Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹As soon as it was morning, having held a meeting with the elders, scribes, and the whole Sanhedrin, the chief priests tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

²So Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.”

³And the chief priests accused him of many things.

⁴Pilate questioned him again, “Aren’t you going to answer? Look how many things they are accusing you of!”

⁵But Jesus still did not answer, and so Pilate was amazed.

⁶At the festival Pilate used to release for the people a prisoner whom they requested.

⁷There was one named Barabbas, who was in prison with rebels who had committed murder during the rebellion.

⁸The crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do for them as was his custom.

⁹Pilate answered them, “Do you want me to release the King of the Jews for you?”

¹⁰For he knew it was because of envy that the chief priests had handed him over.

¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd so that he would release Barabbas to them instead.

¹²Pilate asked them again, “Then what do you want me to do with the one you call the King of the Jews?”

¹³Again they shouted, “Crucify him!”

¹⁴Pilate said to them, “Why? What has he done wrong?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!”

¹⁵Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them; and after having Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified.

¹⁶The soldiers led him away into the palace (that is, the governor’s residence ) and called the whole company together.

¹⁷They dressed him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns, and put it on him.

¹⁸And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

¹⁹They were hitting him on the head with a stick and spitting on him. Getting down on their knees, they were paying him homage.

²⁰After they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple robe and put his clothes on him. They led him out to crucify him.

²¹They forced a man coming in from the country, who was passing by, to carry Jesus’s cross. He was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.

²²They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of the Skull ).

²³They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.

²⁴Then they crucified him and divided his clothes, casting lots for them to decide what each would get.

²⁵Now it was nine in the morning when they crucified him.

²⁶The inscription of the charge written against him was: THE KING OF THE JEWS.

²⁷They crucified two criminals with him, one on his right and one on his left.

²⁸

²⁹Those who passed by were yelling insults at him, shaking their heads, and saying, “Ha! The one who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

³⁰save yourself by coming down from the cross!”

³¹In the same way, the chief priests with the scribes were mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others, but he cannot save himself!

³²Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe.” Even those who were crucified with him taunted him.

³³When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

³⁴And at three Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

³⁵When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “See, he’s calling for Elijah.”

³⁶Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, fixed it on a stick, offered him a drink, and said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down.”

³⁷Jesus let out a loud cry and breathed his last.

³⁸Then the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

³⁹When the centurion, who was standing opposite him, saw the way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

⁴⁰There were also women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.

⁴¹In Galilee these women followed him and took care of him. Many other women had come up with him to Jerusalem.

⁴²When it was already evening, because it was the day of preparation (that is, the day before the Sabbath),

⁴³Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Sanhedrin who was himself looking forward to the kingdom of God, came and boldly went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body.

⁴⁴Pilate was surprised that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had already died.

⁴⁵When he found out from the centurion, he gave the corpse to Joseph.

⁴⁶After he bought some linen cloth, Joseph took him down and wrapped him in the linen. Then he laid him in a tomb cut out of the rock and rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.

⁴⁷Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were watching where he was laid.

¹Leah’s daughter Dinah, whom Leah bore to Jacob, went out to see some of the young women of the area.

²When Shechem — son of Hamor the Hivite, who was the region’s chieftain — saw her, he took her and raped her.

³He became infatuated with Jacob’s daughter Dinah. He loved the young girl and spoke tenderly to her.

⁴“Get me this girl as a wife,” he told his father.

⁵Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent until they returned.

⁶Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.

⁷Jacob’s sons returned from the field when they heard about the incident and were deeply grieved and very angry. For Shechem had committed an outrage against Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter, and such a thing should not be done.

⁸Hamor said to Jacob’s sons, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.

⁹Intermarry with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

¹⁰Live with us. The land is before you. Settle here, move about, and acquire property in it.”

¹¹Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I’ll give you whatever you say.

¹²Demand of me a high compensation and gift; I’ll give you whatever you ask me. Just give the girl to be my wife!”

¹³But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

¹⁴“We cannot do this thing,” they said to them. “Giving our sister to an uncircumcised man is a disgrace to us.

¹⁵We will agree with you only on this condition: if all your males are circumcised as we are.

¹⁶Then we will give you our daughters, take your daughters for ourselves, live with you, and become one people.

¹⁷But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go.”

¹⁸Their words seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.

¹⁹The young man did not delay doing this, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most important in all his father’s family.

²⁰So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city.

²¹“These men are peaceful toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and move about in it, for indeed, the region is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as our wives and give our daughters to them.

²²But the men will agree to live with us and be one people only on this condition: if all our men are circumcised as they are.

²³Won’t their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will live with us.”

²⁴All the men who had come to the city gates listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and all those men were circumcised.

²⁵On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and killed every male.

²⁶They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and went away.

²⁷Jacob’s sons came to the slaughter and plundered the city because their sister had been defiled.

²⁸They took their flocks, herds, donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field.

²⁹They captured all their possessions, dependents, and wives and plundered everything in the houses.

³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me, making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

³¹But they answered, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”

¹Masters, deal with your slaves justly and fairly, since you know that you too have a Master in heaven.

²Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving.

³At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains,

⁴so that I may make it known as I should.

⁵Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time.

⁶Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.

⁷Tychicus, our dearly loved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me.

⁸I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know how we are and so that he may encourage your hearts.

⁹He is coming with Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here.

¹⁰Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you greetings, as does Mark, Barnabas’s cousin (concerning whom you have received instructions: if he comes to you, welcome him),

¹¹and so does Jesus who is called Justus. These alone of the circumcised are my coworkers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.

¹²Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. He is always wrestling for you in his prayers, so that you can stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills.

¹³For I testify about him that he works hard for you, for those in Laodicea, and for those in Hierapolis.

¹⁴Luke, the dearly loved physician, and Demas send you greetings.

¹⁵Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her home.

¹⁶After this letter has been read at your gathering, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.

¹⁷And tell Archippus, “Pay attention to the ministry you have received in the Lord, so that you can accomplish it.”

¹⁸I, Paul, am writing this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

¹What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

²You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.

³You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

⁴You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

⁵Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?

⁶But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

⁷Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

¹¹Don’t criticize one another, brothers and sisters. Anyone who defames or judges a fellow believer defames and judges the law. If you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

¹²There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”

¹⁴Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.

¹⁵Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

¹⁶But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

¹⁷So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.

¹Then Elihu continued, saying:

²Do you think it is just when you say, “I am righteous before God”?

³For you ask, “What does it profit you, and what benefit comes to me, if I do not sin?”

⁴I will answer you and your friends with you.

⁵Look at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds high above you.

⁶If you sin, how does it affect God? If you multiply your transgressions, what does it do to him?

⁷If you are righteous, what do you give him, or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness affects a person like yourself, and your righteousness, a son of man.

⁹People cry out because of severe oppression; they shout for help because of the power of the mighty.

¹⁰But no one asks, “Where is God my Maker, who provides us with songs in the night,

¹¹who gives us more understanding than the animals of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?”

¹²There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the pride of evil people.

¹³Indeed, God does not listen to empty cries, and the Almighty does not take note of it —

¹⁴how much less when you complain that you do not see him, that your case is before him and you are waiting for him.

¹⁵But now, because God’s anger does not punish and he does not pay attention to transgression,

¹⁶Job opens his mouth in vain and multiplies words without knowledge.

¹LORD, I seek refuge in you; let me never be disgraced.

²In your justice, rescue and deliver me; listen closely to me and save me.

³Be a rock of refuge for me, where I can always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and fortress.

⁴Deliver me, my God, from the power of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and oppressive.

⁵For you are my hope, Lord GOD, my confidence from my youth.

⁶I have leaned on you from birth; you took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is always about you.

⁷I am like a miraculous sign to many, and you are my strong refuge.

⁸My mouth is full of praise and honor to you all day long.

⁹Don’t discard me in my old age. As my strength fails, do not abandon me.

¹⁰For my enemies talk about me, and those who spy on me plot together,

¹¹saying, “God has abandoned him; chase him and catch him, for there is no one to rescue him.”

¹²God, do not be far from me; my God, hurry to help me.

¹³May my adversaries be disgraced and destroyed; may those who intend to harm me be covered with disgrace and humiliation.

¹⁴But I will hope continually and will praise you more and more.

¹⁵My mouth will tell about your righteousness and your salvation all day long, though I cannot sum them up.

¹⁶I come because of the mighty acts of the Lord GOD; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.

¹⁷God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still proclaim your wondrous works.

¹⁸Even while I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me, while I proclaim your power to another generation, your strength to all who are to come.

¹⁹Your righteousness reaches the heights, God, you who have done great things; God, who is like you?

²⁰You caused me to experience many troubles and misfortunes, but you will revive me again. You will bring me up again, even from the depths of the earth.

²¹You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.

²²Therefore, I will praise you with a harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing to you with a lyre, Holy One of Israel.

²³My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you because you have redeemed me.

²⁴Therefore, my tongue will proclaim your righteousness all day long, for those who intend to harm me will be disgraced and confounded.

¹Listen, sons, to a father’s discipline, and pay attention so that you may gain understanding,

²for I am giving you good instruction. Don’t abandon my teaching.

³When I was a son with my father, tender and precious to my mother,

⁴he taught me and said: “Your heart must hold on to my words. Keep my commands and live.

⁵Get wisdom, get understanding; don’t forget or turn away from the words from my mouth.

⁶Don’t abandon wisdom, and she will watch over you; love her, and she will guard you.

⁷Wisdom is supreme — so get wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding.

⁸Cherish her, and she will exalt you; if you embrace her, she will honor you.

⁹She will place a garland of favor on your head; she will give you a crown of beauty.”

¹⁰Listen, my son. Accept my words, and you will live many years.

¹¹I am teaching you the way of wisdom; I am guiding you on straight paths.

¹²When you walk, your steps will not be hindered; when you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life.

¹⁴Keep off the path of the wicked; don’t proceed on the way of evil ones.

¹⁵Avoid it; don’t travel on it. Turn away from it, and pass it by.

¹⁶For they can’t sleep unless they have done what is evil; they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.

¹⁷They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

¹⁹But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they don’t know what makes them stumble.

²⁰My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings.

²¹Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body.

²³Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.

²⁴Don’t let your mouth speak dishonestly, and don’t let your lips talk deviously.

²⁵Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.

²⁶Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established.

²⁷Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil.

¹But when the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them,

²Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak began to rebuild God’s house in Jerusalem. The prophets of God were with them, helping them.

³At that time Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates River, Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues came to the Jews and asked, “Who gave you the order to rebuild this temple and finish this structure?”

⁴They also asked them, “What are the names of the workers who are constructing this building?”

⁵But God was watching over the Jewish elders. These men wouldn’t stop them until a report was sent to Darius, so that they could receive written instructions about this matter.

⁶This is the text of the letter that Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates River, Shethar-bozenai, and their colleagues, the officials in the region, sent to King Darius.

⁷They sent him a report, written as follows: To King Darius: All greetings.

⁸Let it be known to the king that we went to the house of the great God in the province of Judah. It is being built with cut stones, and its beams are being set in the walls. This work is being done diligently and succeeding through the people’s efforts.

⁹So we questioned the elders and asked, “Who gave you the order to rebuild this temple and finish this structure?”

¹⁰We also asked them for their names, so that we could write down the names of their leaders for your information.

¹¹This is the reply they gave us: We are the servants of the God of the heavens and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.

¹²But since our fathers angered the God of the heavens, he handed them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and deported the people to Babylon.

¹³However, in the first year of King Cyrus of Babylon, he issued a decree to rebuild the house of God.

¹⁴He also took from the temple in Babylon the gold and silver articles of God’s house that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem and carried them to the temple in Babylon. He released them from the temple in Babylon to a man named Sheshbazzar, the governor by the appointment of King Cyrus.

¹⁵Cyrus told him, “Take these articles, put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its original site.”

¹⁶Then this same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of God’s house in Jerusalem. It has been under construction from that time until now, but it has not been completed.

¹⁷So if it pleases the king, let a search of the royal archives in Babylon be conducted to see if it is true that a decree was issued by King Cyrus to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. Let the king’s decision regarding this matter be sent to us.

¹How sad for me! For I am like one who — when the summer fruit has been gathered after the gleaning of the grape harvest  — finds no grape cluster to eat, no early fig, which I crave.

²Faithful people have vanished from the land; there is no one upright among the people. All of them wait in ambush to shed blood; they hunt each other with a net.

³Both hands are good at accomplishing evil: the official and the judge demand a bribe; when the powerful man communicates his evil desire, they plot it together.

⁴The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is worse than a hedge of thorns. The day of your watchmen, the day of your punishment, is coming; at this time their panic is here.

⁵Do not rely on a friend; don’t trust in a close companion. Seal your mouth from the woman who lies in your arms.

⁶Surely a son considers his father a fool, a daughter opposes her mother, and a daughter-in-law is against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own household.

⁷But I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

⁸Do not rejoice over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will stand up; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.

⁹Because I have sinned against him, I must endure the LORD’s rage until he champions my cause and establishes justice for me. He will bring me into the light; I will see his salvation.

¹⁰Then my enemy will see, and she will be covered with shame, the one who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will look at her in triumph; at that time she will be trampled like mud in the streets.

¹¹A day will come for rebuilding your walls; on that day your boundary will be extended.

¹²On that day people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, even from Egypt to the Euphrates River and from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.

¹³Then the earth will become a wasteland because of its inhabitants and as a result of their actions.

¹⁴Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that is your possession. They live alone in a woodland surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in ancient times.

¹⁵I will perform miracles for them as in the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt.

¹⁶Nations will see and be ashamed of all their power. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will become deaf.

¹⁷They will lick the dust like a snake; they will come trembling out of their hiding places like reptiles slithering on the ground. They will tremble in the presence of the LORD our God; they will stand in awe of you.

¹⁸Who is a God like you, forgiving iniquity and passing over rebellion for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not hold on to his anger forever because he delights in faithful love.

¹⁹He will again have compassion on us; he will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

²⁰You will show loyalty to Jacob and faithful love to Abraham, as you swore to our fathers from days long ago.

¹Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.

²The chief priests and the leaders of the Jews presented their case against Paul to him; and they appealed,

³asking for a favor against Paul, that Festus summon him to Jerusalem. They were, in fact, preparing an ambush along the road to kill him.

⁴Festus, however, answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to go there shortly.

⁵“Therefore,” he said, “let those of you who have authority go down with me and accuse him, if he has done anything wrong.”

⁶When he had spent not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea. The next day, seated at the tribunal, he commanded Paul to be brought in.

⁷When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him and brought many serious charges that they were not able to prove.

⁸Then Paul made his defense: “Neither against the Jewish law, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned in any way.”

⁹But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, replied to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem to be tried before me there on these charges?”

¹⁰Paul replied: “I am standing at Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as even you yourself know very well.

¹¹If then I did anything wrong and am deserving of death, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to what these men accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

¹²Then after Festus conferred with his council, he replied, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you will go.”

¹³Several days later, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea and paid a courtesy call on Festus.

¹⁴Since they were staying there several days, Festus presented Paul’s case to the king, saying, “There’s a man who was left as a prisoner by Felix.

¹⁵When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews presented their case and asked that he be condemned.

¹⁶I answered them that it is not the Roman custom to give someone up before the accused faces the accusers and has an opportunity for a defense against the charges.

¹⁷So when they had assembled here, I did not delay. The next day I took my seat at the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought in.

¹⁸The accusers stood up but brought no charge against him of the evils I was expecting.

¹⁹Instead they had some disagreements with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, a dead man Paul claimed to be alive.

²⁰Since I was at a loss in a dispute over such things, I asked him if he wanted to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding these matters.

²¹But when Paul appealed to be held for trial by the Emperor, I ordered him to be kept in custody until I could send him to Caesar.”

²²Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow you will hear him,” he replied.

²³So the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the auditorium with the military commanders and prominent men of the city. When Festus gave the command, Paul was brought in.

²⁴Then Festus said: “King Agrippa and all men present with us, you see this man. The whole Jewish community has appealed to me concerning him, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he should not live any longer.

²⁵I found that he had not done anything deserving of death, but when he himself appealed to the Emperor, I decided to send him.

²⁶I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him. Therefore, I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this examination is over, I may have something to write.

²⁷For it seems unreasonable to me to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.”