Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

²Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

³“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

⁵“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

⁶“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

⁷“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

⁸“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

⁹“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

¹⁰“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

¹³“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

¹⁴“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.

¹⁵No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

¹⁷“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

¹⁸For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

¹⁹Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

²⁰For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

²¹“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’

²²But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.

²³So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you,

²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

²⁵Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison.

²⁶Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

²⁷“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’

²⁸But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

²⁹If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

³¹“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’

³²But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

³³“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’

³⁴But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,

³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

³⁶And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

³⁷Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’

³⁹But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;

⁴⁰and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well;

⁴¹and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

⁴²Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

⁴⁴But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

⁴⁵so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

¹If, in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, a body is found lying in open country, and it is not known who struck the person down,

²then your elders and your judges shall come out to measure the distances to the towns that are near the body.

³The elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked, one that has not pulled in the yoke;

⁴the elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to a wadi with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the wadi.

⁵Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to pronounce blessings in the name of the LORD, and by their decision all cases of dispute and assault shall be settled.

⁶All the elders of that town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the wadi,

⁷and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor were we witnesses to it.

⁸Absolve, O LORD, your people Israel, whom you redeemed; do not let the guilt of innocent blood remain in the midst of your people Israel.” Then they will be absolved of bloodguilt.

⁹So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, because you must do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁰When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God hands them over to you and you take them captive,

¹¹suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman whom you desire and want to marry,

¹²and so you bring her home to your house: she shall shave her head, pare her nails,

¹³discard her captive’s garb, and shall remain in your house a full month, mourning for her father and mother; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

¹⁴But if you are not satisfied with her, you shall let her go free and not sell her for money. You must not treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

¹⁵If a man has two wives, one of them loved and the other disliked, and if both the loved and the disliked have borne him sons, the firstborn being the son of the one who is disliked,

¹⁶then on the day when he wills his possessions to his sons, he is not permitted to treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the disliked, who is the firstborn.

¹⁷He must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the one who is disliked, giving him a double portion of all that he has; since he is the first issue of his virility, the right of the firstborn is his.

¹⁸If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him,

¹⁹then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place.

²⁰They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.”

²¹Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. So you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel will hear, and be afraid.

²²When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree,

²³his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you for possession.

¹My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property;

²but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father.

³So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world.

⁴But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

⁵in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.

⁶And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

⁷So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

⁸Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods.

⁹Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again?

¹⁰You are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years.

¹¹I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted.

¹²Friends, I beg you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong.

¹³You know that it was because of a physical infirmity that I first announced the gospel to you;

¹⁴though my condition put you to the test, you did not scorn or despise me, but welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

¹⁵What has become of the goodwill you felt? For I testify that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.

¹⁶Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

¹⁷They make much of you, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you may make much of them.

¹⁸It is good to be made much of for a good purpose at all times, and not only when I am present with you.

¹⁹My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

²⁰I wish I were present with you now and could change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

²¹Tell me, you who desire to be subject to the law, will you not listen to the law?

²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman.

²³One, the child of the slave, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise.

²⁴Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery.

²⁵Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

²⁶But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother.

²⁷For it is written, “Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children, burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs; for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than the children of the one who is married.”

²⁸Now you, my friends, are children of the promise, like Isaac.

²⁹But just as at that time the child who was born according to the flesh persecuted the child who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.

³⁰But what does the scripture say? “Drive out the slave and her child; for the child of the slave will not share the inheritance with the child of the free woman.”

³¹So then, friends, we are children, not of the slave but of the free woman.

¹We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life —

²this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us —

³we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

⁴We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

⁵This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

⁶If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true;

⁷but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁸If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁹If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

¹All this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate one does not know. Everything that confronts them

²is vanity, since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath.

³This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. Moreover, the hearts of all are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

⁴But whoever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

⁵The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost.

⁶Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished; never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun.

⁷Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do.

⁸Let your garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking on your head.

⁹Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

¹⁰Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

¹¹Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all.

¹²For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them.

¹³I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me.

¹⁴There was a little city with few people in it. A great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it.

¹⁵Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

¹⁶So I said, “Wisdom is better than might; yet the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heeded.”

¹⁷The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouting of a ruler among fools.

¹⁸Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one bungler destroys much good.

¹Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.

²From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I;

³for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.

⁴Let me abide in your tent forever, find refuge under the shelter of your wings. Selah

⁵For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

⁶Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations!

⁷May he be enthroned forever before God; appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!

⁸So I will always sing praises to your name, as I pay my vows day after day.

¹Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

²The dread anger of a king is like the growling of a lion; anyone who provokes him to anger forfeits life itself.

³It is honorable to refrain from strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel.

⁴The lazy person does not plow in season; harvest comes, and there is nothing to be found.

⁵The purposes in the human mind are like deep water, but the intelligent will draw them out.

⁶Many proclaim themselves loyal, but who can find one worthy of trust?

⁷The righteous walk in integrity — happy are the children who follow them!

⁸A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes.

⁹Who can say, “I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin”?

¹⁰Diverse weights and diverse measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

¹¹Even children make themselves known by their acts, by whether what they do is pure and right.

¹²The hearing ear and the seeing eye — the LORD has made them both.

¹³Do not love sleep, or else you will come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.

¹⁴“Bad, bad,” says the buyer, then goes away and boasts.

¹⁵There is gold, and abundance of costly stones; but the lips informed by knowledge are a precious jewel.

¹⁶Take the garment of one who has given surety for a stranger; seize the pledge given as surety for foreigners.

¹⁷Bread gained by deceit is sweet, but afterward the mouth will be full of gravel.

¹⁸Plans are established by taking advice; wage war by following wise guidance.

¹⁹A gossip reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a babbler.

²⁰If you curse father or mother, your lamp will go out in utter darkness.

²¹An estate quickly acquired in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.

²²Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the LORD, and he will help you.

²³Differing weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good.

²⁴All our steps are ordered by the LORD; how then can we understand our own ways?

²⁵It is a snare for one to say rashly, “It is holy,” and begin to reflect only after making a vow.

²⁶A wise king winnows the wicked, and drives the wheel over them.

²⁷The human spirit is the lamp of the LORD, searching every inmost part.

²⁸Loyalty and faithfulness preserve the king, and his throne is upheld by righteousness.

²⁹The glory of youths is their strength, but the beauty of the aged is their gray hair.

³⁰Blows that wound cleanse away evil; beatings make clean the innermost parts.

¹Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.

²All the people of Israel assembled to King Solomon at the festival in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

³And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests carried the ark.

⁴So they brought up the ark of the LORD, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up.

⁵King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

⁶Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim.

⁷For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles.

⁸The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside; they are there to this day.

⁹There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone that Moses had placed there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD,

¹¹so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.

¹²Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness.

¹³I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.”

¹⁴Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood.

¹⁵He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David, saying,

¹⁶‘Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any of the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.’

¹⁷My father David had it in mind to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁸But the LORD said to my father David, ‘You did well to consider building a house for my name;

¹⁹nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’

²⁰Now the LORD has upheld the promise that he made; for I have risen in the place of my father David; I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

²¹There I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD that he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.”

²²Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven.

²³He said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart,

²⁴the covenant that you kept for your servant my father David as you declared to him; you promised with your mouth and have this day fulfilled with your hand.

²⁵Therefore, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David that which you promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children look to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’

²⁶Therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you promised to your servant my father David.

²⁷“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!

²⁸Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O LORD my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today;

²⁹that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.

³⁰Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive.

³¹“If someone sins against a neighbor and is given an oath to swear, and comes and swears before your altar in this house,

³²then hear in heaven, and act, and judge your servants, condemning the guilty by bringing their conduct on their own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding them according to their righteousness.

³³“When your people Israel, having sinned against you, are defeated before an enemy but turn again to you, confess your name, pray and plead with you in this house,

³⁴then hear in heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land that you gave to their ancestors.

³⁵“When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and then they pray toward this place, confess your name, and turn from their sin, because you punish them,

³⁶then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and grant rain on your land, which you have given to your people as an inheritance.

³⁷“If there is famine in the land, if there is plague, blight, mildew, locust, or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in any of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;

³⁸whatever prayer, whatever plea there is from any individual or from all your people Israel, all knowing the afflictions of their own hearts so that they stretch out their hands toward this house;

³⁹then hear in heaven your dwelling place, forgive, act, and render to all whose hearts you know — according to all their ways, for only you know what is in every human heart —

⁴⁰so that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land that you gave to our ancestors.

⁴¹“Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name

⁴²— for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm — when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house,

⁴³then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.

⁴⁴“If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to the LORD toward the city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name,

⁴⁵then hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause.

⁴⁶“If they sin against you — for there is no one who does not sin — and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

⁴⁷yet if they come to their senses in the land to which they have been taken captive, and repent, and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have done wrong; we have acted wickedly’;

⁴⁸if they repent with all their heart and soul in the land of their enemies, who took them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their ancestors, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name;

⁴⁹then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, maintain their cause

⁵⁰and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you; and grant them compassion in the sight of their captors, so that they may have compassion on them

⁵¹(for they are your people and heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the iron-smelter).

⁵²Let your eyes be open to the plea of your servant, and to the plea of your people Israel, listening to them whenever they call to you.

⁵³For you have separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your heritage, just as you promised through Moses, your servant, when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.”

⁵⁴Now when Solomon finished offering all this prayer and this plea to the LORD, he arose from facing the altar of the LORD, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven;

⁵⁵he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice:

⁵⁶“Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised; not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke through his servant Moses.

⁵⁷The LORD our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors; may he not leave us or abandon us,

⁵⁸but incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our ancestors.

⁵⁹Let these words of mine, with which I pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires;

⁶⁰so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other.

⁶¹Therefore devote yourselves completely to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”

⁶²Then the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the LORD.

⁶³Solomon offered as sacrifices of well-being to the LORD twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.

⁶⁴The same day the king consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the LORD; for there he offered the burnt offerings and the grain offerings and the fat pieces of the sacrifices of well-being, because the bronze altar that was before the LORD was too small to receive the burnt offerings and the grain offerings and the fat pieces of the sacrifices of well-being.

⁶⁵So Solomon held the festival at that time, and all Israel with him — a great assembly, people from Lebo-hamath to the Wadi of Egypt — before the LORD our God, seven days.

⁶⁶On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents, joyful and in good spirits because of all the goodness that the LORD had shown to his servant David and to his people Israel.

¹The word that the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah:

²Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch:

³You said, “Woe is me! The LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.”

⁴Thus you shall say to him, “Thus says the LORD: I am going to break down what I have built, and pluck up what I have planted — that is, the whole land.

⁵And you, do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for I am going to bring disaster upon all flesh, says the LORD; but I will give you your life as a prize of war in every place to which you may go.”

¹Three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem

²where the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews gave him a report against Paul. They appealed to him

³and requested, as a favor to them against Paul, to have him transferred to Jerusalem. They were, in fact, planning an ambush to kill him along the way.

⁴Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he himself intended to go there shortly.

⁵“So,” he said, “let those of you who have the authority come down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them accuse him.”

⁶After he had stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought.

⁷When he arrived, the Jews who had gone down from Jerusalem surrounded him, bringing many serious charges against him, which they could not prove.

⁸Paul said in his defense, “I have in no way committed an offense against the law of the Jews, or against the temple, or against the emperor.”

⁹But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, asked Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and be tried there before me on these charges?”

¹⁰Paul said, “I am appealing to the emperor’s tribunal; this is where I should be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you very well know.

¹¹Now if I am in the wrong and have committed something for which I deserve to die, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can turn me over to them. I appeal to the emperor.”

¹²Then Festus, after he had conferred with his council, replied, “You have appealed to the emperor; to the emperor you will go.”

¹³After several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus.

¹⁴Since they were staying there several days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a man here who was left in prison by Felix.

¹⁵When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me about him and asked for a sentence against him.

¹⁶I told them that it was not the custom of the Romans to hand over anyone before the accused had met the accusers face to face and had been given an opportunity to make a defense against the charge.

¹⁷So when they met here, I lost no time, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought.

¹⁸When the accusers stood up, they did not charge him with any of the crimes that I was expecting.

¹⁹Instead they had certain points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, but whom Paul asserted to be alive.

²⁰Since I was at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wished to go to Jerusalem and be tried there on these charges.

²¹But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of his Imperial Majesty, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to the emperor.”

²²Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he said, “you will hear him.”

²³So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then Festus gave the order and Paul was brought in.

²⁴And Festus said, “King Agrippa and all here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish community petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.

²⁵But I found that he had done nothing deserving death; and when he appealed to his Imperial Majesty, I decided to send him.

²⁶But I have nothing definite to write to our sovereign about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that, after we have examined him, I may have something to write —

²⁷for it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.”