Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.

²They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

³And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.

⁴But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.

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

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

⁷Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

⁸And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

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

¹⁰of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;

¹¹of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

¹²“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

¹³However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

¹⁴He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

¹⁵All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

¹⁶“A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.”

¹⁷Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?”

¹⁸They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is saying.”

¹⁹Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’?

²⁰Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.

²¹A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

²²Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.

²³“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.

²⁴Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

²⁵“These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.

²⁶In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you;

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

²⁸I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”

²⁹His disciples said to Him, “See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!

³⁰Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God.”

³¹Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?

³²Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

³³These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

¹“Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.

²Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm—

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

⁴what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day;

⁵what He did for 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: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel—

⁷but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did.

⁸“Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess,

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

¹⁰For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden;

¹¹but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven,

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

¹³‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹⁴then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

¹⁵And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’

¹⁶“Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them,

¹⁷lest the LORD’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.

¹⁸“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

¹⁹You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

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

²¹that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

²²“For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—

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

²⁴Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory.

²⁵No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.

²⁶“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:

²⁷the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today;

²⁸and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.

²⁹Now it shall be, when the LORD your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh?

³¹For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it.

³²And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.

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

²Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.

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

⁴Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.

⁵For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears.

⁶Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,

⁷and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

⁸For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while.

⁹Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

¹⁰For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

¹¹For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

¹²Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

¹³Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort. And we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

¹⁴For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I am not ashamed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting to Titus was found true.

¹⁵And his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him.

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

¹Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

²You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

³You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

⁴Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

⁵Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

⁶But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

⁷Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

⁸Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

¹¹Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

¹²There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;

¹⁴whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

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

¹⁶But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

¹“Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower?

²Can you put a reed through his nose, Or pierce his jaw with a hook?

³Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you?

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

⁵Will you play with him as with a bird, Or will you leash him for your maidens?

⁶Will your companions make a banquet of him? Will they apportion 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— Never do it again!

⁹Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false; Shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him?

¹⁰No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against Me?

¹¹Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.

¹²“I will not conceal his limbs, His mighty power, or his graceful proportions.

¹³Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of his face, With his terrible teeth all around?

¹⁵His rows of scales are his pride, Shut up tightly as with a seal;

¹⁶One is so near another That no air can come between them;

¹⁷They are joined one to another, They stick together and cannot be parted.

¹⁸His sneezings flash forth light, And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

¹⁹Out of his mouth go burning lights; Sparks of fire shoot out.

²⁰Smoke goes out of his nostrils, As from a boiling pot and burning rushes.

²¹His breath kindles coals, And a flame goes out of his mouth.

²²Strength dwells in his neck, And sorrow dances before him.

²³The folds of his flesh are joined together; They are firm on him and cannot be moved.

²⁴His heart is as hard as stone, Even as hard as the lower millstone.

²⁵When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; Because of his crashings they are beside themselves.

²⁶Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail; Nor does spear, dart, or javelin.

²⁷He regards iron as straw, And bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow cannot make him flee; Slingstones become like stubble to him.

²⁹Darts are regarded as straw; He laughs at the threat of javelins.

³⁰His undersides are like sharp potsherds; He spreads pointed marks in the mire.

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

³²He leaves a shining wake behind him; One would think the deep had white hair.

³³On earth there is nothing like him, Which is made without fear.

³⁴He beholds every high thing; He is king over all the children of pride.”

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. [1] Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.

³For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.

⁴Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.

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

⁶Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

⁷Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice.

⁹Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O 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 uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

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

¹⁴Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

¹⁵O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.

¹⁶For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.

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

¹⁸Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

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

²Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, But righteousness delivers from death.

³The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, But He casts away the desire of the wicked.

⁴He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.

⁵He who gathers in summer is a wise son; He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.

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

⁷The memory of the righteous is blessed, But the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸The wise in heart will receive commands, But a prating fool will fall.

⁹He who walks with integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will become known.

¹⁰He who winks with the eye causes trouble, But a prating fool will fall.

¹¹The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, But violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

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

¹³Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has understanding, But a rod is for the back of him who is devoid of understanding.

¹⁴Wise people store up knowledge, But the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.

¹⁵The rich man’s wealth is his strong city; The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

¹⁶The labor of the righteous leads to life, The wages of the wicked to sin.

¹⁷He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, But he who refuses correction goes astray.

¹⁸Whoever hides hatred has lying lips, And whoever spreads slander is a fool.

¹⁹In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.

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

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

²²The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.

²³To do evil is like sport to a fool, But a man of understanding has wisdom.

²⁴The fear of the wicked will come upon him, And the desire of the righteous will be granted.

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

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

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

²⁸The hope of the righteous will be gladness, But the expectation of the wicked will perish.

²⁹The way of the LORD is strength for the upright, But destruction will come to the workers of iniquity.

³⁰The righteous will never be removed, But the wicked will not inhabit the earth.

³¹The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, But the perverse tongue will be cut out.

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

¹Then David spoke to the LORD the words of this song, on the day when the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.

²And he said: “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;

³The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence.

⁴I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.

⁵“When the waves of death surrounded me, The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

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

⁷In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry entered His ears.

⁸“Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, Because He was angry.

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

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

¹¹He rode upon a cherub, and flew; And He was seen upon the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness canopies around Him, Dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

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

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

¹⁵He sent out arrows and scattered them; Lightning bolts, and He vanquished them.

¹⁶Then the channels of the sea were seen, The foundations of the world were uncovered, At the rebuke of the LORD, At the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

¹⁷“He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.

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

¹⁹They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the LORD was my support.

²⁰He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.

²¹“The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.

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

²³For all His judgments were before me; And as for His statutes, I did not depart from them.

²⁴I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity.

²⁵Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in His eyes.

²⁶“With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; With a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;

²⁷With the pure You will show Yourself pure; And with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.

²⁸You will save the humble people; But Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down.

²⁹“For You are my lamp, O LORD; The LORD shall enlighten my darkness.

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

³¹As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.

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

³³God is my strength and power, And He makes my way perfect.

³⁴He makes my feet like the feet of deer, And sets me on my high places.

³⁵He teaches my hands to make war, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁶“You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your gentleness has made me great.

³⁷You enlarged my path under me; So my feet did not slip.

³⁸“I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them; Neither did I turn back again till they were destroyed.

³⁹And I have destroyed them and wounded them, So that they could not rise; They have fallen under my feet.

⁴⁰For You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose against me.

⁴¹You have also given me the necks of my enemies, So that I destroyed those who hated me.

⁴²They looked, but there was none to save; Even to the LORD, but He did not answer them.

⁴³Then I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth; I trod them like dirt in the streets, And I spread them out.

⁴⁴“You have also delivered me from the strivings of my people; You have kept me as the head of the nations. A people I have not known shall serve me.

⁴⁵The foreigners submit to me; As soon as they hear, they obey me.

⁴⁶The foreigners fade away, And come frightened from their hideouts.

⁴⁷“The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let God be exalted, The Rock of my salvation!

⁴⁸It is God who avenges me, And subdues the peoples under me;

⁴⁹He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me; You have delivered me from the violent man.

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

⁵¹“He is the tower of salvation to His king, And shows mercy to His anointed, To David and his descendants forevermore.”

¹The word which 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, speak to them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.”

³Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, his brothers and all his sons, and the whole house 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, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door.

⁵Then I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, “Drink wine.”

⁶But they said, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall drink no wine, you nor your sons, forever.

⁷You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor have any of these; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners.’

⁸Thus we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,

⁹nor to build ourselves houses to dwell in; nor do we have vineyard, field, or seed.

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

¹¹But it came to pass, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, ‘Come, let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and for fear of the army of the Syrians.’ So we dwell at Jerusalem.”

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

¹³“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “Will you not receive instruction to obey My words?” says the LORD.

¹⁴“The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed; for to this day they drink none, and obey their father’s commandment. But although I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, you did not obey Me.

¹⁵I have also sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way, amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them; then you will dwell in the land which I have given you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear, nor obeyed Me.

¹⁶Surely the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them, but this people has not obeyed Me.” ’

¹⁷“Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the doom that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them but they have not heard, and I have called to them but they have not answered.’ ”

¹⁸And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he commanded you,

¹⁹therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me forever.” ’ ”

¹And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

²Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question.

³So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy to all the brethren.

⁴And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders; and they reported all things that God had done with them.

⁵But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”

⁶Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter.

⁷And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

⁸So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us,

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

¹⁰Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

¹¹But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”

¹²Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles.

¹³And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me:

¹⁴Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.

¹⁵And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:

¹⁶‘After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up;

¹⁷So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things.’

¹⁸“Known to God from eternity are all His works.

¹⁹Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God,

²⁰but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.

²¹For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

²²Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.

²³They wrote this letter by them: The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings.

²⁴Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, “You must be circumcised and keep the law” —to whom we gave no such commandment—

²⁵it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

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

²⁷We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who 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 necessary things:

²⁹that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.

³⁰So when they were sent off, they came to Antioch; and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter.

³¹When they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement.

³²Now Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words.

³³And after they had stayed there for a time, they were sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles.

³⁴However, it seemed good to Silas to remain there.

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

³⁶Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.”

³⁷Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark.

³⁸But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work.

³⁹Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus;

⁴⁰but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God.

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