Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven.

²When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do — blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get.

³But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

⁴Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

⁵“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.

⁶But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

⁷“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.

⁸Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!

⁹Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

¹⁰May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

¹¹Give us today the food we need,

¹²and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

¹³And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

¹⁴“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

¹⁵But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

¹⁶“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get.

¹⁷But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face.

¹⁸Then no one will notice that you are fasting, except your Father, who knows what you do in private. And your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

¹⁹“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal.

²⁰Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.

²¹Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

²²“Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light.

²³But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

²⁴“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

²⁵“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life — whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?

²⁶Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?

²⁷Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

²⁸“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing,

²⁹yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

³⁰And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

³¹“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’

³²These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.

³³Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

³⁴“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

¹“If you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep or goat wandering away, don’t ignore your responsibility. Take it back to its owner.

²If its owner does not live nearby or you don’t know who the owner is, take it to your place and keep it until the owner comes looking for it. Then you must return it.

³Do the same if you find your neighbor’s donkey, clothing, or anything else your neighbor loses. Don’t ignore your responsibility.

⁴“If you see that your neighbor’s donkey or ox has collapsed on the road, do not look the other way. Go and help your neighbor get it back on its feet!

⁵“A woman must not put on men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing. Anyone who does this is detestable in the sight of the LORD your God.

⁶“If you happen to find a bird’s nest in a tree or on the ground, and there are young ones or eggs in it with the mother sitting in the nest, do not take the mother with the young.

⁷You may take the young, but let the mother go, so that you may prosper and enjoy a long life.

⁸“When you build a new house, you must build a railing around the edge of its flat roof. That way you will not be considered guilty of murder if someone falls from the roof.

⁹“You must not plant any other crop between the rows of your vineyard. If you do, you are forbidden to use either the grapes from the vineyard or the other crop.

¹⁰“You must not plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together.

¹¹“You must not wear clothing made of wool and linen woven together.

¹²“You must put four tassels on the hem of the cloak with which you cover yourself — on the front, back, and sides.

¹³“Suppose a man marries a woman, but after sleeping with her, he turns against her

¹⁴and publicly accuses her of shameful conduct, saying, ‘When I married this woman, I discovered she was not a virgin.’

¹⁵Then the woman’s father and mother must bring the proof of her virginity to the elders as they hold court at the town gate.

¹⁶Her father must say to them, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to be his wife, and now he has turned against her.

¹⁷He has accused her of shameful conduct, saying, “I discovered that your daughter was not a virgin.” But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.’ Then they must spread her bed sheet before the elders.

¹⁸The elders must then take the man and punish him.

¹⁹They must also fine him 100 pieces of silver, which he must pay to the woman’s father because he publicly accused a virgin of Israel of shameful conduct. The woman will then remain the man’s wife, and he may never divorce her.

²⁰“But suppose the man’s accusations are true, and he can show that she was not a virgin.

²¹The woman must be taken to the door of her father’s home, and there the men of the town must stone her to death, for she has committed a disgraceful crime in Israel by being promiscuous while living in her parents’ home. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you.

²²“If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the woman must die. In this way, you will purge Israel of such evil.

²³“Suppose a man meets a young woman, a virgin who is engaged to be married, and he has sexual intercourse with her. If this happens within a town,

²⁴you must take both of them to the gates of that town and stone them to death. The woman is guilty because she did not scream for help. The man must die because he violated another man’s wife. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you.

²⁵“But if the man meets the engaged woman out in the country, and he rapes her, then only the man must die.

²⁶Do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no crime worthy of death. She is as innocent as a murder victim.

²⁷Since the man raped her out in the country, it must be assumed that she screamed, but there was no one to rescue her.

²⁸“Suppose a man has intercourse with a young woman who is a virgin but is not engaged to be married. If they are discovered,

²⁹he must pay her father fifty pieces of silver. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.

³⁰“A man must not marry his father’s former wife, for this would violate his father.

¹So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

²Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you.

³I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses.

⁴For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.

⁵But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.

⁶For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.

⁷You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth?

⁸It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom.

⁹This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!

¹⁰I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you.

¹¹Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised — as some say I do — why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended.

¹²I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.

¹³For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

¹⁴For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

¹⁵But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.

¹⁶So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

¹⁷The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

¹⁸But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

¹⁹When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures,

²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,

²¹envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

²²But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

²⁵Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

²⁶Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

¹My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

²He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins — and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

³And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments.

⁴If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.

⁵But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.

⁶Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

⁷Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment — to love one another — is the same message you heard before.

⁸Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment, and you also are living it. For the darkness is disappearing, and the true light is already shining.

⁹If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness.

¹⁰Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble.

¹¹But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.

¹²I am writing to you who are God’s children because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus.

¹³I am writing to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I am writing to you who are young in the faith because you have won your battle with the evil one.

¹⁴I have written to you who are God’s children because you know the Father. I have written to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I have written to you who are young in the faith because you are strong. God’s word lives in your hearts, and you have won your battle with the evil one.

¹⁵Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.

¹⁶For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

¹⁷And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

¹⁸Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come.

¹⁹These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.

²⁰But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth.

²¹So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies.

²²And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist.

²³Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

²⁴So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father.

²⁵And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.

²⁶I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray.

²⁷But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true — it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.

²⁸And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.

²⁹Since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s children.

¹As dead flies cause even a bottle of perfume to stink, so a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor.

²A wise person chooses the right road; a fool takes the wrong one.

³You can identify fools just by the way they walk down the street!

⁴If your boss is angry at you, don’t quit! A quiet spirit can overcome even great mistakes.

⁵There is another evil I have seen under the sun. Kings and rulers make a grave mistake

⁶when they give great authority to foolish people and low positions to people of proven worth.

⁷I have even seen servants riding horseback like princes — and princes walking like servants!

⁸When you dig a well, you might fall in. When you demolish an old wall, you could be bitten by a snake.

⁹When you work in a quarry, stones might fall and crush you. When you chop wood, there is danger with each stroke of your ax.

¹⁰Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That’s the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed.

¹¹If a snake bites before you charm it, what’s the use of being a snake charmer?

¹²Wise words bring approval, but fools are destroyed by their own words.

¹³Fools base their thoughts on foolish assumptions, so their conclusions will be wicked madness;

¹⁴they chatter on and on. No one really knows what is going to happen; no one can predict the future.

¹⁵Fools are so exhausted by a little work that they can’t even find their way home.

¹⁶What sorrow for the land ruled by a servant, the land whose leaders feast in the morning.

¹⁷Happy is the land whose king is a noble leader and whose leaders feast at the proper time to gain strength for their work, not to get drunk.

¹⁸Laziness leads to a sagging roof; idleness leads to a leaky house.

¹⁹A party gives laughter, wine gives happiness, and money gives everything!

²⁰Never make light of the king, even in your thoughts. And don’t make fun of the powerful, even in your own bedroom. For a little bird might deliver your message and tell them what you said.

¹I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him.

²He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken.

³So many enemies against one man — all of them trying to kill me. To them I’m just a broken-down wall or a tottering fence.

⁴They plan to topple me from my high position. They delight in telling lies about me. They praise me to my face but curse me in their hearts. Interlude

⁵Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.

⁶He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken.

⁷My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.

⁸O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge. Interlude

⁹Common people are as worthless as a puff of wind, and the powerful are not what they appear to be. If you weigh them on the scales, together they are lighter than a breath of air.

¹⁰Don’t make your living by extortion or put your hope in stealing. And if your wealth increases, don’t make it the center of your life.

¹¹God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you;

¹²unfailing love, O Lord, is yours. Surely you repay all people according to what they have done.

¹The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the LORD; he guides it wherever he pleases.

²People may be right in their own eyes, but the LORD examines their heart.

³The LORD is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices.

⁴Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and evil actions are all sin.

⁵Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.

⁶Wealth created by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist and a deadly trap.

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

⁸The guilty walk a crooked path; the innocent travel a straight road.

⁹It’s better to live alone in the corner of an attic than with a quarrelsome wife in a lovely home.

¹⁰Evil people desire evil; their neighbors get no mercy from them.

¹¹If you punish a mocker, the simpleminded become wise; if you instruct the wise, they will be all the wiser.

¹²The Righteous One knows what is going on in the homes of the wicked; he will bring disaster on them.

¹³Those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need.

¹⁴A secret gift calms anger; a bribe under the table pacifies fury.

¹⁵Justice is a joy to the godly, but it terrifies evildoers.

¹⁶The person who strays from common sense will end up in the company of the dead.

¹⁷Those who love pleasure become poor; those who love wine and luxury will never be rich.

¹⁸The wicked are punished in place of the godly, and traitors in place of the honest.

¹⁹It’s better to live alone in the desert than with a quarrelsome, complaining wife.

²⁰The wise have wealth and luxury, but fools spend whatever they get.

²¹Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honor.

²²The wise conquer the city of the strong and level the fortress in which they trust.

²³Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble.

²⁴Mockers are proud and haughty; they act with boundless arrogance.

²⁵Despite their desires, the lazy will come to ruin, for their hands refuse to work.

²⁶Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give!

²⁷The sacrifice of an evil person is detestable, especially when it is offered with wrong motives.

²⁸A false witness will be cut off, but a credible witness will be allowed to speak.

²⁹The wicked bluff their way through, but the virtuous think before they act.

³⁰No human wisdom or understanding or plan can stand against the LORD.

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

¹So Solomon finished building the Temple of the LORD, as well as the royal palace. He completed everything he had planned to do.

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

³The LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your petition. I have set this Temple apart to be holy — this place you have built where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it is dear to my heart.

⁴“As for you, if you will follow me with integrity and godliness, as David your father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations,

⁵then I will establish the throne of your dynasty over Israel forever. For I made this promise to your father, David: ‘One of your descendants will always sit on the throne of Israel.’

⁶“But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands and decrees I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods,

⁷then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations.

⁸And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled and will gasp in horror. They will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’

⁹“And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why the LORD has brought all these disasters on them.’”

¹⁰It took Solomon twenty years to build the LORD’s Temple and his own royal palace. At the end of that time,

¹¹he gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to King Hiram of Tyre. (Hiram had previously provided all the cedar and cypress timber and gold that Solomon had requested.)

¹²But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns Solomon had given him, he was not at all pleased with them.

¹³“What kind of towns are these, my brother?” he asked. So Hiram called that area Cabul (which means “worthless”), as it is still known today.

¹⁴Nevertheless, Hiram paid Solomon 9,000 pounds of gold.

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the LORD’s Temple, the royal palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶(Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, killing the Canaanite population and burning it down. He gave the city to his daughter as a wedding gift when she married Solomon.

¹⁷So Solomon rebuilt the city of Gezer.) He also built up the towns of Lower Beth-horon,

¹⁸Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness within his land.

¹⁹He built towns as supply centers and constructed towns where his chariots and horses could be stationed. He built everything he desired in Jerusalem and Lebanon and throughout his entire realm.

²⁰There were still some people living in the land who were not Israelites, including Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

²¹These were descendants of the nations whom the people of Israel had not completely destroyed. So Solomon conscripted them as slaves, and they serve as forced laborers to this day.

²²But Solomon did not conscript any of the Israelites for forced labor. Instead, he assigned them to serve as fighting men, government officials, officers and captains in his army, commanders of his chariots, and charioteers.

²³Solomon appointed 550 of them to supervise the people working on his various projects.

²⁴Solomon moved his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter, from the City of David to the new palace he had built for her. Then he constructed the supporting terraces.

²⁵Three times each year Solomon presented burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD. He also burned incense to the LORD. And so he finished the work of building the Temple.

²⁶King Solomon also built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, a port near Elath in the land of Edom, along the shore of the Red Sea.

²⁷Hiram sent experienced crews of sailors to sail the ships with Solomon’s men.

²⁸They sailed to Ophir and brought back to Solomon some sixteen tons of gold.

¹The following messages were given to Jeremiah the prophet from the LORD concerning foreign nations.

²This message concerning Egypt was given in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, the king of Judah, on the occasion of the battle of Carchemish when Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, and his army were defeated beside the Euphrates River by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

³“Prepare your shields, and advance into battle!

⁴Harness the horses, and mount the stallions. Take your positions. Put on your helmets. Sharpen your spears, and prepare your armor.

⁵But what do I see? The Egyptian army flees in terror. The bravest of its fighting men run without a backward glance. They are terrorized at every turn,” says the LORD.

⁶“The swiftest runners cannot flee; the mightiest warriors cannot escape. By the Euphrates River to the north, they stumble and fall.

⁷“Who is this, rising like the Nile at floodtime, overflowing all the land?

⁸It is the Egyptian army, overflowing all the land, boasting that it will cover the earth like a flood, destroying cities and their people.

⁹Charge, you horses and chariots; attack, you mighty warriors of Egypt! Come, all you allies from Ethiopia, Libya, and Lydia who are skilled with the shield and bow!

¹⁰For this is the day of the Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, a day of vengeance on his enemies. The sword will devour until it is satisfied, yes, until it is drunk with your blood! The Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, will receive a sacrifice today in the north country beside the Euphrates River.

¹¹“Go up to Gilead to get medicine, O virgin daughter of Egypt! But your many treatments will bring you no healing.

¹²The nations have heard of your shame. The earth is filled with your cries of despair. Your mightiest warriors will run into each other and fall down together.”

¹³Then the LORD gave the prophet Jeremiah this message about King Nebuchadnezzar’s plans to attack Egypt.

¹⁴“Shout it out in Egypt! Publish it in the cities of Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes! Mobilize for battle, for the sword will devour everyone around you.

¹⁵Why have your warriors fallen? They cannot stand, for the LORD has knocked them down.

¹⁶They stumble and fall over each other and say among themselves, ‘Come, let’s go back to our people, to the land of our birth. Let’s get away from the sword of the enemy!’

¹⁷There they will say, ‘Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is a loudmouth who missed his opportunity!’

¹⁸“As surely as I live,” says the King, whose name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “one is coming against Egypt who is as tall as Mount Tabor, or as Mount Carmel by the sea!

¹⁹Pack up! Get ready to leave for exile, you citizens of Egypt! The city of Memphis will be destroyed, without a single inhabitant.

²⁰Egypt is as sleek as a beautiful heifer, but a horsefly from the north is on its way!

²¹Egypt’s mercenaries have become like fattened calves. They, too, will turn and run, for it is a day of great disaster for Egypt, a time of great punishment.

²²Egypt flees, silent as a serpent gliding away. The invading army marches in; they come against her with axes like woodsmen.

²³They will cut down her people like trees,” says the LORD, “for they are more numerous than locusts.

²⁴Egypt will be humiliated; she will be handed over to people from the north.”

²⁵The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes, and all the other gods of Egypt. I will punish its rulers and Pharaoh, too, and all who trust in him.

²⁶I will hand them over to those who want them killed — to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his army. But afterward the land will recover from the ravages of war. I, the LORD, have spoken!

²⁷“But do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant; do not be dismayed, Israel. For I will bring you home again from distant lands, and your children will return from their exile. Israel will return to a life of peace and quiet, and no one will terrorize them.

²⁸Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, for I am with you,” says the LORD. “I will completely destroy the nations to which I have exiled you, but I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you, but with justice; I cannot let you go unpunished.”

¹Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak in your defense.” So Paul, gesturing with his hand, started his defense:

²“I am fortunate, King Agrippa, that you are the one hearing my defense today against all these accusations made by the Jewish leaders,

³for I know you are an expert on all Jewish customs and controversies. Now please listen to me patiently!

⁴“As the Jewish leaders are well aware, I was given a thorough Jewish training from my earliest childhood among my own people and in Jerusalem.

⁵If they would admit it, they know that I have been a member of the Pharisees, the strictest sect of our religion.

⁶Now I am on trial because of my hope in the fulfillment of God’s promise made to our ancestors.

⁷In fact, that is why the twelve tribes of Israel zealously worship God night and day, and they share the same hope I have. Yet, Your Majesty, they accuse me for having this hope!

⁸Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?

⁹“I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene.

¹⁰Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death.

¹¹Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus. I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased them down in foreign cities.

¹²“One day I was on such a mission to Damascus, armed with the authority and commission of the leading priests.

¹³About noon, Your Majesty, as I was on the road, a light from heaven brighter than the sun shone down on me and my companions.

¹⁴We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will. ’

¹⁵“‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked. “And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

¹⁶Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future.

¹⁷And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles

¹⁸to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’

¹⁹“And so, King Agrippa, I obeyed that vision from heaven.

²⁰I preached first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that all must repent of their sins and turn to God — and prove they have changed by the good things they do.

²¹Some Jews arrested me in the Temple for preaching this, and they tried to kill me.

²²But God has protected me right up to this present time so I can testify to everyone, from the least to the greatest. I teach nothing except what the prophets and Moses said would happen —

²³that the Messiah would suffer and be the first to rise from the dead, and in this way announce God’s light to Jews and Gentiles alike.”

²⁴Suddenly, Festus shouted, “Paul, you are insane. Too much study has made you crazy!”

²⁵But Paul replied, “I am not insane, Most Excellent Festus. What I am saying is the sober truth.

²⁶And King Agrippa knows about these things. I speak boldly, for I am sure these events are all familiar to him, for they were not done in a corner!

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

²⁸Agrippa interrupted him. “Do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian so quickly?”

²⁹Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains.”

³⁰Then the king, the governor, Bernice, and all the others stood and left.

³¹As they went out, they talked it over and agreed, “This man hasn’t done anything to deserve death or imprisonment.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “He could have been set free if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar.”