Offering First Fruits

26 “Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and live in it, ² that you shall take some of ^(A)the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and ^(B)go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. ³ And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord ^[a]my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it before the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵ And you shall respond and say before the Lord your God, ‘^(C)My father was a ^[b]wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and ^[c]resided there, ^(D)few in number; but there he became a ^(E)great, mighty, and populous nation. ⁶ And the ^(F)Egyptians treated us badly and oppressed us, and imposed hard labor on us. ⁷ Then ^(G)we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our wretched condition, our trouble, and our oppression; ^8 (H)and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and with signs and wonders; ⁹ and He has brought us to this place, and has given us this land, ^(I)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ And now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground ^(J)which You, Lord have given me.’ Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God; ¹¹ and you, ^(K)the Levite, and the stranger who is among you shall ^(L)rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.

¹² “^(M)When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the ^[d]orphan, and to the widow, so that they may eat in your ^[e]towns and be satisfied. ¹³ And you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and have also given it to the Levite, the stranger, the ^[f]orphan, and the widow, in accordance with all Your commandments which You have commanded me; ^(N)I have not violated or forgotten any of Your commandments. ¹⁴ I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God; I have acted in accordance with everything that You have commanded me. ^15 (O)Look down from Your holy dwelling place, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, ^(P)a land flowing with milk and honey just as You swore to our fathers.’

¹⁶ “This day the Lord your God commands you to perform these statutes and ordinances. Therefore you shall be careful to perform them ^(Q)with all your heart and with all your soul. ^17 (R)Today you have declared the Lord to be your God, and ^[g]that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. ¹⁸ And the Lord has today declared you to be ^(S)His people, His personal possession, just as He promised you, and ^[h]that you are to keep all His commandments; ¹⁹ and ^[i]that He will ^(T)put you high above all the nations which He has made, for glory, fame, and honor; and that you shall be ^(U)a consecrated people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.”

Second Missionary Journey

³⁶ After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return and visit the brothers and sisters in ^(A)every city in which we proclaimed ^(B)the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” ³⁷ Barnabas wanted to take ^(C)John, called Mark, along with them also. ³⁸ But Paul was of the opinion that they should not take along with them this man who had ^(D)deserted them ^[a]in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. ³⁹ Now it turned into such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took ^(E)Mark with him and sailed away to ^(F)Cyprus. ⁴⁰ But Paul chose ^(G)Silas, and left after being ^(H)entrusted by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. ⁴¹ And he was traveling through ^(I)Syria and ^(J)Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

The Macedonian Vision

16 Now Paul also came to ^(K)Derbe and to ^(L)Lystra. And a disciple was there, named ^(M)Timothy, the son of a ^(N)Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, ² and he was well spoken of by ^(O)the brothers and sisters who were in ^(P)Lystra and ^(Q)Iconium. ³ Paul wanted this man to leave with him; and he ^(R)took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. ⁴ Now while they were passing through the cities, they were delivering ^(S)the ordinances for them to follow which had been determined by ^(T)the apostles and ^(U)elders in Jerusalem. ⁵ So ^(V)the churches were being strengthened ^[b]in the faith, and were ^(W)increasing in number daily.

⁵⁸ “If you are not careful to ^[a]follow all the words of this Law that are written in this book, to ^[b](A)fear this honored and awesome ^(B)name, ^[c]the Lord your God, ⁵⁹ then the Lord will bring extraordinary plagues on you and ^[d]your descendants, ^[e]severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. ^60 (C)And He will bring back on you every disease of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you. ⁶¹ Also every sickness and every plague, which are not written in the book of this Law, the Lord will bring on you ^(D)until you are destroyed. ⁶² Then you will be left few in ^[f]number, ^(E)whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, because you did not ^[g]obey the Lord your God. ⁶³ And it will come about that, just as the Lord ^(F)rejoiced over you to be good to you, and make you numerous, so will the Lord ^(G)rejoice over you to wipe you out and destroy you; and you will be ^(H)torn away from the land which you are entering to possess. ⁶⁴ Furthermore, the Lord will ^(I)scatter you among all the peoples, from one end of the earth to ^[h]the other; and there you will ^(J)serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers have not known. ^65 (K)Among those nations you will find no peace, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there ^(L)the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. ⁶⁶ So your lives will be ^[i]hanging in doubt before you; and you will be terrified night and day, and have no assurance of your life. ^67 (M)In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And at evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ because of the terror of your heart which you fear, and the sight of your eyes which you will see. ⁶⁸ And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I said to you, ‘You will never see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

⁶ They passed through the ^[a](A)Phrygian and ^(B)Galatian region, after being forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in ^[b](C)Asia; ⁷ and after they came to ^(D)Mysia, they were trying to go into ^(E)Bithynia, and the ^(F)Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; ⁸ and passing by ^(G)Mysia, they went down to ^(H)Troas. ^9 (I)And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of ^(J)Macedonia was standing and pleading with him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ When he had seen ^(K)the vision, ^(L)we immediately sought to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to ^(M)preach the gospel to them.

¹¹ So after setting sail from ^(N)Troas, we ran ^(O)a straight course to Samothrace, and on the following day to Neapolis; ¹² and from there to ^(P)Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of ^(Q)Macedonia, ^(R)a Roman colony; and we were spending some days in this city. ¹³ And on ^(S)the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were thinking that there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.

First Convert in Europe

¹⁴ A woman named Lydia was listening; she was a seller of purple fabrics from the city of ^(T)Thyatira, and ^(U)a worshiper of God. ^[c]The Lord ^(V)opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. ¹⁵ Now when she and ^(W)her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

¹⁶ It happened that as we were going to ^(X)the place of prayer, a slave woman who had ^(Y)a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing great profit to her masters by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ She followed Paul and us and cried out repeatedly, saying, “These men are bond-servants of ^(Z)the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.” ¹⁸ Now she continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and he turned and said to the spirit, “I command you ^(AA)in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very ^[d]moment.

¹⁹ But when her masters saw that their hope of ^(AB)profit was suddenly gone, they seized ^(AC)Paul and Silas and ^(AD)dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities, ²⁰ and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men, Jews as they are, are causing our city trouble, ²¹ and they ^(AE)are proclaiming customs that are not lawful for us to accept or to practice, since we are ^(AF)Romans.”

Paul and Silas Imprisoned

²² The crowd joined in an attack against them, and the chief magistrates tore their ^[e]robes off them and proceeded to order ^[f]them to be ^(AG)beaten with rods. ²³ When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding ^(AH)the jailer to guard them securely; ^24 [g]and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in ^(AI)the ^[h]stocks.

²⁵ Now about midnight ^(AJ)Paul and Silas were praying and ^(AK)singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; ²⁶ and suddenly ^(AL)there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately ^(AM)all the doors were opened, and everyone’s ^(AN)chains were unfastened. ²⁷ When ^(AO)the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about ^(AP)to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” ²⁹ And the jailer asked for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before ^(AQ)Paul and Silas; ³⁰ and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, ^(AR)what must I do to be saved?”

The Jailer Converted

³¹ They said, “^(AS)Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and ^(AT)your household.” ³² And they spoke the word of God to him together with all who were in his house. ³³ And he took them ^(AU)that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. ³⁴ And he brought them into his house and set ^[i]food before them, and was ^[j]overjoyed, since he had become a believer in God together with ^(AV)his whole household.

³⁵ Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their officers, saying, “Release those men.” ³⁶ And ^(AW)the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The chief magistrates have sent word that you be released. So come out now and go ^(AX)in peace.” ³⁷ But Paul said to them, “After beating us in public without due process—^(AY)men who are Romans—they threw us into prison; and now they are releasing us secretly? No indeed! On the contrary, let them come ^[k]in person and lead us out.” ³⁸ The officers reported these words to the chief magistrates. ^(AZ)And they became fearful when they heard that they were Romans, ³⁹ and they came and pleaded with them, and when they had led them out, they repeatedly asked them ^(BA)to leave the city. ⁴⁰ They left the prison and entered the house of ^(BB)Lydia, and when they saw ^(BC)the brothers and sisters, they ^[l]encouraged them and departed.