Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

²And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe.

³They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face.

⁴Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.”

⁵So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

⁶When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.”

⁷The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”

⁸Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever.

⁹He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer.

¹⁰Pilate therefore said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?”

¹¹Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

¹²From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.”

¹³When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha.

¹⁴Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!”

¹⁵They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.”

¹⁶Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. The Crucifixion of Jesus So they took Jesus;

¹⁷and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.

¹⁸There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them.

¹⁹Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

²⁰Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

²¹Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’”

²²Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

²³When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top.

²⁴So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says, “They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

²⁵And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

²⁶When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”

²⁷Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

²⁸After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.”

²⁹A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.

³⁰When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

³¹Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed.

³²Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him.

³³But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

³⁴Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.

³⁵(He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.)

³⁶These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “None of his bones shall be broken.”

³⁷And again another passage of scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”

³⁸After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body.

³⁹Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.

⁴⁰They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.

⁴¹Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid.

⁴²And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

¹You are children of the LORD your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your forelocks for the dead.

²For you are a people holy to the LORD your God; it is you the LORD has chosen out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

³You shall not eat any abhorrent thing.

⁴These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,

⁵the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain-sheep.

⁶Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof cleft in two, and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.

⁷Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cleft you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you.

⁸And the pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses.

⁹Of all that live in water you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales you may eat.

¹⁰And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹You may eat any clean birds.

¹²But these are the ones that you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey,

¹³the buzzard, the kite of any kind;

¹⁴every raven of any kind;

¹⁵the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any kind;

¹⁶the little owl and the great owl, the water hen

¹⁷and the desert owl, the carrion vulture and the cormorant,

¹⁸the stork, the heron of any kind; the hoopoe and the bat.

¹⁹And all winged insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.

²⁰You may eat any clean winged creature.

²¹You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

²²Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field.

²³In the presence of the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.

²⁴But if, when the LORD your God has blessed you, the distance is so great that you are unable to transport it, because the place where the LORD your God will choose to set his name is too far away from you,

²⁵then you may turn it into money. With the money secure in hand, go to the place that the LORD your God will choose;

²⁶spend the money for whatever you wish — oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your household rejoicing together.

²⁷As for the Levites resident in your towns, do not neglect them, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you.

²⁸Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your produce for that year, and store it within your towns;

²⁹the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your towns, may come and eat their fill so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake.

¹I myself, Paul, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ — I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away! —

²I ask that when I am present I need not show boldness by daring to oppose those who think we are acting according to human standards.

³Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards;

⁴for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments

⁵and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

⁶We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

⁷Look at what is before your eyes. If you are confident that you belong to Christ, remind yourself of this, that just as you belong to Christ, so also do we.

⁸Now, even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.

⁹I do not want to seem as though I am trying to frighten you with my letters.

¹⁰For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.”

¹¹Let such people understand that what we say by letter when absent, we will also do when present.

¹²We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another, they do not show good sense.

¹³We, however, will not boast beyond limits, but will keep within the field that God has assigned to us, to reach out even as far as you.

¹⁴For we were not overstepping our limits when we reached you; we were the first to come all the way to you with the good news of Christ.

¹⁵We do not boast beyond limits, that is, in the labors of others; but our hope is that, as your faith increases, our sphere of action among you may be greatly enlarged,

¹⁶so that we may proclaim the good news in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in someone else’s sphere of action.

¹⁷“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

¹⁸For it is not those who commend themselves that are approved, but those whom the Lord commends.

¹Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander.

²Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation —

³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

⁴Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and

⁵like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

⁶For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,”

⁸and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹¹Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

¹²Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.

¹³For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme,

¹⁴or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right.

¹⁵For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish.

¹⁶As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil.

¹⁷Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

¹⁸Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh.

¹⁹For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly.

²⁰If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.

²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

²²“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

²³When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.

²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

²⁵For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

¹I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But again, this also was vanity.

²I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”

³I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine — my mind still guiding me with wisdom — and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

⁴I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself;

⁵I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.

⁶I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

⁷I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

⁸I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and delights of the flesh, and many concubines.

⁹So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me.

¹⁰Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

¹¹Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

¹²So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly; for what can the one do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.

¹³Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.

¹⁴The wise have eyes in their head, but fools walk in darkness. Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls all of them.

¹⁵Then I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?” And I said to myself that this also is vanity.

¹⁶For there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or of fools, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How can the wise die just like fools?

¹⁷So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

¹⁸I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me

¹⁹— and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.

²⁰So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun,

²¹because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

²²What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun?

²³For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.

²⁴There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God;

²⁵for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

²⁶For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

¹Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might.

²Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.

³For the insolent have risen against me, the ruthless seek my life; they do not set God before them. Selah

⁴But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.

⁵He will repay my enemies for their evil. In your faithfulness, put an end to them.

⁶With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good.

⁷For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

¹A wise child loves discipline, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

²From the fruit of their words good persons eat good things, but the desire of the treacherous is for wrongdoing.

³Those who guard their mouths preserve their lives; those who open wide their lips come to ruin.

⁴The appetite of the lazy craves, and gets nothing, while the appetite of the diligent is richly supplied.

⁵The righteous hate falsehood, but the wicked act shamefully and disgracefully.

⁶Righteousness guards one whose way is upright, but sin overthrows the wicked.

⁷Some pretend to be rich, yet have nothing; others pretend to be poor, yet have great wealth.

⁸Wealth is a ransom for a person’s life, but the poor get no threats.

⁹The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked goes out.

¹⁰By insolence the heedless make strife, but wisdom is with those who take advice.

¹¹Wealth hastily gotten will dwindle, but those who gather little by little will increase it.

¹²Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

¹³Those who despise the word bring destruction on themselves, but those who respect the commandment will be rewarded.

¹⁴The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, so that one may avoid the snares of death.

¹⁵Good sense wins favor, but the way of the faithless is their ruin.

¹⁶The clever do all things intelligently, but the fool displays folly.

¹⁷A bad messenger brings trouble, but a faithful envoy, healing.

¹⁸Poverty and disgrace are for the one who ignores instruction, but one who heeds reproof is honored.

¹⁹A desire realized is sweet to the soul, but to turn away from evil is an abomination to fools.

²⁰Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm.

²¹Misfortune pursues sinners, but prosperity rewards the righteous.

²²The good leave an inheritance to their children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.

²³The field of the poor may yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice.

²⁴Those who spare the rod hate their children, but those who love them are diligent to discipline them.

²⁵The righteous have enough to satisfy their appetite, but the belly of the wicked is empty.

¹King David was old and advanced in years; and although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm.

²So his servants said to him, “Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king, and let her wait on the king, and be his attendant; let her lie in your bosom, so that my lord the king may be warm.”

³So they searched for a beautiful girl throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

⁴The girl was very beautiful. She became the king’s attendant and served him, but the king did not know her sexually.

⁵Now Adonijah son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king”; he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.

⁶His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, “Why have you done thus and so?” He was also a very handsome man, and he was born next after Absalom.

⁷He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, and they supported Adonijah.

⁸But the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the prophet Nathan, and Shimei, and Rei, and David’s own warriors did not side with Adonijah.

⁹Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fatted cattle by the stone Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel, and he invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah,

¹⁰but he did not invite the prophet Nathan or Benaiah or the warriors or his brother Solomon.

¹¹Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, “Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become king and our lord David does not know it?

¹²Now therefore come, let me give you advice, so that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon.

¹³Go in at once to King David, and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying: Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne? Why then is Adonijah king?’

¹⁴Then while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.”

¹⁵So Bathsheba went to the king in his room. The king was very old; Abishag the Shunammite was attending the king.

¹⁶Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king, and the king said, “What do you wish?”

¹⁷She said to him, “My lord, you swore to your servant by the LORD your God, saying: Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne.

¹⁸But now suddenly Adonijah has become king, though you, my lord the king, do not know it.

¹⁹He has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the children of the king, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the commander of the army; but your servant Solomon he has not invited.

²⁰But you, my lord the king — the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.

²¹Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king sleeps with his ancestors, that my son Solomon and I will be counted offenders.”

²²While she was still speaking with the king, the prophet Nathan came in.

²³The king was told, “Here is the prophet Nathan.” When he came in before the king, he did obeisance to the king, with his face to the ground.

²⁴Nathan said, “My lord the king, have you said, ‘Adonijah shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne’?

²⁵For today he has gone down and has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king’s children, Joab the commander of the army, and the priest Abiathar, who are now eating and drinking before him, and saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’

²⁶But he did not invite me, your servant, and the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon.

²⁷Has this thing been brought about by my lord the king and you have not let your servants know who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”

²⁸King David answered, “Summon Bathsheba to me.” So she came into the king’s presence, and stood before the king.

²⁹The king swore, saying, “As the LORD lives, who has saved my life from every adversity,

³⁰as I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,’ so will I do this day.”

³¹Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground, and did obeisance to the king, and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”

³²King David said, “Summon to me the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” When they came before the king,

³³the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.

³⁴There let the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan anoint him king over Israel; then blow the trumpet, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’

³⁵You shall go up following him. Let him enter and sit on my throne; he shall be king in my place; for I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.”

³⁶Benaiah son of Jehoiada answered the king, “Amen! May the LORD, the God of my lord the king, so ordain.

³⁷As the LORD has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.”

³⁸So the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and led him to Gihon.

³⁹There the priest Zadok took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!”

⁴⁰And all the people went up following him, playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth quaked at their noise.

⁴¹Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished feasting. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, “Why is the city in an uproar?”

⁴²While he was still speaking, Jonathan son of the priest Abiathar arrived. Adonijah said, “Come in, for you are a worthy man and surely you bring good news.”

⁴³Jonathan answered Adonijah, “No, for our lord King David has made Solomon king;

⁴⁴the king has sent with him the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and they had him ride on the king’s mule;

⁴⁵the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan have anointed him king at Gihon; and they have gone up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise that you heard.

⁴⁶Solomon now sits on the royal throne.

⁴⁷Moreover the king’s servants came to congratulate our lord King David, saying, ‘May God make the name of Solomon more famous than yours, and make his throne greater than your throne.’ The king bowed in worship on the bed

⁴⁸and went on to pray thus, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who today has granted one of my offspring to sit on my throne and permitted me to witness it.’”

⁴⁹Then all the guests of Adonijah got up trembling and went their own ways.

⁵⁰Adonijah, fearing Solomon, got up and went to grasp the horns of the altar.

⁵¹Solomon was informed, “Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon; see, he has laid hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’”

⁵²So Solomon responded, “If he proves to be a worthy man, not one of his hairs shall fall to the ground; but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die.”

⁵³Then King Solomon sent to have him brought down from the altar. He came to do obeisance to King Solomon; and Solomon said to him, “Go home.”

¹Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people,

²Thus says the LORD, Those who stay in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but those who go out to the Chaldeans shall live; they shall have their lives as a prize of war, and live.

³Thus says the LORD, This city shall surely be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon and be taken.

⁴Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to be put to death, because he is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.”

⁵King Zedekiah said, “Here he is; he is in your hands; for the king is powerless against you.”

⁶So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. Now there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

⁷Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. The king happened to be sitting at the Benjamin Gate,

⁸So Ebed-melech left the king’s house and spoke to the king,

⁹“My lord king, these men have acted wickedly in all they did to the prophet Jeremiah by throwing him into the cistern to die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.”

¹⁰Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, “Take three men with you from here, and pull the prophet Jeremiah up from the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to the house of the king, to a wardrobe of the storehouse, and took from there old rags and worn-out clothes, which he let down to Jeremiah in the cistern by ropes.

¹²Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Just put the rags and clothes between your armpits and the ropes.” Jeremiah did so.

¹³Then they drew Jeremiah up by the ropes and pulled him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

¹⁴King Zedekiah sent for the prophet Jeremiah and received him at the third entrance of the temple of the LORD. The king said to Jeremiah, “I have something to ask you; do not hide anything from me.”

¹⁵Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, you will put me to death, will you not? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”

¹⁶So King Zedekiah swore an oath in secret to Jeremiah, “As the LORD lives, who gave us our lives, I will not put you to death or hand you over to these men who seek your life.”

¹⁷Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If you will only surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live.

¹⁸But if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city shall be handed over to the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you yourself shall not escape from their hand.”

¹⁹King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans, for I might be handed over to them and they would abuse me.”

²⁰Jeremiah said, “That will not happen. Just obey the voice of the LORD in what I say to you, and it shall go well with you, and your life shall be spared.

²¹But if you are determined not to surrender, this is what the LORD has shown me —

²²a vision of all the women remaining in the house of the king of Judah being led out to the officials of the king of Babylon and saying, ‘Your trusted friends have seduced you and have overcome you; Now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they desert you.’

²³All your wives and your children shall be led out to the Chaldeans, and you yourself shall not escape from their hand, but shall be seized by the king of Babylon; and this city shall be burned with fire.”

²⁴Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone else know of this conversation, or you will die.

²⁵If the officials should hear that I have spoken with you, and they should come and say to you, ‘Just tell us what you said to the king; do not conceal it from us, or we will put you to death. What did the king say to you?’

²⁶then you shall say to them, ‘I was presenting my plea to the king not to send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.’”

²⁷All the officials did come to Jeremiah and questioned him; and he answered them in the very words the king had commanded. So they stopped questioning him, for the conversation had not been overheard.

²⁸And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

¹After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

²There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

³and, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them, and they worked together — by trade they were tentmakers.

⁴Every sabbath he would argue in the synagogue and would try to convince Jews and Greeks.

⁵When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with proclaiming the word, testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was Jesus.

⁶When they opposed and reviled him, in protest he shook the dust from his clothes and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

⁷Then he left the synagogue and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God; his house was next door to the synagogue.

⁸Crispus, the official of the synagogue, became a believer in the Lord, together with all his household; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul became believers and were baptized.

⁹One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent;

¹⁰for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.”

¹¹He stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

¹²But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal.

¹³They said, “This man is persuading people to worship God in ways that are contrary to the law.”

¹⁴Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of crime or serious villainy, I would be justified in accepting the complaint of you Jews;

¹⁵but since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves; I do not wish to be a judge of these matters.”

¹⁶And he dismissed them from the tribunal.

¹⁷Then all of them seized Sosthenes, the official of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal. But Gallio paid no attention to any of these things.

¹⁸After staying there for a considerable time, Paul said farewell to the believers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut, for he was under a vow.

¹⁹When they reached Ephesus, he left them there, but first he himself went into the synagogue and had a discussion with the Jews.

²⁰When they asked him to stay longer, he declined;

²¹but on taking leave of them, he said, “I will return to you, if God wills.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.

²²When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch.

²³After spending some time there he departed and went from place to place through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

²⁴Now there came to Ephesus a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria. He was an eloquent man, well-versed in the scriptures.

²⁵He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord; and he spoke with burning enthusiasm and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.

²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately.

²⁷And when he wished to cross over to Achaia, the believers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. On his arrival he greatly helped those who through grace had become believers,

²⁸for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Messiah is Jesus.