M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
David Anointed King of Judah
2 After this David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” The Lord said to him, “Go up.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” He said, “To Hebron.”(A) 2 So David went up there, along with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.(B) 3 David brought up the men who were with him, every one with his household, and they settled in the towns of Hebron.(C) 4 Then the people of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
When they told David, “It was the people of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul,”(D) 5 David sent messengers to the people of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, “May you be blessed by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him!(E) 6 Now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you! And I, too, will reward you because you have done this thing. 7 Therefore let your hands be strong and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.”
Ishbaal King of Israel
8 But Abner son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, had taken Ishbaal[a] son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim. 9 He made him king over Gilead, the Ashurites, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and all Israel.(F) 10 Ishbaal,[b] Saul’s son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. 11 The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.(G)
The Battle of Gibeon
12 Abner son of Ner and the servants of Ishbaal[c] son of Saul went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.(H) 13 Joab son of Zeruiah and the servants of David went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. One group sat on one side of the pool, while the other sat on the other side of the pool.(I) 14 Abner said to Joab, “Let the young men come forward and have a contest before us.” Joab said, “Let them come forward.” 15 So they came forward and were counted as they passed by, twelve for Benjamin and Ishbaal[d] son of Saul and twelve of the servants of David. 16 Each grasped his opponent by the head and thrust his sword in his opponent’s side, so they fell down together. Therefore that place was called Helkath-hazzurim,[e] which is at Gibeon. 17 The battle was very fierce that day, and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten by the servants of David.(J)
18 The three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was as swift of foot as a wild gazelle.(K) 19 Asahel pursued Abner, turning neither to the right nor to the left as he followed him. 20 Then Abner looked back and said, “Is it you, Asahel?” He answered, “Yes, it is.” 21 Abner said to him, “Turn to your right or to your left, and seize one of the young men, and take his spoil.” But Asahel would not turn away from following him. 22 Abner said again to Asahel, “Turn away from following me; why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I show my face to your brother Joab?”(L) 23 But he refused to turn away. So Abner struck him in the stomach with the butt of his spear, so that the spear came out at his back. He fell there and died where he lay. And all those who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died stood still.(M)
24 But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. As the sun was going down they came to the hill of Ammah, which lies before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon.(N) 25 The Benjaminites rallied around Abner and formed a single band; they took their stand on the top of a hill. 26 Then Abner called to Joab, “Is the sword to keep devouring forever? Do you not know that the end will be bitter? How long will it be before you order your people to turn from the pursuit of their kinsmen?” 27 Joab said, “As God lives, if you had not spoken, the people would have continued to pursue their kinsmen, not stopping until morning.”(O) 28 Joab sounded the trumpet, and all the people stopped; they no longer pursued Israel or engaged in battle any further.
29 Abner and his men traveled all that night through the Arabah; they crossed the Jordan, and, marching the whole forenoon,[f] they came to Mahanaim.(P) 30 Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner, and when he had gathered all the people together, there were missing of David’s servants nineteen men besides Asahel. 31 But the servants of David had killed of Benjamin three hundred sixty of Abner’s men. 32 They took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem. Joab and his men marched all night, and the day broke upon them at Hebron.
The Gift of Love
13 If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.(A) 3 If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing.(B)
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant(C) 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs;(D) 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.(E) 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.(F)
8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.(G) 13 And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.
Judgment on Wicked Counselors
11 The spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the Lord, which faces east. There, at the entrance of the gateway, were twenty-five men; among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, officials of the people.(A) 2 He said to me, “Mortal, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city;(B) 3 they say, ‘The time is not near to build houses; this city is the pot, and we are the meat.’(C) 4 Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, O mortal.”(D)
5 Then the spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the Lord: This is what you think, O house of Israel; I know the things that come into your mind.(E) 6 You have killed many in this city and have filled its streets with the slain.(F) 7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: The slain whom you have placed within it are the meat, and this city is the pot, but you shall be taken out of it.(G) 8 You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, says the Lord God. 9 I will take you out of it and give you over to the hands of foreigners and execute judgments upon you.(H) 10 You shall fall by the sword; I will judge you at the border of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord.(I) 11 This city shall not be your pot, and you shall not be the meat inside it; I will judge you at the border of Israel. 12 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, whose statutes you have not followed and whose ordinances you have not kept, but you have acted according to the ordinances of the nations that are around you.”(J)
13 Now, while I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face, cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah Lord God! You are finishing off the remnant of Israel!”(K)
God Will Restore Israel
14 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 15 Mortal, your kinsfolk, your own kin, your fellow exiles,[a] the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, “Stay far from the Lord; to us this land is given for a possession.”(L) 16 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: Though I removed them far away among the nations and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a little while[b] in the countries where they have gone.(M) 17 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.(N) 18 When they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.(O) 19 I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them;[c] I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,(P) 20 so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.(Q) 21 But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations,[d] I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, says the Lord God.(R)
22 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.(S) 23 And the glory of the Lord ascended from the middle of the city and stopped on the mountain east of the city.(T) 24 The spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen left me. 25 And I told the exiles all the things that the Lord had shown me.
Psalm 50
The Acceptable Sacrifice
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 The mighty one, God the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.(A)
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.(B)
3 Our God comes and does not keep silent;
before him is a devouring fire
and a mighty tempest all around him.(C)
4 He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, that he may judge his people:(D)
5 “Gather to me my faithful ones,
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”(E)
6 The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge. Selah(F)
7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.(G)
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me.(H)
9 I will not accept a bull from your house
or goats from your folds.(I)
10 For every wild animal of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.(J)
11 I know all the birds of the air,[a]
and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world and all that is in it is mine.(K)
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,[b]
and pay your vows to the Most High.(L)
15 Call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”(M)
16 But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips?(N)
17 For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.(O)
18 You make friends with a thief when you see one,
and you keep company with adulterers.(P)
19 You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your kin;
you slander your own mother’s child.(Q)
21 These things you have done, and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one just like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.(R)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.