One Year Bible.

Ashore on Malta

¹Once we were safely ashore, we learned that the island was called Malta. ²The islanders showed us extraordinary kindness. They kindled a fire and welcomed all of us because it was raining and cold.

³Paul gathered a bundle of sticks, and as he laid them on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself to his hand. ⁴When the islanders saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “Surely this man is a murderer. Although he was saved from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” ⁵But Paul shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. ⁶The islanders were expecting him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.

⁷Nearby stood an estate belonging to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us and entertained us hospitably for three days. ⁸The father of Publius was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him, and after praying and placing his hands on him, he healed the man. ⁹After this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured as well.

¹⁰The islanders honored us in many ways and supplied our needs when we were ready to sail.

Paul Arrives in Italy

¹¹After three months we set sail in an Alexandrian ship that had wintered in the island. It had the Twin Brothers as a figurehead. ¹²Putting in at Syracuse, we stayed there three days. ¹³From there we weighed anchor and came to Rhegium. After one day, a south wind came up, and on the second day we arrived at Puteoli. ¹⁴There we found some brothers who invited us to spend the week with them. And so we came to Rome.

¹⁵The brothers there had heard about us and traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. When Paul saw them, he was encouraged and gave thanks to God.

Paul Preaches at Rome

¹⁶When we arrived in Rome, Paul was permitted to stay by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

¹⁷After three days, he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, I was taken prisoner in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. ¹⁸They examined me and wanted to release me, because there was no basis for a death sentence against me. ¹⁹But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, even though I have no charge to bring against my nation. ²⁰So for this reason I have called to see you and speak with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”

²¹The leaders replied, “We have not received any letters about you from Judea, nor have any of the brothers from there reported or even mentioned anything bad about you. ²²But we consider your views worth hearing, because we know that people everywhere are speaking against this sect.”

²³So they set a day to meet with Paul, and many people came to the place he was staying. He expounded to them from morning to evening, testifying about the kingdom of God and persuading them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and the Prophets.

²⁴Some of them were convinced by what he said, but others refused to believe. ²⁵They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit was right when He spoke to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:

²⁶‘Go to this people and say,

“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”

²⁷For this people’s heart has grown callous;

they hardly hear with their ears,

and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts,

and turn, and I would heal them.’

²⁸Be advised, therefore, that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”

³⁰Paul stayed there two full years in his own rented house, welcoming all who came to visit him. ³¹Boldly and freely he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.

A Sign of Jerusalem’s Siege

¹“Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem. ²Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides. ³Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side. ⁵For I have assigned to you 390 days, according to the number of years of their iniquity. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁶When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each year. ⁷You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.

⁸Now behold, I will tie you up with ropes so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.

The Defiled Bread

⁹But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side. ¹⁰You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times.

¹¹You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times. ¹²And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.”

¹³Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”

¹⁴“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

¹⁵“Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.”

¹⁶Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure. ¹⁷So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.[’’]

The Razor of Judgment

¹“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair. ²When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

³But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment. ⁴Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

⁵This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’

⁷Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’

⁸Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. ⁹Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. ¹⁰As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

Famine, Sword, and Dispersion

¹¹Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

¹³And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.

¹⁴I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.

¹⁶When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food. ¹⁷I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

Judgment against Idolatry

¹And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ²“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

³You are to say: ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. ⁴Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will cast down your slain before your idols. ⁵I will lay the corpses of the Israelites before their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.

⁶Wherever you live, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works blotted out. ⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

A Remnant to Be Blessed

⁸Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands.

⁹Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me — how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations. ¹⁰And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not declare in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.

¹¹This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword and famine and plague. ¹²He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them.

¹³Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak— the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols. ¹⁴I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”