Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,

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

³When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him;

⁴and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

⁵They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

⁶“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

⁷Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.

⁸And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”

⁹After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

¹⁰When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

¹¹And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

¹²And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

¹³Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”

¹⁴And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt

¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

¹⁶Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

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

¹⁸“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

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

²⁰saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.”

²¹And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

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

²³And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

¹“The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the LORD's food offerings as their inheritance.

²They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.

³And this shall be the priests' due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.

⁴The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.

⁵For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for all time.

⁶“And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives — and he may come when he desires — to the place that the LORD will choose,

⁷and ministers in the name of the LORD his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD,

⁸then he may have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.

⁹“When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.

¹⁰There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer

¹¹or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead,

¹²for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.

¹³You shall be blameless before the LORD your God,

¹⁴for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.

¹⁵“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers — it is to him you shall listen —

¹⁶just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’

¹⁷And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.

¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

¹⁹And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

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

²¹And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’ —

²²when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

¹Paul, an apostle — not from men nor through man, but through 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 our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

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

⁵to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel —

⁷not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble 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 the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

⁹As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

¹⁰For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

¹¹For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.

¹²For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

¹⁴And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

¹⁵But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace,

¹⁶was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;

¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.

¹⁹But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother.

²⁰(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)

²¹Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

²²And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

²³They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”

²⁴And they glorified God because of me.

¹Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

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

³His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

⁴by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

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

⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,

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

⁸For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

¹⁰Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

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

¹²Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.

¹³I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,

¹⁴since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

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

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

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

¹⁸we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,

²⁰knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

²¹For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

¹There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind:

²a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.

³If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

⁴For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.

⁵Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he.

⁶Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good — do not all go to the one place?

⁷All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.

⁸For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living?

⁹Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

¹⁰Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he.

¹¹The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?

¹²For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?

¹Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?

²No, in your hearts you devise wrongs; your hands deal out violence on earth.

³The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

⁴They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

⁵so that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.

⁶O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!

⁷Let them vanish like water that runs away; when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.

⁸Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.

⁹Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns, whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

¹Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.

²A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who acts shamefully and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers.

³The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.

⁴An evildoer listens to wicked lips, and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

⁵Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

⁶Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.

⁷Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a prince.

⁸A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it; wherever he turns he prospers.

⁹Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

¹⁰A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.

¹¹An evil man seeks only rebellion, and a cruel messenger will be sent against him.

¹²Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.

¹³If anyone returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.

¹⁴The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.

¹⁵He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

¹⁶Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense?

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

¹⁸One who lacks sense gives a pledge and puts up security in the presence of his neighbor.

¹⁹Whoever loves transgression loves strife; he who makes his door high seeks destruction.

²⁰A man of crooked heart does not discover good, and one with a dishonest tongue falls into calamity.

²¹He who sires a fool gets himself sorrow, and the father of a fool has no joy.

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

²³The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.

²⁵A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him.

²⁶To impose a fine on a righteous man is not good, nor to strike the noble for their uprightness.

²⁷Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

²⁸Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.

¹Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father, for Hiram always loved David.

²And Solomon sent word to Hiram,

³“You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.

⁴But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune.

⁵And so I intend to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD said to David my father, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.’

⁶Now therefore command that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. And my servants will join your servants, and I will pay you for your servants such wages as you set, for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

⁷As soon as Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he rejoiced greatly and said, “Blessed be the LORD this day, who has given to David a wise son to be over this great people.”

⁸And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, “I have heard the message that you have sent to me. I am ready to do all you desire in the matter of cedar and cypress timber.

⁹My servants shall bring it down to the sea from Lebanon, and I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you direct. And I will have them broken up there, and you shall receive it. And you shall meet my wishes by providing food for my household.”

¹⁰So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired,

¹¹while Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cors of wheat as food for his household, and 20,000 cors of beaten oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year.

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

¹³King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men.

¹⁴And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts. They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the draft.

¹⁵Solomon also had 70,000 burden-bearers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country,

¹⁶besides Solomon's 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

¹⁷At the king's command they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones.

¹⁸So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the men of Gebal did the cutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.

¹Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near

²and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the LORD your God for us, for all this remnant — because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us —

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

⁴Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your request, and whatever the LORD answers you I will tell you. I will keep nothing back from you.”

⁵Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us.

⁶Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.”

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

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

⁹and said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your plea for mercy before him:

¹⁰If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you.

¹¹Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the LORD, for I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand.

¹²I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land.

¹³But if you say, ‘We will not remain in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the LORD your God

¹⁴and saying, ‘No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we shall not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or be hungry for bread, and we will dwell there,’

¹⁵then hear the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there,

¹⁶then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die.

¹⁷All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them.

¹⁸“For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You shall become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this place no more.

¹⁹The LORD has said to you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day

²⁰that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. For you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God, and whatever the LORD our God says, declare to us and we will do it.’

²¹And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in anything that he sent me to tell you.

²²Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live.”

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

²And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said:

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

⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women,

⁵as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶“As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me.

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

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

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

¹⁰And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’

¹¹And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.

¹²“And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,

¹³came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him.

¹⁴And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth;

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

¹⁶And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

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

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

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

²⁰And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’

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

²²Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

²³And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air,

²⁴the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this.

²⁵But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned?”

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

²⁷So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.”

²⁸The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.”

²⁹So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

³⁰But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.