Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

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

³Then the chief priests accused him of many things.

⁴Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.”

⁵But Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.

⁶Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked.

⁷Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection.

⁸So the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom.

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

¹⁰For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over.

¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead.

¹²Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?”

¹³They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

¹⁴Pilate asked them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!”

¹⁵So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.

¹⁶Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort.

¹⁷And they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him.

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

¹⁹They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him.

²⁰After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

²¹They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus.

²²Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull).

²³And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it.

²⁴And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.

²⁵It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him.

²⁶The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”

²⁷And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left.

²⁸

²⁹Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days,

³⁰save yourself, and come down from the cross!”

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

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

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

³⁴At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

³⁵When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.”

³⁶And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.”

³⁷Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.

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

³⁹Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”

⁴⁰There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.

⁴¹These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.

⁴²When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,

⁴³Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

⁴⁴Then Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead for some time.

⁴⁵When he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the body to Joseph.

⁴⁶Then Joseph bought a linen cloth, and taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.

⁴⁷Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.

¹Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the region.

²When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the region, saw her, he seized her and lay with her by force.

³And his soul was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the girl, and spoke tenderly to her.

⁴So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl to be my wife.”

⁵Now Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah; but his sons were with his cattle in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came.

⁶And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him,

⁷just as the sons of Jacob came in from the field. When they heard of it, the men were indignant and very angry, because he had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, for such a thing ought not to be done.

⁸But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The heart of my son Shechem longs for your daughter; please give her to him in marriage.

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

¹⁰You shall live with us; and the land shall be open to you; live and trade in it, and get property in it.”

¹¹Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor with you, and whatever you say to me I will give.

¹²Put the marriage present and gift as high as you like, and I will give whatever you ask me; only give me the girl to be my wife.”

¹³The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah.

¹⁴They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us.

¹⁵Only on this condition will we consent to you: that you will become as we are and every male among you be circumcised.

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

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

¹⁸Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem.

¹⁹And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. Now he was the most honored of all his family.

²⁰So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying,

²¹“These people are friendly with us; let them live in the land and trade in it, for the land is large enough for them; let us take their daughters in marriage, and let us give them our daughters.

²²Only on this condition will they agree to live among us, to become one people: that every male among us be circumcised as they are circumcised.

²³Will not their livestock, their property, and all their animals be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will live among us.”

²⁴And all who went out of the city gate heeded Hamor and his son Shechem; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

²⁵On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city unawares, and killed all the males.

²⁶They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.

²⁷And the other sons of Jacob came upon the slain, and plundered the city, because their sister had been defiled.

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

²⁹All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and made their prey.

³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.”

³¹But they said, “Should our sister be treated like a whore?”

¹Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, for you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

²Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.

³At the same time pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison,

⁴so that I may reveal it clearly, as I should.

⁵Conduct yourselves 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 ought to answer everyone.

⁷Tychicus will tell you all the news about me; he is a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord.

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

⁹he is coming with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here.

¹⁰Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions — if he comes to you, welcome him.

¹¹And Jesus who is called Justus greets you. These are the only ones of the circumcision among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.

¹²Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always wrestling in his prayers on your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured in everything that God wills.

¹³For I testify for him that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.

¹⁴Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you.

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

¹⁶And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea.

¹⁷And say to Archippus, “See that you complete the task that you have received in the Lord.”

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

¹Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?

²You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask.

³You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.

⁴Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

⁵Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, “God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

⁶But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

⁷Submit yourselves therefore 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, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

⁹Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.

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

¹¹Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but 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. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?

¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.”

¹⁴Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

¹⁵Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”

¹⁶As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.

¹⁷Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

¹Elihu continued and said:

²“Do you think this to be just? You say, ‘I am in the right before God.’

³If you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’

⁴I will answer you and your friends with you.

⁵Look at the heavens and see; observe the clouds, which are higher than you.

⁶If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

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

⁸Your wickedness affects others like you, and your righteousness, other human beings.

⁹“Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help because of the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives strength in the night,

¹¹who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’

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

¹³Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!

¹⁵And now, because his anger does not punish, and he does not greatly heed transgression,

¹⁶Job opens his mouth in empty talk, he multiplies words without knowledge.”

¹In you, O LORD, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.

²In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.

³Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.

⁵For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth.

⁶Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.

⁷I have been like a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.

⁸My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all day long.

⁹Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent.

¹⁰For my enemies speak concerning me, and those who watch for my life consult together.

¹¹They say, “Pursue and seize that person whom God has forsaken, for there is no one to deliver.”

¹²O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!

¹³Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed; let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace.

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

¹⁵My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all day long, though their number is past my knowledge.

¹⁶I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD, I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.

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

¹⁸So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come. Your power

¹⁹and your righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?

²⁰You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.

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

²²I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.

²³My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have rescued.

²⁴All day long my tongue will talk of your righteous help, for those who tried to do me harm have been put to shame, and disgraced.

¹Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight;

²for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching.

³When I was a son with my father, tender, and my mother’s favorite,

⁴he taught me, and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.

⁵Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.

⁶Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.

⁷The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight.

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

⁹She will place on your head a fair garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”

¹⁰Hear, my child, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many.

¹¹I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness.

¹²When you walk, your step will not be hampered; and if you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.

¹⁴Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evildoers.

¹⁵Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on.

¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.

¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what they stumble over.

²⁰My child, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.

²¹Do not let them escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

²³Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

²⁴Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.

²⁵Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

²⁶Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure.

²⁷Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

¹Now 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.

²Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak set out to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem; and with them were the prophets of God, helping them.

³At the same time Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus, “Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?”

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

⁵But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report reached Darius and then answer was returned by letter in reply to it.

⁶The copy of the letter that Tattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and his associates the envoys who were in the province Beyond the River sent to King Darius;

⁷they sent him a report, in which was written as follows: “To Darius the king, all peace!

⁸May it be known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built of hewn stone, and timber is laid in the walls; this work is being done diligently and prospers in their hands.

⁹Then we spoke to those elders and asked them, ‘Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?’

¹⁰We also asked them their names, for your information, so that we might write down the names of the men at their head.

¹¹This was their reply to us: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.

¹²But because our ancestors had angered the God of heaven, he gave them into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia.

¹³However, King Cyrus of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt.

¹⁴Moreover, the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem and had brought into the temple of Babylon, these King Cyrus took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor.

¹⁵He said to him, “Take these vessels; go and put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site.”

¹⁶Then this Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God in Jerusalem; and from that time until now it has been under construction, and it is not yet finished.’

¹⁷And now, if it seems good to the king, have a search made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see whether a decree was issued by King Cyrus for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem. Let the king send us his pleasure in this matter.”

¹Woe is me! For I have become like one who, after the summer fruit has been gathered, after the vintage has been gleaned, finds no cluster to eat; there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger.

²The faithful have disappeared from the land, and there is no one left who is upright; they all lie in wait for blood, and they hunt each other with nets.

³Their hands are skilled to do evil; the official and the judge ask for a bribe, and the powerful dictate what they desire; thus they pervert justice.

⁴The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of their sentinels, of their punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand.

⁵Put no trust in a friend, have no confidence in a loved one; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your embrace;

⁶for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; your enemies are members of your own household.

⁷But as for me, 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, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.

⁹I must bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he takes my side and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall see his vindication.

¹⁰Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will see her downfall; now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets.

¹¹A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended.

¹²In that day they will come to you from Assyria to Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

¹³But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their doings.

¹⁴Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that belongs to you, which lives alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old.

¹⁵As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, show us marvelous things.

¹⁶The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths; their ears shall be deaf;

¹⁷they shall lick dust like a snake, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their fortresses; they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God, and they shall stand in fear of you.

¹⁸Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of your possession? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in showing clemency.

¹⁹He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

²⁰You will show faithfulness to Jacob and unswerving loyalty to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.

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

²where the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews gave him a report against Paul. They appealed to him

³and requested, as a favor to them against Paul, to have him transferred to Jerusalem. They were, in fact, planning an ambush to kill him along the way.

⁴Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he himself intended to go there shortly.

⁵“So,” he said, “let those of you who have the authority come down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them accuse him.”

⁶After he had stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought.

⁷When he arrived, the Jews who had gone down from Jerusalem surrounded him, bringing many serious charges against him, which they could not prove.

⁸Paul said in his defense, “I have in no way committed an offense against the law of the Jews, or against the temple, or against the emperor.”

⁹But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, asked Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and be tried there before me on these charges?”

¹⁰Paul said, “I am appealing to the emperor’s tribunal; this is where I should be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you very well know.

¹¹Now if I am in the wrong and have committed something for which I deserve to die, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can turn me over to them. I appeal to the emperor.”

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

¹³After several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus.

¹⁴Since they were staying there several days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a man here who was left in prison by Felix.

¹⁵When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me about him and asked for a sentence against him.

¹⁶I told them that it was not the custom of the Romans to hand over anyone before the accused had met the accusers face to face and had been given an opportunity to make a defense against the charge.

¹⁷So when they met here, I lost no time, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought.

¹⁸When the accusers stood up, they did not charge him with any of the crimes that I was expecting.

¹⁹Instead they had certain points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, but whom Paul asserted to be alive.

²⁰Since I was at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wished to go to Jerusalem and be tried there on these charges.

²¹But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of his Imperial Majesty, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to the emperor.”

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

²³So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then Festus gave the order and Paul was brought in.

²⁴And Festus said, “King Agrippa and all here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish community petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.

²⁵But I found that he had done nothing deserving death; and when he appealed to his Imperial Majesty, I decided to send him.

²⁶But I have nothing definite to write to our sovereign about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that, after we have examined him, I may have something to write —

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