Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

²In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

⁴And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

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

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

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

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

⁹Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

¹¹Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

¹²“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

¹³And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

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

¹⁵“If you love Me, keep My commandments.

¹⁶And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—

¹⁷the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

¹⁸I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

¹⁹“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.

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

²¹He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

²²Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

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

²⁴He who does not love Me does not keep 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 being present with you.

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

²⁷Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

²⁸You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.

²⁹“And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.

³⁰I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

³¹But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.

¹“Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven,

²a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’

³Therefore understand today that the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you.

⁴“Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you.

⁵It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁶Therefore understand 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! Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day that you departed from the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.

⁸Also in Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, so that the LORD was angry enough with you to have destroyed you.

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

¹⁰Then the LORD delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

¹¹And it came to pass, at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

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

¹³“Furthermore the LORD spoke to me, saying, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed they are a stiff-necked people.

¹⁴Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot 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, and the mountain burned with fire; and the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.

¹⁶And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the LORD your God—had made for yourselves a molded calf! You had turned aside quickly from the way which the LORD had commanded you.

¹⁷Then I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes.

¹⁸And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.

¹⁹For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which the LORD was angry with you, to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me at that time also.

²⁰And the LORD was very angry with Aaron and would have destroyed him; so I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

²¹Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust; and I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.

²²“Also at Taberah and Massah and Kibroth Hattaavah you provoked the LORD to wrath.

²³Likewise, when the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, ‘Go up and possess the land which I have given you,’ then you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and you did not believe Him nor obey His voice.

²⁴You have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you.

²⁵“Thus I prostrated myself before the LORD; forty days and forty nights I kept prostrating myself, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

²⁶Therefore I prayed to the LORD, and said: ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people and 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 look on the stubbornness of this people, or on their wickedness or their sin,

²⁸lest the land from which You brought us should say, “Because the LORD was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because 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 mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’

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

²For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,

³if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

⁴For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

⁵Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

⁶So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.

⁷For we walk by faith, not by sight.

⁸We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

⁹Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.

¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

¹¹Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.

¹²For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

¹³For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you.

¹⁴For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;

¹⁵and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

¹⁶Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

¹⁸Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

¹⁹that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

²⁰Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

²¹For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

¹My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.

²For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes,

³and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,”

⁴have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

⁵Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen 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. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

⁷Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

⁸If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well;

⁹but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

¹⁰For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

¹¹For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

¹²So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

¹³For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?

¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,

¹⁶and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?

¹⁷Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

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

¹⁹You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!

²⁰But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

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

²²Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?

²³And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.

²⁴You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

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

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

¹“Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Or can you mark when the deer gives birth?

²Can you number the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they bear young?

³They bow down, They bring forth their young, They deliver their offspring.

⁴Their young ones are healthy, They grow strong with grain; They depart and do not return to them.

⁵“Who set the wild donkey free? Who loosed the bonds of the onager,

⁶Whose home I have made the wilderness, And the barren land his dwelling?

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city; He does not heed the shouts of the driver.

⁸The range of the mountains is his pasture, And he searches after every green thing.

⁹“Will the wild ox be willing to serve you? Will he bed by your manger?

¹⁰Can you bind the wild ox in the furrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you?

¹¹Will you trust him because his strength is great? Or will you leave your labor to him?

¹²Will you trust him to bring home your grain, And gather it to your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s?

¹⁴For she leaves her eggs on the ground, And warms them in the dust;

¹⁵She forgets that a foot may crush them, Or that a wild beast may break them.

¹⁶She treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers; Her labor is in vain, without concern,

¹⁷Because God deprived her of wisdom, And did not endow her with understanding.

¹⁸When she lifts herself on high, She scorns the horse and its rider.

¹⁹“Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder?

²⁰Can you frighten him like a locust? His majestic snorting strikes terror.

²¹He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He gallops into the clash of arms.

²²He mocks at fear, and is not frightened; Nor does he turn back from the sword.

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

²⁴He devours the distance with fierceness and rage; Nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded.

²⁵At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, The thunder of captains and shouting.

²⁶“Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, And spread its wings toward the south?

²⁷Does the eagle mount up at your command, And make its nest on high?

²⁸On the rock it dwells and resides, On the crag of the rock and the stronghold.

²⁹From there it spies out the prey; Its eyes observe from afar.

³⁰Its young ones suck up blood; And where the slain are, there it is.”

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. [1] Hear this, all peoples; Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

²Both low and high, Rich and poor together.

³My mouth shall speak wisdom, And the meditation of my heart shall give understanding.

⁴I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will disclose my dark saying on the harp.

⁵Why should I fear in the days of evil, When the iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

⁶Those who trust in their wealth And boast in the multitude of their riches,

⁷None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him—

⁸For the redemption of their souls is costly, And it shall cease forever—

⁹That he should continue to live eternally, And not see the Pit.

¹⁰For he sees wise men die; Likewise the fool and the senseless person perish, And leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever, Their dwelling places to all generations; They call their lands after their own names.

¹²Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not remain; He is like the beasts that perish.

¹³This is the way of those who are foolish, And of their posterity who approve their sayings. Selah

¹⁴Like sheep they are laid in the grave; Death shall feed on them; The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from their dwelling.

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

¹⁶Do not be afraid when one becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased;

¹⁷For when he dies he shall carry nothing away; His glory shall not descend after him.

¹⁸Though while he lives he blesses himself (For men will praise you when you do well for yourself),

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

²⁰A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, Is like the beasts that perish.

¹Does not wisdom cry out, And understanding lift up her voice?

²She takes her stand on the top of the high hill, Beside the way, where the paths meet.

³She cries out by the gates, at the entry of the city, At the entrance of the doors:

⁴“To you, O men, I call, And my voice is to the sons of men.

⁵O you simple ones, understand prudence, And you fools, be of an understanding heart.

⁶Listen, for I will speak of excellent things, And from the opening of my lips will come right things;

⁷For my mouth will speak truth; Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

⁸All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.

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

¹⁰Receive my instruction, and not silver, And knowledge rather than choice gold;

¹¹For wisdom is better than rubies, And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.

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

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

¹⁴Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom; I am understanding, I have strength.

¹⁵By me kings reign, And rulers decree justice.

¹⁶By me princes rule, and nobles, All the judges of the earth.

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

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

¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, And my revenue than choice silver.

²⁰I traverse the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice,

²¹That I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth, That I may fill their treasuries.

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

²³I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.

²⁴When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was brought forth;

²⁶While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, Or the primal dust of the world.

²⁷When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep,

²⁸When He established the clouds above, When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,

²⁹When He assigned to the sea its limit, So that the waters would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth,

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

³¹Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men.

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

³³Hear instruction and be wise, And do not disdain it.

³⁴Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors.

³⁵For whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the LORD;

³⁶But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; All those who hate me love death.”

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

²So every man of Israel deserted David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah, from the Jordan as far as Jerusalem, remained loyal to their king.

³Now David came to his house at Jerusalem. And the king took the ten women, his concubines whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in seclusion and supported them, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.

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

⁵So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah. But he delayed longer than the set time which David had appointed 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, lest he find for himself fortified cities, and escape us.”

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

⁸When they were at the large stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came before them. Now Joab was dressed in battle armor; on it was a belt with a sword fastened in its sheath at his hips; and as he was going forward, it fell out.

⁹Then Joab said to Amasa, “Are you in health, my brother?” And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.

¹⁰But Amasa did not notice the sword that was in Joab’s hand. And he struck him with it in the stomach, and his entrails poured out on the ground; and he did not strike him again. Thus he died. Then Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri.

¹¹Meanwhile one of Joab’s men stood near Amasa, and said, “Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David—follow Joab!”

¹²But Amasa wallowed in his blood in the middle of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he moved Amasa from the highway to the field and threw a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came upon him halted.

¹³When he was removed from the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri.

¹⁴And he went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel and Beth Maachah and all the Berites. So they were gathered together and also went after Sheba.

¹⁵Then they came and besieged him in Abel of Beth Maachah; and they cast up a siege mound against the city, and it stood by the rampart. And all the people who were with Joab battered the wall to throw it down.

¹⁶Then a wise woman cried out from the city, “Hear, hear! Please say to Joab, ‘Come nearby, that I may speak with you.’ ”

¹⁷When he had come near to her, the woman said, “Are you Joab?” He answered, “I am.” Then she said to him, “Hear the words of your maidservant.” And he answered, “I am listening.”

¹⁸So she spoke, saying, “They used to talk in former times, saying, ‘They shall surely seek guidance at Abel,’ and so they would end disputes.

¹⁹I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the inheritance of the LORD?”

²⁰And Joab answered and said, “Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy!

²¹That is not so. But a man from the mountains of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has raised his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city.” So the woman said to Joab, “Watch, his head will be thrown to you over the wall.”

²²Then the woman in her wisdom went to all the people. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. Then he blew a trumpet, and they withdrew from the city, every man to his tent. So Joab returned to the king at Jerusalem.

²³And Joab was over all the army of Israel; Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites;

²⁴Adoram was in charge of revenue; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder;

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

²⁶and Ira the Jairite was a chief minister under David.

¹Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying,

²“Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD is His name):

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

⁴“For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah, which have been pulled down to fortify against the siege mounds and the sword:

⁵‘They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but only to fill their places with the dead bodies of men whom I will slay in My anger and My fury, all for whose wickedness I have hidden My face from this city.

⁶Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.

⁷And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and will rebuild those places as at the first.

⁸I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me.

⁹Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them; they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it.’

¹⁰“Thus says the LORD: ‘Again there shall be heard in this place— of which you say, “It is desolate, without man and without beast”—in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast,

¹¹the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the LORD of hosts, For the LORD is good, For His mercy endures forever”— and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the LORD.

¹²“Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In this place which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, there shall again be a dwelling place of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.

¹³In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the South, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks shall again pass under the hands of him who counts them,’ says the LORD.

¹⁴‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah:

¹⁵‘In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David A Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’

¹⁷“For thus says the LORD: ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;

¹⁸nor shall the priests, the Levites, lack a man to offer burnt offerings before Me, to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.’ ”

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

²⁰“Thus says the LORD: ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season,

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

²²As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.’ ”

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

²⁴“Have you not considered what these people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which the LORD has chosen, He has also cast them off’? Thus they have despised My people, as if they should no more be a nation before them.

²⁵“Thus says the LORD: ‘If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth,

²⁶then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on them.’ ”

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

²As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

³Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid 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.

⁵And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.

⁶Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus,

⁷who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

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

⁹Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him

¹⁰and said, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?

¹¹And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.” And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

¹²Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

¹³Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.

¹⁴But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down.

¹⁵And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, “Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.”

¹⁶Then Paul 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 exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it.

¹⁸Now for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness.

¹⁹And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land to them by allotment.

²⁰“After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.

²¹And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

²²And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’

²³From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus—

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

²⁵And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not He. But behold, there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.’

²⁶“Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent.

²⁷For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him.

²⁸And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death.

²⁹Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.

³⁰But God raised Him from the dead.

³¹He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.

³²And we declare to you glad tidings— that promise which was made to the fathers.

³³God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’

³⁴And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: ‘I will give you the sure mercies of David.’

³⁵Therefore He also says in another Psalm: ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’

³⁶“For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption;

³⁷but He whom God raised up saw no corruption.

³⁸Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins;

³⁹and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

⁴⁰Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you:

⁴¹‘Behold, you despisers, Marvel and perish! For I work a work in your days, A work which you will by no means believe, Though one were to declare it to you.’ ”

⁴²So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.

⁴³Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul.

⁴⁶Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

⁴⁸Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

⁴⁹And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.

⁵⁰But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.

⁵¹But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium.

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