Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

²In my Father’s house are many rooms; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you.

³If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.

⁴You know the way to where I am going.”

⁵“Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”

⁶Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

⁷If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸“Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”

⁹Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

¹⁰Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works.

¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.

¹²“Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

¹³Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

¹⁴If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

¹⁵“If you love me, you will keep my commands.

¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.

¹⁷He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.

¹⁸“I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.

¹⁹In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too.

²⁰On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.

²¹The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

²²Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it you’re going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

²³Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

²⁴The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.

²⁵“I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you.

²⁶But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

²⁷“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.

²⁸You have heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.

²⁹I have told you now before it happens so that when it does happen you may believe.

³⁰I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me.

³¹On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me. “Get up; let’s leave this place.

¹“Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and drive out nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities fortified to the heavens.

²The people are strong and tall, the descendants of the Anakim. You know about them and you have heard it said about them, ‘Who can stand up to the sons of Anak? ’

³But understand that today the LORD your God will cross over ahead of you as a consuming fire; he will devastate and subdue them before you. You will drive them out and destroy them swiftly, as the LORD has told you.

⁴When the LORD your God drives them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The LORD brought me in to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ Instead, the LORD will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness.

⁵You are not going to take possession of their land because of your righteousness or your integrity. Instead, the LORD your God will drive out these nations before you because of their wickedness, in order to fulfill the promise he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶Understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

⁷“Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. You have been rebelling against the LORD from the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place.

⁸You provoked the LORD at Horeb, and he was angry enough with you to destroy you.

⁹When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I did not eat food or drink water.

¹⁰On the day of the assembly the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by God’s finger. The exact words were on them, which the LORD spoke to you from the fire on the mountain.

¹¹The LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant, at the end of the forty days and forty nights.

¹²“The LORD said to me, ‘Get up and go down immediately from here. For your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast image for themselves.’

¹³The LORD also said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, they are a stiff-necked people.

¹⁴Leave me alone, and I will destroy them and blot out their name under heaven. Then I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.’

¹⁵“So I went back down the mountain, while it was blazing with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.

¹⁶I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made a calf image for yourselves. You had quickly turned from the way the LORD had commanded for you.

¹⁷So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands, shattering them before your eyes.

¹⁸I fell down like the first time in the presence of the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food or drink water because of all the sin you committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and angering him.

¹⁹I was afraid of the fierce anger the LORD had directed against you, because he was about to destroy you. But again the LORD listened to me on that occasion.

²⁰The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. But I prayed for Aaron at that time also.

²¹I took the sinful calf you had made and burned it. I crushed it, thoroughly grinding it to powder as fine as dust, and threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

²²“You continued to provoke the LORD at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah.

²³When the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, he said, ‘Go up and possess the land I have given you’; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not believe or obey him.

²⁴You have been rebelling against the LORD ever since I have known you.

²⁵“I fell down in the presence of the LORD forty days and forty nights because the LORD had threatened to destroy you.

²⁶I prayed to the LORD: Lord GOD, do not annihilate your people, your inheritance, whom you redeemed through your greatness and brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

²⁷Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Disregard this people’s stubbornness, and their wickedness and sin.

²⁸Otherwise, those in the land you brought us from will say, ‘Because the LORD wasn’t able to bring them into the land he had promised them, and because he hated them, he brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’

²⁹But they are your people, your inheritance, whom you brought out by your great power and outstretched arm.

¹For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands.

²Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling,

³since, when we have taken it off, we will not be found naked.

⁴Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

⁵Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment.

⁶So we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

⁷For we walk by faith, not by sight.

⁸In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

⁹Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.

¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

¹¹Therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your consciences.

¹²We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in outward appearance rather than in the heart.

¹³For if we are out of our mind, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

¹⁴For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If one died for all, then all died.

¹⁵And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.

¹⁶From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

¹⁸Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

¹⁹That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

²⁰Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.”

²¹He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

¹My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

²For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in,

³if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,”

⁴haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

⁶Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court?

⁷Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?

⁸Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.

⁹If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

¹⁰For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all.

¹¹For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.

¹²Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.

¹³For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?

¹⁵If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food

¹⁶and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?

¹⁷In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself.

¹⁸But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.

¹⁹You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe — and they shudder.

²⁰Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?

²¹Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar?

²²You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete,

²³and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.

²⁴You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

²⁵In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route?

²⁶For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

¹Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the deer in labor?

²Can you count the months they are pregnant so you can know the time they give birth?

³They crouch down to give birth to their young; they deliver their newborn.

⁴Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field. They leave and do not return.

⁵Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from its harness?

⁶I made the desert its home, and the salty wasteland its dwelling.

⁷It scoffs at the noise of the village and never hears the shouts of a driver.

⁸It roams the mountains for its pastureland, searching for anything green.

⁹Would the wild ox be willing to serve you? Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?

¹⁰Can you hold the wild ox to a furrow by its harness? Will it plow the valleys behind you?

¹¹Can you depend on it because its strength is great? Would you leave it to do your hard work?

¹²Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain and bring it to your threshing floor?

¹³The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s?

¹⁴She abandons her eggs on the ground and lets them be warmed in the sand.

¹⁵She forgets that a foot may crush them or that some wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own, with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.

¹⁷For God has deprived her of wisdom; he has not endowed her with understanding.

¹⁸When she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

¹⁹Do you give strength to the horse? Do you adorn his neck with a mane?

²⁰Do you make him leap like a locust? His proud snorting fills one with terror.

²¹He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle.

²²He laughs at fear, since he is afraid of nothing; he does not run from the sword.

²³A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and a javelin.

²⁴He charges ahead with trembling rage; he cannot stand still at the trumpet’s sound.

²⁵When the trumpet blasts, he snorts defiantly. He smells the battle from a distance; he hears the officers’ shouts and the battle cry.

²⁶Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread its wings to the south?

²⁷Does the eagle soar at your command and make its nest on high?

²⁸It lives on a cliff where it spends the night; its stronghold is on a rocky crag.

²⁹From there it searches for prey; its eyes penetrate the distance.

³⁰Its brood gulps down blood, and where the slain are, it is there.

¹For the choir director. A psalm of the sons of Korah. [1] Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who inhabit the world,

²both low and high, rich and poor together.

³My mouth speaks wisdom; my heart’s meditation brings understanding.

⁴I turn my ear to a proverb; I explain my riddle with a lyre.

⁵Why should I fear in times of trouble? The iniquity of my foes surrounds me.

⁶They trust in their wealth and boast of their abundant riches.

⁷Yet these cannot redeem a person or pay his ransom to God  —

⁸since the price of redeeming him is too costly, one should forever stop trying  —

⁹so that he may live forever and not see the Pit.

¹⁰For one can see that the wise die; the foolish and stupid also pass away. Then they leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their graves are their permanent homes, their dwellings from generation to generation, though they have named estates after themselves.

¹²But despite his assets, mankind will not last; he is like the animals that perish.

¹³This is the way of those who are arrogant, and of their followers, who approve of their words. Selah

¹⁴Like sheep they are headed for Sheol; Death will shepherd them. The upright will rule over them in the morning, and their form will waste away in Sheol, far from their lofty abode.

¹⁵But God will redeem me from the power of Sheol, for he will take me. Selah

¹⁶Do not be afraid when a person gets rich, when the wealth of his house increases.

¹⁷For when he dies, he will take nothing at all; his wealth will not follow him down.

¹⁸Though he blesses himself during his lifetime — and you are acclaimed when you do well for yourself  —

¹⁹he will go to the generation of his fathers; they will never see the light.

²⁰Mankind, with his assets but without understanding, is like the animals that perish.

¹Doesn’t wisdom call out? Doesn’t understanding make her voice heard?

²At the heights overlooking the road, at the crossroads, she takes her stand.

³Beside the gates leading into the city, at the main entrance, she cries out:

⁴“People, I call out to you; my cry is to the children of Adam.

⁵Learn to be shrewd, you who are inexperienced; develop common sense, you who are foolish.

⁶Listen, for I speak of noble things, and what my lips say is right.

⁷For my mouth tells the truth, and wickedness is detestable to my lips.

⁸All the words from my mouth are righteous; none of them are deceptive or perverse.

⁹All of them are clear to the perceptive, and right to those who discover knowledge.

¹⁰Accept my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.

¹¹For wisdom is better than jewels, and nothing desirable can equal it.

¹²I, wisdom, share a home with shrewdness and have knowledge and discretion.

¹³To fear the LORD is to hate evil. I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.

¹⁴I possess good advice and sound wisdom; I have understanding and strength.

¹⁵It is by me that kings reign and rulers enact just law;

¹⁶by me, princes lead, as do nobles and all righteous judges.

¹⁷I love those who love me, and those who search for me find me.

¹⁸With me are riches and honor, lasting wealth and righteousness.

¹⁹My fruit is better than solid gold, and my harvest than pure silver.

²⁰I walk in the ways of righteousness, along the paths of justice,

²¹giving wealth as an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.

²²“The LORD acquired me at the beginning of his creation, before his works of long ago.

²³I was formed before ancient times, from the beginning, before the earth began.

²⁴I was born when there were no watery depths and no springs filled with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were established, prior to the hills, I was given birth —

²⁶before he made the land, the fields, or the first soil on earth.

²⁷I was there when he established the heavens, when he laid out the horizon on the surface of the ocean,

²⁸when he placed the skies above, when the fountains of the ocean gushed out,

²⁹when he set a limit for the sea so that the waters would not violate his command, when he laid out the foundations of the earth.

³⁰I was a skilled craftsman beside him. I was his delight every day, always rejoicing before him.

³¹I was rejoicing in his inhabited world, delighting in the children of Adam.

³²“And now, sons, listen to me; those who keep my ways are happy.

³³Listen to instruction and be wise; don’t ignore it.

³⁴Anyone who listens to me is happy, watching at my doors every day, waiting by the posts of my doorway.

³⁵For the one who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD,

³⁶but the one who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”

¹Now a wicked man, a Benjaminite named Sheba son of Bichri, happened to be there. He blew the ram’s horn and shouted: We have no portion in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Each man to his tent, Israel!

²So all the men of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba son of Bichri, but the men of Judah from the Jordan all the way to Jerusalem remained loyal to their king.

³When David came to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace and placed them under guard. He provided for them, but he was not intimate with them. They were confined until the day of their death, living as widows.

⁴The king said to Amasa, “Summon the men of Judah to me within three days and be here yourself.”

⁵Amasa went to summon Judah, but he took longer than the time allotted him.

⁶So David said to Abishai, “Sheba son of Bichri will do more harm to us than Absalom. Take your lord’s soldiers and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and elude us.”

⁷So Joab’s men, the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the warriors marched out under Abishai’s command; they left Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.

⁸They were at the great stone in Gibeon when Amasa joined them. Joab was wearing his uniform and over it was a belt around his waist with a sword in its sheath. As he approached, the sword fell out.

⁹Joab asked Amasa, “Are you well, my brother?” Then with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him.

¹⁰Amasa was not on guard against the sword in Joab’s hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach with it and spilled his intestines out on the ground. Joab did not stab him again, and Amasa died. Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri.

¹¹One of Joab’s young men had stood over Amasa saying, “Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David, follow Joab!”

¹²Now Amasa had been writhing in his blood in the middle of the highway, and the man had seen that all the troops stopped. So he moved Amasa from the highway to the field and threw a garment over him because he realized that all those who encountered Amasa were stopping.

¹³When he was removed from the highway, all the men passed by and followed Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.

¹⁴Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Beth-maacah. All the Berites came together and followed him.

¹⁵Joab’s troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel of Beth-maacah. They built a siege ramp against the outer wall of the city. While all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to make it collapse,

¹⁶a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen! Listen! Please tell Joab to come here and let me speak with him.”

¹⁷When he had come near her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” “I am,” he replied. “Listen to the words of your servant,” she said to him. He answered, “I’m listening.”

¹⁸She said, “In the past they used to say, ‘Seek counsel in Abel,’ and that’s how they settled disputes.

¹⁹I am one of the peaceful and faithful in Israel, but you’re trying to destroy a city that is like a mother in Israel. Why would you devour the LORD’s inheritance?”

²⁰Joab protested: “Never! I would never devour or demolish!

²¹That is not the case. There is a man named Sheba son of Bichri, from the hill country of Ephraim, who has rebelled against King David. Deliver this one man, and I will withdraw from the city.” The woman replied to Joab, “Watch! His head will be thrown over the wall to you.”

²²The woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the ram’s horn, and they dispersed from the city, each to his own tent. Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

²³Joab commanded the whole army of Israel; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and Pelethites;

²⁴Adoram was over forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was court historian;

²⁵Sheva was court secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

²⁶and in addition, Ira the Jairite was David’s priest.

¹While he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time:

²“The LORD who made the earth, the LORD who forms it to establish it, the LORD is his name, says this:

³Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.

⁴For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah’s kings, the ones torn down for defense against the assault ramps and the sword:

⁵The people coming to fight the Chaldeans will fill the houses with the corpses of their own men that I strike down in my wrath and rage. I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil.

⁶Yet I will certainly bring health and healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundance of true peace.

⁷I will restore the fortunes of Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times.

⁸I will purify them from all the iniquity they have committed against me, and I will forgive all the iniquities they have committed against me, rebelling against me.

⁹This city will bear on my behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the prosperity I will give them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them.

¹⁰“This is what the LORD says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without people or animals — that is, in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are a desolation without people, without inhabitants, and without animals — there will be heard again

¹¹a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying, Give thanks to the LORD of Armies, for the LORD is good; his faithful love endures forever as they bring thank offerings to the temple of the LORD. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the LORD.

¹²“This is what the LORD of Armies says: In this desolate place — without people or animals — and in all its cities there will once more be a grazing land where shepherds may rest flocks.

¹³The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them in the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, the cities of the Negev, the land of Benjamin — the areas around Jerusalem and in Judah’s cities, says the LORD.

¹⁴“Look, the days are coming” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “when I will fulfill the good promise that I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

¹⁵In those days and at that time I will cause a Righteous Branch to sprout up for David, and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is what she will be named: The LORD Is Our Righteousness.

¹⁷“For this is what the LORD says: David will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel.

¹⁸The Levitical priests will never fail to have a man always before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.”

¹⁹The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

²⁰“This is what the LORD says: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night cease to come at their regular time,

²¹then also my covenant with my servant David may be broken. If that could happen, then he would not have a son reigning on his throne and the Levitical priests would not be my ministers.

²²Even as the stars of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so too I will make innumerable the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.”

²³The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

²⁴“Have you not noticed what these people have said? They say, ‘The LORD has rejected the two families he had chosen.’ My people are treated with contempt and no longer regarded as a nation among them.

²⁵This is what the LORD says: If I do not keep my covenant with the day and with the night, and if I fail to establish the fixed order of heaven and earth,

²⁶then I might also reject the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David. That is, I would not take rulers from his descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in fact, I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.”

¹Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

²As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

³Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off.

⁴So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

⁵Arriving in Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. They also had John as their assistant.

⁶When they had traveled the whole island as far as Paphos, they came across a sorcerer, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.

⁷He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God.

⁸But Elymas the sorcerer (that is the meaning of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

⁹But Saul — also called Paul — filled with the Holy Spirit, stared straight at Elymas

¹⁰and said, “You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery, you son of the devil and enemy of all that is right. Won’t you ever stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord?

¹¹Now, look, the Lord’s hand is against you. You are going to be blind, and will not see the sun for a time.” Immediately a mist and darkness fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

¹²Then, when he saw what happened, the proconsul believed, because he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

¹³Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia, but John left them and went back to Jerusalem.

¹⁴They continued their journey from Perga and reached Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.

¹⁵After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, you can speak.”

¹⁶Paul stood up and motioned with his hand and said: “Fellow Israelites, and you who fear God, listen!

¹⁷The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors, made the people prosper during their stay in the land of Egypt, and led them out of it with a mighty arm.

¹⁸And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness;

¹⁹and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.

²⁰This all took about 450 years. After this, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

²¹Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

²²After removing him, he raised up David as their king and testified about him:’ I have found David the son of Jesse to be a man after my own heart, who will carry out all my will.’

²³“From this man’s descendants, as he promised, God brought to Israel the Savior, Jesus.

²⁴Before his coming to public attention, John had previously proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

²⁵Now as John was completing his mission, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not the one. But one is coming after me, and I am not worthy to untie the sandals on his feet.’

²⁶“Brothers and sisters, children of Abraham’s race, and those among you who fear God, it is to us that the word of this salvation has been sent.

²⁷Since the residents of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize him or the sayings of the prophets that are read every Sabbath, they have fulfilled their words by condemning him.

²⁸Though they found no grounds for the death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him killed.

²⁹When they had carried out all that had been written about him, they took him down from the tree and put him in a tomb.

³⁰But God raised him from the dead,

³¹and he appeared for many days to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

³²And we ourselves proclaim to you the good news of the promise that was made to our ancestors.

³³God has fulfilled this for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second Psalm: You are my Son; today I have become your Father.

³⁴As to his raising him from the dead, never to return to decay, he has spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure promises of David.

³⁵Therefore he also says in another passage, You will not let your Holy One see decay.

³⁶For David, after serving God’s purpose in his own generation, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and decayed,

³⁷but the one God raised up did not decay.

³⁸Therefore, let it be known to you, brothers and sisters, that through this man forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you.

³⁹Everyone who believes is justified through him from everything that you could not be justified from through the law of Moses.

⁴⁰So beware that what is said in the prophets does not happen to you:

⁴¹Look, you scoffers, marvel and vanish away, because I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will never believe, even if someone were to explain it to you.”

⁴²As they were leaving, the people urged them to speak about these matters the following Sabbath.

⁴³After the synagogue had been dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and urging them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴The following Sabbath almost the whole town assembled to hear the word of the Lord.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what Paul was saying, insulting him.

⁴⁶Paul and Barnabas boldly replied, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first. Since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we are turning to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For this is what the Lord has commanded us: I have made you a light for the Gentiles to bring salvation to the end of the earth.”

⁴⁸When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and honored the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.

⁴⁹The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.

⁵⁰But the Jews incited the prominent God-fearing women and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their district.

⁵¹But Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet against them and went to Iconium.

⁵²And the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.