M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Micah and the Levite

17 There was a man in the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. ² He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and even spoke it in my hearing—that silver is in my possession; I took it, but now I will return it to you.”^[a] And his mother said, “May my son be blessed by the Lord!” ³ Then he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I consecrate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make an idol of cast metal.”^{(A) 4} So when he returned the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into an idol of cast metal, and it was in the house of Micah. ⁵ This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and teraphim and installed one of his sons, who became his priest.^{(B) 6} In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.^(C)

⁷ Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah. He was a Levite residing there.^{(D) 8} This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to live wherever he could find a place. He came to the house of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim to carry on his work.^{[b] 9} Micah said to him, “From where do you come?” He replied, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to live wherever I can find a place.” ¹⁰ Then Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your living.”^{[c](E) 11} The Levite agreed to stay with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. ¹² So Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah.^{(F) 13} Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me because the Levite has become my priest.”

Paul’s Journey to Jerusalem

21 When we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.^{[a] 2} When we found a ship bound for Phoenicia, we went on board and set sail.^{(A) 3} We came in sight of Cyprus, and leaving it on our left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, because the ship was to unload its cargo there. ⁴ We looked up the disciples and stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.^{(B) 5} When our days there were ended, we left and proceeded on our journey, and all of them, with wives and children, escorted us outside the city. There we knelt down on the beach and prayed^{(C) 6} and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.

⁷ When we had finished^[b] the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them for one day.^{(D) 8} The next day we left and came to Caesarea, and we went into the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him.^{(E) 9} He had four unmarried daughters^[c] who had the gift of prophecy.^{(F) 10} While we were staying there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. ¹¹ He came to us and took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and will hand him over to the gentiles.’ ”^{(G) 12} When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. ¹³ Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”^{(H) 14} Since he would not be persuaded, we remained silent except to say, “The Lord’s will be done.”^(I)

¹⁵ After these days we got ready and started to go up to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ Some of the disciples from Caesarea also came along and brought us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to stay.^(J)

Paul Visits James at Jerusalem

¹⁷ When we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers welcomed us warmly.^{(K) 18} The next day Paul went with us to visit James, and all the elders were present.^{(L) 19} After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the gentiles through his ministry.^{(M) 20} When they heard it, they praised God. Then they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, and they are all zealous for the law.^{(N) 21} They have been told about you that you teach all the Jews living among the gentiles to forsake Moses and that you tell them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs. ²² What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. ²³ So do what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow.^{(O) 24} Join these men, go through the rite of purification with them, and pay for the shaving of their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you but that you yourself observe and guard the law.^{(P) 25} But as for the gentiles who have become believers, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled^[d] and from sexual immorality.”^{(Q) 26} Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having purified himself, he entered the temple with them, making public the completion of the days of purification when the sacrifice would be made for each of them.^(R)

Paul Arrested in the Temple

²⁷ When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, who had seen him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd. They seized him,^{(S) 28} shouting, “Fellow Israelites,^[e] help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place; more than that, he has actually brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”^{(T) 29} For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.^{(U) 30} Then all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.^{(V) 31} While they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. ³² Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.^{(W) 33} Then the tribune came, arrested him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; he inquired who he was and what he had done.^{(X) 34} Some in the crowd shouted one thing, some another, and as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.^{(Y) 35} When Paul^[f] came to the steps, the violence of the mob was so great that he had to be carried by the soldiers. ³⁶ The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!”^(Z)

Paul Defends Himself

³⁷ Just as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” The tribune^[g] replied, “Do you know Greek? ³⁸ Then you are not the Egyptian who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand assassins out into the wilderness?”^{(AA) 39} Paul replied, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city; I beg you, let me speak to the people.”^{(AB) 40} When he had given him permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the people for silence, and when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew^[h] language, saying:^(AC)

Restoration Promised for Israel and Judah

30 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you.^{(A) 3} For the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors, and they shall take possession of it.^(B)

⁴ These are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah:

⁸ On that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and strangers shall no more make a servant of him.^{(F) 9} But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.^(G)

The Joyful Return of the Exiles

31 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.^(U)

²³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its towns when I restore their fortunes:

²⁴ And Judah and all its towns shall live there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks.^(AQ)

²⁶ Thereupon I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

Individual Retribution

²⁷ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals.^{(AS) 28} And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.^{(AT) 29} In those days they shall no longer say:

³⁰ But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of the one who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge.^(AV)

A New Covenant

³¹ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.^{(AW) 32} It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.^{(AX) 33} But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.^{(AY) 34} No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.^(AZ)

Jerusalem to Be Enlarged

³⁸ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.^{(BD) 39} And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. ⁴⁰ The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes and all the fields as far as the Wadi Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall never again be uprooted or overthrown.^(BE)

The Resurrection of Jesus

16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.^{(A) 2} And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³ They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?”^{(B) 4} When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. ⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.^{(C) 6} But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.^{(D) 7} But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”^{(E) 8} So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.^[a]

The Intermediate Ending of Mark

[[And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation. Amen.^[b]]]

The Long Ending of Mark

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

[[⁹ Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. ¹⁰ She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. ¹¹ But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

Jesus Appears to Two Disciples

¹² After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. ¹³ And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

Jesus Commissions the Disciples

¹⁴ Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table, and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.^{[c] 15} And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news^[d] to the whole creation. ¹⁶ The one who believes and is baptized will be saved, but the one who does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷ And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes,^[e] and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

The Ascension of Jesus

¹⁹ So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. ²⁰ And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.^[f]]]