Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain.

²When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”

³He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry:

⁴how he entered the house of God, and they ate the bread of the Presence — which is not lawful for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests?

⁵Or haven’t you read in the law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent?

⁶I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.

⁷If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent.

⁸For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

⁹Moving on from there, he entered their synagogue.

¹⁰There he saw a man who had a shriveled hand, and in order to accuse him they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

¹¹He replied to them, “Who among you, if he had a sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t take hold of it and lift it out?

¹²A person is worth far more than a sheep; so it is lawful to do what is good on the Sabbath.”

¹³Then he told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and it was restored, as good as the other.

¹⁴But the Pharisees went out and plotted against him, how they might kill him.

¹⁵Jesus was aware of this and withdrew. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them all.

¹⁶He warned them not to make him known,

¹⁷so that what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

¹⁸Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.

¹⁹He will not argue or shout, and no one will hear his voice in the streets.

²⁰He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick, until he has led justice to victory.

²¹The nations will put their hope in his name.

²²Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and unable to speak was brought to him. He healed him, so that the man could both speak and see.

²³All the crowds were astounded and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”

²⁴When the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man drives out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”

²⁵Knowing their thoughts, he told them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

²⁶If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

²⁷And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? For this reason they will be your judges.

²⁸If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²⁹How can someone enter a strong man’s house and steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house.

³⁰Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather with me scatters.

³¹Therefore, I tell you, people will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

³²Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come.

³³“Either make the tree good and its fruit will be good, or make the tree bad and its fruit will be bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.

³⁴Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.

³⁵A good person produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil person produces evil things from his storeroom of evil.

³⁶I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak.

³⁷For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

³⁸Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

³⁹He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

⁴⁰For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.

⁴¹The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching; and look — something greater than Jonah is here.

⁴²The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and look — something greater than Solomon is here.

⁴³“When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn’t find any.

⁴⁴Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to my house that I came from.’ Returning, it finds the house vacant, swept, and put in order.

⁴⁵Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. As a result, that person’s last condition is worse than the first. That’s how it will also be with this evil generation.”

⁴⁶While he was still speaking with the crowds, his mother and brothers were standing outside wanting to speak to him.

⁴⁷Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

⁴⁸He replied to the one who was speaking to him, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?”

⁴⁹Stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!

⁵⁰For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

¹Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden.

³But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴“No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman.

⁵“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

⁸Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

⁹So the LORD God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

¹¹Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

¹²The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

¹³So the LORD God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴So the LORD God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.

¹⁵I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

¹⁶He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.

¹⁷And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life.

¹⁸It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

¹⁹You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”

²⁰The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

²¹The LORD God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.

²²The LORD God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.”

²³So the LORD God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

²⁴He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

¹In fact, I made up my mind about this: I would not come to you on another painful visit.

²For if I cause you pain, then who will cheer me other than the one being hurt by me?

³I wrote this very thing so that when I came I wouldn’t have pain from those who ought to give me joy, because I am confident about all of you that my joy will also be yours.

⁴For I wrote to you with many tears out of an extremely troubled and anguished heart — not to cause you pain, but that you should know the abundant love I have for you.

⁵If anyone has caused pain, he has caused pain not so much to me but to some degree — not to exaggerate  — to all of you.

⁶This punishment by the majority is sufficient for that person.

⁷As a result, you should instead forgive and comfort him. Otherwise, he may be overwhelmed by excessive grief.

⁸Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.

⁹I wrote for this purpose: to test your character to see if you are obedient in everything.

¹⁰Anyone you forgive, I do too. For what I have forgiven — if I have forgiven anything — it is for your benefit in the presence of Christ,

¹¹so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his schemes.

¹²When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though the Lord opened a door for me,

¹³I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find my brother Titus. Instead, I said good-bye to them and left for Macedonia.

¹⁴But thanks be to God, who always leads us in Christ’s triumphal procession and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.

¹⁵For to God we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

¹⁶To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life. Who is adequate for these things?

¹⁷For we do not market the word of God for profit like so many. On the contrary, we speak with sincerity in Christ, as from God and before God.

¹Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the judgment of the notorious prostitute who is seated on many waters.

²The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality.”

³Then he carried me away in the Spirit to a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

⁴The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls. She had a golden cup in her hand filled with everything detestable and with the impurities of her prostitution.

⁵On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE DETESTABLE THINGS OF THE EARTH.

⁶Then I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.

⁷Then the angel said to me, “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast, with the seven heads and the ten horns, that carries her.

⁸The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up from the abyss and go to destruction. Those who live on the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast that was, and is not, and is to come.

⁹This calls for a mind that has wisdom: “The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. They are also seven kings:

¹⁰Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain for only a little while.

¹¹The beast that was and is not, is itself an eighth king, but it belongs to the seven and is going to destruction.

¹²The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they will receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.

¹³These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast.

¹⁴These will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings. Those with him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

¹⁵He also said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.

¹⁶The ten horns you saw, and the beast, will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, devour her flesh, and burn her up with fire.

¹⁷For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his plan by having one purpose and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled.

¹⁸And the woman you saw is the great city that has royal power over the kings of the earth.”

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

²Should anyone try to speak with you when you are exhausted? Yet who can keep from speaking?

³Indeed, you have instructed many and have strengthened weak hands.

⁴Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling and braced the knees that were buckling.

⁵But now that this has happened to you, you have become exhausted. It strikes you, and you are dismayed.

⁶Isn’t your piety your confidence, and the integrity of your life your hope?

⁷Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent? Where have the honest been destroyed?

⁸In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same.

⁹They perish at a single blast from God and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils.

¹⁰The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl, but the teeth of young lions are broken.

¹¹The strong lion dies if it catches no prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

¹²A word was brought to me in secret; my ears caught a whisper of it.

¹³Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night, when deep sleep comes over men,

¹⁴fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shake.

¹⁵I felt a draft on my face, and the hair on my body stood up.

¹⁶A figure stood there, but I could not recognize its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes. I heard a whispering voice:

¹⁷“Can a mortal be righteous before God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?”

¹⁸If God puts no trust in his servants and he charges his angels with foolishness,

¹⁹how much more those who dwell in clay houses, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth!

²⁰They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; they perish forever while no one notices.

²¹Are their tent cords not pulled up? They die without wisdom.

¹For the choir director. A psalm of David. [1] I waited patiently for the LORD, and he turned to me and heard my cry for help.

²He brought me up from a desolate pit, out of the muddy clay, and set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure.

³He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and they will trust in the LORD.

⁴How happy is anyone who has put his trust in the LORD and has not turned to the proud or to those who run after lies!

⁵LORD my God, you have done many things — your wondrous works and your plans for us; none can compare with you. If I were to report and speak of them, they are more than can be told.

⁶You do not delight in sacrifice and offering; you open my ears to listen. You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering.

⁷Then I said, “See, I have come; in the scroll it is written about me.

⁸I delight to do your will, my God, and your instruction is deep within me.”

⁹I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; see, I do not keep my mouth closed  — as you know, LORD.

¹⁰I did not hide your righteousness in my heart; I spoke about your faithfulness and salvation; I did not conceal your constant love and truth from the great assembly.

¹¹LORD, you do not withhold your compassion from me. Your constant love and truth will always guard me.

¹²For troubles without number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me; I am unable to see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my courage leaves me.

¹³LORD, be pleased to rescue me; hurry to help me, LORD.

¹⁴Let those who intend to take my life be disgraced and confounded. Let those who wish me harm be turned back and humiliated.

¹⁵Let those who say to me, “Aha, aha!” be appalled because of their shame.

¹⁶Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; let those who love your salvation continually say, “The LORD is great!”

¹⁷I am oppressed and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my helper and my deliverer; my God, do not delay.

¹Listen, sons, to a father’s discipline, and pay attention so that you may gain understanding,

²for I am giving you good instruction. Don’t abandon my teaching.

³When I was a son with my father, tender and precious to my mother,

⁴he taught me and said: “Your heart must hold on to my words. Keep my commands and live.

⁵Get wisdom, get understanding; don’t forget or turn away from the words from my mouth.

⁶Don’t abandon wisdom, and she will watch over you; love her, and she will guard you.

⁷Wisdom is supreme — so get wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding.

⁸Cherish her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.

⁹She will place a garland of favor on your head; she will give you a crown of beauty.”

¹⁰Listen, my son. Accept my words, and you will live many years.

¹¹I am teaching you the way of wisdom; I am guiding you on straight paths.

¹²When you walk, your steps will not be hindered; when you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life.

¹⁴Keep off the path of the wicked; don’t proceed on the way of evil ones.

¹⁵Avoid it; don’t travel on it. Turn away from it, and pass it by.

¹⁶For they can’t sleep unless they have done what is evil; they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

¹⁷They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

¹⁹But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they don’t know what makes them stumble.

²⁰My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings.

²¹Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body.

²³Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.

²⁴Don’t let your mouth speak dishonestly, and don’t let your lips talk deviously.

²⁵Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

²⁶Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established.

²⁷Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil.

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it — for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence — Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

³So they summoned him. Then Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam:

⁴“Your father made our yoke harsh. Therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵Rehoboam replied, “Return to me in three days.” So the people left.

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had attended his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people?”

⁷They replied, “If you will be kind to this people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

⁸But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him, and he consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, the ones attending him.

⁹He asked them, “What message do you advise we send back to this people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

¹⁰Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us! ’ This is what you should say to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!

¹¹Now therefore, my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.’”

¹²So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered, saying, “Return to me on the third day.”

¹³Then the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the elders’ advice

¹⁴and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.”

¹⁵The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God, in order that the LORD might carry out his word that he had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king: What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Israel, each to your tent; David, look after your own house now! So all Israel went to their tents.

¹⁷But as for the Israelites living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. However, King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.

¹⁹Israel is in rebellion against the house of David until today.

¹when I heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim and the crimes of Samaria will be exposed. For they practice fraud; a thief breaks in; a raiding party pillages outside.

²But they never consider that I remember all their evil. Now their actions are all around them; they are right in front of my face.

³They please the king with their evil, the princes with their lies.

⁴All of them commit adultery; they are like an oven heated by a baker who stops stirring the fire from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

⁵On the day of our king, the princes are sick with the heat of wine  — there is a conspiracy with traitors.

⁶For they — their hearts like an oven — draw him into their oven. Their anger smolders all night; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷All of them are as hot as an oven, and they consume their rulers. All their kings fall; not one of them calls on me.

⁸Ephraim has allowed himself to get mixed up with the nations. Ephraim is unturned bread baked on a griddle.

⁹Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not notice.

¹⁰Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to the LORD their God, and for all this, they do not seek him.

¹¹So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove; they call to Egypt, and they go to Assyria.

¹²As they are going, I will spread my net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the sky. I will discipline them in accordance with the news that reaches their assembly.

¹³Woe to them, for they fled from me; destruction to them, for they rebelled against me! Though I want to redeem them, they speak lies against me.

¹⁴They do not cry to me from their hearts; rather, they wail on their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine; they turn away from me.

¹⁵I trained and strengthened their arms, but they plot evil against me.

¹⁶They turn, but not to what is above; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent tongue. They will be ridiculed for this in the land of Egypt.

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you.”

²When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even quieter.

³He continued, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail,

⁵as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. After I received letters from them to the brothers, I traveled to Damascus to arrest those who were there and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶“As I was traveling and approaching Damascus, about noon an intense light from heaven suddenly flashed around me.

⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’

⁸“I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.’

⁹Now those who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

¹⁰“I said, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ “The Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything that you have been assigned to do.’

¹¹“Since I couldn’t see because of the brightness of the light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and went into Damascus.

¹²Someone named Ananias, a devout man according to the law, who had a good reputation with all the Jews living there,

¹³came and stood by me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ And in that very hour I looked up and saw him.

¹⁴And he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the words from his mouth,

¹⁵since you will be a witness for him to all people of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now, why are you delaying? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

¹⁷“After I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance

¹⁸and saw him telling me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹“But I said, ‘Lord, they know that in synagogue after synagogue I had those who believed in you imprisoned and beaten.

²⁰And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood there giving approval and guarding the clothes of those who killed him.’

²¹“He said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’  ”

²²They listened to him up to this point. Then they raised their voices, shouting, “Wipe this man off the face of the earth! He should not be allowed to live!”

²³As they were yelling and flinging aside their garments and throwing dust into the air,

²⁴the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, directing that he be interrogated with the scourge to discover the reason they were shouting against him like this.

²⁵As they stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing by, “Is it legal for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and is uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went and reported to the commander, saying, “What are you going to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷The commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” he said.

²⁸The commander replied, “I bought this citizenship for a large amount of money.” “But I was born a citizen,” Paul said.

²⁹So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. The commander too was alarmed when he realized Paul was a Roman citizen and he had bound him.

³⁰The next day, since he wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and instructed the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to convene. He brought Paul down and placed him before them.