M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Nathan Speaks to David
12 The Lord sent Nathan to David. Nathan went to him and said, “There were two men in a city. One man was rich, but the other man was poor. 2 The rich man had lots of sheep and cattle. 3 But the poor man had nothing except one little female lamb that he bought. The poor man fed the lamb, and the lamb grew up with this poor man and his children. She ate from the poor man’s food and drank from his cup. The lamb slept on the poor man’s chest. The lamb was like a daughter to the poor man.
4 “Then a traveler stopped to visit the rich man. The rich man wanted to give food to the traveler, but he did not want to take any of his own sheep or cattle to feed the traveler. No, the rich man took the lamb from the poor man and cooked it for his visitor.”
5 David became very angry with the rich man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this should die! 6 He must pay four times the price of the lamb because he did this terrible thing and because he had no mercy.”
Nathan Tells David About His Sin
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are that rich man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I chose[a] you to be the king of Israel. I saved you from Saul. 8 I let you take his family and his wives, and I made you king of Israel and Judah. As if that had not been enough, I would have given you more and more. 9 So why did you ignore my command? Why did you do what I say is wrong? You let the Ammonites kill Uriah the Hittite, and you took his wife. It is as if you yourself killed Uriah in war. 10 So your family will never have peace! When you took Uriah’s wife, you showed that you did not respect me.’
11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am bringing trouble against you. This trouble will come from your own family. I will take your wives from you and give them to someone who is very close to you. He will have sexual relations with your wives, and everyone will know it![b] 12 You had sexual relations with Bathsheba in secret, but I will punish you so that all the people of Israel can see it.’”[c]
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan said to David, “The Lord will forgive you, even for this sin. You will not die. 14 But you did things that made the Lord’s enemies lose their respect for him, so your new baby son will die.”
David and Bathsheba’s Baby Dies
15 Then Nathan went home. And the Lord caused the baby boy who was born to David and Uriah’s wife to become very sick. 16 David prayed to God for the baby. David refused to eat or drink. He went into his house and stayed there and lay on the ground all night.
17 The leaders of David’s family came and tried to pull David up from the ground, but he refused to get up. He refused to eat with these leaders. 18 On the seventh day the baby died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the baby was dead. They said, “Look, we tried to talk to David while the baby was alive, but he refused to listen to us. If we tell David that the baby is dead, he might do something bad to himself.”
19 David saw his servants whispering and understood that the baby was dead. So David asked his servants, “Is the baby dead?”
The servants answered, “Yes, he is dead.”
20 Then David got up from the floor. He washed himself. He changed his clothes and got dressed. Then he went into the Lord’s house to worship. After that he went home and asked for something to eat. His servants gave him some food, and he ate.
21 David’s servants asked him, “Why are you doing this? When the baby was alive, you cried and refused to eat. But when the baby died you got up and ate food.”
22 David said, “While the baby was still living, I cried and refused to eat because I thought, ‘Who knows? Maybe the Lord will feel sorry for me and let the baby live.’ 23 But now the baby is dead, so why should I refuse to eat? Can I bring the baby back to life? No. Some day I will go to him, but he cannot come back to me.”
Solomon Is Born
24 Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife. He slept with her and had sexual relations with her. Bathsheba became pregnant again and had another son. David named the boy Solomon. The Lord loved Solomon 25 and sent word for Nathan the prophet to give Solomon the name Jedidiah.[d] So Nathan did this for the Lord.
David Captures Rabbah
26 Rabbah was the capital city of the Ammonites. Joab fought against Rabbah and captured it. 27 Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah and have captured its water supply. 28 Now bring the rest of the army together and attack Rabbah. Capture this city before I do, or else it will be called by my name.”
29 So David gathered all the soldiers together and went to Rabbah. He fought against Rabbah and captured the city. 30 David took the crown off their king’s head.[e] The crown was gold and weighed about 75 pounds.[f] This crown had precious stones in it. They put the crown on David’s head. David took many valuable things out of the city.
31 David also brought out the people of the city of Rabbah and made them work with saws, iron picks, and axes. He also forced them to build things with bricks. He did the same thing to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and the army went back to Jerusalem.
5 We know that our body—the tent we live in here on earth—will be destroyed. But when that happens, God will have a home for us to live in. It will not be the kind of home people build here. It will be a home in heaven that will continue forever. 2 But now we are tired of this body. We want God to give us our heavenly home. 3 It will clothe us and we will not be naked. 4 While we live in this tent, we have burdens and so we complain. I don’t mean that we want to remove this tent, but we want to be clothed with our heavenly home. Then this body that dies will be covered with life. 5 This is what God himself made us for. And he has given us the Spirit as the first payment to guarantee the life to come.
6 So we always have confidence. We know that while we live in this body, we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by what we believe will happen, not by what we can see. 8 So I say that we have confidence. And we really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord. 9 Our only goal is to always please the Lord, whether we are living here in this body or there with him. 10 We must all stand before Christ to be judged. Everyone will get what they should. They will be paid for whatever they did—good or bad—when they lived in this earthly body.
Helping People Become God’s Friends
11 We know what it means to fear the Lord, so we try to help people accept the truth. God knows what we really are, and I hope that in your hearts you know us too. 12 We are not trying to prove ourselves to you again. But we are telling you about ourselves. We are giving you reasons to be proud of us. Then you will have an answer for those who are proud about what can be seen. They don’t care about what is in a person’s heart. 13 If we are crazy, it is for God. If we have our right mind, it is for you. 14 The love of Christ controls us, because we know that one person died for everyone. So all have died. 15 He died for all so that those who live would not continue to live for themselves. He died for them and was raised from death so that they would live for him.
16 From this time on we don’t think of anyone as the world thinks of people. It is true that in the past we thought of Christ as the world thinks. But we don’t think that way now. 17 When anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new world.[a] The old things are gone; suddenly, everything is new! 18 All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between himself and us. And God gave us the work of bringing people into peace with him. 19 I mean that God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God did not hold people guilty for their sins. And he gave us this message of peace to tell people. 20 So we have been sent to speak for Christ. It is like God is calling to people through us. We speak for Christ when we beg you to be at peace with God. 21 Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin[b] so that in Christ we could be right with God.
A Sad Song About Israel
19 The Lord said to me, “You must sing this sad song about the leaders of Israel:
2 “‘Your mother is like a female lion,
lying there with the male lions.
She went to lie down with
the young male lions and had many babies.
3 One of her cubs gets up.
He has grown to be a strong young lion.
He has learned to catch his food.
He killed and ate a man.
4 “‘The people heard him roar,
and they caught him in their trap.
They put hooks in his mouth
and carried the young lion to Egypt.
5 “‘The mother lion had hoped that cub would become the leader,
but now she has lost all hope.
So she took another of her cubs
and trained him to be a lion.
6 He hunted with the adult lions
and became a strong young lion.
He learned to catch his food.
He killed and ate a man.
7 He attacked the palaces and destroyed the cities.
Everyone in that country was too afraid to speak when hearing his growl.
8 Then the people who lived around him set a trap for him,
and they caught him in their trap.
9 They put hooks on him and locked him up.
They had him in their trap,
so they took him to the king of Babylon.
And now, you cannot hear his roar
on the mountains of Israel.
10 “‘Your mother is like a grapevine
planted near the water.
She had plenty of water,
so she grew many strong vines.
11 Then she grew large branches.
They were like a strong walking stick.
They were like a king’s scepter.
The vine grew taller and taller.
It had many branches and reached to the clouds.
12 But the vine was pulled up by the roots,
and thrown down to the ground.
The hot east wind blew and dried its fruit.
The strong branches broke, and they were thrown into the fire.
13 “‘Now that grapevine is planted in the desert.
It is a very dry and thirsty land.
14 A fire started in the large branch
and spread to destroy all of its vines and fruit.
So there was no strong walking stick.
There was no king’s scepter.’
This was a sad song about death, and it was sung as a sad song about death.”
To the director: A song of David.
64 God, listen to my complaint.
Save me from the terrible threats of my enemies!
2 Protect me from the secret plans of the wicked.
Hide me from that gang of evil people.
3 They sharpen their tongues to use like swords.
They aim their poisonous words like arrows.
4 Suddenly, from their hiding places, they let their arrows fly.
They shoot to kill innocent people.
5 They encourage each other to do wrong.
They talk about setting traps and say, “No one will see them here!
6 No one will discover our crime.
We have the perfect plan!”
Yes, people can be very tricky and hard to understand.
7 But suddenly, God will shoot his arrows,
and those wicked people will be hit.
8 He will use their own words against them,
and they will be destroyed.
Then everyone who sees them
will shake their heads in amazement.
9 People will see what God has done.
They will tell other people about him.
Then everyone will learn more about God.
They will learn to fear and respect him.
10 Good people are happy to serve the Lord.
They depend on him to protect them.
All those who want to do right will praise him!
To the director: A praise song of David.
65 God in Zion, we praise you
and give you what we promised.
2 Anyone can come to you,
and you will listen to their prayers.
3 When our sins become too heavy for us,
you wipe them away.
4 Oh, how wonderful it is to be the people you chose
to come and stay in your Temple.
And we are so happy to have the wonderful things
that are in your Temple, your holy palace.
5 God, you answer our prayers and do what is right.
You do amazing things to save us.
People all over the world know they can trust in you,
even those who live across the sea.
6 You made the mountains.
We see your power all around us.
7 You can calm the roughest seas
or the nations raging around us.
8 People all around the world are amazed at the wonderful things you do.
You make all people, east and west, sing with joy.
9 You take care of the land.
You water it and make it fertile.
Your streams are always filled with water.
That’s how you make the crops grow.
10 You pour rain on the plowed fields;
you soak the fields with water.
You make the ground soft with rain,
and you make the young plants grow.
11 You start the new year with a good harvest.
You end the year with many crops.[a]
12 The desert and hills are covered with grass.
13 The pastures are covered with sheep.
The valleys are filled with grain.
Everything is singing and shouting for joy.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International