Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,

²“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

³For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

⁴Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

⁵Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him,

⁶and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁷But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

⁸Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

⁹And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

¹⁰Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹¹“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

¹²His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

¹³Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.

¹⁴John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

¹⁵But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.

¹⁶And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;

¹⁷and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

²And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

³but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

⁴But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

⁵For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

⁷Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

⁸And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

⁹But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

¹⁰And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

¹¹He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

¹³Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

¹⁶To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

¹⁷And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

¹⁸thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.

¹⁹By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

²⁰The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

²¹And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

²²Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever — ”

²³therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

²⁴He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

¹Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?

²Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.

³What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?

⁴By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”

⁵But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)

⁶By no means! For then how could God judge the world?

⁷But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

⁸And why not do evil that good may come? — as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

⁹What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,

¹⁰as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

¹¹no one understands; no one seeks for God.

¹²All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

¹³“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”

¹⁴“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

¹⁵“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶in their paths are ruin and misery,

¹⁷and the way of peace they have not known.”

¹⁸“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

²⁰For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

²¹But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it —

²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

²³for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

²⁴and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

²⁵whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

²⁶It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

²⁸For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

²⁹Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

³⁰since God is one — who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

³¹Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

¹Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone,

²and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith,

³that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

⁴For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.

⁵For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

⁶But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you —

⁷for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.

⁸For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.

⁹For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God,

¹⁰as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

¹¹Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,

¹²and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,

¹³so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

¹After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

²And Job said:

³“Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’

⁴Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.

⁵Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

⁶That night — let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it.

⁸Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.

⁹Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning,

¹⁰because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹“Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?

¹²Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?

¹³For then I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,

¹⁴with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves,

¹⁵or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

¹⁶Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

¹⁹The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.

²⁰“Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul,

²¹who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

²²who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave?

²³Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

²⁴For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.

²⁵For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.

²⁶I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

¹O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;

²many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah

³But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

⁴I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah

⁵I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.

⁶I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.

⁷Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.

⁸Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! Selah

¹My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments,

²for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

³Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.

⁵Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

⁶In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

⁷Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.

⁸It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

⁹Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce;

¹⁰then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

¹¹My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof,

¹²for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

¹³Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding,

¹⁴for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold.

¹⁵She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

¹⁶Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.

¹⁷Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

¹⁸She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.

¹⁹The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens;

²⁰by his knowledge the deeps broke open, and the clouds drop down the dew.

²¹My son, do not lose sight of these — keep sound wisdom and discretion,

²²and they will be life for your soul and adornment for your neck.

²³Then you will walk on your way securely, and your foot will not stumble.

²⁴If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

²⁵Do not be afraid of sudden terror or of the ruin of the wicked, when it comes,

²⁶for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

²⁷Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.

²⁸Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it” — when you have it with you.

²⁹Do not plan evil against your neighbor, who dwells trustingly beside you.

³⁰Do not contend with a man for no reason, when he has done you no harm.

³¹Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways,

³²for the devious person is an abomination to the LORD, but the upright are in his confidence.

³³The LORD's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous.

³⁴Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor.

³⁵The wise will inherit honor, but fools get disgrace.

¹Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.

²At the end of three days the officers went through the camp

³and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.

⁴Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”

⁵Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

⁶And Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

⁷The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

⁸And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’”

⁹And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.”

¹⁰And Joshua said, “Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.

¹¹Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan.

¹²Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man.

¹³And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.”

¹⁴So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people,

¹⁵and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest),

¹⁶the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho.

¹⁷Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.

¹For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water;

²the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder,

³the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.

⁴And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them.

⁵And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.

⁶For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying: “You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule”;

⁷in that day he will speak out, saying: “I will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the people.”

⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.

⁹For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.

¹⁰Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

¹¹Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.

¹²My people — infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.

¹³The LORD has taken his place to contend; he stands to judge peoples.

¹⁴The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: “It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

¹⁵What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?” declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

¹⁶The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet,

¹⁷therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts.

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents;

¹⁹the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves;

²⁰the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets;

²¹the signet rings and nose rings;

²²the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags;

²³the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

²⁴Instead of perfume there will be rottenness; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.

²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle.

²⁶And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground.

¹Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.

²And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple.

³Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms.

⁴And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.”

⁵And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.

⁶But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

⁷And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

⁸And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

⁹And all the people saw him walking and praising God,

¹⁰and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

¹¹While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's.

¹²And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?

¹³The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.

¹⁴But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,

¹⁵and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

¹⁶And his name — by faith in his name — has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

¹⁷“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

¹⁸But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

¹⁹Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,

²⁰that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,

²¹whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

²²Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.

²³And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’

²⁴And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.

²⁵You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’

²⁶God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”