Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,

²asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”

³When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him;

⁴and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

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

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

⁷Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.

⁸Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.”

⁹When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.

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

¹¹On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

¹²And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

¹³Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, 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.”

¹⁴Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt,

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

¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.

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

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

¹⁹When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said,

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

²¹Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to 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 after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee.

²³There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

¹The levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no allotment or inheritance within Israel. They may eat the sacrifices that are the LORD’s portion

²but they shall have no inheritance among the other members of the community; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.

³This 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, the two jowls, and the stomach.

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

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

⁶If a Levite leaves any of your towns, from wherever he has been residing in Israel, and comes to the place that the LORD will choose (and he may come whenever he wishes),

⁷then he may minister in the name of the LORD his God, like all his fellow-Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD.

⁸They shall have equal portions to eat, even though they have income from the sale of family possessions.

⁹When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you must not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations.

¹⁰No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,

¹¹or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead.

¹²For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the LORD; it is because of such abhorrent practices that the LORD your God is driving them out before you.

¹³You must remain completely loyal to the LORD your God.

¹⁴Although these nations that you are about to dispossess do give heed to soothsayers and diviners, as for you, the LORD your God does not permit you to do so.

¹⁵The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.

¹⁶This is what you requested of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.”

¹⁷Then the LORD replied to me: “They are right in what they have said.

¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.

¹⁹Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.

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

²¹You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the LORD has not spoken?”

²²If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.

¹Paul an apostle — sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead —

²and all the members of God’s family 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 set us free 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 the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel —

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

⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!

⁹As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!

¹⁰Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

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

¹²for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it.

¹⁴I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.

¹⁵But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased

¹⁶to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being,

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

¹⁸Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days;

¹⁹but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord’s brother.

²⁰In 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 by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ;

²³they only heard it said, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming 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 received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

²May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

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

⁴Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.

⁵For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge,

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

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

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

⁹For anyone who lacks these things is short-sighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins.

¹⁰Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, 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 intend to keep on reminding you of these things, though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you.

¹³I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory,

¹⁴since I know that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has 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 had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.

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

¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

¹⁹So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

²⁰First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,

²¹because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

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

²those to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that they lack nothing of all that they desire, yet God does not enable them to enjoy these things, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous ill.

³A man may beget a hundred children, and live many years; but however many are the days of his years, if he does not enjoy life’s good things, or has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

⁴For it comes into vanity and goes into 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 one place?

⁷All human toil is for the mouth, yet the appetite is not satisfied.

⁸For what advantage have the wise over fools? And what do the poor have who know how to conduct themselves before the living?

⁹Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire; this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

¹⁰Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what human beings are, and that they are not able to dispute with those who are stronger.

¹¹The more words, the more vanity, so how is one the better?

¹²For who knows what is good for mortals while they live the few days of their vain life, which they pass like a shadow? For who can tell them what will be after them under the sun?

¹Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods? Do you judge people fairly?

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

³The wicked go astray from the womb; they err from their 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; like grass let them be trodden down and wither.

⁸Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime; like the untimely birth that 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 they see vengeance done; they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹People 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 slave who deals wisely will rule over a child who acts shamefully, and will share the inheritance as one of the family.

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

⁴An evildoer listens to wicked lips; and a liar gives heed to a mischievous tongue.

⁵Those who mock the poor insult their Maker; those who are glad at calamity will not go unpunished.

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

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

⁸A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of those who give it; wherever they turn they prosper.

⁹One who forgives an affront fosters friendship, but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend.

¹⁰A rebuke strikes deeper into a discerning person than a hundred blows into a fool.

¹¹Evil people seek only rebellion, but a cruel messenger will be sent against them.

¹²Better to meet a she-bear robbed of its cubs than to confront a fool immersed in folly.

¹³Evil will not depart from the house of one who returns evil for good.

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

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

¹⁶Why should fools have a price in hand to buy wisdom, when they have no mind to learn?

¹⁷A friend loves at all times, and kinsfolk are born to share adversity.

¹⁸It is senseless to give a pledge, to become surety for a neighbor.

¹⁹One who loves transgression loves strife; one who builds a high threshold invites broken bones.

²⁰The crooked of mind do not prosper, and the perverse of tongue fall into calamity.

²¹The one who begets a fool gets trouble; the parent of a fool has no joy.

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

²³The wicked accept a concealed bribe to pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴The discerning person looks to wisdom, but the eyes of a fool to the ends of the earth.

²⁵Foolish children are a grief to their father and bitterness to her who bore them.

²⁶To impose a fine on the innocent is not right, or to flog the noble for their integrity.

²⁷One who spares words is knowledgeable; one who is cool in spirit has understanding.

²⁸Even fools who keep silent are considered wise; when they close their lips, they are deemed intelligent.

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

²Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying,

³“You know that my father David 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.

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

⁶Therefore command that cedars from the Lebanon be cut for me. My servants will join your servants, and I will give you whatever wages you set for your servants; for you know that there is no one among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”

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

⁸Hiram sent word to Solomon, “I have heard the message that you have sent to me; I will fulfill all your needs in the matter of cedar and cypress timber.

⁹My servants shall bring it down to the sea from the Lebanon; I will make it into rafts to go by sea to the place you indicate. I will have them broken up there for you to take away. And you shall meet my needs by providing food for my household.”

¹⁰So Hiram supplied Solomon’s every need for timber of cedar and cypress.

¹¹Solomon in turn gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat as food for his household, and twenty cors of fine oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year.

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

¹³King Solomon conscripted forced labor out of all Israel; the levy numbered thirty thousand men.

¹⁴He sent them to the Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts; they would be a month in the Lebanon and two months at home; Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.

¹⁵Solomon also had seventy thousand laborers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country,

¹⁶besides Solomon’s three thousand three hundred supervisors who were over the work, having charge of the people who did 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 Gebalites did the stonecutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.

¹Then all the commanders of the forces, and Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached

²the prophet Jeremiah and said, “Be good enough to listen to our plea, and pray to the LORD your God for us — for all this remnant. For there are only a few of us left out of many, as your eyes can see.

³Let the LORD your God show us where we should go and what we should do.”

⁴The prophet Jeremiah said to them, “Very well: I am going to pray to the LORD your God as you request, and whatever the LORD answers you I will tell you; I will keep nothing back from you.”

⁵They in their turn said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to everything that the LORD your God sends us through you.

⁶Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, in order that it may go 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 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 before him:

¹⁰If you will only 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 am sorry for the disaster that I have brought upon you.

¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, as you have been; do not be afraid of him, says the LORD, for I am with you, to save you and to rescue you from his hand.

¹²I will grant you mercy, and he will have mercy on you and restore you to your native soil.

¹³But if you continue to say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ thus 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 there we will stay,’

¹⁵then hear the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are determined to enter Egypt and go to settle there,

¹⁶then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there, in the land of Egypt; and the famine that you dread shall follow close after you into Egypt; and there you shall die.

¹⁷All the people who have determined to go to Egypt to settle there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; they shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I am bringing upon them.

¹⁸“For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Just 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 object of execration and horror, of cursing and ridicule. You shall see this place no more.

¹⁹The LORD has said to you, O remnant of Judah, Do not go to Egypt. Be well aware that I have warned you today

²⁰that you have made a fatal mistake. For you yourselves sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God, and whatever the LORD our God says, tell us and we will do it.’

²¹So I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in anything that he sent me to tell you.

²²Be well aware, then, that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go and settle.”

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

²When they heard him addressing them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet. Then he said:

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

⁴I persecuted this Way up to the point of death by binding both men and women and putting them in prison,

⁵as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. From them I also received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and I went there in order to bind those who were there and to bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment.

⁶“While I was on my way and approaching Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me.

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

⁸I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Then 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 hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

¹⁰I asked, ‘What am I to do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told everything that has been assigned to you to do.’

¹¹Since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, those who were with me took my hand and led me to Damascus.

¹²“A certain Ananias, who was a devout man according to the law and well spoken of by all the Jews living there,

¹³came to me; and standing beside me, he said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight!’ In that very hour I regained my sight and saw him.

¹⁴Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear his own voice;

¹⁵for you will be his witness to all the world of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.’

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

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

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

²⁰And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.’

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

²²Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

²³And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air,

²⁴the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him.

²⁵But when they had tied him up with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?”

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

²⁷The tribune came and asked Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.”

²⁸The tribune answered, “It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.” Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.”

²⁹Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him; and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

³⁰Since he wanted to find out what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the entire council to meet. He brought Paul down and had him stand before them.