M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

20 ¶ And Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur and sojourned in Gerar.

² And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister. And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

³ ¶ But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, Behold, thou art a dead man, for the woman whom thou hast taken, for she is a man’s wife.

⁴ But Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous person?

⁵ Did he not say unto me, She is my sister? And she, even she herself said, He is my brother; in the simplicity of my heart and cleanness of my hands I have done this.

⁶ And God said unto him in a dream, Yes, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me; therefore I did not allow thee to touch her.

⁷ Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live. And if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine.

⁸ ¶ Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his slaves and told all these things in their ears; and the men feared greatly.

⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us and in what have I sinned against thee that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom such a great sin? Thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.

¹⁰ And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What didst thou see that thou hast done this thing?

¹¹ And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for my wife’s sake.

¹² And yet indeed, she is also my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

¹³ And it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father’s house that I said unto her, This is the mercy which thou shalt show unto me: at every place where we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.

¹⁴ ¶ Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and menslaves and womenslaves and gave them unto Abraham and restored him Sarah his wife.

¹⁵ And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee; dwell where it pleases thee.

¹⁶ And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that were with thee and with everyone: thus she was reproved.

¹⁷ So Abraham prayed unto God; and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants; and they bore children.

¹⁸ For the LORD had completely closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

19 ¶ And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these words, he departed from Galilee and came into the borders of Judaea beyond the Jordan;

² and a great multitude followed him, and he healed them there.

³ ¶ Then the Pharisees came unto him, tempting him and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for any cause?

⁴ And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female?

⁵ And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh.

⁶ Therefore they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

⁷ They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a bill of divorce and to put her away?

⁸ He said unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

⁹ And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication and shall marry another, commits adultery, and whosoever marries her that is put away commits adultery.

¹⁰ His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.

¹¹ But he said unto them, Everyone cannot receive this word, except those unto whom it is given.

¹² For there are some eunuchs who were so born from their mother’s womb; and there are some eunuchs who were made eunuchs of men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs because of the kingdom of the heavens. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

¹³ ¶ Then were there brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them and pray, and the disciples rebuked them.

¹⁴ But Jesus said, Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens.

¹⁵ And he laid his hands on them and departed from there.

¹⁶ ¶ And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?

¹⁷ And he said unto him, Why dost thou call me good? There is none good but one, that is, God, but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

¹⁸ He said unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt not murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,

¹⁹ Honour thy father and thy mother, and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

²⁰ The young man said unto him, All these things I have kept from my youth up; what do I lack?

²¹ Jesus said unto him, If thou desire to be perfect, go and sell what thou hast and give it to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me.

²² But when the young man heard that word, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

²³ ¶ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, It is difficult that a rich man shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens.

²⁴ And again I say unto you, It is easier to put a cable through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

²⁵ But his disciples hearing these things were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?

²⁶ But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

²⁷ Then Peter answered and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?

²⁸ And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

²⁹ And every one that has forsaken houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name’s sake shall receive a hundredfold and shall inherit eternal life.

³⁰ But many that are first shall be last, and many of the last shall be first.

9 ¶ Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month, the sons of Israel were assembled with fasting and with sackcloth and earth upon them.

² And the seed of Israel had separated themselves from all strangers and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

³ And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of the LORD their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed and worshipped the LORD their God.

⁴ ¶ Then stood up upon the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani and cried with a loud voice unto the LORD their God.

⁵ Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever; and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

⁶ Thou, O LORD, art alone; thou hast made the heavens and the heavens of the heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein, and thou givest life to them all; and the host of the heavens worship thee.

⁷ Thou art, O LORD, the God who didst choose Abram and didst bring him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees and didst give him the name of Abraham

⁸ and didst find his heart faithful before thee and didst make a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it, to his seed and hast performed thy word; for thou art righteous.

⁹ And thou didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and didst hear their cry by the Red Sea

¹⁰ and didst show signs and wonders upon Pharaoh and on all his slaves and on all the people of his land; for thou didst know that they had dealt proudly against them. So didst thou make thee a name, as it is this day.

¹¹ And thou didst divide the sea before them so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou didst throw into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.

¹² Moreover, thou didst lead them by day with a pillar of cloud and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light in the way by which they should go.

¹³ Thou didst come down upon Mount Sinai and didst speak with them from heaven and didst give them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments,

¹⁴ and didst make known unto them the sabbath of thy holiness and didst prescribe for them commandments, statutes, and law by the hand of Moses, thy slave.

¹⁵ And thou didst give them bread from heaven in their hunger and didst bring forth water for them out of the rock in their thirst and didst promise them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.

¹⁶ But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their necks and did not hearken unto thy commandments

¹⁷ and refused to hear; neither did they remember thy wonders that thou hadst done among them, but hardened their necks and in their rebellion thought to appoint a leader to return to their bondage; but thou art a God of pardons, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great mercy, for thou didst not leave them.

¹⁸ Even when they had made themselves a molten calf and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had committed great abominations;

¹⁹ yet thou in thy manifold mercies didst not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither did the pillar of fire by night, to illuminate the way in which they should go.

²⁰ Thou didst give thy good spirit to teach them and didst not withhold thy manna from their mouth and didst give them water for their thirst.

²¹ Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wax old, and their feet did not swell.

²² Thou didst give them kingdoms and peoples and didst divide them into corners; so they possessed the land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon and the land of Og, king of Bashan.

²³ Thou didst multiply their sons as the stars of heaven and didst introduce them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to inherit it.

²⁴ So the sons came in and possessed the land, and thou didst humble the inhabitants of the land before them, the Canaanites, and didst give them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.

²⁵ And they took strong cities and fertile land and inherited houses full of all goods, hewn cisterns, vineyards and oliveyards and many trees of good fruit; so they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.

²⁶ Nevertheless, they were contentious and rebelled against thee and cast thy law behind their backs and slew thy prophets who testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great abominations.

²⁷ Therefore, thou didst deliver them into the hand of their enemies, who afflicted them; and in the time of their tribulation, they cried unto thee, thou didst hear them from the heavens; and according to thy manifold mercies thou didst give them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.

²⁸ But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee; therefore, thou didst leave them in the hand of their enemies so that they had the dominion over them; yet when they returned and cried unto thee, thou didst hear them from the heavens; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies

²⁹ and didst protest unto them, that they return unto thy law; yet they dealt proudly and did not hearken unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments (which if a man shall do, in them he shall live) and withdrew the shoulder and hardened their neck and would not hear.

³⁰ Yet many years didst thou forbear them and didst protest against them with thy spirit by the hand of thy prophets; yet they did not hear; therefore, thou didst give them into the hand of the peoples of the land.

³¹ Nevertheless, for thy great mercies’ sake thou didst not utterly consume them nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.

³² Now, therefore, our God, the great, mighty, and terrible God, who keeps covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that has come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, on our priests, on our prophets, on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.

³³ Howbeit thou art just in all that has come upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly;

³⁴ neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept thy law nor hearkened unto thy commandments and thy testimonies, with which thou didst testify against them.

³⁵ For they did not serve thee in their kingdom and in thy great goodness that thou didst give them and in the large and fat land which thou didst deliver before them; neither did they turn from their wicked works.

³⁶ Behold, we are slaves this day, behold us here, slaves in the land which thou didst give unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof.

³⁷ And it multiplies its fruit for the kings, whom thou hast set over us because of our sins, who have dominion over our bodies and over our cattle, according to their will, and we are in great distress.

³⁸ And because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests seal unto it.

19 ¶ And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coasts, came to Ephesus, and finding certain disciples,

² he said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there is any Holy Spirit.

³ And he said unto them, Into what then were ye baptized? And they said, Into John’s baptism.

⁴ Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him who should come after him, that is, on Christ, Jesus.

⁵ When they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

⁷ And all the men were about twelve.

⁸ ¶ And he went into the synagogue and spoke freely for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.

⁹ But when some were hardened and disobedient, but cursing the way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.

¹⁰ And this continued by the space of two years so that all those who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

¹¹ And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul

¹² so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

¹³ ¶ Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon themselves to invoke over those who had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.

¹⁴ (And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew and prince of the priests, who did so.)

¹⁵ And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I am acquainted with, but who are ye?

¹⁶ And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷ And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

¹⁸ And many that believed came, confessing and declaring their deeds.

¹⁹ In the same manner many who had practiced vain arts brought their books together and burned them before everyone, and they counted the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰ So the word of God grew mightily and prevailed.

²¹ ¶ After these things were ended, Paul purposed by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, after he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, saying, After I have been there, it behooves me to see Rome also.

²² So he sent into Macedonia two of those that ministered unto him, Timothy and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a season.

²³ And the same time there arose no small stir about the way.

²⁴ For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen,

²⁵ whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation and said, Sirs, ye know that by this gain we have our wealth.

²⁶ Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are not gods which are made with hands

²⁷ so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship.

²⁸ And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

²⁹ And the whole city was filled with confusion, and having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul’s companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre.

³⁰ And when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not.

³¹ And certain of the chief persons of Asia, who were his friends, sent unto him, asking him that he not present himself in the theatre.

³² Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was confused; and most of them did not know why they were come together.

³³ And they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander beckoned with the hand and would have made his defense unto the people.

³⁴ But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

³⁵ Then the town scribe, appeasing the people, said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that does not know how the city of the Ephesians is honored of the great goddess Diana and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

³⁶ Seeing then that these things cannot be gainsaid, ye ought to be quiet and to do nothing rashly.

³⁷ For ye have brought here these men, who are neither guilty of sacrilege, nor blasphemers of your goddess.

³⁸ Therefore if Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are proconsuls; let them accuse one another.

³⁹ But if ye enquire any thing concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly.

⁴⁰ For we are in danger of being accused of sedition for this day’s uproar, there being no cause by which we may give an account of this concourse.

⁴¹ And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.