Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

²while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

³And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins,

⁴as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.

⁵Every valley shall be filled And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough ways smooth;

⁶And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

⁷Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

⁸Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

⁹And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?”

¹¹He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.”

¹²Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”

¹³And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.”

¹⁴Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”

¹⁵Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not,

¹⁶John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

¹⁷His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”

¹⁸And with many other exhortations he preached to the people.

¹⁹But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done,

²⁰also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison.

²¹When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.

²²And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

²³Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,

²⁴the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janna, the son of Joseph,

²⁵the son of Mattathiah, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai,

²⁶the son of Maath, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Semei, the son of Joseph, the son of Judah,

²⁷the son of Joannas, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,

²⁸the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er,

²⁹the son of Jose, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi,

³⁰the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonan, the son of Eliakim,

³¹the son of Melea, the son of Menan, the son of Mattathah, the son of Nathan, the son of David,

³²the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon,

³³the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,

³⁴the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

³⁵the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,

³⁶the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,

³⁷the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan,

³⁸the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

¹Then Joseph went and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers, their flocks and their herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan; and indeed they are in the land of Goshen.”

²And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.

³Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers.”

⁴And they said to Pharaoh, “We have come to dwell in the land, because your servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.”

⁵Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, “Your father and your brothers have come to you.

⁶The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land; let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock.”

⁷Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

⁸Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How old are you?”

⁹And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”

¹⁰So Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

¹¹And Joseph situated his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

¹²Then Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with bread, according to the number in their families.

¹³Now there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.

¹⁴And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house.

¹⁵So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the money has failed.”

¹⁶Then Joseph said, “Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock, if the money is gone.”

¹⁷So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.

¹⁸When that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that our money is gone; my lord also has our herds of livestock. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands.

¹⁹Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh; give us seed, that we may live and not die, that the land may not be desolate.”

²⁰Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. So the land became Pharaoh’s.

²¹And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end.

²²Only the land of the priests he did not buy; for the priests had rations allotted to them by Pharaoh, and they ate their rations which Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their lands.

²³Then Joseph said to the people, “Indeed I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land.

²⁴And it shall come to pass in the harvest that you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh. Four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your households and as food for your little ones.”

²⁵So they said, “You have saved our lives; let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.”

²⁶And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth, except for the land of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh’s.

²⁷So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly.

²⁸And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the length of Jacob’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years.

²⁹When the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Now if I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt,

³⁰but let me lie with my fathers; you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” And he said, “I will do as you have said.”

³¹Then he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.

¹Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me.

²And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain.

³Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.

⁴And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage),

⁵to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

⁶But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.

⁷But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter

⁸(for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles),

⁹and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

¹⁰They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.

¹¹Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;

¹²for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

¹³And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

¹⁴But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?

¹⁵We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,

¹⁶knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

¹⁷“But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!

¹⁸For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

¹⁹For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.

²⁰I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

²¹I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

¹After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

²Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.

³And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.

⁴Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads.

⁵And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

⁶Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.

⁷The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.

⁸The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”

⁹Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever,

¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

¹¹“You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”

¹Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.

²Do not be rash with your mouth, And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.

³For a dream comes through much activity, And a fool’s voice is known by his many words.

⁴When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed—

⁵Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.

⁶Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands?

⁷For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God.

⁸If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them.

⁹Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field.

¹⁰He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.

¹¹When goods increase, They increase who eat them; So what profit have the owners Except to see them with their eyes?

¹²The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, Whether he eats little or much; But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

¹³There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun: Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.

¹⁴But those riches perish through misfortune; When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.

¹⁵As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return, To go as he came; And he shall take nothing from his labor Which he may carry away in his hand.

¹⁶And this also is a severe evil— Just exactly as he came, so shall he go. And what profit has he who has labored for the wind?

¹⁷All his days he also eats in darkness, And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger.

¹⁸Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage.

¹⁹As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God.

²⁰For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. [1] Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!

²For the LORD Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth.

³He will subdue the peoples under us, And the nations under our feet.

⁴He will choose our inheritance for us, The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah

⁵God has gone up with a shout, The LORD with the sound of a trumpet.

⁶Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!

⁷For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding.

⁸God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne.

⁹The princes of the people have gathered together, The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is greatly exalted.

¹The preparations of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.

²All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the spirits.

³Commit your works to the LORD, And your thoughts will be established.

⁴The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.

⁵Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.

⁶In mercy and truth Atonement is provided for iniquity; And by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil.

⁷When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

⁸Better is a little with righteousness, Than vast revenues without justice.

⁹A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

¹⁰Divination is on the lips of the king; His mouth must not transgress in judgment.

¹¹Honest weights and scales are the LORD’s; All the weights in the bag are His work.

¹²It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, For a throne is established by righteousness.

¹³Righteous lips are the delight of kings, And they love him who speaks what is right.

¹⁴As messengers of death is the king’s wrath, But a wise man will appease it.

¹⁵In the light of the king’s face is life, And his favor is like a cloud of the latter rain.

¹⁶How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

¹⁷The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul.

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.

¹⁹Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

²⁰He who heeds the word wisely will find good, And whoever trusts in the LORD, happy is he.

²¹The wise in heart will be called prudent, And sweetness of the lips increases learning.

²²Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it. But the correction of fools is folly.

²³The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, And adds learning to his lips.

²⁴Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.

²⁵There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

²⁶The person who labors, labors for himself, For his hungry mouth drives him on.

²⁷An ungodly man digs up evil, And it is on his lips like a burning fire.

²⁸A perverse man sows strife, And a whisperer separates the best of friends.

²⁹A violent man entices his neighbor, And leads him in a way that is not good.

³⁰He winks his eye to devise perverse things; He purses his lips and brings about evil.

³¹The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, If it is found in the way of righteousness.

³²He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

³³The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.

¹There was a relative of Naomi’s husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz.

²So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”

³Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

⁴Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “The LORD be with you!” And they answered him, “The LORD bless you!”

⁵Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, “It is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.

⁷And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house.”

⁸Then Boaz said to Ruth, “You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women.

⁹Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”

¹¹And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before.

¹²The LORD repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”

¹³Then she said, “Let me find favor in your sight, my lord; for you have comforted me, and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.”

¹⁴Now Boaz said to her at mealtime, “Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed parched grain to her; and she ate and was satisfied, and kept some back.

¹⁵And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.

¹⁶Also let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.”

¹⁷So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.

¹⁸Then she took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. So she brought out and gave to her what she had kept back after she had been satisfied.

¹⁹And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

²⁰Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of the LORD, who has not forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead!” And Naomi said to her, “This man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.”

²¹Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also said to me, ‘You shall stay close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ ”

²²And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, and that people do not meet you in any other field.”

²³So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

¹“Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called Tender and delicate.

²Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, Take off the skirt, Uncover the thigh, Pass through the rivers.

³Your nakedness shall be uncovered, Yes, your shame will be seen; I will take vengeance, And I will not arbitrate with a man.”

⁴As for our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel.

⁵“Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; For you shall no longer be called The Lady of Kingdoms.

⁶I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, And given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; On the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily.

⁷And you said, ‘I shall be a lady forever,’ So that you did not take these things to heart, Nor remember the latter end of them.

⁸“Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, Who dwell securely, Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, Nor shall I know the loss of children’;

⁹But these two things shall come to you In a moment, in one day: The loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness Because of the multitude of your sorceries, For the great abundance of your enchantments.

¹⁰“For you have trusted in your wickedness; You have said, ‘No one sees me’; Your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; And you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’

¹¹Therefore evil shall come upon you; You shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; You will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, Which you shall not know.

¹²“Stand now with your enchantments And the multitude of your sorceries, In which you have labored from your youth— Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you will prevail.

¹³You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, And the monthly prognosticators Stand up and save you From what shall come upon you.

¹⁴Behold, they shall be as stubble, The fire shall burn them; They shall not deliver themselves From the power of the flame; It shall not be a coal to be warmed by, Nor a fire to sit before!

¹⁵Thus shall they be to you With whom you have labored, Your merchants from your youth; They shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you.

¹And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples

²he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”

³And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”

⁴Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

⁷Now the men were about twelve in all.

⁸And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.

⁹But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

¹⁰And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

¹¹Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul,

¹²so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

¹³Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

¹⁴Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.

¹⁵And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

¹⁶Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

¹⁸And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds.

¹⁹Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

²¹When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”

²²So he sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a time.

²³And about that time there arose a great commotion about the Way.

²⁴For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen.

²⁵He called them together with the workers of similar occupation, and said: “Men, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade.

²⁶Moreover you see and hear that not only at Ephesus, but throughout almost all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands.

²⁷So not only is this trade of ours in danger of falling into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Diana may be despised and her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.”

²⁸Now when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

²⁹So the whole city was filled with confusion, and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul’s travel companions.

³⁰And when Paul wanted to go in to the people, the disciples would not allow him.

³¹Then some of the officials of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not venture into the theater.

³²Some therefore cried one thing and some another, for the assembly was confused, and most of them did not know why they had come together.

³³And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander motioned with his hand, and wanted to make his defense to the people.

³⁴But when they found out that he was a Jew, all with one voice cried out for about two hours, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”

³⁵And when the city clerk had quieted the crowd, he said: “Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?

³⁶Therefore, since these things cannot be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly.

³⁷For you have brought these men here who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess.

³⁸Therefore, if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another.

³⁹But if you have any other inquiry to make, it shall be determined in the lawful assembly.

⁴⁰For we are in danger of being called in question for today’s uproar, there being no reason which we may give to account for this disorderly gathering.”

⁴¹And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.