Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”

²Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

³When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,

⁴“Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”

⁵Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray.

⁶Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.

⁷When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.

⁸For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

⁹“As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them.

¹⁰And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations.

¹¹When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

¹²Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death;

¹³and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

¹⁴“But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains;

¹⁵the one on the housetop must not go down or enter the house to take anything away;

¹⁶the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat.

¹⁷Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days!

¹⁸Pray that it may not be in winter.

¹⁹For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be.

²⁰And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days.

²¹And if anyone says to you at that time, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘Look! There he is!’ — do not believe it.

²²False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.

²³But be alert; I have already told you everything.

²⁴“But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,

²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

²⁶Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.

²⁷Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

²⁸“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.

²⁹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.

³⁰Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.

³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³²“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

³³Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.

³⁴It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.

³⁵Therefore, keep awake — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn,

³⁶or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.

³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

¹The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

²Take a census of the Kohathites separate from the other Levites, by their clans and their ancestral houses,

³from thirty years old up to fifty years old, all who qualify to do work relating to the tent of meeting.

⁴The service of the Kohathites relating to the tent of meeting concerns the most holy things.

⁵When the camp is to set out, Aaron and his sons shall go in and take down the screening curtain, and cover the ark of the covenant with it;

⁶then they shall put on it a covering of fine leather, and spread over that a cloth all of blue, and shall put its poles in place.

⁷Over the table of the bread of the Presence they shall spread a blue cloth, and put on it the plates, the dishes for incense, the bowls, and the flagons for the drink offering; the regular bread also shall be on it;

⁸then they shall spread over them a crimson cloth, and cover it with a covering of fine leather, and shall put its poles in place.

⁹They shall take a blue cloth, and cover the lampstand for the light, with its lamps, its snuffers, its trays, and all the vessels for oil with which it is supplied;

¹⁰and they shall put it with all its utensils in a covering of fine leather, and put it on the carrying frame.

¹¹Over the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth, and cover it with a covering of fine leather, and shall put its poles in place;

¹²and they shall take all the utensils of the service that are used in the sanctuary, and put them in a blue cloth, and cover them with a covering of fine leather, and put them on the carrying frame.

¹³They shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth over it;

¹⁴and they shall put on it all the utensils of the altar, which are used for the service there, the firepans, the forks, the shovels, and the basins, all the utensils of the altar; and they shall spread on it a covering of fine leather, and shall put its poles in place.

¹⁵When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, as the camp sets out, after that the Kohathites shall come to carry these, but they must not touch the holy things, or they will die. These are the things of the tent of meeting that the Kohathites are to carry.

¹⁶Eleazar son of Aaron the priest shall have charge of the oil for the light, the fragrant incense, the regular grain offering, and the anointing oil, the oversight of all the tabernacle and all that is in it, in the sanctuary and in its utensils.

¹⁷Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

¹⁸You must not let the tribe of the clans of the Kohathites be destroyed from among the Levites.

¹⁹This is how you must deal with them in order that they may live and not die when they come near to the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and assign each to a particular task or burden.

²⁰But the Kohathites must not go in to look on the holy things even for a moment; otherwise they will die.

²¹Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

²²Take a census of the Gershonites also, by their ancestral houses and by their clans;

²³from thirty years old up to fifty years old you shall enroll them, all who qualify to do work in the tent of meeting.

²⁴This is the service of the clans of the Gershonites, in serving and bearing burdens:

²⁵They shall carry the curtains of the tabernacle, and the tent of meeting with its covering, and the outer covering of fine leather that is on top of it, and the screen for the entrance of the tent of meeting,

²⁶and the hangings of the court, and the screen for the entrance of the gate of the court that is around the tabernacle and the altar, and their cords, and all the equipment for their service; and they shall do all that needs to be done with regard to them.

²⁷All the service of the Gershonites shall be at the command of Aaron and his sons, in all that they are to carry, and in all that they have to do; and you shall assign to their charge all that they are to carry.

²⁸This is the service of the clans of the Gershonites relating to the tent of meeting, and their responsibilities are to be under the oversight of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.

²⁹As for the Merarites, you shall enroll them by their clans and their ancestral houses;

³⁰from thirty years old up to fifty years old you shall enroll them, everyone who qualifies to do the work of the tent of meeting.

³¹This is what they are charged to carry, as the whole of their service in the tent of meeting: the frames of the tabernacle, with its bars, pillars, and bases,

³²and the pillars of the court all around with their bases, pegs, and cords, with all their equipment and all their related service; and you shall assign by name the objects that they are required to carry.

³³This is the service of the clans of the Merarites, the whole of their service relating to the tent of meeting, under the hand of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.

³⁴So Moses and Aaron and the leaders of the congregation enrolled the Kohathites, by their clans and their ancestral houses,

³⁵from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone who qualified for work relating to the tent of meeting;

³⁶and their enrollment by clans was two thousand seven hundred fifty.

³⁷This was the enrollment of the clans of the Kohathites, all who served at the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron enrolled according to the commandment of the LORD by Moses.

³⁸The enrollment of the Gershonites, by their clans and their ancestral houses,

³⁹from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone who qualified for work relating to the tent of meeting —

⁴⁰their enrollment by their clans and their ancestral houses was two thousand six hundred thirty.

⁴¹This was the enrollment of the clans of the Gershonites, all who served at the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron enrolled according to the commandment of the LORD.

⁴²The enrollment of the clans of the Merarites, by their clans and their ancestral houses,

⁴³from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone who qualified for work relating to the tent of meeting —

⁴⁴their enrollment by their clans was three thousand two hundred.

⁴⁵This is the enrollment of the clans of the Merarites, whom Moses and Aaron enrolled according to the commandment of the LORD by Moses.

⁴⁶All those who were enrolled of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the leaders of Israel enrolled, by their clans and their ancestral houses,

⁴⁷from thirty years old up to fifty years old, everyone who qualified to do the work of service and the work of bearing burdens relating to the tent of meeting,

⁴⁸their enrollment was eight thousand five hundred eighty.

⁴⁹According to the commandment of the LORD through Moses they were appointed to their several tasks of serving or carrying; thus they were enrolled by him, as the LORD commanded Moses.

¹Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary.

²For a tent was constructed, the first one, in which were the lampstand, the table, and the bread of the Presence; this is called the Holy Place.

³Behind the second curtain was a tent called the Holy of Holies.

⁴In it stood the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which there were a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;

⁵above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot speak now in detail.

⁶Such preparations having been made, the priests go continually into the first tent to carry out their ritual duties;

⁷but only the high priest goes into the second, and he but once a year, and not without taking the blood that he offers for himself and for the sins committed unintentionally by the people.

⁸By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary has not yet been disclosed as long as the first tent is still standing.

⁹This is a symbol of the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper,

¹⁰but deal only with food and drink and various baptisms, regulations for the body imposed until the time comes to set things right.

¹¹But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation),

¹²he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

¹³For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified,

¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

¹⁵For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.

¹⁶Where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.

¹⁷For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.

¹⁸Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

¹⁹For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people,

²⁰saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.”

²¹And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.

²²Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

²³Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these.

²⁴For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

²⁵Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own;

²⁶for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.

²⁷And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment,

²⁸so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

¹Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals;

²and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

³And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.

⁴And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

⁵Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

⁷He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne.

⁸When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

⁹They sing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;

¹⁰you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.”

¹¹Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,

¹²singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

¹³Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

¹⁴And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

¹Where has your beloved gone, O fairest among women? Which way has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?

²My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

³I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he pastures his flock among the lilies.

⁴You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.

⁵Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me! Your hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of ewes, that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins, and not one among them is bereaved.

⁷Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.

⁸There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number.

⁹My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the darling of her mother, flawless to her that bore her. The maidens saw her and called her happy; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

¹⁰“Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?”

¹¹I went down to the nut orchard, to look at the blossoms of the valley, to see whether the vines had budded, whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

¹²Before I was aware, my fancy set me in a chariot beside my prince.

¹³Return, return, O Shulammite! Return, return, that we may look upon you. Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?

¹O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

²Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;

⁴what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

⁵Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.

⁶You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,

⁷all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

⁸the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

¹One who is often reproved, yet remains stubborn, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.

²When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

³A child who loves wisdom makes a parent glad, but to keep company with prostitutes is to squander one’s substance.

⁴By justice a king gives stability to the land, but one who makes heavy exactions ruins it.

⁵Whoever flatters a neighbor is spreading a net for the neighbor’s feet.

⁶In the transgression of the evil there is a snare, but the righteous sing and rejoice.

⁷The righteous know the rights of the poor; the wicked have no such understanding.

⁸Scoffers set a city aflame, but the wise turn away wrath.

⁹If the wise go to law with fools, there is ranting and ridicule without relief.

¹⁰The bloodthirsty hate the blameless, and they seek the life of the upright.

¹¹A fool gives full vent to anger, but the wise quietly holds it back.

¹²If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.

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

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

¹⁵The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a mother is disgraced by a neglected child.

¹⁶When the wicked are in authority, transgression increases, but the righteous will look upon their downfall.

¹⁷Discipline your children, and they will give you rest; they will give delight to your heart.

¹⁸Where there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint, but happy are those who keep the law.

¹⁹By mere words servants are not disciplined, for though they understand, they will not give heed.

²⁰Do you see someone who is hasty in speech? There is more hope for a fool than for anyone like that.

²¹A slave pampered from childhood will come to a bad end.

²²One given to anger stirs up strife, and the hothead causes much transgression.

²³A person’s pride will bring humiliation, but one who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.

²⁴To be a partner of a thief is to hate one’s own life; one hears the victim’s curse, but discloses nothing.

²⁵The fear of others lays a snare, but one who trusts in the LORD is secure.

²⁶Many seek the favor of a ruler, but it is from the LORD that one gets justice.

²⁷The unjust are an abomination to the righteous, but the upright are an abomination to the wicked.

¹Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him; he said, “The LORD has anointed you ruler over his people Israel. You shall reign over the people of the LORD and you will save them from the hand of their enemies all around. Now this shall be the sign to you that the LORD has anointed you ruler over his heritage:

²When you depart from me today you will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; they will say to you, ‘The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has stopped worrying about them and is worrying about you, saying: What shall I do about my son?’

³Then you shall go on from there further and come to the oak of Tabor; three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three kids, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine.

⁴They will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from them.

⁵After that you shall come to Gibeath-elohim, at the place where the Philistine garrison is; there, as you come to the town, you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the shrine with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre playing in front of them; they will be in a prophetic frenzy.

⁶Then the spirit of the LORD will possess you, and you will be in a prophetic frenzy along with them and be turned into a different person.

⁷Now when these signs meet you, do whatever you see fit to do, for God is with you.

⁸And you shall go down to Gilgal ahead of me; then I will come down to you to present burnt offerings and offer sacrifices of well-being. Seven days you shall wait, until I come to you and show you what you shall do.”

⁹As he turned away to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart; and all these signs were fulfilled that day.

¹⁰When they were going from there to Gibeah, a band of prophets met him; and the spirit of God possessed him, and he fell into a prophetic frenzy along with them.

¹¹When all who knew him before saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, “What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”

¹²A man of the place answered, “And who is their father?” Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

¹³When his prophetic frenzy had ended, he went home.

¹⁴Saul’s uncle said to him and to the boy, “Where did you go?” And he replied, “To seek the donkeys; and when we saw they were not to be found, we went to Samuel.”

¹⁵Saul’s uncle said, “Tell me what Samuel said to you.”

¹⁶Saul said to his uncle, “He told us that the donkeys had been found.” But about the matter of the kingship, of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything.

¹⁷Samuel summoned the people to the LORD at Mizpah

¹⁸and said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’

¹⁹But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said, ‘No! but set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes and by your clans.”

²⁰Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot.

²¹He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its families, and the family of the Matrites was taken by lot. Finally he brought the family of the Matrites near man by man, and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found.

²²So they inquired again of the LORD, “Did the man come here?” and the LORD said, “See, he has hidden himself among the baggage.”

²³Then they ran and brought him from there. When he took his stand among the people, he was head and shoulders taller than any of them.

²⁴Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one whom the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

²⁵Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship; and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the LORD. Then Samuel sent all the people back to their homes.

²⁶Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went warriors whose hearts God had touched.

²⁷But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace. Now Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was left of the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But there were seven thousand men who had escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh-gilead.

¹Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.

²Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.

³“Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.

⁴Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.

⁵Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

⁶Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

⁷Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

⁸Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

⁹Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

¹⁰if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.

¹¹The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

¹²Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

¹³If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;

¹⁴then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

¹After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta.

²The natives showed us unusual kindness. Since it had begun to rain and was cold, they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us around it.

³Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire, when a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.

⁴When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man must be a murderer; though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.”

⁵He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

⁶They were expecting him to swell up or drop dead, but after they had waited a long time and saw that nothing unusual had happened to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.

⁷Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the leading man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days.

⁸It so happened that the father of Publius lay sick in bed with fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and cured him by praying and putting his hands on him.

⁹After this happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured.

¹⁰They bestowed many honors on us, and when we were about to sail, they put on board all the provisions we needed.

¹¹Three months later we set sail on a ship that had wintered at the island, an Alexandrian ship with the Twin Brothers as its figurehead.

¹²We put in at Syracuse and stayed there for three days;

¹³then we weighed anchor and came to Rhegium. After one day there a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli.

¹⁴There we found believers and were invited to stay with them for seven days. And so we came to Rome.

¹⁵The believers from there, when they heard of us, came as far as the Forum of Appius and Three Taverns to meet us. On seeing them, Paul thanked God and took courage.

¹⁶When we came into Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him.

¹⁷Three days later he called together the local leaders of the Jews. When they had assembled, he said to them, “Brothers, though I had done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, yet I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.

¹⁸When they had examined me, the Romans wanted to release me, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case.

¹⁹But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to the emperor — even though I had no charge to bring against my nation.

²⁰For this reason therefore I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is for the sake of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

²¹They replied, “We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brothers coming here has reported or spoken anything evil about you.

²²But we would like to hear from you what you think, for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against.”

²³After they had set a day to meet with him, they came to him at his lodgings in great numbers. From morning until evening he explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.

²⁴Some were convinced by what he had said, while others refused to believe.

²⁵So they disagreed with each other; and as they were leaving, Paul made one further statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah,

²⁶‘Go to this people and say, You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive.

²⁷For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn — and I would heal them.’

²⁸Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.”

²⁹

³⁰He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him,

³¹proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.