M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

David and Ziba

16 ^(A)When David had gone a little beyond the top of the hill, he was suddenly met by Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, who had with him a couple of donkeys loaded with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred bunches of fresh fruit, and a leather bag full of wine. ² King David asked him, “What are you going to do with all that?”

Ziba answered, “The donkeys are for Your Majesty's family to ride, the bread and the fruit are for the men to eat, and the wine is for them to drink when they get tired in the wilderness.”

^3 (B)“Where is Mephibosheth, the grandson of your master Saul?” the king asked him.

“He is staying in Jerusalem,” Ziba answered, “because he is convinced that the Israelites will now restore to him the kingdom of his grandfather Saul.”

⁴ The king said to Ziba, “Everything that belonged to Mephibosheth is yours.”

“I am your servant,” Ziba replied. “May I always please Your Majesty!”

David and Shimei

⁵ When King David arrived at Bahurim, one of Saul's relatives, Shimei son of Gera, came out to meet him, cursing him as he came. ⁶ Shimei started throwing stones at David and his officials, even though David was surrounded by his men and his bodyguards. ⁷ Shimei cursed him and said, “Get out! Get out! Murderer! Criminal! ⁸ You took Saul's kingdom, and now the Lord is punishing you for murdering so many of Saul's family. The Lord has given the kingdom to your son Absalom, and you are ruined, you murderer!”

⁹ Abishai, whose mother was Zeruiah, said to the king, “Your Majesty, why do you let this dog curse you? Let me go over there and cut off his head!”

¹⁰ “This is none of your business,” the king said to Abishai and his brother Joab. “If he curses me because the Lord told him to, who has the right to ask why he does it?” ¹¹ And David said to Abishai and to all his officials, “My own son is trying to kill me; so why should you be surprised at this Benjaminite? The Lord told him to curse; so leave him alone and let him do it. ¹² Perhaps the Lord will notice my misery^[a] and give me some blessings to take the place of his curse.” ¹³ So David and his men continued along the road. Shimei kept up with them, walking on the hillside; he was cursing and throwing stones and dirt at them as he went. ¹⁴ The king and all his men were worn out when they reached the Jordan,^[b] and there they rested.

Absalom in Jerusalem

¹⁵ Absalom and all the Israelites with him entered Jerusalem, and Ahithophel was with them. ¹⁶ When Hushai, David's trusted friend, met Absalom, he shouted, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

¹⁷ “What has happened to your loyalty to your friend David?” Absalom asked him. “Why didn't you go with him?”

¹⁸ Hushai answered, “How could I? I am for the one chosen by the Lord, by these people, and by all the Israelites. I will stay with you. ¹⁹ After all, whom should I serve, if not my master's son? As I served your father, so now I will serve you.”

²⁰ Then Absalom turned to Ahithophel and said, “Now that we are here, what do you advise us to do?”

²¹ Ahithophel answered, “Go and have intercourse with your father's concubines whom he left behind to take care of the palace. Then everyone in Israel will know that your father regards you as his enemy, and your followers will be greatly encouraged.” ^22 (C)So they set up a tent for Absalom on the palace roof, and in the sight of everyone Absalom went in and had intercourse with his father's concubines.

²³ Any advice that Ahithophel gave in those days was accepted as though it were the very word of God; both David and Absalom followed it.

Help for Needy Believers

9 There is really no need for me to write you about the help being sent to God's people in Judea. ² I know that you are willing to help, and I have boasted of you to the people in Macedonia. “The believers in Achaia,” I said, “have been ready to help since last year.” Your eagerness has stirred up most of them. ³ Now I am sending these believers, so that our boasting about you in this matter may not turn out to be empty words. But, just as I said, you will be ready with your help. ⁴ However, if the people from Macedonia should come with me and find out that you are not ready, how ashamed we would be—not to speak of your shame—for feeling so sure of you! ⁵ So I thought it was necessary to urge these believers to go to you ahead of me and get ready in advance the gift you promised to make. Then it will be ready when I arrive, and it will show that you give because you want to, not because you have to.

⁶ Remember that the person who plants few seeds will have a small crop; the one who plants many seeds will have a large crop. ^7 (A)You should each give, then, as you have decided, not with regret or out of a sense of duty; for God loves the one who gives gladly. ⁸ And God is able to give you more than you need, so that you will always have all you need for yourselves and more than enough for every good cause. ^9 (B)As the scripture says,

^10 (C)And God, who supplies seed for the sower and bread to eat, will also supply you with all the seed you need and will make it grow and produce a rich harvest from your generosity. ¹¹ He will always make you rich enough to be generous at all times, so that many will thank God for your gifts which they receive from us. ¹² For this service you perform not only meets the needs of God's people, but also produces an outpouring of gratitude to God. ¹³ And because of the proof which this service of yours brings, many will give glory to God for your loyalty to the gospel of Christ, which you profess, and for your generosity in sharing with them and everyone else. ¹⁴ And so with deep affection they will pray for you because of the extraordinary grace God has shown you. ¹⁵ Let us thank God for his priceless gift!

The Sinful Sisters

23 The Lord spoke to me. ² “Mortal man,” he said, “there were once two sisters. ³ When they were young, living in Egypt, they lost their virginity and became prostitutes. ⁴ The older one was named Oholah^[a] (she represents Samaria), and the younger one was named Oholibah^[b] (she represents Jerusalem). I married both of them, and they bore me children. ⁵ Although she was mine, Oholah continued to be a prostitute and was full of lust for her lovers from Assyria. ⁶ They were soldiers in uniforms of purple, noblemen and high-ranking officers; all of them were handsome young cavalry officers. ⁷ She was the whore for all the Assyrian officers, and her lust led her to defile herself by worshiping Assyrian idols. ⁸ She continued what she had begun as a prostitute in Egypt, where she lost her virginity. From the time she was a young woman, men slept with her and treated her like a prostitute. ⁹ So I handed her over to her Assyrian lovers whom she wanted so much. ¹⁰ They stripped her naked, seized her sons and daughters, and then killed her with a sword. Women everywhere gossiped about her fate.

¹¹ “Even though her sister Oholibah saw this, she was wilder and more of a prostitute than Oholah had ever been. ¹² She too was full of lust for the Assyrian noblemen and officers—soldiers in bright uniforms—and for the cavalry officers, all of those handsome young men. ¹³ I saw that she was completely immoral, that the second sister was as bad as the first.

^14-15 “She sank deeper and deeper in her immorality. She was attracted by the images of high Babylonian officials carved into the wall and painted bright red, with sashes around their waists and fancy turbans on their heads. ¹⁶ As soon as she saw them, she was filled with lust and sent messengers to them in Babylonia. ¹⁷ The Babylonians came to have sex with her. They used her and defiled her so much that finally she became disgusted with them. ¹⁸ She exposed herself publicly and let everyone know she was a whore. I was as disgusted with her as I had been with her sister. ¹⁹ She became more of a prostitute than ever, acting the way she did as a young woman, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. ²⁰ She was filled with lust for oversexed men who had all the lustfulness of donkeys or stallions.” (²¹ Oholibah, you wanted to repeat the immorality you were guilty of as a young woman in Egypt, where men played with your breasts and you lost your virginity.)

God's Judgment on the Younger Sister

²² “Now then, Oholibah, this is what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to you. You are tired of those lovers, but I will make them angry with you and bring them to surround you. ²³ I will bring all the Babylonians and Chaldeans, men from Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians. I will gather all those handsome young noblemen and officers, all those important officials and high-ranking cavalry officers. ²⁴ They will attack you from the north,^[c] bringing a large army with chariots and supply wagons. Protected by shields and helmets, they will surround you. I will hand you over to them, and they will judge you by their own laws. ²⁵ Because I am angry with you, I will let them deal with you in their anger. They will cut off your nose and your ears and kill your children. Yes, they will take your sons and daughters from you and burn them alive. ²⁶ They will tear off your clothes and take your jewels. ²⁷ I will put a stop to your lust and to the obscenities you have committed ever since you were in Egypt. You won't look at any more idols or think about Egypt any more.”

²⁸ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “I will hand you over to people you hate and are disgusted with. ²⁹ And because they hate you, they will take away everything you have worked for and leave you stripped naked, exposed like a prostitute. Your lust and your prostitution ³⁰ have brought this on you. You were a prostitute for the nations and defiled yourself with their idols. ³¹ You followed in your sister's footsteps, and so I will give you the same cup of punishment to drink.”

³² The Sovereign Lord says,

I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.”

³⁵ Now this is what the Sovereign Lord is saying: “Because you forgot me and turned your back on me, you will suffer for your lust and your prostitution.”

God's Judgment on Both Sisters

³⁶ The Lord said to me, “Mortal man, are you ready to judge Oholah and Oholibah? Accuse them of the disgusting things they have done. ³⁷ They have committed adultery and murder—adultery with idols and murder of the children they bore me. They sacrificed my children to their idols. ³⁸ And that is not all they did. They profaned my Temple and broke the Sabbath, which I had established. ³⁹ The very day that they killed my children as sacrifices to idols, they came to my Temple and profaned it!

⁴⁰ “Again and again they sent messengers to invite men to come from a great distance, and the men came. The two sisters would bathe and put on eye shadow and jewelry. ⁴¹ They would sit on a beautiful couch, and in front of them they would have a table covered with good things, including the incense and the olive oil that I had given them. ⁴² The sound of a carefree crowd could be heard, a group of men brought in from the desert. They put bracelets on the women's arms and beautiful crowns on their heads. ⁴³ And I said to myself that they were using as a prostitute a woman worn out by adultery.^{[d] 44} They went back to these prostitutes again and again. They went back to Oholah and Oholibah, those immoral women. ⁴⁵ Righteous men will condemn them on the charge of adultery and murder, because they practice adultery and their hands are stained with blood.”

⁴⁶ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Bring a mob to terrorize them and rob them. ⁴⁷ Let the mob stone them and attack them with swords, kill their children, and burn down their houses. ⁴⁸ Throughout the land I will put a stop to immorality, as a warning to every woman not to commit adultery as they did. ⁴⁹ And you two sisters—I will punish you for your immorality and your sin of worshiping idols. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”

A Prayer for Help^{[a] (A)}

The Prayer of an Elderly Person