Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,

²and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

³Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

⁴And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

⁵And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”

⁶And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.

⁷They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

⁸But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

⁹For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken,

¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

¹¹And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

¹²While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

¹³And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.

¹⁴And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

¹⁵But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.

¹⁶But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

¹⁷On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.

¹⁸And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,

¹⁹but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.

²⁰And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

²¹And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

²²When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts?

²³Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?

²⁴But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” — he said to the man who was paralyzed — “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.”

²⁵And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.

²⁶And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

²⁷After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.”

²⁸And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

²⁹And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them.

³⁰And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

³¹And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

³² I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

³³And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”

³⁴And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

³⁵ The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”

³⁶He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.

³⁷And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.

³⁸But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

³⁹And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

¹When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.

²And Israel vowed a vow to the LORD and said, “If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will devote their cities to destruction.”

³And the LORD heeded the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites, and they devoted them and their cities to destruction. So the name of the place was called Hormah.

⁴From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way.

⁵And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”

⁶Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.

⁷And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

⁹So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

¹⁰And the people of Israel set out and camped in Oboth.

¹¹And they set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness that is opposite Moab, toward the sunrise.

¹²From there they set out and camped in the Valley of Zered.

¹³From there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites, for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

¹⁴Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the LORD, “Waheb in Suphah, and the valleys of the Arnon,

¹⁵and the slope of the valleys that extends to the seat of Ar, and leans to the border of Moab.”

¹⁶And from there they continued to Beer; that is the well of which the LORD said to Moses, “Gather the people together, so that I may give them water.”

¹⁷Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well! — Sing to it! —

¹⁸the well that the princes made, that the nobles of the people dug, with the scepter and with their staffs.” And from the wilderness they went on to Mattanah,

¹⁹and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,

²⁰and from Bamoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that looks down on the desert.

²¹Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,

²²“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard. We will not drink the water of a well. We will go by the King's Highway until we have passed through your territory.”

²³But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his people together and went out against Israel to the wilderness and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

²⁴And Israel defeated him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites, for the border of the Ammonites was strong.

²⁵And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages.

²⁶For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon.

²⁷Therefore the ballad singers say, “Come to Heshbon, let it be built; let the city of Sihon be established.

²⁸For fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the city of Sihon. It devoured Ar of Moab, and swallowed the heights of the Arnon.

²⁹Woe to you, O Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives, and his daughters captives, to an Amorite king, Sihon.

³⁰So we overthrew them; Heshbon, as far as Dibon, perished; and we laid waste as far as Nophah; fire spread as far as Medeba.”

³¹Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

³²And Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

³³Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

³⁴But the LORD said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”

³⁵So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land.

¹Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.

²Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.

³For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh —

⁴though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:

⁵circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;

⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

⁷But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

⁸Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith —

¹⁰that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

¹¹that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

¹⁶Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

¹⁷Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

¹⁸For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

¹⁹Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

²⁰But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

²¹who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

¹“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.

²He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.

³And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you?

⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.

⁵Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,

⁶look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

⁷“For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.

⁸Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil,

⁹yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.

¹⁰But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?

¹¹As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up,

¹²so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.

¹³Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

¹⁴If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.

¹⁵You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.

¹⁶For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin;

¹⁷my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.

¹⁸“But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place;

¹⁹the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man.

²⁰You prevail forever against him, and he passes; you change his countenance, and send him away.

²¹His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he perceives it not.

²²He feels only the pain of his own body, and he mourns only for himself.”

¹I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise;

²I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

³On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.

⁴All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD, for they have heard the words of your mouth,

⁵and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD, for great is the glory of the LORD.

⁶For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.

⁷Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.

⁸The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

¹The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.

²Whoever walks in uprightness fears the LORD, but he who is devious in his ways despises him.

³By the mouth of a fool comes a rod for his back, but the lips of the wise will preserve them.

⁴Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

⁵A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies.

⁶A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.

⁷Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.

⁸The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving.

⁹Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance.

¹⁰The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.

¹¹The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish.

¹²There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

¹³Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief.

¹⁴The backslider in heart will be filled with the fruit of his ways, and a good man will be filled with the fruit of his ways.

¹⁵The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.

¹⁶One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless.

¹⁷A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated.

¹⁸The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

¹⁹The evil bow down before the good, the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

²⁰The poor is disliked even by his neighbor, but the rich has many friends.

²¹Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.

²²Do they not go astray who devise evil? Those who devise good meet steadfast love and faithfulness.

²³In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.

²⁴The crown of the wise is their wealth, but the folly of fools brings folly.

²⁵A truthful witness saves lives, but one who breathes out lies is deceitful.

²⁶In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.

²⁷The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.

²⁸In a multitude of people is the glory of a king, but without people a prince is ruined.

²⁹Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.

³⁰A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.

³¹Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.

³²The wicked is overthrown through his evildoing, but the righteous finds refuge in his death.

³³Wisdom rests in the heart of a man of understanding, but it makes itself known even in the midst of fools.

³⁴Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

³⁵A servant who deals wisely has the king's favor, but his wrath falls on one who acts shamefully.

¹In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

²And Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

³Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued to sacrifice and make offerings on the high places.

⁴Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the holy things that is brought into the house of the LORD, the money for which each man is assessed — the money from the assessment of persons — and the money that a man's heart prompts him to bring into the house of the LORD,

⁵let the priests take, each from his donor, and let them repair the house wherever any need of repairs is discovered.”

⁶But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had made no repairs on the house.

⁷Therefore King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the house? Now therefore take no more money from your donors, but hand it over for the repair of the house.”

⁸So the priests agreed that they should take no more money from the people, and that they should not repair the house.

⁹Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in the lid of it and set it beside the altar on the right side as one entered the house of the LORD. And the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.

¹⁰And whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king's secretary and the high priest came up and they bagged and counted the money that was found in the house of the LORD.

¹¹Then they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD. And they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of the LORD,

¹²and to the masons and the stonecutters, as well as to buy timber and quarried stone for making repairs on the house of the LORD, and for any outlay for the repairs of the house.

¹³But there were not made for the house of the LORD basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold, or of silver, from the money that was brought into the house of the LORD,

¹⁴for that was given to the workmen who were repairing the house of the LORD with it.

¹⁵And they did not ask for an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt honestly.

¹⁶The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD; it belonged to the priests.

¹⁷At that time Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it. But when Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem,

¹⁸Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred gifts that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred gifts, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king's house, and sent these to Hazael king of Syria. Then Hazael went away from Jerusalem.

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²⁰His servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Joash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla.

²¹It was Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, who struck him down, so that he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

¹And the word of the LORD came to me:

²“Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any wood, the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest?

³Is wood taken from it to make anything? Do people take a peg from it to hang any vessel on it?

⁴Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel. When the fire has consumed both ends of it, and the middle of it is charred, is it useful for anything?

⁵Behold, when it was whole, it was used for nothing. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it ever be used for anything!

⁶Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

⁷And I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, and you will know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them.

⁸And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹So Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense:

²“I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews,

³especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews.

⁵They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.

⁶And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers,

⁷to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king!

⁸Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

⁹“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them.

¹¹And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

¹²“In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

¹³At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

¹⁴And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you,

¹⁷ delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles — to whom I am sending you

¹⁸ to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

¹⁹“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

²¹For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

²²To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass:

²³that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.”

²⁵But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.

²⁶For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”

²⁸And Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”

²⁹And Paul said, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am — except for these chains.”

³⁰Then the king rose, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them.

³¹And when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”