Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

²“So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

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

⁴so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

⁵“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

⁶But whenever 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“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.

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

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

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

¹¹Give us this day our daily bread.

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

¹³And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

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

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

¹⁶“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,

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

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal;

²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes 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;

²³but if your eye is unhealthy, 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 a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

²⁶Look 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 can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?

²⁸And why do you worry 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 clothed like one of these.

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

³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’

³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

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

¹You shall not watch your neighbor’s ox or sheep straying away and ignore them; you shall take them back to their owner.

²If the owner does not reside near you or you do not know who the owner is, you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until the owner claims it; then you shall return it.

³You shall do the same with a neighbor’s donkey; you shall do the same with a neighbor’s garment; and you shall do the same with anything else that your neighbor loses and you find. You may not withhold your help.

⁴You shall not see your neighbor’s donkey or ox fallen on the road and ignore it; you shall help to lift it up.

⁵A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the LORD your God.

⁶If you come on a bird’s nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.

⁷Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long.

⁸When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof; otherwise you might have bloodguilt on your house, if anyone should fall from it.

⁹You shall not sow your vineyard with a second kind of seed, or the whole yield will have to be forfeited, both the crop that you have sown and the yield of the vineyard itself.

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

¹¹You shall not wear clothes made of wool and linen woven together.

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

¹³Suppose a man marries a woman, but after going in to her, he dislikes her

¹⁴and makes up charges against her, slandering her by saying, “I married this woman; but when I lay with her, I did not find evidence of her virginity.”

¹⁵The father of the young woman and her mother shall then submit the evidence of the young woman’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.

¹⁶The father of the young woman shall say to the elders: “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man but he dislikes her;

¹⁷now he has made up charges against her, saying, ‘I did not find evidence of your daughter’s virginity.’ But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.” Then they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the town.

¹⁸The elders of that town shall take the man and punish him;

¹⁹they shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver (which they shall give to the young woman’s father) because he has slandered a virgin of Israel. She shall remain his wife; he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.

²⁰If, however, this charge is true, that evidence of the young woman’s virginity was not found,

²¹then they shall bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father’s house and the men of her town shall stone her to death, because she committed a disgraceful act in Israel by prostituting herself in her father’s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

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

²³If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married, and a man meets her in the town and lies with her,

²⁴you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry for help in the town and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

²⁵But if the man meets the engaged woman in the open country, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.

²⁶You shall do nothing to the young woman; the young woman has not committed an offense punishable by death, because this case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor.

²⁷Since he found her in the open country, the engaged woman may have cried for help, but there was no one to rescue her.

²⁸If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act,

²⁹the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman’s father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.

³⁰A man shall not marry his father’s wife, thereby violating his father’s rights.

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

²Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

³Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law.

⁴You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

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

⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

⁷You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth?

⁸Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.

⁹A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough.

¹⁰I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty.

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

¹²I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!

¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.

¹⁴For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

¹⁵If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

¹⁶Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.

¹⁷For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.

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

¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,

²⁰idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions,

²¹envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,

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

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 be guided by the Spirit.

²⁶Let us not become conceited, competing against 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;

²and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

³Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments.

⁴Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist;

⁵but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him:

⁶whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked.

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

⁸Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

⁹Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.

¹⁰Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.

¹¹But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.

¹²I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name.

¹³I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have conquered the evil one.

¹⁴I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young people, 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. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world;

¹⁶for all that is in the world — the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches — comes not from the Father but from the world.

¹⁷And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.

¹⁸Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour.

¹⁹They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us.

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

²¹I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and you know that no lie comes from the truth.

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

²³No one who denies the Son has the Father; everyone who 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 will abide in the Son and in the Father.

²⁵And this is what he has promised us, eternal life.

²⁶I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you.

²⁷As for you, the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and so you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in him.

²⁸And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.

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

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

²The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of a fool to the left.

³Even when fools walk on the road, they lack sense, and show to everyone that they are fools.

⁴If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for calmness will undo great offenses.

⁵There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as great an error as if it proceeded from the ruler:

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

⁷I have seen slaves on horseback, and princes walking on foot like slaves.

⁸Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; and whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a snake.

⁹Whoever quarries stones will be hurt by them; and whoever splits logs will be endangered by them.

¹⁰If the iron is blunt, and one does not whet the edge, then more strength must be exerted; but wisdom helps one to succeed.

¹¹If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage in a charmer.

¹²Words spoken by the wise bring them favor, but the lips of fools consume them.

¹³The words of their mouths begin in foolishness, and their talk ends in wicked madness;

¹⁴yet fools talk on and on. No one knows what is to happen, and who can tell anyone what the future holds?

¹⁵The toil of fools wears them out, for they do not even know the way to town.

¹⁶Alas for you, O land, when your king is a servant, and your princes feast in the morning!

¹⁷Happy are you, O land, when your king is a nobleman, 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.

¹⁹Feasts are made for laughter; wine gladdens life, and money meets every need.

²⁰Do not curse the king, even in your thoughts, or curse the rich, even in your bedroom; for a bird of the air may 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 never be shaken.

³How long will you assail a person, will you batter your victim, all of you, as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

⁴Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence. They take pleasure in falsehood; they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. Selah

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

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

⁷On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in 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 confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

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

¹²and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.

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

²All deeds are right in the sight of the doer, 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 want.

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 right.

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

¹⁰The souls of the wicked desire evil; their neighbors find no mercy in their eyes.

¹¹When a scoffer is punished, the simple become wiser; when the wise are instructed, they increase in knowledge.

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

¹³If you close your ear to the cry of the poor, you will cry out and not be heard.

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

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

¹⁶Whoever wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.

¹⁷Whoever loves pleasure will suffer want; whoever loves wine and oil will not be rich.

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

¹⁹It is better to live in a desert land than with a contentious and fretful wife.

²⁰Precious treasure remains in the house of the wise, but the fool devours it.

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

²²One wise person went up against a city of warriors and brought down the stronghold in which they trusted.

²³To watch over mouth and tongue is to keep out of trouble.

²⁴The proud, haughty person, named “Scoffer,” acts with arrogant pride.

²⁵The craving of the lazy person is fatal, for lazy hands refuse to labor.

²⁶All day long the wicked covet, but the righteous give and do not hold back.

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

²⁸A false witness will perish, but a good listener will testify successfully.

²⁹The wicked put on a bold face, but the upright give thought to their 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.

¹When 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.

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

⁴As 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 ordinances,

⁵then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel.’

⁶“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 Israel off 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 taunt among all peoples.

⁸This 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 such a thing to this land and to this house?’

⁹Then they will say, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, worshiping them and serving them; therefore the LORD has brought this disaster upon 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,

¹¹King Hiram of Tyre having 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.

¹⁴But Hiram had sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the house of the LORD and his own house, the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer

¹⁶(Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it down, 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), Lower Beth-horon,

¹⁸Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness, within the land,

¹⁹as well as all of Solomon’s storage cities, the cities for his chariots, the cities for his cavalry, 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 still left in the land, whom the Israelites were unable to destroy completely — these Solomon conscripted for slave labor, and so they are to this day.

²²But of the Israelites Solomon made no slaves; they were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, and the commanders of his chariotry and cavalry.

²³These were the chief officers who were over Solomon’s work: five hundred fifty, 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 sacrifices of well-being on the altar that he built for the LORD, offering incense before the LORD. So he completed 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.

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

²⁸They went to Ophir, and imported from there four hundred twenty talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.

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

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

³Prepare buckler and shield, and advance for battle!

⁴Harness the horses; mount the steeds! Take your stations with your helmets, whet your lances, put on your coats of mail!

⁵Why do I see them terrified? They have fallen back; their warriors are beaten down, and have fled in haste. They do not look back — terror is all around! — says the LORD.

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

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

⁸Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge. It said, Let me rise, let me cover the earth, let me destroy cities and their inhabitants.

⁹Advance, O horses, and dash madly, O chariots! Let the warriors go forth: Ethiopia and Put who carry the shield, the Ludim, who draw the bow.

¹⁰That day is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of retribution, to gain vindication from 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 land of the north by the river Euphrates.

¹¹Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter 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; both have fallen together.

¹³The word that the LORD spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon to attack the land of Egypt:

¹⁴Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol; proclaim in Memphis and Tahpanhes; Say, “Take your stations and be ready, for the sword shall devour those around you.”

¹⁵Why has Apis fled? Why did your bull not stand? — because the LORD thrust him down.

¹⁶Your multitude stumbled and fell, and one said to another, “Come, let us go back to our own people and to the land of our birth, because of the destroying sword.”

¹⁷Give Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the name “Braggart who missed his chance.”

¹⁸As I live, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, one is coming like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea.

¹⁹Pack your bags for exile, sheltered daughter Egypt! For Memphis shall become a waste, a ruin, without inhabitant.

²⁰A beautiful heifer is Egypt — a gadfly from the north lights upon her.

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

²²She makes a sound like a snake 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, — says the LORD, though it is impenetrable, because they are more numerous than locusts; they are without number.

²⁴Daughter Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be handed over to a people from the north.

²⁵The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, said: See, 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 hand them over to those who seek their life, to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and his officers. Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, says the LORD.

²⁷But as for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob, and do not be dismayed, O Israel; for I am going to save you from far away, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and no one shall make him afraid.

²⁸As for you, have no fear, my servant Jacob, — says the LORD, for I am with you. I will make an end of all the nations among which I have banished you, but I will not make an end of you! I will chastise you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

¹Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself:

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

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

⁴“All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem.

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

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

⁷a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, your Excellency, that I am accused by Jews!

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

⁹“Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death.

¹¹By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.

¹²“With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

¹³when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions.

¹⁴When 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 hurts you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.

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

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

¹⁹“After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance.

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

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

²³that the Messiah 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.”

²⁴While he was making this defense, Festus exclaimed, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane!”

²⁵But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking the sober truth.

²⁶Indeed the king knows about these things, and to him I speak freely; for I am certain that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this was not done in a corner.

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

²⁸Agrippa said to Paul, “Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?”

²⁹Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that not only you but also all who are listening to me today might become such as I am — except for these chains.”

³⁰Then the king got up, and with him the governor and Bernice and those who had been seated with them;

³¹and as they were leaving, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.”

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