M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
33 And Jacob raised his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming and with him 400 men. So he divided the children to Leah and to Rachel and to the two maids.
2 And he put the maids and their children in front, Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.
3 Then Jacob went over [the stream] before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
4 But Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.(A)
5 [Esau] looked up and saw the women and the children and said, Who are these with you? And [Jacob] replied, They are the children whom God has graciously given your servant.
6 Then the maids came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves.
7 And Leah also with her children came near, and they bowed themselves. After them Joseph and Rachel came near, and they bowed themselves.
8 Esau said, What do you mean by all this company which I met? And he said, These are that I might find favor in the sight of my lord.
9 And Esau said, I have plenty, my brother; keep what you have for yourself.
10 But Jacob replied, No, I beg of you, if now I have found favor in your sight, receive my gift that I am presenting; for truly to see your face is to me as if I had seen the face of God, and you have received me favorably.
11 Accept, I beg of you, my blessing and gift that I have brought to you; for God has dealt graciously with me and I have everything. And he kept urging him and he accepted it.
12 Then [Esau] said, Let us get started on our journey, and I will go before you.
13 But Jacob replied, You know, my lord, that the children are tender and delicate and need gentle care, and the flocks and herds with young are of concern to me; for if the men should overdrive them for a single day, the whole of the flocks would die.
14 Let my lord, I pray you, pass over before his servant; and I will lead on slowly, governed by [consideration for] the livestock that set the pace before me and the endurance of the children, [a]until I come to my lord in Seir.
15 Then Esau said, Let me now leave with you some of the people who are with me. But [Jacob] said, What need is there for it? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.
16 So Esau turned back that day on his way to Seir.
17 But Jacob journeyed to Succoth and built himself a house and made booths or places of shelter for his livestock; so the name of the place is called Succoth [booths].
18 When Jacob came from Padan-aram, he arrived safely and in peace at the town of Shechem, in the land of Canaan, and pitched his tents before the [enclosed] town.
19 Then he bought the piece of land on which he had encamped from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money.
20 There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel [God, the God of Israel].
4 Again Jesus began to teach beside the lake. And a very great crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a ship in order to sit in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was at the lakeside on the shore.
2 And He taught them many things in parables (illustrations or comparisons put beside truths to explain them), and in His teaching He said to them:
3 Give attention to this! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
4 And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
5 Other seed [of the same kind] fell on ground full of rocks, where it had not much soil; and at once it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil;
6 And when the sun came up, it was scorched, and because it had not taken root, it withered away.
7 Other seed [of the same kind] fell among thorn plants, and the thistles grew and pressed together and utterly choked and suffocated it, and it yielded no grain.
8 And other seed [of the same kind] fell into good (well-adapted) soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing, and yielded up to thirty times as much, and sixty times as much, and even a hundred times as much as had been sown.
9 And He said, He who has ears to hear, let him be hearing [and let him [a]consider, and comprehend].
10 And as soon as He was alone, those who were around Him, with the Twelve [apostles], began to ask Him about the parables.
11 And He said to them, To you has been entrusted the mystery of the kingdom of God [that is, [b]the secret counsels of God which are hidden from the ungodly]; but for those outside [[c]of our circle] everything becomes a parable,
12 In order that they may [indeed] look and look but not see and perceive, and may hear and hear but not grasp and comprehend, [d]lest haply they should turn again, and it [[e]their willful rejection of the truth] should be forgiven them.(A)
13 And He said to them, Do you not discern and understand this parable? How then is it possible for you to discern and understand all the parables?
14 The sower sows the Word.
15 The ones along the path are those who have the Word sown [in their hearts], but when they hear, Satan comes at once and [by force] takes away the message which is sown in them.
16 And in the same way the ones sown upon stony ground are those who, when they hear the Word, at once receive and accept and welcome it with joy;
17 And they have no real root in themselves, and so they endure for a little while; then when trouble or persecution arises on account of the Word, they immediately are offended (become displeased, indignant, resentful) and they stumble and fall away.
18 And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word;
19 Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless.
20 And those sown on the good (well-adapted) soil are the ones who hear the Word and receive and accept and welcome it and bear fruit—some thirty times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much, and some [even] a hundred times as much.
21 And He said to them, Is the lamp brought in to be put under a [f]peck measure or under a bed, and not [to be put] on the lampstand?
22 [[g]Things are hidden temporarily only as a means to revelation.] For there is nothing hidden except to be revealed, nor is anything [temporarily] kept secret except in order that it may be made known.
23 If any man has ears to hear, let him be listening and let him perceive and comprehend.
24 And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [h][of thought and study] you give [to [i]the truth you hear] will be the measure [j][of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you—and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.
25 For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away [[k]by force],
26 And He said, The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed upon the ground,
27 And then continues sleeping and rising night and day while the seed sprouts and grows and [l]increases—he knows not how.
28 The earth produces [acting] by itself—first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
29 But when the grain is ripe and permits, immediately he [m]sends forth [the reapers] and puts in the sickle, because the harvest stands ready.
30 And He said, With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use to illustrate and explain it?
31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all seeds upon the earth;
32 Yet after it is sown, it grows up and becomes the greatest of all garden herbs and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air are able to make nests and dwell in its shade.
33 With many such parables [Jesus] spoke the Word to them, as they were able to hear and [n]to comprehend and understand.
34 He did not tell them anything without a parable; but privately to His disciples ([o]those who were peculiarly His own) He explained everything [fully].
35 On that same day [when] evening had come, He said to them, Let us go over to the other side [of the lake].
36 And leaving the throng, they took Him with them, [just] as He was, in the boat [in which He was sitting]. And other boats were with Him.
37 And a furious storm of wind [[p]of hurricane proportions] arose, and the waves kept beating into the boat, so that it was already becoming filled.
38 But He [Himself] was in the stern [of the boat], asleep on the [leather] cushion; and they awoke Him and said to Him, Master, do You not care that we are perishing?
39 And He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush now! Be still (muzzled)! And the wind ceased ([q]sank to rest as if exhausted by its beating) and there was [immediately] a great calm ([r]a perfect peacefulness).
40 He said to them, Why are you so timid and fearful? How is it that you have no faith (no [s]firmly relying trust)?
41 And they were filled with great awe and [t]feared exceedingly and said one to another, Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey Him?
9 Now in the twelfth month, the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day of Adar when the king’s command and his edict were about to be executed, on the [very] day that the enemies of the Jews had planned for a massacre of them, it was turned to the contrary and the Jews had rule over those who hated them.
2 The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on such as sought their hurt; and no man could withstand them, for the fear of them had fallen upon all the peoples.
3 And all the princes of the provinces and the chief rulers and the governors and they who attended to the king’s business helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them.
4 For Mordecai was great in the king’s palace; and his fame went forth throughout all the provinces, for the man Mordecai became more and more powerful.
5 So the Jews smote all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering and destroying them, and did as they chose with those who hated them.
6 In Shushan, the capital itself, the Jews slew and destroyed 500 men.
7 And they killed Parshandatha,
8 Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia,
9 Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai,
10 And Vaizatha, the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the Jews’ enemy; but on the spoil they laid not their hands.
11 On that day the number of those who were slain in Shushan, the capital, was brought before the king.
12 And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed 500 men in Shushan, the capital, and the ten sons of Haman. What then have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces! Now what is your petition? It shall be granted to you. Or what is your request further? It shall be done.
13 Then said Esther, If it pleases the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according to this day’s decree, and let [the dead bodies of] Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.(A)
14 And the king commanded it to be done; the decree was given in Shushan, and they hanged [the bodies of] Haman’s ten sons.
15 And the Jews that were in Shushan gathered together on the fourteenth day also of the month of Adar and slew 300 men in Shushan, but on the spoil they laid not their hands.
16 And the other Jews who were in the king’s provinces gathered to defend their lives and had relief and rest from their enemies and slew of them that hated them 75,000; but on the spoil they laid not their hands.
17 This was done on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
18 But the Jews who were in Shushan [Susa] assembled on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth, and on the fifteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
19 Therefore the Jews of the villages, who dwell in the unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a holiday, and a day for sending choice portions to one another.
20 And Mordecai recorded these things, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of the King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
21 To command them to keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and also the fifteenth, yearly,
22 As the days on which the Jews got rest from their enemies, and as the month which was turned for them from sorrow to gladness and from mourning into a holiday—that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days of sending choice portions to one another and gifts to the poor.
23 So the Jews undertook to do as they had begun and as Mordecai had written to them—
24 Because Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, [to find a lucky day] to crush and consume and destroy them.
25 But when Esther brought the matter before the king, he commanded in writing that Haman’s wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26 Therefore they called these days Purim, after the name Pur [lot]. Therefore, because of all that was in this letter and what they had faced in this matter and what had happened to them,
27 The Jews ordained and took it upon themselves and their descendants and all who joined them that without fail every year they would keep these two days at the appointed time and as it was written,
28 That these days should be remembered (imprinted on their minds) and kept throughout every generation in every family, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never cease from among the Jews, nor the commemoration of them cease among their descendants.
29 Then Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, with Mordecai the Jew, gave full power [written authority], confirming this second letter about Purim.
30 And letters were sent to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth,
31 To confirm that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had commanded [the Jews], and as they had ordained for themselves and for their descendants in the matter of their fasts and their lamenting.
32 And the command of Esther confirmed these observances of Purim, and it was written in the book.
10 King Ahasuerus laid a tribute (tax) on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.
2 And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai to which the king advanced him, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia?
3 For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus and great among the Jews, and was a favorite with the multitude of his brethren, for he sought the welfare of his people and spoke peace to his whole race.
4 [But] if so, what shall we say about Abraham, our forefather humanly speaking—[what did he] find out? [How does this affect his position, and what was gained by him?]
2 For if Abraham was justified ([a]established as just by acquittal from guilt) by good works [that he did, then] he has grounds for boasting. But not before God!
3 For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed in (trusted in) God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness (right living and right standing with God).(A)
4 Now to a laborer, his wages are not counted as a favor or a gift, but as an obligation (something owed to him).
5 But to one who, not working [by the Law], trusts (believes fully) in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteousness (the standing acceptable to God).
6 Thus David [b]congratulates the man and pronounces a blessing on him to whom God credits righteousness apart from the works he does:
7 Blessed and happy and [c]to be envied are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered up and completely buried.
8 Blessed and happy and [d]to be envied is the person of whose sin the Lord will take no account nor reckon it against him.(B)
9 Is this blessing (happiness) then meant only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.
10 How then was it credited [to him]? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised.
11 He received the mark of circumcision as a token or an evidence [and] seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised—[faith] so that he was to be made the father of all who [truly] believe, though without circumcision, and who thus have righteousness (right standing with God) imputed to them and credited to their account,
12 As well as [that he be made] the father of those circumcised persons who are not merely circumcised, but also walk in the way of that faith which our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
13 For the promise to Abraham or his posterity, that he should inherit the world, did not come through [observing the commands of] the Law but through the righteousness of faith.(C)
14 If it is the adherents of the Law who are to be the heirs, then faith is made futile and empty of all meaning and the promise [of God] is made void (is annulled and has no power).
15 For the Law results in [divine] wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression [of it either].
16 Therefore, [inheriting] the promise is the outcome of faith and depends [entirely] on faith, in order that it might be given as an act of grace (unmerited favor), to make it stable and valid and guaranteed to all his descendants—not only to the devotees and adherents of the Law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham, who is [thus] the father of us all.
17 As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.(D)
18 [For Abraham, human reason for] hope being gone, hoped in faith that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been promised, So [numberless] shall your descendants be.(E)
19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered the [utter] impotence of his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or [when he considered] the barrenness of Sarah’s [deadened] womb.(F)
20 No unbelief or distrust made him waver (doubtingly question) concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God,
21 Fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised.
22 That is why his faith was credited to him as righteousness (right standing with God).
23 But [the words], It was credited to him, were written not for his sake alone,
24 But [they were written] for our sakes too. [Righteousness, standing acceptable to God] will be granted and credited to us also who believe in (trust in, adhere to, and rely on) God, Who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25 Who was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our [e]acquittal), [making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God].
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