M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Samson Troubles the Philistines
15 At the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, taking a young goat with him. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room,” but her father would not let him go in.
2 He said to Samson, “I thought you really hated your wife, so I gave her to your best man. Her younger sister is more beautiful. Take her instead.”
3 But Samson said to them, “This time no one will blame me for hurting you Philistines!” 4 So Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. He took two foxes at a time, tied their tails together, and then tied a torch to the tails of each pair of foxes. 5 After he lit the torches, he let the foxes loose in the grainfields of the Philistines so that he burned up their standing grain, the piles of grain, their vineyards, and their olive trees.
6 The Philistines asked, “Who did this?”
Someone told them, “Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, did because his father-in-law gave his wife to his best man.”
So the Philistines burned Samson’s wife and her father to death. 7 Then Samson said to the Philistines, “Since you did this, I won’t stop until I pay you back!” 8 Samson attacked the Philistines and killed many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
9 The Philistines went up and camped in the land of Judah, near a place named Lehi. 10 The men of Judah asked them, “Why have you come here to fight us?”
They answered, “We have come to make Samson our prisoner, to pay him back for what he did to our people.”
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “What have you done to us? Don’t you know that the Philistines rule over us?”
Samson answered, “I only paid them back for what they did to me.”
12 Then they said to him, “We have come to tie you up and to hand you over to the Philistines.”
Samson said to them, “Promise me you will not hurt me yourselves.”
13 The men from Judah said, “We agree. We will just tie you up and give you to the Philistines. We will not kill you.” So they tied Samson with two new ropes and led him up from the cave in the rock. 14 When Samson came to the place named Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting for joy. Then the Spirit of the Lord entered Samson and gave him great power. The ropes on him weakened like burned strings and fell off his hands! 15 Samson found the jawbone of a dead donkey, took it, and killed a thousand men with it!
16 Then Samson said,
“With a donkey’s jawbone
I made donkeys out of them.
With a donkey’s jawbone
I killed a thousand men!”
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone. So that place was named Ramath Lehi.[a]
18 Samson was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord, “You gave me, your servant, this great victory. Do I have to die of thirst now? Do I have to be captured by people who are not circumcised?” 19 Then God opened up a hole in the ground at Lehi, and water came out. When Samson drank, he felt better; he felt strong again. So he named that spring Caller’s Spring, which is still in Lehi.
20 Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Paul in Ephesus
19 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul was visiting some places on the way to Ephesus. There he found some followers 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They said, “We have never even heard of a Holy Spirit.”
3 So he asked, “What kind of baptism did you have?”
They said, “It was the baptism that John taught.”
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of changed hearts and lives. He told people to believe in the one who would come after him, and that one is Jesus.”
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 Then Paul laid his hands on them,[a] and the Holy Spirit came upon them. They began speaking different languages[b] and prophesying. 7 There were about twelve people in this group.
8 Paul went into the synagogue and spoke out boldly for three months. He talked with the people and persuaded them to accept the things he said about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them became stubborn. They refused to believe and said evil things about the Way of Jesus before all the people. So Paul left them, and taking the followers with him, he went to the school of a man named Tyrannus. There Paul talked with people every day 10 for two years. Because of his work, every Jew and Greek in Asia heard the word of the Lord.
The Sons of Sceva
11 God used Paul to do some very special miracles. 12 Some people took handkerchiefs and clothes that Paul had used and put them on the sick. When they did this, the sick were healed and evil spirits left them.
13 But some people also were traveling around and making evil spirits go out of people. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to force the evil spirits out. They would say, “By the same Jesus that Paul talks about, I order you to come out!” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this.
15 But one time an evil spirit said to them, “I know Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”
16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them. Because he was so much stronger than all of them, they ran away from the house naked and hurt. 17 All the people in Ephesus—Jews and Greeks—learned about this and were filled with fear and gave great honor to the Lord Jesus. 18 Many of the believers began to confess openly and tell all the evil things they had done. 19 Some of them who had used magic brought their magic books and burned them before everyone. Those books were worth about fifty thousand silver coins.[c]
20 So in a powerful way the word of the Lord kept spreading and growing.
21 After these things, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, planning to go through the countries of Macedonia and Southern Greece and then on to Jerusalem. He said, “After I have been to Jerusalem, I must also visit Rome.” 22 Paul sent Timothy and Erastus, two of his helpers, ahead to Macedonia, but he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
Trouble in Ephesus
23 And during that time, there was some serious trouble in Ephesus about the Way of Jesus. 24 A man named Demetrius, who worked with silver, made little silver models that looked like the temple of the goddess Artemis.[d] Those who did this work made much money. 25 Demetrius had a meeting with them and some others who did the same kind of work. He told them, “Men, you know that we make a lot of money from our business. 26 But look at what this man Paul is doing. He has convinced and turned away many people in Ephesus and in almost all of Asia! He says the gods made by human hands are not real. 27 There is a danger that our business will lose its good name, but there is also another danger: People will begin to think that the temple of the great goddess Artemis is not important. Her greatness will be destroyed, and Artemis is the goddess that everyone in Asia and the whole world worships.”
28 When the others heard this, they became very angry and shouted, “Artemis, the goddess of Ephesus, is great!” 29 The whole city became confused. The people grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus, who were from Macedonia and were traveling with Paul, and ran to the theater. 30 Paul wanted to go in and talk to the crowd, but the followers did not let him. 31 Also, some leaders of Asia who were friends of Paul sent him a message, begging him not to go into the theater. 32 Some people were shouting one thing, and some were shouting another. The meeting was completely confused; most of them did not know why they had come together. 33 They put a man named Alexander in front of the people, and some of them told him what to do. Alexander waved his hand so he could explain things to the people. 34 But when they saw that Alexander was a Jew, they all shouted the same thing for two hours: “Great is Artemis of Ephesus!”
35 Then the city clerk made the crowd be quiet. He said, “People of Ephesus, everyone knows that Ephesus is the city that keeps the temple of the great goddess Artemis and her holy stone[e] that fell from heaven. 36 Since no one can say this is not true, you should be quiet. Stop and think before you do anything. 37 You brought these men here, but they have not said anything evil against our goddess or stolen anything from her temple. 38 If Demetrius and those who work with him have a charge against anyone they should go to the courts and judges where they can argue with each other. 39 If there is something else you want to talk about, it can be decided at the regular town meeting of the people. 40 I say this because some people might see this trouble today and say that we are rioting. We could not explain this, because there is no real reason for this meeting.” 41 After the city clerk said these things, he told the people to go home.
The False Prophet Hananiah
28 It was in that same year, in the fifth month of Zedekiah’s fourth year as king of Judah, soon after he began to rule. The prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, from the town of Gibeon, spoke to me in the Temple of the Lord in front of the priests and all the people. He said: 2 “The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke the king of Babylon has put on Judah. 3 Before two years are over, I will bring back everything that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took to Babylon from the Lord’s Temple. 4 I will also bring back Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the other captives from Judah who went to Babylon,’ says the Lord. ‘So I will break the yoke the king of Babylon put on Judah.’”
5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in front of the priests and all the people who were standing in the Temple of the Lord. 6 He said, “Amen! Let the Lord really do that! May the Lord make the message you prophesy come true. May he bring back here everything from the Lord’s Temple and all the people who were taken as captives to Babylon.
7 “But listen to what I am going to say to you and all the people. 8 There were prophets long before we became prophets, Hananiah. They prophesied that war, hunger, and terrible diseases would come to many countries and great kingdoms. 9 But if a prophet prophesies that we will have peace and that message comes true, he can be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord.”
10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it. 11 Hananiah said in front of all the people, “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He put that yoke on all the nations of the world, but I will break it before two years are over.’” After Hananiah had said that, Jeremiah left the Temple.
12 The Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke off of the prophet Jeremiah’s neck. 13 The Lord said, “Go and tell Hananiah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but I will make a yoke of iron in its place! 14 The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: I will put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will be slaves to him. I will even give Nebuchadnezzar control over the wild animals.’”
15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, and you have made the people of Judah trust in lies. 16 So this is what the Lord says: ‘Soon I will remove you from the earth. You will die this year, because you taught the people to turn against the Lord.’”
17 Hananiah died in the seventh month of that same year.
The Plan to Kill Jesus
14 It was now only two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The leading priests and teachers of the law were trying to find a trick to arrest Jesus and kill him. 2 But they said, “We must not do it during the feast, because the people might cause a riot.”
A Woman with Perfume for Jesus
3 Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, who had a skin disease. While Jesus was eating there, a woman approached him with an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She opened the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head.
4 Some who were there became upset and said to each other, “Why waste that perfume? 5 It was worth a full year’s work. It could have been sold and the money given to the poor.” And they got very angry with the woman.
6 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why are you troubling her? She did an excellent thing for me. 7 You will always have the poor with you, and you can help them anytime you want. But you will not always have me. 8 This woman did the only thing she could do for me; she poured perfume on my body to prepare me for burial. 9 I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached in all the world, what this woman has done will be told, and people will remember her.”
Judas Becomes an Enemy of Jesus
10 One of the twelve apostles, Judas Iscariot, went to talk to the leading priests to offer to hand Jesus over to them. 11 These priests were pleased about this and promised to pay Judas money. So he watched for the best time to turn Jesus in.
Jesus Eats the Passover Meal
12 It was now the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread when the Passover lamb was sacrificed. Jesus’ followers said to him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover meal?”
13 Jesus sent two of his followers and said to them, “Go into the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. 14 When he goes into a house, tell the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher says: “Where is my guest room in which I can eat the Passover meal with my followers?”’ 15 The owner will show you a large room upstairs that is furnished and ready. Prepare the food for us there.”
16 So the followers left and went into the city. Everything happened as Jesus had said, so they prepared the Passover meal.
17 In the evening, Jesus went to that house with the twelve. 18 While they were all eating, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will turn against me—one of you eating with me now.”
19 The followers were very sad to hear this. Each one began to say to Jesus, “I am not the one, am I?”
20 Jesus answered, “It is one of the twelve—the one who dips his bread into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will die, just as the Scriptures say. But how terrible it will be for the person who hands the Son of Man over to be killed. It would be better for him if he had never been born.”
The Lord’s Supper
22 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread and thanked God for it and broke it. Then he gave it to his followers and said, “Take it; this is my body.”
23 Then Jesus took a cup and thanked God for it and gave it to the followers, and they all drank from the cup.
24 Then Jesus said, “This is my blood which is the new[a] agreement that God makes with his people. This blood is poured out for many. 25 I tell you the truth, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine[b] again until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
26 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Jesus’ Followers Will Leave Him
27 Then Jesus told the followers, “You will all stumble in your faith, because it is written in the Scriptures:
‘I will kill the shepherd,
and the sheep will scatter.’ Zechariah 13:7
28 But after I rise from the dead, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”
29 Peter said, “Everyone else may stumble in their faith, but I will not.”
30 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, tonight before the rooster crows twice you will say three times you don’t know me.”
31 But Peter insisted, “I will never say that I don’t know you! I will even die with you!” And all the other followers said the same thing.
Jesus Prays Alone
32 Jesus and his followers went to a place called Gethsemane. He said to them, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be very sad and troubled. 34 He said to them, “My heart is full of sorrow, to the point of death. Stay here and watch.”
35 After walking a little farther away from them, Jesus fell to the ground and prayed that, if possible, he would not have this time of suffering. 36 He prayed, “Abba,[c] Father! You can do all things. Take away this cup[d] of suffering. But do what you want, not what I want.”
37 Then Jesus went back to his followers and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake with me for one hour? 38 Stay awake and pray for strength against temptation. The spirit wants to do what is right, but the body is weak.”
39 Again Jesus went away and prayed the same thing. 40 Then he went back to his followers, and again he found them asleep, because their eyes were very heavy. And they did not know what to say to him.
41 After Jesus prayed a third time, he went back to his followers and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? That’s enough. The time has come for the Son of Man to be handed over to sinful people. 42 Get up, we must go. Look, here comes the man who has turned against me.”
Jesus Is Arrested
43 At once, while Jesus was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve apostles, came up. With him were many people carrying swords and clubs who had been sent from the leading priests, the teachers of the law, and the Jewish elders.
44 Judas had planned a signal for them, saying, “The man I kiss is Jesus. Arrest him and guard him while you lead him away.” 45 So Judas went straight to Jesus and said, “Teacher!” and kissed him. 46 Then the people grabbed Jesus and arrested him. 47 One of his followers standing nearby pulled out his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
48 Then Jesus said, “You came to get me with swords and clubs as if I were a criminal. 49 Every day I was with you teaching in the Temple, and you did not arrest me there. But all these things have happened to make the Scriptures come true.” 50 Then all of Jesus’ followers left him and ran away.
51 A young man, wearing only a linen cloth, was following Jesus, and the people also grabbed him. 52 But the cloth he was wearing came off, and he ran away naked.
Jesus Before the Leaders
53 The people who arrested Jesus led him to the house of the high priest, where all the leading priests, the elders, and the teachers of the law were gathered. 54 Peter followed far behind and entered the courtyard of the high priest’s house. There he sat with the guards, warming himself by the fire.
55 The leading priests and the whole Jewish council tried to find something that Jesus had done wrong so they could kill him. But the council could find no proof of anything. 56 Many people came and told false things about him, but all said different things—none of them agreed.
57 Then some people stood up and lied about Jesus, saying, 58 “We heard this man say, ‘I will destroy this Temple that people made. And three days later, I will build another Temple not made by people.’” 59 But even the things these people said did not agree.
60 Then the high priest stood before them and asked Jesus, “Aren’t you going to answer? Don’t you have something to say about their charges against you?” 61 But Jesus said nothing; he did not answer.
The high priest asked Jesus another question: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the blessed God?”
62 Jesus answered, “I am. And in the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God, the Powerful One, and coming on clouds in the sky.”
63 When the high priest heard this, he tore his clothes and said, “We don’t need any more witnesses! 64 You all heard him say these things against God. What do you think?”
They all said that Jesus was guilty and should die. 65 Some of the people there began to spit at Jesus. They blindfolded him and beat him with their fists and said, “Prove you are a prophet!” Then the guards led Jesus away and beat him.
Peter Says He Doesn’t Know Jesus
66 While Peter was in the courtyard, a servant girl of the high priest came there. 67 She saw Peter warming himself at the fire and looked closely at him.
Then she said, “You also were with Jesus, that man from Nazareth.”
68 But Peter said that he was never with Jesus. He said, “I don’t know or understand what you are talking about.” Then Peter left and went toward the entrance of the courtyard. And the rooster crowed.[e]
69 The servant girl saw Peter there, and again she said to the people who were standing nearby, “This man is one of those who followed Jesus.” 70 Again Peter said that it was not true.
A short time later, some people were standing near Peter saying, “Surely you are one of those who followed Jesus, because you are from Galilee, too.”
71 Then Peter began to place a curse on himself and swear, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about!”
72 At once, the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had told him: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will say three times that you don’t know me.” Then Peter lost control of himself and began to cry.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.