M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
16 In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Ba’asha king of Israel attacked Judah, and he fortified Ramah, in order to keep anyone from going in or coming out from Asa king of Judah. 2 So Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of the House of the Lord and from the palace of the king and sent it to Ben Hadad king of Aram, who ruled in Damascus.
He said, 3 “There should be a treaty between you and me as there was between my father and your father. Look! I have sent you silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Ba’asha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”
4 Ben Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel. They conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim,[a] and all the towns for storehouses in Naphtali. 5 When Ba’asha heard about it, he stopped building Ramah and put an end to his work on it. 6 King Asa then summoned all Judah, and they carried away from Ramah the stones and the timber which Ba’asha had been using to build it. With them he built Geba and Mizpah.
Hanani the Seer Delivers a Message to Asa
7 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram, and you did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. 8 Weren’t the Cushites and the Libyans a huge army, with very many chariots and charioteers? When you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. 9 The Lord! It is his eyes that go back and forth over all the earth to offer strong support to the hearts of those who are completely committed to[b] him. You have acted foolishly in this. From now on you will be at war.”
10 Asa was angry with the seer, so he put him in prison because he was in a rage against him on account of this. At this time Asa also crushed some of the people.
Asa’s Disease and Death
11 You can find the acts of Asa, from first to last, written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
12 Asa’s feet became diseased in the thirty-ninth year of his reign. His disease was very serious, but even when he was sick, he did not seek the Lord, but only his physicians.
13 Asa rested with his fathers. He died in the forty-first year of his reign. 14 They buried him in his tomb, which he had cut out for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a bier[c] that was covered with all kinds of fragrant spices and perfumed ointments, skillfully blended by the perfume makers. They burned a very large bonfire in his honor.
The Scroll With Seven Seals
5 And I saw a scroll in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, with writing on the front[a] and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll by breaking its seals?” 3 No one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. 4 And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping. Look! The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed and is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
Worthy Is the Lamb
6 And I saw a Lamb standing in the center, near the throne, surrounded by the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders. The Lamb seemed to have been slain, and he had seven horns and seven eyes (these are the seven spirits of God that have been sent into all the world). 7 The Lamb came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8 And when the Lamb took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders bowed down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and gold bowls full of incense (these are the prayers of the saints). 9 And they sang a new song, saying:
You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and you bought us[b] for God with your blood
out of every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 You made them[c] to be a kingdom and priests for our God,
and they will reign on the earth.
11 And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels who were around the throne and around the living creatures and the elders. Their number was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands upon thousands. 12 With a loud voice they were saying:
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive
power and riches and
wisdom and strength and
honor and glory and blessing.
13 I also heard every creature that is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.
14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders bowed down and worshipped.
A Call to Repent
1 In the eighth month of the second year[a] of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.
2 The Lord was very angry with your forefathers.[b] 3 Therefore, now you are to tell this people that this is what the Lord of Armies says to them.
Return to me, declares the Lord of Armies, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Armies. 4 Do not be like your forefathers, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed, “This is what the Lord of Armies says. Return, return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.”
But our forefathers did not listen, nor did they pay attention to me, declares the Lord. 5 Your forefathers—where are they now? And those prophets—did they go on living indefinitely? 6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded to my servants the prophets, caught up with our forefathers, didn’t they?
Then they[c] returned[d] and said, “Because of our ways and our deeds, the Lord of Armies has done to us just as he planned to do to us.”
Eight Night Visions
The First Vision: The Man Among the Myrtle Trees
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, that is, the month of Shebat,[e] in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.
8 I saw a vision at night. In it I saw a man seated on a red horse, standing among myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, sorrel,[f] and white horses.
9 So I asked, “My lord, what are these?”
The angel who was speaking with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”
10 Then the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, “These are the ones the Lord sent to range throughout the earth.”
11 They reported to the angel[g] of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have ranged throughout the earth. Look! All the earth is resting and quiet.”
12 Then the angel of the Lord said, “Lord of Armies, how long will you withhold compassion from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with whom you were indignant these seventy years?”
13 The Lord responded with kind and compassionate words to the angel who was speaking with me.
14 So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “Proclaim this. This is what the Lord of Armies says.”
I am very zealous[h] for Jerusalem and for Zion, 15 and I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are complacent. When I was angry only a little,[i] they added to the evil.
16 Therefore, this is what the Lord says. I have turned to Jerusalem with compassionate feelings. My house will be built in Jerusalem, declares the Lord of Armies, and the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.
17 Proclaim also this: This is what the Lord of Armies says. Once again my towns will overflow with prosperity. Once again the Lord will console Zion. Once again he will choose Jerusalem.
The Second Vision: Four Horns and Four Craftsmen
18 Then I looked up, and I saw that there were four horns.[j] 19 I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?”
He answered me, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
20 Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen.[k]
21 I asked, “What are these men coming to do?”
He answered, “These are the horns that scattered Judah to such an extent that no one could raise his head, but these craftsmen are coming to terrify them and to knock down the horns of those nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter her people.”
The Samaritan Woman
4 Jesus[a] found out that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John, 2 though it was not Jesus himself who was baptizing but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.
4 He had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Then Jesus, being tired from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.[b]
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” she said, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his animals.”
13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again. Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life.”
15 “Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.”
17 “I have no husband,” the woman answered.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say, ‘I have no husband.’ 18 In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews insist that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised that he was talking to a woman. Yet no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back into town. She said to the people, 29 “Come, see the man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They left the town and came to him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
33 Then the disciples said to each other, “Did anyone bring him something to eat?”
34 Jesus told them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four more months and the harvest will be here’? Pay attention to what I am telling you. Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are already[c] ripe for harvest. 36 The reaper is getting paid and is gathering grain for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. 37 Indeed in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap a harvest for which you did no hard work. Others have done the hard work, and you have benefitted from their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony: “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of his message. 42 They told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this really is the Savior of the world.”
Jesus Heals an Officer’s Son
43 After two days, Jesus left for Galilee. 44 Now Jesus himself had testified that a prophet is not honored in his own country.
45 When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all the things he did at the Festival in Jerusalem, because they also had gone to the Festival.
46 Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.
In Capernaum, there was a certain royal official whose son was sick. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him to come down and heal his son, because his son was about to die.
48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you certainly will not believe.”
49 The royal official said to him, “Lord, come down before my little boy dies.”
50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son is going to live.”
The man believed this word that Jesus spoke to him and left.
51 Already as he was going down, his servants met him with the news that his boy was going to live. 52 So he asked them what time his son got better. They told him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour[d] the fever left him.” 53 Then the father realized that was the exact time when Jesus had told him, “Your son is going to live.” And he himself and his whole household believed.
54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did after he came from Judea into Galilee.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.