M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

24 And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord that he should bless Israel. he went not as he had gone before, to seek divination: but setting his face towards the desert,

² And lifting up his eyes, he saw Israel abiding in their tents by their tribes: and the spirit of God rushing upon him,

³ He took up his parable and said: Balaam the son of Beor hath said: The man hath said, whose eye ire stopped up:

⁴ The hearer of the words of God hath said, he that hath beheld the vision of the Almighty, he that falleth, and so his eyes are opened:

⁵ How beautiful are thy tabernacles, O Jacob, and thy tents, O Israel!

⁶ As woody valleys, as watered gardens near the rivers, as tabernacles which the Lord hath pitched, as cedars by the waterside.

⁷ Water shall flow out of his bucket, and his seed shall be in many waters. For Agag his king shall be removed, and his kingdom shall be taken awry.

⁸ God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros. They shall devour the nations that are his enemies, and break their bones, and pierce them with arrows.

⁹ Lying down he hath slept as a lion, and as a lioness, whom none shall dare to rouse. He that blesseth thee, shall also himself be blessed: he that curseth thee shall be reckoned accursed.

¹⁰ And Balac being angry against Balaam, clapped his hands together and said: I called thee to curse my enemies, and thou on the contrary hast blessed them three times.

¹¹ Return to thy place. I had determined indeed greatly to honour thee, but the Lord hath deprived thee of the honour designed for thee.

¹² Balaam made answer to Balac: Did I not say to thy messengers, whom thou sentest to me:

¹³ If Balac would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to utter any thing of my own head either good or evil: but whatsoever the Lord shall say, that I will speak?

¹⁴ But yet going to my people, I will give thee counsel, what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.

¹⁵ Therefore taking up his parable, again he said: Balaam the son of Beor hath said: The man whose eye is stopped up, hath said:

¹⁶ The hearer of the words of God hath said, who knoweth the doctrine of the Highest, and seeth the visions of the Almighty, who falling hath his eyes opened:

¹⁷ I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near. A STAR SHALL RISE out of Jacob and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel: and shall strike the chiefs of Moab, and shall waste all the children of Seth.

¹⁸ And he shall possess Idumea: the inheritance of Seir shall come to their enemies, but Israel shall do manfully.

¹⁹ Out of Jacob shall he come that shall rule, and shall destroy the remains of the city.

²⁰ And when he saw Amalec, he took up his parable, and said: Amalec the beginning of nations, whose latter ends shall be destroyed.

²¹ He saw also the Cinite: and took up his parable, and said: Thy habitation indeed is strong: but though thou build thy nest in a rock,

²² And thou be chosen of the stock of Cin, how long shalt thou be able to continue? For Assur shall take thee captive.

²³ And taking up his parable, again he said: Alas, who shall live when God shall do these things?

²⁴ They shall come in galleys from Italy, they shall overcome the Assyrians, and shall waste the Hebrews, and at the last they themselves also shall perish.

²⁵ And Balaam rose, and returned to his place: Balac also returned the way that he came.

66 Unto the end, in, hymns, a psalm of a canticle for David.

² May God have mercy on us, and bless us: may he cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us, and may he have mercy on us.

³ That we may know thy way upon earth: thy salvation in all nations.

⁴ Let people confess to thee, O God: let all people give praise to thee.

⁵ Let the nations be glad and rejoice: for thou judgest the people with justice, and directest the nations upon earth.

⁶ Let the people, O God, confess to thee: let all the people give praise to thee:

⁷ The earth hath yielded her fruit. May God, our God bless us,

⁸ May God bless us: and all the ends of the earth fear him.

67 Unto the end, a psalm of a canticle for David himself.

² Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: and let them that hate him flee from before his face.

³ As smoke vanisheth, so let them vanish away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

⁴ And let the just feast, and rejoice before God: and be delighted with gladness.

⁵ Sing ye to God, sing a psalm to his name, make a way for him who ascendeth upon the west: the Lord is his name. Rejoice ye before him: but the wicked shall be troubled at his presence,

⁶ Who is the father of orphans, and the judge of widows. God in his holy place:

⁷ God who maketh men of one manner to dwell in a house: Who bringeth out them that were bound in strength; in like manner them that provoke, that dwell in sepulchres.

⁸ O God, when thou didst go forth in the sight of thy people, when thou didst pass through the desert:

⁹ The earth was moved, and the heavens dropped at the presence of the God of Sina, at the presence of the God of Israel.

¹⁰ Thou shalt set aside for thy inheritance a free rain, O God: and it was weakened, but thou hast made it perfect.

¹¹ In it shall thy animals dwell; in thy sweetness, O God, thou hast provided for the poor.

¹² The Lord shall give the word to them that preach good tidings with great power.

¹³ The king of powers is of the beloved, of the beloved; and the beauty of the house shall divide spoils.

¹⁴ If you sleep among the midst of lots, you shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her back with the paleness of gold.

¹⁵ When he that is in heaven appointeth kings over her, they shall be whited with snow in Selmon.

¹⁶ The mountain of God is a fat mountain. A curdled mountain, a fat mountain.

¹⁷ Why suspect, ye curdled mountains? A mountain in which God is well pleased to dwell: for there the Lord shall dwell unto the end.

¹⁸ The chariot of God is attended by ten thousands; thousands of them that rejoice: the Lord is among them in Sina, in the holy place.

¹⁹ Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts in men. Yea for those also that do not believe, the dwelling of the Lord God.

²⁰ Blessed be the Lord day by day: the God of our salvation will make our journey prosperous to us.

²¹ Our God is the God of salvation: and of the Lord, of the Lord are the issues from death.

²² But God shall break the heads of his enemies: the hairy crown of them that walk on in their sins.

²³ The Lord said: I will turn them from Basan, I will turn them into the depth of the sea:

²⁴ That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thy enemies; the tongue of thy dogs be red with the same.

²⁵ They have seen thy goings, O God, the goings of my God: of my king who is in his sanctuary.

²⁶ Princes went before joined with singers, in the midst of young damsels playing on timbrels.

²⁷ In the churches bless ye God the Lord, from the fountains of Israel.

²⁸ There is Benjamin a youth, in ecstasy of mind. The princes of Juda are their leaders: the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthali.

²⁹ Command thy strength, O God: confirm, O God, what thou hast wrought in us.

³⁰ From thy temple in Jerusalem, kings shall offer presents to thee.

³¹ Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds, the congregation of bulls with the kine of the people; who seek to exclude them who are tried with silver. Scatter thou the nations that delight in wars:

³² Ambassadors shall come out of Egypt: Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God.

³³ Sing to God, ye kingdoms of the earth: sing ye to the Lord: Sing ye to God,

³⁴ Who mounteth above the heaven of heavens, to the east. Behold he will give to his voice the voice of power:

³⁵ Give ye glory to God for Israel, his magnificence, and his power is in the clouds.

³⁶ God is wonderful in his saints: the God of Israel is he who will give power and strength to his people. Blessed be God.

14 Her time is near at hand, and her days shall not be prolonged. For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon their own ground: and the stranger shall be joined with them, and shall adhere to the house of Jacob.

² And the people shall take them, and bring them into their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall make them captives that had taken them, and shall subdue their oppressors.

³ And it shall come to pass in that day, that when God shall give thee rest from thy labour, and from thy vexation, and from the hard bondage, wherewith thou didst serve before,

⁴ Thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and shalt say: How is the oppressor come to nothing, the tribute hath ceased?

⁵ The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers,

⁶ That struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, that brought nations under in fury, that persecuted in a cruel manner.

⁷ The whole earth is quiet and still, it is glad and hath rejoiced.

⁸ The fir trees also have rejoiced over thee, and the cedars of Libanus, saying: Since thou hast slept, there hath none come up to cut us down.

⁹ Hell below was in an uproar to meet thee at thy coming, it stirred up the giants for thee. All the princes of the earth are risen up from their thrones, all the princes of nations.

¹⁰ All shall answer, and say to thee: Thou also art wounded as well as we, thou art become like unto us.

¹¹ Thy pride is brought down to hell, thy carcass is fallen down: under thee shall the moth be strewed, and worms shall be thy covering.

¹² How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that didst wound the nations?

¹³ And thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north.

¹⁴ I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High.

¹⁵ But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the depth of the pit.

¹⁶ They that shall see thee, shall turn toward thee, and behold thee. Is this the man that troubled the earth, that shook kingdoms,

¹⁷ That made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the prison to his prisoners?

¹⁸ All the kings of the nations have all of them slept in glory, every one in his own house.

¹⁹ But thou art cast out of thy grave, as an unprofitable branch defiled, and wrapped up among them that were slain by the sword, and art gone down to the bottom of the pit, as a rotten carcass.

²⁰ Thou shalt not keep company with them, even in burial: for thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people: the seed of the wicked shall not be named for ever.

²¹ Prepare his children for slaughter for the iniquity of their fathers: they shall not rise up, nor inherit the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

²² And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will destroy the name of Babylon, and the remains, and the bud, and the offspring, saith the Lord.

²³ And I will make it a possession for the ericius and pools of waters, and I will sweep it and wear it out with a besom, saith the Lord of hosts.

²⁴ The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it be: and as I have purposed,

²⁵ So shall it fall out: That I will destroy the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: and his yoke shall be taken away from them, and his burden shall be taken off their shoulder.

²⁶ This is the counsel, that I have purposed upon all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations.

²⁷ For the Lord of hosts hath decreed, and who can disannul it? and his hand is stretched out: and who shall turn it away?

²⁸ In the year that king Achaz died, was this burden:

²⁹ Rejoice not thou, whole Philistia, that the rod of him that struck thee is broken in pieces: for out of the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk, and his seed shall swallow the bird.

³⁰ And the firstborn of the poor shall be fed, and the poor shall rest with confidence: and I will make thy root perish with famine, and I will kill thy remnant.

³¹ Howl, O gate; cry, O city: all Philistia is thrown down: for a smoke shall come from the north, and there is none that shall escape his troop.

³² And what shall be answered to the messengers of the nations? That the Lord hath founded Sion, and the poor of his people shall hope in him.

2 Wherefore laying away all malice, and all guile, and dissimulations, and envies, and all detractions,

² As newborn babes, desire the rational milk without guile, that thereby you may grow unto salvation:

³ If so be you have tasted that the Lord is sweet.

⁴ Unto whom coming, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and made honourable by God:

⁵ Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

⁶ Wherefore it is said in the scripture: Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious. And he that shall believe in him, shall not be confounded.

⁷ To you therefore that believe, he is honour: but to them that believe not, the stone which the builders rejected, the same is made the head of the corner:

⁸ And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of scandal, to them who stumble at the word, neither do believe, whereunto also they are set.

⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

¹⁰ Who in time past were not a people: but are now the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy; but now have obtained mercy.

¹¹ Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul,

¹² Having your conversation good among the Gentiles: that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by the good works, which they shall behold in you, glorify God in the day of visitation.

¹³ Be ye subject therefore to every human creature for God's sake: whether it be to the king as excelling;

¹⁴ Or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of the good:

¹⁵ For so is the will of God, that by doing well you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

¹⁶ As free, and not as making liberty a cloak for malice, but as the servants of God.

¹⁷ Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

¹⁸ Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

¹⁹ For this is thankworthy, if for conscience towards God, a man endure sorrows, suffering wrongfully.

²⁰ For what glory is it, if committing sin, and being buffeted for it, you endure? But if doing well you suffer patiently; this is thankworthy before God.

²¹ For unto this are you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps.

²² Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

²³ Who, when he was reviled, did not revile: when he suffered, he threatened not: but delivered himself to him that judged him unjustly.

²⁴ Who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the tree: that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed.

²⁵ For you were as sheep going astray; but you are now converted to the shepherd and bishop of your souls.