M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

David Wins Other Battles

8 After this David won the battle against the Philistines. And he took the most important city from the Philistines. ² He won the battle against Moab, and had them lie down on the ground in straight groups. Two groups were put to death, and one group was kept alive. The Moabites became servants to David and paid taxes to him.

³ Then David won the battle against Hadadezer the son of Rehob king of Zobah, as he went to get his power again at the Euphrates River. ⁴ David took 1,700 horsemen and 20,000 foot soldiers from him. He cut the legs of some of the war-wagon horses, but saved enough of them for 100 war-wagons. ⁵ When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David killed 22,000 of them. ⁶ Then he put groups of soldiers in Damascus of Syria. The Syrians became servants to David and were made to pay taxes to him. The Lord helped David every place he went. ⁷ David took the coverings of gold which were carried by Hadadezer’s army, and brought them to Jerusalem. ⁸ And he took a very large amount of brass from Hadadezer’s cities, Betah and Berothai.

⁹ Now Toi king of Hamath heard that David had won the battle against the whole army of Hadadezer. ¹⁰ So Toi sent his son Joram to King David, to greet him and pray that good would come to him, because David had fought against Hadadezer and had won. Hadadezer had been at war with Toi. Joram brought with him objects of silver, gold and brass. ¹¹ David set these apart to the Lord, together with the silver and gold he had set apart from all the nations he had taken in battle. ¹² He had taken silver and gold from Syria, Moab, the sons of Ammon, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the things taken from Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah.

¹³ So David’s name was very respected when he returned from killing 18,000 Syrians in the Valley of Salt. ¹⁴ And he put groups of soldiers in Edom. In all Edom he put soldiers, and all the Edomites became servants to David. The Lord helped David every place he went.

¹⁵ So David ruled all of Israel. He did what was right and good and fair for all his people. ¹⁶ Joab the son of Zeruiah was the head of the army. Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud wrote down the important things of the nation. ¹⁷ Ahitub’s son Zadok and Abiathar’s son Ahimelech were religious leaders. Seraiah was the writer. ¹⁸ Benaiah the son of Jehoiada ruled the Cherethites and the Pelethites. And David’s sons were the king’s helpers.

David Is Kind to Mephibosheth

9 Then David said, “Is there anyone left of the family of Saul, to whom I may show kindness because of Jonathan?” ² Now there was a servant in Saul’s house whose name was Ziba. They called him to David, and the king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” And he said, “I am your servant.” ³ The king said, “Is there not still someone of the family of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God?” And Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan who cannot walk because of his feet.” ⁴ So the king said to him, “Where is he?” Ziba answered the king, “See, he is in the family of Machir the son of Ammiel in Lo-debar.” ⁵ Then King David sent men to bring him from the family of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo-debar. ⁶ Mephibosheth the son of Saul’s son Jonathan came to David and fell on his face to the ground in respect. David said, “Mephibosheth.” And he answered, “Here is your servant!” ⁷ David said to him, “Do not be afraid. For I will be sure to show kindness to you because of your father Jonathan. I will return to you all the land of your grandfather Saul. And you will eat at my table always.” ⁸ Again Mephibosheth put his face to the ground and said, “Who am I? Why should you care for a dead dog like me?”

⁹ Then the king called Saul’s servant Ziba and said to him, “I have given to your owner’s grandson all that belonged to Saul and his family. ¹⁰ You and your sons and your servants will grow food on the land for him. You will bring in the food so your owner’s grandson may eat. But Mephibosheth your owner’s grandson will always eat at my table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. ¹¹ Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do all that my lord the king tells your servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table as one of the king’s sons. ¹² Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Mica. And all who lived in Ziba’s house were Mephibosheth’s servants. ¹³ So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he always ate at the king’s table. Both his feet had been hurt and he could not walk.

2 As I thought about it, I decided I would not come to you again. It would only make you sad. ² If I make you sad, who is going to make me happy? How can you make me happy if I make you sad? ³ That is why I wrote that letter to you. I did not want to visit you and be made sad by the ones who should be making me happy. I am sure when I am happy, you are happy also. ⁴ I wrote you with a troubled heart. Tears were coming from my eyes. I did not want to make you sad. I wanted you to know how much I loved you.

Forgiving a Christian

⁵ If someone among you has brought sorrow, he has not made me as sad as he has all of you. I say this so I may not make it hard for you. ⁶ Most of you have punished him. That is enough for such a person. ⁷ Now you should forgive him and comfort him. If you do not, he will be so sad that he will want to give up. ⁸ I ask you to show him you do love him. ⁹ This is why I wrote to you. I wanted to test you to see if you were willing to obey in all things. ¹⁰ If you forgive a man, I forgive him also. If I have forgiven anything, I have done it because of you. Christ sees me as I forgive. ¹¹ We forgive so that Satan will not win. We know how he works!

¹² When I arrived in the city of Troas, the Lord opened the door for me to preach the Good News of Christ. ¹³ I was worried because I could not find our brother Titus. After saying good-bye, I went on my way to the country of Macedonia. ¹⁴ We thank God for the power Christ has given us. He leads us and makes us win in everything. He speaks through us wherever we go. The Good News is like a sweet smell to those who hear it. ¹⁵ We are a sweet smell of Christ that reaches up to God. It reaches out to those who are being saved from the punishment of sin and to those who are still lost in sin. ¹⁶ It is the smell of death to those who are lost in sin. It is the smell of life to those who are being saved from the punishment of sin. Who is able for such a work? ¹⁷ We are not like others. They preach God’s Word to make money. We are men of truth and have been sent by God. We speak God’s Word with Christ’s power. All the time God sees us.

Jerusalem—Not Faithful

16 The Word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her hated sins. ³ Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says to Jerusalem: “Your beginning and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite. Your father was an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite. ⁴ On the day you were born the cord between you and your mother was not cut. You were not washed with water to make you clean. You were not rubbed with salt or even covered with cloth. ⁵ No one looked with pity on you or did any of these things for you out of loving-kindness. Instead you were thrown out into the open field, for you were hated on the day you were born.

⁶ “When I passed by you and saw you rolling about in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ ⁷ I made you become many, like plants of the field. Then you grew up and became tall. You grew into a beautiful woman. You had breasts and your hair had grown. Yet you were not covered and your body could be seen. ⁸ Then I passed by you and saw that you were old enough for love. So I spread my clothing over you and covered your body. I gave you my promise and made an agreement with you so that you became Mine,” says the Lord God. ⁹ “Then I washed you with water, washed the blood from you, and poured oil on you. ¹⁰ I dressed you with beautiful cloth, and put leather shoes on your feet. I dressed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I put on you objects of beauty. I put beautiful objects on your arms and around your neck. ¹² I put rings in your nose and in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ So you were dressed with gold and silver. Your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and beautiful cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. So you were very beautiful, and you became a queen. ¹⁴ Your name became known among the nations because of your beauty. For it was perfect because of My shining-greatness which I had given to you,” says the Lord God.

¹⁵ “But you trusted in your beauty. Because your name was well-known, you acted like a woman who sells the use of her body. And you did sex sins with anyone who passed by. ¹⁶ You took some of your clothes of many colors and made for yourself places of worship. There you acted like a woman who sells the use of her body. Such things should never happen or come to pass. ¹⁷ You also took your objects of beauty made of My gold and silver, which I had given you. And you used them to make things that looked like men, that you might play with them as a woman who sells the use of her body. ¹⁸ Then you took your beautiful cloth and covered them, and set My oil and My special perfume in front of them. ¹⁹ You also set in front of them My bread which I gave you, the fine flour, oil and honey I gave you to eat. You gave it all to them as a special perfume. So it was,” says the Lord God. ²⁰ “You even took your sons and daughters whom you had given birth for Me, and gave them to the false gods to be destroyed. Were your sex sins too little? ²¹ You killed My children and gave them as burnt gifts to false gods. ²² And in all your hated acts and sex sins you did not remember the days when you were young. You did not remember when you were without clothing or covering, and when you rolled about in your blood.

²³ “It is bad for you!” says the Lord God. “After all your sinful acts, ²⁴ you built a place of worship for yourself, and a high place in every street. ²⁵ You built yourself a high place at the beginning of every street and made your beauty a hated thing. You gave yourself to anyone who passed by, to make your sex sins many. ²⁶ You also gave the use of your body to the Egyptians, your neighbors who have much desire for sex sins. And you sinned many times to make Me angry. ²⁷ So I have raised My hand to punish you and have made your share smaller. I have given you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your sinful actions. ²⁸ You also gave the use of your body to the Assyrians because you had not had enough. Yes, you even gave the use of your body to them and still thought you had not had enough. ²⁹ You did many sex sins with Babylon, the land of those who trade. Yet even this was not enough for you.

³⁰ “How sinful your heart is,” says the Lord God, “that you do all these things, the actions of a sinful woman, and show no shame. ³¹ You built your places of worship at the beginning of every street and made your high place at every crossing. But you were not like a woman who sells the use of her body, because you did not want pay. ³² You are like a wife who is not faithful and has strangers instead of her husband! ³³ Men give gifts to all women who sell the use of their body. But you give your gifts to all your lovers. You pay them to come to you from everywhere for your sex sins. ³⁴ You are different from other women in your sex sins. You go after men; they do not come to you. You pay men instead of them giving pay to you. Yes, you are different.”

God Judges Jerusalem

³⁵ So, sinful woman, hear the Word of the Lord. ³⁶ The Lord God says, “Your shame was poured out and your clothing was taken off because of your sex sins with your lovers and with all your hated false gods. And you killed your children and gave them to false gods. Because of these things, ³⁷ I will gather all your lovers who pleased you. I will gather all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated. I will gather them against you from every side, and take off your covering so that they may see all your shame. ³⁸ I will punish you as I punish women who are not faithful in marriage, or women who kill. I will do it in My anger and jealousy. ³⁹ And I will give you over to your lovers. They will tear down your places of worship and destroy your high places. They will take all of your clothes and your beautiful objects, and will leave you without any covering. ⁴⁰ They will bring up a group of people against you, and they will kill you with stones and cut you to pieces with their swords. ⁴¹ They will burn your houses with fire and punish you as many women watch. Then I will stop you from acting like a woman who sells the use of her body, and you will no longer pay your lovers. ⁴² Then I will take away My anger from you, and My jealousy will leave you. I will be at peace, and will not be angry any more. ⁴³ You have not remembered the days when you were young, but have made Me angry with all these things. So I will punish you for what you have done,” says the Lord God. “Did you not add these sex sins to all your other hated sins?

More Sinful Than Samaria and Sodom

⁴⁴ “Every one who uses sayings will use this saying about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ ⁴⁵ You are the daughter of your mother, who hated her husband and her children. You are also a sister of your sisters who hated their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father was an Amorite. ⁴⁶ Your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters. And your younger sister is Sodom, who lives south of you with her daughters. ⁴⁷ Yet you have walked in their ways and done their hated acts. As if that were too little, you acted worse in all your ways than they. ⁴⁸ As I live,” says the Lord God, “your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. ⁴⁹ Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, much food, and too much rest, but she did not help those who were poor and in need. ⁵⁰ They were proud and did hated sins in front of Me. So I took them away when I saw it. ⁵¹ Samaria has not done half of your sins. You have done more sins than they. So you have made your sisters look right and good by all the hated sins which you have done. ⁵² Take your shame upon you, for you have made Me show favor to them in their punishment. Because of your sins in which you acted worse than they, they are more in the right than you. So then be ashamed and take your shame upon you, for you have made your sisters look right and good.

⁵³ “I will return them to their land, both Sodom and her daughters, and Samaria and her daughters. With them I will return you to your land. ⁵⁴ This is so you will take your shame upon you, and feel ashamed for all that you have done in becoming a comfort to them. ⁵⁵ Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to the land they had before. And you with your daughters will return to your land also. ⁵⁶ You did not speak against your sister Sodom in the days of your pride, ⁵⁷ before your sinful acts were seen. Now you have become like her, an object of shame for the daughters of Edom and all her neighbors, and for the daughters of the Philistines. All those around you who hate you now look on you with shame. ⁵⁸ The penalty of your sex sins and other hated sins has come upon you,” says the Lord. ⁵⁹ For the Lord God says, “I will do with you as you have done, because you have hated your promise by breaking the agreement.

An Agreement That Lasts Forever

⁶⁰ “But I will remember My agreement which I made with you when you were young. And I will make an agreement with you that lasts forever. ⁶¹ Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both your older one and younger one. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your agreement with Me. ⁶² So I will make My agreement with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. ⁶³ Then you will remember and be ashamed. You will never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I have forgiven you for all that you have done,” says the Lord God.

Prayer for God to Punish the Sinful

58 Do you speak what is right and good, O you powerful ones? Are you always right in how you judge, O sons of men? ² No, in your heart you do what is wrong. You use your hands to hurt and destroy in the land. ³ The sinful go wrong as soon as they are born. Those who speak lies go the wrong way from birth. ⁴ Their poison is like the poison of a snake. They are like a cobra that cannot or will not listen. ⁵ It does not hear the voice of the man who has power over it, even if the man is very good in his work.

⁶ O God, break the teeth in their mouth. Break out the teeth of the young lions, O Lord. ⁷ Let them flow away like water that pours. When he uses his arrows, let them have no heads. ⁸ Let them be like a snail that melts away as it goes. Like a baby born dead, may they never see the sun. ⁹ Before your pots can feel the fire of thorns, He will blow them away with a storm, both the green and the burning ones.

¹⁰ The one who is right and good will be full of joy when he sees the sinful punished. He will wash his feet in their blood. ¹¹ And men will say, “For sure there is pay for those who are right and good. For sure there is a God Who says who is guilty or not on the earth.”

Prayer for a Safe Place

59 O my God, take me away from those who hate me. Put me up high above those who rise up against me. ² Take me away from those who do wrong. And save me from those who kill. ³ For, look, they lie in wait for my life. Strong men are gathering together to fight me, but not because of my wrong-doing or my sin, O Lord. ⁴ I have done no wrong, but they get ready to fight against me. Rise up to help me. ⁵ You, O Lord God of All, God of Israel, rise up to punish all the nations. Show no loving-kindness to those people who cannot be trusted and plan sins. ⁶ They return at evening. They sound like dogs and go around the city. ⁷ See, they spit with their mouth. Swords are in their lips. And they say, “Who can hear us?” ⁸ But You laugh at them, O Lord. You laugh at all the nations.

⁹ O my Strength, I will watch for You. For God is my strong place. ¹⁰ My God in His loving-kindness will meet me. God will let me look at those who come against me and know that I will win the fight. ¹¹ Do not kill them, or my people may forget. Divide them by Your power and bring them down, O Lord, our safe-covering. ¹² Let them be caught in their pride for the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips. For the lies and bad things they say, ¹³ destroy them in anger. Destroy them so that they will be no more. Let it be known that God rules in Jacob and to the ends of the earth.

¹⁴ They return at evening. They make sounds like dogs and go around the city. ¹⁵ They go around looking for food and they show their teeth if they are not filled.

¹⁶ But as for me, I will sing of Your strength. Yes, I will sing with joy of Your loving-kindness in the morning. For You have been a strong and safe place for me in times of trouble. ¹⁷ O my Strength, I will sing praises to You. For God is my strong place and the God Who shows me loving-kindness.