Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

²After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.

³When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace;

⁴and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.

⁵When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same.

⁶And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’

⁷They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’

⁸When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’

⁹When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.

¹⁰Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.

¹¹And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner,

¹²saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’

¹³But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?

¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.

¹⁵Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

¹⁷While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way,

¹⁸“See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death;

¹⁹then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.”

²⁰Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him.

²¹And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”

²²But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.”

²³He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

²⁴When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers.

²⁵But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.

²⁶It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant,

²⁷and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave;

²⁸just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

²⁹As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him.

³⁰There were two blind men sitting by the roadside. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

³¹The crowd sternly ordered them to be quiet; but they shouted even more loudly, “Have mercy on us, Lord, Son of David!”

³²Jesus stood still and called them, saying, “What do you want me to do for you?”

³³They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.”

³⁴Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they regained their sight and followed him.

¹Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

²And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

³And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.

⁴Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

⁵The LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.

⁶And the LORD said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

⁷Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.

⁹Therefore it was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

¹⁰These are the descendants of Shem. When Shem was one hundred years old, he became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood;

¹¹and Shem lived after the birth of Arpachshad five hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.

¹²When Arpachshad had lived thirty-five years, he became the father of Shelah;

¹³and Arpachshad lived after the birth of Shelah four hundred three years, and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴When Shelah had lived thirty years, he became the father of Eber;

¹⁵and Shelah lived after the birth of Eber four hundred three years, and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶When Eber had lived thirty-four years, he became the father of Peleg;

¹⁷and Eber lived after the birth of Peleg four hundred thirty years, and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸When Peleg had lived thirty years, he became the father of Reu;

¹⁹and Peleg lived after the birth of Reu two hundred nine years, and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰When Reu had lived thirty-two years, he became the father of Serug;

²¹and Reu lived after the birth of Serug two hundred seven years, and had other sons and daughters.

²²When Serug had lived thirty years, he became the father of Nahor;

²³and Serug lived after the birth of Nahor two hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴When Nahor had lived twenty-nine years, he became the father of Terah;

²⁵and Nahor lived after the birth of Terah one hundred nineteen years, and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶When Terah had lived seventy years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷Now these are the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot.

²⁸Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

²⁹Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah.

³⁰Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.

³¹Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there.

³²The days of Terah were two hundred five years; and Terah died in Haran.

¹I myself, Paul, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ — I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away! —

²I ask that when I am present I need not show boldness by daring to oppose those who think we are acting according to human standards.

³Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards;

⁴for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments

⁵and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

⁶We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

⁷Look at what is before your eyes. If you are confident that you belong to Christ, remind yourself of this, that just as you belong to Christ, so also do we.

⁸Now, even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.

⁹I do not want to seem as though I am trying to frighten you with my letters.

¹⁰For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.”

¹¹Let such people understand that what we say by letter when absent, we will also do when present.

¹²We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another, they do not show good sense.

¹³We, however, will not boast beyond limits, but will keep within the field that God has assigned to us, to reach out even as far as you.

¹⁴For we were not overstepping our limits when we reached you; we were the first to come all the way to you with the good news of Christ.

¹⁵We do not boast beyond limits, that is, in the labors of others; but our hope is that, as your faith increases, our sphere of action among you may be greatly enlarged,

¹⁶so that we may proclaim the good news in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in someone else’s sphere of action.

¹⁷“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

¹⁸For it is not those who commend themselves that are approved, but those whom the Lord commends.

¹Then Job answered:

²“No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.

³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

⁴I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, I am a laughingstock.

⁵Those at ease have contempt for misfortune, but it is ready for those whose feet are unstable.

⁶The tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure, who bring their god in their hands.

⁷“But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

⁸ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

⁹Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?

¹⁰In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.

¹¹Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?

¹²Is wisdom with the aged, and understanding in length of days?

¹³“With God are wisdom and strength; he has counsel and understanding.

¹⁴If he tears down, no one can rebuild; if he shuts someone in, no one can open up.

¹⁵If he withholds the waters, they dry up; if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.

¹⁶With him are strength and wisdom; the deceived and the deceiver are his.

¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped, and makes fools of judges.

¹⁸He looses the sash of kings, and binds a waistcloth on their loins.

¹⁹He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.

²⁰He deprives of speech those who are trusted, and takes away the discernment of the elders.

²¹He pours contempt on princes, and looses the belt of the strong.

²²He uncovers the deeps out of darkness, and brings deep darkness to light.

²³He makes nations great, then destroys them; he enlarges nations, then leads them away.

²⁴He strips understanding from the leaders of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless waste.

²⁵They grope in the dark without light; he makes them stagger like a drunkard.

¹Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain,

²beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King.

³Within its citadels God has shown himself a sure defense.

⁴Then the kings assembled, they came on together.

⁵As soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they were in panic, they took to flight;

⁶trembling took hold of them there, pains as of a woman in labor,

⁷as when an east wind shatters the ships of Tarshish.

⁸As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God, which God establishes forever. Selah

⁹We ponder your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.

¹⁰Your name, O God, like your praise, reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with victory.

¹¹Let Mount Zion be glad, let the towns of Judah rejoice because of your judgments.

¹²Walk about Zion, go all around it, count its towers,

¹³consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may tell the next generation

¹⁴that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide forever.

¹Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but those who hate to be rebuked are stupid.

²The good obtain favor from the LORD, but those who devise evil he condemns.

³No one finds security by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will never be moved.

⁴A good wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.

⁵The thoughts of the righteous are just; the advice of the wicked is treacherous.

⁶The words of the wicked are a deadly ambush, but the speech of the upright delivers them.

⁷The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand.

⁸One is commended for good sense, but a perverse mind is despised.

⁹Better to be despised and have a servant, than to be self-important and lack food.

¹⁰The righteous know the needs of their animals, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

¹¹Those who till their land will have plenty of food, but those who follow worthless pursuits have no sense.

¹²The wicked covet the proceeds of wickedness, but the root of the righteous bears fruit.

¹³The evil are ensnared by the transgression of their lips, but the righteous escape from trouble.

¹⁴From the fruit of the mouth one is filled with good things, and manual labor has its reward.

¹⁵Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to advice.

¹⁶Fools show their anger at once, but the prudent ignore an insult.

¹⁷Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness speaks deceitfully.

¹⁸Rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

¹⁹Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.

²⁰Deceit is in the mind of those who plan evil, but those who counsel peace have joy.

²¹No harm happens to the righteous, but the wicked are filled with trouble.

²²Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

²³One who is clever conceals knowledge, but the mind of a fool broadcasts folly.

²⁴The hand of the diligent will rule, while the lazy will be put to forced labor.

²⁵Anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up.

²⁶The righteous gives good advice to friends, but the way of the wicked leads astray.

²⁷The lazy do not roast their game, but the diligent obtain precious wealth.

²⁸In the path of righteousness there is life, in walking its path there is no death.

¹Now Jehoshaphat had great riches and honor; and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab.

²After some years he went down to Ahab in Samaria. Ahab slaughtered an abundance of sheep and oxen for him and for the people who were with him, and induced him to go up against Ramoth-gilead.

³King Ahab of Israel said to King Jehoshaphat of Judah, “Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead?” He answered him, “I am with you, my people are your people. We will be with you in the war.”

⁴But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the LORD.”

⁵Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred of them, and said to them, “Shall we go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” They said, “Go up; for God will give it into the hand of the king.”

⁶But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no other prophet of the LORD here of whom we may inquire?”

⁷The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one other by whom we may inquire of the LORD, Micaiah son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he never prophesies anything favorable about me, but only disaster.” Jehoshaphat said, “Let the king not say such a thing.”

⁸Then the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring quickly Micaiah son of Imlah.”

⁹Now the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes; and they were sitting at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.

¹⁰Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron, and he said, “Thus says the LORD: With these you shall gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.”

¹¹All the prophets were prophesying the same and saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph; the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.”

¹²The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king; let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably.”

¹³But Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, whatever my God says, that I will speak.”

¹⁴When he had come to the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?” He answered, “Go up and triumph; they will be given into your hand.”

¹⁵But the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?”

¹⁶Then Micaiah said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd; and the LORD said, ‘These have no master; let each one go home in peace.’”

¹⁷The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy anything favorable about me, but only disaster?”

¹⁸Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing to the right and to the left of him.

¹⁹And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice King Ahab of Israel, so that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ Then one said one thing, and another said another,

²⁰until a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, ‘I will entice him.’ The LORD asked him, ‘How?’

²¹He replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then the LORD said, ‘You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do it.’

²²So you see, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets; the LORD has decreed disaster for you.”

²³Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah came up to Micaiah, slapped him on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the spirit of the LORD pass from me to speak to you?”

²⁴Micaiah replied, “You will find out on that day when you go in to hide in an inner chamber.”

²⁵The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah, and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son;

²⁶and say, ‘Thus says the king: Put this fellow in prison, and feed him on reduced rations of bread and water until I return in peace.’”

²⁷Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, you peoples, all of you!”

²⁸So the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead.

²⁹The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you wear your robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself, and they went into battle.

³⁰Now the king of Aram had commanded the captains of his chariots, “Fight with no one small or great, but only with the king of Israel.”

³¹When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “It is the king of Israel.” So they turned to fight against him; and Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him. God drew them away from him,

³²for when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.

³³But a certain man drew his bow and unknowingly struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate; so he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around, and carry me out of the battle, for I am wounded.”

³⁴The battle grew hot that day, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot facing the Arameans until evening; then at sunset he died.

¹The word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel:

²Hear this, O elders, give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your ancestors?

³Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

⁴What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.

⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine-drinkers, over the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

⁶For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.

⁷It has laid waste my vines, and splintered my fig trees; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches have turned white.

⁸Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

⁹The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD.

¹⁰The fields are devastated, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails.

¹¹Be dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley; for the crops of the field are ruined.

¹²The vine withers, the fig tree droops. Pomegranate, palm, and apple — all the trees of the field are dried up; surely, joy withers away among the people.

¹³Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, pass the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God! Grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

¹⁵Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

¹⁶Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seed shrivels under the clods, the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are ruined because the grain has failed.

¹⁸How the animals groan! The herds of cattle wander about because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep are dazed.

¹⁹To you, O LORD, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the field.

²⁰Even the wild animals cry to you because the watercourses are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

¹When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.

⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

⁵Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem.

⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.

⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?

⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

¹¹Cretans and Arabs — in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

¹²All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

¹³But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

¹⁴But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.

¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning.

¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

¹⁸Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

¹⁹And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.

²⁰The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.

²¹Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

²²“You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know —

²³this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law.

²⁴But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

²⁵For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;

²⁶therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will live in hope.

²⁷For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption.

²⁸You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

²⁹“Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

³⁰Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne.

³¹Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’

³²This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.

³³Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear.

³⁴For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,

³⁵until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

³⁶Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

³⁷Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

³⁸Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

³⁹For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”

⁴⁰And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

⁴¹So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

⁴³Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.

⁴⁴All who believed were together and had all things in common;

⁴⁵they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

⁴⁶Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts,

⁴⁷praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.