Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

²He was in the beginning with God.

³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being

⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.

¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,

¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”)

¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

¹⁹This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

²⁰He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.”

²¹And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.”

²²Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

²³He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said.

²⁴Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.

²⁵They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”

²⁶John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know,

²⁷the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.”

²⁸This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

²⁹The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

³⁰This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’

³¹I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

³²And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.

³³I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

³⁴And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

³⁵The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples,

³⁶and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

³⁷The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

³⁸When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?”

³⁹He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.

⁴⁰One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

⁴¹He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed).

⁴²He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

⁴³The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”

⁴⁸Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

⁴⁹Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.”

⁵¹And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

¹On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

²They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain.

³Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites:

⁴You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

⁵Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine,

⁶but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”

⁷So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him.

⁸The people all answered as one: “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do.” Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD.

⁹Then the LORD said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.” The People Consecrated When Moses had told the words of the people to the LORD,

¹⁰the LORD said to Moses: “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes

¹¹and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

¹²You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Be careful not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death.

¹³No hand shall touch them, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows; whether animal or human being, they shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain.”

¹⁴So Moses went down from the mountain to the people. He consecrated the people, and they washed their clothes.

¹⁵And he said to the people, “Prepare for the third day; do not go near a woman.”

¹⁶On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

¹⁷Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain.

¹⁸Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.

¹⁹As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.

²⁰When the LORD descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the LORD summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

²¹Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to the LORD to look; otherwise many of them will perish.

²²Even the priests who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves or the LORD will break out against them.”

²³Moses said to the LORD, “The people are not permitted to come up to Mount Sinai; for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and keep it holy.’”

²⁴The LORD said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not let either the priests or the people break through to come up to the LORD; otherwise he will break out against them.”

²⁵So Moses went down to the people and told them.

¹Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

²For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

³For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “As in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” though his works were finished at the foundation of the world.

⁴For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”

⁵And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.”

⁶Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,

⁷again he sets a certain day — “today” — saying through David much later, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day.

⁹So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God;

¹⁰for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his.

¹¹Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

¹²Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

¹³And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

¹⁴Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.

¹⁶Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

¹“Do not human beings have a hard service on earth, and are not their days like the days of a laborer?

²Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like laborers who look for their wages,

³so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

⁴When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I rise?’ But the night is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out again.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to their end without hope.

⁷“Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good.

⁸The eye that beholds me will see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.

⁹As the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up;

¹⁰they return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more.

¹¹“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set a guard over me?

¹³When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’

¹⁴then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions,

¹⁵so that I would choose strangling and death rather than this body.

¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath.

¹⁷What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them,

¹⁸visit them every morning, test them every moment?

¹⁹Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle?

²⁰If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you?

²¹Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.”

¹Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.

²I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.

³I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

⁴More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; many are those who would destroy me, my enemies who accuse me falsely. What I did not steal must I now restore?

⁵O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

⁶Do not let those who hope in you be put to shame because of me, O Lord GOD of hosts; do not let those who seek you be dishonored because of me, O God of Israel.

⁷It is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that shame has covered my face.

⁸I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s children.

⁹It is zeal for your house that has consumed me; the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

¹⁰When I humbled my soul with fasting, they insulted me for doing so.

¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

¹²I am the subject of gossip for those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me. With your faithful help

¹⁴rescue me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.

¹⁵Do not let the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the Pit close its mouth over me.

¹⁶Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.

¹⁷Do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress — make haste to answer me.

¹⁸Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free because of my enemies.

¹⁹You know the insults I receive, and my shame and dishonor; my foes are all known to you.

²⁰Insults have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

²¹They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

²²Let their table be a trap for them, a snare for their allies.

²³Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually.

²⁴Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.

²⁵May their camp be a desolation; let no one live in their tents.

²⁶For they persecute those whom you have struck down, and those whom you have wounded, they attack still more.

²⁷Add guilt to their guilt; may they have no acquittal from you.

²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

²⁹But I am lowly and in pain; let your salvation, O God, protect me.

³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹This will please the LORD more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.

³²Let the oppressed see it and be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.

³³For the LORD hears the needy, and does not despise his own that are in bonds.

³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.

³⁵For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah; and his servants shall live there and possess it;

³⁶the children of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall live in it.

¹My child, keep my words and store up my commandments with you;

²keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;

³bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend,

⁵that they may keep you from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.

⁶For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice,

⁷and I saw among the simple ones, I observed among the youths, a young man without sense,

⁸passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house

⁹in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.

¹⁰Then a woman comes toward him, decked out like a prostitute, wily of heart.

¹¹She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home;

¹²now in the street, now in the squares, and at every corner she lies in wait.

¹³She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him:

¹⁴“I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;

¹⁵so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!

¹⁶I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen;

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love.

¹⁹For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of money with him; he will not come home until full moon.”

²¹With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.

²²Right away he follows her, and goes like an ox to the slaughter, or bounds like a stag toward the trap

²³until an arrow pierces its entrails. He is like a bird rushing into a snare, not knowing that it will cost him his life.

²⁴And now, my children, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths.

²⁶For many are those she has laid low, and numerous are her victims.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

¹David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came before Jonathan and said, “What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin against your father that he is trying to take my life?”

²He said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. My father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me; and why should my father hide this from me? Never!”

³But David also swore, “Your father knows well that you like me; and he thinks, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, or he will be grieved.’ But truly, as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”

⁴Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”

⁵David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at the meal; but let me go, so that I may hide in the field until the third evening.

⁶If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city; for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’

⁷If he says, ‘Good!’ it will be well with your servant; but if he is angry, then know that evil has been determined by him.

⁸Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a sacred covenant with you. But if there is guilt in me, kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”

⁹Jonathan said, “Far be it from you! If I knew that it was decided by my father that evil should come upon you, would I not tell you?”

¹⁰Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?”

¹¹Jonathan replied to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” So they both went out into the field.

¹²Jonathan said to David, “By the LORD, the God of Israel! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow, or on the third day, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you?

¹³But if my father intends to do you harm, the LORD do so to Jonathan, and more also, if I do not disclose it to you, and send you away, so that you may go in safety. May the LORD be with you, as he has been with my father.

¹⁴If I am still alive, show me the faithful love of the LORD; but if I die,

¹⁵never cut off your faithful love from my house, even if the LORD were to cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”

¹⁶Thus Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the LORD seek out the enemies of David.”

¹⁷Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him; for he loved him as he loved his own life.

¹⁸Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon; you will be missed, because your place will be empty.

¹⁹On the day after tomorrow, you shall go a long way down; go to the place where you hid yourself earlier, and remain beside the stone there.

²⁰I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I shot at a mark.

²¹Then I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you, collect them,’ then you are to come, for, as the LORD lives, it is safe for you and there is no danger.

²²But if I say to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you,’ then go; for the LORD has sent you away.

²³As for the matter about which you and I have spoken, the LORD is witness between you and me forever.”

²⁴So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat at the feast to eat.

²⁵The king sat upon his seat, as at other times, upon the seat by the wall. Jonathan stood, while Abner sat by Saul’s side; but David’s place was empty.

²⁶Saul did not say anything that day; for he thought, “Something has befallen him; he is not clean, surely he is not clean.”

²⁷But on the second day, the day after the new moon, David’s place was empty. And Saul said to his son Jonathan, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to the feast, either yesterday or today?”

²⁸Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem;

²⁹he said, ‘Let me go; for our family is holding a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your sight, let me get away, and see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king’s table.”

³⁰Then Saul’s anger was kindled against Jonathan. He said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?

³¹For as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.”

³²Then Jonathan answered his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”

³³But Saul threw his spear at him to strike him; so Jonathan knew that it was the decision of his father to put David to death.

³⁴Jonathan rose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food on the second day of the month, for he was grieved for David, and because his father had disgraced him.

³⁵In the morning Jonathan went out into the field to the appointment with David, and with him was a little boy.

³⁶He said to the boy, “Run and find the arrows that I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.

³⁷When the boy came to the place where Jonathan’s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called after the boy and said, “Is the arrow not beyond you?”

³⁸Jonathan called after the boy, “Hurry, be quick, do not linger.” So Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master.

³⁹But the boy knew nothing; only Jonathan and David knew the arrangement.

⁴⁰Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said to him, “Go and carry them to the city.”

⁴¹As soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He bowed three times, and they kissed each other, and wept with each other; David wept the more.

⁴²Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since both of us have sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD shall be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants, forever.’” He got up and left; and Jonathan went into the city.

¹If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not such a land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? — says the LORD.

²Look up to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? By the waysides you have sat waiting for lovers, like a nomad in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your whoring and wickedness.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore, you refuse to be ashamed.

⁴Have you not just now called to me, “My Father, you are the friend of my youth —

⁵will he be angry forever, will he be indignant to the end?” This is how you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could.

⁶The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and played the whore there?

⁷And I thought, “After she has done all this she will return to me”; but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it.

⁸She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.

⁹Because she took her whoredom so lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.

¹⁰Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense, says the LORD.

¹¹Then the LORD said to me: Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah.

¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: Return, faithless Israel, — says the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, — says the LORD; I will not be angry forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God, and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, and have not obeyed my voice, — says the LORD.

¹⁴Return, O faithless children, — says the LORD, for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

¹⁵I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the LORD, they shall no longer say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; nor shall another one be made.

¹⁷At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no longer stubbornly follow their own evil will.

¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your ancestors for a heritage.

¹⁹I thought how I would set you among my children, and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful heritage of all the nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.

²⁰Instead, as a faithless wife leaves her husband, so you have been faithless to me, O house of Israel, — says the LORD.

²¹A voice on the bare heights is heard, the plaintive weeping of Israel’s children, because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God:

²²Return, O faithless children, I will heal your faithlessness. “Here we come to you; for you are the LORD our God.

²³Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴“But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our ancestors had labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our ancestors, from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

¹Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul.

²While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

³Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

⁴So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

⁵When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also to assist them.

⁶When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they met a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus.

⁷He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God.

⁸But the magician Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

⁹But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him

¹⁰and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

¹¹And now listen — the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand.

¹²When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.

¹³Then Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John, however, left them and returned to Jerusalem;

¹⁴but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.

¹⁵After the reading of the law and the prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent them a message, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, give it.”

¹⁶So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak: “You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen.

¹⁷The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it.

¹⁸For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.

¹⁹After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance

²⁰for about four hundred fifty years. After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel.

²¹Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years.

²²When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.’

²³Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised;

²⁴before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

²⁵And as John was finishing his work, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals on his feet.’

²⁶“My brothers, you descendants of Abraham’s family, and others who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent.

²⁷Because the residents of Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize him or understand the words of the prophets that are read every sabbath, they fulfilled those words by condemning him.

²⁸Even though they found no cause for a sentence of death, they asked Pilate to have him killed.

²⁹When they had carried out everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

³⁰But God raised him from the dead;

³¹and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and they are now his witnesses to the people.

³²And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our ancestors

³³he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’

³⁴As to his raising him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, ‘I will give you the holy promises made to David.’

³⁵Therefore he has also said in another psalm, ‘You will not let your Holy One experience corruption.’

³⁶For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died, was laid beside his ancestors, and experienced corruption;

³⁷but he whom God raised up experienced no corruption.

³⁸Let it be known to you therefore, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you;

³⁹by this Jesus everyone who believes is set free from all those sins from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

⁴⁰Beware, therefore, that what the prophets said does not happen to you:

⁴¹‘Look, you scoffers! Be amazed and perish, for in your days I am doing a work, a work that you will never believe, even if someone tells you.’”

⁴²As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people urged them to speak about these things again the next sabbath.

⁴³When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴The next sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; and blaspheming, they contradicted what was spoken by Paul.

⁴⁶Then both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

⁴⁸When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers.

⁴⁹Thus the word of the Lord spread throughout the region.

⁵⁰But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their region.

⁵¹So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them, and went to Iconium.

⁵²And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.