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” When they learned that the ark of the LORD had come to the camp,

⁷the Philistines were afraid; for they said, “Gods have come into the camp.” They also said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before.

⁸Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness.

⁹Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, in order not to become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.”

¹⁰So the Philistines fought; Israel was defeated, and they fled, everyone to his home. There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers.

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

¹²A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line, and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn and with earth upon his head.

¹³When he arrived, Eli was sitting upon his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. When the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out.

¹⁴When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, “What is this uproar?” Then the man came quickly and told Eli.

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

¹⁶The man said to Eli, “I have just come from the battle; I fled from the battle today.” He said, “How did it go, my son?”

¹⁷The messenger replied, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great slaughter among the troops; your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”

¹⁸When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.

¹⁹Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. 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 and gave birth; for her labor pains overwhelmed her.

²⁰As she was about to die, the women attending her said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you have borne a son.” But she did not answer or give heed.

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

²²She 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 enter you no more.

²Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter Zion!

³For thus says the LORD: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.

⁴For thus says the Lord GOD: Long ago, my people went down into Egypt to reside there as aliens; the Assyrian, too, has oppressed them without cause.

⁵Now therefore what am I doing here, says the LORD, seeing that my people are taken away without cause? Their rulers howl, says the LORD, and continually, all day long, my name is despised.

⁶Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I.

⁷How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

⁸Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the LORD to Zion.

⁹Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰The LORD has bared his holy arm before 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 it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.

¹²For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight; for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

¹³See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.

¹⁴Just as there were many who were astonished at him — so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals —

¹⁵so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense that I now make before you.”

²When they heard him addressing them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet. Then he said:

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

⁴I persecuted this Way up to the point of death by binding both men and women and putting them in prison,

⁵as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. From them I also received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and I went there in order to bind those who were there and to bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.

⁶“While I was on my way and approaching Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me.

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

⁸I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Then he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.’

⁹Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

¹⁰I asked, ‘What am I to do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told everything that has been assigned to you to do.’

¹¹Since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, those who were with me took my hand and led me to Damascus.

¹²“A certain Ananias, who was a devout man according to the law and well spoken of by all the Jews living there,

¹³came to me; and standing beside me, he said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight!’ In that very hour I regained my sight and saw him.

¹⁴Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear his own voice;

¹⁵for you will be his witness to all the world of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.’

¹⁷“After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance

¹⁸and saw Jesus 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 know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.

²⁰And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.’

²¹Then he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

²²Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

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

²⁴the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him.

²⁵But when they had tied him up with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen.”

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

²⁸The tribune answered, “It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.” Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.”

²⁹Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him; and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

³⁰Since he wanted to find out what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the entire council to meet. He brought Paul down and had him stand before them.