M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
False prophets and false gods
13 [a] Now if a prophet or a dream interpreter appears among you and performs a sign or wonder for you, 2 and the sign or wonder that was spoken actually occurs; if he says: “Come on! We should follow other gods”—ones you haven’t experienced—“and we should worship them,” 3 you must not listen to that prophet’s or dream interpreter’s words, because the Lord your God is testing you to see if you love the Lord your God with all your mind and all your being. 4 You must follow the Lord your God alone! Revere him! Follow his commandments! Obey his voice! Worship him! Cling to him—no other! 5 That prophet or dream interpreter must be executed because he encouraged you to turn away from the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, who redeemed you from the house of slavery; they tried to lead you away from the path the Lord your God commanded you to take. Remove[b] such evil from your community!
6 Similarly, if one of your relatives—even one of your own siblings—or your own son or daughter or your dear spouse or best friend entices you secretly, if someone like that says: “Come on! We should follow and worship other gods”—ones that neither you nor your ancestors have experienced, 7 gods from all the neighboring peoples, whether nearby or far away, from one end of the earth to the other— 8 don’t give in to them! Don’t obey them! Don’t have any mercy on them! Don’t have compassion on them and don’t protect them! 9 Instead, you must execute them. Your own hand must be against them from the beginning of the execution; the hand of all the people will be involved at the end. 10 Stone them until they are dead because they desired to lead you away from the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11 All Israel will hear about this and be afraid. They won’t do that sort of evil thing among you again.
12 Or if you hear about one of your towns the Lord your God is giving you to inhabit, that 13 certain wicked people have gone out from your community and they’ve led the citizens of their town astray by saying: “Come on! We should follow and worship other gods”—ones you haven’t experienced before; 14 at that point you must look into this situation very carefully to see if it’s true. And if it’s definitely true that this detestable thing was done in your community, 15 you must completely strike down the inhabitants of that city with the sword. Place it and all that is in it under the ban.[c] Put its animals to the sword. 16 Gather all the plunder into the middle of the town’s square. Then burn the city and all of its plunder as an entirely burned offering to the Lord your God. It must remain a heap of rubble forever. It must not be rebuilt. 17 Don’t hold on to any of the banned items—this will ensure that the Lord turns from his great anger and is compassionate to you, showing you mercy and multiplying you just like he swore to your ancestors. 18 You must definitely obey the Lord your God’s voice, keeping all his commandments that I am giving you right now, by doing what is right in the Lord your God’s eyes!
Complete devotion to the Lord
14 You are the Lord’s children. Don’t cut yourselves and don’t shave your foreheads for the dead, 2 because you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You are the ones whom the Lord selected to be his own, to be a treasured people out of all other people on earth.
Dietary laws
3 Don’t eat any detestable thing. 4 Here’s a list of animals you are allowed to eat: ox, sheep, goat, 5 deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep. 6 You are also allowed to eat any animal with a divided hoof—the hoof being divided into two parts—and that rechews food among the various kinds of animals. 7 However, here’s a list of animals that either rechew food or have hooves divided in two parts that you are not allowed to eat:
the camel, the hare, and the rock badger—because these rechew food but don’t have divided hoofs, they are off-limits for you;
8 and the pig—because it has a divided hoof but doesn’t rechew food, it’s off-limits for you.
You may not eat these animals’ meat, and you must not touch their carcasses.
9 Here’s a list of the water animals you are allowed to eat: you can eat anything that has fins and scales. 10 But you aren’t allowed to eat anything that lacks scales or fins. These are off-limits for you.
11 You are allowed to eat any clean bird. 12 Here’s a list of those you are not allowed to eat: the eagle, the vulture, the osprey, 13 the red kite, the black kite, and any kind of bird of prey, 14 any kind of raven, 15 the ostrich, the nighthawk, the seagull, any kind of hawk, 16 the small owl and the large owl, the water hen, 17 the desert owl, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, 18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat.[d]
19 Also, all winged insects are off-limits for you. They are not to be eaten. 20 Any clean winged creature can be eaten, however.
21 You must not eat any decayed animal flesh because you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You can give decayed animal flesh to the immigrants who live in your cities, and they can eat it; or you can sell it to foreigners.
Don’t cook a lamb in its own mother’s milk.
Tenth part
22 You must reserve a tenth part of whatever your fields produce each year. 23 Eat the tenth part of your grain, wine, oil, oldest offspring of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God in the location he selects for his name to reside so that you learn to fear the Lord your God at all times. 24 But if the trip is too long, because the location the Lord your God has selected to put his name is far away from where you live so that you can’t transport the tenth part—because the Lord your God will certainly bless you— 25 then you can convert it to money. Take the money with you and go to the location the Lord your God selects. 26 Then you can use the money for anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, beer, or whatever else you might like. Then you should feast there and celebrate in the presence of the Lord your God, along with your entire household. 27 Only make sure not to neglect the Levites who are living in your cities because they don’t have a designated inheritance like you do.
28 Every third year you must bring the tenth part of your produce from that year and leave it at your city gates. 29 Then the Levites, who have no designated inheritance like you do, along with the immigrants, orphans, and widows who live in your cities, will come and feast until they are full. Do this so that the Lord your God might bless you in everything you do.
Psalm 99
99 The Lord rules—
the nations shake!
He sits enthroned on the winged heavenly creatures—
the earth quakes!
2 The Lord is great in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them thank your great and awesome name.
He is holy!
4 Strong king[a] who loves justice,
you are the one who established what is fair.
You worked justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Magnify the Lord, our God!
Bow low at his footstool!
He is holy!
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel too among those who called on his name.
They cried out to the Lord, and he himself answered them—
7 he spoke to them from a pillar of cloud.
They kept the laws and the rules God gave to them.
8 Lord our God, you answered them.
To them you were a God who forgives
but also the one who avenged their wrong deeds.
9 Magnify the Lord our God!
Bow low at his holy mountain
because the Lord our God is holy!
Psalm 100
A psalm of thanks.
100 Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with celebration!
Come before him with shouts of joy!
3 Know that the Lord is God—
he made us; we belong to him.[b]
We are his people,
the sheep of his own pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanks;
enter his courtyards with praise!
Thank him! Bless his name!
5 Because the Lord is good,
his loyal love lasts forever;
his faithfulness lasts generation after generation.
Psalm 101
Of David. A psalm.
101 Oh, let me sing about faithful love and justice!
I want to sing my praises to you, Lord!
2 I want to study the way of integrity—
how long before it gets here?
I will walk with a heart of integrity
in my own house.
3 I won’t set my eyes on anything worthless.
I hate wrongdoing;
none of that will stick to me.
4 A corrupt heart will be far from me.
I won’t be familiar with evil.
5 I will destroy anyone
who secretly tells lies about a neighbor.
I can’t stomach anyone
who has proud eyes or an arrogant heart.
6 My eyes focus on those
who are faithful in the land,
to have them close to me.
The person who walks without blame
will work for me.
7 But the person who acts deceitfully
won’t stay in my house.
The person who tells lies
won’t last for long before me.
8 Every morning I will destroy
all those who are wicked in the land
in order to eliminate all evildoers
from the Lord’s city.
Victor from the east
41 Be quiet before me, coastlands.
Let the nations renew their strength.
Let them approach and speak.
Let’s draw near for a judgment.
2 Who has awakened one from the east
and has authority to summon him to serve—
giving him nations,
conquering kings,
making them like dust with his sword,
like scattered straw with his bow?
3 He pursues them and passes untouched,
needing no path for his feet.
4 Who has acted and who has done this,
calling upon generation after generation since the beginning?
I, the Lord, was first,
and I will be the last!
5 The coastlands see and fear;
the ends of the earth tremble;
they draw near and arrive.
6 Each helps the other,
each saying to the other, “Take courage!”
7 The craftsman encourages the metalworker;
the one who smoothes with the hammer
encourages the one who strikes the anvil,
saying of the welding, “That’s good,”
and strengthening it with nails so it won’t move.
Israel as God’s servant
8 But you, Israel my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
offspring of Abraham, whom I love,
9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are my servant;
I chose you and didn’t reject you”:
10 Don’t fear, because I am with you;
don’t be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
I will surely help you;
I will hold you
with my righteous strong hand.
11 All who rage against you will be shamed and disgraced.
Those who contend with you
will be as nothing and will perish.
12 You will look for your opponents,
and won’t find them.
Those who fight you will be of no account and will die.
13 I am the Lord your God,
who grasps your strong hand,
who says to you,
Don’t fear; I will help you.
14 Don’t fear, worm of Jacob,
people of Israel!
I will help you, says the Lord.
The holy one of Israel is your redeemer.
15 Look, I’ve made you
into a new threshing tool with sharp teeth.
You will thresh mountains and pulverize them;
you will reduce hills to straw.
16 When you winnow them,
the wind will carry them off;
the tempest will scatter them.
You will rejoice in the Lord
and take pride in the holy one of Israel.
17 The poor and the needy seek water, and there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, the Lord, will respond to them;
I, the God of Israel, won’t abandon them.
18 I will open streams on treeless hilltops
and springs in valleys.
I will make the desert into ponds
and dry land into cascades of water.
19 I will plant in the desert cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees;
I will put in the wilderness cypress, elm, and pine as well,
20 so that they will see and know
and observe and comprehend
that the Lord’s hand has done this,
and the holy one of Israel has created it.
Other gods challenged
21 Present your case, says the Lord.
Bring forward your evidence, says Jacob’s king.
22 Let the idols[a] approach
and tell us what will happen.
The prior things—what are they?
Announce them, and we’ll think about them
and know their significance.
Or proclaim to us what is to come!
23 Report things that will happen in the future,
then we’ll know that you are gods.
Do good! Or do bad!
Then we will all be afraid and fearful.
24 Look! You are nobody, and your deeds are nothing.
Whoever chooses you is disgusting.
25 I woke up one from the north and he came;
from the east, one who calls my name.
He tramples governors like mud,
as a potter treads clay.
26 Who announced this from the start
so that we would know;
from an earlier time
so we would say, “That’s right”?
Truly, no one announced it,
no one proclaimed it,
and no one heard your words.
27 I first said it to Zion, “Look, here they are”;
to Jerusalem I now send a herald.
28 But I look, and there’s no one
among them, no counselor;
and when I ask,
no one can answer.
29 Look, all of them are frauds;
their deeds amount to nothing;
their images are a total delusion.
Two witnesses
11 Then I was given a measuring rod, which was like a pole. And I was told, “Get up and measure God’s temple, the altar, and those who worship there. 2 But don’t measure the court outside the temple. Leave that out, because it has been given to the nations, and they will trample the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.
3 “And I will allow my two witnesses to prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, wearing mourning clothes. 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 If anyone wants to hurt them, fire comes out of their mouth and burns up their enemies. So if anyone wants to hurt them, they have to be killed in this way. 6 They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain will fall for as long as they prophesy. They also have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with any plague, as often as they wish.
7 “When they have finished their witnessing, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war on them, gain victory over them, and kill them. 8 Their dead bodies will lie on the street of the great city that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9 And for three and a half days, members of the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will look at their dead bodies, but they won’t let their dead bodies be put in a tomb. 10 Those who live on earth will rejoice over them. They will celebrate and give each other gifts, because these two prophets had brought such pain to those who live on earth.
11 “But after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear came over those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them. 13 At that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed by the earthquake, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.”
14 The second horror is over. The third horror is coming soon.
Seventh trumpet
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying,
“The kingdom of the world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ,
and he will rule forever and always.”
16 Then the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped God. 17 They said,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
who is and was,
for you have taken your great power and enforced your rule.
18 The nations were enraged, but your wrath came.
The time came for the dead to be judged.
The time came to reward your servants, the prophets and saints,
and those who fear your name, both small and great,
and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the chest containing his covenant appeared in his temple. There were lightning, voices, thunder, an earthquake, and large hail.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible