Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him.

²Right away a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

³Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

⁴Then Jesus told him, “See that you don’t tell anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

⁵When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, pleading with him,

⁶“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible agony.”

⁷He said to him, “Am I to come and heal him?”

⁸“Lord,” the centurion replied, “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

⁹For I too am a man under authority, having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”

¹⁰Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith.

¹¹I tell you that many will come from east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

¹²But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³Then Jesus told the centurion, “Go. As you have believed, let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that very moment.

¹⁴Jesus went into Peter’s house and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.

¹⁵So he touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and began to serve him.

¹⁶When evening came, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed. He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick,

¹⁷so that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: He himself took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.

¹⁸When Jesus saw a large crowd around him, he gave the order to go to the other side of the sea.

¹⁹A scribe approached him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

²⁰Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

²¹“Lord,” another of his disciples said, “first let me go bury my father.”

²²But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

²³As he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.

²⁴Suddenly, a violent storm arose on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves — but Jesus kept sleeping.

²⁵So the disciples came and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to die!”

²⁶He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

²⁷The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him!”

²⁸When he had come to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him as they came out of the tombs. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.

²⁹Suddenly they shouted, “What do you have to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”

³⁰A long way off from them, a large herd of pigs was feeding.

³¹“If you drive us out,” the demons begged him, “send us into the herd of pigs.”

³²“Go!” he told them. So when they had come out, they entered the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the water.

³³Then the men who tended them fled. They went into the city and reported everything, especially what had happened to those who were demon-possessed.

³⁴At that, the whole town went out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.

¹God remembered Noah, as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside.

²The sources of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky stopped.

³The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days the water had decreased significantly.

⁴The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

⁵The water continued to recede until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.

⁶After forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made,

⁷and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.

⁸Then he sent out a dove to see whether the water on the earth’s surface had gone down,

⁹but the dove found no resting place for its foot. It returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole earth. He reached out and brought it into the ark to himself.

¹⁰So Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove from the ark again.

¹¹When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water on the earth’s surface had gone down.

¹²After he had waited another seven days, he sent out the dove, but it did not return to him again.

¹³In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water that had covered the earth was dried up. Then Noah removed the ark’s cover and saw that the surface of the ground was drying.

¹⁴By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry.

¹⁵Then God spoke to Noah,

¹⁶“Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.

¹⁷Bring out all the living creatures that are with you — birds, livestock, those that crawl on the earth — and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

¹⁸So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out.

¹⁹All the animals, all the creatures that crawl, and all the flying creatures — everything that moves on the earth — came out of the ark by their families.

²⁰Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

²¹When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.

²²As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

¹Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,

²because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

³What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering,

⁴in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit.

⁶Now the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace.

⁷The mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so.

⁸Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.

¹⁰Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.

¹²So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh,

¹³because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.

¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”

¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children,

¹⁷and if children, also heirs  — heirs of God and coheirs with Christ — if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

¹⁹For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed.

²⁰For the creation was subjected to futility  — not willingly, but because of him who subjected it  — in the hope

²¹that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

²²For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.

²³Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits  — we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

²⁴Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?

²⁵Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.

²⁶In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.

²⁷And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

²⁸We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

²⁹For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

³²He did not even spare his own Son but offered him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?

³³Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.

³⁴Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

³⁵Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

³⁶As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

³⁸For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,

³⁹nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹In addition, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you,

²and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not all have faith.

³But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen and guard you from the evil one.

⁴We have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command.

⁵May the Lord direct your hearts to God’s love and Christ’s endurance.

⁶Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother or sister who is idle and does not live according to the tradition received from us.

⁷For you yourselves know how you should imitate us: We were not idle among you;

⁸we did not eat anyone’s food free of charge; instead, we labored and toiled, working night and day, so that we would not be a burden to any of you.

⁹It is not that we don’t have the right to support, but we did it to make ourselves an example to you so that you would imitate us.

¹⁰In fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you: “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.”

¹¹For we hear that there are some among you who are idle. They are not busy but busybodies.

¹²Now we command and exhort such people by the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and provide for themselves.

¹³But as for you, brothers and sisters, do not grow weary in doing good.

¹⁴If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take note of that person; don’t associate with him, so that he may be ashamed.

¹⁵Yet don’t consider him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

¹⁶May the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

¹⁷I, Paul, am writing this greeting with my own hand, which is an authenticating mark in every letter; this is how I write.

¹⁸The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

²How long will you go on saying these things? Your words are a blast of wind.

³Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

⁴Since your children sinned against him, he gave them over to their rebellion.

⁵But if you earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy,

⁶if you are pure and upright, then he will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.

⁷Then, even if your beginnings were modest, your final days will be full of prosperity.

⁸For ask the previous generation, and pay attention to what their fathers discovered,

⁹since we were born only yesterday and know nothing. Our days on earth are but a shadow.

¹⁰Will they not teach you and tell you and speak from their understanding?

¹¹Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Do reeds flourish without water?

¹²While still uncut shoots, they would dry up quicker than any other plant.

¹³Such is the destiny of all who forget God; the hope of the godless will perish.

¹⁴His source of confidence is fragile; what he trusts in is a spider’s web.

¹⁵He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm. He grabs it, but it does not hold up.

¹⁶He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine; his shoots spread out over his garden.

¹⁷His roots are intertwined around a pile of rocks. He looks for a home among the stones.

¹⁸If he is uprooted from his place, it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.”

¹⁹Surely this is the joy of his way of life; yet others will sprout from the dust.

²⁰Look, God does not reject a person of integrity, and he will not support evildoers.

²¹He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with a shout of joy.

²²Your enemies will be clothed with shame; the tent of the wicked will no longer exist.

¹For the choir director: on the . A psalm of David. [1] LORD, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth! You have covered the heavens with your majesty.

²From the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have established a stronghold on account of your adversaries in order to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place,

⁴what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him?

⁵You made him little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor.

⁶You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:

⁷all the sheep and oxen, as well as the animals in the wild,

⁸the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea that pass through the currents of the seas.

⁹LORD, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!

¹Doesn’t wisdom call out? Doesn’t understanding make her voice heard?

²At the heights overlooking the road, at the crossroads, she takes her stand.

³Beside the gates leading into the city, at the main entrance, she cries out:

⁴“People, I call out to you; my cry is to the children of Adam.

⁵Learn to be shrewd, you who are inexperienced; develop common sense, you who are foolish.

⁶Listen, for I speak of noble things, and what my lips say is right.

⁷For my mouth tells the truth, and wickedness is detestable to my lips.

⁸All the words from my mouth are righteous; none of them are deceptive or perverse.

⁹All of them are clear to the perceptive, and right to those who discover knowledge.

¹⁰Accept my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.

¹¹For wisdom is better than jewels, and nothing desirable can equal it.

¹²I, wisdom, share a home with shrewdness and have knowledge and discretion.

¹³To fear the LORD is to hate evil. I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.

¹⁴I possess good advice and sound wisdom; I have understanding and strength.

¹⁵It is by me that kings reign and rulers enact just law;

¹⁶by me, princes lead, as do nobles and all righteous judges.

¹⁷I love those who love me, and those who search for me find me.

¹⁸With me are riches and honor, lasting wealth and righteousness.

¹⁹My fruit is better than solid gold, and my harvest than pure silver.

²⁰I walk in the ways of righteousness, along the paths of justice,

²¹giving wealth as an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.

²²“The LORD acquired me at the beginning of his creation, before his works of long ago.

²³I was formed before ancient times, from the beginning, before the earth began.

²⁴I was born when there were no watery depths and no springs filled with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were established, prior to the hills, I was given birth —

²⁶before he made the land, the fields, or the first soil on earth.

²⁷I was there when he established the heavens, when he laid out the horizon on the surface of the ocean,

²⁸when he placed the skies above, when the fountains of the ocean gushed out,

²⁹when he set a limit for the sea so that the waters would not violate his command, when he laid out the foundations of the earth.

³⁰I was a skilled craftsman beside him. I was his delight every day, always rejoicing before him.

³¹I was rejoicing in his inhabited world, delighting in the children of Adam.

³²“And now, sons, listen to me; those who keep my ways are happy.

³³Listen to instruction and be wise; don’t ignore it.

³⁴Anyone who listens to me is happy, watching at my doors every day, waiting by the posts of my doorway.

³⁵For the one who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD,

³⁶but the one who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”

¹The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all the troops with you and go attack Ai. Look, I have handed over to you the king of Ai, his people, city, and land.

²Treat Ai and its king as you did Jericho and its king, except that you may plunder its spoil and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”

³So Joshua and all the troops set out to attack Ai. Joshua selected thirty thousand of his best soldiers and sent them out at night.

⁴He commanded them: “Pay attention. Lie in ambush behind the city, not too far from it, and all of you be ready.

⁵Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. When they come out against us as they did the first time, we will flee from them.

⁶They will come after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us as before.’ While we are fleeing from them,

⁷you are to come out of your ambush and seize the city. The LORD your God will hand it over to you.

⁸After taking the city, set it on fire. Follow the LORD’s command — see that you do as I have ordered you.”

⁹So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the ambush site and waited between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But he spent that night with the troops.

¹⁰Joshua started early the next morning and mobilized them. Then he and the elders of Israel led the troops up to Ai.

¹¹All those who were with him went up and approached the city, arriving opposite Ai, and camped to the north of it, with a valley between them and the city.

¹²Now Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

¹³The troops were stationed in this way: the main camp to the north of the city and its rear guard to the west of the city. And that night Joshua went into the valley.

¹⁴When the king of Ai saw the Israelites, the men of the city hurried and went out early in the morning so that he and all his people could engage Israel in battle at a suitable place facing the Arabah. But he did not know there was an ambush waiting for him behind the city.

¹⁵Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten back by them and fled toward the wilderness.

¹⁶Then all the troops of Ai were summoned to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city.

¹⁷Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel, leaving the city exposed while they pursued Israel.

¹⁸Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Hold out the javelin in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the city over to you.” So Joshua held out his javelin toward it.

¹⁹When he held out his hand, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position. They ran, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.

²⁰The men of Ai turned and looked back, and smoke from the city was rising to the sky! They could not escape in any direction, and the troops who had fled to the wilderness now became the pursuers.

²¹When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that smoke was rising from it, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.

²²Then men in ambush came out of the city against them, and the men of Ai were trapped between the Israelite forces, some on one side and some on the other. They struck them down until no survivor or fugitive remained,

²³but they captured the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴When Israel had finished killing everyone living in Ai who had pursued them into the open country, and when every last one of them had fallen by the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the sword.

²⁵The total of those who fell that day, both men and women, was twelve thousand — all the people of Ai.

²⁶Joshua did not draw back his hand that was holding the javelin until all the inhabitants of Ai were completely destroyed.

²⁷Israel plundered only the cattle and spoil of that city for themselves, according to the LORD’s command that he had given Joshua.

²⁸Joshua burned Ai and left it a permanent ruin, still desolate today.

²⁹He hung the body of the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded that they take his body down from the tree. They threw it down at the entrance of the city gate and put a large pile of rocks over it, which still remains today.

³⁰At that time Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the LORD, the God of Israel,

³¹just as Moses the LORD’s servant had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used. Then they offered burnt offerings to the LORD and sacrificed fellowship offerings on it.

³²There on the stones, Joshua copied the law of Moses, which he had written in the presence of the Israelites.

³³All Israel — resident alien and citizen alike — with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on either side of the ark of the LORD’s covenant facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the LORD’s servant had commanded earlier concerning blessing the people of Israel.

³⁴Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law — the blessings as well as the curses — according to all that is written in the book of the law.

³⁵There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read before the entire assembly of Israel, including the women, the dependents, and the resident aliens who lived among them.

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large piece of parchment and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

²I have appointed trustworthy witnesses — the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.”

³I was then intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz,

⁴for before the boy knows how to call ‘Father,’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria will be carried off to the king of Assyria.”

⁵The LORD spoke to me again:

⁶Because these people rejected the slowly flowing water of Shiloah and rejoiced with Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

⁷the Lord will certainly bring against them the mighty rushing water of the Euphrates River — the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will overflow its channels and spill over all its banks.

⁸It will pour into Judah, flood over it, and sweep through, reaching up to the neck; and its flooded banks will fill your entire land, Immanuel!

⁹Band together, peoples, and be broken; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for war, and be broken; prepare for war, and be broken.

¹⁰Devise a plan; it will fail. Make a prediction; it will not happen. For God is with us.

¹¹For this is what the LORD said to me with great power, to keep me from going the way of this people:

¹²Do not call everything a conspiracy these people say is a conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not be terrified.

¹³You are to regard only the LORD of Armies as holy. Only he should be feared; only he should be held in awe.

¹⁴He will be a sanctuary; but for the two houses of Israel, he will be a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured.

¹⁶Bind up the testimony. Seal up the instruction among my disciples.

¹⁷I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will wait for him.

¹⁸Here I am with the children the LORD has given me to be signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of Armies who dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹When they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,” shouldn’t a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

²⁰Go to God’s instruction and testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

²¹They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.

²²They will look toward the earth and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.

¹Saul agreed with putting him to death. On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.

²Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him.

³Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.

⁴So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word.

⁵Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them.

⁶The crowds were all paying attention to what Philip said, as they listened and saw the signs he was performing.

⁷For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.

⁸So there was great joy in that city.

⁹A man named Simon had previously practiced sorcery in that city and amazed the Samaritan people, while claiming to be somebody great.

¹⁰They all paid attention to him, from the least of them to the greatest, and they said, “This man is called the Great Power of God.”

¹¹They were attentive to him because he had amazed them with his sorceries for a long time.

¹²But when they believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.

¹³Even Simon himself believed. And after he was baptized, he followed Philip everywhere and was amazed as he observed the signs and great miracles that were being performed.

¹⁴When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

¹⁵After they went down there, they prayed for them so the Samaritans might receive the Holy Spirit because he had not yet come down on any of them.

¹⁶(They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. )

¹⁷Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,

¹⁹saying, “Give me this power also so that anyone I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰But Peter told him, “May your silver be destroyed with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!

²¹You have no part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right before God.

²²Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, your heart’s intent may be forgiven.

²³For I see you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by wickedness.”

²⁴“Pray to the Lord for me,” Simon replied, “so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

²⁵So, after they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they traveled back to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.

²⁶An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road. )

²⁷So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem

²⁸and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud.

²⁹The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.”

³⁰When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”

³¹“How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³²Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.

³³In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.

³⁴The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about — himself or someone else?”

³⁵Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning with that Scripture.

³⁶As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water. What would keep me from being baptized?”

³⁷

³⁸So he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer but went on his way rejoicing.

⁴⁰Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.