Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.

²Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.

³When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them;

⁴but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

⁵As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept.

⁶But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’

⁷Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps.

⁸The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

⁹But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’

¹⁰And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut.

¹¹Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’

¹²But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’

¹³Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

¹⁴“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them;

¹⁵to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.

¹⁶The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents.

¹⁷In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents.

¹⁸But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

¹⁹After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.

²⁰Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’

²¹His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

²²And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’

²³His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

²⁴Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed;

²⁵so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’

²⁶But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter?

²⁷Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest.

²⁸So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents.

²⁹For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

³⁰As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,

³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.

³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?

³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?

³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’

⁴⁰And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;

⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,

⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’

⁴⁴Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’

⁴⁵Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

¹Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar,

²and Sarai said to Abram, “You see that the LORD has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

³So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife.

⁴He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.

⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!”

⁶But Abram said to Sarai, “Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.

⁷The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.

⁸And he said, “Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”

⁹The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.”

¹⁰The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.”

¹¹And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the LORD has given heed to your affliction.

¹²He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; and he shall live at odds with all his kin.”

¹³So she named the LORD who spoke to her, “You are El-roi”; for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”

¹⁴Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

¹Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.

²I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain.

³But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.

⁴But because of false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us —

⁵we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you.

⁶And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) — those leaders contributed nothing to me.

⁷On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised

⁸(for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the Gentiles),

⁹and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

¹⁰They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.

¹¹But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned;

¹²for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction.

¹³And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

¹⁴But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

¹⁵We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;

¹⁶yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

¹⁷But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!

¹⁸But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.

¹⁹For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ;

²⁰and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

²¹I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

¹My spirit is broken, my days are extinct, the grave is ready for me.

²Surely there are mockers around me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.

³“Lay down a pledge for me with yourself; who is there that will give surety for me?

⁴Since you have closed their minds to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.

⁵Those who denounce friends for reward — the eyes of their children will fail.

⁶“He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom people spit.

⁷My eye has grown dim from grief, and all my members are like a shadow.

⁸The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.

⁹Yet the righteous hold to their way, and they that have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.

¹⁰But you, come back now, all of you, and I shall not find a sensible person among you.

¹¹My days are past, my plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.

¹²They make night into day; ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’

¹³If I look for Sheol as my house, if I spread my couch in darkness,

¹⁴if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’

¹⁵where then is my hope? Who will see my hope?

¹⁶Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?”

¹Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts; there is no one who does good.

²God looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.

³They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.

⁴Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?

⁵There they shall be in great terror, in terror such as has not been. For God will scatter the bones of the ungodly; they will be put to shame, for God has rejected them.

⁶O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.

¹Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.

²A slave who deals wisely will rule over a child who acts shamefully, and will share the inheritance as one of the family.

³The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.

⁴An evildoer listens to wicked lips; and a liar gives heed to a mischievous tongue.

⁵Those who mock the poor insult their Maker; those who are glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

⁶Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their parents.

⁷Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a ruler.

⁸A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of those who give it; wherever they turn they prosper.

⁹One who forgives an affront fosters friendship, but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend.

¹⁰A rebuke strikes deeper into a discerning person than a hundred blows into a fool.

¹¹Evil people seek only rebellion, but a cruel messenger will be sent against them.

¹²Better to meet a she-bear robbed of its cubs than to confront a fool immersed in folly.

¹³Evil will not depart from the house of one who returns evil for good.

¹⁴The beginning of strife is like letting out water; so stop before the quarrel breaks out.

¹⁵One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

¹⁶Why should fools have a price in hand to buy wisdom, when they have no mind to learn?

¹⁷A friend loves at all times, and kinsfolk are born to share adversity.

¹⁸It is senseless to give a pledge, to become surety for a neighbor.

¹⁹One who loves transgression loves strife; one who builds a high threshold invites broken bones.

²⁰The crooked of mind do not prosper, and the perverse of tongue fall into calamity.

²¹The one who begets a fool gets trouble; the parent of a fool has no joy.

²²A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones.

²³The wicked accept a concealed bribe to pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴The discerning person looks to wisdom, but the eyes of a fool to the ends of the earth.

²⁵Foolish children are a grief to their father and bitterness to her who bore them.

²⁶To impose a fine on the innocent is not right, or to flog the noble for their integrity.

²⁷One who spares words is knowledgeable; one who is cool in spirit has understanding.

²⁸Even fools who keep silent are considered wise; when they close their lips, they are deemed intelligent.

¹But in the seventh year Jehoiada took courage, and entered into a compact with the commanders of the hundreds, Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri.

²They went around through Judah and gathered the Levites from all the towns of Judah, and the heads of families of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.

³Then the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. Jehoiada said to them, “Here is the king’s son! Let him reign, as the LORD promised concerning the sons of David.

⁴This is what you are to do: one-third of you, priests and Levites, who come on duty on the sabbath, shall be gatekeepers,

⁵one-third shall be at the king’s house, and one-third at the Gate of the Foundation; and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the LORD.

⁶Do not let anyone enter the house of the LORD except the priests and ministering Levites; they may enter, for they are holy, but all the other people shall observe the instructions of the LORD.

⁷The Levites shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand; and whoever enters the house shall be killed. Stay with the king in his comings and goings.”

⁸The Levites and all Judah did according to all that the priest Jehoiada commanded; each brought his men, who were to come on duty on the sabbath, with those who were to go off duty on the sabbath; for the priest Jehoiada did not dismiss the divisions.

⁹The priest Jehoiada delivered to the captains the spears and the large and small shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of God;

¹⁰and he set all the people as a guard for the king, everyone with weapon in hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house.

¹¹Then he brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, and gave him the covenant; they proclaimed him king, and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him; and they shouted, “Long live the king!”

¹²When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she went into the house of the LORD to the people;

¹³and when she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and the singers with their musical instruments leading in the celebration. Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, “Treason! Treason!”

¹⁴Then the priest Jehoiada brought out the captains who were set over the army, saying to them, “Bring her out between the ranks; anyone who follows her is to be put to the sword.” For the priest said, “Do not put her to death in the house of the LORD.”

¹⁵So they laid hands on her; she went into the entrance of the Horse Gate of the king’s house, and there they put her to death.

¹⁶Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they should be the LORD’s people.

¹⁷Then all the people went to the house of Baal, and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and they killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars.

¹⁸Jehoiada assigned the care of the house of the LORD to the levitical priests whom David had organized to be in charge of the house of the LORD, to offer burnt offerings to the LORD, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the order of David.

¹⁹He stationed the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the LORD so that no one should enter who was in any way unclean.

²⁰And he took the captains, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the house of the LORD, marching through the upper gate to the king’s house. They set the king on the royal throne.

²¹So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been killed with the sword.

¹Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:

²You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

³Do two walk together unless they have made an appointment?

⁴Does a lion roar in the forest, when it has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from its den, if it has caught nothing?

⁵Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?

⁶Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster befall a city, unless the LORD has done it?

⁷Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

⁸The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?

⁹Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod, and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on Mount Samaria, and see what great tumults are within it, and what oppressions are in its midst.”

¹⁰They do not know how to do right, says the LORD, those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.

¹¹Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: An adversary shall surround the land, and strip you of your defense; and your strongholds shall be plundered.

¹²Thus says the LORD: As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who live in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed.

¹³Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob, says the Lord GOD, the God of hosts:

¹⁴On the day I punish Israel for its transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.

¹⁵I will tear down the winter house as well as the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end, — says the LORD.

¹Then the high priest asked him, “Are these things so?”

²And Stephen replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.’

⁴Then he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God had him move from there to this country in which you are now living.

⁵He did not give him any of it as a heritage, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as his possession and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child.

⁶And God spoke in these terms, that his descendants would be resident aliens in a country belonging to others, who would enslave them and mistreat them during four hundred years.

⁷‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’

⁸Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹“The patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him,

¹⁰and rescued him from all his afflictions, and enabled him to win favor and to show wisdom when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

¹¹Now there came a famine throughout Egypt and Canaan, and great suffering, and our ancestors could find no food.

¹²But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there on their first visit.

¹³On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Then Joseph sent and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five in all;

¹⁵so Jacob went down to Egypt. He himself died there as well as our ancestors,

¹⁶and their bodies were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷“But as the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased and multiplied

¹⁸until another king who had not known Joseph ruled over Egypt.

¹⁹He dealt craftily with our race and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die.

²⁰At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house;

²¹and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.

²²So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.

²³“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his relatives, the Israelites.

²⁴When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian.

²⁵He supposed that his kinsfolk would understand that God through him was rescuing them, but they did not understand.

²⁶The next day he came to some of them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?’

²⁷But the man who was wronging his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

²⁸Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

²⁹When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.

³⁰“Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.

³¹When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight; and as he approached to look, there came the voice of the Lord:

³²‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.

³³Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

³⁴I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.’

³⁵“It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

³⁷This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from your own people as he raised me up.’

³⁸He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living oracles to give to us.

³⁹Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,

⁴⁰saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

⁴¹At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you offer to me slain victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

⁴³No; you took along the tent of Moloch, and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; so I will remove you beyond Babylon.’

⁴⁴“Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.

⁴⁵Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David,

⁴⁶who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.

⁴⁷But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

⁴⁸Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands; as the prophet says,

⁴⁹‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?

⁵⁰Did not my hand make all these things?’

⁵¹“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.

⁵²Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

⁵³You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”

⁵⁴When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.

⁵⁵But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

⁵⁶“Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

⁵⁷But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.

⁵⁸Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

⁶⁰Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.