M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Year to Honor the Lord
25 Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 “Tell the Israelites: When you come into the land I’m giving you, the land will celebrate a year to honor Yahweh. 3 Then, for six years you may plant crops in your fields, prune your vineyards, and gather what they produce. 4 However, the seventh year will be a festival year for the land. It will be a year to honor Yahweh. Don’t plant crops in your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Don’t harvest what grows by itself or harvest grapes from your vines. That year will be a festival for the land. 6 Whatever the land produces during that year is for all of you to eat—for you, your male and female slaves, your hired workers, foreigners among you, 7 your animals and the wild animals in your land. Everything the land produces will be yours to eat.
The Jubilee for the Land
8 “Count seven of these years seven times for a total of 49 years. 9 On the tenth day of the seventh month, the special day for the payment for sin, sound rams’ horns throughout the country. 10 Set apart the fiftieth year as holy, and proclaim liberty to everyone living in the land. This is your jubilee year. Every slave will be freed in order to return to his property and to his family. 11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee year. Don’t plant or harvest what grows by itself or pick grapes from the vines in the land. 12 The jubilee year will be holy to you. You will eat what the field itself produces.
13 “In this jubilee year every slave will be freed in order to return to his property. 14 If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from him, don’t take advantage of him. 15 When you buy property from your neighbor, take into account the number of years since the jubilee. Your neighbor must sell it to you taking into account the number of crops until the next jubilee. 16 If there are still many years until the jubilee, you will pay more for it. If there are only a few years until the jubilee, you will pay less for it because he is selling you only the number of crops. 17 Never take advantage of each other. Fear your Elohim, because I am Yahweh your Elohim.
18 “Obey my laws, and carefully follow my rules. Then you will live securely in the land. 19 The land will give you its products, and you will eat all you want and live there securely. 20 You may ask, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or bring in our crops?’ 21 I will give you my blessing in the sixth year so that the land will produce enough for three years. 22 You will plant again in the eighth year but live on what the land already produced. You will eat it, even in the ninth year, until the land produces more.
23 “Land must never be sold permanently, because the land is mine. To me you are strangers without permanent homes. 24 People must always have the right to buy their property back. 25 If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his property, then the one who can assume responsibility, his nearest relative, must buy back what he sold. 26 If a man doesn’t have anyone to buy it back for him, but if he prospers and earns enough to buy it back himself, 27 he must count the years from its sale. Then he will pay what is left to the man to whom he sold it, and it will be his property again. 28 However, if he cannot earn enough to buy it back, what he sold stays in the hands of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it will be released, and he will own it again.
29 “If anyone sells a home in a walled city, for one year after selling it he has the right to buy it back. He may buy it back only within that time. 30 If he does not buy it back during that year, the house in the city belongs to the buyer for generations to come. It will not be released in the jubilee. 31 However, houses in villages without walls are regarded as belonging to the fields of the land. They can be bought back. They will be released in the jubilee.
32 “The Levites always have the right to buy back their property in the cities they own. 33 If any Levite buys back a house, in the jubilee the purchased house in the city will be released, because the houses in the Levite cities are their property among the Israelites. 34 But a field that belongs to their cities must not be sold, because it is their permanent property.
The Jubilee for the People
35 “If an Israelite becomes poor and cannot support himself, help him. He must live with you as a stranger without a permanent home. 36 Don’t collect interest or make any profit from him. Fear your Elohim by respecting other Israelites’ lives. 37 Never collect any kind of interest on your money or on the food you give them. 38 I am Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of Egypt to give you Canaan and to be your Elohim.
39 “If an Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to you, don’t work him like a slave. 40 He will be like a hired worker or a visitor to you. He may work with you until the year of jubilee. 41 Then you will release him and his children to go back to their family and the property of their ancestors. 42 They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. They must never be sold as slaves. 43 Do not treat them harshly. Fear your Elohim.
44 “You may have male and female slaves, but buy them from the nations around you. 45 You may also buy them from the foreigners living among you and from their families born in your country. They will be your property. 46 You may acquire them for yourselves and for your descendants as permanent property. You may work them as slaves. However, do not treat the Israelites harshly. They are your relatives.
47 “Someone who is a foreigner without a permanent home among you may become rich, and your relative living with him may be poor. The poor Israelite may sell himself to that foreigner or a member of his family. 48 After he has sold himself, he has the right to be bought back. One of his brothers may buy him back. 49 His uncle, his cousin, or some other relative could also buy him back. If he becomes rich, he could buy his own freedom. 50 Then he and his buyer must take into account the number of years from the year he was bought until the year of jubilee. His sale price will be adjusted based on the number of years he was with his buyer, like the wages of a hired worker. 51 If there are many years left, he must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. 52 If there are only a few years left until the year of jubilee, he must take them into account. He must refund from his purchase price an amount equal to those years. 53 During those years he should serve his buyer as a hired worker. His buyer should not treat him harshly. 54 If he cannot buy his freedom in these ways, he and his children will be released in the year of jubilee.
55 “The Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. I am Yahweh your Elohim.”
Psalm 32
A psalm by David; a maskil.[a]
1 Blessed is the person whose disobedience is forgiven
and whose sin is pardoned.
2 Blessed is the person whom Yahweh no longer accuses of sin
and who has no deceitful thoughts.
3 When I kept silent about my sins,
my bones began to weaken because of my groaning all day long.
4 Day and night your hand laid heavily on me.
My strength shriveled in the summer heat. Selah
5 I made my sins known to you, and I did not cover up my guilt.
I decided to confess them to you, O Yahweh.
Then you forgave all my sins. Selah
6 For this reason let all godly people pray to you
when you may be found.
Then raging floodwater will not reach them.
7 You are my hiding place.
You protect me from trouble.
You surround me with joyous songs of salvation. Selah
8 The Lord says,
“I will instruct you.
I will teach you the way that you should go.
I will advise you as my eyes watch over you.
9 Don’t be stubborn like a horse or mule.
They need a bit and bridle in their mouth to restrain them,
or they will not come near you.”
10 Many heartaches await wicked people,
but mercy surrounds those who trust Yahweh.
11 Be glad and find joy in Yahweh, you righteous people.
Sing with joy, all whose motives are decent.
8 Who is really wise? Who knows how to explain things? Wisdom makes one’s face shine, and it changes one’s grim look.
The Power of Kings Versus the Power of Death
2 I advise you to obey the king’s commands because of the oath you took in Elohim’s presence. 3 Don’t be in a hurry to leave the king’s service. Don’t take part in something evil, because he can do whatever he pleases. 4 Since a king’s word has such power, no one can ask him what he is doing. 5 Whoever obeys his commands will avoid trouble. The mind of a wise person will know the right time and the right way to act. 6 There is a right time and a right way to act in every situation. Yet, a terrible human tragedy hangs over people.
7 They don’t know what the future will bring. So who can tell them how things will turn out? 8 No one has the power to prevent the spirit[a] of life from leaving. No one has control over the day of his own death. There is no way to avoid the war against death. Wickedness will not save wicked people from dying.
Life Is Unfair
9 I have seen all of this, and I have carefully considered all that is done under the sun whenever one person has authority to hurt others. 10 Then I saw wicked people given an honorable burial. They used to go in and out of the holy place. They were praised in the city for doing such things. Even this is pointless.
The Need for Swift Justice
11 When a sentence against a crime isn’t carried out quickly, people are encouraged to commit crimes. 12 A sinner may commit a hundred crimes and yet live a long life. Still, I know with certainty that it will go well for those who fear Elohim, because they fear him. 13 But it will not go well for the wicked. They will not live any longer. Their lives are like shadows, because they don’t fear Elohim.
Enjoy Life
14 There is something being done on earth that is pointless. Righteous people suffer for what the wicked do, and wicked people get what the righteous deserve. I say that even this is pointless.
15 So I recommend the enjoyment of life. People have nothing better to do under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy themselves. This joy will stay with them while they work hard during their brief lives which Elohim has given them under the sun.
16 When I carefully considered how to study wisdom and how to look at the work that is done on earth (even going without sleep day and night), 17 then I saw everything that Elohim has done. No one is able to grasp the work that is done under the sun. However hard a person may search for it, he will not find its meaning. Even though a wise person claims to know, he is not able to grasp it.
Continue to Do Your Work
4 I solemnly call on you in the presence of God and Christ Yeshua, who is going to judge those who are living and those who are dead. I do this because Christ Yeshua will come to rule the world. 2 Be ready to spread the word whether or not the time is right. Point out errors, warn people, and encourage them. Be very patient when you teach.
3 A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear. 4 People will refuse to listen to the truth and turn to myths.
5 But you must keep a clear head in everything. Endure suffering. Do the work of a missionary. Devote yourself completely to your work.
6 My life is coming to an end, and it is now time for me to be poured out as a sacrifice to God. 7 I have fought the good fight. I have completed the race. I have kept the faith. 8 The prize that shows I have God’s approval is now waiting for me. The Lord, who is a fair judge, will give me that prize on that day. He will give it not only to me but also to everyone who is eagerly waiting for him to come again.
Paul’s Final Instructions to Timothy
9 Hurry to visit me soon. 10 Demas has abandoned me. He fell in love with this present world and went to the city of Thessalonica. Crescens went to the province of Galatia, and Titus went to the province of Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you. He is useful to me in my work. 12 I’m sending Tychicus to the city of Ephesus as my representative.
13 When you come, bring the warm coat I left with Carpus in the city of Troas. Also bring the scrolls and especially the parchments.[a]
14 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will pay him back for what he did. 15 Watch out for him. He violently opposed what we said. 16 At my first hearing no one stood up in my defense. Everyone abandoned me. I pray that it won’t be held against them. 17 However, the Lord stood by me and gave me strength so that I could finish spreading the Good News for all the nations to hear. I was snatched out of a lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from all harm and will take me safely to his heavenly kingdom. Glory belongs to him forever! Amen.
Final Greetings
19 Give my greetings to Prisca and Aquila and the family of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus stayed in the city of Corinth and I left Trophimus in the city of Miletus because he was sick. 21 Hurry to visit me before winter comes. Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers and sisters send you greetings.
22 The Lord be with you. His good will[b] be with all of you.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.