M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

20 Abraham removed from thence to the south country, and dwelt between Cades and Sur, and sojourned in Gerara.

² And he said of Sara his wife: She is my sister. So Abimelech the king of Gerara sent, and took her.

³ And God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and he said to him: Lo thou shalt die for the woman thou hast taken: for she hath a husband.

⁴ Now Abimelech had not touched her, and he said: Lord, wilt thou slay a nation, that is ignorant and just?

⁵ Did not he say to me: She is my sister: and she say, He is my brother? in the simplicity of my heart, and cleanness of my hands have I done this.

⁶ And God said to him: And I know that thou didst it with a sincere heart: and therefore I withheld thee from sinning against me, and I suffered thee not 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: but if thou wilt not restore her, know that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine.

⁸ And Abimelech forthwith rising up in the night, called all his servants: and spoke all these words in their hearing, and all the men were exceedingly afraid.

⁹ And Abimelech called also for Abraham, and said to him: What hast thou done to us? what have we offended thee in, that thou hast brought upon me and upon my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done to us what thou oughtest not to do.

¹⁰ And again he expostulated with him, and said, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this?

¹¹ Abraham answered: I thought with myself, saying: Perhaps there is not the fear of God in this place: and they will kill me for the sake of my wife:

¹² Howbeit, otherwise also she is truly my sister, the daughter of my father, and not the daughter of my mother, and I took her to wife.

¹³ And after God brought me out of my father's house, I said to her: Thou shalt do me this kindness: In every place, to which we shall come, thou shalt say that I am thy brother.

¹⁴ And Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and servants and handmaids, and gave to Abraham: and restored to him Sara, his wife.

¹⁵ And said: The land is before you, dwell wheresoever it shall please thee.

¹⁶ And to Sara he said: Behold I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: this shall serve thee for a covering of thy eyes to all that are with thee, and whithersoever thou shalt go: and remember thou wast taken.

¹⁷ And when Abraham prayed, God healed Abimelech and his wife, and his handmaids, and they bore children:

¹⁸ For the Lord had closed up every womb of the house of Abimelech on account of Sara, Abraham's wife.

19 And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these words, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judea, beyond Jordan.

² And great multitudes followed him: and he healed them there.

³ And there came to him the Pharisees tempting him, and saying: Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

⁴ Who answering, said to them: Have ye not read, that he who made man from the beginning, Made them male and female? And he said:

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

⁶ Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

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

⁸ He saith to them: Because Moses by reason of the hardness of your heart permitted you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

⁹ And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.

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

¹¹ Who said to them: All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given.

¹² For there are eunuchs, who were born so from their mother's womb: and there are eunuchs, who were made so by men: and there are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that can take, let him take it.

¹³ Then were little children presented to him, that he should impose hands upon them and pray. And the disciples rebuked them.

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

¹⁵ And when he had imposed hands upon them, he departed from thence.

¹⁶ And behold one came and said to him: Good master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?

¹⁷ Who said to him: Why asketh thou me concerning good? One is good, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

¹⁸ He said to him: Which? And Jesus said: Thou shalt do no 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 saith to him: All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?

²¹ Jesus saith to him: If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me.

²² And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions.

²³ Then Jesus said to his disciples: Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

²⁴ And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

²⁵ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: Who then can be saved?

²⁶ And Jesus beholding, said to them: With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible.

²⁷ Then Peter answering, said to him: Behold we have left all things, and have followed thee: what therefore shall we have?

²⁸ And Jesus said to them: Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

²⁹ And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.

³⁰ And many that are first, shall be last: and the last shall be first.

9 And in the four and twentieth day of the month the children of Israel came together with fasting and with sackcloth, and earth upon them.

² And the seed of the children of Israel separated themselves from every stranger: and they stood, and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

³ And they rose up to stand: and they read in the book of the law of the Lord their God, four times in the day, and four times they confessed, and adored the Lord their God.

⁴ And there stood up upon the seep of the Levites, Josue, and Bani, and Cedmihel, Sabania, Bonni, Sarebias, Bani, and Chanani: and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.

⁵ And the Levites Josue and Cedmihel, Bonni, Hasebnia, Serebia, Oduia, Sebnia, and Phathahia, said: Arise, bless the Lord your God from eternity to eternity: and blessed be the high name of thy glory with all blessing and praise.

⁶ Thou thyself, O Lord alone, thou hast made heaven, and the heaven of heavens, and all the host thereof: the earth and all things that are in it: the seas and all that are therein: and thou givest life to all these things, and the host of heaven adoreth thee.

⁷ Thou, O Lord God, art he who chosest Abram, and broughtest him forth out of the fire of the Chaldeans, and gavest him the name of Abraham.

⁸ And thou didst find his heart faithful before thee: and thou madest a covenant with him, to give him the land of the Chanaanite, of the Hethite, and of the Amorrhite, and of the Pherezite, and of the Jebusite, and of the Gergezite, to give it to his seed: and thou hast fulfilled thy words, because thou art just.

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

¹⁰ And thou shewedst signs and wonders upon Pharao, and upon all his servants, and upon the people of his land: for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them: and thou madest thyself a name, as it is at this day.

¹¹ And thou didst divide the sea before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry land: but their persecutors thou threwest into the depth, as a stone into mighty waters.

¹² And in a pillar of a cloud thou wast their leader by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, that they might see the way by which they went.

¹³ Thou camest down also to mount Sinai, and didst speak with them from heaven, and thou gavest them right judgments, and the law of truth, ceremonies, and good precepts.

¹⁴ Thou madest known to them thy holy sabbath, and didst prescribe to them commandments, and ceremonies, and the law by the hand of Moses thy servant.

¹⁵ And thou gavest them bread from heaven in their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock in their thirst, and thou saidst to them that they should go in, and possess the land, upon which thou hadst lifted up thy hand to give it them.

¹⁶ But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks and hearkened not to thy commandments.

¹⁷ And they would not hear, and they remembered not thy wonders which thou hadst done for them. And they hardened their necks, and gave the head to return to their bondage, as it were by contention. But thou, a forgiving God, gracious, and merciful, longsuffering, and full of compassion, didst not forsake them.

¹⁸ Yea when they had made also to themselves a molten calf, and had said: This is thy God, that brought thee out of Egypt: and hail committed great blasphemies:

¹⁹ Yet thou, in thy many mercies, didst not leave them in the desert: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day to lead them in the way, and the pillar of fire by night to shew them the way by which they should go.

²⁰ And thou gavest them thy good Spirit to teach them, and thy manna thou didst not withhold from their mouth, and thou gavest them water for their thirst.

²¹ Forty years didst thou feed them in the desert, and nothing was wanting to them: their garments did not grow old, and their feet were not worn.

²² And thou gavest them kingdoms, and nations, and didst divide lots for them: and they possessed the land of Sehon, and the land of the king of Hesebon, and the land of Og king of Basan.

²³ And thou didst multiply their children as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them to the land concerning which thou hadst said to their fathers, that they should go in and possess it.

²⁴ And the children came and possessed the land, and thou didst humble before them the inhabitants of the land, the Chanaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as it pleased them.

²⁵ And they took strong cities and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all goods: cisterns made by others, vineyards, and oliveyards, and fruit trees in abundance: and they ate, and were filled, and became fat, and abounded with delight in thy great goodness.

²⁶ But they provoked thee to wrath, and departed from thee, and threw thy law behind their backs: and they killed thy prophets, who admonished them earnestly to return to thee: and they were guilty of great blasphemies.

²⁷ And thou gavest them into the hands of their enemies, and they afflicted them. And in the time of their tribulation they cried to thee, and thou heardest from heaven, and according to the multitude of thy tender mercies thou gavest them saviours, to save them from the hands of their enemies.

²⁸ But after they had rest, they returned to do evil in thy sight: and thou leftest them in the hand of their enemies, and they had dominion over them. Then they returned, and cried to thee: and thou heardest from heaven, and deliveredst them many times in thy mercies.

²⁹ And thou didst admonish them to return to thy law. But they dealt proudly, and hearkened not to thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them: and they withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.

³⁰ And thou didst forbear with them for many years, and didst testify against them by thy spirit by the hand of thy prophets: and they heard not, and thou didst deliver them into the hand of the people of the lands.

³¹ Yet in thy very many mercies thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them: because thou art a merciful and gracious God.

³² Now therefore our God, great, strong and terrible, who keepest covenant and mercy, turn not away from thy face all the labour which hath come upon us, upon our kings, and our princes, and our priests, and our prophets, and our fathers, and all the people from the days of the king of Assur, until this day.

³³ And thou art just in all things that have come upon us: because thou hast done truth, but we have done wickedly.

³⁴ Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept thy law, and have not minded thy commandments, and thy testimonies which thou hast testified among them.

³⁵ And they have not served thee in their kingdoms, and in thy manifold goodness, which thou gavest them, and in the large and fat land, which thou deliveredst before them, nor did they return from their most wicked devices.

³⁶ Behold we ourselves this day are bondmen: and the land, which thou gavest our fathers, to eat the bread thereof, and the good things thereof, and we ourselves are servants in it.

³⁷ And the fruits thereof grow up for the kings, whom thou hast set over us for our sins, and they have dominion over our bodies, and over our beasts, according to their will, and we are in great tribulation.

³⁸ And because of all this we ourselves make a covenant, and write it, and our princes, our Levites, and our priests sign it.

19 And it came to pass, while Apollo was at Corinth, that Paul having passed through the upper coasts, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples.

² And he said to them: Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? But they said to him: We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost.

³ And he said: In what then were you baptized? Who said: In John's baptism.

⁴ Then Paul said: John baptized the people with the baptism of penance, saying: That they should believe in him who was to come after him, that is to say, in Jesus.

⁵ Having heard these things, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶ And when Paul had imposed his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

⁷ And all the men were about twelve.

⁸ And entering into the synagogue, he spoke boldly for the space of three months, disputing and exhorting concerning the kingdom of God.

⁹ But when some were hardened, and believed not, speaking evil of the way of the Lord, before the multitude, departing from them, he separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.

¹⁰ And this continued for the space of two years, so that all they who dwelt in Asia, heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Gentiles.

¹¹ And God wrought by the hand of Paul more than common miracles.

¹² So that even there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits went out of them.

¹³ Now some also of the Jewish exorcists who went about, attempted to invoke over them that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying: I conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth.

¹⁴ And there were certain men, seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, that did this.

¹⁵ But the wicked spirit, answering, said to them: Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?

¹⁶ And the man in whom the wicked spirit was, leaping upon them, and mastering them both, prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷ And this became known to all the Jews and the Gentiles that dwelt at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

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

¹⁹ And many of them who had followed curious arts, brought together their books, and burnt them before all; and counting the price of them, they found the money to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰ So mightily grew the word of God, and was confirmed.

²¹ And when these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying: After I have been there, I must see Rome also.

²² And sending into Macedonia two of them that ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself remained for a time in Asia.

²³ Now at that time there arose no small disturbance about the way of the Lord.

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

²⁵ Whom he calling together, with the workmen of like occupation, said: Sirs, you know that our gain is by this trade;

²⁶ And you see and hear, that this Paul by persuasion hath drawn away a great multitude, not only of Ephesus, but almost of all Asia, saying: They are not gods which are made by hands.

²⁷ So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought, but also the temple of great Diana shall be reputed for nothing; yea, and her majesty shall begin to be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.

²⁸ Having heard these things, they were full of anger, 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, 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 some also of the rulers of Asia, who were his friends, sent unto him, desiring that he would not venture himself into the theatre.

³² Now some cried one thing, some another. For the assembly was confused, and the greater part knew not for what cause they were come together.

³³ And they drew forth Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews thrusting him forward. And Alexander beckoning with his hand for silence, would have given the people satisfaction.

³⁴ But as soon as they perceived him to be a Jew, all with one voice, for the space of about two hours, cried out: Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

³⁵ And when the town clerk had appeased the multitudes, he said: Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great Diana, and of Jupiter's offspring.

³⁶ For as much therefore as these things cannot be contradicted, you ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rashly.

³⁷ For you have brought hither these men, who are neither guilty of sacrilege, nor of blasphemy against your goddess.

³⁸ But if Demetrius and the craftsmen that are with him, have a matter against any man, the courts of justice are open, and there are proconsuls: let them accuse one another.

³⁹ And if you inquire after any other matter, it may be decided in a lawful assembly.

⁴⁰ For we are even in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there being no man guilty (of whom we may give account) of this concourse. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly.