M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
23 1-2 Then the king sent for the elders and other leaders of Judah and Jerusalem to go to the Temple with him. So all the priests and prophets and the people, small and great, of Jerusalem and Judah gathered there at the Temple so that the king could read to them the entire book of God’s laws which had been discovered in the Temple. 3 He stood beside the pillar in front of the people, and he and they made a solemn promise to the Lord to obey him at all times and to do everything the book commanded.
4 Then the king instructed Hilkiah the High Priest and the rest of the priests and the guards of the Temple to destroy all the equipment used in the worship of Baal, Asherah, and the sun, moon, and stars. The king had it all burned in the fields of the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and he carried the ashes to Bethel. 5 He killed the heathen priests who had been appointed by the previous kings of Judah, for they had burned incense in the shrines on the hills throughout Judah and even in Jerusalem. They had also offered incense to Baal and to the sun, moon, stars, and planets. 6 He removed the shameful idol of Asherah from the Temple and took it outside Jerusalem to Kidron Brook; there he burned it and beat it to dust and threw the dust on the graves of the common people. 7 He also tore down the houses of male prostitution around the Temple, where the women wove robes for the Asherah idol.
8 He brought back to Jerusalem the priests of the Lord, who were living in other cities of Judah, and tore down all the shrines on the hills where they had burned incense, even those as far away as Geba and Beersheba. He also destroyed the shrines at the entrance of the palace of Joshua, the former mayor of Jerusalem, located on the left side as one enters the city gate. 9 However, these priests[a] did not serve at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, even though they ate with the other priests.
10 Then the king destroyed the altar of Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no one could ever again use it to burn his son or daughter to death as a sacrifice to Molech. 11 He tore down the statues of horses and chariots located near the entrance of the Temple, next to the quarters of Nathan-melech the eunuch. These had been dedicated by former kings of Judah to the sun god. 12 Then he tore down the altars that the kings of Judah had built on the palace roof above the Ahaz Room. He also destroyed the altars that Manasseh had built in the two courts of the Temple; he smashed them to bits and scattered the pieces in Kidron Valley.
13 Next he removed the shrines on the hills east of Jerusalem and south of Destruction Mountain. (Solomon had built these shrines for Ashtoreth, the evil goddess of the Sidonians; and for Chemosh, the evil god of Moab; and for Milcom, the evil god of the Ammonites.) 14 He smashed the obelisks and cut down the shameful idols of Asherah; then he defiled these places by scattering human bones over them. 15 He also tore down the altar and shrine at Bethel that Jeroboam I had made when he led Israel into sin. He crushed the stones to dust and burned the shameful idol of Asherah.
16 As Josiah was looking around, he noticed several graves in the side of the mountain. He ordered his men to bring out the bones in them and to burn them there upon the altar at Bethel to defile it, just as the Lord’s prophet had declared would happen to Jeroboam’s altar.[b]
17 “What is that monument over there?” he asked.
And the men of the city told him, “It is the grave of the prophet who came from Judah and proclaimed that what you have just done would happen here at the altar at Bethel!”
18 So King Josiah replied, “Leave it alone. Don’t disturb his bones.”
So they didn’t burn his bones or those of the prophet from Samaria.[c]
19 Josiah demolished the shrines on the hills in all of Samaria. They had been built by the various kings of Israel and had made the Lord very angry. But now he crushed them into dust, just as he had done at Bethel. 20 He executed the priests of the heathen shrines upon their own altars, and he burned human bones upon the altars to defile them. Finally he returned to Jerusalem.
21 The king then issued orders for his people to observe the Passover ceremonies as recorded by the Lord their God in The Book of the Covenant. 22 There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the days of the judges of Israel, and there was never another like it in all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah. 23 This Passover was in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah, and it was celebrated in Jerusalem.
24 Josiah also exterminated the mediums and wizards, and every kind of idol worship, both in Jerusalem and throughout the land. For Josiah wanted to follow all the laws that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Temple. 25 There was no other king who so completely turned to the Lord and followed all the laws of Moses; and no king since the time of Josiah has approached his record of obedience.
26 But the Lord still did not hold back his great anger against Judah, caused by the evils of King Manasseh. 27 For the Lord had said, “I will destroy Judah just as I have destroyed Israel; and I will discard my chosen city of Jerusalem and the Temple that I said was mine.”
28 The rest of the biography of Josiah is written in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. 29 In those days King Neco of Egypt went out to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. Then King Josiah went out with his troops to fight King Neco; but King Neco withstood him at Megiddo and killed him. 30 His officers took his body back in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in the grave he had selected. And his son Jehoahaz was chosen by the nation as its new king.
31-32 New king of Judah: Jehoahaz
His age at the beginning of his reign: 23 years old
Length of reign: 3 months, in Jerusalem
Mother’s name: Hamutal (the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah)
Character of his reign: evil, like the other kings who had preceded him
33 Pharaoh Neco jailed him at Riblah in Hamath to prevent his reigning in Jerusalem, and he levied a tax against Judah totaling $230,000. 34 The Egyptian king then chose Eliakim, another of Josiah’s sons, to reign in Jerusalem; and he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Then he took King Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died. 35 Jehoiakim taxed the people to get the money that the Pharaoh had demanded.
36-37 New king of Judah: Jehoiakim
His age at the beginning of his reign: 25 years old
Length of reign: 11 years, in Jerusalem
Mother’s name: Zebidah (daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah)
Character of his reign: evil, like the other kings who had preceded him
5 1-3 The Jewish high priest is merely a man like anyone else, but he is chosen to speak for all other men in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers to him the blood of animals that are sacrificed to cover the sins of the people and his own sins too. And because he is a man, he can deal gently with other men, though they are foolish and ignorant, for he, too, is surrounded with the same temptations and understands their problems very well.
4 Another thing to remember is that no one can be a high priest just because he wants to be. He has to be called by God for this work in the same way God chose Aaron.
5 That is why Christ did not elect himself to the honor of being High Priest; no, he was chosen by God. God said to him, “My Son, today I have honored you.”[a] 6 And another time God said to him, “You have been chosen to be a priest forever, with the same rank as Melchizedek.”
7 Yet while Christ was here on earth he pleaded with God, praying with tears and agony of soul to the only one who would save him from premature[b] death. And God heard his prayers because of his strong desire to obey God at all times.
8 And even though Jesus was God’s Son, he had to learn from experience what it was like to obey when obeying meant suffering. 9 It was after he had proved himself perfect in this experience that Jesus became the Giver of eternal salvation to all those who obey him. 10 For remember that God has chosen him to be a High Priest with the same rank as Melchizedek.
11 There is much more I would like to say along these lines, but you don’t seem to listen, so it’s hard to make you understand.
12-13 You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others, but instead you have dropped back to the place where you need someone to teach you all over again the very first principles in God’s Word. You are like babies who can drink only milk, not old enough for solid food. And when a person is still living on milk it shows he isn’t very far along in the Christian life, and doesn’t know much about the difference between right and wrong. He is still a baby Christian! 14 You will never be able to eat solid spiritual food and understand the deeper things of God’s Word until you become better Christians and learn right from wrong by practicing doing right.
2 Sound the alarm in Jerusalem! Let the blast of the warning trumpet be heard upon my holy mountain! Let everyone tremble in fear, for the day of the Lord’s judgment approaches.
2 It is a day of darkness and gloom, of black clouds and thick darkness. What a mighty army! It covers the mountains like night! How great, how powerful these “people” are! The likes of them have not been seen before, and never will again throughout the generations of the world! 3 Fire goes before them and follows them on every side! Ahead of them the land lies fair as Eden’s Garden in all its beauty, but they destroy it to the ground; not one thing escapes. 4 They look like tiny horses, and they run as fast. 5 Look at them leaping along the tops of the mountain! Listen to the noise they make, like the rumbling of chariots, or the roar of fire sweeping across a field, and like a mighty army moving into battle.
6 Fear grips the waiting people; their faces grow pale with fright. 7 These “soldiers” charge like infantry; they scale the walls like picked and trained commandos. Straight forward they march, never breaking ranks. 8 They never crowd each other. Each is right in place. No weapon can stop them. 9 They swarm upon the city; they run upon the walls; they climb up into the houses, coming like thieves through the windows. 10 The earth quakes before them and the heavens tremble. The sun and moon are obscured and the stars are hid.
11 The Lord leads them with a shout. This is his mighty army, and they follow his orders. The day of the judgment of the Lord is an awesome, terrible thing. Who can endure it?
12 That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me all your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, mourning. 13 Let your remorse tear at your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful. He is not easily angered; he is full of kindness and anxious not to punish you.
14 Who knows? Perhaps even yet he will decide to leave you alone and give you a blessing instead of his terrible curse. Perhaps he will give you so much that you can offer your grain and wine to the Lord as before!
15 Sound the trumpet in Zion! Call a fast and gather all the people together for a solemn meeting. 16 Bring everyone—the elders, the children, and even the babies. Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her privacy.
17 The priests, the ministers of God, will stand between the people and the altar, weeping; and they will pray, “Spare your people, O our God; don’t let the heathen rule them, for they belong to you. Don’t let them be disgraced by the taunts of the heathen who say, ‘Where is this God of theirs? How weak and helpless he must be!’”
18 Then the Lord will pity his people and be indignant for the honor of his land! 19 He will reply, “See, I am sending you much corn and wine and oil, to fully satisfy your need. No longer will I make you a laughingstock among the nations. 20 I will remove these armies from the north and send them far away; I will turn them back into the parched wastelands where they will die; half shall be driven into the Dead Sea and the rest into the Mediterranean, and then their rotting stench will rise upon the land. The Lord has done a mighty miracle for you.”
21 Fear not, my people; be glad now and rejoice, for he has done amazing things for you. 22 Let the flocks and herds forget their hunger; the pastures will turn green again. The trees will bear their fruit; the fig trees and grapevines will flourish once more. 23 Rejoice, O people of Jerusalem, rejoice in the Lord your God! For the rains he sends are tokens of forgiveness. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as those of spring. 24 The threshing floors will pile high again with wheat, and the presses overflow with olive oil and wine.
25 “And I will give you back the crops the locusts ate!—my great destroying army that I sent against you. 26 Once again you will have all the food you want.
“Praise the Lord, who does these miracles for you. Never again will my people experience disaster such as this. 27 And you will know that I am here among my people Israel, and that I alone am the Lord your God. And my people shall never again be dealt a blow like this.
28 “After I have poured out my rains again, I will pour out my Spirit upon all of you! Your sons and daughters will prophesy; your old men will dream dreams, and your young men see visions. 29 And I will pour out my Spirit even on your slaves, men and women alike, 30 and put strange symbols in the earth and sky—blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 “The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon to blood before the great and terrible Day of the Lord shall come.
32 “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved; even in Jerusalem some will escape, just as the Lord has promised, for he has chosen some to survive.
142 1-2 How I plead with God, how I implore his mercy, pouring out my troubles before him. 3 For I am overwhelmed and desperate, and you alone know which way I ought to turn to miss the traps my enemies have set for me. 4 (There’s one—just over there to the right!) No one gives me a passing thought. No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me. 5 Then I prayed to Jehovah. “Lord,” I pled, “you are my only place of refuge. Only you can keep me safe.
6 “Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. 7 Bring me out of prison so that I can thank you. The godly will rejoice with me for all your help.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.