M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Solomon and His Many Wives
11 King Solomon loved many foreign women, including the daughter of Pharaoh and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and the Hittites. 2 In the past the Lord had said to the Israelites, “You must not marry people from other nations. If you do, they will cause you to follow their gods.” But Solomon fell in love with these women. 3 He had 700 wives who were the daughters of leaders from other nations. He also had 300 slave women who were like wives to him. His wives caused him to turn away from God. 4 When Solomon was old, his wives caused him to follow other gods, so he did not follow the Lord completely as his father David did. 5 Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of Sidon, and Milcom, the horrible god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what the Lord said was wrong. He did not follow the Lord completely as his father David did.
7 On the mountain next to Jerusalem, Solomon built a place for worshiping Chemosh, that horrible idol of the Moabites. On the same mountain, Solomon built a place for worshiping Molech, that horrible idol of the Ammonites. 8 Solomon did the same thing for all of his other foreign wives who burned incense and gave sacrifices to their gods.
9 So Solomon did not remain faithful to the Lord, the God of Israel, even though God had appeared to him twice. The Lord became angry with him. 10 He had told Solomon that he must not follow other gods, but Solomon did not obey the Lord’s command. 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “You have chosen to break your agreement with me. You have not obeyed my commands. So I promise that I will tear your kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. 12 But I loved your father David, so I will not take your kingdom away from you while you are alive. I will wait until your son becomes king. Then I will take it from him. 13 Still, I will not tear away all the kingdom from your son. I will leave him one tribe to rule. I will do this for my servant David and for Jerusalem, the city I chose.”
Solomon’s Enemies
14 Then the Lord raised up Hadad the Edomite to become Solomon’s enemy. Hadad was from the royal family of Edom. 15 This is how it happened. In the past David fought against Edom. Joab was the commander of David’s army. Joab went to Edom to bury his dead soldiers. While there Joab killed all the Edomite men who were still alive. 16 Joab and the men of Israel stayed in Edom for six months until they killed all the men of Edom. 17 At the time Hadad was only a young boy. He and some of his father’s servants ran away to Egypt. 18 They left Midian and went to Paran. In Paran some other people joined them and the whole group went to Egypt. They went to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and asked for help. Pharaoh gave Hadad a house, some land, and food to eat.
19 Pharaoh liked Hadad so much that he gave Hadad a wife. She was Pharaoh’s sister-in-law. (Pharaoh’s wife was Queen Tahpenes.) 20 Hadad and the sister of Tahpenes had a son named Genubath. Queen Tahpenes let Genubath grow up in Pharaoh’s house with his children.
21 In Egypt Hadad heard that David had died and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead. So Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me go home to my own country.”
22 But Pharaoh answered, “I have given you everything you need here. Why do you want to go back to your own country?”
Hadad answered, “Please, just let me go home.”
23 God also raised up another man to become one of Solomon’s enemies. This man was Rezon, son of Eliada. Rezon ran away from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah. 24 After David defeated the army of Zobah, Rezon gathered some men and became the leader of a small army. He went to Damascus and stayed there to rule from Damascus. 25 Rezon became the king of Aram. He was an enemy of Israel throughout Solomon’s life and added to the trouble that Hadad created for Israel.
26 There was also another person who became an enemy of Solomon. He was Jeroboam son of Nebat. He was an Ephraimite from the town of Zeredah. His mother was a widow named Zeruah. He was one of Solomon’s servants, but he rebelled against the king.
27 This is the story about how Jeroboam turned against the king. Solomon was building the Millo and repairing the wall around the city of David, his father. 28 Jeroboam was a free man.[a] Solomon saw that this young man was a skilled worker, so he made him the supervisor over all the workers from the tribes that descended from Joseph. 29 One day as Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh met him on the road. They were alone out in the country, and Ahijah was wearing a new coat.
30 Ahijah took his new coat and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces of this coat for yourself because the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will tear the kingdom away from Solomon, and I will give you ten of the tribes. 32 I will let David’s family keep only one tribe. I will do this because of my servant David and because of Jerusalem, the city that I chose from among all the tribes of Israel. 33 I will take the kingdom from Solomon because he stopped following me and began worshiping Ashtoreth, the goddess of Sidon; Chemosh, the god of Moab; and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. Solomon stopped following my ways and doing what I say is right. He does not obey my laws and commands as his father David did. 34 So I will take the kingdom away from Solomon’s family. I chose David because he obeyed all my laws and commands. So for my servant David, I will let Solomon be the king for the rest of his life. 35 But Jeroboam, I will take the ten tribes away from his son and give them to you. 36 I will let Solomon’s son keep one tribe to rule over. I will do this for my servant David, so he will always have someone to rule near me in Jerusalem, the city that I chose to be my own. 37 But I will make you king of Israel.[b] You will rule over everything you want. 38 If you live right and obey all my commands as David did, I will be with you and make your family a family of kings, just as I did for David. And you will have Israel as your kingdom. 39 I will punish David’s descendants because of what Solomon did, but not forever.’”
Solomon’s Death
40 Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam ran away to Egypt. He went to King Shishak of Egypt and stayed there until Solomon died.
41 Everything else Solomon did, from the beginning to the end, is written in the book, The History of Solomon. 42 Solomon ruled in Jerusalem over all Israel for 40 years. 43 Then he died[c] and was buried in the city of David, his father. Then Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, became the next king after him.
Be United and Care for Each Other
2 Think about what we have in Christ: the encouragement he has brought us, the comfort of his love, our sharing in his Spirit, and the mercy and kindness he has shown us. If you enjoy these blessings, 2 then do what will make my joy complete: Agree with each other, and show your love for each other. Be united in your goals and in the way you think. 3 In whatever you do, don’t let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble, and honor others more than yourselves. 4 Don’t be interested only in your own life, but care about the lives of others too.
Learn From Christ to Be Unselfish
5 In your life together, think the way Christ Jesus thought.
6 He was like God in every way,
but he did not think that his being equal with God was something to use for his own benefit.
7 Instead, he gave up everything, even his place with God.
He accepted the role of a servant, appearing in human form.
During his life as a man,
8 he humbled himself by being fully obedient to God,
even when that caused his death—death on a cross.
9 So God raised him up to the most important place
and gave him the name that is greater than any other name.
10 God did this so that every person will bow down to honor the name of Jesus.
Everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth will bow.
11 They will all confess, “Jesus Christ is Lord,”
and this will bring glory to God the Father.
Be the People God Wants You to Be
12 My dear friends, you always obeyed what you were taught. Just as you obeyed when I was with you, it is even more important for you to obey now that I am not there. So you must continue to live in a way that gives meaning to your salvation. Do this with fear and respect for God. 13 Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it.
14 Do everything without complaining or arguing 15 so that you will be blameless and pure, children of God without any fault. But you are living with evil people all around you, who have lost their sense of what is right. Among those people you shine like lights in a dark world, 16 and you offer them the teaching that gives life. So I can be proud of you when Christ comes again. You will show that my work was not wasted—that I ran in the race and won.
17 Your faith makes you give your lives as a sacrifice in serving God. Maybe I will have to offer my own life with your sacrifice. But if that happens, I will be glad, and I will share my joy with all of you. 18 You also should be glad and share your joy with me.
News About Timothy and Epaphroditus
19 With the blessing of the Lord Jesus, I hope I will be able to send Timothy to you soon. I will be glad to learn how you are. 20 I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares for you. 21 Others are interested only in their own lives. They don’t care about the work of Christ Jesus. 22 You know the kind of person Timothy is. He has served with me in telling the Good News like a son with his father. 23 I plan to send him to you quickly, as soon as I know what will happen to me. 24 I am sure the Lord will help me come to you soon.
25 For now, I think I must send Epaphroditus back to you. He is my brother in God’s family, who works and serves with me in the Lord’s army. When I needed help, you sent him to me, 26 but now he wants very much to see all of you again. He is worried because you heard that he was sick. 27 He was sick and near death. But God helped him and me too, so that I would not have even more grief. 28 So I want very much to send him to you. When you see him, you can be happy. And I can stop worrying about you. 29 Welcome him in the Lord with much joy. Give honor to people like Epaphroditus. 30 He should be honored because he almost died for the work of Christ. He put his life in danger so that he could help me. This was help that you could not give me.
The Holy Place of the Temple
41 Then the man led me into the Holy Place. He measured the walls on either side of the room. The side walls were 6 cubits[a] thick on each side. 2 The door was 10 cubits[b] wide. The sides of the doorway were 5 cubits[c] on each side. He measured that room. It was 40 cubits[d] long and 20 cubits wide.
The Most Holy Place in the Temple
3 Then the man went into the last room. He measured the walls on either side of the doorway. Each side wall was 2 cubits[e] thick and 7 cubits[f] wide. The doorway was 6 cubits wide. 4 Then he measured the length of the room. It was 20 cubits long and 20 cubits wide. He said to me, “This is the Most Holy Place.”
Other Rooms Around the Temple
5 Then the man measured the wall of the Temple. It was 6 cubits thick. There were side rooms all around the Temple. They were 4 cubits[g] wide. 6 The side rooms were on three different floors, one above the other. There were 30 rooms on each floor. The wall of the Temple was built with ledges. The side rooms rested on these ledges but were not connected to the Temple wall itself. 7 Each floor of the side rooms around the Temple was wider than the floor below. The walls of the rooms around the Temple became narrower the higher they went so that the rooms on the top floors were wider. A stairway went up from the lowest floor to the highest floor through the middle floor.
8 I also saw that the Temple had a raised base all the way around it. It was the foundation for the side rooms, and it was a full ruler[h] high. 9 The outer wall of the side rooms was 5 cubits thick. There was an open area between the side rooms of the Temple 10 and the priests’ rooms. It was 20 cubits[i] wide and went all the way around the Temple. 11 The doors of the side rooms opened onto the raised base. There was one entrance on the north side and one entrance on the south side. The raised base was 5 cubits wide all around.
12 There was a building in this restricted area west of the Temple. The building was 70 cubits[j] wide and 90 cubits[k] long. The wall of the building was 5 cubits thick all around. 13 Then the man measured the Temple. The Temple was 100 cubits[l] long. The restricted area, including the building and its walls, was also 100 cubits long. 14 The restricted area on the east side, in front of the Temple, was 100 cubits long.
15 The man measured the length of the building in the restricted area at the rear of the Temple. It was 100 cubits from one wall to the other wall.
The Most Holy Place, the Holy Place, and the porch by the courtyard 16 had wood paneling on all the walls. All the windows and doors had wood trim around them. By the doorway, the Temple had wood paneling from the floor up to the windows and up to the part of the wall 17 over the doorway.
On all the walls in the inner room and the outer room of the Temple were carvings 18 of Cherub angels and palm trees. A palm tree was between each Cherub angel. Every Cherub angel had two faces. 19 One face was a man’s face looking toward the palm tree on one side. The other face was a lion’s face looking toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved all around on the Temple. 20 From the floor to the area above the door, Cherub angels and palm trees were carved on all walls of the Holy Place.
21 The walls on either side of the Holy Place were square. In front of the Most Holy Place, there was something that looked like 22 an altar made from wood. It was 3 cubits[m] high and 2 cubits long. Its corners, its base, and its sides were wood. The man said to me, “This is the table that is before the Lord.”
23 Both the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place had a double door. 24 Each of the doors was made from two smaller doors. Each door was really two swinging doors. 25 Also Cherub angels and palm trees were carved on the doors of the Holy Place. They were like those carved on the walls. There was a wood roof over the front of the porch. 26 There were windows with frames around them and palm trees on the walls on both sides of the porch, on the roof over the porch, and on the rooms around the Temple.
A song of praise for the Sabbath.
92 It is good to praise the Lord.
God Most High, it is good to praise your name.
2 It is good to sing about your love in the morning
and about your faithfulness at night.
3 It is good to play for you on the ten-stringed instrument and lyre
and to add the soft sounds of the harp to my praise.
4 Lord, you make us very happy because of what you did.
I gladly sing about it.
5 Lord, you did such great things.
Your thoughts are too hard for us to understand.
6 Stupid people don’t know this.
Fools don’t understand.
7 The wicked may sprout like grass,
and those who do evil may blossom like flowers,
but they will be destroyed, never to be seen again.
8 But, Lord, you will be honored forever.
9 Lord, all your enemies will be destroyed,
and all who do evil will be scattered.
10 But you have made me as strong as a wild ox.
You have given me your blessing.[a]
11 My eyes will see the defeat of those waiting to attack me.
My ears will hear the cries of my evil enemies.
12 Good people are like budding palm trees.
They grow strong like the cedar trees of Lebanon.
13 They are planted in the house[b] of the Lord.
They grow strong there in the courtyards of our God.
14 Even when they are old,
they will continue producing fruit like young, healthy trees.
15 They are there to show everyone that the Lord is good.[c]
He is my Rock, and he does no wrong.[d]
93 The Lord is King.
The Lord wears majesty and strength like clothes.
He is ready, so the whole world is safe.
It will not be shaken.
2 Your kingdom has continued forever.
You have lived forever!
3 Lord, the ocean roars.
The mighty ocean sounds like thunder
as the waves crash on the shore.
4 The crashing waves of the sea are loud and powerful,
but the Lord above is even more powerful.
5 Lord, your laws will continue forever.[e]
Your holy Temple will stand for a long time.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International