M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Ark of the Covenant Brought from Kiriath-Jearim

13 And David consulted with the commanders of thousands and hundreds, with every leader. ² And David said to all the assembly of Israel, “If it seems good to you^[a] and before Yahweh our God, let us send word abroad^[b] to our brothers who remain in all the land of Israel and to the priests and Levites with them in the cities with their pasturelands that they might be gathered to us. ³ Then let us bring around the ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul.” ⁴ And all the assembly agreed to do so, for the word was pleasing in the eyes of all the people.

⁵ And David summoned all Israel from Shihor of Egypt up to Lebo-Hamath to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-Jearim. ⁶ And David and all Israel went up to Baalah, Kiriath-Jearim of Judah, to bring up from there the ark of Yahweh God who is enthroned between the cherubim, which is called the name. ⁷ And they carried the ark of God upon a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio were driving the cart.

⁸ Now David and all Israel were celebrating before God with all their strength, and with songs, lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets. ⁹ And when they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzza reached out his hand to hold the ark because the cattle had stumbled. ¹⁰ And Yahweh was angry^[c] with Uzza, and he struck him down because he reached his hand upon the ark. And he died there before God. ¹¹ And David was angry^[d] because Yahweh had broken out in wrath against Uzza. And that place is called Perez Uzza unto this day. ¹² And David feared God on that day, saying, “How can I bring the ark of God home to me?” ¹³ So David did not move the ark to himself into the city of David but diverted it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. ¹⁴ And the ark of God remained with the household of Obed-Edom in his house three months. And Yahweh blessed the household of Obed-Edom and all that he had.

David’s Wives and Children

14 And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees, masons,^[e] and carpenters^[f] to build a house for him. ² And David knew that Yahweh had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of his people Israel. ³ And David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David fathered more sons and daughters. ⁴ Now these are the names of the children who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, ⁵ Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet, ⁶ Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, ⁷ Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphelet.

David Defeats the Philistines

⁸ When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed as king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. But David heard and went out from before them. ⁹ Now the Philistines came and carried out a raid in the Valley of Rephaim. ¹⁰ Then David inquired of God, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you put them into my hand?” And Yahweh said to him, “Go up. I will put them into your hand.” ¹¹ And he went up to Baal-Perazim, and David struck them there. And David said, “God has burst out against my enemies by my hand like waters burst out.” Therefore they will call the name of this place Baal-Perazim. ¹² And they abandoned their gods there. And David commanded, and they were burnt with fire. ¹³ Then the Philistines carried out another raid^[g] in the valley. ¹⁴ Then David inquired again of God. And God said to him, “You shall not go up after them. Go around from before them and come against them the opposite way of the balsam trees. ¹⁵ And it shall be that when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then go out into battle, for God goes out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.” ¹⁶ And David did as God commanded him, and they struck the camp of the Philistines from Gibeon to Gezer. ¹⁷ And the fame of David went out through all the lands. And Yahweh put the fear of him upon all the nations.

Greeting

1 James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. Greetings!

Trials, Testing, and Faith

² Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you encounter various trials, ³ because you^[a] know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵ Now if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask for it from God, who gives to all without reservation and not reproaching, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But let him ask for it in faith, without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed about. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

⁹ Now let the brother of humble circumstances boast in his high position, ¹⁰ but the rich person in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a flower of the grass. ¹¹ For the sun rises with its burning heat and dries up the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is lost. So also the rich person in his pursuits^[b] will wither away.

¹² Blessed is the person^[c] who endures testing, because when he^[d] is approved he will receive the crown of life that he^[e] has promised to those who love him. ¹³ No one who is being tempted should say, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted^[f] by evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴ But each one is tempted when he^[g] is dragged away and enticed by his own desires. ¹⁵ Then desire, after it^[h] has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it^[i] is brought to completion, gives birth to death.

¹⁶ Do not be deceived, my dear brothers. ¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of change. ¹⁸ By his^[j] will he gave birth to us through the message of truth, so that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Doers of the Message, Not Just Hearers

¹⁹ Understand this, my dear brothers: every person must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, ²⁰ for human^[k] anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God. ²¹ Therefore, putting aside all moral uncleanness and wicked excess, welcome^[l] with humility the implanted message which is able to save your souls.

²² But be doers of the message and not hearers only,^[m] deceiving yourselves, ²³ because if anyone is a hearer of the message and not a doer, this one is like someone^[n] staring at his own face^[o] in a mirror, ²⁴ for he looks at himself and goes away and immediately forgets what sort of person he was. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues to do it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts, this one will be blessed in what he does^[p].

²⁶ If anyone thinks he is religious, although he^[q] does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. ²⁷ Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our^[r] God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

A Basket of Ripe Fruit

8 My Lord Yahweh showed me this, and there was a basket of summer fruit. ² And he said, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” And Yahweh said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel. I will not pass by them again!” ³ “And the songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” declares^[a] my Lord Yahweh. “The corpses are numerous; he throws them in every place. Be quiet!” ⁴ Hear this, those who trample on the poor and who annihilate the afflicted of the land, ⁵ saying, “When will the new moon be over, so that we can sell grain? And the Sabbath, so that we can open the grain bins, that we can make the ephah small and make the shekel large, and can practice deceit with a set of scales of deceit? ⁶ That we can^[b] buy the powerless with silver and the poor for the sake of a pair of sandals, and we can sell the waste of the grain?” ⁷ Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds! ⁸ On account of this, will not the land tremble and will not every living thing in it mourn? And all of it will rise like the Nile and it will be tossed about and subside like the Nile of Egypt. ⁹ And then in that day,” declares^[c] my Lord Yahweh, “I^[d] will make the sun go down at noon and I will darken the land on a day of light. ¹⁰ And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all of your songs into lament, and I will put sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head. And I will make it like the mourning for an only child, and its end like a bitter day. ¹¹ Look, the days are coming,” declares^[e] my Lord Yahweh, “when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine for bread and not a thirst for water, but of hearing^[f] the words of Yahweh! ¹² And they will wander from sea to sea and from the north and to the east. They will roam about to seek the word of Yahweh, but they will not find it! ¹³ In that day the beautiful young women and the young men will faint because of thirst. ¹⁴ These are those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say, ‘By the life of your gods, O Dan,’ and ‘By the life of the way of Beersheba,’ they will fall and they will not rise again.”

John the Baptist Begins His Ministry

3 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,^[a] when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, ² in the time of the high priest Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³ And he went into all the surrounding region of the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴ as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

⁷ Therefore he was saying to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “Offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance! And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ⁹ And even now the ax is positioned at the root of the trees; therefore every tree not producing good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁰ And the crowds were asking him, saying, “What then should we do?” ¹¹ And he answered and^[d] said to them, “The one who has two tunics must share with the one who does not have one,^[e] and the one who has food must do likewise.” ¹² And tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” ¹³ And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you are ordered to.”^{[f] 14} And those who served in the army were also asking him, saying, “What should we also do?” And he said to them, “Extort from no one, and do not blackmail anyone,^[g] and be content with your pay.”

¹⁵ And while^[h] the people were waiting expectantly and all were pondering in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he might be the Christ,^{[i] 16} John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than I am is coming, of whom I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing shovel is in his hand, to clean out his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

¹⁸ So with many other exhortations also he proclaimed good news to the people. ¹⁹ But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him concerning Herodias, his brother’s wife, and concerning all the evil deeds that Herod had done, ²⁰ added this also to them all: he also locked up John in prison.

The Baptism of Jesus

²¹ Now it happened that when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized, and while he^[j] was praying, heaven was opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

²³ And Jesus, when he^[k] began his ministry,^[l] was himself about thirty years old, being the son (as it was believed) of Joseph the son of Eli, ²⁴ the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, ²⁵ the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, ²⁶ the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, ²⁷ the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, ²⁸ the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, ²⁹ the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, ³⁰ the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, ³¹ the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, ³² the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon, ³³ the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, ³⁴ the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, ³⁵ the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,^{[m] 36} the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, ³⁷ the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, ³⁸ the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.