Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

² “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

³But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

⁴so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

⁵“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

⁶But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

⁷“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

⁸Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹ Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

¹⁰ Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread,

¹²and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

¹³And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,

¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

¹⁶“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

¹⁷But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,

¹⁸that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

¹⁹ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,

²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,

²³ but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

³²For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

¹“You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother.

²And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him.

³And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it.

⁴You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again.

⁵“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.

⁶“If you come across a bird's nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.

⁷You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.

⁸“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

⁹“You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole yield be forfeited, the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard.

¹⁰You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

¹¹You shall not wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together.

¹²“You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.

¹³“If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then hates her

¹⁴and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’

¹⁵then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate.

¹⁶And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her;

¹⁷and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city.

¹⁸Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him,

¹⁹and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days.

²⁰But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman,

²¹then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

²²“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²³“If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her,

²⁴then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

²⁵“But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.

²⁶But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor,

²⁷because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

²⁸“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found,

²⁹then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

³⁰“A man shall not take his father's wife, so that he does not uncover his father's nakedness.

¹For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

²Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

³I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

⁴You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

⁵For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

⁷You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

⁸This persuasion is not from him who calls you.

⁹A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

¹⁰I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.

¹¹But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.

¹²I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

¹⁴For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

¹⁵But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

¹⁶But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

¹⁷For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

²⁰idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,

²¹envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

²⁴And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

¹My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

²He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

³And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

⁴Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,

⁵but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:

⁶whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

⁷Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.

⁸At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

⁹Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

¹⁰Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹²I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

¹³I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.

¹⁴I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

¹⁵Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶For all that is in the world — the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life — is not from the Father but is from the world.

¹⁷And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

¹⁹They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

²⁰But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

²¹I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

²²Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

²³No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

²⁴Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

²⁵And this is the promise that he made to us — eternal life.

²⁶I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.

²⁷But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie — just as it has taught you, abide in him.

²⁸And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

²⁹If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

¹Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

²A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left.

³Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.

⁴If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.

⁵There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler:

⁶folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place.

⁷I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves.

⁸He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall.

⁹He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them.

¹⁰If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed.

¹¹If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer.

¹²The words of a wise man's mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him.

¹³The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness.

¹⁴A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him?

¹⁵The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.

¹⁶Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning!

¹⁷Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

¹⁸Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks.

¹⁹Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything.

²⁰Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.

¹For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

²He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

³How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

⁴They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah

⁵For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.

⁶He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

⁷On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

⁸Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah

⁹Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.

¹⁰Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them.

¹¹Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,

¹²and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work.

¹The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.

²Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.

³To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

⁴Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.

⁵The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

⁶The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.

⁷The violence of the wicked will sweep them away, because they refuse to do what is just.

⁸The way of the guilty is crooked, but the conduct of the pure is upright.

⁹It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.

¹⁰The soul of the wicked desires evil; his neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes.

¹¹When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise; when a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.

¹²The Righteous One observes the house of the wicked; he throws the wicked down to ruin.

¹³Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.

¹⁴A gift in secret averts anger, and a concealed bribe, strong wrath.

¹⁵When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.

¹⁶One who wanders from the way of good sense will rest in the assembly of the dead.

¹⁷Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.

¹⁸The wicked is a ransom for the righteous, and the traitor for the upright.

¹⁹It is better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman.

²⁰Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it.

²¹Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.

²²A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust.

²³Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.

²⁴“Scoffer” is the name of the arrogant, haughty man who acts with arrogant pride.

²⁵The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

²⁶All day long he craves and craves, but the righteous gives and does not hold back.

²⁷The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with evil intent.

²⁸A false witness will perish, but the word of a man who hears will endure.

²⁹A wicked man puts on a bold face, but the upright gives thought to his ways.

³⁰No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD.

³¹The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.

¹As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king's house and all that Solomon desired to build,

²the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

³And the LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.

⁴And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules,

⁵then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’

⁶But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,

⁷then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

⁸And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’

⁹Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this disaster on them.’”

¹⁰At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king's house,

¹¹and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

¹²But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him.

¹³Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul to this day.

¹⁴Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents of gold.

¹⁵And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the LORD and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer

¹⁶(Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife;

¹⁷so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and Lower Beth-horon

¹⁸and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah,

¹⁹and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

²⁰All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel —

²¹their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction — these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day.

²²But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.

²³These were the chief officers who were over Solomon's work: 550 who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

²⁴But Pharaoh's daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo.

²⁵Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to the LORD, making offerings with it before the LORD. So he finished the house.

²⁶King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

²⁷And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon.

²⁸And they went to Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon.

¹The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.

²About Egypt. Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

³“Prepare buckler and shield, and advance for battle!

⁴Harness the horses; mount, O horsemen! Take your stations with your helmets, polish your spears, put on your armor!

⁵Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and have turned backward. Their warriors are beaten down and have fled in haste; they look not back — terror on every side! declares the LORD.

⁶“The swift cannot flee away, nor the warrior escape; in the north by the river Euphrates they have stumbled and fallen.

⁷“Who is this, rising like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge?

⁸Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge. He said, ‘I will rise, I will cover the earth, I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.’

⁹Advance, O horses, and rage, O chariots! Let the warriors go out: men of Cush and Put who handle the shield, men of Lud, skilled in handling the bow.

¹⁰That day is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. The sword shall devour and be sated and drink its fill of their blood. For the Lord GOD of hosts holds a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

¹¹Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! In vain you have used many medicines; there is no healing for you.

¹²The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for warrior has stumbled against warrior; they have both fallen together.”

¹³The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:

¹⁴“Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol; proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes; say, ‘Stand ready and be prepared, for the sword shall devour around you.’

¹⁵Why are your mighty ones face down? They do not stand because the LORD thrust them down.

¹⁶He made many stumble, and they fell, and they said one to another, ‘Arise, and let us go back to our own people and to the land of our birth, because of the sword of the oppressor.’

¹⁷Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by.’

¹⁸“As I live, declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, shall one come.

¹⁹Prepare yourselves baggage for exile, O inhabitants of Egypt! For Memphis shall become a waste, a ruin, without inhabitant.

²⁰“A beautiful heifer is Egypt, but a biting fly from the north has come upon her.

²¹Even her hired soldiers in her midst are like fattened calves; yes, they have turned and fled together; they did not stand, for the day of their calamity has come upon them, the time of their punishment.

²²“She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away; for her enemies march in force and come against her with axes like those who fell trees.

²³They shall cut down her forest, declares the LORD, though it is impenetrable, because they are more numerous than locusts; they are without number.

²⁴The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north.”

²⁵The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, said: “Behold, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him.

²⁶I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, declares the LORD.

²⁷“But fear not, O Jacob my servant, nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from far away, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid.

²⁸Fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the LORD, for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.”

¹So Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense:

²“I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews,

³especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews.

⁵They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.

⁶And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers,

⁷to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king!

⁸Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

⁹“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them.

¹¹And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

¹²“In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

¹³At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

¹⁴And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you,

¹⁷ delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles — to whom I am sending you

¹⁸ to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

¹⁹“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

²¹For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

²²To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass:

²³that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.”

²⁵But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.

²⁶For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”

²⁸And Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”

²⁹And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am — except for these chains.”

³⁰Then the king rose, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them.

³¹And when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”