Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem

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

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

⁴When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.

⁵“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

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

⁷Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.

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

⁹After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was.

¹⁰When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

¹¹On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

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

¹³When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,

¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

¹⁶When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

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

¹⁸“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

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

²⁰and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

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

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

²³and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

¹The Levitical priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the LORD, for that is their inheritance.

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

³This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head.

⁴You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,

⁵for the LORD your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the LORD’s name always.

⁶If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose,

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

⁸He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.

⁹When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

¹⁰Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,

¹¹or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.

¹²Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.

¹³You must be blameless before the LORD your God.

¹⁴The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.

¹⁵The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.

¹⁶For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”

¹⁷The LORD said to me: “What they say is good.

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

¹⁹I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.

²⁰But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”

²¹You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?”

²²If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.

¹Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—

²and all the brothers and sisters with me, To the churches in Galatia:

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

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

⁵to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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

⁷which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!

⁹As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

¹⁰Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

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

¹²I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

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

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

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

¹⁶to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.

¹⁷I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.

¹⁸Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days.

¹⁹I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.

²⁰I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.

²¹Then I went to Syria and Cilicia.

²²I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

²³They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”

²⁴And they praised God because of me.

¹Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:

²Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

⁴Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;

⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;

⁷and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

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

¹¹and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

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

¹³I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body,

¹⁴because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.

¹⁵And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.

¹⁶For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

¹⁷He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

¹⁹We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

²⁰Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things.

²¹For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

¹I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind:

²God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.

³A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

⁴It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded.

⁵Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man—

⁶even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

⁷Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied.

⁸What advantage have the wise over fools? What do the poor gain by knowing how to conduct themselves before others?

⁹Better what the eye sees than the roving of the appetite. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

¹⁰Whatever exists has already been named, and what humanity is has been known; no one can contend with someone who is stronger.

¹¹The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?

¹²For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?

¹For the director of music. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” Of David. A miktam. Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity?

²No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth.

³Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.

⁴Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears,

⁵that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be.

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

⁷Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short.

⁸May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along, like a stillborn child that never sees the sun.

⁹Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns— whether they be green or dry—the wicked will be swept away.

¹⁰The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹Then people will say, “Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.”

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

²A prudent servant will rule over a disgraceful son and will share the inheritance as one of the family.

³The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.

⁴A wicked person listens to deceitful lips; a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.

⁵Whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.

⁶Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.

⁷Eloquent lips are unsuited to a godless fool— how much worse lying lips to a ruler!

⁸A bribe is seen as a charm by the one who gives it; they think success will come at every turn.

⁹Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.

¹⁰A rebuke impresses a discerning person more than a hundred lashes a fool.

¹¹Evildoers foster rebellion against God; the messenger of death will be sent against them.

¹²Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool bent on folly.

¹³Evil will never leave the house of one who pays back evil for good.

¹⁴Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

¹⁵Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent— the LORD detests them both.

¹⁶Why should fools have money in hand to buy wisdom, when they are not able to understand it?

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

¹⁸One who has no sense shakes hands in pledge and puts up security for a neighbor.

¹⁹Whoever loves a quarrel loves sin; whoever builds a high gate invites destruction.

²⁰One whose heart is corrupt does not prosper; one whose tongue is perverse falls into trouble.

²¹To have a fool for a child brings grief; there is no joy for the parent of a godless fool.

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

²³The wicked accept bribes in secret to pervert the course of justice.

²⁴A discerning person keeps wisdom in view, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth.

²⁵A foolish son brings grief to his father and bitterness to the mother who bore him.

²⁶If imposing a fine on the innocent is not good, surely to flog honest officials is not right.

²⁷The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint, and whoever has understanding is even-tempered.

²⁸Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues.

¹When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father David, he sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been on friendly terms with David.

²Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:

³“You know that because of the wars waged against my father David from all sides, he could not build a temple for the Name of the LORD his God until the LORD put his enemies under his feet.

⁴But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster.

⁵I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God, as the LORD told my father David, when he said, ‘Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name.’

⁶“So give orders that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My men will work with yours, and I will pay you for your men whatever wages you set. You know that we have no one so skilled in felling timber as the Sidonians.”

⁷When Hiram heard Solomon’s message, he was greatly pleased and said, “Praise be to the LORD today, for he has given David a wise son to rule over this great nation.”

⁸So Hiram sent word to Solomon: “I have received the message you sent me and will do all you want in providing the cedar and juniper logs.

⁹My men will haul them down from Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea, and I will float them as rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate them and you can take them away. And you are to grant my wish by providing food for my royal household.”

¹⁰In this way Hiram kept Solomon supplied with all the cedar and juniper logs he wanted,

¹¹and Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, in addition to twenty thousand baths of pressed olive oil. Solomon continued to do this for Hiram year after year.

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

¹³King Solomon conscripted laborers from all Israel—thirty thousand men.

¹⁴He sent them off to Lebanon in shifts of ten thousand a month, so that they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.

¹⁵Solomon had seventy thousand carriers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hills,

¹⁶as well as thirty-three hundred foremen who supervised the project and directed the workers.

¹⁷At the king’s command they removed from the quarry large blocks of high-grade stone to provide a foundation of dressed stone for the temple.

¹⁸The craftsmen of Solomon and Hiram and workers from Byblos cut and prepared the timber and stone for the building of the temple.

¹Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached

²Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “Please hear our petition and pray to the LORD your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left.

³Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”

⁴“I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. “I will certainly pray to the LORD your God as you have requested; I will tell you everything the LORD says and 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 in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us.

⁶Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God.”

⁷Ten days later the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.

⁸So he called together Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest.

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

¹⁰‘If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you.

¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the LORD, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands.

¹²I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’

¹³“However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so disobey the LORD your God,

¹⁴and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’

¹⁵then hear the word of the LORD, you remnant of Judah. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there,

¹⁶then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die.

¹⁷Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine and plague; not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’

¹⁸This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and wrath have been poured out on those who lived in Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be a curse and an object of horror, a curse and an object of reproach; you will never see this place again.’

¹⁹“Remnant of Judah, the LORD has told you, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be sure of this: I warn you today

²⁰that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the LORD your God and said, ‘Pray to the LORD our God for us; tell us everything he says and we will do it.’

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

²²So now, be sure of this: You will die by the sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go to settle.”

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

²When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said:

³“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.

⁴I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison,

⁵as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶“About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.

⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’

⁸“ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. “ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied.

⁹My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.

¹⁰“ ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked. “ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’

¹¹My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.

¹²“A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there.

¹³He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.

¹⁴“Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth.

¹⁵You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.

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

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

¹⁸and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹“ ‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you.

²⁰And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’

²¹“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”

²²The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!”

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

²⁴the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this.

²⁵As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

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

²⁷The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes, I am,” he answered.

²⁸Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.” “But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.

²⁹Those who were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.

³⁰The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews. So the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.