Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹On a Sabbath, he passed through the grainfields. His disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.

²But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

³Jesus answered them, “Haven’t you read what David and those who were with him did when he was hungry — 

⁴how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat? He even gave some to those who were with him.”

⁵Then he told them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

⁶On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was shriveled.

⁷The scribes and Pharisees were watching him closely, to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against him.

⁸But he knew their thoughts and told the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand here.” So he got up and stood there.

⁹Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”

¹⁰After looking around at them all, he told him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his hand was restored.

¹¹They, however, were filled with rage and started discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus.

¹²During those days he went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God.

¹³When daylight came, he summoned his disciples, and he chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:

¹⁴Simon, whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew;

¹⁵Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot;

¹⁶Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

¹⁷After coming down with them, he stood on a level place with a large crowd of his disciples and a great number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon.

¹⁸They came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those tormented by unclean spirits were made well.

¹⁹The whole crowd was trying to touch him, because power was coming out from him and healing them all.

²⁰Then looking up at his disciples, he said: Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours.

²¹Blessed are you who are now hungry, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh.

²²Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

²³“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Take note — your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets.

²⁴But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort.

²⁵Woe to you who are now full, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are now laughing, for you will mourn and weep.

²⁶Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets.

²⁷“But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you,

²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

²⁹If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also. And if anyone takes away your coat, don’t hold back your shirt either.

³⁰Give to everyone who asks you, and from someone who takes your things, don’t ask for them back.

³¹Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.

³²If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.

³³If you do what is good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.

³⁴And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to be repaid in full.

³⁵But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High. For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil.

³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

³⁷“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

³⁸Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure — pressed down, shaken together, and running over — will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

³⁹He also told them a parable: “Can the blind guide the blind? Won’t they both fall into a pit?

⁴⁰A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

⁴¹“Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?

⁴²Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the beam of wood in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the splinter in your brother’s eye.

⁴³“A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit; on the other hand, a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit.

⁴⁴For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren’t gathered from thornbushes, or grapes picked from a bramble bush.

⁴⁵A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.

⁴⁶“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?

⁴⁷I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them:

⁴⁸He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the river crashed against that house and couldn’t shake it, because it was well built.

⁴⁹But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river crashed against it, and immediately it collapsed. And the destruction of that house was great.”

¹Then Joseph, leaning over his father’s face, wept and kissed him.

²He commanded his servants who were physicians to embalm his father. So they embalmed Israel.

³They took forty days to complete this, for embalming takes that long, and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

⁴When the days of mourning were over, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s household, “If I have found favor with you, please tell Pharaoh that

⁵my father made me take an oath, saying, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me there in the tomb that I made for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father. Then I will return.”

⁶So Pharaoh said, “Go and bury your father in keeping with your oath.”

⁷Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all Pharaoh’s servants, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt went with him,

⁸along with all Joseph’s family, his brothers, and his father’s family. Only their dependents, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.

⁹Horses and chariots went up with him; it was a very impressive procession.

¹⁰When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wept loudly, and Joseph mourned seven days for his father.

¹¹When the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn mourning on the part of the Egyptians.” Therefore the place is named Abel-mizraim. It is across the Jordan.

¹²So Jacob’s sons did for him what he had commanded them.

¹³They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased as burial property from Ephron the Hethite.

¹⁴After Joseph buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him to bury his father.

¹⁵When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said to one another, “If Joseph is holding a grudge against us, he will certainly repay us for all the suffering we caused him.”

¹⁶So they sent this message to Joseph, “Before he died your father gave a command:

¹⁷‘Say this to Joseph: Please forgive your brothers’ transgression and their sin — the suffering they caused you.’ Therefore, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when their message came to him.

¹⁸His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!”

¹⁹But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?

²⁰You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result — the survival of many people.

²¹Therefore don’t be afraid. I will take care of you and your children.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

²²Joseph and his father’s family remained in Egypt. Joseph lived 110 years.

²³He saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation; the sons of Manasseh’s son Machir were recognized by Joseph.

²⁴Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land he swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

²⁵So Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath: “When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here.”

²⁶Joseph died at the age of 110. They embalmed him and placed him in a coffin in Egypt.

¹For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.

²Take note! I, Paul, am telling you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all.

³Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to do the entire law.

⁴You who are trying to be justified by the law are alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace.

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

⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

⁷You were running well. Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth?

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

⁹A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough.

¹⁰I myself am persuaded in the Lord you will not accept any other view. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty.

¹¹Now brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.

¹²I wish those who are disturbing you might also let themselves be mutilated!

¹³For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

¹⁴For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

¹⁵But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

¹⁶I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.

¹⁷For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.

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

¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity,

²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions,

²¹envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things — as I warned you before — that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

²³gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.

²⁴Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

¹After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, restraining the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.

²Then I saw another angel rising up from the east, who had the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were allowed to harm the earth and the sea:

³“Don’t harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we seal the servants of our God on their foreheads.”

⁴And I heard the number of the sealed: 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the Israelites:

⁵12,000 sealed from the tribe of Judah, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad,

⁶12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,

⁷12,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,

⁸12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 sealed from the tribe of Benjamin.

⁹After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.

¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!

¹¹All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God,

¹²saying, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen.

¹³Then one of the elders asked me, “Who are these people in white robes, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you know.” Then he told me: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

¹⁵For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. The one seated on the throne will shelter them:

¹⁶They will no longer hunger; they will no longer thirst; the sun will no longer strike them, nor will any scorching heat.

¹⁷For the Lamb who is at the center of the throne will shepherd them; he will guide them to springs of the waters of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

¹Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A person’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.

²Keep the king’s command because of your oath made before God.

³Do not be in a hurry; leave his presence, and don’t persist in a bad cause, since he will do whatever he wants.

⁴For the king’s word is authoritative, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵The one who keeps a command will not experience anything harmful, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure.

⁶For every activity there is a right time and procedure, even though a person’s troubles are heavy on him.

⁷Yet no one knows what will happen because who can tell him what will happen?

⁸No one has authority over the wind to restrain it, and there is no authority over the day of death; no one is discharged during battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape.

⁹All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one person has authority over another to his harm.

¹⁰In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they did those things. This too is futile.

¹¹Because the sentence against an evil act is not carried out quickly, the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit evil.

¹²Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before him.

¹³However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.

¹⁴There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.

¹⁵So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one’s eyes do not close in sleep day or night),

¹⁷I observed all the work of God and concluded that a person is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a person labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it; even if a wise person claims to know it, he is unable to discover it.

¹A psalm of Asaph. [1] The Mighty One, God, the LORD, speaks; he summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.

²From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God appears in radiance.

³Our God is coming; he will not be silent! Devouring fire precedes him, and a storm rages around him.

⁴On high, he summons heaven and earth in order to judge his people:

⁵“Gather my faithful ones to me, those who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

⁶The heavens proclaim his righteousness, for God is the Judge. Selah

⁷“Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel. I am God, your God.

⁸I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or for your burnt offerings, which are continually before me.

⁹I will not take a bull from your household or male goats from your pens,

¹⁰for every animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

¹¹I know every bird of the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine.

¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and everything in it is mine.

¹³Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and pay your vows to the Most High.

¹⁵Call on me in a day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you will honor me.”

¹⁶But God says to the wicked: “What right do you have to recite my statutes and to take my covenant on your lips?

¹⁷You hate instruction and fling my words behind you.

¹⁸When you see a thief, you make friends with him, and you associate with adulterers.

¹⁹You unleash your mouth for evil and harness your tongue for deceit.

²⁰You sit, maligning your brother, slandering your mother’s son.

²¹You have done these things, and I kept silent; you thought I was just like you. But I will rebuke you and lay out the case before you.

²²“Understand this, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to rescue you.

²³Whoever sacrifices a thank offering honors me, and whoever orders his conduct, I will show him the salvation of God.”

¹Better a poor person who lives with integrity than someone who has deceitful lips and is a fool.

²Even zeal is not good without knowledge, and the one who acts hastily sins.

³A person’s own foolishness leads him astray, yet his heart rages against the LORD.

⁴Wealth attracts many friends, but a poor person is separated from his friend.

⁵A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape.

⁶Many seek a ruler’s favor, and everyone is a friend of one who gives gifts.

⁷All the brothers of a poor person hate him; how much more do his friends keep their distance from him! He may pursue them with words, but they are not there.

⁸The one who acquires good sense loves himself; one who safeguards understanding finds success.

⁹A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies perishes.

¹⁰Luxury is not appropriate for a fool —  how much less for a slave to rule over princes!

¹¹A person’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.

¹²A king’s rage is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹³A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a wife’s nagging is an endless dripping.

¹⁴A house and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.

¹⁵Laziness induces deep sleep, and a lazy person will go hungry.

¹⁶The one who keeps commands preserves himself; one who disregards his ways will die.

¹⁷Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and he will give a reward to the lender.

¹⁸Discipline your son while there is hope; don’t set your heart on being the cause of his death.

¹⁹A person with intense anger bears the penalty; if you rescue him, you’ll have to do it again.

²⁰Listen to counsel and receive instruction so that you may be wise later in life.

²¹Many plans are in a person’s heart, but the LORD’s decree will prevail.

²²What is desirable in a person is his fidelity; better to be a poor person than a liar.

²³The fear of the LORD leads to life; one will sleep at night without danger.

²⁴The slacker buries his hand in the bowl; he doesn’t even bring it back to his mouth!

²⁵Strike a mocker, and the inexperienced learn a lesson; rebuke the discerning, and he gains knowledge.

²⁶The one who plunders his father and evicts his mother is a disgraceful and shameful son.

²⁷If you stop listening to correction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.

²⁸A worthless witness mocks justice, and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity.

²⁹Judgments are prepared for mockers, and beatings for the backs of fools.

¹There was a man from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. His name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

²He had two wives, the first named Hannah and the second Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless.

³This man would go up from his town every year to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of Armies at Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were the LORD’s priests.

⁴Whenever Elkanah offered a sacrifice, he always gave portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to each of her sons and daughters.

⁵But he gave a double portion to Hannah, for he loved her even though the LORD had kept her from conceiving.

⁶Her rival would taunt her severely just to provoke her, because the LORD had kept Hannah from conceiving.

⁷Year after year, when she went up to the LORD’s house, her rival taunted her in this way. Hannah would weep and would not eat.

⁸“Hannah, why are you crying?” her husband Elkanah would ask. “Why won’t you eat? Why are you troubled? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

⁹On one occasion, Hannah got up after they ate and drank at Shiloh. The priest Eli was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the LORD’s temple.

¹⁰Deeply hurt, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.

¹¹Making a vow, she pleaded, “LORD of Armies, if you will take notice of your servant’s affliction, remember and not forget me, and give your servant a son, I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and his hair will never be cut.”

¹²While she continued praying in the LORD’s presence, Eli watched her mouth.

¹³Hannah was praying silently, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. Eli thought she was drunk

¹⁴and said to her, “How long are you going to be drunk? Get rid of your wine!”

¹⁵“No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman with a broken heart. I haven’t had any wine or beer; I’ve been pouring out my heart before the LORD.

¹⁶Don’t think of me as a wicked woman; I’ve been praying from the depth of my anguish and resentment.”

¹⁷Eli responded, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the request you’ve made of him.”

¹⁸“May your servant find favor with you,” she replied. Then Hannah went on her way; she ate and no longer looked despondent.

¹⁹The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to worship before the LORD. Afterward, they returned home to Ramah. Then Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her.

²⁰After some time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, because she said, “I requested him from the LORD.”

²¹When Elkanah and all his household went up to make the annual sacrifice and his vow offering to the LORD,

²²Hannah did not go and explained to her husband, “After the child is weaned, I’ll take him to appear in the LORD’s presence and to stay there permanently.”

²³Her husband Elkanah replied, “Do what you think is best, and stay here until you’ve weaned him. May the LORD confirm your word.” So Hannah stayed there and nursed her son until she weaned him.

²⁴When she had weaned him, she took him with her to Shiloh, as well as a three-year-old bull, half a bushel of flour, and a clay jar of wine. Though the boy was still young, she took him to the LORD’s house at Shiloh.

²⁵Then they slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli.

²⁶“Please, my lord,” she said, “as surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD.

²⁷I prayed for this boy, and since the LORD gave me what I asked him for,

²⁸I now give the boy to the LORD. For as long as he lives, he is given to the LORD.” Then he worshiped the LORD there.

¹This is what the LORD says: Where is your mother’s divorce certificate that I used to send her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and your mother was sent away because of your transgressions.

²Why was no one there when I came? Why was there no one to answer when I called? Is my arm too weak to redeem? Or do I have no power to rescue? Look, I dry up the sea by my rebuke; I turn the rivers into a wilderness; their fish rot because of lack of water and die of thirst.

³I dress the heavens in black and make sackcloth their clothing.

⁴The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are instructed to know how to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens me each morning; he awakens my ear to listen like those being instructed.

⁵The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I did not turn back.

⁶I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard. I did not hide my face from scorn and spitting.

⁷The Lord GOD will help me; therefore I have not been humiliated; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.

⁸The one who vindicates me is near; who will contend with me? Let us confront each other. Who has a case against me? Let him come near me!

⁹In truth, the Lord GOD will help me; who will condemn me? Indeed, all of them will wear out like a garment; a moth will devour them.

¹⁰Who among you fears the LORD and listens to his servant? Who among you walks in darkness, and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD; let him lean on his God.

¹¹Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with torches; walk in the light of your fire and of the torches you have lit! This is what you’ll get from my hand: you will lie down in a place of torment.

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you.”

²When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even quieter.

³He continued, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail,

⁵as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. After I received letters from them to the brothers, I traveled to Damascus to arrest those who were there and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶“As I was traveling and approaching Damascus, about noon an intense light from heaven suddenly flashed around me.

⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’

⁸“I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.’

⁹Now those who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

¹⁰“I said, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ “The Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything that you have been assigned to do.’

¹¹“Since I couldn’t see because of the brightness of the light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and went into Damascus.

¹²Someone named Ananias, a devout man according to the law, who had a good reputation with all the Jews living there,

¹³came and stood by me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ And in that very hour I looked up and saw him.

¹⁴And he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the words from his mouth,

¹⁵since you will be a witness for him to all people of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now, why are you delaying? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

¹⁷“After I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance

¹⁸and saw him telling me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹“But I said, ‘Lord, they know that in synagogue after synagogue I had those who believed in you imprisoned and beaten.

²⁰And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood there giving approval and guarding the clothes of those who killed him.’

²¹“He said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’  ”

²²They listened to him up to this point. Then they raised their voices, shouting, “Wipe this man off the face of the earth! He should not be allowed to live!”

²³As they were yelling and flinging aside their garments and throwing dust into the air,

²⁴the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, directing that he be interrogated with the scourge to discover the reason they were shouting against him like this.

²⁵As they stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing by, “Is it legal for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and is uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went and reported to the commander, saying, “What are you going to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷The commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” he said.

²⁸The commander replied, “I bought this citizenship for a large amount of money.” “But I was born a citizen,” Paul said.

²⁹So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. The commander too was alarmed when he realized Paul was a Roman citizen and he had bound him.

³⁰The next day, since he wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and instructed the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to convene. He brought Paul down and placed him before them.