M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Saul Tries to Kill David
19 Now Saul told his son Jonathan and all his courtiers to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan delighted much in David. 2 So Jonathan informed David saying, “My father Saul is seeking to kill you. So now, please be on guard in the morning, and stay in a secret place and hide yourself. 3 I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you will be, and I will speak with my father about you. If I notice anything, I will tell you.” 4 So Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul and said to him, “May the king not sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial for you; 5 For he put his life in his hand and killed the Philistine, and Adonai won a great victory for all Israel—you saw it and rejoiced. So why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David without a cause?”
6 Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As Adonai lives, he will not be put to death.” 7 So Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul and in his presence as before.
8 Once again war broke out, and David marched out and fought the Philistines, and inflicted a great slaughter on them and they fled before him. 9 Yet once again an evil spirit from Adonai came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, as David was playing music with his hand. 10 Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s face, so that he drove the spear into the wall. That night David fled and got away.
11 Then Saul sent agents to David’s house to watch him, in order to kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him saying, “If you don’t escape for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!” 12 So Michal lowered David down through the window, and thus he went, fled and escaped. 13 Then Michal took a household idol, laid it in the bed, put a quilt of goats’ hair at the head and covered it with a cloth. 14 When Saul sent messengers to arrest David, she said, “He’s sick.”
15 So Saul sent the agents back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed so I may put him to death.” 16 When the messengers came in, behold, the household idol was in the bed with the quilt of goats’ hair at its head. 17 Saul then said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy get away, so that he escaped?”
Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go or I’ll kill you!’”
18 So David fled and escaped, went to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth. 19 Saul was told, “Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.” 20 So Saul sent agents to seize David, but they saw a band of prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing and presiding over them. Then the Ruach of God came upon Saul’s agents and they too prophesied. 21 When Saul was told, he sent other agents and they too prophesied. Then Saul sent a third group of messengers, and they too prophesied. 22 Then he himself went to Ramah, and when he arrived at the great cistern in Secu, he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?”
Someone answered, “Look, they are at Naioth at Ramah.” 23 So he proceeded there, to Naioth at Ramah, and the Ruach of God came upon him as well, and he prophesied as he kept walking until he arrived to Naioth at Ramah. 24 Then he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. That is why people were saying, “Is Saul too among the prophets?”
Greetings
1 Paul, called as an emissary of Messiah Yeshua by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2 To God’s community in Corinth—having been made holy in Messiah Yeshua, called as kedoshim—with all who everywhere call on the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, both theirs and ours:
3 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father, and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah!
Thanksgiving
4 I always thank my God for you because of God’s grace that was given to you in Messiah Yeshua. 5 For in Him you were made rich in every way—in all speaking and all knowledge— 6 just as the evidence of Messiah was confirmed among you. 7 So you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you eagerly wait for the revealing of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 8 He will also strengthen you until the end—blameless in the Day of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 9 God is faithful,[a] through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Yeshua the Messiah our Lord.
Concern about Disunity
10 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, through the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose. 11 For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers and sisters, by those who are from Chloe’s household, that there are rivalries among you. 12 I say this because you are each saying, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Kefa,” or “I follow Messiah.” 13 Has Messiah been divided? Paul wasn’t crucified for you, was he? Or were you immersed into the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I immersed none of you, except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one should say that I had immersed you into my own name. 16 (I also immersed the household of Stephanas; besides them, I don’t recall if I immersed anyone else.) 17 For Messiah sent me not to immerse, but to proclaim the Good News—not with cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Messiah would not be made of no effect.
Whose Wisdom Is Foolish?
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and bring to nothing the understanding of the intelligent.”[b]
20 Where is the wise one? Where is the Torah scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made foolish the wisdom of the world? [c] 21 For seeing that—in God’s wisdom—the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased—through the foolishness of the message proclaimed—to save those who believe. 22 For Jewish people ask for signs and Greek people seek after wisdom, 23 but we proclaim Messiah crucified—a stumbling block to Jewish people and foolishness to Gentile people, 24 but to those who are called (both Jewish and Greek people), Messiah, the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For you see your calling, brothers and sisters, that not many are wise according to human standards,[d] not many are powerful, and not many are born well. 27 Yet God chose the foolish things of the world so He might put to shame the wise; and God chose the weak things of the world so He might put to shame the strong; 28 and God chose the lowly and despised things of the world, the things that are as nothing, so He might bring to nothing the things that are— 29 so that no human might boast before God. 30 But because of Him you are in Messiah Yeshua, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and holiness and redemption— 31 so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in Adonai.”[e]
Devastation of Jerusalem
4 How dulled is the gold,
how tarnished the fine gold.
The sacred gems are poured out
at the corner of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion,
once worth their weight in gold—
alas! now they are treated like clay jars,
the work of a potter’s hands!
3 Even jackals offer their breast
to nurse their young.
The daughter of my people has become cruel,
like ostriches in the desert.
4 The nursing infant’s tongue clings
to the roof of his mouth for thirst.
Little children ask for bread,
but no one gives it t0 them.
5 Those who used to eat delicacies
are desolate in the streets.
Those who were brought up in purple
embrace trash heaps.
6 For the iniquities of the daughter of my people
is greater than the sin of Sodom,
which was overthrown in a moment,[a]
yet no hands turned to her.
7 Purer than snow were her princes,[b]
whiter than milk,
their bodies more ruddy than rubies,
their appearance like sapphire.
8 Their form has become darker than soot!
They are not recognized in the street.
Their skin has shriveled on their bones,
withered like a tree.
9 Better are those slain by the sword
than those struck down by famine—
they waste away, racked with pain,
for lack of fruits of the field.
10 The hands of compassionate women
boiled their own children.
They became their food
when the daughter of my people were destroyed.
11 Adonai has vented His fury.
He has poured out His burning anger.
Yes, He kindled a fire in Zion
that devoured her foundations.
12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor did the inhabitations of the world,
that enemy and foe would enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
13 Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets,
and the iniquities of her kohanim,
who shed in her midst
the blood of the tzadikim[c].
14 They wander in the streets,
like blind men.
They are so defiled with blood,
no one can touch their garments.
15 “Turn away! Unclean!”
They cry to them.
“Turn away, turn away! Don’t touch!”
So they fled and wandered about.
People among the nations say,
“They can stay here no longer.”
16 Adonai Himself has scattered them.
He will look on them no more.
They did not respect the kohanim.
They did not favor the elders.
17 Even now our eyes waste away
looking in vain for our help.
From our towers we watched
for a nation that could not save us.
18 They hunted our steps,
so we could not walk in our streets.
Our end was near.
Our days were numbered, for our end had come.
19 Our pursuers were swifter
than eagles of the sky;
they pursued us over the mountains;
they ambushed us in the wilderness.
20 The anointed of Adonai,
the breath of our nostrils,
was captured in their pits,
of whom we have said,
“Under His shadow we will live among the nations.”
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
you who dwell in the land of Uz.
To you also will the cup be passed.
You will be drunk and stripped naked.
22 O daughter of Zion,
your punishment is accomplished;
He will exile you no longer.
But, O daughter of Edom,
He will punish your iniquity
and uncover your sins.
Justice for the Oppressed
Psalm 35
1 A psalm of David.
Adonai, oppose those who oppose me.
Fight those who fight me.
2 Take hold of shield and buckler,
and rise up to my help.
3 Draw out also a spear and battle-axe.
Stop those who pursue me.
Say to my soul: “I am your salvation.”
4 May those who seek my life
be ashamed and disgraced.
May they be turned back and humiliated
—those who plot evil against me.
5 May they be like chaff before the wind,
with the angel of Adonai driving them off.
6 May their way be dark and slippery,
with the angel of Adonai pursuing them.
7 For without cause they hid their net for me,
and without cause they dug a pit for my soul.
8 Let ruin come upon him by surprise.
Let the net he hid entangle himself
—into that same pit let him fall.
9 Then my soul will rejoice in Adonai
and delight in His salvation.
10 All my bones will say:
“Adonai, who is like You,
rescuing the poor from one too strong for him,
the poor and needy from one who robs him?”
11 Violent witnesses rise up.
They question me about things I know nothing about.
12 They repay me evil for good—
my soul is forlorn.
13 But as for me, when they were sick,
my clothing was sackcloth.
I afflicted my soul with fasting,
my prayer kept returning to my heart.
14 I went about mourning as though for my own friend or brother.
I bowed down dressed in black as though for my own mother.
15 But at my stumbling they gathered in glee.
Wretches gathered against me whom I did not know,
tearing at me without ceasing.
16 They mocked profanely, as if at a feast,
they gnashed at me with their teeth.
17 My Lord, how long will You look on?
Rescue my soul from their ravages—
my solitary existence from the lions.
18 I praise You in the great assembly,
acclaiming You among a throng of people.
19 Do not let my deceitful enemies gloat over me without cause,
nor let those who hate me for nothing wink an eye.[a]
20 For they never speak shalom,
but devise deceitful words against the quiet ones in the land.
21 Yes, they open their mouth wide against me, saying:
“Aha! Aha! Our own eyes have seen it!”
22 You have seen it, Adonai—be not silent!
Adonai, be not far from me.
23 Arise, awaken to my defense,
to my cause—my God and my Lord!
24 Vindicate me, Adonai my God,
according to Your justice,
and do not let them gloat over me.
25 Don’t let them say in their heart:
“Aha! Just what we wanted!”
Don’t let them say:
“We swallowed him up!”
26 May they be ashamed and humiliated,
those who rejoice over my misery.
May they who exalt themselves over me
be clothed with shame and disgrace.
27 May they shout for joy and be glad,
those who delight in my righteous cause.
May they always say:
“Exalted be Adonai, who delights in His servant’s shalom.”
28 Then my tongue will declare aloud
Your justice and Your praises all day.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.