M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Boaz Meets Ruth
2 Naomi had a close relative of her late[a] husband, a man of considerable wealth from the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz.
2 Ruth the Moabite told Naomi, “Please allow me to go out to the fields and glean grain behind anyone who shows me kindness.”
So Naomi replied, “Go ahead, my daughter.”
3 So she went out, proceeded to the field, and gleaned behind the harvesters. And it happened that she came to the portion of land belonging to Boaz, of the family of Elimelech.
4 Now when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he told the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.”
“May the Lord bless you!” they replied.
5 At this point, Boaz asked the foreman of[b] his harvesters, “To whom does this young woman belong?”
6 The foreman of[c] the harvesters answered, “She is the Moabite who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7 She asked us, ‘Please allow me to glean what’s left of the grain behind the harvesters.’ So she came out and has continued working[d] from dawn until now, except for a short time in a shelter.”
Boaz Shows Kindness to Ruth
8 Boaz then addressed Ruth: “Listen, my daughter![e] Don’t glean in any other field. Don’t even leave this one, and be sure to stay close to my women servants. 9 Keep your eyes on the field where they are harvesting, and follow them. I’ve ordered my young men not to bother[f] you, haven’t I? And when you are thirsty, drink from the water vessels that the young men have filled.”
10 At this she fell prostrate, bowing low to the ground, and asked him, “Why is it that you’re showing me kindness by noticing me, since I’m a foreigner?”
11 Boaz answered her, “It has been clearly disclosed to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law following the death of your husband—how you left your father, your mother, and your own land behind, and came to a people you did not previously know. 12 May the Lord repay you for your work, and may a full reward be given you from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings[g] you have come for refuge.”
13 She responded, “May I continue to find favor in your sight, sir, since you’ve been comforting me and you have spoken graciously to[h] your servant, even though I am not one of your servants.”
14 At lunchtime, Boaz invited her, “Come on over, have some food, and dip your bread in our oil and[i] vinegar.” So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he handed her some roasted grain, which she ate until she was satisfied. She kept what was left over.
Boaz the Benefactor
15 After she had left to glean, Boaz commanded his servants,[j] “Allow her to glean also among the cut sheaves, and don’t taunt her. 16 One other thing[k]—drop some handfuls[l] deliberately, leaving them for her so she can gather it. And don’t bother her.” 17 So Ruth[m] gathered grain out in the field until dusk, and then threshed what she had gathered—about a week’s supply[n] of barley. 18 She picked up her grain[o] and went back to town.
Her mother-in-law noticed how much Ruth[p] had gleaned and had brought back from what was left over from her lunch. 19 So her mother-in-law quizzed her, “Where did you glean today? Where, precisely, did you work? May the one who took notice of you be blessed.”
So Ruth told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.”
20 Naomi replied, “May the one who hasn’t abandoned his gracious love to the living or to the dead be blessed by the Lord.” Naomi added, “This man is closely related to us, our related redeemer,[q] as a matter of fact!”
21 Then Ruth the Moabite woman added, “He also told me ‘Stay close to my young men until they have completed my entire harvest.’”
22 Naomi responded to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is prudent, my daughter, for you to go out with his women servants, so someone won’t attack you in another field.” 23 So Ruth[r] continued to stay close to the young women who worked for Boaz, gathering grain until both the barley and wheat harvests were complete, all the while living with her mother-in-law.
Paul Sails for Rome
27 When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were transferred to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the emperor’s division. 2 After boarding a ship from Adramyttium that was about to sail to the ports on the coast of Asia, we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, went with us.
3 The next day, we arrived at Sidon, and Julius treated Paul kindly, allowing him to visit his friends there and to receive any care he needed. 4 After putting out from there, we sailed on the sheltered side of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5 We sailed along the sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia and reached Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship bound for Italy and put us on it. 7 We sailed slowly for a number of days and with difficulty arrived off Cnidus. Then, because the wind was against us, we sailed on the sheltered side of Crete off Cape Salome. 8 Sailing past it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea. 9 Much time had been lost, and because navigation had become dangerous and the day of fasting had already past, Paul began to warn those on the ship,[a] 10 “Men, I see that during this voyage there will be hardship and a heavy loss not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives.”
11 But the centurion was persuaded by the pilot and the owner of the ship and not by what Paul said. 12 Since the harbor was not a good place to spend the winter, most of the men favored putting out to sea from there on the chance that somehow they could reach Phoenix and spend the winter there. It is a Cretian harbor that faces southwest and northwest. 13 When a gentle breeze began to blow from the south, they thought they could make it to Phoenix,[b] so they hoisted anchor and began sailing along the shore of Crete.
14 But it was not long before a violent wind (called a northeaster) swept down from the island.[c] 15 The ship was caught so that it couldn’t face the wind, and we gave up and were swept along. 16 As we drifted to the sheltered side of a small island called Cauda,[d] we barely managed to secure the ship’s lifeboat. 17 The ship’s crew[e] pulled it up on deck and used ropes to brace the ship. Fearing that they would hit the large sandbank near Libya,[f] they lowered the sail and drifted along. 18 The next day, because we were being tossed so violently by the storm, they began to throw the cargo overboard. 19 On the third day they threw the ship’s equipment overboard with their own hands. 20 For a number of days neither the sun nor the stars were to be seen, and the storm continued to rage until at last all hope of our being saved vanished.
21 After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood among his shipmates[g] and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete. You would have avoided this hardship and damage. 22 But now I urge you to have courage, because there will be no loss of life among you, but only loss[h] of the ship. 23 For just last night an angel of God, to whom I belong and whom I serve, stood by me 24 and said, ‘Stop being afraid, Paul! You must stand before the emperor. Indeed, God has given to you the lives of[i] everyone who is sailing with you.’ 25 So take courage, men, because I trust God that it will turn out just as he told me. 26 However, we will have to run aground on some island.”
The Shipwreck
27 It was the fourteenth night, and we were drifting through the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors suspected that land was near. 28 After taking soundings, they found the depth to be twenty fathoms. A little later, they took soundings again and found it was fifteen fathoms. 29 Fearing that we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and began praying for daylight to come. 30 Meanwhile, the sailors had begun trying to escape from the ship. They lowered the lifeboat into the sea and pretended that they were going to lay out the anchors from the bow. 31 Paul told the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain onboard, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and set it adrift.
33 Right up to daybreak Paul kept urging all of them to eat something. He said, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, not eating anything. 34 So I urge you to eat something, for it will help you survive, since none of you will lose so much as[j] a hair from his head.” 35 After he said this, he took some bread, thanked God in front of everyone, broke it, and began to eat. 36 Everyone was encouraged and had something to eat. 37 There were 276[k] of us on the ship. 38 After they had eaten all they wanted, they began to lighten the ship by dumping its cargo of[l] wheat into the sea.
39 When day came, they didn’t recognize the land, but they could see a bay with a beach on which they planned to run the ship ashore, if possible. 40 So they cut the anchors free and left them in the sea. At the same time they untied the ropes that held the steering oars, raised the foresail to the wind, and headed for the beach. 41 But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow stuck and couldn’t be moved, while the stern was broken to pieces by the force of the waves. 42 The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners to keep them from swimming ashore and escaping, 43 but the centurion wanted to save Paul, so he prevented them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. 44 The rest were to follow, some on planks and others on various pieces of the ship. In this way everyone got to shore safely.
Zedekiah Consults Jeremiah
37 Josiah’s son King Zedekiah reigned in place of Jehoiakim’s son Coniah,[a] whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made king of the land of Judah. 2 But neither he nor his officials nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that were spoken by[b] Jeremiah the prophet.
3 King Zedekiah sent Shelemiah’s son Jehucal and Maaseiah’s son Zephaniah the priest to Jeremiah the prophet, asking him, “Please pray to the Lord our God for us.” 4 Now Jeremiah was still[c] going in and out among the people since he had not yet been put in prison. 5 Pharaoh’s army had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.
6 Then this message from the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: 7 “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘This is what you are to say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me, “Look, Pharaoh’s army that has come to help will go back to its own land of Egypt, 8 and then the Chaldeans will come back to fight against this city, to capture it, and burn it with fire.”’ 9 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Don’t deceive yourselves by saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” ‘for they won’t go. 10 Indeed, even if you defeated the entire Chaldean army that is fighting against you, and they had only wounded men left in their tents, they would get up and burn this city with fire.’”’”
Jeremiah Arrested for Treason
11 When the Chaldean army was leaving Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army, 12 Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the territory of Benjamin to take possession of his property[d] there among the people. 13 He was in the Gate of Benjamin, and chief officer Irijah, Shelemiah’s son and the grandson of Hananiah, was there. He arrested Jeremiah the prophet, accusing him: “You are going over to the Chaldeans!”
14 Jeremiah said, “It’s a lie! I’m not going over to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah[e] would not listen to him, and he[f] arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. 15 The officials were angry with Jeremiah and beat him. They put him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe because they had made it into a prison. 16 So Jeremiah came into the cells in the dungeon[g] and remained there for a long time.[h]
17 Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah[i] and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house: “Is there a message from the Lord?”
Jeremiah said, “There is,” and then he said, “You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon.” 18 Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, “What offense have I committed against you, your officials, or these people that you have put me in prison? 19 Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, telling you: ‘The king of Babylon won’t come against you or against this land’? 20 Now, please listen, your majesty,[j] and pay attention to what I’m asking you. Don’t make me go back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, so I don’t die there.”
21 So King Zedekiah gave the order, and they assigned Jeremiah to the courtyard of the guard. Each day they gave him a loaf of bread from the bakers’ street until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
A Prayer for Judging the Wicked
10 [a]Why do you stand far away, Lord?
Why do you hide in times of distress?
2 The wicked one arrogantly pursues the afflicted,[b]
who are trapped in the schemes he devises.
3 For the wicked one boasts about his own desire;
he blesses the greedy
and despises the Lord.
4 With haughty arrogance, the wicked thinks,
“God will not seek justice.”[c]
He always presumes “There is no God.”
5 Their ways always seem prosperous.
Your judgments are on high,
far away from them.
They scoff at all their enemies.
6 They say to themselves,
“We will not be moved throughout all time,
and we will not experience adversity.”
7 Their mouth is full of curses, lies, and oppression,
their tongues[d] spread trouble and iniquity.
8 They wait[e] in ambush in the villages,
they kill the innocent in secret.
9 Their eyes secretly watch the helpless,
lying in wait like a lion in his den.
They lie in wait to catch the afflicted.
They catch the afflicted when they pull him into their net.
10 The victim[f] is crushed,
and he sinks down;
the helpless fall by their might.
11 The wicked say to themselves,
“God has forgotten,
he has hidden his face,
he will never see it.”
12 Rise up, Lord!
Raise your hand, God.
Don’t forget the afflicted!
13 Why do the wicked despise God
and say to themselves, “God[g] will not seek justice.”?[h]
14 But you do see!
You take note of trouble and grief
in order to take the matter into your own hand.
The helpless one commits himself[i] to you;
you have been the orphan’s helper.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evil man;
so that when you seek out his wickedness
you will find it no more.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever;
nations will perish from his land.
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.