Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.

²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

³but when they went in, they did not find the body.

⁴While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.

⁵The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.

⁶Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,

⁷that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

⁸Then they remembered his words,

⁹and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.

¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.

¹¹But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

¹³Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,

¹⁴and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,

¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad.

¹⁸Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”

¹⁹He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.

²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.

²²Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning,

²³and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

²⁴Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”

²⁵Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!

²⁶Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”

²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

²⁸As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on.

²⁹But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

³¹Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.

³²They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

³³That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.

³⁴They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!”

³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

³⁶While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

³⁸He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”

⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish,

⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence.

⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”

⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,

⁴⁶and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,

⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.

⁴⁹And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

⁵⁰Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

⁵¹While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.

⁵²And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy;

⁵³and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.

²For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them,

³the hand of the LORD will strike with a deadly pestilence your livestock in the field: the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks.

⁴But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing shall die of all that belongs to the Israelites.’”

⁵The LORD set a time, saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land.”

⁶And on the next day the LORD did so; all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but of the livestock of the Israelites not one died.

⁷Pharaoh inquired and found that not one of the livestock of the Israelites was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he would not let the people go.

⁸Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and let Moses throw it in the air in the sight of Pharaoh.

⁹It shall become fine dust all over the land of Egypt, and shall cause festering boils on humans and animals throughout the whole land of Egypt.”

¹⁰So they took soot from the kiln, and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses threw it in the air, and it caused festering boils on humans and animals.

¹¹The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils afflicted the magicians as well as all the Egyptians.

¹²But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses.

¹³Then the LORD said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.

¹⁴For this time I will send all my plagues upon you yourself, and upon your officials, and upon your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.

¹⁵For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth.

¹⁶But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earth.

¹⁷You are still exalting yourself against my people, and will not let them go.

¹⁸Tomorrow at this time I will cause the heaviest hail to fall that has ever fallen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.

¹⁹Send, therefore, and have your livestock and everything that you have in the open field brought to a secure place; every human or animal that is in the open field and is not brought under shelter will die when the hail comes down upon them.’”

²⁰Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried their slaves and livestock off to a secure place.

²¹Those who did not regard the word of the LORD left their slaves and livestock in the open field.

²²The LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven so that hail may fall on the whole land of Egypt, on humans and animals and all the plants of the field in the land of Egypt.”

²³Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire came down on the earth. And the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt;

²⁴there was hail with fire flashing continually in the midst of it, such heavy hail as had never fallen in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

²⁵The hail struck down everything that was in the open field throughout all the land of Egypt, both human and animal; the hail also struck down all the plants of the field, and shattered every tree in the field.

²⁶Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, there was no hail.

²⁷Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “This time I have sinned; the LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.

²⁸Pray to the LORD! Enough of God’s thunder and hail! I will let you go; you need stay no longer.”

²⁹Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the LORD; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.

³⁰But as for you and your officials, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God.”

³¹(Now the flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bud.

³²But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they are late in coming up.)

³³So Moses left Pharaoh, went out of the city, and stretched out his hands to the LORD; then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured down on the earth.

³⁴But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned once more and hardened his heart, he and his officials.

³⁵So the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.

¹I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

²Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.

³For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

⁴For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function,

⁵so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

⁶We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith;

⁷ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching;

⁸the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

⁹Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;

¹⁰love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.

¹¹Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.

¹²Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.

¹³Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

¹⁶Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.

¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.

¹⁸If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

¹⁹Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

²⁰No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.”

²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

¹When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

²And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

³Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne.

⁴And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.

⁵Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth; and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

⁶Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them.

⁷The first angel blew his trumpet, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were hurled to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

⁸The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea.

⁹A third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

¹¹The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water, because it was made bitter.

¹²The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining, and likewise the night.

¹³Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew in midheaven, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”

¹Where has your beloved gone, O fairest among women? Which way has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?

²My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

³I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he pastures his flock among the lilies.

⁴You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.

⁵Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me! Your hair is like a flock of goats, moving down the slopes of Gilead.

⁶Your teeth are like a flock of ewes, that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins, and not one among them is bereaved.

⁷Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.

⁸There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number.

⁹My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the darling of her mother, flawless to her that bore her. The maidens saw her and called her happy; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

¹⁰“Who is this that looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?”

¹¹I went down to the nut orchard, to look at the blossoms of the valley, to see whether the vines had budded, whether the pomegranates were in bloom.

¹²Before I was aware, my fancy set me in a chariot beside my prince.

¹³Return, return, O Shulammite! Return, return, that we may look upon you. Why should you look upon the Shulammite, as upon a dance before two armies?

¹O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.

²Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.

³Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.

⁴For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods.

⁵For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.

⁶Honor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

⁷Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

⁸Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts.

⁹Worship the LORD in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth.

¹⁰Say among the nations, “The LORD is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.”

¹¹Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

¹²let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy

¹³before the LORD; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.

¹One who is often reproved, yet remains stubborn, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.

²When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

³A child who loves wisdom makes a parent glad, but to keep company with prostitutes is to squander one’s substance.

⁴By justice a king gives stability to the land, but one who makes heavy exactions ruins it.

⁵Whoever flatters a neighbor is spreading a net for the neighbor’s feet.

⁶In the transgression of the evil there is a snare, but the righteous sing and rejoice.

⁷The righteous know the rights of the poor; the wicked have no such understanding.

⁸Scoffers set a city aflame, but the wise turn away wrath.

⁹If the wise go to law with fools, there is ranting and ridicule without relief.

¹⁰The bloodthirsty hate the blameless, and they seek the life of the upright.

¹¹A fool gives full vent to anger, but the wise quietly holds it back.

¹²If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.

¹³The poor and the oppressor have this in common: the LORD gives light to the eyes of both.

¹⁴If a king judges the poor with equity, his throne will be established forever.

¹⁵The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a mother is disgraced by a neglected child.

¹⁶When the wicked are in authority, transgression increases, but the righteous will look upon their downfall.

¹⁷Discipline your children, and they will give you rest; they will give delight to your heart.

¹⁸Where there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint, but happy are those who keep the law.

¹⁹By mere words servants are not disciplined, for though they understand, they will not give heed.

²⁰Do you see someone who is hasty in speech? There is more hope for a fool than for anyone like that.

²¹A slave pampered from childhood will come to a bad end.

²²One given to anger stirs up strife, and the hothead causes much transgression.

²³A person’s pride will bring humiliation, but one who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.

²⁴To be a partner of a thief is to hate one’s own life; one hears the victim’s curse, but discloses nothing.

²⁵The fear of others lays a snare, but one who trusts in the LORD is secure.

²⁶Many seek the favor of a ruler, but it is from the LORD that one gets justice.

²⁷The unjust are an abomination to the righteous, but the upright are an abomination to the wicked.

¹So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther.

²On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.”

³Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me — that is my petition — and the lives of my people — that is my request.

⁴For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.”

⁵Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?”

⁶Esther said, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.

⁷The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him.

⁸When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining; and the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face.

⁹Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.”

¹⁰So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.

¹See, a day is coming for the LORD, when the plunder taken from you will be divided in your midst.

²For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses looted and the women raped; half the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

³Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.

⁴On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward.

⁵And you shall flee by the valley of the LORD’s mountain, for the valley between the mountains shall reach to Azal; and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

⁶On that day there shall not be either cold or frost.

⁷And there shall be continuous day (it is known to the LORD), not day and not night, for at evening time there shall be light.

⁸On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter.

⁹And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and his name one.

¹⁰The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses.

¹¹And it shall be inhabited, for never again shall it be doomed to destruction; Jerusalem shall abide in security.

¹²This shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet; their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and their tongues shall rot in their mouths.

¹³On that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of a neighbor, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other;

¹⁴even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected — gold, silver, and garments in great abundance.

¹⁵And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever animals may be in those camps.

¹⁶Then all who survive of the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the festival of booths.

¹⁷If any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain upon them.

¹⁸And if the family of Egypt do not go up and present themselves, then on them shall come the plague that the LORD inflicts on the nations that do not go up to keep the festival of booths.

¹⁹Such shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to keep the festival of booths.

²⁰On that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the LORD.” And the cooking pots in the house of the LORD shall be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar;

²¹and every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and use them to boil the flesh of the sacrifice. And there shall no longer be traders in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense that I now make before you.”

²When they heard him addressing them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet. Then he said:

³“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

⁴I persecuted this Way up to the point of death by binding both men and women and putting them in prison,

⁵as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. From them I also received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and I went there in order to bind those who were there and to bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.

⁶“While I was on my way and approaching Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me.

⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’

⁸I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Then he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.’

⁹Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

¹⁰I asked, ‘What am I to do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told everything that has been assigned to you to do.’

¹¹Since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, those who were with me took my hand and led me to Damascus.

¹²“A certain Ananias, who was a devout man according to the law and well spoken of by all the Jews living there,

¹³came to me; and standing beside me, he said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight!’ In that very hour I regained my sight and saw him.

¹⁴Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear his own voice;

¹⁵for you will be his witness to all the world of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.’

¹⁷“After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance

¹⁸and saw Jesus saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.

²⁰And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.’

²¹Then he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

²²Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

²³And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air,

²⁴the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him.

²⁵But when they had tied him up with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷The tribune came and asked Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.”

²⁸The tribune answered, “It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.” Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.”

²⁹Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him; and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

³⁰Since he wanted to find out what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the entire council to meet. He brought Paul down and had him stand before them.