M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
20 King Ben-hadad of Syria now mobilized his army and, with thirty-two allied nations and their hordes of chariots and horses, besieged Samaria, the Israeli capital. 2-3 He sent this message into the city to King Ahab of Israel: “Your silver and gold are mine, as are your prettiest wives and the best of your children!”
4 “All right, my lord,” Ahab replied. “All that I have is yours!”
5-6 Soon Ben-hadad’s messengers returned again with another message: “You must not only give me your silver, gold, wives, and children, but about this time tomorrow I will send my men to search your palace and the homes of your people, and they will take away whatever they like!”
7 Then Ahab summoned his advisors. “Look what this man is doing,” he complained to them. “He is stirring up trouble despite the fact that I have already told him he could have my wives and children and silver and gold, just as he demanded.”
8 “Don’t give him anything more,” the elders advised.
9 So he told the messengers from Ben-hadad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘I will give you everything you asked for the first time, but your men may not search the palace and the homes of the people.’”[a] So the messengers returned to Ben-hadad.
10 Then the Syrian king sent this message to Ahab: “May the gods do more to me than I am going to do to you if I don’t turn Samaria into handfuls of dust!”
11 The king of Israel retorted, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!”
12 This reply of Ahab’s reached Ben-hadad and the other kings as they were drinking in their tents.
“Prepare to attack!” Ben-hadad commanded his officers.
13 Then a prophet came to see King Ahab and gave him this message from the Lord: “Do you see all these enemy forces? I will deliver them all to you today. Then at last you will know that I am the Lord.”
14 Ahab asked, “How will he do it?”
And the prophet replied, “The Lord says, ‘By the troops from the provinces.’”
“Shall we attack first?” Ahab asked.
“Yes,” the prophet answered.
15 So he mustered the troops from the provinces, 232 of them, then the rest of his army of 7,000 men. 16 About noontime, as Ben-hadad and the thirty-two allied kings were still drinking themselves drunk, the first of Ahab’s troops marched out of the city.
17 As they approached, Ben-hadad’s scouts reported to him, “Some troops are coming!”
18 “Take them alive,” Ben-hadad commanded, “whether they have come for truce or for war.”
19 By now Ahab’s entire army had joined the attack. 20 Each one killed a Syrian soldier, and suddenly the entire Syrian army panicked and fled. The Israelis chased them, but King Ben-hadad and a few others escaped on horses. 21 However, the great bulk of the horses and chariots were captured, and most of the Syrian army was killed in a great slaughter.
22 Then the prophet approached King Ahab and said, “Get ready for another attack by the king of Syria.”
23 For after their defeat, Ben-hadad’s officers said to him, “The Israeli God is a god of the hills; that is why they won. But we can beat them easily on the plains. 24 Only this time replace the kings with generals! 25 Recruit another army like the one you lost; give us the same number of horses, chariots, and men, and we will fight against them in the plains; there’s not a shadow of a doubt that we will beat them.” So King Ben-hadad did as they suggested. 26 The following year he called up the Syrian army and marched out against Israel again, this time at Aphek. 27 Israel then mustered its army, set up supply lines, and moved into the battle; but the Israeli army looked like two little flocks of baby goats in comparison to the vast Syrian forces that filled the countryside!
28 Then a prophet went to the king of Israel with this message from the Lord: “Because the Syrians have declared, ‘The Lord is a God of the hills and not of the plains,’ I will help you defeat this vast army, and you shall know that I am indeed the Lord.”
29 The two armies camped opposite each other for seven days, and on the seventh day the battle began. And the Israelis killed 100,000 Syrian infantrymen that first day. 30 The rest fled behind the walls of Aphek, but the wall fell on them and killed another 27,000. Ben-hadad fled into the city and hid in the inner room of one of the houses.
31 “Sir,” his officers said to him, “we have heard that the kings of Israel are very merciful. Let us wear sackcloth and put ropes on our heads and go out to King Ahab to see if he will let you live.”
32 So they went to the king of Israel and begged, “Your servant Ben-hadad pleads, ‘Let me live!’”
“Oh, is he still alive?” the king of Israel asked. “He is my brother!”
33 The men were quick to grab this straw of hope and hurried to clinch the matter by exclaiming, “Yes, your brother Ben-hadad!”
“Go and get him,” the king of Israel told them. And when Ben-hadad arrived, he invited him up into his chariot!
34 Ben-hadad told him, “I will restore the cities my father took from your father, and you may establish trading posts in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.”
35 Meanwhile, the Lord instructed one of the prophets to say to another man, “Strike me with your sword!” But the man refused.
36 Then the prophet told him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, a lion shall kill you as soon as you leave me.” And sure enough, as he turned to go a lion attacked and killed him.
37 Then the prophet turned to another man and said, “Strike me with your sword.” And he did, wounding him.
38 The prophet waited for the king beside the road, having placed a bandage over his eyes to disguise himself.
39 As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, “Sir, I was in the battle, and a man brought me a prisoner and said, ‘Keep this man; if he gets away, you must die, or else pay me $2,000!’ 40 But while I was busy doing something else, the prisoner disappeared!”
“Well, it’s your own fault,” the king replied. “You’ll have to pay.”
41 Then the prophet yanked off the bandage from his eyes, and the king recognized him as one of the prophets. 42 Then the prophet told him, “The Lord says, ‘Because you have spared the man I said must die, now you must die in his place, and your people shall perish instead of his.’”
43 So the king of Israel went home to Samaria angry and sullen.
3 Finally, when I could stand it no longer, I decided to stay alone in Athens 2-3 and send Timothy, our brother and fellow worker, God’s minister, to visit you to strengthen your faith and encourage you and to keep you from becoming fainthearted in all the troubles you were going through. (But of course you know that such troubles are a part of God’s plan for us Christians. 4 Even while we were still with you we warned you ahead of time that suffering would soon come—and it did.)
5 As I was saying, when I could bear the suspense no longer, I sent Timothy to find out whether your faith was still strong. I was afraid that perhaps Satan had gotten the best of you and that all our work had been useless. 6 And now Timothy has just returned and brings the welcome news that your faith and love are as strong as ever and that you remember our visit with joy and want to see us just as much as we want to see you. 7 So we are greatly comforted, dear brothers, in all of our own crushing troubles and suffering here, now that we know you are standing true to the Lord. 8 We can bear anything as long as we know that you remain strong in him.
9 How can we thank God enough for you and for the joy and delight you have given us in our praying for you? 10 For night and day we pray on and on for you, asking God to let us see you again, to fill up any little cracks there may yet be in your faith.
11 May God our Father himself and our Lord Jesus send us back to you again. 12 And may the Lord make your love to grow and overflow to each other and to everyone else, just as our love does toward you. 13 This will result in your hearts being made strong, sinless, and holy by God our Father so that you may stand before him guiltless on that day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns with all those who belong to him.[a]
2 1-3 One night in the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had a terrifying nightmare and awoke trembling with fear. And to make matters worse, he couldn’t remember his dream! He immediately called in all his magicians, incantationists, sorcerers, and astrologers, and demanded that they tell him what his dream had been.
“I’ve had a terrible nightmare,” he said as they stood before him, “and I can’t remember what it was. Tell me, for I fear some tragedy awaits me.”
4 Then the astrologers (speaking in Aramaic) said to the king, “Sir, tell us the dream and then we can tell you what it means.”
5 But the king replied, “I tell you the dream is gone—I can’t remember it. And if you won’t tell me what it was and what it means, I’ll have you torn limb from limb and your houses made into heaps of rubble! 6 But I will give you many wonderful gifts and honors if you tell me what the dream was and what it means. So, begin!”
7 They said again, “How can we tell you what the dream means unless you tell us what it was?”
8-9 The king retorted, “I can see your trick! You’re trying to stall for time until the calamity befalls me that the dream foretells. But if you don’t tell me the dream, you certainly can’t expect me to believe your interpretation!”
10 The astrologers replied to the king, “There isn’t a man alive who can tell others what they have dreamed! And there isn’t a king in all the world who would ask such a thing! 11 This is an impossible thing the king requires. No one except the gods can tell you your dream, and they are not here to help.”
12 Upon hearing this, the king was furious and sent out orders to execute all the wise men of Babylon. 13 And Daniel and his companions were rounded up with the others to be killed.
14 But when Arioch, the chief executioner, came to kill them, Daniel handled the situation with great wisdom by asking, 15 “Why is the king so angry? What is the matter?”
Then Arioch told him all that had happened.
16 So Daniel went in to see the king. “Give me a little time,” he said, “and I will tell you the dream and what it means.”
17 Then he went home and told Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions. 18 They asked the God of heaven to show them his mercy by telling them the secret, so they would not die with the others. 19 And that night in a vision God told Daniel what the king had dreamed.
Then Daniel praised the God of heaven, 20 saying, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for he alone has all wisdom and all power. 21 World events are under his control. He removes kings and sets others on their thrones. He gives wise men their wisdom and scholars their intelligence. 22 He reveals profound mysteries beyond man’s understanding. He knows all hidden things, for he is light, and darkness is no obstacle to him. 23 I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers, for you have given me wisdom and glowing health, and now even this vision of the king’s dream and the understanding of what it means.”
24 Then Daniel went in to see Arioch, who had been ordered to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said, “Don’t kill them. Take me to the king, and I will tell him what he wants to know.”
25 Then Arioch hurried Daniel in to the king and said, “I’ve found one of the Jewish captives who will tell you your dream!”
26 The king said to Daniel, “Is this true? Can you tell me what my dream was and what it means?”
27 Daniel replied, “No wise man, astrologer, magician, or wizard can tell the king such things, 28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has told you in your dream what will happen in the future. This was your dream:
29 “You dreamed of coming events. He who reveals secrets was speaking to you. 30 (But remember, it’s not because I am wiser than any living person that I know this secret of your dream, for God showed it to me for your benefit.)
31 “O king, you saw a huge and powerful statue of a man, shining brilliantly, frightening and terrible. 32 The head of the statue was made of purest gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, 33 its legs of iron, its feet part iron and part clay. 34 But as you watched, a Rock was cut from the mountainside[a] by supernatural means. It came hurtling toward the statue and crushed the feet of iron and clay, smashing them to bits. 35 Then the whole statue collapsed into a heap of iron, clay, brass, silver, and gold; its pieces were crushed as small as chaff, and the wind blew them all away. But the Rock that knocked the statue down became a great mountain that covered the whole earth.
36 “That was the dream; now for its meaning:
37 “Your Majesty, you are a king over many kings, for the God of heaven has given you your kingdom, power, strength, and glory. 38 You rule the farthest provinces, and even animals and birds are under your control, as God decreed. You are that head of gold.
39 “But after your kingdom has come to an end, another world power[b] will arise to take your place. This empire will be inferior to yours. And after that kingdom has fallen, yet a third great power—represented by the bronze belly of the statue—will rise to rule the world. 40 Following it, the fourth kingdom[c] will be strong as iron—smashing, bruising, and conquering. 41-42 The feet and toes you saw—part iron and part clay—show that later on, this kingdom will be divided. Some parts of it will be as strong as iron, and some as weak as clay. 43 This mixture of iron with clay also shows that these kingdoms will try to strengthen themselves by forming alliances with each other through intermarriage of their rulers; but this will not succeed, for iron and clay don’t mix.
44 “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed; no one will ever conquer it. It will shatter all these kingdoms into nothingness, but it shall stand forever, indestructible. 45 That is the meaning of the Rock cut from the mountain without human hands—the Rock that crushed to powder all the iron and brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold.
“Thus the great God has shown what will happen in the future, and this interpretation of your dream is as sure and certain as my description of it.”
46 Then Nebuchadnezzar fell to the ground before Daniel and worshiped him and commanded his people to offer sacrifices and burn sweet incense before him.
47 “Truly, O Daniel,” the king said, “your God is the God of gods, Ruler of kings, the Revealer of mysteries, because he has told you this secret.”
48 Then the king made Daniel very great; he gave him many valuable gifts and appointed him to be ruler over the whole province of Babylon, as well as chief over all his wise men.
49 Then, at Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as Daniel’s assistants, to be in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon; Daniel served as chief magistrate in the king’s court.
106 Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord! How good you are! Your love for us continues on forever. 2 Who can ever list the glorious miracles of God? Who can ever praise him half enough?
3 Happiness comes to those who are fair to others and are always just and good.
4 Remember me too, O Lord, while you are blessing and saving your people. 5 Let me share in your chosen ones’ prosperity and rejoice in all their joys, and receive the glory you give to them.
6 Both we and our fathers have sinned so much. 7 They weren’t impressed by the wonder of your miracles in Egypt and soon forgot your many acts of kindness to them. Instead they rebelled against you at the Red Sea. 8 Even so you saved them—to defend the honor of your name and demonstrate your power to all the world. 9 You commanded the Red Sea to divide, forming a dry road across its bottom. Yes, as dry as any desert! 10 Thus you rescued them from their enemies. 11 Then the water returned and covered the road and drowned their foes; not one survived.
12 Then at last his people believed him. Then they finally sang his praise.
13 Yet how quickly they forgot again! They wouldn’t wait for him to act 14 but demanded better food,[a] testing God’s patience to the breaking point. 15 So he gave them their demands but sent them leanness in their souls.[b] 16 They were envious of Moses, yes, and Aaron too, the man anointed[c] by God as his priest. 17 Because of this, the earth opened and swallowed Dathan, Abiram, and his friends; 18 and fire fell from heaven to consume these wicked men. 19-20 For they preferred a statue of an ox that eats grass to the glorious presence of God himself. 21-22 Thus they despised their Savior who had done such mighty miracles in Egypt and at the Red Sea. 23 So the Lord declared he would destroy them. But Moses, his chosen one, stepped into the breach between the people and their God and begged him to turn from his wrath and not destroy them.
24 They refused to enter the Promised Land, for they wouldn’t believe his solemn oath to care for them. 25 Instead, they pouted in their tents and mourned and despised his command. 26 Therefore he swore that he would kill them in the wilderness 27 and send their children away to distant lands as exiles. 28 Then our fathers joined the worshipers of Baal at Peor and even offered sacrifices to the dead![d] 29 With all these things they angered him—and so a plague broke out upon them 30 and continued until Phinehas executed those whose sins had caused the plague to start. 31 (For this good deed Phinehas will be remembered forever.)
32 At Meribah, too, Israel angered God, causing Moses serious trouble, 33 for he became angry and spoke foolishly.
34 Nor did Israel destroy the nations in the land as God had told them to, 35 but mingled in among the heathen and learned their evil ways, 36 sacrificing to their idols, and were led away from God. 37-38 They even sacrificed their little children to the demons—the idols of Canaan—shedding innocent blood and polluting the land with murder. 39 Their evil deeds defiled them, for their love of idols was adultery in the sight of God. 40 That is why Jehovah’s anger burned against his people, and he abhorred them. 41-42 That is why he let the heathen nations crush them. They were ruled by those who hated them and oppressed by their enemies.
43 Again and again he delivered them from their slavery, but they continued to rebel against him and were finally destroyed by their sin. 44 Yet, even so, he listened to their cries and heeded their distress; 45 he remembered his promises to them and relented because of his great love, 46 and caused even their enemies who captured them to pity them.
47 O Lord God, save us! Regather us from the nations so we can thank your holy name and rejoice and praise you.
48 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.