M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Ben-Hadad and Ahab Go to War
20 King Ben-Hadad of Aram gathered his army together. There were 32 kings with him and many horses and chariots. They surrounded Samaria and attacked it. 2 The king sent messengers to King Ahab of Israel who was inside the city. 3 The message was, “Ben-Hadad says, ‘Your silver and your gold are mine, and so are the best of your wives and children.’”
4 The king of Israel answered, “Yes, my lord and king, I am yours now, and everything I have belongs to you.”
5 Then the messengers came back to Ahab. They said, “Ben-Hadad says, ‘I told you before that all of your silver and gold and your wives and children belong to me. So give them to me! 6 Tomorrow I will send my men to search through your house and through the houses of your officials. Give my men all of your valuables, and they will bring them back to me.’”
7 So King Ahab called a meeting of all the elders of his country and said, “Look, Ben-Hadad is looking for trouble. First he told me that I must give him my wives and children and my silver and gold. I agreed to give them to him.”
8 But the elders and all the people said, “Don’t obey him or do what he says.”
9 So Ahab sent a message to Ben-Hadad that said, “I will do what you said at first, but I cannot obey your second command.”
King Ben-Hadad’s men carried the message to the king. 10 Then they came back with another message from Ben-Hadad that said, “I will completely destroy Samaria. I promise that there will be nothing left of that city! There will not be enough of that city left for my men to find any souvenirs[a] to take home. May the gods destroy me if I don’t do this!”
11 King Ahab answered, “Tell Ben-Hadad that the man who puts on his armor should not boast as much as the man who lives long enough to take it off.”
12 King Ben-Hadad was drinking in his tent with the other rulers when the messengers came back and gave him the message from King Ahab. King Ben-Hadad commanded his men to prepare to attack the city, so the men moved into their places for the battle.
13 Then a prophet went to King Ahab and said, “King Ahab, the Lord says to you, ‘Do you see that great army? I will defeat that army for you today. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
14 Ahab said, “Who will you use to defeat them?”
The prophet answered, “The Lord says, ‘The young men who carry the weapons for the government officials.’”
Then the king asked, “Who should command the main army?”
The prophet answered, “You will.”
15 So Ahab gathered the young helpers of the government officials. There were 232 of these young men. Then the king called together the army of Israel. The total number was 7000.
16 King Ahab began his attack at noon, while King Ben-Hadad and the 32 kings were drinking and getting drunk in their tents. 17 The young helpers went out first. King Ben-Hadad’s men told him that some soldiers had come out of Samaria. 18 So Ben-Hadad said, “They might be coming to fight or they might be coming to ask for peace. Capture them alive.”
19 The young men of King Ahab were the first to come out, but the rest of the army of Israel was following them. 20 Each of the men of Israel killed the man who had come against him. So the men from Aram began to run away and the army of Israel chased them. King Ben-Hadad escaped on a horse with the chariots. 21 King Ahab led the army and attacked all the horses and chariots. So King Ahab made the Arameans suffer a great defeat.
22 Then the prophet went to King Ahab and said, “The king of Aram will come back to fight again next spring. So go back and strengthen your army and make careful plans to defend yourself against him.”
Ben-Hadad Attacks Again
23 King Ben-Hadad’s officers said to him, “The gods of Israel are mountain gods. We fought in a mountain area, so the Israelites won. If we fight them on level ground, we will win. 24 Also, don’t let the 32 kings command the armies. Put your commanders in charge of the armies. 25 Let’s gather an army like the one that was destroyed. Gather as many men, horses, and chariots as before, and fight the Israelites on level ground. Then we will win.” Ben-Hadad followed their advice and did what they said.
26 So in the spring, Ben-Hadad gathered the men of Aram and went to Aphek to fight against Israel.
27 The Israelites also prepared for war and went to fight the army of Aram. They made their camp opposite the camp of Aram. The Aramean soldiers filled the land, but Israel’s army looked like two small flocks of goats.
28 A man of God came to the king of Israel with this message: “The Lord said, ‘The people of Aram said that I, the Lord, am a god of the mountains and not a god of the valleys. So I will let you defeat this great army. Then all of you will know that I am the Lord, wherever you are!’”
29 The armies were camped across from each other for seven days. On the seventh day the battle began. The Israelites killed 100,000 Aramean soldiers in one day. 30 The survivors ran away to the city of Aphek. The wall of the city fell on 27,000 of those soldiers. Ben-Hadad also ran away to the city and hid in a room. 31 His servants said to him, “We heard that the kings of Israel are merciful. Let’s dress in rough cloth with ropes on our heads.[b] Then let’s go to the king of Israel. Maybe he will let us live.”
32 They dressed in rough cloth with ropes on their heads. They came to the king of Israel. They said, “Your servant, Ben-Hadad, says, ‘Please let me live.’”
Ahab said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.[c]”
33 Ben-Hadad’s men wanted King Ahab to say something to show that he would not kill King Ben-Hadad. When Ahab called Ben-Hadad his brother, the advisors quickly said, “Yes! Ben-Hadad is your brother.”
Ahab said, “Bring him to me.” So Ben-Hadad came to King Ahab. King Ahab asked him to get in the chariot with him.
34 Ben-Hadad said to him, “Ahab, I will give you the towns that my father took from your father. And you can put shops in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.”
Ahab answered, “If you agree to this, I will let you go free.” So the two kings made a peace agreement. Then King Ahab let King Ben-Hadad go free.
A Prophet Speaks Against Ahab
35 One of the prophets told another prophet, “Hit me!” He said that because the Lord had commanded it. But the other prophet refused to hit him. 36 So the first prophet said, “You did not obey the Lord’s command. So a lion will kill you when you leave this place.” When the second prophet left, a lion killed him.
37 The first prophet went to another man and said, “Hit me!”
This man hit him and hurt the prophet. 38 So the prophet wrapped his face with a cloth. This way no one could see who he was. The prophet went and waited for the king by the road. 39 The king came by and the prophet said to him, “I went to fight in the battle. One of our men brought an enemy soldier to me. The man said, ‘Guard this man. If he runs away, you will have to give your life in his place or you will have to pay a fine of 75 pounds[d] of silver.’ 40 While I was busy doing other things, the man ran away.”
The king of Israel answered, “You admitted that you are guilty, so you know the answer. You must do what the man said.”
41 Then the prophet quickly took the cloth from his face, and the king of Israel saw that he was one of the prophets. 42 Then the prophet said to the king, “The Lord says to you, ‘You set free the man I said should die. So you will take his place—you and your people will die!’”
43 Then the king went back home to Samaria. He was worried and upset.
3 We could not come to you, but it was very hard to wait any longer. So we decided to send Timothy to you and stay in Athens alone. Timothy is our brother. He works with us for God to tell people the Good News about Christ. We sent Timothy to strengthen and encourage you in your faith. 3 We sent him so that none of you would be upset by the troubles we have now. You yourselves know that we must have these troubles. 4 Even when we were with you, we told you that we would all have to suffer. And you know that it happened just as we said. 5 This is why I sent Timothy to you, so that I could know about your faith. I sent him when I could not wait anymore. I was afraid that the devil who tempts people might have defeated you with temptations. Then our hard work would have been wasted.
6 But now Timothy has come back from his visit with you and told us good news about your faith and love. He told us that you always remember us in a good way. He told us that you want very much to see us again. And it is the same with us—we want very much to see you. 7 So, brothers and sisters, we are encouraged about you because of your faith. We have much trouble and suffering, but still we are encouraged. 8 Our life is really full if you stand strong in the Lord. 9 We have so much joy before our God because of you! So we thank God for you. But we cannot thank him enough for all the joy we feel. 10 Night and day we continue praying with all our heart that we can come there and see you again. We want to give you everything you need to make your faith strong.
11 We pray that our God and Father and our Lord Jesus will prepare the way for us to come to you. 12 We pray that the Lord will make your love grow. We pray that he will give you more and more love for each other and for all people. We pray that you will love everyone in the same way we love you. 13 This will strengthen your desire to do what is right, and you will be holy and without fault before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy people.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream
2 During Nebuchadnezzar’s second year as king, he had dreams. They bothered him, and he could not sleep. 2 So the king called his wise men to come to him. They used magic and watched the stars. They did this to try to interpret dreams and to learn what would happen in the future. The king wanted them to tell him what he had dreamed, so they came in and stood in front of him.
3 Then the king said to them, “I had a dream that bothers me. I want to know what it means.”
4 Then the Chaldeans answered the king. They spoke Aramaic[a] and said, “King, live forever! Please tell your dream to us, your servants, and then we will tell you what it means.”
5 Then King Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “No, you must tell me the dream, and then you must tell me what it means. If you don’t, I will give an order for you to be cut into pieces. And I will order your houses to be destroyed until they are nothing but piles of dust and ashes. 6 But if you tell me my dream and explain its meaning, I will give you gifts, rewards, and great honor. So tell me about my dream and what it means.”
7 Again the wise men said to the king, “Please, Sir, tell us about the dream, and we will tell you what it means.”
8 Then King Nebuchadnezzar answered, “I know that you are trying to get more time. You know that I meant what I said. 9 You know that you will be punished if you don’t tell me about my dream. So you have all agreed to lie to me. You are hoping for more time so that I will forget what I want you to do. Now tell me the dream. If you can tell me the dream, I will know that you can tell me what it really means.”
10 The Chaldeans answered the king. They said, “There is not a man on earth who can do what the king is asking! No king has ever asked the wise men, the men who do magic, or the Chaldeans to do something like this. Not even the greatest and most powerful king has ever asked his wise men to do such a thing. 11 The king is asking something that is too hard to do. Only the gods could tell the king his dream and what it means. But the gods don’t live with people.”
12 When the king heard that, he became very angry. So he gave an order for all the wise men of Babylon to be killed. 13 King Nebuchadnezzar’s order to kill all the wise men was announced. The king’s men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends to kill them.
14 Arioch was the commander of the king’s guards. He was going to kill the wise men of Babylon, but Daniel talked to him. Daniel spoke politely to Arioch 15 and said, “Why did the king order such a severe punishment?”
Then Arioch explained the whole story about the king’s dreams, and Daniel understood. 16 When Daniel heard the story, he went to King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel asked the king to give him some more time. Then he would tell the king what the dream meant.
17 So Daniel went to his house. He explained the whole story to his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 18 Daniel asked his friends to pray to the God of heaven that God would be kind to them and help them understand this secret. Then Daniel and his friends would not be killed with the other wise men of Babylon.
19 During the night, God explained the secret to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of heaven. 20 He said,
“Praise God’s name forever and ever!
Power and wisdom belong to him.
21 He changes the times and seasons.
He gives power to kings,
and he takes their power away.
He gives wisdom to people, so they become wise.
He lets people learn things and become wise.
22 He knows hidden secrets that are hard to understand.
Light lives with him,
so he knows what is in the dark and secret places.
23 God of my ancestors, I thank you and praise you.
You gave me wisdom and power.
You told us what we asked for.
You told us about the king’s dream.”
Daniel Tells What the Dream Means
24 Then Daniel went to Arioch, the man who King Nebuchadnezzar had chosen to kill the wise men of Babylon. Daniel said to Arioch, “Don’t kill the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king. I will tell him what his dream means.”
25 So very quickly, Arioch took Daniel to the king. Arioch said to the king, “I have found a man among the captives[b] from Judah who can tell the king what his dream means.”
26 The king asked Daniel (Belteshazzar) a question. He said, “Are you able to tell me about my dream, and what it means?”
27 Daniel answered, “King Nebuchadnezzar, no wise man, no man who does magic, and no Chaldean could tell the king the secret things he has asked about. 28 But there is a God in heaven who tells secret things. God has given King Nebuchadnezzar dreams to show him what will happen later. This was your dream, and this is what you saw while lying on your bed: 29 King, as you were lying there on your bed, you began thinking about what might happen in the future. God can tell people about secret things—he has shown you what will happen in the future. 30 God also told this secret to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other men, but so that you, king, may know what it means. In that way you will understand what went through your mind.
31 “King, in your dream you saw a large statue in front of you that was very large and shiny. It was very impressive. 32 The head of the statue was made from pure gold. Its chest and the arms were made from silver. The belly and upper part of the legs were made from bronze. 33 The lower part of the legs was made from iron. Its feet were made partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 While you were looking at the statue, you saw a rock that was cut loose, but not by human hands. Then the rock hit the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold broke to pieces all at the same time. And all the pieces became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summertime. The wind blew them away, and there was nothing left. No one could tell that a statue had ever been there. Then the rock that hit the statue became a very large mountain and filled up the whole earth.
36 “That was your dream. Now we will tell the king what it means. 37 King, you are the most important king. The God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. 38 He has given you control, and you rule over people and the wild animals and the birds. Wherever they live, God has made you ruler over them all. King Nebuchadnezzar, you are that head of gold on the statue.
39 “Another kingdom will come after you, but it will not be as great as your kingdom. Next, a third kingdom will rule over the earth—that is the bronze part. 40 Then there will be a fourth kingdom. That kingdom will be strong like iron. Just as iron breaks things and smashes them to pieces, that fourth kingdom will break all the other kingdoms and smash them to pieces.
41 “You saw that the feet and toes of the statue were partly clay and partly iron. That means the fourth kingdom will be a divided kingdom. It will have some of the strength of iron in it just as you saw the iron mixed with clay. 42 The toes of the statue were partly iron and partly clay. So the fourth kingdom will be partly strong like iron and partly weak like clay. 43 You saw the iron mixed with clay, but iron and clay don’t completely mix together. In the same way the people of the fourth kingdom will be a mixture. They will not be united as one people.
44 “During the time of the kings of the fourth kingdom, the God of heaven will set up another kingdom that will continue forever. It will never be destroyed. And it will be the kind of kingdom that cannot be passed on to another group of people. This kingdom will crush all the other kingdoms. It will bring them to an end, but that kingdom itself will continue forever.
45 “King Nebuchadnezzar, you saw a rock cut from a mountain, but no one cut that rock. The rock broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold to pieces. In this way God showed you what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and you can trust that this is what it means.”
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar bowed down in front of Daniel to honor him. The king praised him. He gave an order that an offering and incense be given to honor Daniel. 47 Then the king said to Daniel, “I know for sure your God is the God over all gods and the Lord over all kings. He tells people about things they cannot know. I know this is true because you were able to tell these secret things to me.”
48 Then the king gave Daniel a very important job in his kingdom and gave him many expensive gifts. Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel ruler over the whole province of Babylon and put him in charge of all the wise men of Babylon. 49 Daniel asked the king to make Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego important officials over the province of Babylon. The king did as Daniel asked. Daniel himself became one of the important officials who was always near the king.
106 Praise the Lord!
Give thanks to the Lord because he is good!
His faithful love will last forever!
2 No one can describe how great the Lord really is.
No one can praise him enough.
3 Those who obey his commands are happy.
They do good things all the time.
4 Lord, remember me when you show kindness to your people.
Remember to save me too!
5 Let me share in the good things
that you do for your chosen people.
Let me rejoice with your nation.
Let me join with your people in praise.
6 We sinned just as our ancestors did.
We were wrong; we did bad things!
7 Lord, our ancestors learned nothing
from the miracles you did in Egypt.
They forgot your kindness at the Red Sea
and rebelled against you.
8 But the Lord saved our ancestors for the honor of his name.
He saved them to show his great power.
9 He gave the command, and the Red Sea became dry.
He led them through the deep sea on land as dry as the desert.
10 He saved our ancestors
and rescued them from their enemies.
11 He covered their enemies with the sea.
Not one of them escaped!
12 Then our ancestors believed what he had said.
They sang praises to him.
13 But they quickly forgot about what he did.
They did not listen to his advice.
14 They became hungry in the desert,
and they tested him in the wilderness.
15 He gave them what they asked for,
but he also gave them a terrible disease.
16 The people became jealous of Moses.
They became jealous of Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest.
17 The ground opened up and swallowed Dathan.
Then the ground closed up and covered Abiram’s group.
18 Then a fire burned that mob of people.
It burned those wicked people.
19 The people made a golden calf at Mount Horeb.
They worshiped a statue!
20 They traded their glorious God
for a statue of a grass-eating bull!
21 They forgot all about God, the one who saved them,
the one who did the miracles in Egypt.
22 He did amazing things there in Ham’s country[a]!
He did awesome things at the Red Sea!
23 God wanted to destroy those people,
but Moses, the leader he chose, stood in the way.
God was very angry, but Moses begged him to stop,
so God did not destroy the people.[b]
24 But then they refused to go into the wonderful land of Canaan.
They did not believe that God would help them defeat the people there.
25 Our ancestors complained in their tents
and refused to obey the Lord.
26 So he swore that they would die
in the desert.
27 He promised to scatter them among the nations
and to let other people defeat their descendants.
28 At Baal Peor they joined in worshiping Baal
and ate sacrifices to honor the dead.[c]
29 The Lord became angry with his people,
so he made them sick.
30 But Phinehas prayed[d] to God,
and God stopped the sickness.
31 He considered what Phinehas did a good work,
and it will be remembered forever and ever.
32 At Meribah the people made the Lord angry
and created trouble for Moses.
33 They upset Moses,
and he spoke without stopping to think.
34 The Lord told the people to destroy the other nations living in Canaan.
But the Israelites did not obey him.
35 They mixed with the other people
and did what those people were doing.
36 They began worshiping the false gods those people worshiped.
And their idols became a trap.
37 They even offered their own children
as sacrifices to demons.
38 They killed their innocent sons and daughters
and offered them to the false gods of Canaan.
So the land was polluted with the sin of murder.
39 They were unfaithful to him,
and they became dirty with the sins of other nations.
40 So the Lord became angry with his people.
He rejected those who belonged to him.
41 He gave his people to other nations
and let their enemies rule over them.
42 Their enemies controlled them
and made life hard for them.
43 He saved his people many times,
but they turned against him and did what they wanted to do.
His people did many bad things.
44 But whenever they were in trouble,
he listened to their prayers.
45 He always remembered his agreement,
and because of his faithful love, he comforted them.
46 Other nations took them as prisoners,
but the Lord caused them to be kind to his people.
47 Lord our God, save us!
Bring us back together from those nations.
Then we will give thanks to your holy name
and joyfully praise you.
48 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel!
He always was and will always be worthy of praise.
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International