M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

14 Now Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king’s heart was toward Absalom.

² And Joab sent to Tekoah and brought from there a wise woman and said to her, Pretend to be a mourner; put on mourning apparel, do not anoint yourself with oil, but act like a woman who has long been mourning for the dead.

³ And go to the king and speak thus to him. And Joab told her what to say.

⁴ When the woman of Tekoah spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king!

⁵ The king asked her, What troubles you? She said, I am a widow; my husband is dead.

⁶ And your handmaid had two sons, and they quarreled with one another in the field. There was no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him.

⁷ And behold, our whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, Deliver him who slew his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he slew; and so they would destroy the heir also. And so quenching my coal which is left, they would leave to my husband neither name nor remnant upon the earth.

⁸ David said to the woman, Go home, and I will give orders concerning you.

⁹ And the woman of Tekoah said to the king, My lord, O king, let the guilt be on me and on my father’s house; let the king and his throne be guiltless.

¹⁰ The king said, If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you again.

¹¹ Then she said, I pray you, let the king remember the Lord your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son. And David said, As the Lord lives, there shall not one hair of your son fall to the earth.

¹² Then the woman said, Let your handmaid, I pray you, speak one word to my lord the king. He said, Say on.

¹³ [She] said, Why then have you planned such a thing against God’s people? For in speaking this word the king is like one who is guilty, in that [he] does not bring home his banished one.

¹⁴ We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. And God does not take away life, but devises means so that he who is banished may not be an utter outcast from Him.

¹⁵ And now I have come to speak of this thing to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. And I thought, I will speak to the king; it may be that he will perform the request of his servant.

¹⁶ For the king will hear to deliver his handmaid from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from [Israel] the inheritance of God.

¹⁷ And the woman said, The word of my lord the king will now give me rest and security, for as an angel of God is my lord the king to hear and discern good and evil. May the Lord your God be with you!

¹⁸ Then the king said to the woman, Hide not from me anything I ask you. And the woman said, Let my lord the king speak.

¹⁹ The king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman answered, As your soul lives, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything my lord the king has said. It was your servant Joab who directed me; he put all these words in my mouth.

²⁰ In order to change the course of matters [between Absalom and his father] your servant Joab did this. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God—to know all things that are on the earth.

²¹ Then the king said to Joab, Behold now, I grant this; go, bring back the young man Absalom.

²² And Joab fell to the ground on his face and did obeisance and thanked the king. And Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant.

²³ So Joab arose, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴ And the king said, Let him go to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the king’s face.

²⁵ But in all Israel there was none so much to be praised for his beauty as Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.

²⁶ And when he cut the hair of his head, he weighed it—for at each year’s end he cut it, because its weight was a burden to him—and it weighed 200 shekels by the king’s weight.

²⁷ There were born to Absalom three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar; she was a beautiful woman.

²⁸ Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem and did not see the king’s face.

²⁹ So Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but he would not come to him; even when he sent again the second time, he would not come.

³⁰ Therefore Absalom said to his servants, See, Joab’s field is near mine, and he has barley there; go and set it on fire. So Absalom’s servants set the field afire.

³¹ Then Joab arose and went to Absalom at his house and said to him, Why have your servants set my field on fire?

³² Absalom answered Joab, I sent to you, saying, Come here, that I may send you to the king to ask, Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still. Now therefore [Joab], let me see the king, and if there is iniquity and guilt in me, let him kill me.

³³ So Joab came to the king and told him. And when David had called for Absalom, he came to him and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king; and [David] kissed Absalom.

7 Therefore, since these [great] promises are ours, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates and defiles body and spirit, and bring [our] consecration to completeness in the [reverential] fear of God.

² Do open your hearts to us again [enlarge them to take us in]. We have wronged no one, we have betrayed or corrupted no one, we have cheated or taken advantage of no one.

³ I do not say this to reproach or condemn [you], for I have said before that you are [nested] in our hearts, [and you will remain there] together [with us], whether we die or live.

⁴ I have great boldness and free and fearless confidence and cheerful courage toward you; my pride in you is great. I am filled [brimful] with the comfort [of it]; with all our tribulation and in spite of it, [I am filled with comfort] I am overflowing with joy.

⁵ For even when we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies had no ease or rest, but we were oppressed in every way and afflicted at every turn—fighting and contentions without, dread and fears within [us].

⁶ But God, Who comforts and encourages and refreshes and cheers the depressed and the sinking, comforted and encouraged and refreshed and cheered us by the arrival of Titus.

⁷ [Yes] and not only by his coming but also by [his account of] the comfort with which he was encouraged and refreshed and cheered as to you, while he told us of your yearning affection, of how sorry you were [for me] and how eagerly you took my part, so that I rejoiced still more.

⁸ For even though I did grieve you with my letter, I do not regret [it now], though I did regret it; for I see that that letter did pain you, though only for a little while;

⁹ Yet I am glad now, not because you were pained, but because you were pained into repentance [and so turned back to God]; for you felt a grief such as God meant you to feel, so that in nothing you might suffer loss through us or harm for what we did.

¹⁰ For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death].

¹¹ For [you can look back now and] observe what this same godly sorrow has done for you and has produced in you: what eagerness and earnest care to explain and clear yourselves [of all ^[a]complicity in the condoning of incest], what indignation [at the sin], what alarm, what yearning, what zeal [to do justice to all concerned], what readiness to mete out punishment [^[b]to the offender]! At every point you have proved yourselves cleared and guiltless in the matter.^(A)

¹² So although I did write to you [as I did], it was not for the sake and because of the one who did [the] wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered [the] wrong, but in order that you might realize before God [that your readiness to accept our authority revealed] how zealously you do care for us.

¹³ Therefore we are relieved and comforted and encouraged [at the result]. And in addition to our own [personal] consolation, we were especially delighted at the joy of Titus, because you have all set his mind at rest, soothing and refreshing his spirit.

¹⁴ For if I had boasted to him at all concerning you, I was not disappointed or put to shame, but just as everything we ever said to you was true, so our boasting [about you] to Titus has proved true also.

¹⁵ And his heart goes out to you more abundantly than ever as he recalls the submission [to his guidance] that all of you had, and the reverence and anxiety [to meet all requirements] with which you accepted and welcomed him.

¹⁶ I am very happy because I now am of good courage and have perfect confidence in you in all things.

21 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

² Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and direct your [prophetic] word against the holy places; prophesy against the land of Israel

³ And say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you and will draw forth My sword out of its sheath and will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.

⁴ Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My sword go out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north,

⁵ And all living shall know, understand, and realize that I the Lord have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it shall not be sheathed any more.

⁶ Sigh therefore, son of man! With breaking heart and with bitterness shall you sigh before their eyes.

⁷ And it shall be that when they say to you, Why do you sigh? that you shall answer, Because of the tidings. When it comes, every heart will melt and all hands will be feeble, and every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes and it shall be fulfilled, says the Lord God.

⁸ Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁹ Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord: Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened and also polished;

¹⁰ It [the sword of Babylon] is sharpened that it may make a slaughter, polished that it may flash and glitter like lightning! Shall we then rejoice and make mirth [when such a calamity is impending]? But the rod or scepter of My son [Judah] rejects and views with contempt every tree [that is, since God’s promise long ago to Judah is certain, he believes Judah’s scepter must remain no matter what power arises against it]!^(A)

¹¹ And the sword [of Babylon] is given to be polished that it may be put to use; the sword is sharpened and polished to be given into the hand of the slayer.

¹² Cry and wail, son of man, for it is against My people; it is against all the princes of Israel; they are thrown to the sword along with My people, and terrors by reason of the sword are upon My people. Therefore smite your thigh [in dismay].

¹³ For this sword has been tested and proved [on others], and what if the rejecting and despising rod or scepter of Judah shall be no more but completely swept away? says the Lord God.

¹⁴ Therefore, son of man, prophesy and smite your hands together and let the sword be doubled, yes, trebled in intensity—the sword for those to be overthrown and pierced through; it is the sword of great slaughter which encompasses them [so that none can escape, even by entering into their inner chambers].

¹⁵ I have set the threatening and glittering sword against all their gates, that their hearts may melt and their stumblings be multiplied. Ah! It is made [to flash] like lightning; it is pointed and sharpened for slaughter.

¹⁶ Turn [O sword] and cut right or cut left, whichever way your lust for blood and your edge direct you.

¹⁷ I will also clap My hands, and I will cause My wrath to rest. I the Lord have said it.

¹⁸ The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

¹⁹ Also, son of man, mark out two ways by which the sword of the king of Babylon may come; both shall come forth from the same land. And make a signpost (a hand); make it at the head of the way to a city.

²⁰ You shall point out a way for the [Babylonian] sword to come to Rabbah [the capital] of the sons of Ammon and to Judah with Jerusalem, the fortified and inaccessible.

²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the fork of the two ways, to use divination. He shakes the arrows to and fro, he consults the teraphim (household gods), he looks at the liver.

²² In his right hand is the lot marked for Jerusalem: to set battering rams, to open the mouth calling for slaughter, to lift up the voice with a war cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up siege mounds, and to build siege towers.

²³ And it shall seem like a lying divination to them who have sworn oaths [of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar]. [Will he now fight against their homeland?] But he will remind them of their guilt and iniquity [in violating those oaths], that they may be caught.^(B)

²⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have made your guilt and iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear—because, I say, you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken with the [enemy’s] hand.

²⁵ And you, O dishonored and wicked one [Zedekiah], the prince of Israel, whose day will come at the time of your final reckoning and punishment,

²⁶ Thus says the Lord God: Remove the [high priest’s] miter or headband and take off the [king’s] crown; things shall not remain as they have been; the low is to be exalted and the high is to be brought low.

²⁷ I will overthrow, overthrow, overthrow it; this also shall be no more until He comes Whose right it is [to reign in judgment and in righteousness], and I will give it to Him.^(C)

²⁸ And you, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord God concerning the sons of Ammon and concerning their reproach: Say, A sword, a sword is drawn for the slaughter; it is polished to cause it to devour to the uttermost and to flash like lightning,

²⁹ While they see for you false visions, while they divine lies for you to lay you [of Ammon] upon the headless trunks of those who are slain, of the wicked whose day is coming at the time of the final reckoning and punishment.

³⁰ Return [the sword] to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin and of your birth, I will judge you.

³¹ And I will pour out My indignation upon you [O sons of Ammon]; I will blow upon you with the fire of My wrath and will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.

³² You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be no more remembered, for I the Lord have spoken it.^(D)

Psalm 68

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A song.

¹ God is [already] beginning to arise, and His enemies to scatter; let them also who hate Him flee before Him!

² As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish before the presence of God.

³ But let the [uncompromisingly] righteous be glad; let them be in high spirits and glory before God, yes, let them [jubilantly] rejoice!

⁴ Sing to God, sing praises to His name, cast up a highway for Him Who rides through the deserts—His name is the Lord—be in high spirits and glory before Him!

⁵ A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows is God in His holy habitation.

⁶ God places the solitary in families and gives the desolate a home in which to dwell; He leads the prisoners out to prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

⁷ O God, when You went forth before Your people, when You marched through the wilderness—Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!—

⁸ The earth trembled, the heavens also poured down [rain] at the presence of God; yonder Sinai quaked at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

⁹ You, O God, did send a plentiful rain; You did restore and confirm Your heritage when it languished and was weary.

¹⁰ Your flock found a dwelling place in it; You, O God, in Your goodness did provide for the poor and needy.

¹¹ The Lord gives the word [of power]; the women who bear and publish [the news] are a great host.

¹² The kings of the enemies’ armies, they flee, they flee! She who tarries at home divides the spoil [left behind].

¹³ Though you [the slackers] may lie among the sheepfolds [in slothful ease, yet for Israel] the wings of a dove are covered with silver, its pinions excessively green with gold [are trophies taken from the enemy].

¹⁴ When the Almighty scattered kings in [the land], it was as when it snows on Zalmon [a wooded hill near Shechem].

¹⁵ Is Mount Bashan the high mountain of summits, Mount Bashan [east of the Jordan] the mount of God?

¹⁶ Why do you look with grudging and envy, you many-peaked mountains, at the mountain [of the city called Zion] which God has desired for His dwelling place? Yes, the Lord will dwell in it forever.

¹⁷ The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them as He was in Sinai, [so also] in the Holy Place (the sanctuary in Jerusalem).

^18 [a]You have ascended on high. You have led away captive a train of vanquished foes; You have received gifts of men, yes, of the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell there with them.^(A)

¹⁹ Blessed be the Lord, Who bears our burdens and carries us day by day, even the God Who is our salvation! Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

²⁰ God is to us a God of deliverances and salvation; and to God the Lord belongs escape from death [setting us free].

²¹ But God will shatter the heads of His enemies, the hairy scalp of such a one as goes on still in his trespasses and guilty ways.

²² The Lord said, I will bring back [your enemies] from Bashan; I will bring them back from the depths of the [Red] Sea,

²³ That you may crush them, dipping your foot in blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their share from the foe.

²⁴ They see Your goings, O God, even the [solemn processions] of my God, my King, into the sanctuary [in holiness].

²⁵ The singers go in front, the players on instruments last; between them the maidens are playing on tambourines.

²⁶ Bless, give thanks, and gratefully praise God in full congregations, even the Lord, O you who are from [Jacob] the fountain of Israel.

²⁷ There is little Benjamin in the lead [in the procession], the princes of Judah and their company, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.

²⁸ Your God has commanded your strength [your might in His service and impenetrable hardness to temptation]; O God, display Your might and strengthen what You have wrought for us!

²⁹ [Out of respect] for Your temple at Jerusalem kings shall bring gifts to You.

³⁰ Rebuke the wild beasts dwelling among the reeds [in Egypt], the herd of bulls (the leaders) with the calves of the peoples; trample underfoot those who lust for tribute money; scatter the peoples who delight in war.

³¹ Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall hasten to stretch out her hands [with the offerings of submission] to God.

³² Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth, sing praises to the Lord! Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

³³ [Sing praises] to Him Who rides upon the heavens, the ancient heavens; behold, He sends forth His voice, His mighty voice.

³⁴ Ascribe power and strength to God; His majesty is over Israel, and His strength and might are in the skies.

³⁵ O God, awe-inspiring, profoundly impressive, and terrible are You out of Your holy places; the God of Israel Himself gives strength and fullness of might to His people. Blessed be God!