Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had spoken these things, He raised His eyes to heaven [in prayer] and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, so that Your Son may glorify You.

²Just as You have given Him power and authority over all mankind, [now glorify Him] so that He may give eternal life to all whom You have given Him [to be His—permanently and forever].

³Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true [supreme and sovereign] God, and [in the same manner know] Jesus [as the] Christ whom You have sent.

⁴I have glorified You [down here] on the earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do.

⁵Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory and majesty that I had with You before the world existed.

⁶"I have manifested Your name [and revealed Your very self, Your real self] to the people whom You have given Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept and obeyed Your word.

⁷Now [at last] they know [with confident assurance] that all You have given Me is from You [it is really and truly Yours].

⁸For the words which You gave Me I have given them; and they received and accepted them and truly understood [with confident assurance] that I came from You [from Your presence], and they believed [without any doubt] that You sent Me.

⁹I pray for them; I do not pray for the world, but for those You have given Me, because they belong to You;

¹⁰and all things that are Mine are Yours, and [all things that are] Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them.

¹¹I am no longer in the world; yet they are still in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are.

¹²While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and protected them, and not one of them was lost except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

¹³But now I am coming to You; and I say these things [while I am still] in the world so that they may experience My joy made full and complete and perfect within them [filling their hearts with My delight].

¹⁴I have given to them Your word [the message You gave Me]; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world and do not belong to the world, just as I am not of the world and do not belong to it.

¹⁵I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but that You keep them and protect them from the evil one.

¹⁶They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth [set them apart for Your purposes, make them holy]; Your word is truth.

¹⁸Just as You commissioned and sent Me into the world, I also have commissioned and sent them (believers) into the world.

¹⁹For their sake I sanctify Myself [to do Your will], so that they also may be sanctified [set apart, dedicated, made holy] in [Your] truth.

²⁰"I do not pray for these alone [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for [all] those who [will ever] believe and trust in Me through their message,

²¹that they all may be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe [without any doubt] that You sent Me.

²²I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one, just as We are one;

²³I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected and completed into one, so that the world may know [without any doubt] that You sent Me, and [that You] have loved them, just as You have loved Me.

²⁴Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given to Me [as Your gift to Me], may be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵"O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known You and has never acknowledged You [and the revelation of Your mercy], yet I have always known You; and these [believers] know [without any doubt] that You sent Me;

²⁶and I have made Your name known to them, and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them [overwhelming their heart], and I [may be] in them."

¹Moses gathered all the congregation of the sons of Israel together, and said to them, "These are the things which the LORD has commanded you to do:

²"For six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the LORD; whoever does any kind of work on that day shall be put to death.

³You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day."

⁴And Moses said to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, "This is the thing which the LORD has commanded:

⁵'Take from among you an offering to the LORD. Whoever has a willing heart, let him bring it as the Lord's offering: gold, silver, and bronze,

⁶blue, purple, and scarlet fabric, fine linen, goats' hair,

⁷and rams' skins dyed red, and skins of porpoises, and acacia wood,

⁸and [olive] oil for the lighting, and balsam for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense,

⁹and onyx stones and other stones to be set for the ephod and the breastpiece.

¹⁰'Let every skilled and talented man among you come, and make everything that the LORD has commanded:

¹¹the tabernacle (sacred dwelling of God), its tent and its covering, its hooks, its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets;

¹²the ark [of the covenant] and its carrying poles, with the mercy seat and the veil (partition curtain) of the screen [to hang between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies];

¹³the table and its carrying poles, and all its utensils, and the bread of the [divine] Presence (showbread);

¹⁴the lampstand also for the light and its utensils and its lamps, and the oil for the light;

¹⁵and the altar of incense and its carrying poles, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, the screen (curtain) for the doorway at the entrance of the tabernacle;

¹⁶the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its carrying poles, and all its utensils, the wash basin and its base (stand);

¹⁷the court's curtains, its support poles and their sockets, and the curtain for the gate of the courtyard;

¹⁸the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court and their cords;

¹⁹the finely-woven garments for ministering in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons, to minister as priests.'"

²⁰Then all the congregation of the Israelites left Moses' presence.

²¹Everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him came and brought the Lord's offering to be used for the Tent of Meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments.

²²Then all whose hearts moved them, both men and women, came and brought brooches, earrings or nose rings, signet rings, and necklaces, all jewels of gold; everyone bringing an offering of gold to the LORD.

²³Every man who had in his possession blue or purple or scarlet fabric, and fine linen, and goats' hair, and rams' skins dyed red and porpoise skins, brought them.

²⁴Everyone who could make an offering of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's offering; every man who had in his possession acacia wood for any work of the service brought it.

²⁵All the skilled and talented women spun thread with their hands, and brought what they had spun, blue and purple and scarlet fabric and fine linen.

²⁶All the women whose heart stirred with a skill spun the goats' hair.

²⁷The leaders brought onyx stones and other stones to be put in settings for the ephod and for the breastpiece,

²⁸and spice and [olive] oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense.

²⁹The Israelites, all the men and women whose heart moved them to bring material for all the work which the LORD had commanded through Moses to be done, brought a freewill (voluntary) offering to the LORD.

³⁰Then Moses said to the Israelites, "See, the LORD called by name Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah;

³¹and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom and skill, with intelligence and understanding, and with knowledge in all [areas of] craftsmanship,

³²to devise artistic designs to work in gold, silver, and bronze,

³³and in the cutting of stones for setting and in the carving of wood, for work in every skilled craft.

³⁴He has also put in Bezalel's heart [the willingness] to teach [others the same skills], both he and Oholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.

³⁵He has filled them with skill to do the work of an engraver, of a designer, and of an embroiderer, in blue, purple, and scarlet fabric, and in fine linen, and of a weaver; makers of every work and embroiderers of [excellent] designs.

¹Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the Law), that the Law has jurisdiction [to rule] over a person as long as he lives?

²For the married woman [as an example] is bound and remains bound by law to her husband while he lives; but if her husband dies, she is released and exempt from the law concerning her husband.

³Accordingly, she will be designated as an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law [regarding marriage], so that she is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

⁴Therefore, my fellow believers, you too died to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

⁵When we were living in the flesh [trapped by sin], the sinful passions, which were awakened by [that which] the Law [identifies as sin], were at work in our body to bear fruit for death [since the willingness to sin led to death and separation from God].

⁶But now we have been released from the Law and its penalty, having died [through Christ] to that by which we were held captive, so that we serve [God] in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter [of the Law].

⁷What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, if it had not been for the Law, I would not have recognized sin. For I would not have known [for example] about coveting [what belongs to another, and would have had no sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, "You shall not covet."

⁸But sin, finding an opportunity through the commandment [to express itself] produced in me every kind of coveting and selfish desire. For without the Law sin is dead [the recognition of sin is inactive].

⁹I was once alive without [knowledge of] the Law; but when the commandment came [and I understood its meaning], sin became alive and I died [since the Law sentenced me to death].

¹⁰And the very commandment which was intended to bring life, actually proved to bring death for me.

¹¹For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, beguiled and completely deceived me, and using it as a weapon killed me [separating me from God].

¹²So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³Did that which is good [the Law], then become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, in order that it might be revealed as sin, was producing death in me by [using] this good thing [as a weapon], so that through the commandment sin would become exceedingly sinful.

¹⁴We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am a creature of the flesh [worldly, self-reliant—carnal and unspiritual], sold into slavery to sin [and serving under its control].

¹⁵For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled and bewildered by them]. I do not practice what I want to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate [and yielding to my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity].

¹⁶Now if I habitually do what I do not want to do, [that means] I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good (morally excellent).

¹⁷So now [if that is the case, then] it is no longer I who do it [the disobedient thing which I despise], but the sin [nature] which lives in me.

¹⁸For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh [my human nature, my worldliness—my sinful capacity]. For the willingness [to do good] is present in me, but the doing of good is not.

¹⁹For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

²⁰But if I am doing the very thing I do not want to do, I am no longer the one doing it [that is, it is not me that acts], but the sin [nature] which lives in me.

²¹So I find it to be the law [of my inner self], that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

²²For I joyfully delight in the law of God in my inner self [with my new nature],

²³but I see a different law and rule of action in the members of my body [in its appetites and desires], waging war against the law of my mind and subduing me and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is within my members.

²⁴Wretched and miserable man that I am! Who will [rescue me and] set me free from this body of death [this corrupt, mortal existence]?

²⁵Thanks be to God [for my deliverance] through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind serve the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh [my human nature, my worldliness, my sinful capacity—I serve] the law of sin.

¹But as for you, teach the things which are in agreement with sound doctrine [which produces men and women of good character whose lifestyle identifies them as true Christians].

²Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in steadfastness [Christlike in character].

³Older women similarly are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor addicted to much wine, teaching what is right and good,

⁴so that they may encourage the young women to tenderly love their husbands and their children,

⁵to be sensible, pure, makers of a home [where God is honored], good-natured, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

⁶In a similar way urge the young men to be sensible and self-controlled and to behave wisely [taking life seriously].

⁷And in all things show yourself to be an example of good works, with purity in doctrine [having the strictest regard for integrity and truth], dignified,

⁸sound and beyond reproach in instruction, so that the opponent [of the faith] will be shamed, having nothing bad to say about us.

⁹Urge bond-servants to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be pleasing and not talk back,

¹⁰not stealing [things, regardless of value], but proving themselves trustworthy, so that in every respect they will adorn and do credit to the teaching of God our Savior.

¹¹For the [remarkable, undeserved] grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

¹²It teaches us to reject ungodliness and worldly (immoral) desires, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives [lives with a purpose that reflect spiritual maturity] in this present age,

¹³awaiting and confidently expecting the [fulfillment of our] blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,

¹⁴who [willingly] gave Himself [to be crucified] on our behalf to redeem us and purchase our freedom from all wickedness, and to purify for Himself a chosen and very special people to be His own possession, who are enthusiastic for doing what is good.

¹⁵Tell them these things. Encourage and rebuke with full authority. Let no one disregard or despise you [conduct yourself and your teaching so as to command respect].

¹Then Job answered and said,

²"Even today my complaint is contentious; His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

³"Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I might [even] come to His seat!

⁴"I would present my cause before Him And fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵"I would learn the words which He would answer, And understand what He would say to me.

⁶"Would He contend against me with His great power? No, surely He would give attention to me.

⁷"There the righteous and upright could reason with Him; So I would be acquitted forever by my Judge.

⁸"Behold, I go forward (to the east), but He is not there; I go backward (to the west), but I cannot perceive Him;

⁹To the left (north) He turns, but I cannot behold Him; He turns to the right hand (south), but I cannot see Him.

¹⁰"But He knows the way that I take [and He pays attention to it]. When He has tried me, I will come forth as [refined] gold [pure and luminous].

¹¹"My feet have carefully followed His steps; I have kept His ways and not turned aside.

¹²"I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have kept the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

¹³"But He is unique and unchangeable, and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does.

¹⁴"For He performs what is planned (appointed) for me, And He is mindful of many such things.

¹⁵"Therefore I would be terrified at His presence; When I consider [all of this], I tremble in dread of Him.

¹⁶"For God has made my heart faint, And the Almighty has terrified me,

¹⁷But I am not silenced by the darkness [of these woes that fell on me], Nor by the thick darkness which covers my face.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. O LORD, You have [at last] shown favor to Your land [of Canaan]; You have restored [from Babylon] the captives of Jacob (Israel).

²You have forgiven the wickedness of Your people; You have covered all their sin. Selah.

³You have withdrawn all Your wrath, You have turned away from Your burning anger.

⁴Restore us, O God of our salvation, And cause Your indignation toward us to cease.

⁵Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations?

⁶Will You not revive us and bring us to life again, That Your people may rejoice in You?

⁷Show us Your lovingkindness, O LORD, And grant us Your salvation.

⁸I will hear [with expectant hope] what God the LORD will say, For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones— But let them not turn again to folly.

⁹Surely His salvation is near to those who [reverently] fear Him [and obey Him with submissive wonder], That glory [the manifest presence of God] may dwell in our land.

¹⁰Steadfast love and truth and faithfulness meet together; Righteousness and peace kiss each other.

¹¹Truth springs from the earth, And righteousness looks down from heaven.

¹²Indeed, the LORD will give what is good, And our land will yield its produce.

¹³Righteousness will go before Him And will make His footsteps into a way [in which to walk].

¹When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Consider carefully what is [set] before you;

²For you will put a knife to your throat If you are a man of great appetite.

³Do not desire his delicacies, For it is deceptive food [offered to you with questionable motives].

⁴Do not weary yourself [with the overwhelming desire] to gain wealth; Cease from your own understanding of it.

⁵When you set your eyes on wealth, it is [suddenly] gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies to the heavens.

⁶Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies;

⁷For as he thinks in his heart, so is he [in behavior—one who manipulates]. He says to you, "Eat and drink," Yet his heart is not with you [but it is begrudging the cost].

⁸The morsel which you have eaten you will vomit up, And you will waste your compliments.

⁹Do not speak in the ears of a fool, For he will despise the [godly] wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not move the ancient landmark [at the boundary of the property] And do not go into the fields of the fatherless [to take what is theirs],

¹¹For their Redeemer is strong and mighty; He will plead their case against you.

¹²Apply your heart to discipline And your ears to words of knowledge.

¹³Do not withhold discipline from the child; If you swat him with a reed-like rod [applied with godly wisdom], he will not die.

¹⁴You shall swat him with the reed-like rod And rescue his life from Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead).

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, My heart will also be glad;

¹⁶Yes, my heart will rejoice When your lips speak right things.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners [who live godless lives and have no hope of salvation], But [continue to] live in the [reverent, worshipful] fear of the LORD day by day.

¹⁸Surely there is a future [and a reward], And your hope and expectation will not be cut off.

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, And direct your heart in the way [of the LORD].

²⁰Do not associate with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat,

²¹For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And the drowsiness [of overindulgence] will clothe one with rags.

²²Listen to your father, who sired you, And do not despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy truth, and do not sell it; Get wisdom and instruction and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, And he who sires a wise child will have joy in him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her who gave birth to you rejoice [in your wise and godly choices].

²⁶My son, give me your heart And let your eyes delight in my ways,

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit, And an immoral woman is a narrow well.

²⁸She lurks and lies in wait like a robber [who waits for prey], And she increases the faithless among men.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Whose eyes are red and dim?

³⁰Those who linger long over wine, Those who go to taste mixed wine.

³¹Do not look at wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the glass, When it goes down smoothly.

³²At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper.

³³Your [drunken] eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things [untrue things, twisted things].

³⁴And you will be [as unsteady] as one who lies down in the middle of the sea, And [as vulnerable to disaster] as one who lies down on the top of a ship's mast, saying,

³⁵"They struck me, but I was not hurt! They beat me, but I did not feel it! When will I wake up? I will seek more wine."

¹Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, "Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.

²In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led Israel out [to war] and brought Israel in [from battle]. And the LORD told you, 'You shall shepherd My people Israel and be ruler over them.'"

³So all the elders (tribal leaders) of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed him king over Israel.

⁴David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years.

⁵In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

⁶Now the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, "You shall not enter here, for the blind and the lame [even the weakest among us] will turn you away"; they thought, "David cannot come in here [because the walls are impenetrable]."

⁷Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold (fortress) of Zion, that is, the City of David.

⁸Then David said on that day, "Whoever strikes the Jebusites, let him go up through the [underground] water shaft to strike the lame and the blind, who are detested by David's soul [because of their arrogance]." So [for that reason] they say, "The blind or the lame (Jebusites) shall not come into the [royal] house [of Israel]."

⁹So David lived in the stronghold and called it the City of David. And he built all around [the surrounding area] from the Millo [fortification] and inward.

¹⁰David became greater and greater, for the LORD, the God of hosts (armies), was with him.

¹¹Now Hiram the king of Tyre sent messengers to David with cedar trees, carpenters, and stonemasons; and they built a house (palace) for David.

¹²And David knew that the LORD had established him as king over Israel, and that He had exalted his kingdom for His people Israel's sake.

¹³David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to him.

¹⁴And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

¹⁵Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,

¹⁶Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.

¹⁷When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to look for him, but he heard about it and went down to the stronghold.

¹⁸Now the Philistines had come and spread out [for battle] in the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁹David inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You hand them over to me?" And the LORD said to David, "Go up, for I will certainly hand them over to you."

²⁰So David came to Baal-perazim, and he defeated them there, and said, "The LORD has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water." So he named that place Baal-perazim (master of breakthroughs).

²¹The Philistines abandoned their [pagan] idols there, so David and his men took them away [to be burned].

²²The Philistines came up once again and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.

²³When David inquired of the LORD, He said, "You shall not go up, but circle around behind them and come at them in front of the balsam trees.

²⁴And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall pay attention and act promptly, for at that time the LORD will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines."

²⁵David did just as the LORD had commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer.

¹Thus says the LORD, "Go and buy a potter's earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests

²and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom (son of Hinnom), which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I tell you,

³and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold (listen carefully), I am going to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of everyone who hears about it will tingle [in shock].

⁴Because the people [of Jerusalem] have abandoned (rejected) Me and have made this an alien and profaned place by burning sacrifices and incense in it to other gods, that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent

⁵and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind (heart);

⁶therefore, listen very closely, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when this place shall no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

⁷I will pour out and nullify the counsel (plans) of [the men of] Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will make their people fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their lives; and I will give their dead bodies as food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

⁸I will make this city a desolation and an object of hissing; everyone who passes by it will be amazed and will hiss [in scorn] because of all its plagues and disasters.

⁹And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and each one will eat one another's flesh during the siege and distress brought by their enemies and those who seek their lives."'

¹⁰"Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you,

¹¹and say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "This is the way I will break this people and this city as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it cannot be mended. They will bury [corpses] in Topheth until there is no more room left [in that place] to bury [the dead].

¹²This I will do to this place," says the LORD, "and to its inhabitants; and I will even make this city like Topheth.

¹³The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth, all the houses on whose rooftops incense has been burned to all the host of heaven (sun, moon, stars), and where drink offerings have been poured out to other gods."'"

¹⁴Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people:

¹⁵"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am going to bring on this city and on all its towns, all the devastation that I have declared against it, because they have become stiff-necked and refused to hear and obey My words.'"

¹The first account I made, Theophilus, was [a continuous report] about all the things that Jesus began to do and to teach

²until the day when He ascended to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given instruction to the apostles (special messengers) whom He had chosen.

³To these [men] He also showed Himself alive after His suffering [in Gethsemane and on the cross], by [a series of] many infallible proofs and unquestionable demonstrations, appearing to them over a period of forty days and talking to them about the things concerning the kingdom of God.

⁴While being together and eating with them, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Of which," He said, "you have heard Me speak.

⁵For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized and empowered and united with the Holy Spirit, not long from now."

⁶So when they had come together, they asked Him repeatedly, "Lord, are You at this time reestablishing the kingdom and restoring it to Israel?"

⁷He said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority.

⁸But you will receive power and ability when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses [to tell people about Me] both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth."

⁹And after He said these things, He was caught up as they looked on, and a cloud took Him up out of their sight.

¹⁰While they were looking intently into the sky as He was going, two men in white clothing suddenly stood beside them,

¹¹who said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This [same] Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will return in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."

¹²Then the disciples returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet (Olive Grove), which is near Jerusalem, [only] a Sabbath day's journey (less than one mile) away.

¹³When they had entered the city, they went upstairs to the upper room where they were staying [indefinitely]; that is, Peter, and John and [his brother] James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew (Nathanael) and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas (Thaddaeus) the son of James.

¹⁴All these with one mind and one purpose were continually devoting themselves to prayer, [waiting together] along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

¹⁵Now on one of these days Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters (a gathering of about a hundred and twenty believers was there) and he said,

¹⁶"Brothers and sisters, it was necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the lips of David [king of Israel] about Judas [Iscariot], who acted as guide to those who arrested Jesus.

¹⁷For he (Judas) was counted among us and received his share [by divine allotment] in this ministry."

¹⁸(Now Judas Iscariot acquired a piece of land [indirectly] with the [money paid him as a] reward for his treachery, and falling headlong, his body burst open in the middle and all his intestines poured out.

¹⁹All the people in Jerusalem learned about this, so in their own dialect—Aramaic—they called the piece of land Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

²⁰"For in the book of Psalms it is written, 'Let his place of residence become desolate, And let there be no one to live in it'; and [again], 'Let another take his position as overseer.'

²¹So of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus spent with us,

²²beginning with the baptism by John [at the outset of Jesus' ministry] until the day when He was taken up from us—one of these men must become a witness with us [to testify] of His resurrection."

²³And they put forward two men, Joseph, the one called Barsabbas (who was surnamed Justus), and Matthias.

²⁴They prayed and said, "You, Lord, who know all hearts [their thoughts, motives, desires], show us which one of these two You have chosen

²⁵to occupy this ministry and apostleship which Judas left to go to his own place [of evil]."

²⁶And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.