Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,

²they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

³(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders,

⁴and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches. )

⁵And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

⁶And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

⁷in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

⁸You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

⁹And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

¹¹But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God) —

¹²then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,

¹³thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

¹⁴And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand:

¹⁵ There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

¹⁶

¹⁷And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.

¹⁸And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,

¹⁹since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)

²⁰And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.

²¹For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

²²coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

²³ All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

²⁴And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.

²⁵But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.

²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁸But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”

²⁹And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

³¹Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.

³²And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.

³³And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.

³⁴And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

³⁵And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

³⁶And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.

³⁷And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

¹Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines.

²And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.

³Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.

⁴I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,

⁵because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

⁶So Isaac settled in Gerar.

⁷When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance.

⁸When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with Rebekah his wife.

⁹So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”

¹⁰Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

¹¹So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

¹²And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The LORD blessed him,

¹³and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy.

¹⁴He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him.

¹⁵(Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.)

¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

¹⁷So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.

¹⁸And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them.

¹⁹But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water,

²⁰the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.

²¹Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah.

²²And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

²³From there he went up to Beersheba.

²⁴And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.”

²⁵So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well.

²⁶When Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army,

²⁷Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?”

²⁸They said, “We see plainly that the LORD has been with you. So we said, let there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you,

²⁹that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.”

³⁰So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

³¹In the morning they rose early and exchanged oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.

³²That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.”

³³He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite,

³⁵and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.

¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

²“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),

³“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

⁴Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

⁵Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,

⁶not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

⁷rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,

⁸knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.

⁹Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

¹¹Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

¹²For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

¹³Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

¹⁴Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

¹⁵and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

¹⁶In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;

¹⁷and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,

¹⁸praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

¹⁹and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,

²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

²¹So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything.

²²I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.

²³Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁴Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

¹I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:

²preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

³For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

⁵As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

⁶For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

⁸Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

⁹Do your best to come to me soon.

¹⁰For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

¹¹Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.

¹²Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.

¹³When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

¹⁴Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

¹⁵Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message.

¹⁶At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them!

¹⁷But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth.

¹⁸The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

¹⁹Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.

²⁰Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus.

²¹Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.

²²The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

¹And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

²“As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,

³as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,

⁴my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

⁵Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

⁶I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

⁷“Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life?

⁹Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?

¹⁰Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?

¹¹I will teach you concerning the hand of God; what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

¹²Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?

¹³“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:

¹⁴If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his descendants have not enough bread.

¹⁵Those who survive him the pestilence buries, and his widows do not weep.

¹⁶Though he heap up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay,

¹⁷he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver.

¹⁸He builds his house like a moth's, like a booth that a watchman makes.

¹⁹He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more; he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like a flood; in the night a whirlwind carries him off.

²¹The east wind lifts him up and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

²²It hurls at him without pity; he flees from its power in headlong flight.

²³It claps its hands at him and hisses at him from its place.

¹O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

²So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.

³Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

⁴So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.

⁵My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,

⁶when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

⁷for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

⁸My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

⁹But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth;

¹⁰they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals.

¹¹But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

¹Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

²Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.

³A stone is heavy, and sand is weighty, but a fool's provocation is heavier than both.

⁴Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?

⁵Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

⁶Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

⁷One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.

⁸Like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who strays from his home.

⁹Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.

¹⁰Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend, and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.

¹¹Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him who reproaches me.

¹²The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

¹³Take a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger, and hold it in pledge when he puts up security for an adulteress.

¹⁴Whoever blesses his neighbor with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, will be counted as cursing.

¹⁵A continual dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are alike;

¹⁶to restrain her is to restrain the wind or to grasp oil in one's right hand.

¹⁷Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

¹⁸Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who guards his master will be honored.

¹⁹As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.

²⁰Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.

²¹The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.

²²Crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him.

²³Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds,

²⁴for riches do not last forever; and does a crown endure to all generations?

²⁵When the grass is gone and the new growth appears and the vegetation of the mountains is gathered,

²⁶the lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of a field.

²⁷There will be enough goats' milk for your food, for the food of your household and maintenance for your girls.

¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

²And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.

³For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

⁴And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.”

⁵And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.

⁶And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.

⁷And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever,

⁸and I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses.”

⁹Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.

¹⁰The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.

¹¹Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.

¹²And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

¹³He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

¹⁴Afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, and for the entrance into the Fish Gate, and carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah.

¹⁵And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city.

¹⁶He also restored the altar of the LORD and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁷Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the LORD their God.

¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, behold, they are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

¹⁹And his prayer, and how God was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites on which he built high places and set up the Asherim and the images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers.

²⁰So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son reigned in his place.

²¹Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

²²And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that Manasseh his father had made, and served them.

²³And he did not humble himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more.

²⁴And his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his house.

²⁵But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

¹Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,

²“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”

³So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth.

⁴Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

⁵And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

⁶The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁷And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water,

⁸but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

⁹Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

¹⁰When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

¹Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

⁴And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

⁵But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

⁶And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

⁷and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

⁸And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

⁹And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

¹²Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

¹⁴Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.

¹⁵Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

¹⁶Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

¹⁸Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities” — because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

²⁰For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.”

²¹Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

²²So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

²³For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

²⁶And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

²⁷that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

²⁸for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

²⁹Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

³⁰The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

³³So Paul went out from their midst.

³⁴But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.