Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.

²Large crowds followed him, and he cured them there.

³Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?”

⁴He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’

⁵and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

⁶So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

⁷They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?”

⁸He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

⁹And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.”

¹⁰His disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

¹¹But he said to them, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given.

¹²For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”

¹³Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them;

¹⁴but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”

¹⁵And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.

¹⁶Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

¹⁷And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

¹⁸He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness;

¹⁹Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

²⁰The young man said to him, “I have kept all these; what do I still lack?”

²¹Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

²²When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

²³Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?”

²⁶But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

²⁷Then Peter said in reply, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”

²⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

²⁹And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life.

³⁰But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

¹On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel.

²He said to Aaron, “Take a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the LORD.

³And say to the people of Israel, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering; a calf and a lamb, yearlings without blemish, for a burnt offering;

⁴and an ox and a ram for an offering of well-being to sacrifice before the LORD; and a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD will appear to you.’”

⁵They brought what Moses commanded to the front of the tent of meeting; and the whole congregation drew near and stood before the LORD.

⁶And Moses said, “This is the thing that the LORD commanded you to do, so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”

⁷Then Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people; and sacrifice the offering of the people, and make atonement for them; as the LORD has commanded.”

⁸Aaron drew near to the altar, and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself.

⁹The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar.

¹⁰But the fat, the kidneys, and the appendage of the liver from the sin offering he turned into smoke on the altar, as the LORD commanded Moses;

¹¹and the flesh and the skin he burned with fire outside the camp.

¹²Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, and he dashed it against all sides of the altar.

¹³And they brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, and the head, which he turned into smoke on the altar.

¹⁴He washed the entrails and the legs and, with the burnt offering, turned them into smoke on the altar.

¹⁵Next he presented the people’s offering. He took the goat of the sin offering that was for the people, and slaughtered it, and presented it as a sin offering like the first one.

¹⁶He presented the burnt offering, and sacrificed it according to regulation.

¹⁷He presented the grain offering, and, taking a handful of it, he turned it into smoke on the altar, in addition to the burnt offering of the morning.

¹⁸He slaughtered the ox and the ram as a sacrifice of well-being for the people. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, which he dashed against all sides of the altar,

¹⁹and the fat of the ox and of the ram — the broad tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the two kidneys and the fat on them, and the appendage of the liver.

²⁰They first laid the fat on the breasts, and the fat was turned into smoke on the altar;

²¹and the breasts and the right thigh Aaron raised as an elevation offering before the LORD, as Moses had commanded.

²²Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he came down after sacrificing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the offering of well-being.

²³Moses and Aaron entered the tent of meeting, and then came out and blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.

²⁴Fire came out from the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

⁴just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

⁵He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will,

⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

⁸that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight

⁹he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,

¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

¹¹In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will,

¹²so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

¹³In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;

¹⁴this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

¹⁵I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason

¹⁶I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.

¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him,

¹⁸so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,

¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.

²⁰God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

²¹far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.

²²And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church,

²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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.

¹Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:

²“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

³Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

⁴“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

⁵Who determined its measurements — surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?

⁶On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone

⁷when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?

⁸“Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? —

⁹when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band,

¹⁰and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors,

¹¹and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?

¹²“Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,

¹³so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?

¹⁴It is changed like clay under the seal, and it is dyed like a garment.

¹⁵Light is withheld from the wicked, and their uplifted arm is broken.

¹⁶“Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.

¹⁹“Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness,

²⁰that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home?

²¹Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!

²²“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,

²³which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?

²⁴What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

²⁵“Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt,

²⁶to bring rain on a land where no one lives, on the desert, which is empty of human life,

²⁷to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground put forth grass?

²⁸“Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?

²⁹From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the hoarfrost of heaven?

³⁰The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

³¹“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion?

³²Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children?

³³Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?

³⁴“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that a flood of waters may cover you?

³⁵Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’?

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the inward parts, or given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who has the wisdom to number the clouds? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,

³⁸when the dust runs into a mass and the clods cling together?

³⁹“Can you hunt the prey for the lion, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

⁴⁰when they crouch in their dens, or lie in wait in their covert?

⁴¹Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food?

¹O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

²O give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.

³O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever;

⁴who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever;

⁵who by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever;

⁶who spread out the earth on the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever;

⁷who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever;

⁸the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever;

⁹the moon and stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹⁰who struck Egypt through their firstborn, for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹¹and brought Israel out from among them, for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹²with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹³who divided the Red Sea in two, for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹⁴and made Israel pass through the midst of it, for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹⁵but overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹⁶who led his people through the wilderness, for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹⁷who struck down great kings, for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹⁸and killed famous kings, for his steadfast love endures forever;

¹⁹Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his steadfast love endures forever;

²⁰and Og, king of Bashan, for his steadfast love endures forever;

²¹and gave their land as a heritage, for his steadfast love endures forever;

²²a heritage to his servant Israel, for his steadfast love endures forever.

²³It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever;

²⁴and rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever;

²⁵who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever.

²⁶O give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.

¹My child, keep my words and store up my commandments with you;

²keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;

³bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend,

⁵that they may keep you from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.

⁶For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice,

⁷and I saw among the simple ones, I observed among the youths, a young man without sense,

⁸passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house

⁹in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.

¹⁰Then a woman comes toward him, decked out like a prostitute, wily of heart.

¹¹She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home;

¹²now in the street, now in the squares, and at every corner she lies in wait.

¹³She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him:

¹⁴“I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;

¹⁵so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!

¹⁶I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen;

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love.

¹⁹For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of money with him; he will not come home until full moon.”

²¹With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.

²²Right away he follows her, and goes like an ox to the slaughter, or bounds like a stag toward the trap

²³until an arrow pierces its entrails. He is like a bird rushing into a snare, not knowing that it will cost him his life.

²⁴And now, my children, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths.

²⁶For many are those she has laid low, and numerous are her victims.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

¹The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

²There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren, having borne no children.

³And the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Although you are barren, having borne no children, you shall conceive and bear a son.

⁴Now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, or to eat anything unclean,

⁵for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth. It is he who shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

⁶Then the woman came and told her husband, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like that of an angel of God, most awe-inspiring; I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name;

⁷but he said to me, ‘You shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the boy shall be a nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.’”

⁸Then Manoah entreated the LORD, and said, “O LORD, I pray, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we are to do concerning the boy who will be born.”

⁹God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.

¹⁰So the woman ran quickly and told her husband, “The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.”

¹¹Manoah got up and followed his wife, and came to the man and said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to this woman?” And he said, “I am.”

¹²Then Manoah said, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the boy’s rule of life; what is he to do?”

¹³The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Let the woman give heed to all that I said to her.

¹⁴She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine. She is not to drink wine or strong drink, or eat any unclean thing. She is to observe everything that I commanded her.”

¹⁵Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Allow us to detain you, and prepare a kid for you.”

¹⁶The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “If you detain me, I will not eat your food; but if you want to prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to the LORD.” (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.)

¹⁷Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?”

¹⁸But the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.”

¹⁹So Manoah took the kid with the grain offering, and offered it on the rock to the LORD, to him who works wonders.

²⁰When the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.

²¹The angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD.

²²And Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen God.”

²³But his wife said to him, “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.”

²⁴The woman bore a son, and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the LORD blessed him.

²⁵The spirit of the LORD began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

¹In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

²The king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field.

³And there came out to him Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder.

⁴The Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you base this confidence of yours?

⁵Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me?

⁶See, you are relying on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.

⁷But if you say to me, ‘We rely on the LORD our God,’ is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?

⁸Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

⁹How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

¹⁰Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

¹²But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the people sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

¹³Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

¹⁴Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.

¹⁵Do not let Hezekiah make you rely on the LORD by saying, The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat from your own vine and your own fig tree and drink water from your own cistern,

¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸Do not let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, The LORD will save us. Has any of the gods of the nations saved their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

²⁰Who among all the gods of these countries have saved their countries out of my hand, that the LORD should save Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

²¹But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.”

²²Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

¹Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

²And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.

³Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task,

⁴while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.”

⁵What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

⁶They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

⁷The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

⁸Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen.

¹⁰But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.

¹¹Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

¹²They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council.

¹³They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law;

¹⁴for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.”

¹⁵And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.