Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely.

²And there in front of Him was a man suffering from edema.

³And Jesus responded and said to the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

⁴But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away.

⁵And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”

⁶And they could offer no reply to this.

⁷Now He began telling a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them,

⁸“Whenever you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do nottake the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him,

⁹and the one who invited youboth will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then in disgrace you will proceed to occupy the last place.

¹⁰But whenever you are invited, go andtake the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who aredining at the table with you.

¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²Now He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, “Whenever you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor wealthy neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you to a meal in return, and that will be yourrepayment.

¹³But whenever you give abanquet, invite people who are poor, who have disabilities, who are limping, and people who are blind;

¹⁴and you will be blessed, since theydo not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

¹⁵Now when one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

¹⁶But He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many;

¹⁷and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, because everything is ready now.’

¹⁸And yet they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I purchased a field and I need to go out to look at it;please consider me excused.’

¹⁹And another one said, ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out;please consider me excused.’

²⁰And another one said, ‘I took a woman as my wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’

²¹And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here those who are poor, those with disabilities, those who are blind, and those who are limping.’

²²And later the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’

²³And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and the hedges and press upon them to come in, so that my house will be filled.

²⁴For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my dinner.’ ”

²⁵Now large crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them,

²⁶“If anyone comes to Me and does nothate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

²⁷Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

²⁸For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?

²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who are watching it will begin to ridicule him,

³⁰saying, ‘This person began to build, and was not able to finish!’

³¹Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to face the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

³²Otherwise, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and requests terms of peace.

³³So then, none of you can be My disciple who does notgive up all his own possessions.

³⁴“Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned?

³⁵It is useless either for the soil or the manure pile, so it is thrown out. The one who has ears to hear,let him hear.”

¹When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

²So Israel made a vow to the LORD and said, “If You will indeed hand over this people to me, then I will utterly destroy their cities.”

³The LORD heard the voice of Israel and turned over the Canaanites; then they utterly destroyed them and their cities. And the place was named Hormah.

⁴Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.

⁵So the people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we are disgusted with this miserable food.”

⁶Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.

⁷So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and against you; intercede with the LORD, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.

⁸Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and put it on a flag pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.”

⁹So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

¹⁰Now the sons of Israel moved out and camped in Oboth.

¹¹Then they journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness which is opposite Moab, to the east.

¹²From there they set out and camped in Wadi Zered.

¹³From there they journeyed and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

¹⁴For that reason it is said in the Book of the Wars of the LORD, “Waheb in Suphah, And the wadis of the Arnon,

¹⁵And the slope of the wadis That extends to the site of Ar, And leans to the border of Moab.”

¹⁶From there they continued to Beer, that is the well where the LORD said to Moses, “Assemble the people, that I may give them water.”

¹⁷Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well! Sing to it!

¹⁸The well, which the leaders dug, Which the nobles of the people hollowed out, With the scepter and with their staffs.” And from the wilderness they continued to Mattanah,

¹⁹and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

²⁰and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, at the top of Pisgah, which overlooks the desert.

²¹Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,

²²“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn off into field or vineyard; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the king’s road until we have passed through your border.”

²³But Sihon would not permit Israel to pass through his border. Instead, Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

²⁴Then Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the border of the sons of Ammon was Jazer.

²⁵Israel took all these cities, and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all her villages.

²⁶For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.

²⁷For that reason those who use proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon! Let it be built! So let the city of Sihon be established.

²⁸For a fire spread from Heshbon, A flame from the town of Sihon; It devoured Ar of Moab, The dominant heights of the Arnon.

²⁹Woe to you, Moab! You are destroyed, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, And his daughters into captivity, To an Amorite king, Sihon.

³⁰But we have shot them down with arrows, Heshbon is destroyed as far as Dibon, Then we have laid waste as far as Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba.”

³¹So Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

³²Now Moses sent men to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

³³Then they turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out against them with all his people, for battle at Edrei.

³⁴But the LORD said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you, and all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”

³⁵So they killed him and his sons and all his people, until there was no survivor left; and they took possession of his land.

¹Every person is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

²Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

³For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same;

⁴for it is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

⁵Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.

⁶For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing.

⁷Pay to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; respect to whom respect; honor to whom honor.

⁸Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law.

⁹For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.

¹¹Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed.

¹²The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let’s rid ourselves of the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

¹³Let’s behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and debauchery, not in strife and jealousy.

¹⁴But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

¹And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,

²in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

³There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him;

⁴they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.

⁵And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illuminate them; and they will reign forever and ever.

⁶And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show His bond-servants the things which must soon take place.

⁷“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

⁸I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things.

⁹And he *said to me, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brothers the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!”

¹⁰And he *said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.

¹¹Let the one who does wrong still do wrong, and the one who is filthy still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness, and the one who is holy still keep himself holy.”

¹²“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to reward each one as his work deserves.

¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

¹⁴Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life, and may enter the city by the gates.

¹⁵Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral persons, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

¹⁶“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you of these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires, take the water of life without cost.

¹⁸I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;

¹⁹and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

²⁰He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded,

²“Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?

³Should he argue with useless talk, Or with words which do not benefit?

⁴Indeed, you do away with reverence, And hinder meditation before God.

⁵For your wrongdoing teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the cunning.

⁶Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; And your own lips testify against you.

⁷“Were you the first person to be born, Or were you brought forth before the hills?

⁸Do you hear the secret discussion of God, And limit wisdom to yourself?

⁹What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that we do not?

¹⁰Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, Older than your father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too little for you, Or the word spoken gently to you?

¹²Why does your heart take you away? And why do your eyes wink,

¹³That you can turn your spirit against God And produce such words from your mouth?

¹⁴What is man, that he would be pure, Or he who is born of a woman, that he would be righteous?

¹⁵Behold, He has no trust in His holy ones, And the heavens are not pure in His sight;

¹⁶How much less one who is detestable and corrupt: A person who drinks malice like water!

¹⁷“I will tell you, listen to me; And what I have seen I will also declare;

¹⁸What wise people have told, And have not concealed from their fathers,

¹⁹To whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them.

²⁰The wicked person writhes in pain all his days, And the years reserved for the ruthless are numbered.

²¹Sounds of terror are in his ears; While he is at peace the destroyer comes upon him.

²²He does not believe that he will return from darkness, And he is destined for the sword.

²³He wanders about for food, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He knows that a day of darkness is at hand.

²⁴Distress and anguish terrify him, They overpower him like a king ready for the attack,

²⁵Because he has reached out with his hand against God, And is arrogant toward the Almighty.

²⁶He rushes headlong at Him With his massive shield.

²⁷For he has covered his face with his fat, And put fat on his waist.

²⁸He has lived in desolate cities, In houses no one would inhabit, Which are destined to become ruins.

²⁹He will not become rich, nor will his wealth endure; And his property will not stretch out on the earth.

³⁰He will not escape from darkness; The flame will dry up his shoot, And he will go away by the breath of His mouth.

³¹Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; For his reward will be emptiness.

³²It will be accomplished before his time, And his palm branch will not be green.

³³He will drop off his unripe grape like the vine, And will cast off his flower like the olive tree.

³⁴For the company of the godless is barren, And fire consumes the tents of the corrupt.

³⁵They conceive harm and give birth to wrongdoing, And their mind prepares deception.”

¹To You, LORD, I lift up my soul.

²My God, in You I trust, Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies rejoice over me.

³Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed; Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed.

⁴Make me know Your ways, LORD; Teach me Your paths.

⁵Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day.

⁶Remember, LORD, Your compassion and Your faithfulness, For they have been from of old.

⁷Do not remember the sins of my youth or my wrongdoings; Remember me according to Your faithfulness, For Your goodness’ sake, LORD.

⁸The LORD is good and upright; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.

⁹He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.

¹⁰All the paths of the LORD are faithfulness and truth To those who comply with His covenant and His testimonies.

¹¹For the sake of Your name, LORD, Forgive my wrongdoing, for it is great.

¹²Who is the person who fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.

¹³His soul will dwell in prosperity, And his descendants will inherit the land.

¹⁴The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant.

¹⁵My eyes are continually toward the LORD, For He will rescue my feet from the net.

¹⁶Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted.

¹⁷The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses.

¹⁸Look at my misery and my trouble, And forgive all my sins.

¹⁹Look at my enemies, for they are many, And they hate me with violent hatred.

²⁰Guard my soul and save me; Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in You.

²¹Let integrity and uprightness protect me, For I wait for You.

²²Redeem Israel, God, From all his distress.

¹A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

²The tongue of the wise makes knowledge pleasant, But the mouth of fools spouts foolishness.

³The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good.

⁴A soothing tongue is a tree of life, But perversion in it crushes the spirit.

⁵A fool rejects his father’s discipline, But he who complies with rebuke is sensible.

⁶Great wealth is in the house of the righteous, But trouble is in the income of the wicked.

⁷The lips of the wise spread knowledge, But the hearts of fools are not so.

⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But the prayer of the upright is His delight.

⁹The way of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, But He loves the one who pursues righteousness.

¹⁰There is severe punishment for one who abandons the way; One who hates a rebuke will die.

¹¹Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD, How much more the hearts of mankind!

¹²A scoffer does not love one who rebukes him; He will not go to the wise.

¹³A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.

¹⁴The mind of the intelligent seeks knowledge, But the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.

¹⁵All the days of the needy are bad, But a cheerful heart has a continual feast.

¹⁶Better is a little with the fear of the LORD Than great treasure, and turmoil with the treasure.

¹⁷Better is a portion of vegetables where there is love, Than a fattened ox served with hatred.

¹⁸A hot-tempered person stirs up strife, But the slow to anger calms a dispute.

¹⁹The way of the lazy one is like a hedge of thorns, But the path of the upright is a highway.

²⁰A wise son makes a father glad, But a foolish man despises his mother.

²¹Foolishness is joy to one who lacks sense, But a person of understanding walks straight.

²²Without consultation, plans are frustrated, But with many counselors they succeed.

²³A person has joy in an apt answer, And how delightful is a timely word!

²⁴The path of life leads upward for the wise, So that he may keep away from Sheol below.

²⁵The LORD will tear down the house of the proud, But He will set the boundary of the widow.

²⁶Evil plans are an abomination to the LORD, But pleasant words are pure.

²⁷He who profits illicitly troubles his own house, But he who hates bribes will live.

²⁸The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.

²⁹The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.

³⁰Bright eyes gladden the heart; Good news refreshes the bones.

³¹One whose ear listens to a life-giving rebuke Will stay among the wise.

³²One who neglects discipline rejects himself, But one who listens to a rebuke acquires understanding.

³³The fear of the LORD is the instruction for wisdom, And before honor comes humility.

¹Then David said to himself, “Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to safely escape into the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.”

²So David set out and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

³And David lived with Achish in Gath, he and his men, each with his own household—David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s widow.

⁴Now it was reported to Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him.

⁵Then David said to Achish, “If now I have found favor in your sight, have them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, so that I may live there; for why should your servant live in the royal city with you?”

⁶So Achish gave him Ziklag that day; therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.

⁷The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.

⁸Now David and his men went up and attacked the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times, as you come to Shur even as far as the land of Egypt.

⁹David attacked the land and did not leave a man or a woman alive, and he took the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish.

¹⁰Now Achish said, “Where did you carry out an attack today?” And David said, “Against the Negev of Judah, against the Negev of the Jerahmeelites, and against the Negev of the Kenites.”

¹¹And David did not leave a man or a woman alive to bring to Gath, saying, “Otherwise they will tell about us, saying, ‘This is what David has done, and this has been his practice all the time that he has lived in the country of the Philistines.’ ”

¹²So Achish believed David, saying, “He has undoubtedly made himself repulsive among his people Israel; therefore he will become my servant forever.”

¹Oh, that my head were waters And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For those slain of the daughter of my people!

²Oh that I had in the desert A travelers’ lodging place; So that I might leave my people And go away from them! For all of them are adulterers, An assembly of treacherous people.

³“They bend their tongues like their bows; Lies and not truth prevail in the land; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know Me,” declares the LORD.

⁴“Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because every brother utterly betrays, And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

⁵Everyone deceives his neighbor And does not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves committing wrongdoing.

⁶Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD.

⁷Therefore this is what the LORD of armies says: “Behold, I will refine them and put them to the test; For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?

⁸Their tongue is a deadly arrow; It speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.

⁹Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the LORD. “Shall I not avenge Myself On a nation such as this?

¹⁰“I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And for the pastures of the wilderness a song of mourning, Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, And the sound of the livestock is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.

¹¹I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”

¹²Who is the wise person who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed, laid waste like the desert, so that no one passes through?

¹³The LORD said, “Because they have abandoned My Law which I put before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it,

¹⁴but have followed the stubbornness of their heart and the Baals, as their fathers taught them,”

¹⁵therefore this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood; and I will give them poisoned water to drink.

¹⁶I will also scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have put an end to them.”

¹⁷This is what the LORD of armies says: “Consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come; And send for the skillful women, that they may come!

¹⁸Have them hurry and take up a wailing for us, So that our eyes may shed tears, And our eyelids flow with water.

¹⁹For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How devastated we are! We are put to great shame, For we have abandoned the land Because they have torn down our homes.’ ”

²⁰Now hear the word of the LORD, you women, And let your ears receive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And have every woman teach her neighbor a song of mourning.

²¹For death has come up through our windows; It has entered our palaces To eliminate the children from the streets, The young men from the public squares.

²²Speak, “This is what the LORD says: ‘The corpses of people will fall like dung on the open field, And like the sheaf after the reaper, But no one will gather them.’ ”

²³This is what the LORD says: “Let no wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches;

²⁴but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.

²⁵“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised—

²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all those inhabiting the desert who trim the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.”

¹Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²And according to Paul’s custom, he visited them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”

⁴And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a significant number of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and they attacked the house of Jason and were seeking to bring them out to the people.

⁶When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also;

⁷and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

⁸They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things.

⁹And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them.

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

¹¹Now these people were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

¹²Therefore, many of them believed, along with a significant number of prominent Greek women and men.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

¹⁴Then immediately the brothers sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there.

¹⁵Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present.

¹⁸And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?

²⁰For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.”

²¹(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

²²So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects.

²³For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands;

²⁵nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;

²⁶and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

²⁷that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

²⁸for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’

²⁹Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought.

³⁰So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent,

³¹because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”

³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We shall hear from you again concerning this.”

³³So Paul went out from among them.

³⁴But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.