Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.

³In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

⁴For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

⁵Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

⁷The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

⁸Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”

⁹And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.

¹⁰The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”

¹¹He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ”

¹²Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”

¹³But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place.

¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”

¹⁵The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

¹⁶For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

¹⁷But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

¹⁸Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

¹⁹Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.

²⁰For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.

²¹For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.

²²For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,

²³that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

²⁴“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

²⁵Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.

²⁶For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,

²⁷and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.

²⁸Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice

²⁹and come forth— those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

³⁰I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

³¹“If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.

³²There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.

³³You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.

³⁴Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.

³⁵He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.

³⁶But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.

³⁷And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.

³⁸But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.

³⁹You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

⁴⁰But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

⁴¹“I do not receive honor from men.

⁴²But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you.

⁴³I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.

⁴⁴How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust.

⁴⁶For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.

⁴⁷But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

¹Now the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the chief fathers of the children of Israel.

²And they said: “The LORD commanded my lord Moses to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel, and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.

³Now if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance.

⁴And when the Jubilee of the children of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry; so their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

⁵Then Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying: “What the tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks is right.

⁶This is what the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, ‘Let them marry whom they think best, but they may marry only within the family of their father’s tribe.’

⁷So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

⁸And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife of one of the family of her father’s tribe, so that the children of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers.

⁹Thus no inheritance shall change hands from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel shall keep its own inheritance.”

¹⁰Just as the LORD commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad;

¹¹for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to the sons of their father’s brothers.

¹²They were married into the families of the children of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s family.

¹³These are the commandments and the judgments which the LORD commanded the children of Israel by the hand of Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho.

¹Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant:

²You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.

³Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

⁴There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

⁵There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.

⁶And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.

⁷But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:

⁸for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit,

⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit,

¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

¹¹But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

¹²For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

¹³For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

¹⁴For in fact the body is not one member but many.

¹⁵If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?

¹⁶And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?

¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?

¹⁸But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

¹⁹And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

²⁰But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

²¹And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”

²²No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

²³And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty,

²⁴but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,

²⁵that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.

²⁶And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

²⁸And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.

²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?

³⁰Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

³¹But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,

²To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day,

⁴greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy,

⁵when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.

⁶Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

⁷For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

⁸Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God,

⁹who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

¹⁰but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

¹¹to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

¹²For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

¹³Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

¹⁵This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

¹⁶The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain;

¹⁷but when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me.

¹⁸The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that Day—and you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus.

¹“But now they mock at me, men younger than I, Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.

²Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me? Their vigor has perished.

³They are gaunt from want and famine, Fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste,

⁴Who pluck mallow by the bushes, And broom tree roots for their food.

⁵They were driven out from among men, They shouted at them as at a thief.

⁶They had to live in the clefts of the valleys, In caves of the earth and the rocks.

⁷Among the bushes they brayed, Under the nettles they nestled.

⁸They were sons of fools, Yes, sons of vile men; They were scourged from the land.

⁹“And now I am their taunting song; Yes, I am their byword.

¹⁰They abhor me, they keep far from me; They do not hesitate to spit in my face.

¹¹Because He has loosed my bowstring and afflicted me, They have cast off restraint before me.

¹²At my right hand the rabble arises; They push away my feet, And they raise against me their ways of destruction.

¹³They break up my path, They promote my calamity; They have no helper.

¹⁴They come as broad breakers; Under the ruinous storm they roll along.

¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me; They pursue my honor as the wind, And my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

¹⁶“And now my soul is poured out because of my plight; The days of affliction take hold of me.

¹⁷My bones are pierced in me at night, And my gnawing pains take no rest.

¹⁸By great force my garment is disfigured; It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

¹⁹He has cast me into the mire, And I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰“I cry out to You, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You regard me.

²¹But You have become cruel to me; With the strength of Your hand You oppose me.

²²You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride on it; You spoil my success.

²³For I know that You will bring me to death, And to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴“Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins, If they cry out when He destroys it.

²⁵Have I not wept for him who was in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?

²⁶But when I looked for good, evil came to me; And when I waited for light, then came darkness.

²⁷My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest; Days of affliction confront me.

²⁸I go about mourning, but not in the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.

²⁹I am a brother of jackals, And a companion of ostriches.

³⁰My skin grows black and falls from me; My bones burn with fever.

³¹My harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the voice of those who weep.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. [1] I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry.

²He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.

³He has put a new song in my mouth— Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD.

⁴Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

⁵Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.

⁶Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.

⁷Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me.

⁸I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”

⁹I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness In the great assembly; Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O LORD, You Yourself know.

¹⁰I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly.

¹¹Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O LORD; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.

¹²For innumerable evils have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of my head; Therefore my heart fails me.

¹³Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me!

¹⁴Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who seek to destroy my life; Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor Who wish me evil.

¹⁵Let them be confounded because of their shame, Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”

¹⁶Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, “The LORD be magnified!”

¹⁷But I am poor and needy; Yet the LORD thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God.

¹The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, his utterance. This man declared to Ithiel—to Ithiel and Ucal:

²Surely I am more stupid than any man, And do not have the understanding of a man.

³I neither learned wisdom Nor have knowledge of the Holy One.

⁴Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, If you know?

⁵Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.

⁶Do not add to His words, Lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.

⁷Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die):

⁸Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches— Feed me with the food allotted to me;

⁹Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the LORD?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God.

¹⁰Do not malign a servant to his master, Lest he curse you, and you be found guilty.

¹¹There is a generation that curses its father, And does not bless its mother.

¹²There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness.

¹³There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.

¹⁴There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, And whose fangs are like knives, To devour the poor from off the earth, And the needy from among men.

¹⁵The leech has two daughters— Give and Give! There are three things that are never satisfied, Four never say, “Enough!”:

¹⁶The grave, The barren womb, The earth that is not satisfied with water— And the fire never says, “Enough!”

¹⁷The eye that mocks his father, And scorns obedience to his mother, The ravens of the valley will pick it out, And the young eagles will eat it.

¹⁸There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Yes, four which I do not understand:

¹⁹The way of an eagle in the air, The way of a serpent on a rock, The way of a ship in the midst of the sea, And the way of a man with a virgin.

²⁰This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, And says, “I have done no wickedness.”

²¹For three things the earth is perturbed, Yes, for four it cannot bear up:

²²For a servant when he reigns, A fool when he is filled with food,

²³A hateful woman when she is married, And a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.

²⁴There are four things which are little on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise:

²⁵The ants are a people not strong, Yet they prepare their food in the summer;

²⁶The rock badgers are a feeble folk, Yet they make their homes in the crags;

²⁷The locusts have no king, Yet they all advance in ranks;

²⁸The spider skillfully grasps with its hands, And it is in kings’ palaces.

²⁹There are three things which are majestic in pace, Yes, four which are stately in walk:

³⁰A lion, which is mighty among beasts And does not turn away from any;

³¹A greyhound, A male goat also, And a king whose troops are with him.

³²If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, Or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth.

³³For as the churning of milk produces butter, And wringing the nose produces blood, So the forcing of wrath produces strife.

¹It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

²Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.

³So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

⁴Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house.

⁵And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”

⁶Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David.

⁷When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered.

⁸And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him.

⁹But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

¹⁰So when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?”

¹¹And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.”

¹²Then David said to Uriah, “Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.

¹³Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

¹⁵And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.”

¹⁶So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men.

¹⁷Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also.

¹⁸Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war,

¹⁹and charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king,

²⁰if it happens that the king’s wrath rises, and he says to you: ‘Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?

²¹Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’ ”

²²So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him.

²³And the messenger said to David, “Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field; then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate.

²⁴The archers shot from the wall at your servants; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.”

²⁵Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ So encourage him.”

²⁶When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.

²⁷And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

¹The LORD showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

²One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

³Then the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”

⁴Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁵“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans.

⁶For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.

⁷Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.

⁸‘And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the LORD—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.

⁹I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.

¹⁰And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”

¹Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them,

²being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

³And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.

⁴However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

⁵And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes,

⁶as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.

⁷And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”

⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel:

⁹If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well,

¹⁰let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.

¹¹This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’

¹²Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

¹³Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

¹⁴And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

¹⁵But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,

¹⁶saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

¹⁷But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”

¹⁸So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.

²⁰For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

²¹So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done.

²²For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.

²³And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

²⁴So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them,

²⁵who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things?

²⁶The kings of the earth took their stand, And the rulers were gathered together Against the LORD and against His Christ.’

²⁷“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together

²⁸to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.

²⁹Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,

³⁰by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”

³¹And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

³²Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

³³And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.

³⁴Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold,

³⁵and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.

³⁶And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus,

³⁷having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.