M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Eternal One: ² Go, talk with the community of Israel, and tell them that they are to be holy, for I, the Eternal your God, am holy.^{[a] 3} I want all of you to honor your mothers and fathers and keep My Sabbaths, for I am the Eternal your God. ⁴ Do not turn from Me to follow useless idols or cast metal images of other gods, for I am the Eternal your God.

⁵ When you sacrifice a peace offering to Me, present it correctly so you are accepted. ⁶ Your peace offering should be consumed the same day you present it or the day after. But you must burn any of the offering that is still left on the third day. ⁷ If any of it is eaten on the third day, your offering will not be accepted; by then it has become foul. ⁸ Anyone who consumes the peace offering on the third day will bear his guilt and suffer the consequences, for he has desecrated what has been set apart for Me. That person must be cut off from his people.

⁹ When you harvest the crops of your land, do not gather the grain all the way to the edges of your fields or pick up what was overlooked during the first round of harvesting. ¹⁰ Likewise do not strip the vines bare in your vineyard or gather the fallen grapes. Leave the fallen fruit and some grapes on the vine for the poor and strangers living among you; for I am the Eternal your God.

Eternal One: ¹¹ Do not take what is not yours or conduct business dishonestly or lie to each other. ¹² Do not swear to a lie in My name. If you do, My name is profaned. I am the Eternal One.

¹³ Do not mistreat your neighbor or steal from him. Do not keep the payment of a hired hand overnight, but compensate him for work at the end of the day. ¹⁴ Do not mock the disabled by shouting a curse at a deaf person or putting something in the way to trip up the blind. Instead, honor and fear your God; I am the Eternal One.

¹⁵ In a court of law, do what is just, not unjust. Do not favor one side or the other, the poor or the wealthy; instead, judge your neighbor fairly. ¹⁶ Do not go around spreading malicious lies about other people. Do not take a stand that would endanger your neighbor’s life. I am the Eternal One.

¹⁷ Do not harbor a deep hatred for any of your relatives. If your neighbor is doing something wrong, correct him or else you could be held responsible for his sin.^{[b] 18} Do not seek revenge or hold a grudge against any of your people. Instead, love your neighbor as you love yourself,^[c] for I am the Eternal One.

¹⁹ Honor My decrees. Do not breed two different species. Do not plant two different sorts of seed in your fields. Do not wear clothing made from two different kinds of material.

²⁰ If a man has sexual relations with a slave woman who is promised to another man but has not yet been redeemed or freed, then they will face an inquiry. Neither the man nor the woman will be put to death because she was a slave and not a free woman when the offense took place. ²¹ The man must present to Me a ram as his guilt offering at the entrance of the congregation tent. ²² The priest is to sacrifice the ram of the guilt offering before Me to cover the man’s guilt; then the guilty man’s sin will be forgiven.

²³ When you go into the land and plant fruit-bearing trees, you are not to eat the fruit right away. It’s off-limits for three years.^{[d] 24} When the fourth year arrives, all the fruit of those trees must be regarded as sacred, a praise offering to Me. ²⁵ When the fifth year arrives, you are finally allowed to eat the fruits of those trees. If you demonstrate your faith by following this procedure, these trees will be even more productive. I am the Eternal One, your God.

²⁶ Do not consume any meat while the blood is still in it. Do not practice divination or fortune-telling. ²⁷ Do not cut the hair at your temples or trim your beard. ²⁸ Do not make cuts in your body for the dead or mark yourselves with tattoos. I am the Eternal One.

²⁹ Do not defile your daughter by forcing her into prostitution. If you do, you not only corrupt her but you also infect the land with prostitution and wickedness. ³⁰ Keep My Sabbaths and respect My sanctuary. I am the Eternal One.

³¹ Do not turn to mediums or consult with those who communicate with the spirits of the dead. Do not go near them, or else you will defile yourselves. I am the Eternal your God.

³² You are to stand in respect for the older people in your community. You must fear your God. I am the Eternal One.

³³ Don’t take advantage of any stranger who lives in your land. ³⁴ You must treat the outsider as one of your native-born people—as a full citizen—and you are to love him in the same way you love yourself; for remember, you were once strangers living in Egypt. I am the Eternal One, your God.

³⁵ In business dealings, be fair and do not cheat. Measure accurately length, weight, and volume. ³⁶ Your scales are to be accurate, your weights true, and your containers standard. I am the Eternal your God, who led you out of Egypt.

³⁷ You are to keep all My directives and all of My rules, and do as I have instructed. I am the Eternal One.

2 Teacher: I said to myself, “Let me dabble and test you in pleasure and see if there is any good in that.” But look, that, too, was fleeting. ² Of laughter I said, “Foolishness.” Of pleasure, “And in the end what is accomplished?” ³ So I thought about drinking wine, for it soothes the flesh. But all the while my mind was filled with thoughts of wisdom—about how to rein in foolishness—until I might understand the best way for us to live out our brief lives and number of days under heaven. ⁴ Next, I began some enormous projects, building my own houses and planting my own vineyards. ⁵ I designed impressive gardens and parks and planted them with all kinds of fruit trees. ⁶ I installed pools of water to irrigate the forests of young saplings. ⁷ I acquired male and female servants; I even had servants born into my household. I had herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and goats—more than anyone who had ever lived in Jerusalem before me. ⁸ I amassed a fortune in silver and gold, and I stockpiled the treasures of kings and provinces. I hired men and women to sing and entertain me, and I pampered myself with what every man desires—many women. ⁹ I surrounded myself with all this and became great, far greater than anyone who had ever lived in Jerusalem before me. And still, my wisdom never left my side. ¹⁰ Throughout this experiment, I let myself have anything my eyes desired, and I did not withhold from my mind any pleasure. What was the conclusion? My mind found joy in all the work I did—my work was its own reward! ¹¹ As I continued musing over all I had accomplished and the hard work it took, I concluded that all this, too, was fleeting, like trying to embrace the wind. Is there any real gain by all our hard work under the sun?

¹² I turned my attention to the ways of wisdom and folly and madness. I asked, “What is left for those who come after the king to do? They can only repeat what he has already done.”^{[a] 13} I realized that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. ¹⁴ As the old saying goes:

Yet I knew deep down that the same fate comes to both of them. ¹⁵ I said to myself, “Why do I try to be wise when my fate is the same as that of the fool? This pursuit is fleeting too.” ¹⁶ Neither the wise nor the fool will be remembered for very long once they are gone. The wise dies, and the fool alike. All are forgotten in the future. ¹⁷ So I began to hate life itself because all that is done under the sun is so harsh and difficult. Life—everything about it—is fleeting; it’s like trying to pursue the wind.

¹⁸ So I began to hate all the hard work I had done under the sun because I would eventually have to leave it all to the one who comes after me. ¹⁹ And who knows whether my heir will be wise or foolish? Still he will inherit all the things for which I worked so hard here under the sun, the things for which I became wise. This, too, is fleeting like trying to catch hold of a breath. ²⁰ So I turned these thoughts over in my mind and despaired over how hard I worked under the sun. ²¹ Although someone with wisdom, knowledge, and skill works hard, when he departs this life, he will leave all he has accomplished to another who has done nothing to deserve work’s reward. This, too, is fleeting, and it causes great misery. ²² What exactly do people get out of all their work and all the stresses they put themselves through here under the sun? ²³ For every day is filled with pain and every job has its own problems, and there are nights when the mind doesn’t stop and rest. And once again, this is fleeting. ²⁴ There is nothing better than for people to eat and drink and to see the good in their hard work. These beautiful gifts, I realized, too, come from God’s hand. ²⁵ For who can eat and drink and enjoy the good things if not me? ²⁶ To those who seek to please God, He gives wisdom and knowledge and joyfulness; but to those who are wicked, God keeps them busy harvesting and storing up for those in whom He delights. But even this is fleeting; it’s like trying to embrace the wind.