Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.

²These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

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

⁴Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans,

⁶but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

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

⁸Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.

⁹Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts,

¹⁰no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food.

¹¹Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave.

¹²As you enter the house, greet it.

¹³If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.

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

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

¹⁶“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

¹⁷Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues;

¹⁸and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles.

¹⁹When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time;

²⁰for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

²¹Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death;

²²and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

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

²⁴“A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;

²⁵it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

²⁶“So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.

²⁷What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.

²⁸Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

³⁰And even the hairs of your head are all counted.

³¹So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

³²“Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven;

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

³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

³⁵For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

³⁶and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

³⁷Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

³⁸and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

³⁹Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

⁴⁰“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous;

⁴²and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

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

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

³And say to the people of Israel, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering; a calf and a lamb, yearlings without blemish, for a burnt offering;

⁴and an ox and a ram for an offering of well-being to sacrifice before the LORD; and a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD will appear to you.’”

⁵They brought what Moses commanded to the front of the tent of meeting; and the whole congregation drew near and stood before the LORD.

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

⁷Then Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people; and sacrifice the offering of the people, and make atonement for them; as the LORD has commanded.”

⁸Aaron drew near to the altar, and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself.

⁹The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar.

¹⁰But the fat, the kidneys, and the appendage of the liver from the sin offering he turned into smoke on the altar, as the LORD commanded Moses;

¹¹and the flesh and the skin he burned with fire outside the camp.

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

¹³And they brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, and the head, which he turned into smoke on the altar.

¹⁴He washed the entrails and the legs and, with the burnt offering, turned them into smoke on the altar.

¹⁵Next he presented the people’s offering. He took the goat of the sin offering that was for the people, and slaughtered it, and presented it as a sin offering like the first one.

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

¹⁷He presented the grain offering, and, taking a handful of it, he turned it into smoke on the altar, in addition to the burnt offering of the morning.

¹⁸He slaughtered the ox and the ram as a sacrifice of well-being for the people. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, which he dashed against all sides of the altar,

¹⁹and the fat of the ox and of the ram — the broad tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the two kidneys and the fat on them, and the appendage of the liver.

²⁰They first laid the fat on the breasts, and the fat was turned into smoke on the altar;

²¹and the breasts and the right thigh Aaron raised as an elevation offering before the LORD, as Moses had commanded.

²²Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he came down after sacrificing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the offering of well-being.

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

²⁴Fire came out from the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

¹It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife.

²And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?

³For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment

⁴in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus,

⁵you are to hand this man 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 a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?

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

⁸Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons —

¹⁰not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world.

¹¹But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one.

¹²For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge?

¹³God will judge those outside. “Drive out the wicked person from among you.”

¹But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive opinions. They will even deny the Master who bought them — bringing swift destruction on themselves.

²Even so, many will follow their licentious ways, and because of these teachers the way of truth will be maligned.

³And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;

⁵and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly;

⁶and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;

⁷and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless

⁸(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard),

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

¹⁰— especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones,

¹¹whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not bring against them a slanderous judgment from the Lord.

¹²These people, however, are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed. They slander what they do not understand, and when those creatures are destroyed, they also will be destroyed,

¹³suffering the penalty for doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their dissipation while they feast with you.

¹⁴They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

¹⁵They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wages of doing wrong,

¹⁶but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

¹⁷These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved.

¹⁸For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with licentious desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error.

¹⁹They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for people are slaves to whatever masters them.

²⁰For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

²¹For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them.

²²It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns back to its own vomit,” and, “The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.”

¹“At this also my heart trembles, and leaps out of its place.

²Listen, listen to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

³Under the whole heaven he lets it loose, and his lightning to the corners of the earth.

⁴After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.

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

⁶For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth’; and the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain,

⁷serves as a sign on everyone’s hand, so that all whom he has made may know it.

⁸Then the animals go into their lairs and remain in their dens.

⁹From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds.

¹⁰By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast.

¹¹He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning.

¹²They turn round and round by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world.

¹³Whether for correction, or for his land, or for love, he causes it to happen.

¹⁴“Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God.

¹⁵Do you know how God lays his command upon them, and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?

¹⁶Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of the one whose knowledge is perfect,

¹⁷you whose garments are hot when the earth is still because of the south wind?

¹⁸Can you, like him, spread out the skies, hard as a molten mirror?

¹⁹Teach us what we shall say to him; we cannot draw up our case because of darkness.

²⁰Should he be told that I want to speak? Did anyone ever wish to be swallowed up?

²¹Now, no one can look on the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them.

²²Out of the north comes golden splendor; around God is awesome majesty.

²³The Almighty — we cannot find him; he is great in power and justice, and abundant righteousness he will not violate.

²⁴Therefore mortals fear him; he does not regard any who are wise in their own conceit.”

¹The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!

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

³Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!

⁴Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

⁵Extol the LORD our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!

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

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

⁸O LORD our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.

⁹Extol the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our God is holy.

¹My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor, if you have bound yourself to another,

²you are snared by the utterance of your lips, caught by the words of your mouth.

³So do this, my child, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbor’s power: go, hurry, and plead with your neighbor.

⁴Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;

⁵save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.

⁷Without having any chief or officer or ruler,

⁸it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, O lazybones? When will you rise from your sleep?

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

¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior.

¹²A scoundrel and a villain goes around with crooked speech,

¹³winking the eyes, shuffling the feet, pointing the fingers,

¹⁴with perverted mind devising evil, continually sowing discord;

¹⁵on such a one calamity will descend suddenly; in a moment, damage beyond repair.

¹⁶There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil,

¹⁹a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family.

²⁰My child, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

²¹Bind them upon your heart always; tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

²⁴to preserve you from the wife of another, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

²⁶for a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread, but the wife of another stalks a man’s very life.

²⁷Can fire be carried in the bosom without burning one’s clothes?

²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals without scorching the feet?

²⁹So is he who sleeps with his neighbor’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰Thieves are not despised who steal only to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry.

³¹Yet if they are caught, they will pay sevenfold; they will forfeit all the goods of their house.

³²But he who commits adultery has no sense; he who does it destroys himself.

³³He will get wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he shows no restraint when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will accept no compensation, and refuses a bribe no matter how great.

¹It was told Joab, “The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.”

²So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the troops; for the troops heard that day, “The king is grieving for his son.”

³The troops stole into the city that day as soldiers steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle.

⁴The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, “O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

⁵Then Joab came into the house to the king, and said, “Today you have covered with shame the faces of all your officers who have saved your life today, and the lives of your sons and your daughters, and the lives of your wives and your concubines,

⁶for love of those who hate you and for hatred of those who love you. You have made it clear today that commanders and officers are nothing to you; for I perceive that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased.

⁷So go out at once and speak kindly to your servants; for I swear by the LORD, if you do not go, not a man will stay with you this night; and this will be worse for you than any disaster that has come upon you from your youth until now.”

⁸Then the king got up and took his seat in the gate. The troops were all told, “See, the king is sitting in the gate”; and all the troops came before the king. David Recalled to Jerusalem Meanwhile, all the Israelites had fled to their homes.

⁹All the people were disputing throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies, and saved us from the hand of the Philistines; and now he has fled out of the land because of Absalom.

¹⁰But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?”

¹¹King David sent this message to the priests Zadok and Abiathar, “Say to the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be the last to bring the king back to his house? The talk of all Israel has come to the king.

¹²You are my kin, you are my bone and my flesh; why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’

¹³And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? So may God do to me, and more, if you are not the commander of my army from now on, in place of Joab.’”

¹⁴Amasa swayed the hearts of all the people of Judah as one, and they sent word to the king, “Return, both you and all your servants.”

¹⁵So the king came back to the Jordan; and Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and to bring him over the Jordan.

¹⁶Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite, from Bahurim, hurried to come down with the people of Judah to meet King David;

¹⁷with him were a thousand people from Benjamin. And Ziba, the servant of the house of Saul, with his fifteen sons and his twenty servants, rushed down to the Jordan ahead of the king,

¹⁸while the crossing was taking place, to bring over the king’s household, and to do his pleasure. David’s Mercy to Shimei Shimei son of Gera fell down before the king, as he was about to cross the Jordan,

¹⁹and said to the king, “May my lord not hold me guilty or remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem; may the king not bear it in mind.

²⁰For your servant knows that I have sinned; therefore, see, I have come this day, the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.”

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

²²But David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should today become an adversary to me? Shall anyone be put to death in Israel this day? For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel?”

²³The king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king gave him his oath.

²⁴Mephibosheth grandson of Saul came down to meet the king; he had not taken care of his feet, or trimmed his beard, or washed his clothes, from the day the king left until the day he came back in safety.

²⁵When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, “Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?”

²⁶He answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me; for your servant said to him, ‘Saddle a donkey for me, so that I may ride on it and go with the king.’ For your servant is lame.

²⁷He has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like the angel of God; do therefore what seems good to you.

²⁸For all my father’s house were doomed to death before my lord the king; but you set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right have I, then, to appeal to the king?”

²⁹The king said to him, “Why speak any more of your affairs? I have decided: you and Ziba shall divide the land.”

³⁰Mephibosheth said to the king, “Let him take it all, since my lord the king has arrived home safely.”

³¹Now Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim; he went on with the king to the Jordan, to escort him over the Jordan.

³²Barzillai was a very aged man, eighty years old. He had provided the king with food while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man.

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

³⁴But Barzillai said to the king, “How many years have I still to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?

³⁵Today I am eighty years old; can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I still listen to the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?

³⁶Your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king recompense me with such a reward?

³⁷Please let your servant return, so that I may die in my own town, near the graves of my father and my mother. But here is your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do for him whatever seems good to you.”

³⁸The king answered, “Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do for him whatever seems good to you; and all that you desire of me I will do for you.”

³⁹Then all the people crossed over the Jordan, and the king crossed over; the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own home.

⁴⁰The king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him; all the people of Judah, and also half the people of Israel, brought the king on his way.

⁴¹Then all the people of Israel came to the king, and said to him, “Why have our kindred the people of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king and his household over the Jordan, and all David’s men with him?”

⁴²All the people of Judah answered the people of Israel, “Because the king is near of kin to us. Why then are you angry over this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king’s expense? Or has he given us any gift?”

⁴³But the people of Israel answered the people of Judah, “We have ten shares in the king, and in David also we have more than you. Why then did you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?” But the words of the people of Judah were fiercer than the words of the people of Israel.

¹The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard:

²Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it — the LORD is his name:

³Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

⁴For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defense against the siege ramps and before the sword:

⁵The Chaldeans are coming in to fight and to fill them with the dead bodies of those whom I shall strike down in my anger and my wrath, for I have hidden my face from this city because of all their wickedness.

⁶I am going to bring it recovery and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security.

⁷I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first.

⁸I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.

⁹And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them; they shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it.

¹⁰Thus says the LORD: In this place of which you say, “It is a waste without human beings or animals,” in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without inhabitants, human or animal, there shall once more be heard

¹¹the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD: “Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the LORD.

¹²Thus says the LORD of hosts: In this place that is waste, without human beings or animals, and in all its towns there shall again be pasture for shepherds resting their flocks.

¹³In the towns of the hill country, of the Shephelah, and of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin, the places around Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah, flocks shall again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the LORD.

¹⁴The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

¹⁵In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”

¹⁷For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,

¹⁸and the levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to make grain offerings, and to make sacrifices for all time.

¹⁹The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

²⁰Thus says the LORD: If any of you could break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night would not come at their appointed time,

²¹only then could my covenant with my servant David be broken, so that he would not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with my ministers the Levites.

²²Just as the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will increase the offspring of my servant David, and the Levites who minister to me.

²³The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

²⁴Have you not observed how these people say, “The two families that the LORD chose have been rejected by him,” and how they hold my people in such contempt that they no longer regard them as a nation?

²⁵Thus says the LORD: Only if I had not established my covenant with day and night and the ordinances of heaven and earth,

²⁶would I reject the offspring of Jacob and of my servant David and not choose any of his descendants as rulers over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes, and will have mercy upon them.

¹Then certain individuals came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

²And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders.

³So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the believers.

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

⁵But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the law of Moses.”

⁶The apostles and the elders met together to consider this matter.

⁷After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “My brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that I should be the one through whom the Gentiles would hear the message of the good news and become believers.

⁸And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us;

⁹and in cleansing their hearts by faith he has made no distinction between them and us.

¹⁰Now therefore why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?

¹¹On the contrary, we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

¹²The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles.

¹³After they finished speaking, James replied, “My brothers, listen to me.

¹⁴Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the Gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name.

¹⁵This agrees with the words of the prophets, as it is written,

¹⁶‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; from its ruins I will rebuild it, and I will set it up,

¹⁷so that all other peoples may seek the Lord — even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called. Thus says the Lord, who has been making these things

¹⁸known from long ago.’

¹⁹Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God,

²⁰but we should write to them to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood.

²¹For in every city, for generations past, Moses has had those who proclaim him, for he has been read aloud every sabbath in the synagogues.”

²²Then the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers,

²³with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the believers of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings.

²⁴Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds,

²⁵we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

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

²⁷We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.

²⁸For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials:

²⁹that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

³⁰So they were sent off and went down to Antioch. When they gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter.

³¹When its members read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation.

³²Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers.

³³After they had been there for some time, they were sent off in peace by the believers to those who had sent them.

³⁴

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, and there, with many others, they taught and proclaimed the word of the Lord.

³⁶After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Come, let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”

³⁷Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark.

³⁸But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work.

³⁹The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus.

⁴⁰But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord.

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