M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

2 Heaven and earth and everything in them were finished. ² By the seventh day Elohim had finished the work he had been doing. On the seventh day he stopped the work he had been doing. ³ Then Elohim blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on that day he stopped all his work of creation.

The Creation of Man and Woman

⁴ This is the account of heaven and earth when they were created, at the time when Yahweh Elohim made earth and heaven.

⁵ Wild bushes and plants were not on the earth yet because Yahweh Elohim hadn’t sent rain on the earth. Also, there was no one to farm the land. ⁶ Instead, underground water would come up from the earth and water the entire surface of the ground.

⁷ Then Yahweh Elohim formed the man from the dust of the earth^[a] and blew the breath of life into his nostrils. The man became a living being.

⁸ Yahweh Elohim planted a garden in Eden, in the east. That’s where he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹ Yahweh Elohim made all the trees grow out of the ground. These trees were nice to look at, and their fruit was good to eat. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil grew in the middle of the garden.

¹⁰ A river flowed from Eden to water the garden. Outside the garden it divided into four rivers. ¹¹ The name of the first river is Pishon. This is the one that winds throughout Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² (The gold of that land is pure. Bdellium^[b] and onyx are also found there.) ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon. This is the one that winds throughout Sudan. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is Tigris. This is the one that flows east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ Then Yahweh Elohim took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to farm the land and to take care of it. ¹⁶ Yahweh Elohim commanded the man. He said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden. ¹⁷ But you must never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because when you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

¹⁸ Then Yahweh Elohim said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.”

¹⁹ Yahweh Elohim had formed all the wild animals and all the birds out of the ground. Then he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called each creature became its name. ²⁰ So the man named all the domestic animals, all the birds, and all the wild animals.

But the man found no helper who was right for him. ²¹ So Yahweh Elohim caused him to fall into a deep sleep. While the man was sleeping, Yahweh Elohim took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. ²² Then Yahweh Elohim formed a woman from the rib that he had taken from the man. He brought her to the man.

²³ The man said,

²⁴ That is why a man will leave his father and mother and will be united with his wife, and they will become one flesh. ²⁵ The man and his wife were both naked, but they weren’t ashamed of it.

The Wise Men Visit

2 Yeshua was born in Bethlehem in Judea when Herod was king. After Yeshua’s birth wise men^[a] from the east arrived in Jerusalem. ² They asked, “Where is the one who was born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star rising and have come to worship him.”

³ When King Herod and all Jerusalem heard about this, they became disturbed. ⁴ He called together all the chief priests and the experts in the Scriptures and tried to find out from them where the Messiah was supposed to be born.

⁵ They told him, “In Bethlehem in Judea. The prophet wrote about this:

⁷ Then Herod secretly called the wise men and found out from them exactly when the star had appeared. ⁸ As he sent them to Bethlehem, he said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you have found him, report to me so that I may go and worship him too.”

⁹ After they had heard the king, they started out. The star they had seen rising led them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ They were overwhelmed with joy to see the star. ¹¹ When they entered the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary. So they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.^[b]

¹² God warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod. So they left for their country by another road.

The Escape to Egypt

¹³ After they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. The angel said to him, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and kill him.”

¹⁴ Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left for Egypt that night. ¹⁵ He stayed there until Herod died. What the Lord had spoken through the prophet came true: “I have called my son out of Egypt.”

¹⁶ When Herod saw that the wise men had tricked him, he became furious. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys two years old and younger in or near Bethlehem. This matched the exact time he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷ Then the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah came true:

From Egypt to Nazareth

¹⁹ After Herod was dead, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. ²⁰ The angel said to him, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to Israel. Those who tried to kill the child are dead.”

²¹ Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judea, Joseph was afraid to go there. Warned in a dream, he left for Galilee ²³ and made his home in a city called Nazareth. So what the prophets had said came true: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Those Who Returned with Zerubbabel^(A)

2 These were the people in the province. They were the ones who left the place where the exiles had been taken captive. (King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had taken them to Babylon.) These exiles returned to Jerusalem and Judah. All of them went to their own cities. ² They went with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah.

Families Listed by Ancestor^(B)

This is the number of Israelite men from the people in exile:

Families Listed by Cities^(C)

Priests^(D)

³⁶ These priests returned from exile:

Levites^(E)

⁴⁰ These Levites returned from exile:

⁴¹ These singers returned from exile:

⁴² These gatekeepers returned from exile:

Temple Servants^(F)

⁴³ These temple servants returned from exile: the descendants of Ziha, Hasupha, Tabbaoth, ⁴⁴ Keros, Siaha, Padon, ⁴⁵ Lebanah, Hagabah, Akkub, ⁴⁶ Hagab, Shalmai, Hanan, ⁴⁷ Giddel, Gahar, Reaiah, ⁴⁸ Rezin, Nekoda, Gazzam, ⁴⁹ Uzza, Paseah, Besai, ⁵⁰ Asnah, Meunim, Nephusim, ⁵¹ Bakbuk, Hakupha, Harhur, ⁵² Bazluth, Mehida, Harsha, ⁵³ Barkos, Sisera, Temah, ⁵⁴ Neziah, and Hatipha.

Descendants of Solomon’s Servants^(G)

⁵⁵ These descendants of Solomon’s servants returned from exile: the descendants of Sotai, Hassophereth, Peruda, ⁵⁶ Jaalah, Darkon, Giddel, ⁵⁷ Shephatiah, Hattil, Pochereth Hazzebaim, and Ami.

⁵⁸ The temple servants and the descendants of Solomon’s servants totaled 392.

Those of Unknown Origin^(H)

⁵⁹ The following people came from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer, but they couldn’t prove they were Israelites on the basis of their father’s family or their genealogy: ⁶⁰ the descendants of Delaiah, Tobiah, and Nekoda. These people totaled 652.

⁶¹ These descendants of the priests couldn’t prove their families were Israelites: the descendants of Hobaiah, Hakkoz, and Barzillai (who had married one of the daughters of Barzillai from Gilead and took that family name). ⁶² These people searched for their family names in the genealogical records, but their names couldn’t be found there. For this reason they were considered contaminated and couldn’t be priests. ⁶³ The governor told them not to eat any of the most holy food until a priest could use the Urim and Thummim^[a] to settle the problem.

The Total of the People and Animals Returning from Exile^(I)

⁶⁴ The whole assembly totaled 42,360. ⁶⁵ In addition to the male and female servants who numbered 7,337, they also had 200 male and female singers. ⁶⁶ They had 736 horses, 245 mules, ⁶⁷ 435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys.

Gifts Given for the Temple^(J)

⁶⁸ When some of the heads of the families came to Yahweh’s temple in Jerusalem, they contributed freewill offerings to help rebuild Elohim’s temple on its former site. ⁶⁹ They contributed as much as they could to the treasury for this work: 1,030 pounds of gold, 5,740 pounds of silver, and 100 robes for the priests.

⁷⁰ The priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants settled in their own cities. All the other Israelites settled in their own cities.

The Believers Are Filled with the Holy Spirit

2 When Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Passover, came, all the believers were together in one place. ² Suddenly, a sound like a violently blowing wind came from the sky and filled the whole house where they were staying. ³ Tongues that looked like fire appeared to them. The tongues arranged themselves so that one came to rest on each believer. ⁴ All the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.

⁵ Devout Jewish men from every nation were living in Jerusalem. ⁶ They gathered when they heard the wind. Each person was startled to recognize his own dialect when the disciples spoke.

⁷ Stunned and amazed, the people in the crowd said, “All of these men who are speaking are Galileans. ⁸ Why do we hear them speaking in our native dialects? ⁹ We’re Parthians, Medes, and Elamites. We’re people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the country near Cyrene in Libya. We’re Jewish people, converts to Judaism, and visitors from Rome, ¹¹ Crete, and Arabia. We hear these men in our own languages as they tell about the miracles that God has done.”

¹² All of these devout men were stunned and puzzled. They asked each other, “What can this mean?” ¹³ Others said jokingly, “They’re drunk on sweet wine.”

Peter Talks to the Crowd

¹⁴ Then Peter stood up with the eleven apostles. In a loud voice he said to them, “Men of Judea and everyone living in Jerusalem! You must understand this, so pay attention to what I say. ¹⁵ These men are not drunk as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning. ¹⁶ Rather, this is what the prophet Joel spoke about:

²² “Men of Israel, listen to what I say: Yeshua from Nazareth was a man whom God brought to your attention. You know that through this man God worked miracles, did amazing things, and gave signs. ²³ By using men who don’t acknowledge Moses’ Teachings, you crucified Yeshua, who was given over to death by a plan that God had determined in advance. ²⁴ But God brought him from death back to life and destroyed the pains of death, because death had no power to hold him. ²⁵ This is what David meant when he said about Yeshua:

²⁹ “Brothers, I can tell you confidently that our ancestor David died and was buried and that his tomb is here to this day. ³⁰ David was a prophet and knew that God had promised with an oath that he would place one of David’s descendants on his throne. ³¹ David knew that the Messiah would come back to life, and he spoke about that before it ever happened. He said that the Messiah wouldn’t be left in the grave and that his body wouldn’t decay.

³² “God brought this man Yeshua back to life. We are all witnesses to that. ³³ God used his power to give Yeshua the highest position. Yeshua has also received and has poured out the Holy Spirit as the Father had promised, and this is what you’re seeing and hearing. ³⁴ David didn’t go up to heaven, but he said,

³⁶ “All the people of Israel should know beyond a doubt that God made Yeshua, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

³⁷ When the people heard this, they were deeply upset. They asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

³⁸ Peter answered them, “All of you must turn to God and change the way you think and act, and each of you must be baptized in the name of Yeshua Christ so that your sins will be forgiven. Then you will receive the Holy Spirit as a gift. ³⁹ This promise belongs to you and to your children and to everyone who is far away. It belongs to everyone who worships the Lord our God.”

⁴⁰ Peter said much more to warn them. He urged, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” ⁴¹ Those who accepted what Peter said were baptized. That day about 3,000 people were added to the group.

Life as a Christian

⁴² The disciples were devoted to the teachings of the apostles, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. ⁴³ A feeling of fear came over everyone as many amazing things and miraculous signs happened through the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers kept meeting together, and they shared everything with each other. ⁴⁵ From time to time, they sold their property and other possessions and distributed the money to anyone who needed it. ⁴⁶ The believers had a single purpose and went to the temple every day. They were joyful and humble as they ate at each other’s homes and shared their food. ⁴⁷ At the same time, they praised God and had the good will of all the people. Every day the Lord saved people, and they were added to the group.