Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city.

²And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”

³And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.”

⁴But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?

⁵For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?

⁶But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he then said to the paralytic — “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”

⁷And he rose and went home.

⁸When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

⁹As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

¹⁰And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.

¹¹And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹²But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

¹³Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁴Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁵And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

¹⁶No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.

¹⁷Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

¹⁸While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”

¹⁹And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples.

²⁰And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment,

²¹for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.”

²²Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

²³And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,

²⁴he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him.

²⁵But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.

²⁶And the report of this went through all that district.

²⁷And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.”

²⁸When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.”

²⁹Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it done to you.”

³⁰And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, “See that no one knows about it.”

³¹But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.

³²As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him.

³³And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel.”

³⁴But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the prince of demons.”

³⁵And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;

³⁸therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

¹“If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty,

²then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense.

³Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

⁴“You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.

⁵“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

⁶And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

⁷And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.’

⁸Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’

⁹then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.’

¹⁰And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’

¹¹“When men fight with one another and the wife of the one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of him who is beating him and puts out her hand and seizes him by the private parts,

¹²then you shall cut off her hand. Your eye shall have no pity.

¹³“You shall not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a large and a small.

¹⁴You shall not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large and a small.

¹⁵A full and fair weight you shall have, a full and fair measure you shall have, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁶For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the LORD your God.

¹⁷“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt,

¹⁸how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God.

¹⁹Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.

¹And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

²in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience —

³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved —

⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

⁹not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

¹¹Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands —

¹²remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

¹⁵by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

¹⁶and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

¹⁷And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

¹⁸For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

²¹in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

²²In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.

³For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

⁴For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.

⁵Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

⁶This is he who came by water and blood — Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

⁷For there are three that testify:

⁸the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.

⁹If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.

¹⁰Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.

¹¹And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

¹³I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

¹⁵And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life — to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.

¹⁷All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

¹⁸We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

¹⁹We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

²¹Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

¹The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.

²Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine;

³your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out; therefore virgins love you.

⁴Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers. Others We will exult and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine; rightly do they love you.

⁵I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.

⁶Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother's sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept!

⁷Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?

⁸If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds' tents.

⁹I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots.

¹⁰Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.

¹¹We will make for you ornaments of gold, studded with silver.

¹²While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.

¹³My beloved is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies between my breasts.

¹⁴My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi.

¹⁵Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.

¹⁶Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green;

¹⁷the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.

¹Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.

²O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come.

³When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions.

⁴Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!

⁵By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas;

⁶the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might;

⁷who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples,

⁸so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.

⁹You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.

¹⁰You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.

¹¹You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.

¹²The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy,

¹³the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

¹Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them,

²for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble.

³By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established;

⁴by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

⁵A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might,

⁶for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.

⁷Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he does not open his mouth.

⁸Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer.

⁹The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind.

¹⁰If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

¹¹Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

¹²If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?

¹³My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.

¹⁴Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous; do no violence to his home;

¹⁶for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.

¹⁷Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,

¹⁸lest the LORD see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.

¹⁹Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked,

²⁰for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out.

²¹My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise,

²²for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?

²³These also are sayings of the wise. Partiality in judging is not good.

²⁴Whoever says to the wicked, “You are in the right,” will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations,

²⁵but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, and a good blessing will come upon them.

²⁶Whoever gives an honest answer kisses the lips.

²⁷Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.

²⁸Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.

²⁹Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.”

³⁰I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,

³¹and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down.

³²Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction.

³³A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,

³⁴and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

¹Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

²And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

³And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam,

⁴“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.

⁶Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”

⁷And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.”

⁸But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him.

⁹And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?”

¹⁰And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs.

¹¹And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”

¹²So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.”

¹³And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him,

¹⁴he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”

¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the LORD that he might fulfill his word, which the LORD spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

¹⁶And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents.

¹⁷But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.

¹⁹So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

²⁰And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. There was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only.

²¹When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.

²²But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:

²³“Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,

²⁴‘Thus says the LORD, You shall not go up or fight against your relatives the people of Israel. Every man return to his home, for this thing is from me.’” So they listened to the word of the LORD and went home again, according to the word of the LORD.

²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel.

²⁶And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David.

²⁷If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

²⁸So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

²⁹And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

³⁰Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.

³¹He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.

³²And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.

³³He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to make offerings.

¹Concerning the Ammonites. Thus says the LORD: “Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then has Milcom dispossessed Gad, and his people settled in its cities?

²Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will cause the battle cry to be heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites; it shall become a desolate mound, and its villages shall be burned with fire; then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him, says the LORD.

³“Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste! Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro among the hedges! For Milcom shall go into exile, with his priests and his officials.

⁴Why do you boast of your valleys, O faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come against me?’

⁵Behold, I will bring terror upon you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts, from all who are around you, and you shall be driven out, every man straight before him, with none to gather the fugitives.

⁶“But afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, declares the LORD.”

⁷Concerning Edom. Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Is wisdom no more in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom vanished?

⁸Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan! For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time when I punish him.

⁹If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? If thieves came by night, would they not destroy only enough for themselves?

¹⁰But I have stripped Esau bare; I have uncovered his hiding places, and he is not able to conceal himself. His children are destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more.

¹¹Leave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive; and let your widows trust in me.”

¹²For thus says the LORD: “If those who did not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, will you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you must drink.

¹³For I have sworn by myself, declares the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a horror, a taunt, a waste, and a curse, and all her cities shall be perpetual wastes.”

¹⁴I have heard a message from the LORD, and an envoy has been sent among the nations: “Gather yourselves together and come against her, and rise up for battle!

¹⁵For behold, I will make you small among the nations, despised among mankind.

¹⁶The horror you inspire has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, you who live in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as the eagle's, I will bring you down from there, declares the LORD.

¹⁷“Edom shall become a horror. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.

¹⁸As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities were overthrown, says the LORD, no man shall dwell there, no man shall sojourn in her.

¹⁹Behold, like a lion coming up from the jungle of the Jordan against a perennial pasture, I will suddenly make him run away from her. And I will appoint over her whomever I choose. For who is like me? Who will summon me? What shepherd can stand before me?

²⁰Therefore hear the plan that the LORD has made against Edom and the purposes that he has formed against the inhabitants of Teman: Even the little ones of the flock shall be dragged away. Surely their fold shall be appalled at their fate.

²¹At the sound of their fall the earth shall tremble; the sound of their cry shall be heard at the Red Sea.

²²Behold, one shall mount up and fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against Bozrah, and the heart of the warriors of Edom shall be in that day like the heart of a woman in her birth pains.”

²³Concerning Damascus: “Hamath and Arpad are confounded, for they have heard bad news; they melt in fear, they are troubled like the sea that cannot be quiet.

²⁴Damascus has become feeble, she turned to flee, and panic seized her; anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in labor.

²⁵How is the famous city not forsaken, the city of my joy?

²⁶Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day, declares the LORD of hosts.

²⁷And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.”

²⁸Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck down. Thus says the LORD: “Rise up, advance against Kedar! Destroy the people of the east!

²⁹Their tents and their flocks shall be taken, their curtains and all their goods; their camels shall be led away from them, and men shall cry to them: ‘Terror on every side!’

³⁰Flee, wander far away, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Hazor! declares the LORD. For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has made a plan against you and formed a purpose against you.

³¹“Rise up, advance against a nation at ease, that dwells securely, declares the LORD, that has no gates or bars, that dwells alone.

³²Their camels shall become plunder, their herds of livestock a spoil. I will scatter to every wind those who cut the corners of their hair, and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, declares the LORD.

³³Hazor shall become a haunt of jackals, an everlasting waste; no man shall dwell there; no man shall sojourn in her.”

³⁴The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.

³⁵Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might.

³⁶And I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven. And I will scatter them to all those winds, and there shall be no nation to which those driven out of Elam shall not come.

³⁷I will terrify Elam before their enemies and before those who seek their life. I will bring disaster upon them, my fierce anger, declares the LORD. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them,

³⁸and I will set my throne in Elam and destroy their king and officials, declares the LORD.

³⁹“But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam, declares the LORD.”

¹In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach,

²until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

³He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

⁴And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me;

⁵for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

⁶So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.

⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

⁹And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

¹⁰And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,

¹¹and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.

¹³And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James.

¹⁴All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

¹⁵In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said,

¹⁶“Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.

¹⁷For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”

¹⁸(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.

¹⁹And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

²⁰“For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “‘Let another take his office.’

²¹So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,

²²beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us — one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.”

²³And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias.

²⁴And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen

²⁵to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”

²⁶And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.