M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
An Offering for the Sanctuary
25 The Lord told Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelis to take an offering for me, and you are to accept my offering from every person whose heart moves him to give.[a] 3 This is the offering that you are to accept from them: gold, silver, and bronze; 4 blue, purple, and scarlet material;[b] fine linen and goat hair; 5 ram skins dyed[c] red, dolphin[d] skins, and acacia wood; 6 oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for aromatic incense; 7 and onyx stones, stones for setting on the ephod and the breast piece.[e] 8 Let them make a sanctuary for me so I may live among them. 9 This is how you are to make it: according to all that I’m showing you, according to the pattern for the tent and the pattern for all its furnishings.”
The Ark of the Covenant
10 “They are to make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits[f] long, one and a half cubits[g] wide, and one and a half cubits[h] high. 11 You are to overlay it with pure gold—you are to overlay it inside and outside—and you are to make a gold molding around it. 12 You are to cast four rings for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on one side of it and two rings on its other side. 13 You are to make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 You are to put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark with which to carry it.[i] 15 The poles are to remain in the rings of the ark and are not to be removed from it. 16 You are to put the Testimony[j] that I will give you into the ark.
17 “You are to make a Mercy Seat[k] of pure gold, two and a half cubits[l] long and one and a half cubits[m] wide. 18 You are to make two cherubim[n] of gold; you are to make them of hammered work at the two ends of the Mercy Seat. 19 Place one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end. You are to make the cherubim at the two ends of the Mercy Seat, and of one piece with it. 20 The cherubim are to spread their wings upward, covering the Mercy Seat with their wings and facing each other. The faces of the cherubim is to be turned toward the Mercy Seat. 21 You are to put the Mercy Seat on top of the ark, and put the Testimony that I’ll give you into the ark. 22 I’ll meet with you there, and I’ll tell you all my commandments[o] for the Israelis from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the Ark of the Testimony.”
The Table of Showbread
23 “You are to make a table of acacia wood, two cubits[p] long, a cubit[q] wide, and one and a half cubits[r] high. 24 You are to overlay it with pure gold, and put a gold molding around it. 25 You are to make a rim one handbreadth in width[s] around it, and you are to make a gold molding around the rim. 26 You are to make four gold rings for it, and put the rings on the four corners where its four feet are. 27 The rings are to be close to the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table. 28 You are to make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold so the table can be carried with them. 29 You are to make its plates, dishes, jars, and bowls from which libations will be poured, and you are to make them of pure gold. 30 You are to put the bread of the Presence on the table before me continuously.”
The Lamp Stand(A)
31 “You are to make a lamp stand of pure gold: the lamp stand and its base and stem are to be of hammered work, and its cups, calyxes,[t] and flowers are to be of one piece with it. 32 Six branches are to extend from its sides, three branches of the lamp stand from one side of it and three branches of the lamp stand from its other side. 33 Three cups shaped like almond blossoms with calyxes and flowers are to be on one branch and three cups shaped like almond blossoms with calyxes and flowers are to be on the other branch, and so for the six branches extending from the lamp stand.
34 “On the lamp stand itself there are to be four cups shaped like almond blossoms with their calyxes and flowers. 35 A calyx[u] is to be under the two branches that extend out of the stem;[v] a calyx is to be under the next pair of branches[w] that extend out of the stem;[x] and a calyx is to be under the last pair of branches[y] that extend out of the stem,[z] and so for the six[aa] branches extending from the lamp stand. 36 Their calyxes and their branches are to be of one piece with it; all of it is to be made of one piece of hammered work of pure gold.
37 “You are to make seven lamps for it, and its lamps are to be mounted so as to give light in front of it. 38 Its tongs and trays are to be of pure gold. 39 The lamp stand[ab]—together with all its furnishings—is to be made from a talent[ac] of pure gold. 40 Now see that you make them according to the pattern for them which you are being shown on the mountain.”
Jesus Meets a Samaritan Woman
4 Now when Jesus[a] realized that the Pharisees had heard he was making and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although it was not Jesus who did the baptizing but his disciples— 3 he left Judea and went back to Galilee. 4 Now it was necessary for him to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s Well was also there, and Jesus, tired out by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.[b]
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus told her, “Please give me a drink,” 8 since his disciples had gone off into town to buy food.
9 The Samaritan woman asked him, “How can you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” Because Jews do not have anything to do with Samaritans.[c]
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Please give me a drink,’ you would have been the one to ask him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 The woman[d] told him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where are you going to get this living water? 12 You’re not greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it, along with his sons and his flocks, are you?”
13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never become thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become a well of water for him, springing up to eternal life.”
15 The woman told him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I won’t get thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go and call your husband, and come back here.”
17 The woman answered him, “I don’t have a husband.”
Jesus told her, “You are quite right in saying, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ 18 because you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
19 The woman told him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet! 20 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain. But you Jews[e] say that the place where people should worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus told her, “Believe me, dear lady,[f] the hour is coming when you Samaritans[g] will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You don’t know what you’re worshiping. We Jews[h] know what we’re worshiping, because salvation comes from the Jews. 23 Yet the time is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit[i] and truth. Indeed, the Father is looking for people like that to worship him. 24 God is spirit,[j] and those who worship him must worship in spirit[k] and truth.”
25 The woman told him, “I know that the Anointed One[l] is coming, who is being called ‘the Messiah’.[m] When that person comes, he will explain everything.”
26 “I AM,” Jesus replied, “the one who is speaking to you.”
27 At this point his disciples arrived, and they were astonished that he was talking to a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want from her?”[n] or, “Why are you talking to her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She told people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done! Could he possibly be the Messiah?”[o] 30 The people[p] left the town and started on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi,[q] have something to eat.”
32 But he told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one has brought him anything to eat, have they?”
34 Jesus told them, “My food is doing the will of the one who sent me and completing his work. 35 You say, don’t you, ‘In four more months the harvest will begin?’ Look, I tell you, open your eyes and observe that the fields are ready[r] for harvesting now! 36 The one who harvests is already receiving his wages and gathering a crop for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who harvests may rejoice together. 37 In this respect the saying is true: ‘One person sows, and another person harvests.’[s] 38 I have sent you to harvest what you have not worked for. Others have worked, and you have adopted their work as your own.”
39 Now many of the Samaritans of that town believed in Jesus[t] because the woman had testified, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to Jesus,[u] they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there for two days. 41 And many more believed because of what he said. 42 They kept telling the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, because now we have heard him ourselves, and we know that he really is the Savior of the world.”
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son(A)
43 Two days later, Jesus[v] left for Galilee from there, 44 since Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen everything that he had done in Jerusalem during the festival and because they, too, had gone to the festival. 46 So Jesus[w] returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. Meanwhile, in Capernaum there was a government official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him repeatedly to come down and heal his son, because he was about to die.
48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people[x] see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
49 The official told him, “Sir,[y] please come down before my little boy dies.”
50 Jesus told him, “Go home. Your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus told him and started back home.
51 While he was on his way, his servants met him and told him that his child[z] was alive. 52 So he asked them at what hour he had begun to recover, and they told him, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.”[aa]
53 Then the father realized that this was the very hour when Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole family.
54 Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
Introduction and Purpose
1 The proverbs of David’s son Solomon, king of Israel.
2 These proverbs are[a] for gaining[b] wisdom and discipline;[c]
for understanding words of insight;
3 for acquiring the discipline[d] that produces wise behavior,
righteousness, justice, and upright living;[e]
4 for giving prudence to the naïve,
and knowledge and discretion to the young.
5 Let the wise listen and increase their[f] learning;
let the person of understanding receive guidance
6 in understanding proverbs, clever sayings,
words of the wise, and their riddles.
The Major Theme
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.[g]
The Minor Theme
8 My son, listen to your father’s instruction,
and do not let go of your mother’s teaching.
9 They will be a graceful wreath for your head
and a chain for your neck.
Avoid Evil Counsel
10 My son, if sinners entice you,
do not consent.
11 If they say, “Come with us!
Let’s lie in wait for blood;
let’s ambush some innocent person for no reason at all.
12 Let’s swallow them alive like Sheol,[h]
and whole like those who go down into the Pit.[i]
13 We’ll find all kinds of valuable wealth,
and we’ll fill our houses with spoil.
14 Throw your lot in with us,
and all of us will have one purse.”
15 My son, do not go along with them,[j]
and keep your feet away from their paths!
16 For they[k] run toward evil;
these enticers[l] shed blood without hesitation.[m]
17 Look, it is useless to spread a net in full view of[n] all the birds,
18 but these people[o] lie in wait for their own blood.[p]
They ambush only themselves.
19 Such is the way of all those who seek illicit gain—
it takes away the lives of those who possess it.
The Benefits of Choosing Wisdom
20 Wisdom cries out in the street;
she raises her voice in the public squares.
21 She calls out at the busiest part[q] of the noisy streets,[r]
and at the entrance to the gates of the city she utters her words:
22 “You naïve ones, how long will you love naiveté?
And how long will scoffers delight in scoffing
or fools hate knowledge?”
23 Return to my correction!
Look, I will pour out my spirit on you,
and I will make my words known to you.
The Consequences of Refusing Wisdom
24 “Because I called out to you and you refused to respond—[s]
I appealed,[t] but no one paid attention—
25 because[u] you neglected all my advice
and did not want my correction,
26 I will laugh at your calamity.
I will mock when what you fear[v] comes,
27 when what you dread comes like a storm,
and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind,
when distress and anguish come upon you.
28 “Then they will call out to me,
but I will not answer;
they will seek me diligently,
but they will not find me.
29 “Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord;
30 they did not want my advice,
and they rejected all my correction.
31 They will eat the fruit[w] of their way,
and they will be filled with their own devices.
32 Indeed, the waywardness[x] of the naïve will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them.
33 “But the person who listens to me will live safely
and will be secure from the fear of evil.”
Final Warnings
13 This will be the third time I am coming to you. “Every accusation must be verified by two or three witnesses.”[a] 2 I have already warned those who sinned previously and all the rest. Although I am absent now, I am warning them as I did on my second visit: If I come back, I will not spare you, 3 since you want proof that the Messiah[b] is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you but is making his power felt among you. 4 Though he was crucified in weakness, he lives by God’s power. We are weak with him, but by God’s power we will live for you.
5 Keep examining yourselves to see whether you are continuing in the faith. Test yourselves! You know, don’t you, that Jesus the Messiah[c] lives in you? Could it be that you are failing the test? 6 I hope you will realize that we haven’t failed our test. 7 We pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not to show that we have not failed the test, but so that you may do what is right, even if we seem to have failed. 8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 9 We are glad when we are weak and you are strong. That is what we are praying for—your maturity.
10 For this reason I am writing this while I am away from you: When I come I do not want to be severe in using the authority the Lord gave me to build you up and not to tear you down.
Final Greetings and Benediction
11 Finally, brothers, goodbye. Keep on growing to maturity. Keep listening to my appeals. Continue agreeing with each other and living in peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss.[d] 13 All the saints greet you.
14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus the Messiah,[e] the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you!
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.