M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
8 After this David subdued and humbled the Philistines by conquering Gath, their largest city. 2 He also devastated the land of Moab. He divided his victims by making them lie down side by side in rows. Two-thirds of each row, as measured with a tape, were butchered, and one-third were spared to become David’s servants—they paid him tribute each year.
3 He also destroyed the forces of King Hadadezer (son of Rehob) of Zobah in a battle at the Euphrates River, for Hadadezer had attempted to regain his power. 4 David captured seventeen hundred cavalry and twenty thousand infantry; then he lamed all of the chariot horses except for one hundred teams. 5 He also slaughtered twenty-two thousand Syrians from Damascus when they came to help Hadadezer. 6 David placed several army garrisons in Damascus, and the Syrians became David’s subjects and brought him annual tribute money. So the Lord gave him victories wherever he turned. 7 David brought the gold shields to Jerusalem which King Hadadezer’s officers had used. 8 He also carried back to Jerusalem a very large amount of bronze from Hadadezer’s cities of Betah and Berothai.
9 When King Toi of Hamath heard about David’s victory over the army of Hadadezer, 10 he sent his son Joram to congratulate him, for Hadadezer and Toi were enemies. He gave David presents made from silver, gold, and bronze. 11-12 David dedicated all of these to the Lord, along with the silver and gold he had taken from Syria, Moab, Ammon, the Philistines, Amalek, and King Hadadezer.
13 So David became very famous. After his return he destroyed eighteen thousand Edomites[a] in Salt Valley, 14 and then placed garrisons throughout Edom, so that the entire nation was forced to pay tribute to Israel—another example of the way the Lord made him victorious wherever he went.
15 David reigned with justice over Israel and was fair to everyone. 16 The general of his army was Joab (son of Zeruiah), and his secretary of state was Jehoshaphat (son of Ahilud). 17 Zadok (son of Ahitub) and Ahimelech (son of Abiathar) were the High Priests, and Seraiah was the king’s private secretary. 18 Benaiah (son of Jehoiada) was captain of his bodyguard,[b] and David’s sons were his assistants.
9 One day David began wondering if any of Saul’s family was still living, for he wanted to be kind to them, as he had promised Prince Jonathan. 2 He heard about a man named Ziba, who had been one of Saul’s servants, and summoned him.
“Are you Ziba?” the king asked.
“Yes, sir, I am,” he replied.
3 The king then asked him, “Is anyone left from Saul’s family? If so, I want to fulfill a sacred vow by being kind to him.”
“Yes,” Ziba replied, “Jonathan’s lame son is still alive.”
4 “Where is he?” the king asked.
“In Lo-debar,” Ziba told him. “At the home of Machir.”
5-6 So King David sent for Mephibosheth—Jonathan’s son and Saul’s grandson. Mephibosheth arrived in great fear and greeted the king in deep humility, bowing low before him.
7 But David said, “Don’t be afraid! I’ve asked you to come so that I can be kind to you because of my vow to your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you shall live here at the palace!”
8 Mephibosheth fell to the ground before the king. “Should the king show kindness to a dead dog like me?” he exclaimed.
9 Then the king summoned Saul’s servant Ziba. “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family,” he said. 10-11 “You and your sons and servants are to farm the land for him, to produce food for his family; but he will live here with me.”
Ziba, who had fifteen sons and twenty servants, replied, “Sir, I will do all you have commanded.”
And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly with King David, as though he were one of his own sons. 12 Mephibosheth had a young son, Mica. All the household of Ziba became Mephibosheth’s servants, 13 but Mephibosheth (who was lame in both feet) moved to Jerusalem to live at the palace.
2 “No,” I said to myself, “I won’t do it. I’ll not make them unhappy with another painful visit.” 2 For if I make you sad, who is going to make me happy? You are the ones to do it, and how can you if I cause you pain? 3 That is why I wrote as I did in my last letter, so that you will get things straightened out before I come.[a] Then, when I do come, I will not be made sad by the very ones who ought to give me greatest joy. I felt sure that your happiness was so bound up in mine that you would not be happy either unless I came with joy.
4 Oh, how I hated to write that letter! It almost broke my heart, and I tell you honestly that I cried over it. I didn’t want to hurt you, but I had to show you how very much I loved you and cared about what was happening to you.
5-6 Remember that the man I wrote about, who caused all the trouble, has not caused sorrow to me as much as to all the rest of you—though I certainly have my share in it too. I don’t want to be harder on him than I should. He has been punished enough by your united disapproval. 7 Now it is time to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise he may become so bitter and discouraged that he won’t be able to recover. 8 Please show him now that you still do love him very much.
9 I wrote to you as I did so that I could find out how far you would go in obeying me. 10 When you forgive anyone, I do too. And whatever I have forgiven (to the extent that this affected me too) has been by Christ’s authority, and for your good. 11 A further reason for forgiveness is to keep from being outsmarted by Satan, for we know what he is trying to do.
12 Well, when I got as far as the city of Troas, the Lord gave me tremendous opportunities to preach the Gospel. 13 But Titus, my dear brother, wasn’t there to meet me and I couldn’t rest, wondering where he was and what had happened to him. So I said good-bye and went right on to Macedonia to try to find him.
14 But thanks be to God! For through what Christ has done, he has triumphed over us so that now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Gospel like a sweet perfume. 15 As far as God is concerned there is a sweet, wholesome fragrance in our lives. It is the fragrance of Christ within us, an aroma to both the saved and the unsaved all around us. 16 To those who are not being saved, we seem a fearful smell of death and doom, while to those who know Christ we are a life-giving perfume. But who is adequate for such a task as this? 17 Only those who, like ourselves, are men of integrity, sent by God, speaking with Christ’s power, with God’s eye upon us. We are not like those hucksters—and there are many of them—whose idea in getting out the Gospel is to make a good living out of it.
16 Then again a message came to me from the Lord.
2 “Son of dust,” he said, “speak to Jerusalem about her loathsome sins. 3 Tell her, ‘The Lord God says: You are no better than the people of Canaan—your father must have been an Amorite and your mother a Hittite![a] 4 When you were born, no one cared for you. When I first saw you, your umbilical cord was uncut, and you had been neither washed nor rubbed with salt nor clothed. 5 No one had the slightest interest in you; no one pitied you or cared for you. On that day when you were born, you were dumped out into a field and left to die, unwanted.
6-7 “‘But I came by and saw you there, covered with your own blood, and I said, “Live! Thrive like a plant in the field!” And you did! You grew up and became tall, slender and supple, a jewel among jewels. And when you reached the age of maidenhood, your breasts were full-formed and your pubic hair had grown; yet you were naked.
8 “‘Later, when I passed by and saw you again, you were old enough for marriage; and I wrapped my cloak around you to legally declare my marriage vow. I signed a covenant with you, and you became mine. 9-10 Then, when the marriage had taken place, I gave you beautiful clothes of linens and silk, embroidered, and sandals made of dolphin hide. 11 I gave you lovely ornaments, bracelets, and beautiful necklaces, 12 a ring for your nose and two more for your ears, and a lovely tiara for your head. 13 And so you were made beautiful with gold and silver, and your clothes were silk and linen and beautifully embroidered. You ate the finest foods and became more beautiful than ever. You looked like a queen, and so you were! 14 Your reputation was great among the nations for your beauty; it was perfect because of all the gifts I gave you,’” says the Lord God.
15 “‘But you thought you could get along without me—you trusted in your beauty instead; and you gave yourself as a prostitute to every man who came along. Your beauty was his for the asking. 16 You used the lovely things I gave you for making idol shrines and to decorate your bed of prostitution. Unbelievable! There has never been anything like it before! 17 You took the very jewels and gold and silver ornaments I gave to you and made statues of men and worshiped them, which is adultery against me. 18 You used the beautifully embroidered clothes I gave you—to cover your idols! And used my oil and incense to worship them! 19 You set before them as a lovely sacrifice—imagine it—the fine flour and oil and honey I gave you! 20 And you took my sons and daughters you had borne to me and sacrificed them to your gods; and they are gone. Wasn’t it enough that you should be a prostitute? 21 Must you also slay my children by sacrificing them to idols?
22 “‘And in all these years of adultery and sin you have not thought of those days long ago when you were naked and covered with blood.
23 “‘And then, in addition to all your other wickedness—woe, woe upon you, says the Lord God— 24 you built a spacious brothel for your lovers and idol altars on every street, 25 and there you offered your beauty to every man who came by, in an endless stream of prostitution. 26 And you added lustful Egypt to your prostitutions by your alliance with her. My anger is great.
27 “‘Therefore I have crushed you with my fist; I have reduced your boundaries and delivered you into the hands of those who hate you—the Philistines—and even they are ashamed of you.
28 “‘You have committed adultery with the Assyrians too by making them your allies and worshiping their gods;[b] it seems that you can never find enough new gods. After your adultery there, you still weren’t satisfied, 29 so you worshiped the gods of that great merchant land of Babylon—and you still weren’t satisfied. 30 What a filthy heart you have, says the Lord God, to do such things as these; you are a brazen prostitute, 31 building your idol altars, your brothels, on every street. You have been worse than a prostitute, so eager for sin that you have not even charged for your love! 32 Yes, you are an adulterous wife who lives with other men instead of her own husband. 33-34 Prostitutes charge for their services—men pay with many gifts. But not you, you give them gifts, bribing them to come to you! So you are different from other prostitutes. But you had to pay them, for no one wanted you.
35 “‘O prostitute, hear the word of the Lord: 36 This is what the Lord God says! Because I see your filthy sins, your adultery with your lovers—your worshiping of idols—and the slaying of your children as sacrifices to your gods, 37 this is what I am going to do: I will gather together all your allies—these lovers of yours you have sinned with, both those you loved and those you hated—and I will make you naked before them that they may see you. 38 I will punish you as a murderess is punished and as a woman breaking wedlock living with other men. 39 I will give you to your lovers—these many nations—to destroy, and they will knock down your brothels and idol altars. They will strip you, take your beautiful jewels, and leave you naked and ashamed. 40-41 They will burn your homes, punishing you before the eyes of many women. And I will see to it that you stop your adulteries with other gods and end your payments to your allies for their love.
42 “‘Then at last my fury against you will die away; my jealousy against you will end, and I will be quiet and not be angry with you anymore. 43 But first, because you have not remembered your youth but have angered me by all these evil things you do, I will fully repay you for all of your sins,’” says the Lord. “‘For you are thankless in addition to all your other faults.
44 “‘“Like mother, like daughter”—that is what everyone will say of you. 45 For your mother loathed her husband and her children, and you do too. And you are exactly like your sisters, for they despised their husbands and their children. Truly, your mother must have been a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
46 “‘Your older sister is Samaria, living with her daughters north of you; your younger sister is Sodom and her daughters, in the south. 47 You have not merely sinned as they do—no, that was nothing to you; in a very short time you far surpassed them.
48 “‘As I live, the Lord God says, Sodom and her daughters have never been as wicked as you and your daughters. 49 Your sister Sodom’s sins were pride, laziness, and too much food, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. 50 She insolently worshiped many idols as I watched. Therefore I crushed her.
51 “‘Even Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have worshiped idols far more than your sisters have; they seem almost righteous in comparison with you! 52 Don’t be surprised then by the lighter punishment they get. For your sins are so awful that in comparison with you, your sisters seem innocent! 53 (But someday I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria again, and those of Judah too.) 54 Your terrible punishment will be a consolation to them, for it will be greater than theirs.
55 “‘Yes, your sisters, Sodom and Samaria, and all their people will be restored again, and Judah, too, will prosper in that day. 56 In your proud days you held Sodom in unspeakable contempt. 57 But now your greater wickedness has been exposed to all the world, and you are the one who is scorned—by Edom and all her neighbors and by all the Philistines. 58 This is part of your punishment for all your sins,’” says the Lord.
59-60 For the Lord God says: “I will repay you for your broken promises. You lightly broke your solemn vows to me, yet I will keep the pledge I made to you when you were young. I will establish an everlasting covenant with you forever, 61 and you will remember with shame all the evil you have done; and you will be overcome by my favor when I take your sisters, Samaria and Sodom, and make them your daughters, for you to rule over. You will know you don’t deserve this gracious act, for you did not keep my covenant. 62 I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know I am the Lord. 63 Despite all you have done, I will be kind to you again; you will cover your mouth in silence and in shame when I forgive you all that you have done,” says the Lord God.
58 1-2 Justice? You high and mighty politicians don’t even know the meaning of the word! Fairness? Which of you has any left? Not one! All your dealings are crooked: you give “justice” in exchange for bribes.[a] 3 These men are born sinners, lying from their earliest words! 4-5 They are poisonous as deadly snakes, cobras that close their ears to the most expert of charmers.
6 O God, break off their fangs. Tear out the teeth of these young lions, Lord. 7 Let them disappear like water into thirsty ground. Make their weapons useless in their hands.[b] 8 Let them be as snails that dissolve into slime and as those who die at birth, who never see the sun. 9 God will sweep away both old and young. He will destroy them more quickly than a cooking pot can feel the blazing fire of thorns beneath it.
10 The godly shall rejoice in the triumph of right;[c] they shall walk the bloodstained fields of slaughtered, wicked men. 11 Then at last everyone will know that good is rewarded, and that there is a God who judges justly here on earth.
59 Written by David at the time King Saul set guards at his home to capture and kill him. (1 Samuel 19:11)
O my God, save me from my enemies. Protect me from these who have come to destroy me. 2 Preserve me from these criminals, these murderers. 3 They lurk in ambush for my life. Strong men are out there waiting. And not, O Lord, because I’ve done them wrong. 4 Yet they prepare to kill me. Lord, waken! See what is happening! Help me! 5 (And O Jehovah, God of heaven’s armies, God of Israel, arise and punish the heathen nations surrounding us.) Do not spare these evil, treacherous men. 6 At evening they come to spy, slinking around like dogs that prowl the city. 7 I hear them shouting insults and cursing God, for “No one will hear us,” they think. 8 Lord, laugh at them! (And scoff at these surrounding nations too.)
9 O God my Strength! I will sing your praises, for you are my place of safety. 10 My God is changeless in his love for me, and he will come and help me. He will let me see my wish come true upon my enemies. 11 Don’t kill them—for my people soon forget such lessons—but stagger them with your power and bring them to their knees. Bring them to the dust, O Lord our shield. 12-13 They are proud, cursing liars. Angrily destroy them. Wipe them out. (And let the nations find out, too, that God rules in Israel and will reign throughout the world.) 14-15 Let these evil men slink back at evening and prowl the city all night before they are satisfied, howling like dogs and searching for food.
16 But as for me, I will sing each morning about your power and mercy. For you have been my high tower of refuge, a place of safety in the day of my distress. 17 O my Strength, to you I sing my praises; for you are my high tower of safety, my God of mercy.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.