M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Ruth Meets Boaz

2 Now Naomi had a relative of her husband, a man of prominence and means from the clan of Elimelek. His name was Boaz.

² Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go into the field and glean among the heads of grain behind anyone in whose eyes I may find favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter.” ³ So she went to glean in the field behind the harvesters. She happened to come to a part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.

⁴ Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!”

And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.”

⁵ Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶ So the servant who was in charge of his harvesters answered, “She is the young Moabitess woman who came back with Naomi from the land of Moab. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather grain among the bundles behind the harvesters.’ So she came and has remained from morning until now, though she rested a little while in the house.”

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field and leave this one. Stay close to my young women. ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field in which they reap and follow after them. I have commanded the men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰ So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should acknowledge me, a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz answered and said to her, “I have been told all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to a people you did not know before. ¹² May the Lord reward your deeds. May you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³ Then she said, “May I find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not like one of your servant girls.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here, and eat some bread, and dip your piece in the vinegar.”

So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he passed her some roasted grain. She ate and was full and had some left over. ¹⁵ When she got up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, “Let her glean even among the bundles, and do not harm her. ¹⁶ Also pull out some grain for her from the bundles and leave it so that she may glean it, and do not rebuke her.”

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah^[a] of barley. ¹⁸ She took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She drew it out and gave her what she had left, after she had been satisfied.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today, and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed.”

So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

²⁰ Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn His kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “This man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeeming relatives.”

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He even told me, ‘You should stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvest.’ ”

²² Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is better, my daughter, that you go with his young women, for in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

²³ So she stayed close to the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Paul Sails for Rome

27 When it was decided that we should sail into Italy, they handed Paul and some other prisoners over to a centurion of the Augustan Regiment, named Julius. ² Boarding a ship from Adramyttium, we put out to sea, meaning to sail along the coasts of Asia. Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, was with us.

³ The next day we landed at Sidon. And Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him leave to go to his friends and be given care. ⁴ From there we put out to sea and sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were against us. ⁵ Sailing across the sea off of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. ⁶ There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing to Italy, and he put us on board. ⁷ We sailed slowly for many days, and arrived with difficulty off Cnidus, and as the wind did not allow us to proceed, we sailed under the lee of Crete off Salmone. ⁸ Sailing past it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the city of Lasea.

⁹ As much time had been lost and as the voyage was now dangerous, because the Day of Atonement was already over, Paul advised them, ¹⁰ saying, “Men, I perceive that this voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also of our lives.” ¹¹ But the centurion was persuaded more by the captain and the owner of the ship than by what Paul said. ¹² Since the harbor was not suitable to winter in, the majority decided to sail on from there, if somehow we might reach Phoenix, a harbor in Crete, facing southwest and northwest, and winter there.

The Storm at Sea

¹³ When a south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained the necessary conditions, they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. ¹⁴ But soon afterward a tempestuous wind swept through, called the Euroclydon.^{[a] 15} When the ship was overpowered and could not head into the wind, we let her drift. ¹⁶ Drifting under the lee of an island called Cauda, we could scarcely secure the rowboat. ¹⁷ When they had hoisted it aboard, they used ropes to undergird the ship. And fearing that they might run aground on the sand of Syrtis, they let down the mast, and so were driven. ¹⁸ We were violently tossed by the storm. The next day they threw cargo overboard. ¹⁹ On the third day we threw the tackle of the ship overboard with our own hands. ²⁰ When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm was upon us, all hope that we should be saved was lost.

²¹ After they had long abstained from food, Paul stood in their midst and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete, incurring this injury and loss. ²² But now I advise you to take courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. ²³ For there stood by me this night the angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve, ²⁴ saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And, look! God has given you all those who sail with you.’ ²⁵ Therefore, men, take courage, for I believe God that it will be exactly as it was told to me. ²⁶ Nevertheless, we must be shipwrecked on a certain island.”

²⁷ When the fourteenth night came, while we were drifting in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors supposed that they were approaching land. ²⁸ They took soundings and found the water to be one hundred and twenty feet deep.^[b] When they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found it to be ninety feet deep.^{[c] 29} Fearing that we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. ³⁰ When the sailors strove to abandon ship and lowered the rowboat into the sea, under the pretext of lowering anchors out of the bow, ³¹ Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, “Unless these sailors remain in the ship, you cannot be saved.” ³² Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the rowboat and let her fall off.

³³ As day was about to dawn, Paul asked them all to eat, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have waited and continued without food, having eaten nothing. ³⁴ So I urge you to eat. This is for your preservation, for not a hair shall fall from your head.” ³⁵ When he had said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it he began to eat. ³⁶ Then they were all encouraged, and they also ate food themselves. ³⁷ In all we were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship. ³⁸ When they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw the wheat into the sea.

The Shipwreck

³⁹ When it was day, they did not recognize the land. But they noticed a bay with a shore, into which they were determined to run the ship if possible. ⁴⁰ Casting off the anchors, they left them in the sea while loosening the ropes that secured the rudders. Then they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. ⁴¹ But striking a sandbar where two seas met, they ran the ship aground. The bow stuck and remained immovable, but the stern was broken up by the violent surf.

⁴² The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. ⁴³ But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, prevented them from their intent and ordered those who could swim to abandon ship first and get to land, ⁴⁴ and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And in this way they all escaped safely to land.

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah

37 And King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Koniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. ² But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord, which He spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.

³ But Zedekiah the king sent Jehukal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Please pray to the Lord our God for us.”

⁴ Now Jeremiah was still coming in and going out among the people, for they had not yet put him into prison. ⁵ At that time Pharaoh’s army had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report of them, they departed from Jerusalem.

⁶ Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah, saying: ⁷ Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Thus you shall say to the king of Judah who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: Pharaoh’s army which has come out to help you shall return to Egypt, to its own land. ⁸ The Chaldeans will come again and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.

⁹ Thus says the Lord: Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely depart from us,” for they will not depart. ¹⁰ For though you had struck the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you and there remained but wounded men among them, yet every man would rise up in his tent and burn this city with fire.

Jeremiah Imprisoned

¹¹ Now when the army of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the approach of Pharaoh’s army, ¹² Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to take possession of his property there among the people. ¹³ When he was in the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there whose name was Irijah the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah. And he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are falling away to the Chaldeans!”

¹⁴ But Jeremiah said, “It is false! I am not falling away to the Chaldeans,” but he did not listen to him. So Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵ Therefore the officials were wrathful with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.

¹⁶ For Jeremiah had entered the dungeon, that is, the vaulted cell, and Jeremiah had remained there many days. ¹⁷ Then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out; and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, “Is there any word from the Lord?”

And Jeremiah said, “There is!” Then he said, “You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

¹⁸ Moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹ Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you, nor against this land’? ²⁰ Therefore now please listen, O my lord the king. Please let my supplication be accepted before you, that you not cause me to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.”

²¹ Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison and give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was finished. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

Psalm 10