Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples;

²and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it.

³And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.”

⁴So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it.

⁵But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?”

⁶And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go.

⁷Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.

⁸And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

⁹Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’

¹⁰Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

¹¹And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

¹²Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.

¹³And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

¹⁴In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.

¹⁵So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

¹⁶And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.

¹⁷Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

¹⁸And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.

¹⁹When evening had come, He went out of the city.

²⁰Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.

²¹And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.”

²²So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.

²³For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

²⁴Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

²⁵“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.

²⁶But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

²⁷Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.

²⁸And they said to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?”

²⁹But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things:

³⁰The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.”

³¹And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’

³²But if we say, ‘From men’ ”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.

³³So they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

¹Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there.

²The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.

³And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand.

⁴So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority.

⁵So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had in the house and in the field.

⁶Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

⁷And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.”

⁸But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand.

⁹There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

¹⁰So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her.

¹¹But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside,

¹²that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.

¹³And so it was, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside,

¹⁴that she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, “See, he has brought in to us a Hebrew to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice.

¹⁵And it happened, when he heard that I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me, and fled and went outside.”

¹⁶So she kept his garment with her until his master came home.

¹⁷Then she spoke to him with words like these, saying, “The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came in to me to mock me;

¹⁸so it happened, as I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me and fled outside.”

¹⁹So it was, when his master heard the words which his wife spoke to him, saying, “Your servant did to me after this manner,” that his anger was aroused.

²⁰Then Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison.

²¹But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

²²And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing.

²³The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

¹Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

²Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.

³I do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

⁴Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.

⁵For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears.

⁶Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,

⁷and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

⁸For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while.

⁹Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

¹⁰For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

¹¹For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

¹²Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

¹³Therefore we have been comforted in your comfort. And we rejoiced exceedingly more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

¹⁴For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I am not ashamed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting to Titus was found true.

¹⁵And his affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him.

¹⁶Therefore I rejoice that I have confidence in you in everything.

¹Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

²By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,

³and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

⁴You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

⁵They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.

⁶We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

⁸He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

⁹In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

¹²No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

¹³By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.

¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

¹⁶And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

¹⁷Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.

¹⁸There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

¹⁹We love Him because He first loved us.

²⁰If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

²¹And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

¹“Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Or can you mark when the deer gives birth?

²Can you number the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they bear young?

³They bow down, They bring forth their young, They deliver their offspring.

⁴Their young ones are healthy, They grow strong with grain; They depart and do not return to them.

⁵“Who set the wild donkey free? Who loosed the bonds of the onager,

⁶Whose home I have made the wilderness, And the barren land his dwelling?

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city; He does not heed the shouts of the driver.

⁸The range of the mountains is his pasture, And he searches after every green thing.

⁹“Will the wild ox be willing to serve you? Will he bed by your manger?

¹⁰Can you bind the wild ox in the furrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you?

¹¹Will you trust him because his strength is great? Or will you leave your labor to him?

¹²Will you trust him to bring home your grain, And gather it to your threshing floor?

¹³“The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s?

¹⁴For she leaves her eggs on the ground, And warms them in the dust;

¹⁵She forgets that a foot may crush them, Or that a wild beast may break them.

¹⁶She treats her young harshly, as though they were not hers; Her labor is in vain, without concern,

¹⁷Because God deprived her of wisdom, And did not endow her with understanding.

¹⁸When she lifts herself on high, She scorns the horse and its rider.

¹⁹“Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder?

²⁰Can you frighten him like a locust? His majestic snorting strikes terror.

²¹He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength; He gallops into the clash of arms.

²²He mocks at fear, and is not frightened; Nor does he turn back from the sword.

²³The quiver rattles against him, The glittering spear and javelin.

²⁴He devours the distance with fierceness and rage; Nor does he come to a halt because the trumpet has sounded.

²⁵At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, The thunder of captains and shouting.

²⁶“Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, And spread its wings toward the south?

²⁷Does the eagle mount up at your command, And make its nest on high?

²⁸On the rock it dwells and resides, On the crag of the rock and the stronghold.

²⁹From there it spies out the prey; Its eyes observe from afar.

³⁰Its young ones suck up blood; And where the slain are, there it is.”

¹To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. [1] I said, “I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me.”

²I was mute with silence, I held my peace even from good; And my sorrow was stirred up.

³My heart was hot within me; While I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴“LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am.

⁵Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah

⁶Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them.

⁷“And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.

⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions; Do not make me the reproach of the foolish.

⁹I was mute, I did not open my mouth, Because it was You who did it.

¹⁰Remove Your plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand.

¹¹When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; Surely every man is vapor. Selah

¹²“Hear my prayer, O LORD, And give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were.

¹³Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength, Before I go away and am no more.”

¹Does not wisdom cry out, And understanding lift up her voice?

²She takes her stand on the top of the high hill, Beside the way, where the paths meet.

³She cries out by the gates, at the entry of the city, At the entrance of the doors:

⁴“To you, O men, I call, And my voice is to the sons of men.

⁵O you simple ones, understand prudence, And you fools, be of an understanding heart.

⁶Listen, for I will speak of excellent things, And from the opening of my lips will come right things;

⁷For my mouth will speak truth; Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

⁸All the words of my mouth are with righteousness; Nothing crooked or perverse is in them.

⁹They are all plain to him who understands, And right to those who find knowledge.

¹⁰Receive my instruction, and not silver, And knowledge rather than choice gold;

¹¹For wisdom is better than rubies, And all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.

¹²“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And find out knowledge and discretion.

¹³The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.

¹⁴Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom; I am understanding, I have strength.

¹⁵By me kings reign, And rulers decree justice.

¹⁶By me princes rule, and nobles, All the judges of the earth.

¹⁷I love those who love me, And those who seek me diligently will find me.

¹⁸Riches and honor are with me, Enduring riches and righteousness.

¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, And my revenue than choice silver.

²⁰I traverse the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice,

²¹That I may cause those who love me to inherit wealth, That I may fill their treasuries.

²²“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old.

²³I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.

²⁴When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was brought forth;

²⁶While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, Or the primal dust of the world.

²⁷When He prepared the heavens, I was there, When He drew a circle on the face of the deep,

²⁸When He established the clouds above, When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,

²⁹When He assigned to the sea its limit, So that the waters would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth,

³⁰Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him,

³¹Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men.

³²“Now therefore, listen to me, my children, For blessed are those who keep my ways.

³³Hear instruction and be wise, And do not disdain it.

³⁴Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors.

³⁵For whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the LORD;

³⁶But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; All those who hate me love death.”

¹After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in.

²Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead.”

³And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!”

⁴Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

⁵When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

⁶Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

⁷Samson said to them, “Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.”

⁸So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

⁹Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi.

¹⁰And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” So they answered, “We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.”

¹¹Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

¹²But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”

¹³So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

¹⁴When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands.

¹⁵He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.

¹⁶Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!”

¹⁷And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.

¹⁸Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”

¹⁹So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

²⁰And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

¹At that time Merodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.

²And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” So Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.”

⁴And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:

⁶‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD.

⁷‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”

⁸So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days.”

¹Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.

²And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him,

³saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”

⁴But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, saying:

⁵“I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me.

⁶When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.

⁷And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’

⁸But I said, ‘Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.’

⁹But the voice answered me again from heaven, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’

¹⁰Now this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven.

¹¹At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea.

¹²Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.

¹³And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ‘Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter,

¹⁴who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.’

¹⁵And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning.

¹⁶Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

¹⁷If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”

¹⁸When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”

¹⁹Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only.

²⁰But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus.

²¹And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

²²Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch.

²³When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.

²⁴For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.

²⁵Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul.

²⁶And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

²⁷And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.

²⁹Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.

³⁰This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.