Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

²Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

³When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”

⁴And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.”

⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

⁷Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

⁸He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it.

⁹When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom

¹⁰and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

¹¹Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

¹²After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there a few days.

¹³The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁴In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.

¹⁵Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

¹⁶He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”

¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

¹⁸The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?”

¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

²⁰The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?”

²¹But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

²³When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing.

²⁴But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people

²⁵and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

¹The LORD said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go from here; indeed, when he lets you go, he will drive you away.

²Tell the people that every man is to ask his neighbor and every woman is to ask her neighbor for objects of silver and gold.”

³The LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, Moses himself was a man of great importance in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s officials and in the sight of the people.

⁴Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go out through Egypt.

⁵Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the livestock.

⁶Then there will be a loud cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as has never been or will ever be again.

⁷But not a dog shall growl at any of the Israelites — not at people, not at animals — so that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

⁸Then all these officials of yours shall come down to me, and bow low to me, saying, ‘Leave us, you and all the people who follow you.’ After that I will leave.” And in hot anger he left Pharaoh.

⁹The LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, in order that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

¹⁰Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; but the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

¹Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.

²Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables.

³Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them.

⁴Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

⁵Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.

⁶Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.

⁷We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.

⁸If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

¹¹For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.”

¹²So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

¹³Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.

¹⁴I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.

¹⁵If your brother or sister is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.

¹⁶So do not let your good be spoken of as evil.

¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸The one who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and has human approval.

¹⁹Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

²⁰Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat;

²¹it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.

²²The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve.

²³But those who have doubts are condemned if they eat, because they do not act from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

¹And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.

²He held a little scroll open in his hand. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,

³he gave a great shout, like a lion roaring. And when he shouted, the seven thunders sounded.

⁴And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”

⁵Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the land raised his right hand to heaven

⁶and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it: “There will be no more delay,

⁷but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

⁸Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”

⁹So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, “Take it, and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.”

¹⁰So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.

¹¹Then they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

¹O that you were like a brother to me, who nursed at my mother’s breast! If I met you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.

²I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother, and into the chamber of the one who bore me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranates.

³O that his left hand were under my head, and that his right hand embraced me!

⁴I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!

⁵Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you; there she who bore you was in labor.

⁶Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.

⁷Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house, it would be utterly scorned.

⁸We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister, on the day when she is spoken for?

⁹If she is a wall, we will build upon her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

¹⁰I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I was in his eyes as one who brings peace.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he entrusted the vineyard to keepers; each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand pieces of silver.

¹²My vineyard, my very own, is for myself; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred!

¹³O you who dwell in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it.

¹⁴Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of spices!

¹O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory.

²The LORD has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.

³He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

⁴Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.

⁵Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody.

⁶With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD.

⁷Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it.

⁸Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy

⁹at the presence of the LORD, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

¹The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him:

²No, my son! No, son of my womb! No, son of my vows!

³Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.

⁴It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire strong drink;

⁵or else they will drink and forget what has been decreed, and will pervert the rights of all the afflicted.

⁶Give strong drink to one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress;

⁷let them drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.

⁸Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute.

⁹Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

¹⁰A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.

¹¹The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.

¹²She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.

¹³She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.

¹⁴She is like the ships of the merchant, she brings her food from far away.

¹⁵She rises while it is still night and provides food for her household and tasks for her servant-girls.

¹⁶She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.

¹⁷She girds herself with strength, and makes her arms strong.

¹⁸She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night.

¹⁹She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.

²⁰She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy.

²¹She is not afraid for her household when it snows, for all her household are clothed in crimson.

²²She makes herself coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple.

²³Her husband is known in the city gates, taking his seat among the elders of the land.

²⁴She makes linen garments and sells them; she supplies the merchant with sashes.

²⁵Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.

²⁶She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

²⁷She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.

²⁸Her children rise up and call her happy; her husband too, and he praises her:

²⁹“Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.”

³⁰Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

³¹Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the city gates.

¹Now in the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day, when the king’s command and edict were about to be executed, on the very day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to gain power over them, but which had been changed to a day when the Jews would gain power over their foes,

²the Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who had sought their ruin; and no one could withstand them, because the fear of them had fallen upon all peoples.

³All the officials of the provinces, the satraps and the governors, and the royal officials were supporting the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.

⁴For Mordecai was powerful in the king’s house, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces as the man Mordecai grew more and more powerful.

⁵So the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering, and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them.

⁶In the citadel of Susa the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred people.

⁷They killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

⁸Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

⁹Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, Vaizatha,

¹⁰the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews; but they did not touch the plunder.

¹¹That very day the number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king.

¹²The king said to Queen Esther, “In the citadel of Susa the Jews have killed five hundred people and also the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what further is your request? It shall be fulfilled.”

¹³Esther said, “If it pleases the king, let the Jews who are in Susa be allowed tomorrow also to do according to this day’s edict, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows.”

¹⁴So the king commanded this to be done; a decree was issued in Susa, and the ten sons of Haman were hanged.

¹⁵The Jews who were in Susa gathered also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and they killed three hundred persons in Susa; but they did not touch the plunder.

¹⁶Now the other Jews who were in the king’s provinces also gathered to defend their lives, and gained relief from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them; but they laid no hands on the plunder.

¹⁷This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made that a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁸But the Jews who were in Susa gathered on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and rested on the fifteenth day, making that a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁹Therefore the Jews of the villages, who live in the open towns, hold the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day for gladness and feasting, a holiday on which they send gifts of food to one another.

²⁰Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,

²¹enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year,

²²as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.

²³So the Jews adopted as a custom what they had begun to do, as Mordecai had written to them.

²⁴Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur — that is “the lot” — to crush and destroy them;

²⁵but when Esther came before the king, he gave orders in writing that the wicked plot that he had devised against the Jews should come upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

²⁶Therefore these days are called Purim, from the word Pur. Thus because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them,

²⁷the Jews established and accepted as a custom for themselves and their descendants and all who joined them, that without fail they would continue to observe these two days every year, as it was written and at the time appointed.

²⁸These days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every family, province, and city; and these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants.

²⁹Queen Esther daughter of Abihail, along with the Jew Mordecai, gave full written authority, confirming this second letter about Purim.

³⁰Letters were sent wishing peace and security to all the Jews, to the one hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus,

³¹and giving orders that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed seasons, as the Jew Mordecai and Queen Esther enjoined on the Jews, just as they had laid down for themselves and for their descendants regulations concerning their fasts and their lamentations.

³²The command of Queen Esther fixed these practices of Purim, and it was recorded in writing.

¹And now, O priests, this command is for you.

²If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse on you and I will curse your blessings; indeed I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.

³I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and I will put you out of my presence.

⁴Know, then, that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may hold, says the LORD of hosts.

⁵My covenant with him was a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave him; this called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.

⁶True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in integrity and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

⁷For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

⁸But you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts,

⁹and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in your instruction.

¹⁰Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

¹¹Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

¹²May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob anyone who does this — any to witness or answer, or to bring an offering to the LORD of hosts.

¹³And this you do as well: You cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand.

¹⁴You ask, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

¹⁵Did not one God make her? Both flesh and spirit are his. And what does the one God desire? Godly offspring. So look to yourselves, and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his youth.

¹⁶For I hate divorce, says the LORD, the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.

¹⁷You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

¹Five days later the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and an attorney, a certain Tertullus, and they reported their case against Paul to the governor.

²When Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying: “Your Excellency, because of you we have long enjoyed peace, and reforms have been made for this people because of your foresight.

³We welcome this in every way and everywhere with utmost gratitude.

⁴But, to detain you no further, I beg you to hear us briefly with your customary graciousness.

⁵We have, in fact, found this man a pestilent fellow, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

⁶He even tried to profane the temple, and so we seized him.

⁷

⁸By examining him yourself you will be able to learn from him concerning everything of which we accuse him.”

⁹The Jews also joined in the charge by asserting that all this was true.

¹⁰When the governor motioned to him to speak, Paul replied: “I cheerfully make my defense, knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation.

¹¹As you can find out, it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem.

¹²They did not find me disputing with anyone in the temple or stirring up a crowd either in the synagogues or throughout the city.

¹³Neither can they prove to you the charge that they now bring against me.

¹⁴But this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors, believing everything laid down according to the law or written in the prophets.

¹⁵I have a hope in God — a hope that they themselves also accept — that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.

¹⁶Therefore I do my best always to have a clear conscience toward God and all people.

¹⁷Now after some years I came to bring alms to my nation and to offer sacrifices.

¹⁸While I was doing this, they found me in the temple, completing the rite of purification, without any crowd or disturbance.

¹⁹But there were some Jews from Asia — they ought to be here before you to make an accusation, if they have anything against me.

²⁰Or let these men here tell what crime they had found when I stood before the council,

²¹unless it was this one sentence that I called out while standing before them, ‘It is about the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’”

²²But Felix, who was rather well informed about the Way, adjourned the hearing with the comment, “When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case.”

²³Then he ordered the centurion to keep him in custody, but to let him have some liberty and not to prevent any of his friends from taking care of his needs.

²⁴Some days later when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him speak concerning faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁵And as he discussed justice, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present; when I have an opportunity, I will send for you.”

²⁶At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul, and for that reason he used to send for him very often and converse with him.

²⁷After two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus; and since he wanted to grant the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.