Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret;

²and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.

³And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land. And He sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat.

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

⁵Simon responded and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.”

⁶And when they had done this, they caught a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to tear;

⁷so they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, to the point that they were sinking.

⁸But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

⁹For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken;

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

¹¹When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

¹²While He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

¹³And He reached out with His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately the leprosy left him.

¹⁴And He ordered him to tell no one, saying, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

¹⁵But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.

¹⁶But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.

¹⁷One day He was teaching, and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the Law sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.

¹⁸And some men were carrying a man on a stretcher who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him.

¹⁹But when they did not find any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.

²⁰And seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”

²¹The scribes and the Pharisees began thinking of the implications, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, except God alone?”

²²But Jesus, aware of their thoughts, responded and said to them, “Why are you thinking this way in your hearts?

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

²⁴But so 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, get up, and pick up your stretcher, and go home.”

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

²⁶And they were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God. They were also filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today!”

²⁷After that He went out and looked at a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax office, and He said to him, “Follow Me.”

²⁸And he left everything behind, and got up and began following Him.

²⁹And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them.

³⁰The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling to His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?”

³¹And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

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

³³And they said to Him, “The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but Yours eat and drink.”

³⁴And Jesus said to them, “You cannot make theattendants of the groom fast while the groom is with them, can you?

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

³⁶And He was also telling them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the patch from the new garment will not match the old.

³⁷And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined.

³⁸But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

³⁹And no one, after drinking old wine wants new; for he says, ‘The old is fine.’ ”

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

²So Israel made a vow to the LORD and said, “If You will indeed hand over this people to me, then I will utterly destroy their cities.”

³The LORD heard the voice of Israel and turned over the Canaanites; then they utterly destroyed them and their cities. And the place was named Hormah.

⁴Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey.

⁵So the people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we are disgusted with this miserable food.”

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

⁷So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and against you; intercede with the LORD, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people.

⁸Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and put it on a flag pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.”

⁹So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

¹⁰Now the sons of Israel moved out and camped in Oboth.

¹¹Then they journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness which is opposite Moab, to the east.

¹²From there they set out and camped in Wadi Zered.

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

¹⁴For that reason it is said in the Book of the Wars of the LORD, “Waheb in Suphah, And the wadis of the Arnon,

¹⁵And the slope of the wadis That extends to the site of Ar, And leans to the border of Moab.”

¹⁶From there they continued to Beer, that is the well where the LORD said to Moses, “Assemble the people, that I may give them water.”

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

¹⁸The well, which the leaders dug, Which the nobles of the people hollowed out, With the scepter and with their staffs.” And from the wilderness they continued to Mattanah,

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

²⁰and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, at the top of Pisgah, which overlooks the desert.

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

²²“Let me pass through your land. We will not turn off into field or vineyard; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the king’s road until we have passed through your border.”

²³But Sihon would not permit Israel to pass through his border. Instead, Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.

²⁴Then Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the border of the sons of Ammon was Jazer.

²⁵Israel took all these cities, and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all her villages.

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

²⁷For that reason those who use proverbs say, “Come to Heshbon! Let it be built! So let the city of Sihon be established.

²⁸For a fire spread from Heshbon, A flame from the town of Sihon; It devoured Ar of Moab, The dominant heights of the Arnon.

²⁹Woe to you, Moab! You are destroyed, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, And his daughters into captivity, To an Amorite king, Sihon.

³⁰But we have shot them down with arrows, Heshbon is destroyed as far as Dibon, Then we have laid waste as far as Nophah, Which reaches to Medeba.”

³¹So Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

³²Now Moses sent men 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 of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out against them with all his people, for battle at Edrei.

³⁴But the LORD said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you, and all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.”

³⁵So they killed him and his sons and all his people, until there was no survivor left; and they took possession of his land.

¹Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble for me, and it is a safeguard for you.

²Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;

³for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and take pride in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh,

⁴although I myself could boast as having confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he is confident in the flesh, I have more reason:

⁵circumcised the eighth day, of the nation 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 the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

⁷But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ.

⁸More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ,

⁹and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

¹⁰that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

¹¹if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

¹³Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

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

¹⁵Therefore, all who are mature, let’s have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that to you as well;

¹⁶however, let’s keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

¹⁷Brothers and sisters, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.

¹⁸For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as I weep, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ,

¹⁹whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who have their minds on earthly things.

²⁰For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

²¹who will transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with His glorious body, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

¹“Man, who is born of woman, Is short-lived and full of turmoil.

²Like a flower he comes out and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.

³You also open Your eyes on him And bring him into judgment with Yourself.

⁴Who can make the clean out of the unclean? No one!

⁵Since his days are determined, The number of his months is with You; And You have set his limits so that he cannot pass.

⁶Look away from him so that he may rest, Until he fulfills his day like a hired worker.

⁷“For there is hope for a tree, When it is cut down, that it will sprout again, And its shoots will not fail.

⁸Though its roots grow old in the ground, And its stump dies in the dry soil,

⁹At the scent of water it will flourish And produce sprigs like a plant.

¹⁰But a man dies and lies prostrate. A person passes away, and where is he?

¹¹As water evaporates from the sea, And a river becomes parched and dried up,

¹²So a man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens no longer exist, He will not awake nor be woken from his sleep.

¹³“Oh that You would hide me in Sheol, That You would conceal me until Your wrath returns to You, That You would set a limit for me and remember me!

¹⁴If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I will wait Until my relief comes.

¹⁵You will call, and I will answer You; You will long for the work of Your hands.

¹⁶For now You number my steps, You do not observe my sin.

¹⁷My wrongdoing is sealed up in a bag, And You cover over my guilt.

¹⁸“But the falling mountain crumbles away, And the rock moves from its place;

¹⁹Water wears away stones, Its torrents wash away the dust of the earth; So You destroy a man’s hope.

²⁰You forever overpower him and he departs; You change his appearance and send him away.

²¹His sons achieve honor, but he does not know it; Or they become insignificant, and he does not perceive it.

²²However, his body pains him, And his soul mourns for himself.”

¹I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing Your praises before the gods.

²I will bow down toward Your holy temple And give thanks to Your name for Your mercy and Your truth; For You have made Your word great according to all Your name.

³On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul.

⁴All the kings of the earth will give thanks to You, LORD, When they have heard the words of Your mouth.

⁵And they will sing of the ways of the LORD, For great is the glory of the LORD.

⁶For the LORD is exalted, Yet He looks after the lowly, But He knows the haughty from afar.

⁷Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will reach out with Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, And Your right hand will save me.

⁸The LORD will accomplish what concerns me; Your faithfulness, LORD, is everlasting; Do not abandon the works of Your hands.

¹The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish tears it down with her own hands.

²One who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD, But one who is devious in his ways despises Him.

³In the mouth of the foolish is a rod for his back, But the lips of the wise will protect them.

⁴Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean; But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox.

⁵A trustworthy witness will not lie, But a false witness declares lies.

⁶A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none, But knowledge is easy for one who has understanding.

⁷Leave the presence of a fool, Or you will not discern words of knowledge.

⁸The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way, But the foolishness of fools is deceit.

⁹Fools mock at sin, But among the upright there is goodwill.

¹⁰The heart knows its own bitterness, And a stranger does not share its joy.

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

¹²There is a way which seems right to a person, But its end is the way of death.

¹³Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, And the end of joy may be grief.

¹⁴One with a wayward heart will have his fill of his own ways, But a good person will be satisfied with his.

¹⁵The naive believes everything, But the sensible person considers his steps.

¹⁶A wise person is cautious and turns away from evil, But a fool is arrogant and careless.

¹⁷A quick-tempered person acts foolishly, And a person of evil devices is hated.

¹⁸The naive inherit foolishness, But the sensible are crowned with knowledge.

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

²⁰The poor is hated even by his neighbor, But those who love the rich are many.

²¹One who despises his neighbor sins, But one who is gracious to the poor is blessed.

²²Will they who devise evil not go astray? But kindness and truth will be to those who devise good.

²³In all labor there is profit, But mere talk leads only to poverty.

²⁴The crown of the wise is their riches, But the foolishness of fools is simply foolishness.

²⁵A truthful witness saves lives, But one who declares lies is deceitful.

²⁶In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence, And his children will have refuge.

²⁷The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, By which one may avoid the snares of death.

²⁸In a multitude of people is a king’s glory, But in the scarcity of people is a prince’s ruin.

²⁹One who is slow to anger has great understanding; But one who is quick-tempered exalts foolishness.

³⁰A tranquil heart is life to the body, But jealousy is rottenness to the bones.

³¹One who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, But one who is gracious to the needy honors Him.

³²The wicked is thrust down by his own wrongdoing, But the righteous has a refuge when he dies.

³³Wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding, But among fools it is made known.

³⁴Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.

³⁵The king’s favor is toward a servant who acts wisely, But his anger is toward him who acts shamefully.

¹In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned for forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

²Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all his days that Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

³Only the high places did not end; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

⁴Then Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the sacred offerings which is brought into the house of the LORD, in current money, both the money of each man’s assessment and all the money which anyone’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of the LORD,

⁵The priests are to take it for themselves, each from his acquaintance; and they shall repair damage to the house wherever any damage is found.”

⁶But it came about that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not repaired any damage to the house.

⁷So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said to them, “Why do you not repair damage to the house? Now then, you are not to take any more money from your acquaintances, but give it up for the damage to the house.”

⁸The priests then agreed that they would not take any more money from the people, nor would they repair damage to the house.

⁹Instead, Jehoiada the priest took a chest and drilled a hole in its lid and put it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into 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.

¹⁰When they saw that there was a great amount of money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest went up and tied it up in bags, and counted the money that was found in the house of the LORD.

¹¹And they handed the money which was assessed over to those who did the work, 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, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the damage to the house of the LORD, and for everything that was laid out for the house to repair it.

¹³However there were not made for the house of the LORD silver cups, shears, bowls, trumpets, any receptacles of gold, or receptacles of silver from the money which was brought into the house of the LORD;

¹⁴for they gave that to those who did the work, and with it they repaired the house of the LORD.

¹⁵Moreover, they did not require an accounting from the men into whose hands they gave the money to pay to those who did the work, because they acted faithfully.

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.

¹⁷Then Hazael the king of Aram went up and fought against Gath and captured it, and Hazael was intent on going up against Jerusalem.

¹⁸So Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred offerings that Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had consecrated, and his own sacred offerings, and all the gold that was found among the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and sent them to Hazael king of Aram. Then he withdrew from Jerusalem.

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

²⁰And his servants rose up and formed a conspiracy; and they struck and killed Joash at the house of Millo as he was going down to Silla.

²¹For Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Amaziah became king in his place.

¹Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any wood of a branch which is among the trees of the forest?

³Can wood be taken from it to make anything, or can even a peg be taken from it on which to hang any utensil?

⁴If it has been put into the fire for fuel, and the fire has consumed both of its ends and its middle part has been charred, is it then good for anything?

⁵Behold, while it is intact, it is not made into anything. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it still be made into anything!

⁶Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘As 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 set My face against them. Though they have come out of the fire, yet the fire will consume them. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I set My face against them.

⁸So I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,’ ” declares the Lord GOD.

¹Now Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul extended his hand and proceeded to make his defense:

²“Regarding all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that I am about to make my defense before you today,

³especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“So then, all Jews know my way of life since my youth, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and in Jerusalem,

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

⁶And now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers;

⁷the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. For this hope, O king, I am being accused by Jews.

⁸Why is it considered incredible among you people if God raises the dead?

⁹“So I thought to myself that I had to act in strong opposition to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, after receiving authority from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being put to death.

¹¹And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was extremely enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.

¹²“While so engaged, as I was journeying 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, shining around me and those who were journeying with me.

¹⁴And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘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 get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you as a servant and a witness not only to the things in which you have seen Me, but also to the things in which I will appear to you,

¹⁷rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,

¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from thepower of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

¹⁹“For that reason, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but continually proclaimed to those in Damascus first, and in Jerusalem, and then all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they are to repent and turn to God, performing deeds consistent with repentance.

²¹For these reasons some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to murder me.

²²So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place,

²³as to whether the Christ was to suffer, and whether, as first from the resurrection of the dead, He would proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴While Paul was stating these things in his defense, Festus *said in a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you insane.”

²⁵But Paul *said, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus; on the contrary, I am speaking out with truthful and rational words.

²⁶For the king knows about these matters, and I also speak to him with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a corner.

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

²⁸Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you are going to persuade me to make a Christian of myself.”

²⁹And Paul said, “I would wish to God that even in a short or long time not only you, but also all who hear me this day would become such as I myself am, except for these chains.”

³⁰The king stood up and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with them,

³¹and when they had gone out, they began talking to one another, saying, “This man is not doing anything deserving death or imprisonment.”

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