One Year Bible.

The LORD Is My Shepherd

¹A Psalm of David.

The LORD is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

²He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

³He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

for the sake of His name.

⁴Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

⁵You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

⁶Surely goodness and mercy will follow me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

forever.

Paul Sails for Rome

¹When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. ²We boarded an Adramyttian ship about to sail for ports along the coast of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.

³The next day we landed at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul with consideration, allowing him to visit his friends and receive their care. ⁴After putting out from there, we sailed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. ⁵And when we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra in Lycia. ⁶There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board.

⁷After sailing slowly for many days, we arrived off Cnidus. When the wind impeded us, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. ⁸After we had moved along the coast with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

⁹By now much time had passed, and the voyage had already become dangerous because it was after the Fast. So Paul advised them, ¹⁰“Men, I can see that our voyage will be filled with disaster and great loss, not only to ship and cargo, but to our own lives as well.”

¹¹But contrary to Paul’s advice, the centurion was persuaded by the pilot and by the owner of the ship. ¹²Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided to sail on, hoping that somehow they could reach Phoenix to winter there. Phoenix was a harbor in Crete facing both southwest and northwest.

The Storm at Sea

¹³When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had their opportunity. So they weighed anchor and sailed along, hugging the coast of Crete. ¹⁴But it was not long before a cyclone called the Northeaster swept down across the island. ¹⁵Unable to head into the wind, the ship was caught up. So we gave way and let ourselves be driven along.

¹⁶Passing to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we barely managed to secure the lifeboat. ¹⁷After hoisting it up, the crew used ropes to undergird the ship. And fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and were driven along.

¹⁸We were tossed so violently that the next day the men began to jettison the cargo. ¹⁹On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. ²⁰When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the great storm continued to batter us, we abandoned all hope of being saved.

²¹After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete. Then you would have averted this disaster and loss. ²²But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because you will not experience any loss of life, but only of the ship. ²³For just last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me ²⁴and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And look, God has granted you the lives of all who sail with you.’

²⁵So take courage, men, for I believe God that it will happen just as He told me. ²⁶However, we must run aground on some island.”

The Shipwreck

²⁷On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea. About midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. ²⁸They took soundings and found that the water was twenty fathoms deep. Going a little farther, they took another set of soundings that read fifteen fathoms. ²⁹Fearing that we would run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daybreak.

³⁰Meanwhile, the sailors attempted to escape from the ship. Pretending to lower anchors from the bow, they let the lifeboat down into the sea. ³¹But Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain with the ship, you cannot be saved.” ³²So the soldiers cut the ropes to the lifeboat and set it adrift.

³³Right up to daybreak, Paul kept urging them all to eat: “Today is your fourteenth day in constant suspense, without taking any food. ³⁴So for your own preservation, I urge you to eat something, because not a single hair of your head will be lost.”

³⁵After he had said this, Paul took bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. ³⁶They were all encouraged and took some food themselves. ³⁷In all, there were 276 of us on board. ³⁸After the men had eaten their fill, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.

³⁹When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they sighted a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. ⁴⁰Cutting away the anchors, they left them in the sea as they loosened the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. ⁴¹But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was being broken up by the pounding of the waves.

⁴²The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners so none of them could swim to freedom. ⁴³But the centurion, wanting to spare Paul’s life, thwarted their plan. He commanded those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. ⁴⁴The rest were to follow on planks and various parts of the ship. In this way everyone was brought safely to land.

The Fall of Jerusalem Recounted

¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.

²And Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done. ³For because of the anger of the LORD, all this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He finally banished them from His presence.

And Zedekiah also rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it. ⁵And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food. ⁷Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden.

They headed toward the Arabah, ⁸but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army deserted him.

⁹The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on Zedekiah.

¹⁰There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the officials of Judah. ¹¹Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.

The Temple Destroyed

¹²On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign over Babylon, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. ¹³He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem — every significant building. ¹⁴And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.

¹⁵Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest people and those who remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon and the rest of the craftsmen. ¹⁶But Nebuzaradan captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

¹⁷Moreover, the Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars and stands and the bronze Sea in the house of the LORD, and they carried all the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes, and all the articles of bronze used in the temple service. ¹⁹The captain of the guard also took away the basins, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, pans, and drink offering bowls— anything made of pure gold or fine silver.

²⁰As for the two pillars, the Sea, the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands that King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, the weight of the bronze from all these articles was beyond measure. ²¹Each pillar was eighteen cubits tall and twelve cubits in circumference; each was hollow, four fingers thick. ²²The bronze capital atop one pillar was five cubits high, with a network of bronze pomegranates all around. The second pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar. ²³Each capital had ninety-six pomegranates on the sides, and a total of a hundred pomegranates were above the surrounding network.

Captives Carried to Babylon

²⁴The captain of the guard also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of second rank, and the three doorkeepers. ²⁵Of those still in the city, he took a court official who had been appointed over the men of war, as well as seven trusted royal advisers. He also took the scribe of the captain of the army, who had enlisted the people of the land, and sixty men who were found in the city.

²⁶Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷There at Riblah in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death. So Judah was taken into exile, away from its own land.

²⁸These are the people Nebuchadnezzar carried away:

in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

²⁹in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem;

³⁰in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried away 745 Jews.

So in all, 4,600 people were taken away.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison

³¹On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the first year of the reign of Evil-merodach king of Babylon, he pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison. ³²And he spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and set his throne above the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

³³So Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes, and he dined regularly at the king’s table for the rest of his life. ³⁴And the king of Babylon provided Jehoiachin a daily portion for the rest of his life, until the day of his death.

Prologue

¹This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to pass. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, ²who testifies to everything he saw. This is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

³Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near.

John Greets the Seven Churches

⁴John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven spirits before His throne, ⁵and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood, ⁶who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father — to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen.

⁷Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him — even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.

⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come — the Almighty.

John’s Vision on Patmos

⁹I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance that are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and my testimony about Jesus. ¹⁰On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, ¹¹saying,“Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹²Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³and among the lampstands was One like the Son of Man, dressed in a long robe, with a golden sash around His chest. ¹⁴The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire. ¹⁵His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. ¹⁶He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

¹⁷When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, ¹⁸the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.

¹⁹Therefore write down the things you have seen, the things that are, and the things that will happen after this. ²⁰This is the mystery of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.[’’]