Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

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

²After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

³And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,

⁴and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’

⁵So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.

⁶And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’

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

⁸And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’

⁹And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.

¹⁰Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.

¹¹And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house,

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 a denarius?

¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.

¹⁵ Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’

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

¹⁷And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them,

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

¹⁹and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

²⁰Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something.

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

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

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

²⁴And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at 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 exercise authority over them.

²⁶ It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,

²⁷and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,

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

²⁹And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him.

³⁰And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

³¹The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

³²And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?”

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

³⁴And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.

¹From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.

²And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.”

⁴Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people?

⁵Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.”

⁶Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.

⁷Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

⁸So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid.

⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.”

¹⁰And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?”

¹¹Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’

¹²Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife.

¹³And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

¹⁴Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.

¹⁵And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.”

¹⁶To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.”

¹⁷Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children.

¹⁸For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

¹This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

²Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

³But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.

⁴For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.

⁵Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.

⁶I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

⁷For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

⁸Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!

⁹For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.

¹⁰We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute.

¹¹To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,

¹²and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure;

¹³when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

¹⁴I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

¹⁵For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

¹⁶I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

¹⁷That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

¹⁸Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.

¹⁹But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.

²⁰For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.

²¹What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?

¹But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

²Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

³Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,

⁴and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

⁵to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

⁶Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

⁷Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,

⁸and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

⁹Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,

¹⁰not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

¹¹For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

¹²training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

¹³waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

¹⁴who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

¹⁵Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

²“Therefore my thoughts answer me, because of my haste within me.

³I hear censure that insults me, and out of my understanding a spirit answers me.

⁴Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth,

⁵that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,

⁷he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

⁸He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.

⁹The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.

¹⁰His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust.

¹²“Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue,

¹³though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth,

¹⁴yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him.

¹⁵He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly.

¹⁶He will suck the poison of cobras; the tongue of a viper will kill him.

¹⁷He will not look upon the rivers, the streams flowing with honey and curds.

¹⁸He will give back the fruit of his toil and will not swallow it down; from the profit of his trading he will get no enjoyment.

¹⁹For he has crushed and abandoned the poor; he has seized a house that he did not build.

²⁰“Because he knew no contentment in his belly, he will not let anything in which he delights escape him.

²¹There was nothing left after he had eaten; therefore his prosperity will not endure.

²²In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress; the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

²³To fill his belly to the full, God will send his burning anger against him and rain it upon him into his body.

²⁴He will flee from an iron weapon; a bronze arrow will strike him through.

²⁵It is drawn forth and comes out of his body; the glittering point comes out of his gallbladder; terrors come upon him.

²⁶Utter darkness is laid up for his treasures; a fire not fanned will devour him; what is left in his tent will be consumed.

²⁷The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him.

²⁸The possessions of his house will be carried away, dragged off in the day of God's wrath.

²⁹This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God.”

¹May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!

²May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from Zion!

³May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah

⁴May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans!

⁵May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions!

⁶Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand.

⁷Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

⁸They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.

⁹O LORD, save the king! May he answer us when we call.

¹Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

²The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life.

³It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling.

⁴The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

⁵The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

⁶Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?

⁷The righteous who walks in his integrity — blessed are his children after him!

⁸A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes.

⁹Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?

¹⁰Unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

¹¹Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.

¹²The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made them both.

¹³Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.

¹⁴“Bad, bad,” says the buyer, but when he goes away, then he boasts.

¹⁵There is gold and abundance of costly stones, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

¹⁶Take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger, and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for foreigners.

¹⁷Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.

¹⁸Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.

¹⁹Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.

²⁰If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.

²¹An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.

²²Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.

²³Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD, and false scales are not good.

²⁴A man's steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?

²⁵It is a snare to say rashly, “It is holy,” and to reflect only after making vows.

²⁶A wise king winnows the wicked and drives the wheel over them.

²⁷The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all his innermost parts.

²⁸Steadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king, and by steadfast love his throne is upheld.

²⁹The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.

³⁰Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts.

¹Then the LORD said to Joshua,

²“Say to the people of Israel, ‘Appoint the cities of refuge, of which I spoke to you through Moses,

³that the manslayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there. They shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood.

⁴He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and explain his case to the elders of that city. Then they shall take him into the city and give him a place, and he shall remain with them.

⁵And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not give up the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unknowingly, and did not hate him in the past.

⁶And he shall remain in that city until he has stood before the congregation for judgment, until the death of him who is high priest at the time. Then the manslayer may return to his own town and his own home, to the town from which he fled.’”

⁷So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

⁸And beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, they appointed Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland, from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh.

⁹These were the cities designated for all the people of Israel and for the stranger sojourning among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, till he stood before the congregation.

¹In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it —

²at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

³Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,

⁴so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt.

⁵Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast.

⁶And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’”

¹After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.

²When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece.

³There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia.

⁴Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus.

⁵These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas,

⁶but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.

⁷On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

⁸There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.

⁹And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.

¹⁰But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.”

¹¹And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed.

¹²And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.

¹³But going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for so he had arranged, intending himself to go by land.

¹⁴And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went to Mitylene.

¹⁵And sailing from there we came the following day opposite Chios; the next day we touched at Samos; and the day after that we went to Miletus.

¹⁶For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

¹⁸And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia,

¹⁹serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;

²⁰how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,

²¹testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

²²And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there,

²³except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

²⁴But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

²⁵And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

²⁶Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all,

²⁷for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

²⁸Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

²⁹I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;

³⁰and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

³¹Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.

³²And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

³³I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.

³⁴You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.

³⁵In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

³⁶And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.

³⁷And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him,

³⁸being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.