Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem,

²saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”

³When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

⁴So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Christ would be born.

⁵“In Bethlehem of Judea,” they told him, “because this is what was written by the prophet:

⁶And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah: Because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”

⁷Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time the star appeared.

⁸He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship him.”

⁹After hearing the king, they went on their way. And there it was — the star they had seen at its rising. It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was.

¹⁰When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy.

¹¹Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

¹²And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route.

¹³After they were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up! Take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and escaped to Egypt.

¹⁵He stayed there until Herod’s death, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled: Out of Egypt I called my Son.

¹⁶Then Herod, when he realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men, flew into a rage. He gave orders to massacre all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, in keeping with the time he had learned from the wise men.

¹⁷Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:

¹⁸A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.

¹⁹After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,

²⁰saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, because those who intended to kill the child are dead.”

²¹So he got up, took the child and his mother, and entered the land of Israel.

²²But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the region of Galilee.

²³Then he went and settled in a town called Nazareth to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

¹“The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, will have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They will eat the LORD’s fire offerings; that is their inheritance.

²Although Levi has no inheritance among his brothers, the LORD is his inheritance, as he promised him.

³This is the priests’ share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether it is an ox, a sheep, or a goat; the priests are to be given the shoulder, jaws, and stomach.

⁴You are to give him the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and fresh oil, and the first sheared wool of your flock.

⁵For the LORD your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and minister in his name from now on.

⁶When a Levite leaves one of your towns in Israel where he was staying and wants to go to the place the LORD chooses,

⁷he may serve in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who minister there in the presence of the LORD.

⁸They will eat equal portions besides what he has received from the sale of the family estate.

⁹“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable customs of those nations.

¹⁰No one among you is to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire, practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, practice sorcery,

¹¹cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist, or inquire of the dead.

¹²Everyone who does these acts is detestable to the LORD, and the LORD your God is driving out the nations before you because of these detestable acts.

¹³You must be blameless before the LORD your God.

¹⁴Though these nations you are about to drive out listen to fortune-tellers and diviners, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do this.

¹⁵“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

¹⁶This is what you requested from the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not continue to hear the voice of the LORD our God or see this great fire any longer, so that we will not die!’

¹⁷Then the LORD said to me, ‘They have spoken well.

¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

¹⁹I will hold accountable whoever does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name.

²⁰But the prophet who presumes to speak a message in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods — that prophet must die.’

²¹You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message the LORD has not spoken?’

²²When a prophet speaks in the LORD’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

¹Paul, an apostle — not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead  —

²and all the brothers who are with me: To the churches of Galatia.

³Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,

⁴who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

⁵To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁶I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel —

⁷not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!

⁹As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!

¹⁰For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

¹¹For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin.

¹²For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it.

¹⁴I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.

¹⁵But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased

¹⁶to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.

¹⁷I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus.

¹⁸Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days.

¹⁹But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.

²⁰I declare in the sight of God: I am not lying in what I write to you.

²¹Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

²²I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ.

²³They simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.”

²⁴And they glorified God because of me.

¹Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

²May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

⁴By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge,

⁶knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness,

⁷godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.

¹⁰Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.

¹¹For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

¹²Therefore I will always remind you about these things, even though you know them and are established in the truth you now have.

¹³I think it is right, as long as I am in this bodily tent, to wake you up with a reminder,

¹⁴since I know that I will soon lay aside my tent, as our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed made clear to me.

¹⁵And I will also make every effort so that you are able to recall these things at any time after my departure.

¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

¹⁷For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!”

¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

²⁰Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation,

²¹because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

¹Here is a tragedy I have observed under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity:

²God gives a person riches, wealth, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all he desires for himself, but God does not allow him to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger will enjoy them. This is futile and a sickening tragedy.

³A man may father a hundred children and live many years. No matter how long he lives, if he is not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

⁴For he comes in futility and he goes in darkness, and his name is shrouded in darkness.

⁵Though a stillborn child does not see the sun and is not conscious, it has more rest than he.

⁶And if a person lives a thousand years twice, but does not experience happiness, do not both go to the same place?

⁷All of a person’s labor is for his stomach, yet the appetite is never satisfied.

⁸What advantage then does the wise person have over the fool? What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others?

⁹Better what the eyes see than wandering desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

¹⁰Whatever exists was given its name long ago, and it is known what mankind is. But he is not able to contend with the one stronger than he.

¹¹For when there are many words, they increase futility. What is the advantage for mankind?

¹²For who knows what is good for anyone in life, in the few days of his futile life that he spends like a shadow? Who can tell anyone what will happen after him under the sun?

¹For the choir director: “Do Not Destroy.” A of David. [1] Do you really speak righteously, you mighty ones? Do you judge people fairly?

²No, you practice injustice in your hearts; with your hands you weigh out violence in the land.

³The wicked go astray from the womb; liars wander about from birth.

⁴They have venom like the venom of a snake, like the deaf cobra that stops up its ears,

⁵that does not listen to the sound of the charmers who skillfully weave spells.

⁶God, knock the teeth out of their mouths; LORD, tear out the young lions’ fangs.

⁷May they vanish like water that flows by; may they aim their blunted arrows.

⁸Like a slug that moves along in slime, like a woman’s miscarried child, may they not see the sun.

⁹Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns — whether green or burning — he will sweep them away.

¹⁰The righteous one will rejoice when he sees the retribution; he will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹Then people will say, “Yes, there is a reward for the righteous! There is a God who judges on earth!”

¹Better a dry crust with peace than a house full of feasting with strife.

²A prudent servant will rule over a disgraceful son and share an inheritance among brothers.

³A crucible for silver, and a smelter for gold, and the LORD is the tester of hearts.

⁴A wicked person listens to malicious talk; a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.

⁵The one who mocks the poor insults his Maker, and one who rejoices over calamity will not go unpunished.

⁶Grandchildren are the crown of the elderly, and the pride of children is their fathers.

⁷Eloquent words are not appropriate on a fool’s lips; how much worse are lies for a ruler.

⁸A bribe seems like a magic stone to its owner; wherever he turns, he succeeds.

⁹Whoever conceals an offense promotes love, but whoever gossips about it separates friends.

¹⁰A rebuke cuts into a perceptive person more than a hundred lashes into a fool.

¹¹An evil person desires only rebellion; a cruel messenger will be sent against him.

¹²Better for a person to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his foolishness.

¹³If anyone returns evil for good, evil will never depart from his house.

¹⁴To start a conflict is to release a flood; stop the dispute before it breaks out.

¹⁵Acquitting the guilty and condemning the just  — both are detestable to the LORD.

¹⁶Why does a fool have money in his hand with no intention of buying wisdom?

¹⁷A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a difficult time.

¹⁸One without sense enters an agreement and puts up security for his friend.

¹⁹One who loves to offend loves strife; one who builds a high threshold invites injury.

²⁰One with a twisted mind will not succeed, and one with deceitful speech will fall into ruin.

²¹A man fathers a fool to his own sorrow; the father of a fool has no joy.

²²A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

²³A wicked person secretly takes a bribe to subvert the course of justice.

²⁴Wisdom is the focus of the perceptive, but a fool’s eyes roam to the ends of the earth.

²⁵A foolish son is grief to his father and bitterness to the one who bore him.

²⁶It is certainly not good to fine an innocent person or to beat a noble for his honesty.

²⁷The one who has knowledge restrains his words, and one who keeps a cool head is a person of understanding.

²⁸Even a fool is considered wise when he keeps silent — discerning, when he seals his lips.

¹King Hiram of Tyre sent his emissaries to Solomon when he heard that he had been anointed king in his father’s place, for Hiram had always been friends with David.

²Solomon sent this message to Hiram:

³“You know my father David was not able to build a temple for the name of the LORD his God. This was because of the warfare all around him until the LORD put his enemies under his feet.

⁴The LORD my God has now given me rest on every side; there is no enemy or crisis.

⁵So I plan to build a temple for the name of the LORD my God, according to what the LORD promised my father David: ‘I will put your son on your throne in your place, and he will build the temple for my name.’

⁶“Therefore, command that cedars from Lebanon be cut down for me. My servants will be with your servants, and I will pay your servants’ wages according to whatever you say, for you know that not a man among us knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

⁷When Hiram heard Solomon’s words, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the LORD today! He has given David a wise son to be over this great people!”

⁸Then Hiram sent a reply to Solomon, saying, “I have heard your message; I will do everything you want regarding the cedar and cypress timber.

⁹My servants will bring the logs down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place you indicate. I will break them apart there, and you can take them away. You then can meet my needs by providing my household with food.”

¹⁰So Hiram provided Solomon with all the cedar and cypress timber he wanted,

¹¹and Solomon provided Hiram with one hundred thousand bushels of wheat as food for his household and one hundred ten thousand gallons of oil from crushed olives. Solomon did this for Hiram year after year.

¹²The LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

¹³Then King Solomon drafted forced laborers from all Israel; the labor force numbered thirty thousand men.

¹⁴He sent ten thousand to Lebanon each month in shifts; one month they were in Lebanon, two months they were at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.

¹⁵Solomon had seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountains,

¹⁶not including his thirty-three hundred deputies in charge of the work. They supervised the people doing the work.

¹⁷The king commanded them to quarry large, costly stones to lay the foundation of the temple with dressed stones.

¹⁸So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders, along with the Gebalites, quarried the stone and prepared the timber and stone for the temple’s construction.

¹Then all the commanders of the armies, along with Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached

²the prophet Jeremiah and said, “May our petition come before you; pray to the LORD your God on our behalf, on behalf of this entire remnant (for few of us remain out of the many, as you can see with your own eyes),

³that the LORD your God may tell us the way we should go and the thing we should do.”

⁴So the prophet Jeremiah said to them, “I have heard. I will now pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and I will tell you every word that the LORD answers you; I won’t withhold a word from you.”

⁵And they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we don’t act according to every word the LORD your God sends you to tell us.

⁶Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the LORD our God to whom we are sending you so that it may go well with us. We will certainly obey the LORD our God!”

⁷At the end of ten days, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah,

⁸and he summoned Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the armies who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest.

⁹He said to them, “This is what the LORD says, the God of Israel to whom you sent me to bring your petition before him:

¹⁰‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will rebuild and not demolish you, and I will plant and not uproot you, because I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought on you.

¹¹Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon whom you now fear; don’t be afraid of him’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘because I am with you to save you and rescue you from him.

¹²I will grant you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and allow you to return to your own soil.’

¹³“But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ in order to disobey the LORD your God,

¹⁴and if you say, ‘No, instead we’ll go to the land of Egypt where we will not see war or hear the sound of the ram’s horn or hunger for food, and we’ll live there,’

¹⁵then hear the word of the LORD, remnant of Judah! This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are firmly resolved to go to Egypt and stay there for a while,

¹⁶then the sword you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you are worried about will follow on your heels there to Egypt, and you will die there.

¹⁷All who resolve to go to Egypt to stay there for a while will die by the sword, famine, and plague. They will have no survivor or fugitive from the disaster I will bring on them.’

¹⁸“For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as my anger and fury were poured out on Jerusalem’s residents, so will my fury pour out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an example for cursing, scorn, execration, and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’

¹⁹The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah: ‘Don’t go to Egypt.’ Know for certain that I have warned you today!

²⁰You have gone astray at the cost of your lives because you are the ones who sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray to the LORD our God on our behalf, and as for all that the LORD our God says, tell it to us, and we’ll act accordingly.’

²¹For I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the LORD your God in everything he has sent me to tell you.

²²Now therefore, know for certain that by the sword, famine, and plague you will die in the place where you desired to go to stay for a while.”

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you.”

²When they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they became even quieter.

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

⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail,

⁵as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. After I received letters from them to the brothers, I traveled to Damascus to arrest those who were there and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶“As I was traveling and approaching Damascus, about noon an intense light from heaven suddenly flashed around me.

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

⁸“I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.’

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

¹⁰“I said, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ “The Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything that you have been assigned to do.’

¹¹“Since I couldn’t see because of the brightness of the light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and went into Damascus.

¹²Someone named Ananias, a devout man according to the law, who had a good reputation with all the Jews living there,

¹³came and stood by me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ And in that very hour I looked up and saw him.

¹⁴And he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the words from his mouth,

¹⁵since you will be a witness for him to all people of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now, why are you delaying? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

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

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

¹⁹“But I said, ‘Lord, they know that in synagogue after synagogue I had those who believed in you imprisoned and beaten.

²⁰And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood there giving approval and guarding the clothes of those who killed him.’

²¹“He said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’  ”

²²They listened to him up to this point. Then they raised their voices, shouting, “Wipe this man off the face of the earth! He should not be allowed to live!”

²³As they were yelling and flinging aside their garments and throwing dust into the air,

²⁴the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, directing that he be interrogated with the scourge to discover the reason they were shouting against him like this.

²⁵As they stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing by, “Is it legal for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and is uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went and reported to the commander, saying, “What are you going to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷The commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” he said.

²⁸The commander replied, “I bought this citizenship for a large amount of money.” “But I was born a citizen,” Paul said.

²⁹So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. The commander too was alarmed when he realized Paul was a Roman citizen and he had bound him.

³⁰The next day, since he wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and instructed the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to convene. He brought Paul down and placed him before them.