Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.

²In My Father’s house are manyrooms; if that were not so,I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you.

³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be.

⁴And you know the way where I am going.”

⁵Thomas *said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how do we know the way?”

⁶Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.

⁷If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”

⁸Philip *said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”

⁹Jesus *said to him, “Have I been withyou for so long a time, and yetyou have not come to know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own, but the Father, as He remains 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.

¹²Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I am going to the Father.

¹³And whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, 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 commandments.

¹⁶I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever;

¹⁷the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you 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.

¹⁹After a little while, the world no longer is going to see Me, but you are going to see Me; because I live, you also will live.

²⁰On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you.

²¹The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.”

²²Judas (not Iscariot) *said to Him, “Lord, what has happened that You are going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?”

²³Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him.

²⁴The one who does not love Me does not follow My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

²⁵“These things I have spoken to you while remaining with you.

²⁶But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you.

²⁷Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you.Do not let your hearts be troubled, norfearful.

²⁸You heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoicedbecause I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

²⁹And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.

³⁰I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he hasnothing in regard to Me,

³¹but so that the world may know that I love the Father,I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let’s go from here.

¹“Hear, Israel! You are crossing the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities that are great and fortified to heaven,

²a people who are great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard it said, ‘Who can stand against the sons of Anak?’

³So be aware today that it is the LORD your God who is crossing over ahead of you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and He will subdue them before you, so that you may drive them out and eliminate them quickly, just as the LORD has spoken to you.

⁴“Do not say in your heart when the LORD your God has driven them away from you, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to take possession of this land.’ Rather, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you.

⁵It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to confirm the oath which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶“Know, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.

⁷Remember, do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to anger in the wilderness; from the day that you left the land of Egypt until you arrived at this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.

⁸Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to anger, and the LORD was so angry with you that He would have destroyed you.

⁹When I went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I remained on the mountain for forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water.

¹⁰The LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.

¹¹It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

¹²Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast metal image for themselves.’

¹³The LORD also said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people.

¹⁴Leave Me alone, that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

¹⁵“So I turned and came down from the mountain while the mountain was burning with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

¹⁶And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God. You had made for yourselves a cast metal image of a calf; you had quickly turned aside from the way that the LORD had commanded you.

¹⁷So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my two hands, and smashed them to pieces before your eyes!

¹⁸Then I fell down before the LORD like the first time, for forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.

¹⁹For I was afraid of the anger and the rage with which the LORD was angry with you so as to destroy you; but the LORD listened to me that time as well.

²⁰The LORD was also angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.

²¹And I took your sinful thing which you had made, the calf, and burned it in the fire and crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.

²²“Then at Taberah, at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah you kept provoking the LORD to anger.

²³And when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, ‘Go up and take possession of the land which I have given you,’ you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God; you neither trusted Him nor listened to His voice.

²⁴You have been rebellious toward the LORD since the day I knew you.

²⁵“So I fell down before the LORD for the forty days and nights, which I did because the LORD said He would destroy you.

²⁶And I prayed to the LORD and said, ‘Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand!

²⁷Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not turn Your attention to the stubbornness of this people, or to their wickedness, or their sin.

²⁸Otherwise, the people of the land from which You brought us will say, “Since the LORD was not able to bring them into the land which He had promised them, and since He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness!”

²⁹Yet they are Your people, and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.’

¹For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens.

²For indeed, in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven,

³since in fact after putting it on, we will not be found naked.

⁴For indeed, we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

⁵Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a pledge.

⁶Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—

⁷for we walk by faith, not by sight—

⁸but we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

⁹Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad.

¹¹Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade people, but we are well known to God; and I hope that we are also well known in your consciences.

¹²We are not commending ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart.

¹³For if we have lost our minds, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you.

¹⁴For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;

¹⁵and He died for all, so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose on their behalf.

¹⁶Therefore from now on we recognize no one by the flesh; even though we have known Christ by the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.

¹⁷Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

¹⁸Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,

¹⁹namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

²¹He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

¹My brothers and sisters, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

²For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and is dressed in bright clothes, and a poor man in dirty clothes also comes in,

³and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the bright clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,”

⁴have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters: did God not choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

⁶But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?

⁷Do they not blaspheme the good name by which you have been called?

⁸If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,” you are doing well.

⁹But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the Law as violators.

¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.

¹¹For He who said, “DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,” also said, “DO NOT MURDER.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a violator of the Law.

¹²So speak, and so act, as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.

¹³For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴What use is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

¹⁵If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,

¹⁶and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

¹⁷In the same way, faith also, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

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

¹⁹You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

²⁰But are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless?

²¹Was our father Abraham not justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

²²You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;

²³and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called a friend of God.

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

²⁵In the same way, was Rahab the prostitute not justified by works also when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

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

¹“Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the deer?

²Can you count the months they fulfill, Or do you know the time they give birth?

³They kneel down, they deliver their young, They get rid of their labor pains.

⁴Their offspring become strong, they grow up in the open field; They leave and do not return to them.

⁵“Who sent the wild donkey out free? And who opened the bonds of the swift donkey,

⁶To whom I gave the wilderness as his home, And the salt land as his dwelling place?

⁷He laughs at the turmoil of the city, He does not hear the shouting of the taskmaster.

⁸He explores the mountains of his pasture, And searches after every green thing.

⁹Will the wild bull be willing to serve you, Or will he spend the night at your feeding trough?

¹⁰Can you tie down the wild bull in a furrow with ropes, Or will he plow the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you trust him because his strength is great, And leave your labor to him?

¹²Will you have faith in him that he will return your grain And gather it from your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of the ostrich flap joyously, With the pinion and feathers of love,

¹⁴For she abandons her eggs to the earth And warms them in the dust,

¹⁵And she forgets that a foot may crush them, Or that a wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶She treats her young cruelly, as if they were not hers; Though her labor is for nothing, she is unconcerned,

¹⁷Because God has made her forget wisdom, And has not given her a share of understanding.

¹⁸When she rushes away on high, She laughs at the horse and his rider.

¹⁹“Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?

²⁰Do you make him leap like locusts? His majestic snorting is frightening.

²¹He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He goes out to meet the battle.

²²He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; And he does not turn back from the sword.

²³The quiver rattles against him, The flashing spear and javelin.

²⁴He races over the ground with a roar and fury, And he does not stand still when he hears the sound of the trumpet.

²⁵As often as the trumpet sounds he says, ‘Aha!’ And he senses the battle from afar, And the thunder of the captains and the war cry.

²⁶“Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, Stretching his wings toward the south?

²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle flies high, And makes his nest on high?

²⁸He dwells and spends his nights on the cliff, On the rocky cliff, an inaccessible place.

²⁹From there he tracks food; His eyes look at it from afar.

³⁰His young ones also lick up blood greedily; And where the slain are, there he is.”

¹Hear this, all peoples; Listen, all inhabitants of the world,

²Both low and high, Rich and poor together.

³My mouth will speak wisdom, And the meditation of my heart will be understanding.

⁴I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will express my riddle on the harp.

⁵Why should I fear in days of adversity, When the injustice of those who betray me surrounds me,

⁶Those who trust in their wealth And boast in the abundance of their riches?

⁷No one can by any means redeem another Or give God a ransom for him—

⁸For the redemption of his soul is priceless, And he should cease imagining forever—

⁹That he might live on eternally, That he might not undergo decay.

¹⁰For he sees that even wise people die; The foolish and the stupid alike perish And leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their inner thought is that their houses are forever And their dwelling places to all generations; They have named their lands after their own names.

¹²But man in his splendor will not endure; He is like the animals that perish.

¹³This is the way of those who are foolish, And of those after them who approve their words. Selah

¹⁴Like sheep they sink down to Sheol; Death will be their shepherd; And the upright will rule over them in the morning, And their form shall be for Sheol to consume So that they have no lofty home.

¹⁵But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, For He will receive me. Selah

¹⁶Do not be afraid when a person becomes rich, When the splendor of his house is increased;

¹⁷For when he dies, he will take nothing with him; His wealth will not descend after him.

¹⁸Though while he lives he congratulates himself— And though people praise you when you do well for yourself—

¹⁹He will go to the generation of his fathers; They will never see the light.

²⁰Mankind in its splendor, yet without understanding, Is like the animals that perish.

¹Does not wisdom call, And understanding raise her voice?

²On top of the heights beside the way, Where the paths meet, she takes her stand;

³Beside the gates, at the opening to the city, At the entrance of the doors, she cries out:

⁴“To you, people, I call, And my voice is to mankind.

⁵You naive ones, understand prudence; And, you fools, understand wisdom!

⁶Listen, for I will speak noble things; And the opening of my lips will reveal right things.

⁷For my mouth will proclaim truth; And wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

⁸All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverted in them.

⁹They are all straightforward to him who understands, And right to those who find knowledge.

¹⁰Accept my instruction and not silver, And knowledge rather than choice gold.

¹¹For wisdom is better than jewels; And all desirable things cannot compare with her.

¹²“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And I find knowledge and discretion.

¹³The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride, arrogance, the evil way, And the perverted mouth, I hate.

¹⁴Advice is mine and sound wisdom; I am understanding, power is mine.

¹⁵By me kings reign, And rulers decree justice.

¹⁶By me princes rule, and nobles, All who judge rightly.

¹⁷I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me.

¹⁸Riches and honor are with me, Enduring wealth and righteousness.

¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, even pure gold; And my yield better than choice silver.

²⁰I walk in the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice,

²¹To endow those who love me with wealth, That I may fill their treasuries.

²²“The LORD created me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old.

²³From eternity I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.

²⁴When there were no ocean depths, I was born, When there were no springs abounding with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was born;

²⁶While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, Nor the first dust of the world.

²⁷When He established the heavens, I was there; When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,

²⁸When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became fixed,

²⁹When He set a boundary for the sea So that the water would not violate His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth;

³⁰Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; And I was His delight daily, Rejoicing always before Him,

³¹Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of mankind.

³²“Now then, sons, listen to me, For blessed are those who keep my ways.

³³Listen to instruction and be wise, And do not neglect it.

³⁴Blessed is the person who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.

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

³⁶But one who sins against me injures himself; All those who hate me love death.”

¹Now a worthless man happened to be there whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite; and he blew the trumpet and said, “We have no share in David, Nor do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse; Every man to his tents, Israel!”

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

³Then David came to his house in Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, the concubines whom he had left behind to take care of the house, and put them in custody and provided them with food, but did not have relations with them. So they were locked up until the day of their death, living as widows.

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

⁵So Amasa went to summon the men of Judah, but he was delayed longer than the set time which he had designated for him.

⁶And David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom; take your lord’s servants and pursue him, so that he does not find for himself fortified cities and escape from our sight.”

⁷So Joab’s men went out after him, along with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the warriors; and they left Jerusalem to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri.

⁸When they were at the large stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Now Joab was dressed in his military attire, and over it he had a belt with a sword in its sheath strapped on at his waist; and as he went forward, it fell out.

⁹And Joab said to Amasa, “Is it going well for you, my brother?” And Joab took hold of Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.

¹⁰But Amasa was not on guard against the sword which was in Joab’s hand, so he struck him in the belly with it and spilled out his intestines on the ground, and did not strike him again, and he died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba the son of Bichri.

¹¹Now one of Joab’s young men stood by him and said, “Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David, follow Joab!”

¹²But Amasa was wallowing in his own blood in the middle of the road. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa from the road to the field and threw a garment over him when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.

¹³As soon as he was removed from the road, all the men went on after Joab to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri.

¹⁴Now he went on through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, that is, Beth-maacah, and all the Berites; and they assembled and went after him as well.

¹⁵And they came and besieged him in Abel Beth-maacah, and they built up an assault ramp against the city, and it stood against the outer rampart; and all the people who were with Joab were wreaking destruction in order to topple the wall.

¹⁶Then a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen, listen! Please tell Joab, ‘Come here that I may speak with you.’ ”

¹⁷So he approached her, and the woman said, “Are you Joab?” And he answered, “I am.” Then she said to him, “Listen to the words of your slave.” And he said, “I am listening.”

¹⁸Then she spoke, saying, “In the past they used to say, ‘They will undoubtedly ask advice at Abel,’ and that is how they ended a dispute.

¹⁹I am one of those who are ready for peace and faithful in Israel. You are trying to destroy a city, even a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the inheritance of the LORD?”

²⁰Joab replied, “Far be it, far be it from me that I would consume or destroy!

²¹Such is not the case. But a man from the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has raised his hand against King David. Only turn him over, and I will depart from the city.” And the woman said to Joab, “Behold, his head will be thrown to you over the wall.”

²²Then the woman wisely came to all the people. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, each to his tent. Joab also returned to the king at Jerusalem.

²³Now Joab was in command of the entire army of Israel, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites;

²⁴and Adoram was over the forced labor, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the secretary;

²⁵and Sheva was scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

²⁶Ira the Jairite also was a priest to David.

¹Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, saying,

²“This is what the LORD says, He who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to create it, He whose name is the LORD:

³‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

⁴For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel says concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah which have been torn down to make a defense against the assault ramps and the sword:

⁵‘While they are coming to fight the Chaldeans and to fill their houses with the bodies of people whom I have struck down in My anger and My wrath, and I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness:

⁶Behold, I am going to bring to it healing and a remedy, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth.

⁷And I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and will rebuild them as they were at first.

⁸And I will cleanse them from all their wrongdoing by which they have sinned against Me, and I will forgive all their wrongdoings by which they have sinned against Me and revolted against Me.

⁹It will be to Me a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will be frightened and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.’

¹⁰“This is what the LORD says: ‘Yet again there will be heard in this place, of which you say, “It is a waste, without man and without animal,” that is, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, without man and without inhabitant and without animal,

¹¹the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, “Give thanks to the LORD of armies, For the LORD is good, For His mercy is everlasting,” as they bring a thanksgiving offering into the house of the LORD. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first,’ says the LORD.

¹²“This is what the LORD of armies says: ‘There will again be in this place which is waste, without man or animal, and in all its cities, a pasture for shepherds who rest their flocks.

¹³In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them,’ says the LORD.

¹⁴‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

¹⁵In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch of David sprout; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.

¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety; and this is the name by which it will be called: the LORD is our righteousness.’

¹⁷For this is what the LORD says: ‘David shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;

¹⁸and the Levitical priests shall not lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to prepare sacrifices continually.’ ”

¹⁹And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁰“This is what the LORD says: ‘If you can break My covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day and night do not occur at their proper time,

²¹then My covenant with David My servant may also be broken, so that he will not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levitical priests, My ministers.

²²As the heavenly lights cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who serve Me.’ ”

²³And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁴“Have you not observed what these people have asserted, saying, ‘The two families which the LORD chose, He has rejected them’? So they despise My people as no longer being a nation in their sight.

²⁵This is what the LORD says: ‘If My covenant for day and night does not continue, and I have not established the fixed patterns of heaven and earth,

²⁶then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so as not to take from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and have mercy on them.’ ”

¹Now there were prophets and teachers at Antioch, in the church that was there: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

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

³Then, when they had fasted, prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

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

⁵When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John as their helper.

⁶When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus,

⁷who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

⁸But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

⁹But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, stared at him,

¹⁰and said, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not stop making crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

¹¹Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.” And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.

¹²Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.

¹³Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia; but John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

¹⁴But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.

¹⁵After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue officials sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.”

¹⁶Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen:

¹⁷The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it.

¹⁸For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness.

¹⁹When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance—all of which took about 450 years.

²⁰After these things 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 He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.’

²³From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus,

²⁴after John had proclaimed, before His coming, a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

²⁵And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’

²⁶“Brothers, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent.

²⁷For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the declarations of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him.

²⁸And though they found no grounds for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed.

²⁹When they had carried out everything that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.

³⁰But God raised Him from the dead;

³¹and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people.

³²And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers,

³³that God has fulfilled this promise to those of us who are the descendants by raising Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE FATHERED YOU.’

³⁴As for the fact that He raised Him from the dead, never again to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I WILL GIVE YOU THE HOLY and faithful mercies of DAVID.’

³⁵Therefore, He also says in another Psalm: ‘YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’

³⁶For David, after he had served God’s purpose in his own generation, fell asleep, and was buried among his fathers and underwent decay;

³⁷but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.

³⁸Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you,

³⁹and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.

⁴⁰Therefore, see that the thing spoken of in the Prophets does not come upon you:

⁴¹‘LOOK, YOU SCOFFERS, AND BE ASTONISHED, AND PERISH; FOR I AM ACCOMPLISHING A WORK IN YOUR DAYS, A WORK WHICH YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE, THOUGH SOMEONE SHOULD DESCRIBE IT TO YOU.’ ”

⁴²As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people repeatedly begged to have these things spoken to them the next Sabbath.

⁴³Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking to them and urging them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴The next Sabbath nearly all the city assembled to hear the word of the Lord.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming.

⁴⁶Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first. Since you repudiate it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I HAVE APPOINTED YOU AS A LIGHT TO THE GENTILES, THAT YOU MAY BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE EARTH.’ ”

⁴⁸When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.

⁴⁹And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region.

⁵⁰But the Jews incited the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their region.

⁵¹But they shook off the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.

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