M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

27 And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me to seek me any more within all the limits of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.

² And David arose and passed over, he and the six hundred men that were with him, to Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

³ And David abode with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household; David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jizreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife.

⁴ And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; and he sought no more for him.

⁵ And David said to Achish, If now I have found favour in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some country-town, that I may abide there; for why should thy servant abide in the royal city with thee?

⁶ And Achish gave him Ziklag that day; therefore Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day.

⁷ And the time that David abode in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.

⁸ And David and his men went up and made a raid upon the Geshurites, and the Gerzites, and the Amalekites: for those were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, and as far as the land of Egypt.

⁹ And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish.

¹⁰ So Achish said, Have ye not made a raid to-day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.

¹¹ And David left neither man nor woman alive, to bring [them] to Gath, for he said, Lest they should tell of us, saying, So did David. And such was his custom as long as he abode in the country of the Philistines.

¹² And Achish trusted David, saying, He has made himself utterly odious among his people Israel; and he shall be my servant for ever.

8 But concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know, (for we all have knowledge: knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.

² If any one think he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know [it].

³ But if any one love God, *he* is known of him):

⁴ —concerning then the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol [is] nothing in [the] world, and that there [is] no other God save one.

⁵ For and if indeed there are [those] called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, (as there are gods many, and lords many,)

⁶ yet to us [there is] one God, the Father, of whom all things, and *we* for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom [are] all things, and *we* by him.

⁷ But knowledge [is] not in all: but some, with conscience of the idol, until now eat as of a thing sacrificed to idols; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

⁸ But meat does not commend us to God; neither if we should not eat do we come short; nor if we should eat have we an advantage.

⁹ But see lest anywise this your right [to eat] itself be a stumbling-block to the weak.

¹⁰ For if any one see thee, who hast knowledge, sitting at table in an idol-house, shall not his conscience, he being weak, be emboldened to eat the things sacrificed to the idol?

¹¹ and the weak [one], the brother for whose sake Christ died, will perish through thy knowledge.

¹² Now, thus sinning against the brethren, and wounding their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

¹³ Wherefore if meat be a fall-trap to my brother, I will eat no flesh for ever, that I may not be a fall-trap to my brother.

6 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

² Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

³ and say, Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: thus saith the Lord Jehovah to the mountains and to the hills, to the water-courses and to the valleys: Behold, I, [even] I, do bring a sword upon you, and will destroy your high places.

⁴ And your altars shall be desolate, and your sun-images shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain [men] before your idols;

⁵ and I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

⁶ In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your sun-images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

⁷ And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

⁸ Yet will I leave a remnant, in that ye shall have some escaped from the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries.

⁹ And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they have been carried captives, when I shall have broken their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols; and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed, in all their abominations.

¹⁰ And they shall know that I [am] Jehovah: I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.

¹¹ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Smite with thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the abominations of the iniquities of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

¹² He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that is left, and is besieged, shall die by the famine: and I will accomplish my fury upon them.

¹³ And ye shall know that I [am] Jehovah, when their slain shall be among their idols, round about their altars, upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick terebinth, the places where they offered sweet savour to all their idols.

¹⁴ And I will stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness of Diblath, in all their dwellings; and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

To the chief Musician. Of the sons of Korah. An instruction.

44 O God, with our ears have we heard, our fathers have told us, the work thou wroughtest in their days, in the days of old:

² Thou, by thy hand, didst dispossess the nations, but them thou didst plant; thou didst afflict the peoples, but them didst thou cause to spread out.

³ For not by their own sword did they take possession of the land, neither did their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst delight in them.

⁴ Thou thyself art my king, O God: command deliverance for Jacob.

⁵ Through thee will we push down our adversaries; through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.

⁶ For I will not put confidence in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.

⁷ For thou hast saved us from our adversaries, and hast put them to shame that hate us.

⁸ In God will we boast all the day, and we will praise thy name for ever. Selah.

⁹ But thou hast cast off, and put us to confusion, and dost not go forth with our armies;

¹⁰ Thou hast made us to turn back from the adversary, and they that hate us spoil for themselves;

¹¹ Thou hast given us over like sheep [appointed] for meat, and hast scattered us among the nations;

¹² Thou hast sold thy people for nought, and hast not increased [thy wealth] by their price;

¹³ Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a mockery and a derision for them that are round about us;

¹⁴ Thou makest us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.

¹⁵ All the day my confusion is before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,

¹⁶ Because of the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷ All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely against thy covenant:

¹⁸ Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy path;

¹⁹ Though thou hast crushed us in the place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.

²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God, and stretched out our hands to a strange god,

²¹ Would not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

²² But for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for slaughter.

²³ Awake, why sleepest thou, Lord? arise, cast [us] not off for ever.

²⁴ Wherefore hidest thou thy face, [and] forgettest our affliction and our oppression?

²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth.

²⁶ Rise up for our help, and redeem us for thy loving-kindness' sake.