M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Samson’s Revenge
15 After a while, during the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, taking a young goat. He said, “I’m going in to my wife in her bedroom,” but her father would not let him go in.
2 Her father said, “I thought that you thoroughly hated her, so I gave her to your best man. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, let her be your wife instead.”
3 Samson said to them, “This time I cannot be blamed by the Philistines when I do them harm.” 4 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes. He took torches and turned the foxes tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 He set fire to the torches and sent the foxes into standing grain of the Philistines. He burned the harvested grain, standing grain, vineyards, and olive trees.
6 The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” They said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because the Timnite took the bride of Samson and gave her to his best man.”
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father with fire. 7 Samson said to them, “Because you have done this, I will take revenge on you, and afterwards I will stop.” 8 He struck them down with a mighty blow, then went to live in a cave in Etam Rock.
9 Then the Philistines went up and set up camp in Judah. They deployed against Lehi. 10 The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?”
They said, “It is to take Samson prisoner that we have come up, to do to him what he did to us.”
11 So three thousand men from Judah went to the cave in Etam Rock and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are ruling us? Why have you done this to us?”
He said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”
12 They said to him, “We have come to take you prisoner, to give you into the hands of the Philistines.”
Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me.”
13 They said to him, “No, we will bind you securely and give you into their hands, but we will not kill you.” They bound him with two new ropes and took him away from the rock. 14 He came to Lehi, and the Philistines shouted as they approached him. Then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burned flax and the ties on his hands dissolved. 15 Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and with it struck down a thousand men.
16 Samson said,
“With a jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps.
With a jawbone of a donkey
I have slain a thousand men.”
17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone away and called that place Ramath Lehi.
18 He was very thirsty, and he called out to the Lord, “You gave this great deliverance through Your servant, but now may I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split open the basin at Lehi, and water flowed out of it. He drank, was refreshed, and revived. Because of this he called the place En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.
20 Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Ephesians Receive the Holy Spirit
19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper regions and came to Ephesus. He found some disciples 2 and said to them, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?”
They said to him, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 He said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?”
They said, “Into John’s baptism.”
4 Paul said, “John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people that they should believe in the One coming after him, that is, in Christ Jesus.” 5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
8 He went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, lecturing and persuading concerning the kingdom of God. 9 But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the Way before the crowd, he withdrew from them and took the disciples, lecturing daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
The Sons of Sceva
11 God worked powerful miracles by the hands of Paul. 12 So handkerchiefs or aprons he had touched were brought to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists invoked the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We command you to come out in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 There were seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva doing this. 15 The evil spirit answered, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was jumped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled from that house naked and wounded.
17 This became known to all Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus. And fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18 Many who believed came confessing and telling their deeds. 19 Many who practiced magic brought their books together and burned them before everyone. They calculated their value, which equaled fifty thousand drachmas.[a] 20 So the word of the Lord powerfully grew and spread.
The Riot in Ephesus
21 After these things happened, Paul determined in his spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” 22 He sent two who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, into Macedonia, but he delayed in Asia for a time.
23 About that time great trouble arose about the Way. 24 For a silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines for Artemis, brought much business to the craftsmen. 25 He gathered them together with the workmen of similar trades and said, “Men, you know that by this trade we have our wealth. 26 And you see and hear, not only at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, that this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that these things made by hands are not gods. 27 Now not only is our trade in danger of coming into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis, whom all Asia and the world worship, may be discredited and her magnificence destroyed.”
28 When they heard this, they were full of anger and cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” 29 The city was filled with confusion. And in unison they seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and rushed into the theater. 30 When Paul intended to go in among the crowd, the disciples would not let him. 31 Even some of the rulers of Asia, who were his friends, sent to him begging him not to venture into the theater.
32 The assembly was confused. Therefore some cried out one thing and some another, and most of them did not know why they had come together. 33 The Jews pushed Alexander to the front as the crowd prompted him. Alexander motioned with his hand, wishing to make his defense to the mob. 34 But when they learned that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all with one voice cried out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said, “Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image which fell from heaven? 36 Seeing then that these things are undeniable, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash. 37 For you have brought these men here who are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of your goddess. 38 So if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another. 39 If you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the legal assembly. 40 For we are in danger of being charged with rioting today, since there is no reason we may give to account for this uproar.” 41 When he had said this, he dismissed the assembly.
The False Prophet Hananiah
28 In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year and in the fifth month, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, 2 “Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two full years I will bring back into this place all the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon. 4 And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah who went into Babylon, says the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”
5 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the Lord, 6 even the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen. May the Lord do so; may the Lord perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring back the vessels of the house of the Lord and all that was carried away captive, from Babylon into this place. 7 Nevertheless hear now this word that I speak in your ears and in the ears of all the people. 8 The prophets of old who have been before me and before you prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms, of war and disaster and pestilence. 9 As for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet shall be known as one whom the Lord has truly sent.”
10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it. 11 Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within the space of two full years.” Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying: 13 Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus says the Lord: You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made instead of them yokes of iron. 14 For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him. And I have given him the beasts of the field also.
15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen now, Hananiah. The Lord has not sent you, and you make this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the Lord: I am about to cast you from off the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the Lord.”
17 So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
The Plot to Kill Jesus(A)
14 Now the feasts of the Passover and of Unleavened Bread were two days away. And the chief priests and the scribes looked for a way to seize Him secretly and kill Him. 2 But they said “Not on the feast day, lest there will be an uproar among the people.”
The Anointing at Bethany(B)
3 While He was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at supper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment, a very costly spikenard. She broke the jar and poured the ointment on His head.
4 There were some with indignation within themselves, saying, “Why was this ointment wasted? 5 It might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii[a] and given to the poor.” And they grumbled against her.
6 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. 7 You always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish, you may do good to them. But you will not always have Me. 8 She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. 9 Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel will be preached throughout the whole world, what she has done will also be spoken of as a memorial to her.”
Judas’ Agreement to Betray Jesus(C)
10 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them. 11 When they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him silver. So he looked for how he might conveniently betray Him.
The Passover With the Disciples(D)
12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”
13 So He sent two of His disciples and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you there. Follow him. 14 Wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says, Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’ 15 He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”
16 His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it as He had told them. And they prepared the Passover.
17 In the evening He came with the twelve. 18 As they sat and ate, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, one of you who is eating with Me will betray Me.”
19 They began to be sorrowful and to say to Him one by one, “Is it I?” and another, “Is it I?”
20 He answered them, “It is one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread in the dish with Me. 21 The Son of Man indeed goes as it is written concerning Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.”
The Lord’s Supper(E)
22 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “Take and eat it. This is My body.”
23 Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them. And they all drank from it.
24 He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. 25 Truly I say to you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Peter’s Denial Foretold(F)
27 Jesus said to them, “All of you will fall away on account of Me this night, for it is written:
‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.’[b]
28 But after I have risen, I will go before you to Galilee.”
29 Peter said to Him, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”
30 Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you that this day, during the night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.”
31 But he said more vehemently, “If I must die with You, I will not deny You.” They all said the same thing.
The Prayer in Gethsemane(G)
32 They came to a place which was named Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took Peter and James and John with Him and began to be greatly distressed and very troubled. 34 And He said to them, “My soul is deeply sorrowful unto death. Remain here and keep watch.”
35 He went a little farther and fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. 36 He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”
37 Then He came and found them sleeping and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch one hour? 38 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
39 Again He went away and prayed the same words. 40 When He returned, He again found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. And they did not know what to answer Him.
41 When He returned a third time, He said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise up, let us go. Look! He who betrays Me is at hand.”
The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus(H)
43 Immediately, while He was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.
44 Now he who betrayed Him had given them a sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the One. Seize Him and lead Him away safely.” 45 So as soon as he came, he went to Him immediately and said, “Rabbi, Rabbi!” and kissed Him. 46 They laid hands on Him and seized Him. 47 Then one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
48 Jesus said to them, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would a thief? 49 Every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.” 50 Then they all deserted Him and fled.
The Young Man Who Fled
51 A young man followed Him, wearing a linen cloth around himself. And the young men laid hold of him, 52 so he left the linen cloth, and fled from them unclothed.
Jesus Before the Sanhedrin(I)
53 They led Jesus away to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes were assembled with him. 54 Peter followed Him at a distance into the courtyard of the high priest. He sat with the guards and warmed himself by the fire.
55 Now the chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin requested testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none. 56 Many bore false witness against Him, but their testimonies did not agree.
57 Then some rose up and bore false witness against Him, saying, 58 “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another not made with hands.’ ” 59 But still their testimony did not agree.
60 Then the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, “Do You answer nothing? What is it which these men testify against You?” 61 But He kept silent and answered nothing.
Again the high priest asked Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”
62 Jesus said, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
63 The high priest tore his robes, saying, “What need do we have of any further witnesses? 64 You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”
They all condemned Him as guilty unto death. 65 Then some began to spit on Him, and to blindfold Him, and to strike Him, saying to Him, “Prophesy!” And the guards struck Him with the palms of their hands.
Peter’s Denial of Jesus(J)
66 While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came. 67 When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with Jesus of Nazareth.”
68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are saying.” Then he went out to the porch, and a rooster crowed.
69 The servant girl saw him again and began to say to those who stood by, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again, he denied it.
A little while later, those who stood by said again to Peter, “Surely, you are one of them. For you are a Galilean, and your speech confirms it.”
71 Peter began to invoke a curse on himself, and to swear, “I do not know this Man of whom you speak.”
72 And the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And when he thought on this, he wept.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.