Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹And after getting into a boat he crossed the sea and came to his own town.

²And just then some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

³Then some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.”

⁴But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?

⁵For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’?

⁶But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he then said to the paralytic — “Stand up, take your bed and go to your home.”

⁷And he stood up and went to his home.

⁸When the crowds saw it, they were filled with awe, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to human beings.

⁹As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

¹⁰And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples.

¹¹When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹²But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

¹³Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

¹⁴Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁵And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

¹⁶No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made.

¹⁷Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

¹⁸While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”

¹⁹And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.

²⁰Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak,

²¹for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.”

²²Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

²³When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,

²⁴he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him.

²⁵But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.

²⁶And the report of this spread throughout that district.

²⁷As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying loudly, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

²⁸When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.”

²⁹Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you.”

³⁰And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus sternly ordered them, “See that no one knows of this.”

³¹But they went away and spread the news about him throughout that district.

³²After they had gone away, a demoniac who was mute was brought to him.

³³And when the demon had been cast out, the one who had been mute spoke; and the crowds were amazed and said, “Never has anything like this been seen in Israel.”

³⁴But the Pharisees said, “By the ruler of the demons he casts out the demons.”

³⁵Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.

³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;

³⁸therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

¹God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

²The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered.

³Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

⁴Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

⁵For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.

⁶Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind.

⁷And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.”

⁸Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,

⁹“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you,

¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.

¹¹I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹²God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:

¹³I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

¹⁴When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds,

¹⁵I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

¹⁶When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

¹⁷God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

¹⁸The sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan.

¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was peopled.

²⁰Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard.

²¹He drank some of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent.

²²And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

²³Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him,

²⁵he said, “Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.”

²⁶He also said, “Blessed by the LORD my God be Shem; and let Canaan be his slave.

²⁷May God make space for Japheth, and let him live in the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave.”

²⁸After the flood Noah lived three hundred fifty years.

²⁹All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years; and he died.

¹I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit —

²I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

³For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.

⁴They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;

⁵to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

⁶It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all Israelites truly belong to Israel,

⁷and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants; but “It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.”

⁸This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.

⁹For this is what the promise said, “About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.”

¹⁰Nor is that all; something similar happened to Rebecca when she had conceived children by one husband, our ancestor Isaac.

¹¹Even before they had been born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose of election might continue,

¹²not by works but by his call) she was told, “The elder shall serve the younger.”

¹³As it is written, “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.”

¹⁴What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!

¹⁵For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

¹⁶So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.

¹⁷For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”

¹⁸So then he has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.

¹⁹You will say to me then, “Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”

²⁰But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is molded say to the one who molds it, “Why have you made me like this?”

²¹Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?

²²What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction;

²³and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory —

²⁴including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

²⁵As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”

²⁶“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they shall be called children of the living God.”

²⁷And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved;

²⁸for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.”

²⁹And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors to us, we would have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”

³⁰What then are we to say? Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith;

³¹but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law.

³²Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,

³³as it is written, “See, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble, a rock that will make them fall, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

²To Timothy, my loyal child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³I urge you, as I did when I was on my way to Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach any different doctrine,

⁴and not to occupy themselves with myths and endless genealogies that promote speculations rather than the divine training that is known by faith.

⁵But the aim of such instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

⁶Some people have deviated from these and turned to meaningless talk,

⁷desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.

⁸Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it legitimately.

⁹This means understanding that the law is laid down not for the innocent but for the lawless and disobedient, for the godless and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their father or mother, for murderers,

¹⁰fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching

¹¹that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

¹²I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service,

¹³even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,

¹⁴and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the foremost.

¹⁶But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.

¹⁷To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

¹⁸I am giving you these instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight,

¹⁹having faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in the faith;

²⁰among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have turned over to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme.

¹Then Job answered:

²“Indeed I know that this is so; but how can a mortal be just before God?

³If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand.

⁴He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength — who has resisted him, and succeeded? —

⁵he who removes mountains, and they do not know it, when he overturns them in his anger;

⁶who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;

⁷who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;

⁸who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea;

⁹who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;

¹⁰who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number.

¹¹Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

¹²He snatches away; who can stop him? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

¹³“God will not turn back his anger; the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.

¹⁴How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?

¹⁵Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.

¹⁶If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe that he would listen to my voice.

¹⁷For he crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause;

¹⁸he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.

¹⁹If it is a contest of strength, he is the strong one! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?

²⁰Though I am innocent, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.

²¹I am blameless; I do not know myself; I loathe my life.

²²It is all one; therefore I say, he destroys both the blameless and the wicked.

²³When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the eyes of its judges — if it is not he, who then is it?

²⁵“My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good.

²⁶They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.

²⁷If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint; I will put off my sad countenance and be of good cheer,’

²⁸I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.

²⁹I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with soap and cleanse my hands with lye,

³¹yet you will plunge me into filth, and my own clothes will abhor me.

³²For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.

³³There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand on us both.

³⁴If he would take his rod away from me, and not let dread of him terrify me,

³⁵then I would speak without fear of him, for I know I am not what I am thought to be.

¹I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

²I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

³When my enemies turned back, they stumbled and perished before you.

⁴For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment.

⁵You have rebuked the nations, you have destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name forever and ever.

⁶The enemies have vanished in everlasting ruins; their cities you have rooted out; the very memory of them has perished.

⁷But the LORD sits enthroned forever, he has established his throne for judgment.

⁸He judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with equity.

⁹The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.

¹⁰And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

¹¹Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion. Declare his deeds among the peoples.

¹²For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.

¹³Be gracious to me, O LORD. See what I suffer from those who hate me; you are the one who lifts me up from the gates of death,

¹⁴so that I may recount all your praises, and, in the gates of daughter Zion, rejoice in your deliverance.

¹⁵The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid has their own foot been caught.

¹⁶The LORD has made himself known, he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah

¹⁷The wicked shall depart to Sheol, all the nations that forget God.

¹⁸For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever.

¹⁹Rise up, O LORD! Do not let mortals prevail; let the nations be judged before you.

²⁰Put them in fear, O LORD; let the nations know that they are only human. Selah

¹Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars.

²She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table.

³She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places in the town,

⁴“You that are simple, turn in here!” To those without sense she says,

⁵“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.

⁶Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

⁷Whoever corrects a scoffer wins abuse; whoever rebukes the wicked gets hurt.

⁸A scoffer who is rebuked will only hate you; the wise, when rebuked, will love you.

⁹Give instruction to the wise, and they will become wiser still; teach the righteous and they will gain in learning.

¹⁰The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

¹¹For by me your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.

¹²If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it.

¹³The foolish woman is loud; she is ignorant and knows nothing.

¹⁴She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the high places of the town,

¹⁵calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way,

¹⁶“You who are simple, turn in here!” And to those without sense she says,

¹⁷“Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”

¹⁸But they do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

¹Now when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon — the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites — heard of this,

²they gathered together with one accord to fight Joshua and Israel.

³But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,

⁴they on their part acted with cunning: they went and prepared provisions, and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended,

⁵with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes; and all their provisions were dry and moldy.

⁶They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the Israelites, “We have come from a far country; so now make a treaty with us.”

⁷But the Israelites said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you live among us; then how can we make a treaty with you?”

⁸They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you? And where do you come from?”

⁹They said to him, “Your servants have come from a very far country, because of the name of the LORD your God; for we have heard a report of him, of all that he did in Egypt,

¹⁰and of all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, King Sihon of Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth.

¹¹So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey; go to meet them, and say to them, “We are your servants; come now, make a treaty with us.”’

¹²Here is our bread; it was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey, on the day we set out to come to you, but now, see, it is dry and moldy;

¹³these wineskins were new when we filled them, and see, they are burst; and these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.”

¹⁴So the leaders partook of their provisions, and did not ask direction from the LORD.

¹⁵And Joshua made peace with them, guaranteeing their lives by a treaty; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.

¹⁶But when three days had passed after they had made a treaty with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and were living among them.

¹⁷So the Israelites set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.

¹⁸But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders.

¹⁹But all the leaders said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we must not touch them.

²⁰This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that wrath may not come upon us, because of the oath that we swore to them.”

²¹The leaders said to them, “Let them live.” So they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, as the leaders had decided concerning them.

²²Joshua summoned them, and said to them, “Why did you deceive us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ while in fact you are living among us?

²³Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall always be slaves, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.”

²⁴They answered Joshua, “Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the LORD your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you; so we were in great fear for our lives because of you, and did this thing.

²⁵And now we are in your hand: do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us.”

²⁶This is what he did for them: he saved them from the Israelites; and they did not kill them.

²⁷But on that day Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to continue to this day, in the place that he should choose.

¹But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

²The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness — on them light has shined.

³You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.

⁴For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

⁵For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

⁶For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

⁸The Lord sent a word against Jacob, and it fell on Israel;

⁹and all the people knew it — Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria — but in pride and arrogance of heart they said:

¹⁰“The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.”

¹¹So the LORD raised adversaries against them, and stirred up their enemies,

¹²the Arameans on the east and the Philistines on the west, and they devoured Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.

¹³The people did not turn to him who struck them, or seek the LORD of hosts.

¹⁴So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day —

¹⁵elders and dignitaries are the head, and prophets who teach lies are the tail;

¹⁶for those who led this people led them astray, and those who were led by them were left in confusion.

¹⁷That is why the Lord did not have pity on their young people, or compassion on their orphans and widows; for everyone was godless and an evildoer, and every mouth spoke folly. For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness burned like a fire, consuming briers and thorns; it kindled the thickets of the forest, and they swirled upward in a column of smoke.

¹⁹Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land was burned, and the people became like fuel for the fire; no one spared another.

²⁰They gorged on the right, but still were hungry, and they devoured on the left, but were not satisfied; they devoured the flesh of their own kindred;

²¹Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, and together they were against Judah. For all this his anger has not turned away; his hand is stretched out still.

¹Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest

²and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

³Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

⁴He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

⁵He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

⁶But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

⁷The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one.

⁸Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

⁹For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.”

¹¹The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying,

¹²and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”

¹³But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem;

¹⁴and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.”

¹⁵But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel;

¹⁶I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

¹⁷So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

¹⁸And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized,

¹⁹and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul Preaches in Damascus For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus,

²⁰and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

²¹All who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?”

²²Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.

²³After some time had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him,

²⁴but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him;

²⁵but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

²⁶When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

²⁷But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus.

²⁸So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.

²⁹He spoke and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him.

³⁰When the believers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

³¹Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

³²Now as Peter went here and there among all the believers, he came down also to the saints living in Lydda.

³³There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, for he was paralyzed.

³⁴Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed!” And immediately he got up.

³⁵And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

³⁶Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.

³⁷At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs.

³⁸Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.”

³⁹So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them.

⁴⁰Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.

⁴¹He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.

⁴²This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

⁴³Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.