Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹About this time another large crowd had gathered, and the people ran out of food again. Jesus called his disciples and told them,

²“I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat.

³If I send them home hungry, they will faint along the way. For some of them have come a long distance.”

⁴His disciples replied, “How are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?”

⁵Jesus asked, “How much bread do you have?” “Seven loaves,” they replied.

⁶So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces. He gave them to his disciples, who distributed the bread to the crowd.

⁷A few small fish were found, too, so Jesus also blessed these and told the disciples to distribute them.

⁸They ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food.

⁹There were about 4,000 men in the crowd that day, and Jesus sent them home after they had eaten.

¹⁰Immediately after this, he got into a boat with his disciples and crossed over to the region of Dalmanutha.

¹¹When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.

¹²When he heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.”

¹³So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake.

¹⁴But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat.

¹⁵As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”

¹⁶At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread.

¹⁷Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in?

¹⁸‘You have eyes — can’t you see? You have ears — can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all?

¹⁹When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?” “Twelve,” they said.

²⁰“And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?” “Seven,” they said.

²¹“Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.

²²When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus, and they begged him to touch the man and heal him.

²³Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then, spitting on the man’s eyes, he laid his hands on him and asked, “Can you see anything now?”

²⁴The man looked around. “Yes,” he said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around.”

²⁵Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.

²⁶Jesus sent him away, saying, “Don’t go back into the village on your way home.”

²⁷Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

²⁸“Well,” they replied, “some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say you are one of the other prophets.”

²⁹Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah. ”

³⁰But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

³¹Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.

³²As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things.

³³Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

³⁴Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.

³⁵If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.

³⁶And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

³⁷Is anything worth more than your soul?

³⁸If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

¹This is the account of the descendants of Esau (also known as Edom).

²Esau married two young women from Canaan: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite; and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite.

³He also married his cousin Basemath, who was the daughter of Ishmael and the sister of Nebaioth.

⁴Adah gave birth to a son named Eliphaz for Esau. Basemath gave birth to a son named Reuel.

⁵Oholibamah gave birth to sons named Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. All these sons were born to Esau in the land of Canaan.

⁶Esau took his wives, his children, and his entire household, along with his livestock and cattle — all the wealth he had acquired in the land of Canaan — and moved away from his brother, Jacob.

⁷There was not enough land to support them both because of all the livestock and possessions they had acquired.

⁸So Esau (also known as Edom) settled in the hill country of Seir.

⁹This is the account of Esau’s descendants, the Edomites, who lived in the hill country of Seir.

¹⁰These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau’s wife Adah; and Reuel, the son of Esau’s wife Basemath.

¹¹The descendants of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.

¹²Timna, the concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, gave birth to a son named Amalek. These are the descendants of Esau’s wife Adah.

¹³The descendants of Reuel were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the descendants of Esau’s wife Basemath.

¹⁴Esau also had sons through Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon. Their names were Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

¹⁵These are the descendants of Esau who became the leaders of various clans: The descendants of Esau’s oldest son, Eliphaz, became the leaders of the clans of Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,

¹⁶Korah, Gatam, and Amalek. These are the clan leaders in the land of Edom who descended from Eliphaz. All these were descendants of Esau’s wife Adah.

¹⁷The descendants of Esau’s son Reuel became the leaders of the clans of Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These are the clan leaders in the land of Edom who descended from Reuel. All these were descendants of Esau’s wife Basemath.

¹⁸The descendants of Esau and his wife Oholibamah became the leaders of the clans of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These are the clan leaders who descended from Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.

¹⁹These are the clans descended from Esau (also known as Edom), identified by their clan leaders.

²⁰These are the names of the tribes that descended from Seir the Horite. They lived in the land of Edom: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

²¹Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These were the Horite clan leaders, the descendants of Seir, who lived in the land of Edom.

²²The descendants of Lotan were Hori and Hemam. Lotan’s sister was named Timna.

²³The descendants of Shobal were Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

²⁴The descendants of Zibeon were Aiah and Anah. (This is the Anah who discovered the hot springs in the wilderness while he was grazing his father’s donkeys.)

²⁵The descendants of Anah were his son, Dishon, and his daughter, Oholibamah.

²⁶The descendants of Dishon were Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran.

²⁷The descendants of Ezer were Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

²⁸The descendants of Dishan were Uz and Aran.

²⁹So these were the leaders of the Horite clans: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

³⁰Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. The Horite clans are named after their clan leaders, who lived in the land of Seir.

³¹These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before any king ruled over the Israelites :

³²Bela son of Beor, who ruled in Edom from his city of Dinhabah.

³³When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah became king in his place.

³⁴When Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites became king in his place.

³⁵When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad became king in his place and ruled from the city of Avith. He was the one who defeated the Midianites in the land of Moab.

³⁶When Hadad died, Samlah from the city of Masrekah became king in his place.

³⁷When Samlah died, Shaul from the city of Rehoboth-on-the-River became king in his place.

³⁸When Shaul died, Baal-hanan son of Acbor became king in his place.

³⁹When Baal-hanan son of Acbor died, Hadad became king in his place and ruled from the city of Pau. His wife was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred and granddaughter of Me-zahab.

⁴⁰These are the names of the leaders of the clans descended from Esau, who lived in the places named for them: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,

⁴¹Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,

⁴²Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,

⁴³Magdiel, and Iram. These are the leaders of the clans of Edom, listed according to their settlements in the land they occupied. They all descended from Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites.

¹Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up.

²We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this.

³If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing.

⁴Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

⁵You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.

⁶For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

⁸We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.

⁹We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

¹⁰Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

¹¹Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.

¹²So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.

¹³But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.”

¹⁴We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you.

¹⁵All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.

¹⁶That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.

¹⁷For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

¹⁸So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

¹We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.

²This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.

³We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

⁴We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

⁵This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

⁶So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.

⁷But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

⁸If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.

⁹But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

¹⁰If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

¹Elihu continued speaking:

²“Let me go on, and I will show you the truth. For I have not finished defending God!

³I will present profound arguments for the righteousness of my Creator.

⁴I am telling you nothing but the truth, for I am a man of great knowledge.

⁵“God is mighty, but he does not despise anyone! He is mighty in both power and understanding.

⁶He does not let the wicked live but gives justice to the afflicted.

⁷He never takes his eyes off the innocent, but he sets them on thrones with kings and exalts them forever.

⁸If they are bound in chains and caught up in a web of trouble,

⁹he shows them the reason. He shows them their sins of pride.

¹⁰He gets their attention and commands that they turn from evil.

¹¹“If they listen and obey God, they will be blessed with prosperity throughout their lives. All their years will be pleasant.

¹²But if they refuse to listen to him, they will cross over the river of death, dying from lack of understanding.

¹³For the godless are full of resentment. Even when he punishes them, they refuse to cry out to him for help.

¹⁴They die when they are young, after wasting their lives in immoral living.

¹⁵But by means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer. For he gets their attention through adversity.

¹⁶“God is leading you away from danger, Job, to a place free from distress. He is setting your table with the best food.

¹⁷But you are obsessed with whether the godless will be judged. Don’t worry, judgment and justice will be upheld.

¹⁸But watch out, or you may be seduced by wealth. Don’t let yourself be bribed into sin.

¹⁹Could all your wealth or all your mighty efforts keep you from distress?

²⁰Do not long for the cover of night, for that is when people will be destroyed.

²¹Be on guard! Turn back from evil, for God sent this suffering to keep you from a life of evil.

²²“Look, God is all-powerful. Who is a teacher like him?

²³No one can tell him what to do, or say to him, ‘You have done wrong.’

²⁴Instead, glorify his mighty works, singing songs of praise.

²⁵Everyone has seen these things, though only from a distance.

²⁶“Look, God is greater than we can understand. His years cannot be counted.

²⁷He draws up the water vapor and then distills it into rain.

²⁸The rain pours down from the clouds, and everyone benefits.

²⁹Who can understand the spreading of the clouds and the thunder that rolls forth from heaven?

³⁰See how he spreads the lightning around him and how it lights up the depths of the sea.

³¹By these mighty acts he nourishes the people, giving them food in abundance.

³²He fills his hands with lightning bolts and hurls each at its target.

³³The thunder announces his presence; the storm announces his indignant anger.

¹Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts. They have no fear of God at all.

²In their blind conceit, they cannot see how wicked they really are.

³Everything they say is crooked and deceitful. They refuse to act wisely or do good.

⁴They lie awake at night, hatching sinful plots. Their actions are never good. They make no attempt to turn from evil.

⁵Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.

⁶Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O LORD.

⁷How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.

⁸You feed them from the abundance of your own house, letting them drink from your river of delights.

⁹For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see.

¹⁰Pour out your unfailing love on those who love you; give justice to those with honest hearts.

¹¹Don’t let the proud trample me or the wicked push me around.

¹²Look! Those who do evil have fallen! They are thrown down, never to rise again.

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen carefully to my wise counsel.

²Then you will show discernment, and your lips will express what you’ve learned.

³For the lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil.

⁴But in the end she is as bitter as poison, as dangerous as a double-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.

⁶For she cares nothing about the path to life. She staggers down a crooked trail and doesn’t realize it.

⁷So now, my sons, listen to me. Never stray from what I am about to say:

⁸Stay away from her! Don’t go near the door of her house!

⁹If you do, you will lose your honor and will lose to merciless people all you have achieved.

¹⁰Strangers will consume your wealth, and someone else will enjoy the fruit of your labor.

¹¹In the end you will groan in anguish when disease consumes your body.

¹²You will say, “How I hated discipline! If only I had not ignored all the warnings!

¹³Oh, why didn’t I listen to my teachers? Why didn’t I pay attention to my instructors?

¹⁴I have come to the brink of utter ruin, and now I must face public disgrace.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own well — share your love only with your wife.

¹⁶Why spill the water of your springs in the streets, having sex with just anyone?

¹⁷You should reserve it for yourselves. Never share it with strangers.

¹⁸Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹She is a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you always. May you always be captivated by her love.

²⁰Why be captivated, my son, by an immoral woman, or fondle the breasts of a promiscuous woman?

²¹For the LORD sees clearly what a man does, examining every path he takes.

²²An evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him.

²³He will die for lack of self-control; he will be lost because of his great foolishness.

¹Then the people of Ephraim mobilized an army and crossed over the Jordan River to Zaphon. They sent this message to Jephthah: “Why didn’t you call for us to help you fight against the Ammonites? We are going to burn down your house with you in it!”

²Jephthah replied, “I summoned you at the beginning of the dispute, but you refused to come! You failed to help us in our struggle against Ammon.

³So when I realized you weren’t coming, I risked my life and went to battle without you, and the LORD gave me victory over the Ammonites. So why have you now come to fight me?”

⁴The people of Ephraim responded, “You men of Gilead are nothing more than fugitives from Ephraim and Manasseh.” So Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and attacked the men of Ephraim and defeated them.

⁵Jephthah captured the shallow crossings of the Jordan River, and whenever a fugitive from Ephraim tried to go back across, the men of Gilead would challenge him. “Are you a member of the tribe of Ephraim?” they would ask. If the man said, “No, I’m not,”

⁶they would tell him to say “Shibboleth.” If he was from Ephraim, he would say “Sibboleth,” because people from Ephraim cannot pronounce the word correctly. Then they would take him and kill him at the shallow crossings of the Jordan. In all, 42,000 Ephraimites were killed at that time.

⁷Jephthah judged Israel for six years. When he died, he was buried in one of the towns of Gilead.

⁸After Jephthah died, Ibzan from Bethlehem judged Israel.

⁹He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He sent his daughters to marry men outside his clan, and he brought in thirty young women from outside his clan to marry his sons. Ibzan judged Israel for seven years.

¹⁰When he died, he was buried at Bethlehem.

¹¹After Ibzan died, Elon from the tribe of Zebulun judged Israel for ten years.

¹²When he died, he was buried at Aijalon in Zebulun.

¹³After Elon died, Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, judged Israel.

¹⁴He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He judged Israel for eight years.

¹⁵When he died, he was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

¹In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria came to attack the fortified towns of Judah and conquered them.

²Then the king of Assyria sent his chief of staff from Lachish with a huge army to confront King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The Assyrians took up a position beside the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed.

³These are the officials who went out to meet with them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian.

⁴Then the Assyrian king’s chief of staff told them to give this message to Hezekiah: “This is what the great king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in that makes you so confident?

⁵Do you think that mere words can substitute for military skill and strength? Who are you counting on, that you have rebelled against me?

⁶On Egypt? If you lean on Egypt, it will be like a reed that splinters beneath your weight and pierces your hand. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is completely unreliable!

⁷“But perhaps you will say to me, ‘We are trusting in the LORD our God!’ But isn’t he the one who was insulted by Hezekiah? Didn’t Hezekiah tear down his shrines and altars and make everyone in Judah and Jerusalem worship only at the altar here in Jerusalem?

⁸“I’ll tell you what! Strike a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you 2,000 horses if you can find that many men to ride on them!

⁹With your tiny army, how can you think of challenging even the weakest contingent of my master’s troops, even with the help of Egypt’s chariots and charioteers?

¹⁰What’s more, do you think we have invaded your land without the LORD’s direction? The LORD himself told us, ‘Attack this land and destroy it!’”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Assyrian chief of staff, “Please speak to us in Aramaic, for we understand it well. Don’t speak in Hebrew, for the people on the wall will hear.”

¹²But Sennacherib’s chief of staff replied, “Do you think my master sent this message only to you and your master? He wants all the people to hear it, for when we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you. They will be so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own dung and drink their own urine.”

¹³Then the chief of staff stood and shouted in Hebrew to the people on the wall, “Listen to this message from the great king of Assyria!

¹⁴This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you. He will never be able to rescue you.

¹⁵Don’t let him fool you into trusting in the LORD by saying, ‘The LORD will surely rescue us. This city will never fall into the hands of the Assyrian king!’

¹⁶“Don’t listen to Hezekiah! These are the terms the king of Assyria is offering: Make peace with me — open the gates and come out. Then each of you can continue eating from your own grapevine and fig tree and drinking from your own well.

¹⁷Then I will arrange to take you to another land like this one — a land of grain and new wine, bread and vineyards.

¹⁸“Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The LORD will rescue us!’ Have the gods of any other nations ever saved their people from the king of Assyria?

¹⁹What happened to the gods of Hamath and Arpad? And what about the gods of Sepharvaim? Did any god rescue Samaria from my power?

²⁰What god of any nation has ever been able to save its people from my power? So what makes you think that the LORD can rescue Jerusalem from me?”

²¹But the people were silent and did not utter a word because Hezekiah had commanded them, “Do not answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace administrator; Shebna the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, the royal historian, went back to Hezekiah. They tore their clothes in despair, and they went in to see the king and told him what the Assyrian chief of staff had said.

¹Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. Persecution Scatters the Believers A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.

²(Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.)

³But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison.

⁴But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.

⁵Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah.

⁶Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did.

⁷Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed.

⁸So there was great joy in that city.

⁹A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great.

¹⁰Everyone, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as “the Great One — the Power of God.”

¹¹They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic.

¹²But now the people believed Philip’s message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized.

¹³Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed.

¹⁴When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God’s message, they sent Peter and John there.

¹⁵As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit.

¹⁶The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁷Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power.

¹⁹“Let me have this power, too,” he exclaimed, “so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the Holy Spirit!”

²⁰But Peter replied, “May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God’s gift can be bought!

²¹You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God.

²²Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts,

²³for I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin.”

²⁴“Pray to the Lord for me,” Simon exclaimed, “that these terrible things you’ve said won’t happen to me!”

²⁵After testifying and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem. And they stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the Good News.

²⁶As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

²⁷So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship,

²⁸and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”

³⁰Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

³²The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

³³He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

³⁴The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?”

³⁵So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.

³⁶As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”

³⁷

³⁸He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing.

⁴⁰Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Azotus. He preached the Good News there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.