M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

15 After these things the word of Jehovah came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, ^[a]and thy exceeding great reward. ² And Abram said, O Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I ^[b]go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? ³ And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. ⁴ And, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. ⁵ And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. ⁶ And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness. ⁷ And he said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. ⁸ And he said, O Lord Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? ⁹ And he said unto him, Take me a heifer three years old, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon. ¹⁰ And he took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other: but the birds divided he not. ¹¹ And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

¹² And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. ¹³ And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; ¹⁴ and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. ¹⁵ But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶ And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full. ¹⁷ And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces. ¹⁸ In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: ¹⁹ the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, ²⁰ and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, ²¹ and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.

14 At that season Herod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus, ² and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore do these powers work in him. ³ For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. ⁴ For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. ⁵ And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. ⁶ But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst, and pleased Herod. ⁷ Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she should ask. ⁸ And she, being put forward by her mother, saith, Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist. ⁹ And the king was grieved; but for the sake of his oaths, and of them that sat at meat with him, he commanded it to be given; ¹⁰ and he sent and beheaded John in the prison. ¹¹ And his head was brought on a platter, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. ¹² And his disciples came, and took up the corpse, and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.

¹³ Now when Jesus heard it, he withdrew from thence in a boat, to a desert place apart: and when the multitudes heard thereof, they followed him ^[a]on foot from the cities. ¹⁴ And he came forth, and saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick. ¹⁵ And when even was come, the disciples came to him, saying, The place is desert, and the time is already past; send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves food. ¹⁶ But Jesus said unto them, They have no need to go away; give ye them to eat. ¹⁷ And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. ¹⁸ And he said, Bring them hither to me. ¹⁹ And he commanded the multitudes to ^[b]sit down on the grass; and he took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. ²⁰ And they all ate, and were filled: and they took up that which remained over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. ²¹ And they that did eat were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

²² And straightway he constrained the disciples to enter into the boat, and to go before him unto the other side, till he should send the multitudes away. ²³ And after he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into the mountain apart to pray: and when even was come, he was there alone. ²⁴ But the boat ^[c]was now in the midst of the sea, distressed by the waves; for the wind was contrary. ²⁵ And in the fourth watch of the night he came unto them, walking upon the sea. ²⁶ And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a ghost; and they cried out for fear. ²⁷ But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. ²⁸ And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee upon the waters. ²⁹ And he said, Come. And Peter went down from the boat, and walked upon the waters ^[d]to come to Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the ^[e]wind, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. ³¹ And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and took hold of him, and saith unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? ³² And when they were gone up into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³ And they that were in the boat ^[f]worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

³⁴ And when they had crossed over, they came to the land, unto Gennesaret. ³⁵ And when the men of that place knew him, they sent into all that region round about, and brought unto him all that were sick; ³⁶ and they besought him that they might only touch the border of his garment: and as many as touched were made whole.

4 But it came to pass that, when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. ² And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? ^[a]will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, seeing they are burned? ³ Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they are building, if a ^[b]fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall. ⁴ Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn back their reproach upon their own head, and give them up for a spoil in a land of captivity; ⁵ and cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee; for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders. ⁶ So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto half the height thereof: for the people had a mind to work.

⁷ But it came to pass that, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that ^[c]the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem went forward, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth; ⁸ and they conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to cause confusion therein. ⁹ But we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them. ¹⁰ And Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall. ¹¹ And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come into the midst of them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. ¹² And it came to pass that, when the Jews that dwelt by them came, they said unto us ten times ^[d]from all places, Ye must return unto us. ¹³ Therefore set I in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in the open places, I set there the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows. ¹⁴ And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the ^[e]rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

¹⁵ And it came to pass, when our enemies heard that it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nought, that we returned all of us to the wall, every one unto his work. ¹⁶ And it came to pass from that time forth, that half of my servants wrought in the work, and half of them held the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the coats of mail; and the rulers were behind ^[f]all the house of Judah. ¹⁷ They that builded the wall and they that bare burdens laded themselves; every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other held his weapon; ¹⁸ and the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded. And he that sounded the trumpet was by me. ¹⁹ And I said unto the nobles, and to the ^[g]rulers and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another: ²⁰ in what place soever ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us; our God will fight for us.

²¹ So we wrought in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared. ²² Likewise at the same time said I unto the people, Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and may labor in the day. ²³ So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard that followed me, none of us put off our clothes, ^[h]every one went with his weapon to the water.

14 And it came to pass in Iconium that they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed. ² But the Jews that were disobedient stirred up the souls of the Gentiles, and made them evil affected against the brethren. ³ Long time therefore they tarried there speaking boldly in the Lord, who bare witness unto the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. ⁴ But the multitude of the city was divided; and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. ⁵ And when there was made an onset both of the Gentiles and of the Jews with their rulers, to treat them shamefully and to stone them, ⁶ they became aware of it, and fled unto the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the region round about: ⁷ and there they ^[a]preached the gospel.

⁸ And at Lystra there sat a certain man, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked. ⁹ The same heard Paul speaking: who, fastening his eyes upon him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole, ¹⁰ said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped up and walked. ¹¹ And when the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. ¹² And they called Barnabas, ^[b]Jupiter; and Paul, ^[c]Mercury, because he was the chief speaker. ¹³ And the priest of Jupiter whose temple was before the city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the multitudes. ¹⁴ But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they rent their garments, and sprang forth among the multitude, crying out ¹⁵ and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like ^[d]passions with you, and bring you good tidings, that ye should turn from these vain things unto a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is: ¹⁶ who in the generations gone by suffered all the ^[e]nations to walk in their own ways. ¹⁷ And yet he left not himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness. ¹⁸ And with these sayings scarce restrained they the multitudes from doing sacrifice unto them.

¹⁹ But there came Jews thither from Antioch and Iconium: and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. ²⁰ But as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and entered into the city: and on the morrow he went forth with Barnabas to Derbe. ²¹ And when they had ^[f]preached the gospel to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch, ²² confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. ²³ And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed. ²⁴ And they passed through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. ²⁵ And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia; ²⁶ and thence they sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. ²⁷ And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all things that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith unto the Gentiles. ²⁸ And they tarried no little time with the disciples.