Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,

²since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

³ And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

⁴I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

⁵And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

⁶ “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

⁷Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

⁸For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

⁹I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

¹¹And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

¹³But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

¹⁵I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

¹⁹And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,

²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,

²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

²⁴Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

¹“If in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess someone is found slain, lying in the open country, and it is not known who killed him,

²then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure the distance to the surrounding cities.

³And the elders of the city that is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke.

⁴And the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.

⁵Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister to him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and by their word every dispute and every assault shall be settled.

⁶And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,

⁷and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed.

⁸Accept atonement, O LORD, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.’

⁹So you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁰“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive,

¹¹and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife,

¹²and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails.

¹³And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

¹⁴But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.

¹⁵“If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved,

¹⁶then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn,

¹⁷but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

¹⁸“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them,

¹⁹then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives,

²⁰and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’

²¹Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

²²“And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,

²³his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.

¹And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

²For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

³And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

⁴and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

⁵so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

⁶Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

⁷But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

⁸None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” —

¹⁰these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

¹¹For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

¹²Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

¹³And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

¹⁴The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

¹⁵The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

¹⁶“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

¹The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

²who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

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

⁴John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

⁵and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

⁶and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

⁷Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

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

⁹I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

¹⁰I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet

¹¹saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

¹²Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,

¹³and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

¹⁴The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire,

¹⁵his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

¹⁶In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last,

¹⁸and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

¹⁹ Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.

²⁰As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

¹Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

²I say: Keep the king's command, because of God's oath to him.

³Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases.

⁴For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way.

⁶For there is a time and a way for everything, although man's trouble lies heavy on him.

⁷For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be?

⁸No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.

⁹All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt.

¹⁰Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.

¹¹Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

¹²Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him.

¹³But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

¹⁴There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

¹⁵And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep,

¹⁷then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

¹The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

²for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

³Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?

⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

⁵He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

⁶Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah

⁷Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

⁸Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!

⁹Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

¹⁰Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah

¹Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.

²Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.

³When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD.

⁴Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.

⁵A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.

⁶Many seek the favor of a generous man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.

⁷All a poor man's brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them.

⁸Whoever gets sense loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will discover good.

⁹A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.

¹⁰It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury, much less for a slave to rule over princes.

¹¹Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

¹²A king's wrath is like the growling of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹³A foolish son is ruin to his father, and a wife's quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.

¹⁴House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.

¹⁵Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.

¹⁶Whoever keeps the commandment keeps his life; he who despises his ways will die.

¹⁷Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.

¹⁸Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.

¹⁹A man of great wrath will pay the penalty, for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.

²⁰Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

²¹Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.

²²What is desired in a man is steadfast love, and a poor man is better than a liar.

²³The fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.

²⁴The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.

²⁵Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; reprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.

²⁶He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother is a son who brings shame and reproach.

²⁷Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

²⁸A worthless witness mocks at justice, and the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity.

²⁹Condemnation is ready for scoffers, and beating for the backs of fools.

¹When David was old and full of days, he made Solomon his son king over Israel.

²David assembled all the leaders of Israel and the priests and the Levites.

³The Levites, thirty years old and upward, were numbered, and the total was 38,000 men.

⁴“Twenty-four thousand of these,” David said, “shall have charge of the work in the house of the LORD, 6,000 shall be officers and judges,

⁵4,000 gatekeepers, and 4,000 shall offer praises to the LORD with the instruments that I have made for praise.”

⁶And David organized them in divisions corresponding to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

⁷The sons of Gershon were Ladan and Shimei.

⁸The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, and Zetham, and Joel, three.

⁹The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, Haziel, and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers' houses of Ladan.

¹⁰And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, and Jeush and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei.

¹¹Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second; but Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons, therefore they became counted as a single father's house.

¹²The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four.

¹³The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses. Aaron was set apart to dedicate the most holy things, that he and his sons forever should make offerings before the LORD and minister to him and pronounce blessings in his name forever.

¹⁴But the sons of Moses the man of God were named among the tribe of Levi.

¹⁵The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer.

¹⁶The sons of Gershom: Shebuel the chief.

¹⁷The sons of Eliezer: Rehabiah the chief. Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very many.

¹⁸The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the chief.

¹⁹The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.

²⁰The sons of Uzziel: Micah the chief and Isshiah the second.

²¹The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish.

²²Eleazar died having no sons, but only daughters; their kinsmen, the sons of Kish, married them.

²³The sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, and Jeremoth, three.

²⁴These were the sons of Levi by their fathers' houses, the heads of fathers' houses as they were listed according to the number of the names of the individuals from twenty years old and upward who were to do the work for the service of the house of the LORD.

²⁵For David said, “The LORD, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people, and he dwells in Jerusalem forever.

²⁶And so the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the things for its service.”

²⁷For by the last words of David the sons of Levi were numbered from twenty years old and upward.

²⁸For their duty was to assist the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the LORD, having the care of the courts and the chambers, the cleansing of all that is holy, and any work for the service of the house of God.

²⁹Their duty was also to assist with the showbread, the flour for the grain offering, the wafers of unleavened bread, the baked offering, the offering mixed with oil, and all measures of quantity or size.

³⁰And they were to stand every morning, thanking and praising the LORD, and likewise at evening,

³¹and whenever burnt offerings were offered to the LORD on Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, according to the number required of them, regularly before the LORD.

³²Thus they were to keep charge of the tent of meeting and the sanctuary, and to attend the sons of Aaron, their brothers, for the service of the house of the LORD.

¹King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

²Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

³Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

⁴And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages,

⁵that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

⁶And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.”

⁷Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

⁸Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews.

⁹They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever!

¹⁰You, O king, have made a decree, that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image.

¹¹And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace.

¹²There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

¹³Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king.

¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up?

¹⁵Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

¹⁷If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

¹⁸But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

¹⁹Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated.

²⁰And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

²¹Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace.

²²Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

²³And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.

²⁴Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”

²⁵He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

²⁶Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.

²⁷And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.

²⁸Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.

²⁹Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.”

³⁰Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

¹Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

²And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

³Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

⁴But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

⁵And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

⁶These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

⁷And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

⁸And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.

¹⁰But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.

¹¹Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

¹²And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council,

¹³and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law,

¹⁴for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.”

¹⁵And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.