M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Dinah and Shechem
34 Dinah, Jacob’s daughter by Leah, went out to see the young women of the land. 2 Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, the chief of that part of the land, saw her and took her, lay down with her, and humiliated her.[a] 3 He had a strong desire for Dinah,[b] the daughter of Jacob, and he was in love with the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.[c] 4 Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young woman as a wife.”
5 When Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, his sons were out in the field with his livestock, so Jacob kept quiet about it until they came back. 6 Hamor the father of Shechem came to talk with Jacob. 7 The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard about it. The men were shocked by the outrage, and they were very angry, because he had disgraced Israel by lying down with Jacob’s daughter, a thing that should not be done. 8 Hamor spoke with them. He said, “My son Shechem has a deep longing for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. 9 Intermarry with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You may live among us, and the land will be open to you. Live in it, conduct trade, and acquire property in it.”
11 Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you ask from me I will give. 12 No matter how great a bride price and gift[d] you demand, I will give it. Just give me the young woman as a wife.”
13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah. 14 They said to them, “We cannot do this—giving our sister to a man who is uncircumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. 15 Only on this condition will we consent to your offer: If all your males become circumcised as we are, 16 then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves, and we will live with you, and we will become one people. 17 But if you do not accept our terms and undergo circumcision, then we will take our sister,[e] and we will be gone.”
18 Their offer pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. 19 The young man did not delay acting on it, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter, and he was the most important[f] of all the household of his father. 20 Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and discussed this with the men of their city. They said, 21 “These men want peace with us. So let them live in the land and trade in it. Look, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives for ourselves, and let us give them our daughters. 22 Only on this condition will the men agree to live with us and to become one people with us: if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised. 23 Won’t all their livestock, all their possessions, and all their animals become ours? So let’s accept their offer, so that they will settle among us.”
24 Everyone who assembled at the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to Shechem his son. So all the males who assembled at the gate of the city were circumcised. 25 Then on the third day, when they were still sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, attacked the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. 26 They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword. They took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and left.
27 Jacob’s sons then came to the dead bodies and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled. 28 They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, everything that was in the city, everything that was in the countryside, 29 and all their wealth. They took all their little ones and their wives as captives. They looted everything that was in the houses.
30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have ruined me. You have made me stink to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and attack me, and I will be destroyed, I and my household.”
31 But they said, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”
A Demon-Possessed Man and a Herd of Pigs
5 They went to the other side of the sea, into the region of the Gerasenes.[a] 2 As soon as Jesus stepped out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs to meet him. 3 The man lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he pulled the chains apart and broke the shackles in pieces. Nobody had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was constantly crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down in front of him. 7 He cried out with a loud voice, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you to swear by God not to torment me.” 8 For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
9 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “because we are many.” 10 He begged Jesus repeatedly that he would not send them out of the region.
11 There was a large herd of pigs there feeding on the hillside. 12 The demons begged him, “Send us to the pigs so we may enter them.”
13 Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits went out and entered the pigs. Then the herd of about two thousand pigs rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned. 14 Those who were feeding the pigs ran and reported this in the city and the countryside.
People came to see what had happened. 15 When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons sitting there clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen it described for these people what had happened to the demon-possessed man, and they told them about the pigs. 17 They began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.
18 As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to stay with Jesus. 19 But Jesus would not let him. Instead, he told him, “Go home to your people, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you.”
20 The man left and began to proclaim in the Decapolis everything Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed.
The Daughter of Jairus
21 When Jesus had again crossed over in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him near the sea. 22 Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet 23 and repeatedly pleaded with him, “My little daughter is near death. Please come and place your hands on her so that she may be healed and live.”
24 Jesus went with him, and a large crowd was following him, pressing tightly against him. 25 A certain woman who was there had a discharge of blood for twelve years. 26 She had suffered much under the care of many physicians and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. 27 When she heard what was being said about Jesus, she went up behind him in the crowd and touched his robe. 28 She said, “If I just touch his robe, I will be healed.” 29 Immediately her flow of blood stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
30 At that moment, Jesus knew that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my robe?”
31 His disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing tightly against you and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’”
32 Nevertheless he kept looking around to see who had done this. 33 The woman was trembling with fear since she knew what had happened to her. She came forward, fell down in front of him, and told him the whole truth.
34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your suffering.”
35 While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue ruler’s house arrived, saying, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher anymore?”
36 But when Jesus heard this report, he told the synagogue ruler, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe.” 37 He did not allow anyone to follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James. 38 They went into the house of the synagogue ruler, and Jesus saw a commotion with people weeping and wailing loudly. 39 When he entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.”
40 They laughed at him. But after he put everyone out, he took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him and went in where the child was. 41 Grasping the hand of the child, he said to her, “Talitha, koum!” (When translated, that means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”) 42 Immediately the little girl stood up and began to walk around. (She was twelve years old.) They were completely and utterly amazed. 43 Then he gave them strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and he told them to give her something to eat.
Job’s Happy Life
1 There was a man in the land of Uz[a] whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright, a man who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. 3 His possessions included seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred female donkeys. He also had a very large retinue of servants. This man was the greatest of all the men of the East.
4 His sons would regularly arrange feasts, each one in his own house on his assigned day, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 When the days of the feast were complete, Job would send for them and consecrate[b] them. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them. Job would say, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed[c] God in their hearts.” Job did this regularly.
Job’s First Test
6 There came a day when the sons of God[d] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan[e] also came into their midst. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming the earth and walking around on it.”
8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and turns away from evil.”
9 Satan answered the Lord, “Is it without cause that Job fears God? 10 You have put a protective hedge around him and his household and everything that belongs to him, haven’t you? You have blessed the work of his hands. His livestock has spread throughout the land. 11 But just stretch out your hand and strike everything that is his, and he will certainly curse you to your face!”
12 So the Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then. Everything that he has is in your hand. But you may not stretch out your hand against the man himself.” So Satan left the presence of the Lord.
13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their oldest brother, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the female donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 when the Sabeans[f] swooped down and took them away. They put the servants to death with the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another servant came and said, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the flocks and the servants and consumed them, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
17 While he was still speaking, another servant came and said, “The Chaldeans[g] formed three raiding parties and plundered the camels and took them away. They put the servants to death with the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, another servant came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and were drinking wine in the house of their oldest brother. 19 Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it collapsed on the young people, and they died, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshipped. 21 Then he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be blessed.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin or blame God.[h]
Justification Brings Peace and Joy
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace[a] with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we also have obtained access by faith[b] into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice confidently on the basis of our hope for the glory[c] of God.
3 Not only this, but we also rejoice confidently in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patient endurance, 4 and patient endurance produces tested character, and tested character produces hope. 5 And hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us.
God’s Love Is Evident in Christ’s Death for the Ungodly
6 For at the appointed time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 It is rare indeed that someone will die for a righteous person. Perhaps someone might actually go so far as to die for a person who has been good to him. 8 But God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, it is even more certain that we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, it is even more certain that, since we have been reconciled, we will be saved by his life. 11 And not only is this so, but we also go on rejoicing confidently in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Both Adam and Christ Had an Effect on All People
12 So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, so also death spread to all people because all sinned. 13 For even before the law was given, sin was in the world. Now, sin is not charged to one’s account if there is no law, 14 and yet death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those whose sin was not like the transgression of Adam, who is a pattern[d] of the one who was to come.
15 But the gracious gift is not like Adam’s trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of this one man, it is even more certain that God’s grace, and the gift given by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, overflowed to the many!
16 And the gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin, for the judgment that followed the one trespass resulted in a verdict of condemnation, but the gracious gift that followed many trespasses resulted in a verdict of justification.
17 Indeed, if by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through the one man, it is even more certain that those who receive the overflowing grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ!
18 So then, just as one trespass led to a verdict of condemnation for all people, so also one righteous verdict led to life-giving justification[e] for all people. 19 For just as through the disobedience of one man the many became sinners, so also through the obedience of one man the many will become righteous.
20 The law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace overflowed much more, 21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.