Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a shriveled hand.

²In order to accuse him, they were watching him closely to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath.

³He told the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand before us.”

⁴Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.

⁵After looking around at them with anger, he was grieved at the hardness of their hearts and told the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

⁶Immediately the Pharisees went out and started plotting with the Herodians against him, how they might kill him.

⁷Jesus departed with his disciples to the sea, and a large crowd followed from Galilee, and a large crowd followed from Judea,

⁸Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon. The large crowd came to him because they heard about everything he was doing.

⁹Then he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, so that the crowd wouldn’t crush him.

¹⁰Since he had healed many, all who had diseases were pressing toward him to touch him.

¹¹Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God!”

¹²And he would strongly warn them not to make him known.

¹³Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those he wanted, and they came to him.

¹⁴He appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, to send them out to preach,

¹⁵and to have authority to drive out demons.

¹⁶He appointed the Twelve: To Simon, he gave the name Peter;

¹⁷and to James the son of Zebedee, and to his brother John, he gave the name “Boanerges” (that is, “Sons of Thunder” );

¹⁸Andrew; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot,

¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

²⁰Jesus entered a house, and the crowd gathered again so that they were not even able to eat.

²¹When his family heard this, they set out to restrain him, because they said, “He’s out of his mind.”

²²The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,”  and, “He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons.”

²³So he summoned them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan?

²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

²⁵If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

²⁶And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand but is finished.

²⁷But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house.

²⁸“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for all sins and whatever blasphemies they utter.

²⁹But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”  —

³⁰because they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

³¹His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent word to him and called him.

³²A crowd was sitting around him and told him, “Look, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside asking for you.”

³³He replied to them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

³⁴Looking at those sitting in a circle around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!

³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

¹The LORD said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them: A priest is not to make himself ceremonially unclean for a dead person among his relatives,

²except for his immediate family: his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother.

³He may make himself unclean for his unmarried virgin sister in his immediate family.

⁴He is not to make himself unclean for those related to him by marriage and so defile himself.

⁵“Priests may not make bald spots on their heads, shave the edge of their beards, or make gashes on their bodies.

⁶They are to be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they present the fire offerings to the LORD, the food of their God, and they must be holy.

⁷They are not to marry a woman defiled by prostitution. They are not to marry one divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God.

⁸You are to consider him holy since he presents the food of your God. He will be holy to you because I, the LORD who sets you apart, am holy.

⁹If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by promiscuity, she defiles her father; she must be burned to death.

¹⁰“The priest who is highest among his brothers, who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and has been ordained to wear the clothes, must not dishevel his hair or tear his clothes.

¹¹He must not go near any dead person or make himself unclean even for his father or mother.

¹²He must not leave the sanctuary or he will desecrate the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am the LORD.

¹³“He is to marry a woman who is a virgin.

¹⁴He is not to marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people,

¹⁵so that he does not corrupt his bloodline among his people, for I am the LORD who sets him apart.”

¹⁶The LORD spoke to Moses:

¹⁷“Tell Aaron: None of your descendants throughout your generations who has a physical defect is to come near to present the food of his God.

¹⁸No man who has any defect is to come near: no man who is blind, lame, facially disfigured, or deformed;

¹⁹no man who has a broken foot or hand,

²⁰or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has an eye defect, a festering rash, scabs, or a crushed testicle.

²¹No descendant of the priest Aaron who has a defect is to come near to present the fire offerings to the LORD. He has a defect and is not to come near to present the food of his God.

²²He may eat the food of his God from what is especially holy as well as from what is holy.

²³But because he has a defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar. He is not to desecrate my holy places, for I am the LORD who sets them apart.”

²⁴Moses said this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.

¹So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

³For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

⁴When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

⁵Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.

⁶Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient,

⁷and you once walked in these things when you were living in them.

⁸But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.

⁹Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices

¹⁰and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.

¹¹In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

¹²Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,

¹³bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.

¹⁴Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

¹⁵And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.

¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

¹⁸Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

¹⁹Husbands, love your wives and don’t be bitter toward them.

²⁰Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

²¹Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they won’t become discouraged.

²²Slaves, obey your human masters in everything. Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord.

²³Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people,

²⁴knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.

²⁵For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done, and there is no favoritism.

¹See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children — and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him.

²Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.

³And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

⁴Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.

⁵You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him.

⁶Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him.

⁷Children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

⁸The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works.

⁹Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.

¹⁰This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.

¹¹For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another,

¹²unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

¹³Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.

¹⁵Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

¹⁶This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

¹⁷If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him — how does God’s love reside in him?

¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.

¹⁹This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him

²⁰whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.

²¹Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God

²²and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight.

²³Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us.

²⁴The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us.

¹Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A person’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.

²Keep the king’s command because of your oath made before God.

³Do not be in a hurry; leave his presence, and don’t persist in a bad cause, since he will do whatever he wants.

⁴For the king’s word is authoritative, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

⁵The one who keeps a command will not experience anything harmful, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure.

⁶For every activity there is a right time and procedure, even though a person’s troubles are heavy on him.

⁷Yet no one knows what will happen because who can tell him what will happen?

⁸No one has authority over the wind to restrain it, and there is no authority over the day of death; no one is discharged during battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape.

⁹All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one person has authority over another to his harm.

¹⁰In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they did those things. This too is futile.

¹¹Because the sentence against an evil act is not carried out quickly, the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit evil.

¹²Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before him.

¹³However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.

¹⁴There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.

¹⁵So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the activity that is done on the earth (even though one’s eyes do not close in sleep day or night),

¹⁷I observed all the work of God and concluded that a person is unable to discover the work that is done under the sun. Even though a person labors hard to explore it, he cannot find it; even if a wise person claims to know it, he is unable to discover it.

¹Hallelujah! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights.

²Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly armies.

³Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars.

⁴Praise him, highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens.

⁵Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded, and they were created.

⁶He set them in position forever and ever; he gave an order that will never pass away.

⁷Praise the LORD from the earth, all sea monsters and ocean depths,

⁸lightning and hail, snow and cloud, stormy wind that executes his command,

⁹mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,

¹⁰wild animals and all cattle, creatures that crawl and flying birds,

¹¹kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth,

¹²young men as well as young women, old and young together.

¹³Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted. His majesty covers heaven and earth.

¹⁴He has raised up a horn for his people, resulting in praise to all his faithful ones, to the Israelites, the people close to him. Hallelujah!

¹Better a poor person who lives with integrity than someone who has deceitful lips and is a fool.

²Even zeal is not good without knowledge, and the one who acts hastily sins.

³A person’s own foolishness leads him astray, yet his heart rages against the LORD.

⁴Wealth attracts many friends, but a poor person is separated from his friend.

⁵A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape.

⁶Many seek a ruler’s favor, and everyone is a friend of one who gives gifts.

⁷All the brothers of a poor person hate him; how much more do his friends keep their distance from him! He may pursue them with words, but they are not there.

⁸The one who acquires good sense loves himself; one who safeguards understanding finds success.

⁹A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies perishes.

¹⁰Luxury is not appropriate for a fool —  how much less for a slave to rule over princes!

¹¹A person’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.

¹²A king’s rage is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹³A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a wife’s nagging is an endless dripping.

¹⁴A house and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.

¹⁵Laziness induces deep sleep, and a lazy person will go hungry.

¹⁶The one who keeps commands preserves himself; one who disregards his ways will die.

¹⁷Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and he will give a reward to the lender.

¹⁸Discipline your son while there is hope; don’t set your heart on being the cause of his death.

¹⁹A person with intense anger bears the penalty; if you rescue him, you’ll have to do it again.

²⁰Listen to counsel and receive instruction so that you may be wise later in life.

²¹Many plans are in a person’s heart, but the LORD’s decree will prevail.

²²What is desirable in a person is his fidelity; better to be a poor person than a liar.

²³The fear of the LORD leads to life; one will sleep at night without danger.

²⁴The slacker buries his hand in the bowl; he doesn’t even bring it back to his mouth!

²⁵Strike a mocker, and the inexperienced learn a lesson; rebuke the discerning, and he gains knowledge.

²⁶The one who plunders his father and evicts his mother is a disgraceful and shameful son.

²⁷If you stop listening to correction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.

²⁸A worthless witness mocks justice, and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity.

²⁹Judgments are prepared for mockers, and beatings for the backs of fools.

¹Boaz went to the gate of the town and sat down there. Soon the family redeemer Boaz had spoken about came by. Boaz said, “Come over here and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.

²Then Boaz took ten men of the town’s elders and said, “Sit here.” And they sat down.

³He said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has returned from the territory of Moab, is selling the portion of the field that belonged to our brother Elimelech.

⁴I thought I should inform you: Buy it back in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, do it. But if you do not want to redeem it, tell me so that I will know, because there isn’t anyone other than you to redeem it, and I am next after you.” “I want to redeem it,” he answered.

⁵Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from Naomi, you will acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased man, to perpetuate the man’s name on his property.”

⁶The redeemer replied, “I can’t redeem it myself, or I will ruin my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption, because I can’t redeem it.”

⁷At an earlier period in Israel, a man removed his sandal and gave it to the other party in order to make any matter legally binding concerning the right of redemption or the exchange of property. This was the method of legally binding a transaction in Israel.

⁸So the redeemer removed his sandal and said to Boaz, “Buy back the property yourself.”

⁹Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon.

¹⁰I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, to perpetuate the deceased man’s name on his property, so that his name will not disappear among his relatives or from the gate of his hometown. You are witnesses today.”

¹¹All the people who were at the city gate, including the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel. May you be powerful in Ephrathah and your name well known in Bethlehem.

¹²May your house become like the house of Perez, the son Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring the LORD will give you by this young woman.”

¹³Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. He slept with her, and the LORD granted conception to her, and she gave birth to a son.

¹⁴The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you without a family redeemer today. May his name become well known in Israel.

¹⁵He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. Indeed, your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

¹⁶Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became his nanny.

¹⁷The neighbor women said, “A son has been born to Naomi,” and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

¹⁸Now these are the family records of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron,

¹⁹Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab,

²⁰Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,

²¹Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed,

²²Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

¹“Listen to this, house of Jacob — those who are called by the name Israel and have descended from Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and declare the God of Israel, but not in truth or righteousness.

²For they are named after the Holy City, and lean on the God of Israel; his name is the LORD of Armies.

³I declared the past events long ago; they came out of my mouth; I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they occurred.

⁴Because I know that you are stubborn, and your neck is iron and your forehead bronze,

⁵therefore I declared to you long ago. I announced it to you before it occurred, so you could not claim, ‘My idol caused them; my carved image and cast idol control them.’

⁶You have heard it. Observe it all. Will you not acknowledge it? From now on I will announce new things to you, hidden things that you have not known.

⁷They have been created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today, so you could not claim, ‘I already knew them!’

⁸You have never heard; you have never known; for a long time your ears have not been open. For I knew that you were very treacherous, and were known as a rebel from birth.

⁹I will delay my anger for the sake of my name, and I will restrain myself for your benefit and for my praise, so that you will not be destroyed.

¹⁰Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹I will act for my own sake, indeed, my own, for how can I be defiled? I will not give my glory to another.

¹²“Listen to me, Jacob, and Israel, the one called by me: I am he; I am the first, I am also the last.

¹³My own hand founded the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summoned them, they stood up together.

¹⁴All of you, assemble and listen! Who among the idols has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he will accomplish his will against Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.

¹⁵I — I have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he will succeed in his mission.

¹⁶Approach me and listen to this. From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time anything existed, I was there.” And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his Spirit.

¹⁷This is what the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel says: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who leads you in the way you should go.

¹⁸If only you had paid attention to my commands. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

¹⁹Your descendants would have been as countless as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains; their name would not be cut off or eliminated from my presence.

²⁰Leave Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with a shout of joy, proclaim this, let it go out to the end of the earth; announce, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!”

²¹They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow from the rock for them; he split the rock, and water gushed out.

²²“There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.

¹After this, he left Athens and went to Corinth,

²where he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul came to them,

³and since they were of the same occupation, tentmakers by trade, he stayed with them and worked.

⁴He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks.

⁵When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself to preaching the word and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.

⁶When they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his clothes and told them, “Your blood is on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

⁷So he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

⁸Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, along with his whole household. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized.

⁹The Lord said to Paul in a night vision, “Don’t be afraid, but keep on speaking and don’t be silent.

¹⁰For I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city.”

¹¹He stayed there a year and a half, teaching the word of God among them.

¹²While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack against Paul and brought him to the tribunal.

¹³“This man,” they said, “is persuading people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”

¹⁴As Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrongdoing or of a serious crime, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you Jews.

¹⁵But if these are questions about words, names, and your own law, see to it yourselves. I refuse to be a judge of such things.”

¹⁶So he drove them from the tribunal.

¹⁷And they all seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal, but none of these things mattered to Gallio.

¹⁸After staying for some time, Paul said farewell to the brothers and sisters and sailed away to Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head at Cenchreae because of a vow he had taken.

¹⁹When they reached Ephesus he left them there, but he himself entered the synagogue and debated with the Jews.

²⁰When they asked him to stay for a longer time, he declined,

²¹but he said farewell and added, “I’ll come back to you again, if God wills.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.

²²On landing at Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem and greeted the church, then went down to Antioch.

²³After spending some time there, he set out, traveling through one place after another in the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

²⁴Now a Jew named Apollos, a native Alexandrian, an eloquent man who was competent in the use of the Scriptures, arrived in Ephesus.

²⁵He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately about Jesus, although he knew only John’s baptism.

²⁶He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. After Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the way of God to him more accurately.

²⁷When he wanted to cross over to Achaia, the brothers and sisters wrote to the disciples to welcome him. After he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed.

²⁸For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating through the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.