M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
22 For three years there was no war between Syria and Israel. 2 But during the third year, while King Jehoshaphat of Judah was visiting King Ahab of Israel, 3 Ahab said to his officials, “Do you realize that the Syrians are still occupying our city of Ramoth-gilead? And we’re sitting here without doing a thing about it!”
4 Then he turned to Jehoshaphat and asked him, “Will you send your army with mine to recover Ramoth-gilead?”
And King Jehoshaphat of Judah replied, “Of course! You and I are brothers; my people are yours to command, and my horses are at your service. 5 But,” he added, “we should ask the Lord first, to be sure of what he wants us to do.”
6 So King Ahab summoned his 400 heathen prophets[a] and asked them, “Shall I attack Ramoth-gilead, or not?”
And they all said, “Yes, go ahead, for God will help you conquer it.”
7 But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord here? I’d like to ask him too.”
8 “Well, there’s one,” King Ahab replied, “but I hate him, for he never prophesies anything good. He always has something gloomy to say. His name is Micaiah, the son of Imlah.”
“Oh, come now!” Jehoshaphat replied. “Don’t talk like that!”
9 So King Ahab called to one of his aides, “Go get Micaiah. Hurry!”
10 Meanwhile, all the prophets continued prophesying before the two kings, who were dressed in their royal robes and were sitting on thrones placed on the threshing floor near the city gate. 11 One of the prophets, Zedekiah (son of Chenaanah), made some iron horns and declared, “The Lord promises that you will push the Syrians around with these horns until they are destroyed.”
12 And all the others agreed. “Go ahead and attack Ramoth-gilead,” they said, “for the Lord will cause you to triumph!”
13 The messenger who went to get Micaiah told him what the other prophets were saying and urged him to say the same thing.
14 But Micaiah told him, “This I vow, that I will say only what the Lord tells me to!”
15 When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we attack Ramoth-gilead, or not?”
“Why, of course! Go right ahead!” Micaiah told him. “You will have a great victory, for the Lord will cause you to conquer!”
16 “How many times must I tell you to speak only what the Lord tells you to?” the king demanded.
17 Then Micaiah told him, “I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains as sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘Their king is dead; send them to their homes.’”
18 Turning to Jehoshaphat, Ahab complained, “Didn’t I tell you this would happen? He never tells me anything good. It’s always bad.”
19 Then Micaiah said, “Listen to this further word from the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and the armies of heaven stood around him.
20 “Then the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go and die at Ramoth-gilead?’
“Various suggestions were made, 21 until one angel approached the Lord and said, ‘I’ll do it!’
22 “‘How?’ the Lord asked.
“And he replied, ‘I will go as a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’
“And the Lord said, ‘That will do it; you will succeed. Go ahead.’
23 “Don’t you see? The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets, but the fact of the matter is that the Lord has decreed disaster upon you.”
24 Then Zedekiah (son of Chenaanah) walked over and slapped Micaiah on the face.
“When did the Spirit of the Lord leave me and speak to you?” he demanded.
25 And Micaiah replied, “You will have the answer to your question when you find yourself hiding in an inner room.”
26 Then King Ahab ordered Micaiah’s arrest.
“Take him to Amon, the mayor of the city, and to my son Joash. 27 Tell them, ‘The king says to put this fellow in jail and feed him with bread and water—and only enough to keep him alive[b]—until I return in peace.’”
28 “If you return in peace,” Micaiah replied, “it will prove that the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he turned to the people standing nearby and said, “Take note of what I’ve said.”
29 So King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah led their armies to Ramoth-gilead.
30 Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “You wear your royal robes, but I’ll not wear mine!”
So Ahab went into the battle disguised in an ordinary soldier’s uniform. 31 For the king of Syria had commanded his thirty-two chariot captains to fight no one except King Ahab himself. 32-33 When they saw King Jehoshaphat in his royal robes, they thought, “That’s the man we’re after.” So they wheeled around to attack him. But when Jehoshaphat shouted out to identify himself,[c] they turned back! 34 However, someone shot an arrow at random and it struck King Ahab between the joints of his armor.
“Take me out of the battle, for I am badly wounded,” he groaned to his chariot driver.
35 The battle became more and more intense as the day wore on, and King Ahab went back in, propped up in his chariot with the blood from his wound running down onto the floorboards. Finally, toward evening, he died. 36-37 Just as the sun was going down the cry ran through his troops. “It’s all over—return home! The king is dead!”
And his body was taken to Samaria and buried there. 38 When his chariot and armor were washed beside the pool of Samaria, where the prostitutes bathed, dogs came and licked the king’s blood just as the Lord had said would happen.
39 The rest of Ahab’s history—including the story of the ivory palace and the cities he built—is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. 40 So Ahab was buried among his ancestors, and Ahaziah, his son, became the new king of Israel.
41 Meanwhile, over in Judah, Jehoshaphat the son of Asa had become king during the fourth year of the reign of King Ahab of Israel. 42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-five years. His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. 43 He did as his father Asa had done, obeying the Lord in all but one thing: he did not destroy the shrines on the hills, so the people sacrificed and burned incense there. 44 He also made peace with Ahab, the king of Israel. 45 The rest of the deeds of Jehoshaphat and his heroic achievements and his wars are described in The Annals of the Kings of Judah.
46 He also closed all the houses of male prostitution that still continued from the days of his father Asa. 47 (There was no king in Edom at that time, only a deputy.)
48 King Jehoshaphat built great freighters to sail to Ophir for gold; but they never arrived, for they were wrecked at Ezion-geber. 49 Ahaziah, King Ahab’s son and successor, had proposed to Jehoshaphat that his men go, too, but Jehoshaphat had refused the offer.
50 When King Jehoshaphat died he was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, the city of his forefather David; and his son Jehoram took the throne. 51 It was during the seventeenth year of the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah that Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, began to reign over Israel in Samaria; and he reigned two years. 52-53 But he was not a good king, for he followed in the footsteps of his father and mother and of Jeroboam, who had led Israel into the sin of worshiping idols. So Ahaziah made the Lord God of Israel very angry.
5 When is all this going to happen? I really don’t need to say anything about that, dear brothers, 2 for you know perfectly well that no one knows. That day of the Lord will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. 3 When people are saying, “All is well; everything is quiet and peaceful”—then, all of a sudden, disaster will fall upon them as suddenly as a woman’s birth pains begin when her child is born. And these people will not be able to get away anywhere—there will be no place to hide.
4 But, dear brothers, you are not in the dark about these things, and you won’t be surprised as by a thief when that day of the Lord comes. 5 For you are all children of the light and of the day, and do not belong to darkness and night. 6 So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Watch for his return and stay sober. 7 Night is the time for sleep and the time when people get drunk. 8 But let us who live in the light keep sober, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the happy hope of salvation.
9 For God has not chosen to pour out his anger upon us but to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ; 10 he died for us so that we can live with him forever, whether we are dead or alive at the time of his return. 11 So encourage each other to build each other up, just as you are already doing.
12 Dear brothers, honor the officers of your church who work hard among you and warn you against all that is wrong. 13 Think highly of them and give them your wholehearted love because they are straining to help you. And remember, no quarreling among yourselves.
14 Dear brothers, warn those who are lazy, comfort those who are frightened, take tender care of those who are weak, and be patient with everyone. 15 See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to everyone else. 16 Always be joyful. 17 Always keep on praying. 18 No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
19 Do not smother the Holy Spirit. 20 Do not scoff at those who prophesy, 21 but test everything that is said to be sure it is true, and if it is, then accept it. 22 Keep away from every kind of evil. 23 May the God of peace himself make you entirely pure and devoted to God; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept strong and blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes back again. 24 God, who called you to become his child, will do all this for you, just as he promised. 25 Dear brothers, pray for us. 26 Shake hands for me with all the brothers there. 27 I command you in the name of the Lord to read this letter to all the Christians. 28 And may rich blessings from our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, every one.
Sincerely, Paul
4 This is the proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar the king, which he sent to people of every language in every nation of the world:
Greetings:
2 I want you all to know about the strange thing that the Most High God did to me. 3 It was incredible—a mighty miracle! And now I know for sure that his kingdom is everlasting; he reigns forever and ever.
4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was living in peace and prosperity, 5 when one night I had a dream that greatly frightened me. 6 I called in all the wise men of Babylon to tell me the meaning of my dream, 7 but when they came—the magicians, astrologers, fortune-tellers, and wizards—and I told them the dream, they couldn’t interpret it. 8 At last Daniel came in—the man I named Belteshazzar after my god—the man in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and I told him the dream.
9 “O Belteshazzar, master magician,” I said, “I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery is too great for you to solve. Tell me what my dream means:
10-11 “I saw a very tall tree out in a field, growing higher and higher into the sky until it could be seen by everyone in all the world. 12 Its leaves were fresh and green, and its branches were weighted down with fruit, enough for everyone to eat. Wild animals rested beneath its shade and birds sheltered in its branches, and all the world was fed from it. 13 Then as I lay there dreaming, I saw one of God’s angels[a] coming down from heaven.
14 “He shouted, ‘Cut down the tree; lop off its branches; shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit. Get the animals out from under it and the birds from its branches, 15 but leave its stump and roots in the ground, banded with a chain of iron and brass, surrounded by the tender grass. Let the dew of heaven drench him and let him eat grass with the wild animals! 16 For seven years let him have the mind of an animal instead of a man. 17 For this has been decreed by the Watchers, demanded by the Holy Ones. The purpose of this decree is that all the world may understand that the Most High dominates the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he wants to, even the lowliest of men!’
18 “O Belteshazzar, that was my dream; now tell me what it means. For no one else can help me; all the wisest men of my kingdom have failed me. But you can tell me, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”
19 Then Daniel[b] sat there stunned and silent for an hour, aghast at the meaning of the dream. Finally the king said to him: “Belteshazzar, don’t be afraid to tell me what it means.”
Daniel replied: “Oh, that the events foreshadowed in this dream would happen to your enemies, my lord, and not to you! 20 For the tree you saw growing so tall, reaching high into the heavens for all the world to see, 21 with its fresh green leaves, loaded with fruit for all to eat, the wild animals living in its shade, with its branches full of birds— 22 that tree, Your Majesty, is you. For you have grown strong and great; your greatness reaches up to heaven, and your rule to the ends of the earth.
23 “Then you saw God’s angel[c] coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump and the roots in the earth surrounded by tender grass, banded with a chain of iron and brass. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. For seven years let him eat grass with the animals of the field.’
24 “Your Majesty, the Most High God has decreed—and it will surely happen— 25 that your people will chase you from your palace, and you will live in the fields like an animal, eating grass like a cow, your back wet with dew from heaven. For seven years this will be your life, until you learn that the Most High God dominates the kingdoms of men and gives power to anyone he chooses. 26 But the stump and the roots were left in the ground! This means that you will get your kingdom back again when you have learned that heaven rules.
27 “O King Nebuchadnezzar, listen to me—stop sinning; do what you know is right; be merciful to the poor. Perhaps even yet God will spare you.”
28 But all these things happened to Nebuchadnezzar. 29 Twelve months after this dream, he was strolling on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, 30 and saying, “I, by my own mighty power, have built this beautiful city as my royal residence and as the capital of my empire.”
31 While he was still speaking these words, a voice called down from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, this message is for you: You are no longer ruler of this kingdom. 32 You will be forced out of the palace to live with the animals in the fields and to eat grass like the cows for seven years, until you finally realize that God parcels out the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he chooses.”
33 That very same hour this prophecy was fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar was chased from his palace and ate grass like the cows, and his body was wet with dew; his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.
34 “At the end of seven years[d] I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High God and honored him who lives forever, whose rule is everlasting, his kingdom evermore. 35 All the people of the earth are nothing when compared to him; he does whatever he thinks best among the angels of heaven, as well as here on earth. No one can stop him or challenge him, saying, ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’ 36 When my mind returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. My counselors and officers came back to me, and I was reestablished as head of my kingdom, with even greater honor than before.
37 “Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of Heaven, the Judge of all, whose every act is right and good; for he is able to take those who walk proudly and push them into the dust!”
108 O God, my heart is ready to praise you! I will sing and rejoice before you.
2 Wake up, O harp and lyre! We will meet the dawn with song. 3 I will praise you everywhere around the world, in every nation. 4 For your loving-kindness is great beyond measure, high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches the skies. 5 His glory is far more vast than the heavens. It towers above the earth. 6 Hear the cry of your beloved child—come with mighty power and rescue me.
7 God has given sacred promises; no wonder I exult! He has promised to give us all the land of Shechem and also Succoth Valley. 8 “Gilead is mine to give to you,” he says, “and Manasseh as well; the land of Ephraim is the helmet on my head. Judah is my scepter. 9 But Moab and Edom are despised;[a] and I will shout in triumph over the Philistines.”
10 Who but God can give me strength to conquer these fortified cities? Who else can lead me into Edom?
11 Lord, have you thrown us away? Have you deserted our army? 12 Oh, help us fight against our enemies, for men are useless allies. 13 But with the help of God we shall do mighty acts of valor. For he treads down our foes.
109 O God of my praise, don’t stand silent and aloof 2 while the wicked slander me and tell their lies. 3 They have no reason to hate and fight me, yet they do! 4 I love them, but even while I am praying for them, they are trying to destroy me. 5 They return evil for good, and hatred for love.
6 Show him how it feels![b] Let lies be told about him, and bring him to court before an unfair judge. 7 When his case is called for judgment, let him be pronounced guilty. Count his prayers as sins. 8 Let his years be few and brief; let others step forward to replace him. 9-10 May his children become fatherless and his wife a widow; may they be evicted from the ruins of their home. 11 May creditors seize his entire estate and strangers take all he has earned. 12-13 Let no one be kind to him; let no one pity his fatherless children. May they die. May his family name be blotted out in a single generation. 14 Punish the sins of his father and mother. Don’t overlook them. 15 Think constantly about the evil things he has done, and cut off his name from the memory of man.
16 For he refused all kindness to others, and persecuted those in need, and hounded brokenhearted ones to death. 17 He loved to curse others; now you curse him. He never blessed others; now don’t you bless him. 18 Cursing is as much a part of him as his clothing, or as the water he drinks, or the rich food he eats.
19 Now may those curses return and cling to him like his clothing or his belt. 20 This is the Lord’s punishment upon my enemies who tell lies about me and threaten me with death.
21 But as for me, O Lord, deal with me as your child, as one who bears your name! Because you are so kind, O Lord, deliver me.
22-23 I am slipping down the hill to death; I am shaken off from life as easily as a man brushes a grasshopper from his arm. 24 My knees are weak from fasting, and I am skin and bones. 25 I am a symbol of failure to all mankind; when they see me they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God! Save me because you are loving and kind. 27 Do it publicly, so all will see that you yourself have done it. 28 Then let them curse me if they like—I won’t mind that if you are blessing me! For then all their efforts to destroy me will fail, and I shall go right on rejoicing!
29 Make them fail in everything they do. Clothe them with disgrace. 30 But I will give repeated thanks to the Lord, praising him to everyone. 31 For he stands beside the poor and hungry to save them from their enemies.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.