Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus

²and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

³(The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.

⁴When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

⁵So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

⁶He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

⁷They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’

⁸You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

⁹And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’

¹¹But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)—

¹²then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother.

¹³Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

¹⁴Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.

¹⁵Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

¹⁶

¹⁷After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.

¹⁸“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?

¹⁹For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

²⁰He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them.

²¹For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder,

²²adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

²³All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

²⁴Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.

²⁵In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet.

²⁶The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

²⁸“Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

³¹Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.

³²There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him.

³³After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue.

³⁴He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means “Be opened!”).

³⁵At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

³⁶Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it.

³⁷People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

¹Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar.

²The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live.

³Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.

⁴I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,

⁵because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.”

⁶So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

⁷When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”

⁸When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

⁹So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”

¹⁰Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

¹¹So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

¹²Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.

¹³The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy.

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

¹⁵So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.

¹⁶Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”

¹⁷So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled.

¹⁸Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.

¹⁹Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there.

²⁰But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him.

²¹Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.

²²He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”

²³From there he went up to Beersheba.

²⁴That night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”

²⁵Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.

²⁶Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces.

²⁷Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?”

²⁸They answered, “We saw clearly that the LORD was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you

²⁹that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the LORD.”

³⁰Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

³¹Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully.

³²That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, “We’ve found water!”

³³He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.

³⁵They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

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

²“Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—

³“so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

⁴Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

⁵Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

⁶Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

⁷Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people,

⁸because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

⁹And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

¹¹Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,

¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

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

¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

¹⁹Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,

²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

²¹Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing.

²²I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.

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

²⁴Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

¹In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:

²Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

³For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

⁴They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

⁵But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.

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

⁸Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing.

⁹Do your best to come to me quickly,

¹⁰for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

¹¹Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.

¹²I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.

¹³When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.

¹⁴Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done.

¹⁵You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.

¹⁶At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.

¹⁷But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth.

¹⁸The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

¹⁹Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.

²⁰Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.

²¹Do your best to get here before winter. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers and sisters.

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

¹And Job continued his discourse:

²“As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,

³as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,

⁴my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies.

⁵I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity.

⁶I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.

⁷“May my enemy be like the wicked, my adversary like the unjust!

⁸For what hope have the godless when they are cut off, when God takes away their life?

⁹Does God listen to their cry when distress comes upon them?

¹⁰Will they find delight in the Almighty? Will they call on God at all times?

¹¹“I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.

¹²You have all seen this yourselves. Why then this meaningless talk?

¹³“Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:

¹⁴However many his children, their fate is the sword; his offspring will never have enough to eat.

¹⁵The plague will bury those who survive him, and their widows will not weep for them.

¹⁶Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay,

¹⁷what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver.

¹⁸The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman.

¹⁹He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night.

²¹The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

²²It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.

²³It claps its hands in derision and hisses him out of his place.”

¹A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah. You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

²I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

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

⁴I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

⁵I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.

⁷Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

⁸I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

⁹Those who want to kill me will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth.

¹⁰They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals.

¹¹But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God will glory in him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

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

²Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips.

³Stone is heavy and sand a burden, but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.

⁴Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?

⁵Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

⁶Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.

⁷One who is full loathes honey from the comb, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.

⁸Like a bird that flees its nest is anyone who flees from home.

⁹Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.

¹⁰Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you— better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.

¹¹Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart; then I can answer anyone who treats me with contempt.

¹²The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

¹³Take the garment of one who puts up security for a stranger; hold it in pledge if it is done for an outsider.

¹⁴If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.

¹⁵A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm;

¹⁶restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.

¹⁷As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

¹⁸The one who guards a fig tree will eat its fruit, and whoever protects their master will be honored.

¹⁹As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.

²⁰Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes.

²¹The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but people are tested by their praise.

²²Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding them like grain with a pestle, you will not remove their folly from them.

²³Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;

²⁴for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.

²⁵When the hay is removed and new growth appears and the grass from the hills is gathered in,

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

²⁷You will have plenty of goats’ milk to feed your family and to nourish your female servants.

¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.

²He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

³He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them.

⁴He built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”

⁵In both courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts.

⁶He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, arousing his anger.

⁷He took the image he had made and put it in God’s temple, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever.

⁸I will not again make the feet of the Israelites leave the land I assigned to your ancestors, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them concerning all the laws, decrees and regulations given through Moses.”

⁹But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.

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

¹¹So the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.

¹²In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.

¹³And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.

¹⁴Afterward he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, west of the Gihon spring in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate and encircling the hill of Ophel; he also made it much higher. He stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah.

¹⁵He got rid of the foreign gods and removed the image from the temple of the LORD, as well as all the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem; and he threw them out of the city.

¹⁶Then he restored the altar of the LORD and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it, and told Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁷The people, however, continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the LORD their God.

¹⁸The other events of Manasseh’s reign, including his prayer to his God and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, are written in the annals of the kings of Israel.

¹⁹His prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty, as well as all his sins and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself—all these are written in the records of the seers.

²⁰Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in his palace. And Amon his son succeeded him as king.

²¹Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years.

²²He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon worshiped and offered sacrifices to all the idols Manasseh had made.

²³But unlike his father Manasseh, he did not humble himself before the LORD; Amon increased his guilt.

²⁴Amon’s officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his palace.

²⁵Then the people of the land killed all who had plotted against King Amon, and they made Josiah his son king in his place.

¹Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:

²“Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

³Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.

⁴Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

⁵The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

⁶When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.

⁷This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.

⁸But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

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

¹⁰When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

¹When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.

²As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said.

⁴Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.

⁵But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.

⁶But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here,

⁷and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”

⁸When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil.

⁹Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.

¹⁰As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

¹²As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

¹³But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.

¹⁴The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea.

¹⁵Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

¹⁸A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

²⁰You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.”

²¹(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

²²Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.

²³For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.

²⁵And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

²⁶From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.

²⁷God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.

²⁸‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

²⁹“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.

³⁰In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

³¹For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

³²When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”

³³At that, Paul left the Council.

³⁴Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.