Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹In those days John the Baptist came to the Judean wilderness and began preaching. His message was,

²“Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. ”

³The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said, “He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the LORD’s coming! Clear the road for him!’”

⁴John’s clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.

⁵People from Jerusalem and from all of Judea and all over the Jordan Valley went out to see and hear John.

⁶And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.

⁷But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath?

⁸Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.

⁹Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones.

¹⁰Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹“I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am — so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

¹²He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”

¹³Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.

¹⁴But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”

¹⁵But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires. ” So John agreed to baptize him.

¹⁶After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him.

¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

¹“When the LORD your God destroys the nations whose land he is giving you, you will take over their land and settle in their towns and homes.

²Then you must set apart three cities of refuge in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

³Survey the territory, and divide the land the LORD your God is giving you into three districts, with one of these cities in each district. Then anyone who has killed someone can flee to one of the cities of refuge for safety.

⁴“If someone kills another person unintentionally, without previous hostility, the slayer may flee to any of these cities to live in safety.

⁵For example, suppose someone goes into the forest with a neighbor to cut wood. And suppose one of them swings an ax to chop down a tree, and the ax head flies off the handle, killing the other person. In such cases, the slayer may flee to one of the cities of refuge to live in safety.

⁶“If the distance to the nearest city of refuge is too far, an enraged avenger might be able to chase down and kill the person who caused the death. Then the slayer would die unfairly, since he had never shown hostility toward the person who died.

⁷That is why I am commanding you to set aside three cities of refuge.

⁸“And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised them,

⁹you must designate three additional cities of refuge. (He will give you this land if you are careful to obey all the commands I have given you — if you always love the LORD your God and walk in his ways.)

¹⁰That way you will prevent the death of innocent people in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession. You will not be held responsible for the death of innocent people.

¹¹“But suppose someone is hostile toward a neighbor and deliberately ambushes and murders him and then flees to one of the cities of refuge.

¹²In that case, the elders of the murderer’s hometown must send agents to the city of refuge to bring him back and hand him over to the dead person’s avenger to be put to death.

¹³Do not feel sorry for that murderer! Purge from Israel the guilt of murdering innocent people; then all will go well with you.

¹⁴“When you arrive in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your special possession, you must never steal anyone’s land by moving the boundary markers your ancestors set up to mark their property.

¹⁵“You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

¹⁶“If a malicious witness comes forward and accuses someone of a crime,

¹⁷then both the accuser and accused must appear before the LORD by coming to the priests and judges in office at that time.

¹⁸The judges must investigate the case thoroughly. If the accuser has brought false charges against his fellow Israelite,

¹⁹you must impose on the accuser the sentence he intended for the other person. In this way, you will purge such evil from among you.

²⁰Then the rest of the people will hear about it and be afraid to do such an evil thing.

²¹You must show no pity for the guilty! Your rule should be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

¹Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too.

²I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing.

³And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.

⁴Even that question came up only because of some so-called believers there — false ones, really — who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations.

⁵But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you.

⁶And the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.)

⁷Instead, they saw that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews.

⁸For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.

⁹In fact, James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews.

¹⁰Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do.

¹¹But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong.

¹²When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision.

¹³As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

¹⁴When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?

¹⁵“You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles.

¹⁶Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”

¹⁷But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!

¹⁸Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.

¹⁹For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law — I stopped trying to meet all its requirements — so that I might live for God.

²⁰My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

²¹I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

¹But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves.

²Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered.

³In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.

⁴For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment.

⁵And God did not spare the ancient world — except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood.

⁶Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people.

⁷But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him.

⁸Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.

⁹So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment.

¹⁰He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling.

¹¹But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings.

¹²These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed.

¹³Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals.

¹⁴They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse.

¹⁵They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong.

¹⁶But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.

¹⁷These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness.

¹⁸They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception.

¹⁹They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.

²⁰And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before.

²¹It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life.

²²They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”

¹A good reputation is more valuable than costly perfume. And the day you die is better than the day you are born.

²Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties. After all, everyone dies — so the living should take this to heart.

³Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us.

⁴A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time.

⁵Better to be criticized by a wise person than to be praised by a fool.

⁶A fool’s laughter is quickly gone, like thorns crackling in a fire. This also is meaningless.

⁷Extortion turns wise people into fools, and bribes corrupt the heart.

⁸Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride.

⁹Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool.

¹⁰Don’t long for “the good old days.” This is not wise.

¹¹Wisdom is even better when you have money. Both are a benefit as you go through life.

¹²Wisdom and money can get you almost anything, but only wisdom can save your life.

¹³Accept the way God does things, for who can straighten what he has made crooked?

¹⁴Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life.

¹⁵I have seen everything in this meaningless life, including the death of good young people and the long life of wicked people.

¹⁶So don’t be too good or too wise! Why destroy yourself?

¹⁷On the other hand, don’t be too wicked either. Don’t be a fool! Why die before your time?

¹⁸Pay attention to these instructions, for anyone who fears God will avoid both extremes.

¹⁹One wise person is stronger than ten leading citizens of a town!

²⁰Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins.

²¹Don’t eavesdrop on others — you may hear your servant curse you.

²²For you know how often you yourself have cursed others.

²³I have always tried my best to let wisdom guide my thoughts and actions. I said to myself, “I am determined to be wise.” But it didn’t work.

²⁴Wisdom is always distant and difficult to find.

²⁵I searched everywhere, determined to find wisdom and to understand the reason for things. I was determined to prove to myself that wickedness is stupid and that foolishness is madness.

²⁶I discovered that a seductive woman is a trap more bitter than death. Her passion is a snare, and her soft hands are chains. Those who are pleasing to God will escape her, but sinners will be caught in her snare.

²⁷“This is my conclusion,” says the Teacher. “I discovered this after looking at the matter from every possible angle.

²⁸Though I have searched repeatedly, I have not found what I was looking for. Only one out of a thousand men is virtuous, but not one woman!

²⁹But I did find this: God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path.”

¹Rescue me from my enemies, O God. Protect me from those who have come to destroy me.

²Rescue me from these criminals; save me from these murderers.

³They have set an ambush for me. Fierce enemies are out there waiting, LORD, though I have not sinned or offended them.

⁴I have done nothing wrong, yet they prepare to attack me. Wake up! See what is happening and help me!

⁵O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, wake up and punish those hostile nations. Show no mercy to wicked traitors. Interlude

⁶They come out at night, snarling like vicious dogs as they prowl the streets.

⁷Listen to the filth that comes from their mouths; their words cut like swords. “After all, who can hear us?” they sneer.

⁸But LORD, you laugh at them. You scoff at all the hostile nations.

⁹You are my strength; I wait for you to rescue me, for you, O God, are my fortress.

¹⁰In his unfailing love, my God will stand with me. He will let me look down in triumph on all my enemies.

¹¹Don’t kill them, for my people soon forget such lessons; stagger them with your power, and bring them to their knees, O Lord our shield.

¹²Because of the sinful things they say, because of the evil that is on their lips, let them be captured by their pride, their curses, and their lies.

¹³Destroy them in your anger! Wipe them out completely! Then the whole world will know that God reigns in Israel. Interlude

¹⁴My enemies come out at night, snarling like vicious dogs as they prowl the streets.

¹⁵They scavenge for food but go to sleep unsatisfied.

¹⁶But as for me, I will sing about your power. Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love. For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress.

¹⁷O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love.

¹Unfriendly people care only about themselves; they lash out at common sense.

²Fools have no interest in understanding; they only want to air their own opinions.

³Doing wrong leads to disgrace, and scandalous behavior brings contempt.

⁴Wise words are like deep waters; wisdom flows from the wise like a bubbling brook.

⁵It is not right to acquit the guilty or deny justice to the innocent.

⁶Fools’ words get them into constant quarrels; they are asking for a beating.

⁷The mouths of fools are their ruin; they trap themselves with their lips.

⁸Rumors are dainty morsels that sink deep into one’s heart.

⁹A lazy person is as bad as someone who destroys things.

¹⁰The name of the LORD is a strong fortress; the godly run to him and are safe.

¹¹The rich think of their wealth as a strong defense; they imagine it to be a high wall of safety.

¹²Haughtiness goes before destruction; humility precedes honor.

¹³Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish.

¹⁴The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear a crushed spirit?

¹⁵Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge.

¹⁶Giving a gift can open doors; it gives access to important people!

¹⁷The first to speak in court sounds right — until the cross-examination begins.

¹⁸Flipping a coin can end arguments; it settles disputes between powerful opponents.

¹⁹An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city. Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars.

²⁰Wise words satisfy like a good meal; the right words bring satisfaction.

²¹The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.

²²The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the LORD.

²³The poor plead for mercy; the rich answer with insults.

²⁴There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.

¹It was in midspring, in the month of Ziv, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, that he began to construct the Temple of the LORD. This was 480 years after the people of Israel were rescued from their slavery in the land of Egypt.

²The Temple that King Solomon built for the LORD was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

³The entry room at the front of the Temple was 30 feet wide, running across the entire width of the Temple. It projected outward 15 feet from the front of the Temple.

⁴Solomon also made narrow recessed windows throughout the Temple.

⁵He built a complex of rooms against the outer walls of the Temple, all the way around the sides and rear of the building.

⁶The complex was three stories high, the bottom floor being 7 1⁄2 feet wide, the second floor 9 feet wide, and the top floor 10 1⁄2 feet wide. The rooms were connected to the walls of the Temple by beams resting on ledges built out from the wall. So the beams were not inserted into the walls themselves.

⁷The stones used in the construction of the Temple were finished at the quarry, so there was no sound of hammer, ax, or any other iron tool at the building site.

⁸The entrance to the bottom floor was on the south side of the Temple. There were winding stairs going up to the second floor, and another flight of stairs between the second and third floors.

⁹After completing the Temple structure, Solomon put in a ceiling made of cedar beams and planks.

¹⁰As already stated, he built a complex of rooms along the sides of the building, attached to the Temple walls by cedar timbers. Each story of the complex was 7 1⁄2 feet high.

¹¹Then the LORD gave this message to Solomon:

¹²“Concerning this Temple you are building, if you keep all my decrees and regulations and obey all my commands, I will fulfill through you the promise I made to your father, David.

¹³I will live among the Israelites and will never abandon my people Israel.”

¹⁴So Solomon finished building the Temple.

¹⁵The entire inside, from floor to ceiling, was paneled with wood. He paneled the walls and ceilings with cedar, and he used planks of cypress for the floors.

¹⁶He partitioned off an inner sanctuary — the Most Holy Place — at the far end of the Temple. It was 30 feet deep and was paneled with cedar from floor to ceiling.

¹⁷The main room of the Temple, outside the Most Holy Place, was 60 feet long.

¹⁸Cedar paneling completely covered the stone walls throughout the Temple, and the paneling was decorated with carvings of gourds and open flowers.

¹⁹He prepared the inner sanctuary at the far end of the Temple, where the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant would be placed.

²⁰This inner sanctuary was 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 30 feet high. He overlaid the inside with solid gold. He also overlaid the altar made of cedar.

²¹Then Solomon overlaid the rest of the Temple’s interior with solid gold, and he made gold chains to protect the entrance to the Most Holy Place.

²²So he finished overlaying the entire Temple with gold, including the altar that belonged to the Most Holy Place.

²³He made two cherubim of wild olive wood, each 15 feet tall, and placed them in the inner sanctuary.

²⁴The wingspan of each of the cherubim was 15 feet, each wing being 7 1⁄2 feet long.

²⁵The two cherubim were identical in shape and size;

²⁶each was 15 feet tall.

²⁷He placed them side by side in the inner sanctuary of the Temple. Their outspread wings reached from wall to wall, while their inner wings touched at the center of the room.

²⁸He overlaid the two cherubim with gold.

²⁹He decorated all the walls of the inner sanctuary and the main room with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers.

³⁰He overlaid the floor in both rooms with gold.

³¹For the entrance to the inner sanctuary, he made double doors of wild olive wood with five-sided doorposts.

³²These double doors were decorated with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. The doors, including the decorations of cherubim and palm trees, were overlaid with gold.

³³Then he made four-sided doorposts of wild olive wood for the entrance to the Temple.

³⁴There were two folding doors of cypress wood, and each door was hinged to fold back upon itself.

³⁵These doors were decorated with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers — all overlaid evenly with gold.

³⁶The walls of the inner courtyard were built so that there was one layer of cedar beams between every three layers of finished stone.

³⁷The foundation of the LORD’s Temple was laid in midspring, in the month of Ziv, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign.

³⁸The entire building was completed in every detail by midautumn, in the month of Bul, during the eleventh year of his reign. So it took seven years to build the Temple.

¹When Jeremiah had finished giving this message from the LORD their God to all the people,

²Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other proud men said to Jeremiah, “You lie! The LORD our God hasn’t forbidden us to go to Egypt!

³Baruch son of Neriah has convinced you to say this, because he wants us to stay here and be killed by the Babylonians or be carried off into exile.”

⁴So Johanan and the other military leaders and all the people refused to obey the LORD’s command to stay in Judah.

⁵Johanan and the other leaders took with them all the people who had returned from the nearby countries to which they had fled.

⁶In the crowd were men, women, and children, the king’s daughters, and all those whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah. The prophet Jeremiah and Baruch were also included.

⁷The people refused to obey the voice of the LORD and went to Egypt, going as far as the city of Tahpanhes.

⁸Then at Tahpanhes, the LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said,

⁹“While the people of Judah are watching, take some large rocks and bury them under the pavement stones at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace here in Tahpanhes.

¹⁰Then say to the people of Judah, ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will certainly bring my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, here to Egypt. I will set his throne over these stones that I have hidden. He will spread his royal canopy over them.

¹¹And when he comes, he will destroy the land of Egypt. He will bring death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and war to those destined for war.

¹²He will set fire to the temples of Egypt’s gods; he will burn the temples and carry the idols away as plunder. He will pick clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd picks fleas from his cloak. And he himself will leave unharmed.

¹³He will break down the sacred pillars standing in the temple of the sun in Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of Egypt’s gods.’”

¹Gazing intently at the high council, Paul began: “Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience!”

²Instantly Ananias the high priest commanded those close to Paul to slap him on the mouth.

³But Paul said to him, “God will slap you, you corrupt hypocrite! What kind of judge are you to break the law yourself by ordering me struck like that?”

⁴Those standing near Paul said to him, “Do you dare to insult God’s high priest?”

⁵“I’m sorry, brothers. I didn’t realize he was the high priest,” Paul replied, “for the Scriptures say, ‘You must not speak evil of any of your rulers.’ ”

⁶Paul realized that some members of the high council were Sadducees and some were Pharisees, so he shouted, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, as were my ancestors! And I am on trial because my hope is in the resurrection of the dead!”

⁷This divided the council — the Pharisees against the Sadducees —

⁸for the Sadducees say there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, but the Pharisees believe in all of these.

⁹So there was a great uproar. Some of the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees jumped up and began to argue forcefully. “We see nothing wrong with him,” they shouted. “Perhaps a spirit or an angel spoke to him.”

¹⁰As the conflict grew more violent, the commander was afraid they would tear Paul apart. So he ordered his soldiers to go and rescue him by force and take him back to the fortress.

¹¹That night the Lord appeared to Paul and said, “Be encouraged, Paul. Just as you have been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the Good News in Rome as well.”

¹²The next morning a group of Jews got together and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³There were more than forty of them in the conspiracy.

¹⁴They went to the leading priests and elders and told them, “We have bound ourselves with an oath to eat nothing until we have killed Paul.

¹⁵So you and the high council should ask the commander to bring Paul back to the council again. Pretend you want to examine his case more fully. We will kill him on the way.”

¹⁶But Paul’s nephew — his sister’s son — heard of their plan and went to the fortress and told Paul.

¹⁷Paul called for one of the Roman officers and said, “Take this young man to the commander. He has something important to tell him.”

¹⁸So the officer did, explaining, “Paul, the prisoner, called me over and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you.”

¹⁹The commander took his hand, led him aside, and asked, “What is it you want to tell me?”

²⁰Paul’s nephew told him, “Some Jews are going to ask you to bring Paul before the high council tomorrow, pretending they want to get some more information.

²¹But don’t do it! There are more than forty men hiding along the way ready to ambush him. They have vowed not to eat or drink anything until they have killed him. They are ready now, just waiting for your consent.”

²²“Don’t let anyone know you told me this,” the commander warned the young man.

²³Then the commander called two of his officers and ordered, “Get 200 soldiers ready to leave for Caesarea at nine o’clock tonight. Also take 200 spearmen and 70 mounted troops.

²⁴Provide horses for Paul to ride, and get him safely to Governor Felix.”

²⁵Then he wrote this letter to the governor:

²⁶“From Claudius Lysias, to his Excellency, Governor Felix: Greetings!

²⁷“This man was seized by some Jews, and they were about to kill him when I arrived with the troops. When I learned that he was a Roman citizen, I removed him to safety.

²⁸Then I took him to their high council to try to learn the basis of the accusations against him.

²⁹I soon discovered the charge was something regarding their religious law — certainly nothing worthy of imprisonment or death.

³⁰But when I was informed of a plot to kill him, I immediately sent him on to you. I have told his accusers to bring their charges before you.”

³¹So that night, as ordered, the soldiers took Paul as far as Antipatris.

³²They returned to the fortress the next morning, while the mounted troops took him on to Caesarea.

³³When they arrived in Caesarea, they presented Paul and the letter to Governor Felix.

³⁴He read it and then asked Paul what province he was from. “Cilicia,” Paul answered.

³⁵“I will hear your case myself when your accusers arrive,” the governor told him. Then the governor ordered him kept in the prison at Herod’s headquarters.