Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness.

²These are the names of the twelve apostles: First, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;

³Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

⁴Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

⁵Jesus sent out these twelve after giving them instructions: “Don’t take the road that leads to the Gentiles, and don’t enter any Samaritan town.

⁶Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

⁷As you go, proclaim: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

⁸Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you received, freely give.

⁹Don’t acquire gold, silver, or copper for your money-belts.

¹⁰Don’t take a traveling bag for the road, or an extra shirt, sandals, or a staff, for the worker is worthy of his food.

¹¹When you enter any town or village, find out who is worthy, and stay there until you leave.

¹²Greet a household when you enter it,

¹³and if the household is worthy, let your peace be on it; but if it is unworthy, let your peace return to you.

¹⁴If anyone does not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that house or town.

¹⁵Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

¹⁶“Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves.

¹⁷Beware of them, because they will hand you over to local courts and flog you in their synagogues.

¹⁸You will even be brought before governors and kings because of me, to bear witness to them and to the Gentiles.

¹⁹But when they hand you over, don’t worry about how or what you are to speak. For you will be given what to say at that hour,

²⁰because it isn’t you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is speaking through you.

²¹“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.

²²You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

²³When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. For truly I tell you, you will not have gone through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

²⁴A disciple is not above his teacher, or a slave above his master.

²⁵It is enough for a disciple to become like his teacher and a slave like his master. If they called the head of the house ‘Beelzebul,’ how much more the members of his household!

²⁶“Therefore, don’t be afraid of them, since there is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered and nothing hidden that won’t be made known.

²⁷What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. What you hear in a whisper, proclaim on the housetops.

²⁸Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

²⁹Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent.

³⁰But even the hairs of your head have all been counted.

³¹So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

³²“Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge me before others, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.

³³But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny him before my Father in heaven.

³⁴Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

³⁵For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

³⁶ and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.

³⁷The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; the one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

³⁸And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

³⁹Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life because of me will find it.

⁴⁰“The one who welcomes you welcomes me, and the one who welcomes me welcomes him who sent me.

⁴¹Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. And anyone who welcomes a righteous person because he’s righteous will receive a righteous person’s reward.

⁴²And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”

¹On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron, his sons, and the elders of Israel.

²He said to Aaron, “Take a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and present them before the LORD.

³And tell the Israelites: Take a male goat for a sin offering; a calf and a lamb, male yearlings without blemish, for a burnt offering;

⁴an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the LORD; and a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD is going to appear to you.”

⁵They brought what Moses had commanded to the front of the tent of meeting, and the whole community came forward and stood before the LORD.

⁶Moses said, “This is what the LORD commanded you to do, that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”

⁷Then Moses said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering; make atonement for yourself and the people. Sacrifice the people’s offering and make atonement for them, as the LORD commanded.”

⁸So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself.

⁹Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and applied it to the horns of the altar. He poured out the blood at the base of the altar.

¹⁰He burned the fat, the kidneys, and the fatty lobe of the liver from the sin offering on the altar, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹¹He burned the flesh and the hide outside the camp.

¹²Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar.

¹³They brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, along with the head, and he burned them on the altar.

¹⁴He washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar.

¹⁵Aaron presented the people’s offering. He took the male goat for the people’s sin offering, slaughtered it, and made a sin offering with it as he did before.

¹⁶He presented the burnt offering and sacrificed it according to the regulation.

¹⁷Next he presented the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning burnt offering.

¹⁸Finally, he slaughtered the ox and the ram as the people’s fellowship sacrifice. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it on all sides of the altar.

¹⁹They also brought the fat portions from the ox and the ram — the fat tail, the fat surrounding the entrails, the kidneys, and the fatty lobe of the liver —

²⁰and placed these on the breasts. Aaron burned the fat portions on the altar,

²¹but he presented the breasts and the right thigh as a presentation offering before the LORD, as Moses had commanded.

²²Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them. He came down after sacrificing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the fellowship offering.

²³Moses and Aaron then entered the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.

²⁴Fire came from the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell facedown.

¹It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles  — a man is sleeping with his father’s wife.

²And you are arrogant! Shouldn’t you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this?

³Even though I am absent in the body, I am present in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has been doing such a thing.

⁴When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,

⁵hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

⁶Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough?

⁷Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.

⁸Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

¹⁰I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world.

¹¹But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.

¹²For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside?

¹³God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you.

¹There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.

²Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them.

³They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.

⁴For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment;

⁵and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly;

⁶and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;

⁷and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral

⁸(for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard ) —

⁹then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

¹⁰especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones;

¹¹however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.

¹²But these people, like irrational animals — creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed — slander what they do not understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed.

¹³They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions while they feast with you.

¹⁴They have eyes full of adultery that never stop looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse!

¹⁵They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness

¹⁶but received a rebuke for his lawlessness: A speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

¹⁷These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.

¹⁸For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error.

¹⁹They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.

²⁰For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first.

²¹For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.

²²It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, “a washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.”

¹My heart pounds at this and leaps from my chest.

²Just listen to his thunderous voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

³He lets it loose beneath the entire sky; his lightning to the ends of the earth.

⁴Then there comes a roaring sound; God thunders with his majestic voice. He does not restrain the lightning when his rumbling voice is heard.

⁵God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.

⁶For he says to the snow, “Fall to the earth,” and the torrential rains, his mighty torrential rains,

⁷serve as his sign to all mankind, so that all men may know his work.

⁸The wild animals enter their lairs and stay in their dens.

⁹The windstorm comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds.

¹⁰Ice is formed by the breath of God, and watery expanses are frozen.

¹¹He saturates clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them.

¹²They swirl about, turning round and round at his direction, accomplishing everything he commands them over the surface of the inhabited world.

¹³He causes this to happen for punishment, for his land, or for his faithful love.

¹⁴Listen to this, Job. Stop and consider God’s wonders.

¹⁵Do you know how God directs his clouds or makes their lightning flash?

¹⁶Do you understand how the clouds float, those wonderful works of him who has perfect knowledge?

¹⁷You whose clothes get hot when the south wind brings calm to the land,

¹⁸can you help God spread out the skies as hard as a cast metal mirror?

¹⁹Teach us what we should say to him; we cannot prepare our case because of our darkness.

²⁰Should he be told that I want to speak? Can a man speak when he is confused?

²¹Now no one can even look at the sun when it is in the skies, after a wind has swept through and cleared the clouds away.

²²Yet out of the north he comes, shrouded in a golden glow; awesome majesty surrounds him.

²³The Almighty — we cannot reach him — he is exalted in power! He will not violate justice and abundant righteousness,

²⁴therefore, men fear him. He does not look favorably on any who are wise in heart.

¹The LORD reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He is enthroned between the cherubim. Let the earth quake.

²The LORD is great in Zion; he is exalted above all the peoples.

³Let them praise your great and awe-inspiring name. He is holy.

⁴The mighty King loves justice. You have established fairness; you have administered justice and righteousness in Jacob.

⁵Exalt the LORD our God; bow in worship at his footstool. He is holy.

⁶Moses and Aaron were among his priests; Samuel also was among those calling on his name. They called to the LORD and he answered them.

⁷He spoke to them in a pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees and the statutes he gave them.

⁸LORD our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their sinful actions.

⁹Exalt the LORD our God; bow in worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.

¹My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor or entered into an agreement with a stranger,

²you have been snared by the words of your mouth trapped by the words from your mouth.

³Do this, then, my son, and free yourself, for you have put yourself in your neighbor’s power: Go, humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor.

⁴Don’t give sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.

⁵Escape like a gazelle from a hunter, like a bird from a hunter’s trap.

⁶Go to the ant, you slacker! Observe its ways and become wise.

⁷Without leader, administrator, or ruler,

⁸it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food during harvest.

⁹How long will you stay in bed, you slacker? When will you get up from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest,

¹¹and your poverty will come like a robber, your need, like a bandit.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man goes around speaking dishonestly,

¹³winking his eyes, signaling with his feet, and gesturing with his fingers.

¹⁴He always plots evil with perversity in his heart; he stirs up trouble.

¹⁵Therefore calamity will strike him suddenly; he will be shattered instantly, beyond recovery.

¹⁶The LORD hates six things; in fact, seven are detestable to him:

¹⁷arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that plots wicked schemes, feet eager to run to evil,

¹⁹a lying witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up trouble among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father’s command, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching.

²¹Always bind them to your heart; tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk here and there, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you wake up, they will talk to you.

²³For a command is a lamp, teaching is a light, and corrective discipline is the way to life.

²⁴They will protect you from an evil woman, from the flattering tongue of a wayward woman.

²⁵Don’t lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyelashes.

²⁶For a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread, but the wife of another man goes after a precious life.

²⁷Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Can a man walk on burning coals without scorching his feet?

²⁹So it is with the one who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰People don’t despise the thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry.

³¹Still, if caught, he must pay seven times as much; he must give up all the wealth in his house.

³²The one who commits adultery lacks sense; whoever does so destroys himself.

³³He will get a beating and dishonor, and his disgrace will never be removed.

³⁴For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will not be appeased by anything or be persuaded by lavish bribes.

¹It was reported to Joab, “The king is weeping. He’s mourning over Absalom.”

²That day’s victory was turned into mourning for all the troops because on that day the troops heard, “The king is grieving over his son.”

³So they returned to the city quietly that day like troops come in when they are humiliated after fleeing in battle.

⁴But the king covered his face and cried loudly, “My son Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”

⁵Then Joab went into the house to the king and said, “Today you have shamed all your soldiers — those who saved your life as well as your sons, your wives, and your concubines —

⁶by loving your enemies and hating those who love you! Today you have made it clear that the commanders and soldiers mean nothing to you. In fact, today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead, it would be fine with you!

⁷“Now get up! Go out and encourage your soldiers, for I swear by the LORD that if you don’t go out, not a man will remain with you tonight. This will be worse for you than all the trouble that has come to you from your youth until now!”

⁸So the king got up and sat in the city gate, and all the people were told: “Look, the king is sitting in the city gate.” Then they all came into the king’s presence. Meanwhile, each Israelite had fled to his tent.

⁹People throughout all the tribes of Israel were arguing among themselves, saying, “The king rescued us from the grasp of our enemies, and he saved us from the grasp of the Philistines, but now he has fled from the land because of Absalom.

¹⁰But Absalom, the man we anointed over us, has died in battle. So why do you say nothing about restoring the king?”

¹¹King David sent word to the priests Zadok and Abiathar: “Say to the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be the last to restore the king to his palace? The talk of all Israel has reached the king at his house.

¹²You are my brothers, my flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king?’

¹³And tell Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me and do so severely if you don’t become commander of my army from now on instead of Joab! ’”

¹⁴So he won over all the men of Judah, and they unanimously sent word to the king: “Come back, you and all your servants.”

¹⁵Then the king returned. When he arrived at the Jordan, Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and escort him across the Jordan.

¹⁶Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David.

¹⁷There were a thousand men from Benjamin with him. Ziba, an attendant from the house of Saul, with his fifteen sons and twenty servants also rushed down to the Jordan ahead of the king.

¹⁸They forded the Jordan to bring the king’s household across and do whatever the king desired. When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell facedown before the king

¹⁹and said to him, “My lord, don’t hold me guilty, and don’t remember your servant’s wrongdoing on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart.

²⁰For your servant knows that I have sinned. But look! Today I am the first one of the entire house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.”

²¹Abishai son of Zeruiah asked, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed?”

²²David answered, “Sons of Zeruiah, do we agree on anything? Have you become my adversary today? Should any man be killed in Israel today? Am I not aware that today I’m king over Israel?”

²³So the king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” Then the king gave him his oath.

²⁴Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, also went down to meet the king. He had not taken care of his feet, trimmed his mustache, or washed his clothes from the day the king left until the day he returned safely.

²⁵When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, “Mephibosheth, why didn’t you come with me?”

²⁶“My lord the king,” he replied, “my servant Ziba betrayed me. Actually your servant said: ‘I’ll saddle the donkey for myself so that I may ride it and go with the king’ — for your servant is lame.

²⁷Ziba slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like the angel of God, so do whatever you think best.

²⁸For my grandfather’s entire family deserves death from my lord the king, but you set your servant among those who eat at your table. So what further right do I have to keep on making appeals to the king?”

²⁹The king said to him, “Why keep on speaking about these matters of yours? I hereby declare: you and Ziba are to divide the land.”

³⁰Mephibosheth said to the king, “Instead, since my lord the king has come to his palace safely, let Ziba take it all!”

³¹Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim and accompanied the king to the Jordan River to see him off at the Jordan.

³²Barzillai was a very old man — eighty years old — and since he was a very wealthy man, he had provided for the needs of the king while he stayed in Mahanaim.

³³The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me, and I’ll provide for you at my side in Jerusalem.”

³⁴Barzillai replied to the king, “How many years of my life are left that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king?

³⁵I’m now eighty years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of male and female singers? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?

³⁶Since your servant is only going with the king a little way across the Jordan, why should the king repay me with such a reward?

³⁷Please let your servant return so that I may die in my own city near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham: let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him what seems good to you.”

³⁸The king replied, “Chimham will cross over with me, and I will do for him what seems good to you, and whatever you desire from me I will do for you.”

³⁹So all the people crossed the Jordan, and then the king crossed. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai returned to his home.

⁴⁰The king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went with him. All the troops of Judah and half of Israel’s escorted the king.

⁴¹Suddenly, all the men of Israel came to the king. They asked him, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and transport the king and his household across the Jordan, along with all of David’s men?”

⁴²All the men of Judah responded to the men of Israel, “Because the king is our relative. Why does this make you angry? Have we ever eaten anything of the king’s or been honored at all?”

⁴³The men of Israel answered the men of Judah: “We have ten shares in the king, so we have a greater claim to David than you. Why then do you despise us? Weren’t we the first to speak of restoring our king?” But the words of the men of Judah were harsher than those of the men of Israel.

¹While he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time:

²“The LORD who made the earth, the LORD who forms it to establish it, the LORD is his name, says this:

³Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.

⁴For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah’s kings, the ones torn down for defense against the assault ramps and the sword:

⁵The people coming to fight the Chaldeans will fill the houses with the corpses of their own men that I strike down in my wrath and rage. I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil.

⁶Yet I will certainly bring health and healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundance of true peace.

⁷I will restore the fortunes of Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times.

⁸I will purify them from all the iniquity they have committed against me, and I will forgive all the iniquities they have committed against me, rebelling against me.

⁹This city will bear on my behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the prosperity I will give them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them.

¹⁰“This is what the LORD says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without people or animals — that is, in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are a desolation without people, without inhabitants, and without animals — there will be heard again

¹¹a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying, Give thanks to the LORD of Armies, for the LORD is good; his faithful love endures forever as they bring thank offerings to the temple of the LORD. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the LORD.

¹²“This is what the LORD of Armies says: In this desolate place — without people or animals — and in all its cities there will once more be a grazing land where shepherds may rest flocks.

¹³The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them in the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, the cities of the Negev, the land of Benjamin — the areas around Jerusalem and in Judah’s cities, says the LORD.

¹⁴“Look, the days are coming” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “when I will fulfill the good promise that I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

¹⁵In those days and at that time I will cause a Righteous Branch to sprout up for David, and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is what she will be named: The LORD Is Our Righteousness.

¹⁷“For this is what the LORD says: David will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel.

¹⁸The Levitical priests will never fail to have a man always before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.”

¹⁹The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

²⁰“This is what the LORD says: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night cease to come at their regular time,

²¹then also my covenant with my servant David may be broken. If that could happen, then he would not have a son reigning on his throne and the Levitical priests would not be my ministers.

²²Even as the stars of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so too I will make innumerable the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.”

²³The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

²⁴“Have you not noticed what these people have said? They say, ‘The LORD has rejected the two families he had chosen.’ My people are treated with contempt and no longer regarded as a nation among them.

²⁵This is what the LORD says: If I do not keep my covenant with the day and with the night, and if I fail to establish the fixed order of heaven and earth,

²⁶then I might also reject the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David. That is, I would not take rulers from his descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in fact, I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.”

¹Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

²After Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate, Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue.

³When they had been sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.

⁴When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.

⁵But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”

⁶The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter.

⁷After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them: “Brothers and sisters, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe.

⁸And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also did to us.

⁹He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples’ necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?

¹¹On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are.”

¹²The whole assembly became silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul describe all the signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

¹³After they stopped speaking, James responded: “Brothers and sisters, listen to me.

¹⁴Simeon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name.

¹⁵And the words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:

¹⁶After these things I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again,

¹⁷so the rest of humanity may seek the Lord — even all the Gentiles who are called by my name — declares the Lord who makes these things

¹⁸known from long ago.

¹⁹Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God,

²⁰but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood.

²¹For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day he is read aloud in the synagogues.”

²²Then the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, decided to select men who were among them and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men among the brothers.

²³They wrote: “From the apostles and the elders, your brothers, To the brothers and sisters among the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings.

²⁴Since we have heard that some without our authorization went out from us and troubled you with their words and unsettled your hearts,

²⁵we have unanimously decided to select men and send them to you along with our dearly loved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who will personally report the same things by word of mouth.

²⁸For it was the Holy Spirit’s decision — and ours — not to place further burdens on you beyond these requirements:

²⁹that you abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. You will do well if you keep yourselves from these things. Farewell.”

³⁰So they were sent off and went down to Antioch, and after gathering the assembly, they delivered the letter.

³¹When they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.

³²Both Judas and Silas, who were also prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers and sisters and strengthened them with a long message.

³³After spending some time there, they were sent back in peace by the brothers and sisters to those who had sent them.

³⁴

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas, along with many others, remained in Antioch, teaching and proclaiming the word of the Lord.

³⁶After some time had passed, Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit the brothers and sisters in every town where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they’re doing.”

³⁷Barnabas wanted to take along John Mark.

³⁸But Paul insisted that they should not take along this man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work.

³⁹They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed off to Cyprus.

⁴⁰But Paul chose Silas and departed, after being commended by the brothers and sisters to the grace of the Lord.

⁴¹He traveled through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.