Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“These things I have spoken to you so that you will not be led into sin.

²They willban you from the synagogue, yet an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering aservice to God.

³These things they will do because they have not known the Father nor Me.

⁴But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, youmay remember that I told you of them. However, I did not say these things to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

⁵“But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’

⁶But because I have said these things to you, grief has filled your heart.

⁷But I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I am leaving; for if I do not leave, theHelper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

⁸And He, when He comes, will convict the world regarding sin, and righteousness, and judgment:

⁹regarding sin, because they do not believe in Me;

¹⁰and regarding righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you no longer are going to see Me;

¹¹and regarding judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

¹²“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at the present time.

¹³But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

¹⁴He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you.

¹⁵All things that the Father has are Mine; this is why I said that He takes from Mine and will disclose it to you.

¹⁶“A little while, and you no longer are going to see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”

¹⁷So some of His disciples said to one another, “What is this that He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you are not going to see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?”

¹⁸So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.”

¹⁹Jesus knew that they wanted to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you are not going to see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’?

²⁰Truly, truly I say to you that you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy!

²¹Whenever a woman is in labor she haspain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that achild has been born into the world.

²²Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one is going to take your joy away from you.

²³And on that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.

²⁴Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.

²⁵“These things I have spoken to you in figures of speech; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father.

²⁶On that day you will ask in My name, and I am not saying to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf;

²⁷for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.

²⁸I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

²⁹His disciples *said, “See, now You are speaking plainly and are not using any figure of speech.

³⁰Now we know that You know all things, and that You have no need for anyone to question You; this is why we believe that You came forth from God.”

³¹Jesus replied to them, “Do you now believe?

³²Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

³³These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

¹“You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and always keep His directive, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

²Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the LORD your God—His greatness, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm,

³and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land;

⁴and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the Red Sea engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the LORD completely eliminated them;

⁵and what He did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place;

⁶and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, among all Israel—

⁷but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD which He did.

⁸“You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land into which you are about to cross to possess it;

⁹and so that you may prolong your days on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it by your foot like a vegetable garden.

¹¹But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven,

¹²a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.

¹³“And it shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul,

¹⁴that He will provide rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, so that you may gather your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

¹⁵He will also provide grass in your field for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶Beware that your hearts are not easily deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods, and worship them.

¹⁷Otherwise, the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the sky so that there will be no rain, and the ground will not yield its produce; then you will quickly perish from the good land which the LORD is giving you.

¹⁸“You shall therefore take these words of mine to heart and to soul; and you shall tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead.

¹⁹You shall also teach them to your sons, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.

²⁰And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,

²¹so that your days and the days of your sons may be increased on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

²²For if you are careful to keep all of this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and cling to Him,

²³then the LORD will dispossess all these nations from you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.

²⁴Every place on which the sole of your foot steps shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea.

²⁵No one will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will instill the dread of you and the fear of you in all the land on which you set foot, just as He has spoken to you.

²⁶“See, I am placing before you today a blessing and a curse:

²⁷the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am commanding you today;

²⁸and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.

²⁹“And it shall come about, when the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰Are they not across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

³¹For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it,

³²and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am placing before you today.

¹Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

²Make room for us in your hearts; we have wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.

³I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

⁴My confidence in you is great; my boasting in your behalf is great. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction.

⁵For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts on the outside, fears inside.

⁶But God, who comforts the discouraged, comforted us by the arrival of Titus;

⁷and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted among you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.

⁸For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while—

⁹I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.

¹⁰For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

¹¹For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.

¹²So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness in our behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God.

¹³Because of this, we have been comforted. And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

¹⁴For if I have boasted to him about you regarding anything, I was not put to shame. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus proved to be the truth.

¹⁵His affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.

¹⁶I rejoice that in everything I have confidence in you.

¹What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is the source not your pleasures that wage war in your body’s parts?

²You lust and do not have, so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

³You ask and do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, so that you may spend what you request on your pleasures.

⁴You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

⁵Or do you think that the Scripture says to no purpose, “He jealously desires the Spirit whom He has made to dwell in us”?

⁶But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

⁷Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁸Come close to God and He will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

¹¹Do not speak against one another, brothers and sisters. The one who speaks against a brother or sister, or judges his brother or sister, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it.

¹²There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you, judging your neighbor?

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”

¹⁴Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.

¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

¹⁶But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

¹⁷So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.

¹“Can you drag out Leviathan with a fishhook, And press down his tongue with a rope?

²Can you put a rope in his nose, And pierce his jaw with a hook?

³Will he make many pleas to you, Or will he speak to you gentle words?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever?

⁵Will you play with him as with a bird, And tie him down for your young girls?

⁶Will the traders bargain for him? Will they divide him among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears?

⁸Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle; you will not do it again!

⁹Behold, your expectation is false; Will you be hurled down even at the sight of him?

¹⁰No one is so reckless that he dares to stir him; Who then is he who opposes Me?

¹¹Who has been first to give to Me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the entire heaven is Mine.

¹²“I will not be silent about his limbs, Or his mighty strength, or his graceful frame.

¹³Who can strip off his outer covering? Who can pierce his double armor?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth there is terror.

¹⁵His strong scales are his pride, Locked as with a tight seal.

¹⁶One is so close to another That no air can come between them.

¹⁷They are joined one to another; They clasp each other and cannot be separated.

¹⁸His sneezes flash forth light, And his eyes are like the eye of dawn.

¹⁹From his mouth go burning torches; Sparks of fire leap forth.

²⁰From his nostrils smoke goes out As from a boiling pot and burning reeds.

²¹His breath sets coals aglow, And a flame goes forth from his mouth.

²²In his neck dwells strength, And dismay leaps before him.

²³The folds of his flesh are joined together, Firm and immovable on him.

²⁴His heart is as firm as a stone, And as firm as a lower millstone.

²⁵When he rises up, the mighty are afraid; Because of the crashing they are bewildered.

²⁶The sword that reaches him cannot prevail, Nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin.

²⁷He regards iron as straw, Bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow cannot make him flee; Slingstones are turned into stubble for him.

²⁹Clubs are regarded as stubble; He laughs at the rattling of the javelin.

³⁰His underparts are like sharp pieces of pottery; He spreads out like a threshing sledge on the mud.

³¹He makes the depths boil like a pot; He makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

³²Behind him he illuminates a pathway; One would think the deep to be gray-haired.

³³Nothing on earth is like him, One made without fear.

³⁴He looks on everything that is high; He is king over all the sons of pride.”

¹Be gracious to me, God, according to Your faithfulness; According to the greatness of Your compassion, wipe out my wrongdoings.

²Wash me thoroughly from my guilt And cleanse me from my sin.

³For I know my wrongdoings, And my sin is constantly before me.

⁴Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.

⁵Behold, I was brought forth in guilt, And in sin my mother conceived me.

⁶Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in secret You will make wisdom known to me.

⁷Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; Cleanse me, and I will be whiter than snow.

⁸Let me hear joy and gladness, Let the bones You have broken rejoice.

⁹Hide Your face from my sins And wipe out all my guilty deeds.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

¹¹Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

¹²Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit.

¹³Then I will teach wrongdoers Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You.

¹⁴Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

¹⁵Lord, open my lips, So that my mouth may declare Your praise.

¹⁶For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offering.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, God, You will not despise.

¹⁸By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then bulls will be offered on Your altar.

¹The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a father glad, But a foolish son is a grief to his mother.

²Ill-gotten gains do not benefit, But righteousness rescues from death.

³The LORD will not allow the righteous to hunger, But He will reject the craving of the wicked.

⁴Poor is one who works with a lazy hand, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.

⁵He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, But he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.

⁶Blessings are on the head of the righteous, But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

⁷The mentioning of the righteous is a blessing, But the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸The wise of heart will receive commands, But a babbling fool will come to ruin.

⁹One who walks in integrity walks securely, But one who perverts his ways will be found out.

¹⁰He who winks the eye causes trouble, And a babbling fool will come to ruin.

¹¹The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

¹²Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all offenses.

¹³On the lips of the discerning, wisdom is found, But a rod is for the back of him who has no sense.

¹⁴Wise people store up knowledge, But with the mouth of the foolish, ruin is at hand.

¹⁵The rich person’s wealth is his fortress, The ruin of the poor is their poverty.

¹⁶The wages of the righteous is life, The income of the wicked, punishment.

¹⁷One who is on the path of life follows instruction, But one who ignores a rebuke goes astray.

¹⁸One who conceals hatred has lying lips, And one who spreads slander is a fool.

¹⁹When there are many words, wrongdoing is unavoidable, But one who restrains his lips is wise.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver, The heart of the wicked is worth little.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, But fools die for lack of understanding.

²²It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, And He adds no sorrow to it.

²³Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool, And so is wisdom to a person of understanding.

²⁴What the wicked fears will come upon him, But the desire of the righteous will be granted.

²⁵When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more, But the righteous has an everlasting foundation.

²⁶Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, So is the lazy one to those who send him.

²⁷The fear of the LORD prolongs life, But the years of the wicked will be shortened.

²⁸The hope of the righteous is gladness, But the expectation of the wicked perishes.

²⁹The way of the LORD is a stronghold for the upright, But ruin to the workers of injustice.

³⁰The righteous will never be shaken, But the wicked will not live in the land.

³¹The mouth of the righteous flows with wisdom, But the perverted tongue will be cut out.

³²The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, But the mouth of the wicked, what is perverted.

¹Now David spoke the words of this song to the LORD on the day that the LORD had saved him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

²He said, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;

³My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; My savior, You save me from violence.

⁴I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.

⁵For the waves of death encompassed me; The floods of destruction terrified me;

⁶The ropes of Sheol surrounded me; The snares of death confronted me.

⁷In my distress I called upon the LORD, Yes, I called out to my God; And from His temple He heard my voice, And my cry for help came into His ears.

⁸Then the earth shook and quaked, The foundations of heaven were trembling And were shaken, because He was angry.

⁹Smoke went up out of His nostrils, And fire from His mouth was devouring; Coals were kindled by it.

¹⁰He also bowed the heavens down low, and came down With thick darkness under His feet.

¹¹He rode on a cherub and flew; He appeared on the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness canopies around Him, A mass of waters, thick clouds of the sky.

¹³From the brightness before Him Coals of fire were kindled.

¹⁴The LORD thundered from heaven, And the Most High uttered His voice.

¹⁵And He shot arrows and scattered them, Lightning, and routed them.

¹⁶Then the channels of the sea appeared, The foundations of the world were exposed By the rebuke of the LORD, From the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

¹⁷He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.

¹⁸He rescued me from my strong enemy, From those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.

¹⁹They confronted me on the day of my disaster, But the LORD was my support.

²⁰He also brought me out into an open place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.

²¹The LORD has treated me in accordance with my righteousness; In accordance with the cleanliness of my hands He has repaid me.

²²For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have not acted wickedly against my God.

²³For all His ordinances were before me, And as for His statutes, I did not deviate from them.

²⁴I was also blameless toward Him, And I have kept myself from my wrongdoing.

²⁵So the LORD has repaid me in accordance with my righteousness, In accordance with my cleanliness before His eyes.

²⁶With the one who is faithful You show Yourself faithful, With the blameless one You prove Yourself blameless;

²⁷With the one who is pure You show Yourself pure, But with the perverted You show Yourself astute.

²⁸And You save an afflicted people; But Your eyes are on the haughty whom You humiliate.

²⁹For You are my lamp, LORD; And the LORD illuminates my darkness.

³⁰For by You I can run at a troop of warriors; By my God I can leap over a wall.

³¹As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the LORD is refined; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

³²For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?

³³God is my strong fortress; And He sets the blameless on His way.

³⁴He makes my feet like deer’s feet, And sets me on my high places.

³⁵He trains my hands for battle, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁶You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, And Your help makes me great.

³⁷You enlarge my steps under me, And my feet have not slipped.

³⁸I pursued my enemies and eliminated them, And I did not turn back until they were finished off.

³⁹And I have devoured them and smashed them, so that they would not rise; And they fell under my feet.

⁴⁰For You have encircled me with strength for battle; You have forced those who rose up against me to bow down under me.

⁴¹You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, And I destroyed those who hated me.

⁴²They looked, but there was no one to save them; Even to the LORD, but He did not answer them.

⁴³Then I pulverized them as the dust of the earth; I crushed and trampled them like the mud of the streets.

⁴⁴You have also saved me from the contentions of my people; You have kept me as head of the nations; A people I have not known serve me.

⁴⁵Foreigners pretend to obey me; As soon as they hear, they obey me.

⁴⁶Foreigners lose heart, And come trembling out of their fortresses.

⁴⁷The LORD lives, and blessed be my Rock; And exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation,

⁴⁸The God who executes vengeance for me, And brings down peoples under me,

⁴⁹Who also brings me out from my enemies; You also raise me above those who rise up against me; You rescue me from the violent person.

⁵⁰Therefore I will give thanks to You, LORD, among the nations, And I will sing praises to Your name.

⁵¹He is a tower of salvation to His king, And shows favor to His anointed, To David and his descendants forever.”

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

²“Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.”

³So I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons, and all the household of the Rechabites,

⁴and I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was next to the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the doorkeeper.

⁵Then I set before the men of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, “Drink wine!”

⁶But they said, “We will not drink wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall not drink wine, you or your sons, forever.

⁷You shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed nor plant a vineyard, nor own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, so that you may live many days in the land where you live as strangers.’

⁸And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,

⁹nor to build ourselves houses to live in; and we do not have a vineyard, a field, or seed.

¹⁰But we have lived only in tents, and have obeyed and have done according to all that our father Jonadab commanded us.

¹¹However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, and let’s go to Jerusalem away from the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Arameans.’ So we have lived in Jerusalem.”

¹²Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,

¹³“This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “Will you not accept instruction by listening to My words?” declares the LORD.

¹⁴“The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab have been followed, which he commanded his sons: not to drink wine. And they do not drink wine to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not listened to Me.

¹⁵Also I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending them again and again, saying: ‘Turn now every person from his evil way and amend your deeds, and do not follow other gods to worship them. Then you will live in the land which I have given to you and to your forefathers; but you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me.

¹⁶Indeed, the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have followed the command of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to Me.’ ” ’

¹⁷Therefore this is what the LORD says, the God of armies, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them; because I spoke to them but they did not listen, and I have called them but they did not answer.’ ”

¹⁸Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father, kept all his commands, and done according to all that he commanded you,

¹⁹therefore this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: “Jonadab the son of Rechab will not lack a man to stand before Me always.” ’ ”

¹Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

²And after Paul and Barnabas had a heated argument and debate with them, the brothers determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue.

³Therefore, after being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they were bringing great joy to all the brothers and sisters.

⁴When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were received by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.

⁵But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to keep the Law of Moses.”

⁶The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter.

⁷After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.

⁸And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;

⁹and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Since this is the case, why are you putting God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear?

¹¹But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”

¹²All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles.

¹³After they stopped speaking, James responded, saying, “Brothers, listen to me.

¹⁴Simeon has described how God first concerned Himself about taking a people for His name from among the Gentiles.

¹⁵The words of the Prophets agree with this, just as it is written:

¹⁶‘AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE FALLEN TABERNACLE OF DAVID, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT,

¹⁷SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,’

¹⁸SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS known from long ago.

¹⁹Therefore, it is my judgment that we do not cause trouble for those from the Gentiles who are turning to God,

²⁰but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols, from acts of sexual immorality, from what has been strangled, and from blood.

²¹For from ancient generations Moses has those who preach him in every city, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

²²Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers,

²³and they sent this letter with them: “The apostles and the brothers who are elders, to the brothers and sisters in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles: Greetings.

²⁴Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have confused you by their teaching, upsetting your souls,

²⁵it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷Therefore, we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth.

²⁸For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials:

²⁹that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from acts of sexual immorality; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.”

³⁰So when they were sent away, they went down to Antioch; and after gathering the congregation together, they delivered the letter.

³¹When they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.

³²Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brothers and sisters with a lengthy message.

³³After they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brothers and sisters in peace to those who had sent them out.

³⁴

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.

³⁶After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return and visit the brothers and sisters in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.”

³⁷Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also.

³⁸But Paul was of the opinion that they should not take along with them this man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.

³⁹Now it turned into such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.

⁴⁰But Paul chose Silas, and left after being entrusted by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

⁴¹And he was traveling through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.