M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Blessings for Obedience
26 “‘You[a] shall not make for yourselves idols and divine images, and you shall not raise up stone pillars for yourselves, and you shall not put a sculptured stone in your land in order to[b] worship before it, because I am Yahweh your God.
2 “‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and you shall revere my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.
3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and you keep my commands and you do them, 4 then[c] I will give you rains in their time, and the land shall give its produce, and the trees of the field shall give their fruit. 5 And for you the threshing season shall overtake the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall overtake the sowing, and you shall eat your food to your fill[d] and you shall live securely[e] in your land. 6 And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and there shall not be anybody who makes you afraid,[f] and I will remove harmful animals from the land, and no sword shall pass through your land.[g] 7 And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.[h] 8 And five of[i] you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of[j] you shall pursue a myriad;[k] and your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.[l] 9 And I will turn to you, and I will make you fruitful, and I will make you numerous; and I will keep my covenant with you. 10 And you shall eat old grain,[m] and you shall clear away the old before the new.[n] 11 And I will put my dwelling place in your midst, and my inner self[o] shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk about in your midst, and I shall be your God,[p] and you shall be my people.[q] 13 I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves; and I broke the bars of your yoke, and I caused you to walk erectly.
Punishment for Disobedience
14 “‘But[r] if you do not listen to me and you do not carry out[s] all these commands, 15 and if you reject my statutes and if your inner self[t] abhors my regulations, to not carry out[u] all my commands by your breaking my covenant, 16 I in turn[v] will do this to you: then[w] I will summon onto you horror, the wasting disease, and the fever that wastes eyes and that drains away life; and you shall sow your seed in vain,[x] and your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set my face against you, and you shall be defeated before[y] your enemies; and your haters shall rule over you, and you shall flee away, but[z] there shall not be anybody who is pursuing[aa] you.
18 “‘And if in spite of these things you do not listen to me, then[ab] I will continue to discipline you seven times for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your strength; and I will make your heaven like iron[ac] and your land like copper. 20 And your strength shall be consumed in vain;[ad] and your land shall not give its produce, and the land’s trees shall not give their fruit.
21 “‘And if you go against me in hostility and you are not willing to listen to me, then[ae] I will add a plague onto you seven times according to your sins. 22 And I will send wild animals[af] out among you, and they shall make you childless, and they shall cut down your domestic animals, and they shall make you fewer; and your roads shall be desolate.
23 “‘And if you do not accept correction from[ag] me through these things, but[ah] you go against me in hostility, 24 then[ai] I myself[aj] will also go against you in hostility, and I myself[ak] also will strike you seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring upon you a sword that seeks vengeance for the covenant, and you shall be gathered to your cities; and I will send a plague in your midst, and you shall be given into the hand of an enemy. 26 At my breaking the supply[al] of bread[am] for you, then[an] ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall return your bread by weight; and you shall eat it, and you shall not be satisfied.
27 “‘And if through this you do not listen to me and you go against me in hostility, 28 then[ao] I will go against you in hostile anger, and also[ap] I myself[aq] will discipline you seven times for your sins. 29 And you shall eat the flesh of your sons; and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat. 30 And I will destroy your high places, and I will cut down your incense altars, and I will place your corpses on your idols’ corpses; and my inner self[ar] shall abhor you. 31 And I will lay your cities in ruins, and I will lay waste your sanctuaries; and I shall not smell your sacrifices’[as] appeasing fragrance. 32 And I myself[at] will lay waste the land, and your enemies who are living in it shall be appalled over it. 33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword behind you; and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a ruin. 34 Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its lying desolate, and you shall be in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 All the days of its lying desolate it shall rest for the time[au] that it had not rested during your Sabbaths while you were living on it. 36 As for[av] the ones who remain among you, I will bring[aw] fearfulness in their hearts in the land of their enemies; and a sound of a windblown leaf shall pursue them, and they shall flee like flight before[ax] a sword, and they shall fall, but[ay] there shall not be a pursuer. 37 And they shall stumble over one another[az] as from before[ba] a sword, but[bb] there shall not be a pursuer; and you shall have no resistance[bc] before[bd] your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you. 39 And because of their guilt, the ones among you who remain shall decay in the land of their enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their ancestors,[be] they shall decay with them.
40 “‘But[bf] when they confess their guilt and the guilt of their ancestors[bg] in their infidelity that they displayed against me, and moreover that they went against me in hostility— 41 I myself[bh] also[bi] went against them in hostility, and I brought them into the land of their enemies—or if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and then they pay for their guilt, 42 I will remember[bj] my covenant with Jacob; and I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43 And the land shall be deserted by them, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths in its being desolate from them, and they themselves[bk] must pay for their guilt, simply because[bl] they rejected my regulations, and their inner self[bm] abhorred my statutes. 44 And in spite of[bn] this, when they are[bo] in the land of their enemies I will not reject them, and I will not abhor them to destroy them, to break my covenant with them, because I am Yahweh their God. 45 And I will remember the first covenant for them[bp]—whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of[bq] the nations to be their God.[br] I am Yahweh.’”
46 These are the rules and the regulations and the laws that Yahweh gave between himself and the Israelites[bs] on Mount Sinai[bt] through[bu] Moses.
Praise to Yahweh for His Character and Creation
33 Exult in Yahweh, O you righteous,
for praise is fitting for the upright.
2 Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre;
with a harp of ten strings play to him.
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully with jubilant shout.
4 For the word of Yahweh is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice.
The earth is full of the loyal love of Yahweh.
6 By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7 He gathered the waters of the sea like a heap.
He put the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear Yahweh.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he himself spoke[a] and it came to pass.
He himself commanded[b] and it stood firm.
10 Yahweh brings to nothing[c] the plan of nations;
he frustrates[d] the intents of peoples.
11 The plan of Yahweh stands firm forever,
the intents of his heart from one generation to the next.[e]
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh,
the people he has chosen for his inheritance.
13 From heaven Yahweh looks;
he sees all the children of humankind.
14 From his dwelling place[f] he gazes
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 he who fashions altogether their heart,
he who understands all their works.
16 The king is not saved by the greatness of an army.
The warrior is not delivered by the greatness of strength.
17 The horse is a false hope for victory,
nor can it save by the greatness of its power.
18 Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him,
on those who hope[g] for his loyal love
19 to deliver their soul from death
and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for Yahweh;
he is our help and our shield.
21 For in him our heart rejoices
because in his holy name we trust.
22 Let your loyal love, O Yahweh, be upon us,
even as[h] we hope in you.
The Same Fate—Death—Awaits Everyone
9 So all this I laid to my heart, and I concluded[a] that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in the hand of God. So no one knows anything that will come to them, whether it will be love or hatred. 2 The same fate comes to everyone:
to the righteous and to the wicked,
to the good and to the wicked,[b]
to the clean and to the unclean,
to those who sacrifice and to those who do not sacrifice.
As with the good man, so also to the sinner;
as with those who swear an oath, so also those who fear oaths.
3 This is the injustice[c] that is done under the sun:
the same fate comes to everyone.
Also the hearts of humans[d] are full of evil;
delusion is in their hearts during their lives, and then they die.
Death Deprives Humans of Everything in Life
4 Whoever is joined[e] to all the living has hope. After all, even a live dog is better than a dead lion! 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything. They no longer have a reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. 6 What they loved and hated, as well as what they desired, has already perished. They no longer have any share in what is done under the sun.
Enjoy Life While It Lasts
7 Go—eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart! For God already has approved your deeds. 8 Always be clothed in white garments, and never let your head lack oil! 9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which he gives you under the sun, because this is your lot in life and in the toil with which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do—do it with all your might; for in Sheol—where you are going—no one works, plans, knows, or thinks about anything.
The Injustice of Time and Chance
11 I looked again and saw under the sun that the race does not belong to the swift, the battle does not belong to the mighty, food does not belong to the wise, wealth does not belong to the intelligent, and success[f] does not belong to the skillful, for time and chance befalls all of them. 12 For man does not know his time. Just as fish are caught in a cruel net and like birds who are seized in a snare, so also humans[g] are ensnared at a cruel time when it falls suddenly upon them.
Wisdom—Although Vulnerable—is Superior to Power
13 I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. 14 There was a small city with few people in it. A great king came and besieged it, building great siege works against it. 15 Now, a poor wise man was found in it, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. 16 So I concluded that wisdom is better than might, yet the wisdom of the poor is despised, and his words are not heard.
Wisdom—Although Vulnerable—is Superior to Folly
17 The words of the wise are heard in peace
more than the shouting of a ruler is heard among the fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one sinner destroys much good.
Greeting
1 Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of the chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth that is according to godliness, 2 in the hope of eternal life which God, who does not lie, promised before eternal ages, 3 but at the proper time has disclosed his message in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the command of God our Savior, 4 to Titus, my true child according to a common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Instructions to Titus in Crete
5 On account of this, I left you behind in Crete, in order that what remains may be set in order and you may appoint elders in every town, as I ordered you. 6 If anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful[a] children, not accused of dissipation[b] or rebellious. 7 For it is necessary for the overseer to be blameless as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain, 8 but hospitable, loving what is good, prudent, just, devout, self-controlled, 9 holding fast to the faithful message according to the teaching, in order that he may be able both to exhort with sound instruction and to reprove those who speak against it.
10 For there are many rebellious people, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 whom it is necessary to silence, whoever are ruining whole families by[c] teaching things which must not be taught for the sake of dishonest gain. 12 A certain one of them, one of their own prophets, has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true, for which reason reprove them severely, in order that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of people who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and conscience are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him, because they[d] are detestable and disobedient, and unfit for every good deed.
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