Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Again He began to teach by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat on the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land.

²And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching,

³“Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow;

⁴as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.

⁵Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.

⁶And when the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

⁷Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

⁸Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”

⁹And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear,let him hear.”

¹⁰As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve disciples, began asking Him about the parables.

¹¹And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for those who are outside, everything comes in parables,

¹²so that WHILE SEEING THEY MAY SEE, AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR, AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND IT WOULD BE FORGIVEN THEM.”

¹³And He *said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?

¹⁴The sower sows the word.

¹⁵These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.

¹⁶And in a similar way these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;

¹⁷and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately theyfall away.

¹⁸And others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,

¹⁹but the worries of theworld, and the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and choke the word, and itbecomes unfruitful.

²⁰And those are the ones sown with seed on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”

²¹And He was saying to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under abasket, or under a bed, is it? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand?

²²For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.

²³If anyone has ears to hear,let him hear.”

²⁴And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to.By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.

²⁵For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

²⁶And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;

²⁷and he goes to bed at night and gets up daily, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.

²⁸The soil produces crops by itself; first the stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

²⁹Now when the crop permits, he immediatelyputs in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰And He was saying, “How shall wepicture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?

³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil,

³²yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that THE BIRDS OF THE SKY can NEST UNDER its shade.”

³³And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to understand it;

³⁴and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

³⁵On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.”

³⁶After dismissing the crowd, they *took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.

³⁷And a fierce gale of wind *developed, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling with water.

³⁸And yet Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they *woke Him and *said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

³⁹And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.

⁴⁰And He said to them, “Why are youafraid? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

¹Now Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah.

²Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

³Then Abraham arose from mourning before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying,

⁴“I am a stranger and a foreign resident among you; give me a burial site among you so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

⁵The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,

⁶“Hear us, my lord: you are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our graves; none of us will refuse you his grave for burying your dead.”

⁷So Abraham stood up and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth.

⁸And he spoke with them, saying, “If you are willing to let me bury my dead out of my sight, listen to me, and plead with Ephron the son of Zohar for me,

⁹that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in your presence for a burial site.”

¹⁰Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham so that the sons of Heth heard, that is, all who entered the gate of his city, saying,

¹¹“No, my lord, listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.”

¹²And Abraham bowed before the people of the land.

¹³But he spoke to Ephron so that the people of the land heard, saying, “If you will only please listen to me; I will give the price of the field, accept it from me so that I may bury my dead there.”

¹⁴Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,

¹⁵“My lord, listen to me: a plot of land worth four hundred shekels of silver—what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.”

¹⁶Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the presence of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, currency acceptable to a merchant.

¹⁷So Ephron’s field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field, that were within all the confines of its border, were deeded over

¹⁸to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who entered the gate of his city.

¹⁹After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan.

²⁰So the field and the cave that was in it were deeded over to Abraham for a burial site by the sons of Heth.

¹For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

²if indeed you have heard of the administration of God’s grace which was given to me for you;

³that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before briefly.

⁴By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,

⁵which in other generations was not made known to mankind, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;

⁶to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,

⁷of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

⁸To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,

⁹and to enlighten all people as to what the plan of the mystery is which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things;

¹⁰so that the multifaceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

¹¹This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,

¹²in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

¹³Therefore I ask you not to become discouraged about my tribulations in your behalf, since they are your glory.

¹⁴For this reason I bend my knees before the Father,

¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

¹⁶that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self,

¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

¹⁸may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and height and depth,

¹⁹and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,

²¹to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus,

²To Timothy, my beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day,

⁴longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy.

⁵For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelled in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.

⁶For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

⁷For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

⁸Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,

⁹who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

¹⁰but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

¹¹for which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher.

¹²For this reason I also suffer these things; but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to protect what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

¹³Hold on to the example of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴Protect, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

¹⁵You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.

¹⁶The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains;

¹⁷but when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me—

¹⁸the Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord on that day—and you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus.

¹“Why are times not stored up by the Almighty, And why do those who know Him not see His days?

²People remove landmarks; They seize and devour flocks.

³They drive away the donkeys of orphans; They seize the widow’s ox as a pledge.

⁴They push the needy aside from the road; The poor of the land have to hide themselves together.

⁵Behold, like wild donkeys in the wilderness They go out scavenging for food in their activity, As bread for their children in the desert.

⁶They harvest their feed in the field And glean the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They spend the night naked, without clothing, And have no covering against the cold.

⁸They are wet from the mountain rains, And they hug the rock for lack of a shelter.

⁹Others snatch an orphan from the breast, And they seize it as a pledge against the poor.

¹⁰The poor move about naked without clothing, And they carry sheaves, while going hungry.

¹¹Within the walls they produce oil; They tread wine presses but go thirsty.

¹²From the city people groan, And the souls of the wounded cry for help; Yet God does not pay attention to the offensiveness.

¹³“Others have been with those who rebel against the light; They do not want to know its ways Nor stay in its paths.

¹⁴The murderer arises at dawn; He kills the poor and the needy, And at night he is like a thief.

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight, Saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ And he disguises his face.

¹⁶In the darkness they dig into houses, They shut themselves up by day; They do not know the light.

¹⁷For the morning is the same to him as thick darkness, For he is familiar with the terrors of thick darkness.

¹⁸“They are insignificant on the surface of the water; Their plot of land on the earth is cursed. They do not turn toward the vineyards.

¹⁹Dryness and heat snatch away the snow waters, As Sheol snatches those who have sinned.

²⁰A mother will forget him; The maggot feeds sweetly until he is no longer remembered. And injustice will be broken like a tree.

²¹He wrongs the infertile woman, And does no good for the widow.

²²But He drags off the mighty by His power; He rises, but no one has assurance of life.

²³He provides them with security, and they are supported; And His eyes are on their ways.

²⁴They are exalted a little while, then they are gone; Moreover, they are brought low, and like everything they are gathered up; Like the heads of grain they wither.

²⁵Now if it is not so, who can prove me a liar, And make my speech worthless?”

¹God, You have rejected us. You have broken us; You have been angry; restore us!

²You have made the land quake, You have split it open; Heal its cracks, for it sways.

³You have made Your people experience hardship; You have given us wine to drink that makes us stagger.

⁴You have given a banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah

⁵That Your beloved may be rescued, Save us with Your right hand, and answer us!

⁶God has spoken in His holiness: “I will triumph, I will divide up Shechem, and measure out the Valley of Succoth.

⁷Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet of My head; Judah is My scepter.

⁸Moab is My washbowl; I will throw My sandal over Edom; Shout loud, Philistia, because of Me!”

⁹Who will bring me into the besieged city? Who will lead me to Edom?

¹⁰Have You Yourself not rejected us, God? And will You not go out with our armies, God?

¹¹Oh give us help against the enemy, For rescue by man is worthless.

¹²Through God we will do valiantly, And it is He who will trample down our enemies.

¹Do not be envious of evil people, Nor desire to be with them;

²For their minds plot violence, And their lips talk of trouble.

³By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established;

⁴And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches.

⁵A wise man is strong, And a person of knowledge increases power.

⁶For by wise guidance you will wage war, And in an abundance of counselors there is victory.

⁷Wisdom is too exalted for a fool, He does not open his mouth at the gate.

⁸One who plans to do evil, People will call a schemer.

⁹The devising of foolishness is sin, And the scoffer is an abomination to humanity.

¹⁰If you show yourself lacking courage on the day of distress, Your strength is meager.

¹¹Rescue those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to the slaughter, Oh hold them back!

¹²If you say, “See, we did not know this,” Does He who weighs the hearts not consider it? And does He who watches over your soul not know it? And will He not repay a person according to his work?

¹³My son, eat honey, for it is good; Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste;

¹⁴Know that wisdom is the same for your soul; If you find it, then there will be a future, And your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Do not lie in ambush, you wicked person, against the home of the righteous; Do not destroy his resting place;

¹⁶For a righteous person falls seven times and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of disaster.

¹⁷Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,

¹⁸Otherwise, the LORD will see and be displeased, And turn His anger away from him.

¹⁹Do not get upset because of evildoers Or be envious of the wicked;

²⁰For there will be no future for the evil person; The lamp of the wicked will be put out.

²¹My son, fear the LORD and the king; Do not get involved with those of high rank,

²²For their disaster will rise suddenly, And who knows the ruin that can come from both of them?

²³These also are sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good.

²⁴One who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,” Peoples will curse him, nations will scold him;

²⁵But for those who rebuke the wicked there will be delight, And a good blessing will come upon them.

²⁶One who gives a right answer Kisses the lips.

²⁷Prepare your work outside, And make it ready for yourself in the field; Afterward, then, build your house.

²⁸Do not be a witness against your neighbor for no reason, And do not deceive with your lips.

²⁹Do not say, “I shall do the same to him as he has done to me; I will repay the person according to his work.”

³⁰I passed by the field of a lazy one, And by the vineyard of a person lacking sense,

³¹And behold, it was completely overgrown with weeds; Its surface was covered with weeds, And its stone wall was broken down.

³²When I saw, I reflected upon it; I looked, and received instruction.

³³“A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest,”

³⁴Then your poverty will come like a drifter, And your need like an armed man.

¹Now Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover to the LORD God of Israel.

²For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month,

³since they could not celebrate it at that time, because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient numbers, nor had the people been gathered to Jerusalem.

⁴So the decision was right in the sight of the king and all the assembly.

⁵So they established a decree to circulate a proclamation throughout Israel from Beersheba to Dan, that they are to come to celebrate the Passover to the LORD God of Israel in Jerusalem. For they had not celebrated it in great numbers as was written.

⁶The couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with the letters from the hand of the king and his princes, even according to the command of the king, saying, “Sons of Israel, return to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that He may return to those of you who escaped and are left from the hand of the kings of Assyria.

⁷Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were untrue to the LORD God of their fathers, so that He made them an object of horror, just as you see.

⁸Now do not stiffen your neck like your fathers, but yield to the LORD and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the LORD your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you.

⁹For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and your sons will find compassion in the presence of those who led them captive, and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”

¹⁰So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed at them with scorn and mocked them.

¹¹Nevertheless, some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

¹²The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the LORD.

¹³Now many people were gathered at Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very large assembly.

¹⁴They got up and removed the altars which were in Jerusalem; they also removed all the incense altars and threw them into the brook Kidron.

¹⁵Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth of the second month. And the priests and Levites were ashamed of themselves, and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the LORD.

¹⁶They stood at their stations following their custom, according to the Law of Moses the man of God; the priests sprinkled the blood which they received from the hand of the Levites.

¹⁷For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves; therefore, the Levites were in charge of the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was unclean, in order to consecrate them to the LORD.

¹⁸For a multitude of the people, many from Ephraim and Manasseh, and Issachar and Zebulun, had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover contrary to what was written. For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD pardon

¹⁹everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.”

²⁰So the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

²¹The sons of Israel present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and the priests were praising the LORD day after day with loud instruments to the LORD.

²²Then Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good insight in the things of the LORD. So they ate for the appointed seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and giving thanks to the LORD God of their fathers.

²³Then the whole assembly decided to celebrate the feast another seven days, so they celebrated the seven days with joy.

²⁴For Hezekiah king of Judah had contributed to the assembly a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep, and the princes had contributed to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep; and a large number of priests consecrated themselves.

²⁵All the assembly of Judah rejoiced, with the priests and the Levites and all the assembly that came from Israel, both the strangers who came from the land of Israel and those living in Judah.

²⁶So there was great joy in Jerusalem, because there was nothing like this in Jerusalem since the days of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.

²⁷Then the Levitical priests stood and blessed the people; and their voice was heard and their prayer came to His holy dwelling place, to heaven.

¹In Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a way that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks.

²But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brothers.

³Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be performed by their hands.

⁴But the people of the city were divided; and some sided with the Jews, while others, with the apostles.

⁵And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers, to treat them abusively and to stone them,

⁶they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding region;

⁷and there they continued to preach the gospel.

⁸In Lystra a man was sitting whose feet were incapacitated. He had been disabled from his mother’s womb, and had never walked.

⁹This man was listening to Paul as he spoke. Paul looked at him intently and saw that he had faith to be made well,

¹⁰and he said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” And the man leaped up and began to walk.

¹¹When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us!”

¹²And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, since he was the chief speaker.

¹³Moreover, the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.

¹⁴But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard about it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out

¹⁵and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men, of the same nature as you, preaching the gospel to you, to turn from these useless things to a living God, who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND EVERYTHING THAT IS IN THEM.

¹⁶In past generations He permitted all the nations to go their own ways;

¹⁷yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

¹⁸And even by saying these things, only with difficulty did they restrain the crowds from offering sacrifices to them.

¹⁹But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking that he was dead.

²⁰But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

²¹And after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made a good number of disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch,

²²strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “It is through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God.”

²³When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

²⁴They passed through Pisidia and came into Pamphylia.

²⁵When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

²⁶From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been entrusted to the grace of God for the work that they had accomplished.

²⁷When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all the things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

²⁸And they spent a long time with the disciples.