Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹In those days, when there was again a large crowd and they had nothing to eat, Jesus summoned His disciples and *said to them,

²“I feel compassion for thepeople because they have remained with Me for three days already and have nothing to eat.

³And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way; and some of them have come from a great distance.”

⁴And His disciples replied to Him, “Where will anyone be able to find enough bread here in this desolate place to satisfy these people?”

⁵And He was asking them, “How many loaves do you have?” And they said, “Seven.”

⁶And He *directed the people to recline on the ground; and taking the seven loaves, He gave thanks and broke them, and started giving them to His disciples to serve, and they served them to the people.

⁷They also had a few small fish; and after He had blessed them, He told the disciples to serve these as well.

⁸And they ate and were satisfied; and they picked up seven large baskets full of what was left over of the broken pieces.

⁹About four thousand men were there; and He dismissed them.

¹⁰And immediately He got into the boat with His disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.

¹¹And the Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, demanding from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him.

¹²Sighing deeply in His spirit, He *said, “Why does this generation demand asign? Truly I say to you,nosign will be given to this generation!”

¹³And leaving them, He again embarked and went away to the other side.

¹⁴And the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them.

¹⁵And He was giving orders to them, saying, “Watch out! Beware of theleaven of the Pharisees, and the leaven of Herod.”

¹⁶And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread.

¹⁷And Jesus, aware of this, *said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet comprehend or understand? Do you still have your hearthardened?

¹⁸HAVING EYES, DO YOU NOT SEE? AND HAVING EARS, DO YOU NOT HEAR? And do you not remember,

¹⁹when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?” They *said to Him, “Twelve.”

²⁰“When I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of broken pieces did you pick up?” And they *said to Him, “Seven.”

²¹And He was saying to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

²²And they *came to Bethsaida. And some people *brought a man who was blind to Jesus and *begged Him to touch him.

²³Taking the man who was blind by the hand, He brought him out of the village; and after spitting in his eyes and laying His hands on him, He asked him, “Do you see anything?”

²⁴And he looked up and said, “I see people, for I see them like trees, walking around.”

²⁵Then again He laid His hands on his eyes; and he looked intently and was restored, and began to see everything clearly.

²⁶And He sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

²⁷Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?”

²⁸They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.”

²⁹And He continued questioning them: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and *said to Him, “You are the Christ.”

³⁰And He warned them to tell no one about Him.

³¹And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise from the dead.

³²And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.

³³But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and *said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind onGod’s purposes, but on man’s.”

³⁴And He summoned the crowd together with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

³⁵For whoever wants to save hislife will lose it, but whoever loses hislife for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.

³⁶For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

³⁷For what could a person give in exchange for his soul?

³⁸For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

¹‘You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves a carved image or a memorial stone, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God.

²You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the LORD.

³If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out,

⁴then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

⁵Indeed, your threshing season will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. So you will eat your food to the full and live securely in your land.

⁶I shall also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down, with no one to make you afraid. I shall also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.

⁷Instead, you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword;

⁸five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand; and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

⁹So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you.

¹⁰And you will eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new.

¹¹Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you.

¹²I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

¹³I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke your yoke and made you walk erect.

¹⁴‘But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments,

¹⁵if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul loathes My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, but rather to break My covenant,

¹⁶I, in turn, will do this to you: I will summon a sudden terror against you, consumption and fever that will make the eyes fail and the soul languish; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it.

¹⁷And I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.

¹⁸If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

¹⁹I will also break down your pride of power; and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.

²⁰Your strength will be consumed uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

²¹‘Yet if you show hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins.

²²I will also let loose among you the animals of the field, which will deprive you of your children and eliminate your cattle, and reduce your number so that your roads become deserted.

²³‘And if by these things you do not learn your lesson regarding Me, but you show hostility toward Me,

²⁴then I in turn will show hostility toward you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins.

²⁵I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send a plague among you, so that you will be handed over to the enemy.

²⁶When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me,

²⁸then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I for My part will punish you seven times for your sins.

²⁹Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.

³⁰I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and pile your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul will loathe you.

³¹I will turn your cities into ruins as well and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas.

³²And I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it.

³³You, however, I will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become ruins.

³⁴‘Then the land will restore its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and restore its Sabbaths.

³⁵All the days of its desolation it will have the rest which it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it.

³⁶As for those among you who are left, I will also bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a scattered leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from the sword, and they will fall.

³⁷They will then stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand before your enemies.

³⁸Instead, you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you.

³⁹So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their wrongdoing in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the wrongdoing of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

⁴⁰‘But if they confess their wrongdoing and the wrongdoing of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me—

⁴¹I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart is humbled so that they then make amends for their wrongdoing,

⁴²then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.

⁴³For the land will be abandoned by them, and will restore its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their wrongdoing, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul loathed My statutes.

⁴⁴Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so loathe them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

⁴⁵But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, so that I might be their God. I am the LORD.’ ”

⁴⁶These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the LORD established between Himself and the sons of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.

¹Therefore, we must fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

²For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also did; but the word they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united with those who listened with faith.

³For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “AS I SWORE IN MY ANGER, THEY CERTAINLY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

⁴For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”;

⁵and again in this passage, “THEY CERTAINLY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.”

⁶Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who previously had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience,

⁷He again sets a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.”

⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.

⁹Consequently, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

¹⁰For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

¹¹Therefore let’s make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience.

¹²For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹³And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we must answer.

¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession.

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin.

¹⁶Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.

¹Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:

²May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

³Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all time handed down to the saints.

⁴For certain people have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into indecent behavior and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵Now I want to remind you, though you know everything once and for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.

⁶And angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling place, these He has kept in eternal restraints under darkness for the judgment of the great day,

⁷just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these angels indulged in sexual perversion and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸Yet in the same way these people also, dreaming, defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak abusively of angelic majesties.

⁹But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him an abusive judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

¹⁰But these people disparage all the things that they do not understand; and all the things that they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.

¹¹Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have given themselves up to the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

¹²These are the ones who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, like shepherds caring only for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;

¹³wild waves of the sea, churning up their own shameful deeds like dirty foam; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴It was also about these people that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord has come with many thousands of His holy ones,

¹⁵to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

¹⁶These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.

¹⁷But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹⁸that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.”

¹⁹These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.

²⁰But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

²¹keep yourselves in the love of God, looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

²²And have mercy on some, who are doubting;

²³save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

²⁴Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy,

²⁵to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.

¹The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.

²“May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is sweeter than wine.

³Your oils have a pleasing fragrance, Your name is like purified oil; Therefore the young women love you.

⁴Draw me after you and let’s run together! The king has brought me into his chambers.” “We will rejoice in you and be joyful; We will praise your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you.”

⁵“I am black and beautiful, You daughters of Jerusalem, Like the tents of Kedar, Like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do not stare at me because I am dark, For the sun has tanned me. My mother’s sons were angry with me; They made me caretaker of the vineyards, But I have not taken care of my own vineyard.

⁷Tell me, you whom my soul loves, Where do you pasture your flock, Where do you have it lie down at noon? For why should I be like one who veils herself Beside the flocks of your companions?”

⁸“If you yourself do not know, Most beautiful among women, Go out on the trail of the flock, And pasture your young goats By the tents of the shepherds.

⁹“To me, my darling, you are like My mare among the chariots of Pharaoh.

¹⁰Your cheeks are delightful with jewelry, Your neck with strings of beads.”

¹¹“We will make for you jewelry of gold With beads of silver.”

¹²“While the king was at his table, My perfume gave forth its fragrance.

¹³My beloved is to me a pouch of myrrh Which lies all night between my breasts.

¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms In the vineyards of Engedi.”

¹⁵“How beautiful you are, my darling, How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves.”

¹⁶“How handsome you are, my beloved, And so delightful! Indeed, our bed is luxuriant!

¹⁷The beams of our house are cedars, Our rafters, junipers.

¹LORD, how my enemies have increased! Many are rising up against me.

²Many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah

³But You, LORD, are a shield around me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.

⁴I was crying out to the LORD with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah

⁵I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustains me.

⁶I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around.

⁷Arise, LORD; save me, my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked.

⁸Salvation belongs to the LORD; May Your blessing be upon Your people! Selah

¹Do not be envious of evil people, Nor desire to be with them;

²For their minds plot violence, And their lips talk of trouble.

³By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established;

⁴And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches.

⁵A wise man is strong, And a person of knowledge increases power.

⁶For by wise guidance you will wage war, And in an abundance of counselors there is victory.

⁷Wisdom is too exalted for a fool, He does not open his mouth at the gate.

⁸One who plans to do evil, People will call a schemer.

⁹The devising of foolishness is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to humanity.

¹⁰If you show yourself lacking courage on the day of distress, Your strength is meager.

¹¹Rescue those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to the slaughter, Oh hold them back!

¹²If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He who weighs the hearts not consider it? And does He who watches over your soul not know it? And will He not repay a person according to his work?

¹³My son, eat honey, for it is good; Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste;

¹⁴Know that wisdom is the same for your soul; If you find it, then there will be a future, And your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Do not lie in ambush, you wicked person, against the home of the righteous; Do not destroy his resting place;

¹⁶For a righteous person falls seven times and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of disaster.

¹⁷Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,

¹⁸Otherwise, the LORD will see and be displeased, And turn His anger away from him.

¹⁹Do not get upset because of evildoers Or be envious of the wicked;

²⁰For there will be no future for the evil person; The lamp of the wicked will be put out.

²¹My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not get involved with those of high rank,

²²For their disaster will rise suddenly, And who knows the ruin that can come from both of them?

²³These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good.

²⁴One who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” Peoples will curse him, nations will scold him;

²⁵But for those who rebuke the wicked there will be delight, And a good blessing will come upon them.

²⁶One who gives a right answer Kisses the lips.

²⁷Prepare your work outside, And make it ready for yourself in the field; Afterward, then, build your house.

²⁸Do not be a witness against your neighbor for no reason, And do not deceive with your lips.

²⁹Do not say, “I shall do the same to him as he has done to me; I will repay the person according to his work.”

³⁰I passed by the field of a lazy one, And by the vineyard of a person lacking sense,

³¹And behold, it was completely overgrown with weeds; Its surface was covered with weeds, And its stone wall was broken down.

³²When I saw, I reflected upon it; I looked, and received instruction.

³³“A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest,”

³⁴Then your poverty will come like a drifter, And your need like an armed man.

¹Now the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.

²Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon, and placed it beside Dagon.

³When the Ashdodites got up early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place.

⁴But when they got up early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. And the head of Dagon and both palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold; only the torso of Dagon was left.

⁵For that reason neither the priests of Dagon nor any who enter Dagon’s house step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.

⁶Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the Ashdodites, and He made them feel devastated and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territories.

⁷When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, because His hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god.”

⁸So they sent word and gathered all the governors of the Philistines to them, and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” And they said, “Have the ark of the God of Israel brought to Gath.” So they took the ark of the God of Israel away.

⁹After they had taken it away, the hand of the LORD was against the city, creating a very great panic; and He struck the people of the city, from the young to the old, so that tumors broke out on them.

¹⁰So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And as the ark of God came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out, saying, “They have brought the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people!”

¹¹Therefore they sent word and gathered all the governors of the Philistines, and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel and let it return to its own place, so that it will not kill us and our people!” For there was a deadly panic throughout the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

¹²And the people who did not die were struck with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.

¹Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

²For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we would look at Him, Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.

³He was despised and abandoned by men, A man of great pain and familiar with sickness; And like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him.

⁴However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, And our pains that He carried; Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, Struck down by God, and humiliated.

⁵But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed.

⁶All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the wrongdoing of us all To fall on Him.

⁷He was oppressed and afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

⁸By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off from the land of the living For the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow was due?

⁹And His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰But the LORD desired To crush Him, causing Him grief; If He renders Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.

¹¹As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, For He will bear their wrongdoings.

¹²Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the plunder with the strong, Because He poured out His life unto death, And was counted with wrongdoers; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the wrongdoers.

¹Now looking intently at the Council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life with an entirely good conscience before God up to this day.”

²But the high priest Ananias commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to try me according to the Law, and in violation of the Law, order me to be struck?”

⁴But those present said, “Are you insulting God’s high priest?”

⁵And Paul said, “I was not aware, brothers, that he is high priest; for it is written: ‘YOU SHALL NOT SPEAK EVIL OF A RULER OF YOUR PEOPLE.’ ”

⁶But Paul, perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, began crying out in the Council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!”

⁷When he said this, a dissension occurred between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

⁸For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

⁹And a great uproar occurred; and some of the scribes of the Pharisaic party stood up and started arguing heatedly, saying, “We find nothing wrong with this man; suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

¹⁰And when a great dissension occurred, the commander was afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, and he ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force, and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹But on the following night, the Lord stood near him and said, “Be courageous! For as you have testified to the truth about Me in Jerusalem, so you must testify in Rome also.”

¹²When it was day, the Jews formed a conspiracy and put themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³There were more than forty who formed this plot.

¹⁴They came to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have put ourselves under an oath to taste nothing until we have killed Paul.

¹⁵Now therefore, you and the Council notify the commander to bring him down to you, as though you were going to investigate his case more thoroughly; and as for us, we are ready to kill him before he comes near the place.”

¹⁶But the son of Paul’s sister heard about their ambush, and he came and entered the barracks and told Paul.

¹⁷Paul called one of the centurions to himself and said, “Take this young man to the commander, for he has something to report to him.”

¹⁸So he took him and led him to the commander and *said, “Paul the prisoner called me over to him and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you.”

¹⁹The commander took him by the hand, and stepping aside, began to inquire of him privately, “What is it that you have to report to me?”

²⁰And he said, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down tomorrow to the Council, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more thoroughly about him.

²¹So do not listen to them, for more than forty of them are in hiding to ambush him, and these men have put themselves under an oath not to eat or drink until they kill him; and now they are ready and waiting for assurance from you.”

²²Then the commander let the young man go, instructing him, “Tell no one that you have notified me of these things.”

²³And he called to him two of the centurions and said, “Get two hundred soldiers ready by the third hour of the night to proceed to Caesarea, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen.”

²⁴They were also to provide mounts to put Paul on and bring him safely to Felix the governor.

²⁵And he wrote a letter with the following content:

²⁶“Claudius Lysias, to the most excellent governor Felix: Greetings.

²⁷When this man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, I came up to them with the troops and rescued him, after learning that he was a Roman.

²⁸And wanting to ascertain the basis for the charges they were bringing against him, I brought him down to their Council;

²⁹and I found that he was being accused regarding questions in their Law, but was not charged with anything deserving death or imprisonment.

³⁰When I was informed that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, also instructing his accusers to bring charges against him before you.”

³¹So the soldiers, in accordance with their orders, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.

³²But on the next day they let the horsemen go on with him, and they returned to the barracks.

³³When these horsemen had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him.

³⁴Now when he had read it, he also asked from what province Paul was, and when he learned that he was from Cilicia,

³⁵he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive as well,” giving orders for Paul to be kept in Herod’s Praetorium.