M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Jonathan Defeats the Philistines
14 One day Saul’s son Jonathan said to his armorbearer, “Let’s go to the Philistine military post on the other side.” But Jonathan didn’t tell his father he was going.
2 Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree at Migron. He had with him about 600 men 3 in addition to Ahijah, the son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub, who was the son of Phinehas and the grandson of Eli, Yahweh’s priest at Shiloh. Ahijah was wearing the priestly ephod.[a]
The troops didn’t know Jonathan had left. 4 There was a cliff on each side of the mountain pass where Jonathan searched for a way to cross over to attack the Philistine military post. The name of one cliff was Bozez, and the name of the other was Seneh. 5 One cliff stood like a pillar on the north facing Michmash, the other stood south facing Geba.
6 Jonathan said to his armorbearer, “Let’s go to the military post of these uncircumcised people. Maybe Yahweh will act on our behalf. Yahweh can win a victory with a few men as well as with many.”
7 His armorbearer answered him, “Do whatever you have in mind. Go ahead! I agree with you.”
8 Jonathan continued, “Listen, we’ll cross over to the Philistines and show ourselves to them. 9 If they say to us, ‘Stay where you are until we come to you,’ then we’ll stay where we are and not go up to them. 10 But if they say to us, ‘Come up here,’ then we’ll go up, because that will be our sign that Yahweh has handed them over to us.”
11 So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine troops. The Philistines said, “Look, some Hebrews are coming out of the holes they were hiding in.”
12 “Come up here,” the men of the military post said to Jonathan and his armorbearer. “We have something to show you.”
Jonathan told his armorbearer, “Follow me up to the military post because Yahweh has handed the troops over to Israel.”
13 Jonathan climbed up the cliff, and his armorbearer followed him. Jonathan struck down the Philistines. His armorbearer, who was behind him, finished killing them. 14 In their first slaughter Jonathan and his armorbearer killed about twenty men within about a hundred yards. 15 There was panic among the army in the field and all the troops in the military post. The raiding party also trembled in fear. The earth shook, and there was a panic sent from Elohim.
16 Saul’s watchmen at Gibeah in Benjamin could see the crowd in the Philistine camp dispersing in all directions.
17 “Look around,” Saul told the troops who were with him, “and see who has left our camp.” They looked and found that Jonathan and his armorbearer were not there.
18 Then Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the priestly ephod,” because Ahijah carried the ephod in front of Israel that day.[b] 19 While Saul was talking to the priest, the confusion in the Philistine camp grew worse and worse. Then Saul said to the priest, “Remove your hand from the ephod.”[c] 20 Saul and all the troops with him assembled and went into battle. They found Philistine soldiers killing their fellow soldiers in wild confusion. 21 The Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before this and had been stationed in the camp now joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. 22 When all the men of Israel who had been hiding in the mountains of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they also pursued the Philistines in battle. 23 So Yahweh saved Israel that day.
Saul’s Curse
Now, the battle moved beyond Beth Aven. 24 Israel’s soldiers were driven hard that day. Saul made the troops swear, “Cursed is anyone who eats food before the evening comes and before I’ve gotten revenge on my enemies.” So none of his troops tasted any food. 25 The entire land had honeycombs,[d] and there was honey on the ground. 26 When the troops entered the woods, the honey was flowing. But no one put his hand to his mouth, because the troops were afraid of violating their oath.
27 Jonathan hadn’t heard that his father forced the troops to take an oath. So he stretched out the tip of the staff he had in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb. When he put it to his mouth, his eyes lit up. 28 Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father forced the troops to take a solemn oath: ‘Cursed is anyone who eats food today.’”
Now, the army was exhausted. 29 Jonathan answered, “My father has brought trouble to the country. See how my eyes lit up when I tasted a little of this honey? 30 If only the troops had eaten some of the enemies’ food, which they found today. We would have killed more Philistines.”
31 That day they struck down the Philistines from Michmash to Aijalon, but the troops were thoroughly exhausted. 32 So the troops seized the Philistines’ belongings. They took sheep, cows, and calves, and butchered them on the ground. The troops ate the meat with blood still in it. 33 Some soldiers told Saul, “The troops are sinning against Yahweh by eating meat with blood in it.”
Saul replied, “You have been unfaithful. Roll a large rock over to me now.” 34 Then Saul said, “Spread out through the troops, and tell them, ‘Each of you, bring me your ox or your sheep, and butcher it here, and eat. But don’t sin against Yahweh by eating meat with blood in it.’”
So each of the soldiers brought his ox with him that night and butchered it there.
35 Then Saul built an altar to Yahweh; it was the first time he had built an altar to Yahweh.
36 Saul said to his men, “Let’s attack the Philistines tonight and take their possessions until the light of dawn. And let’s not leave any of them alive.”
“Do whatever you think is best,” they responded.
But the priest said, “Let’s consult Elohim first.”
37 Then Saul asked Elohim, “Should I attack the Philistines? Will you hand them over to Israel?” But he received no answer that day.
38 So Saul ordered all the leaders of the troops, “Come here! Find out what sin was committed today. 39 I solemnly swear, as Yahweh and Savior of Israel lives, even if it is my son Jonathan who did it, he must die.” But not one of the soldiers replied.
40 Saul told all Israel, “You stand on one side, and my son Jonathan and I will stand on the other side.”
“Do whatever you think is best,” the troops responded to Saul.
41 Then Saul said to Yahweh, “O Elohim of Israel, why didn’t you answer me today? If this sin is mine or my son Jonathan’s, Yahweh Elohim of Israel, let the priest draw Urim. But if it is in your people Israel,[e] let him draw Thummim.” Jonathan and Saul were chosen, and the people were freed from guilt.
42 “Choose between me and my son Jonathan,” Saul said. Then Jonathan was chosen.
43 “Tell me,” Saul asked Jonathan. “What did you do?”
So Jonathan told him, “I tasted a little honey on the tip of the staff I had in my hand. And for that I am to die?”
44 Saul said, “May Elohim do worse things to me than are in this curse if you do not die, Jonathan!”
45 The troops asked Saul, “Should Jonathan die after he has won this great victory in Israel? That would be unthinkable! We solemnly swear, as Yahweh lives, not a single hair of his head will fall to the ground, because he has done this with Elohim’s help today.” So the troops rescued Jonathan from death. 46 Then Saul stopped pursuing the Philistines. So the Philistines returned to their own land.
Summary of Saul’s Reign
47 When Saul had taken over the kingdom of Israel, he fought against his enemies on every side—against Moab, the Ammonites, Edom, the kings of Zobah, and the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he was victorious. 48 He acted forcefully and defeated Amalek. He rescued Israel from the enemies who looted their possessions.
49 Saul’s sons were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchishua. The names of his two daughters were Merab (the firstborn daughter) and Michal (the younger daughter). 50 The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Saul’s uncle Ner. 51 Kish (Saul’s father) and Ner (Abner’s father) were the sons of Abiel.
52 There was intense warfare with the Philistines as long as Saul lived. Whenever any warrior or any skilled fighting man came to Saul’s attention, Saul would enlist him in the army.
Dedicate Your Lives to God
12 Brothers and sisters, in view of all we have just shared about God’s compassion, I encourage you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to him. This kind of worship is appropriate for you. 2 Don’t become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants—what is good, pleasing, and perfect.
3 Because of the kindness[a] that God has shown me, I ask you not to think of yourselves more highly than you should. Instead, your thoughts should lead you to use good judgment based on what God has given each of you as believers. 4 Our bodies have many parts, but these parts don’t all do the same thing. 5 In the same way, even though we are many individuals, Christ makes us one body and individuals who are connected to each other. 6 God in his kindness gave each of us different gifts. If your gift is speaking what God has revealed, make sure what you say agrees with the Christian faith. 7 If your gift is serving, then devote yourself to serving. If it is teaching, devote yourself to teaching. 8 If it is encouraging others, devote yourself to giving encouragement. If it is sharing, be generous. If it is leadership, lead enthusiastically. If it is helping people in need, help them cheerfully.
9 Love sincerely. Hate evil. Hold on to what is good. 10 Be devoted to each other like a loving family. Excel in showing respect for each other. 11 Don’t be lazy in showing your devotion. Use your energy to serve the Lord. 12 Be happy in your confidence, be patient in trouble, and pray continually. 13 Share what you have with God’s people who are in need. Be hospitable.
14 Bless those who persecute you. Bless them, and don’t curse them. 15 Be happy with those who are happy. Be sad with those who are sad. 16 Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be arrogant, but be friendly to humble people. Don’t think that you are smarter than you really are.
17 Don’t pay people back with evil for the evil they do to you. Focus your thoughts on those things that are considered noble. 18 As much as it is possible, live in peace with everyone. 19 Don’t take revenge, dear friends. Instead, let God’s anger take care of it. After all, Scripture says, “I alone have the right to take revenge. I will pay back, says the Lord.” 20 But,
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him a drink.
If you do this, you will make him feel guilty and ashamed.”
21 Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil with good.
51 This is what Yahweh says:
I will stir up a destructive wind against Babylon
and against the people who live in Leb Kamai.
2 I will send people to winnow[a] Babylon,
to winnow it and strip its land bare.
They will attack it from every direction on the day of trouble.
3 Have the archers bend their bows.
Have them put on their armor.
Don’t spare Babylon’s young men.
Completely destroy its whole army.
4 Babylon’s soldiers will fall down badly wounded in their streets.
They will lie dead in their own land.
5 Israel and Judah haven’t been abandoned by their Elohim, Yahweh Tsebaoth, although their land is guilty of abandoning Qedosh Yisrael.
6 Run away from Babylon!
Run for your lives!
You shouldn’t die because of Babylon’s crimes.
This is the time for the vengeance of Yahweh.
He will pay the people of Babylon back for what they have done.
7 Babylon was a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand.
It made the whole world drunk.
The nations drank its wine.
That is why the nations have gone insane.
8 Babylon will suddenly fall and be shattered.
Cry for it.
Bring medicine for its pain.
Maybe it can be healed.
9 We wanted to heal Babylon, but it couldn’t be healed.
Let’s abandon it and go to our own land.
Yahweh has judged Babylon.
Its judgment is complete.
10 Yahweh has brought about our victory.
Let’s announce in Zion what Yahweh our Elohim has done.
11 Sharpen the arrows; fill the quivers.
Yahweh will stir up the spirit of the kings of the Medes
because his plan is to destroy Babylon.
Yahweh will avenge his temple.
12 Raise your battle flag in front of the walls of Babylon.
Strengthen the guards.
Station watchmen.
Prepare ambushes.
Yahweh will carry out his plans
against the people who live in Babylon.
13 Babylon, you live beside many rivers and are rich with treasures,
but your end has come.
The thread of your life has been cut off.
14 Yahweh Tsebaoth has taken an oath on himself:
“I will certainly fill you with many enemy armies.
They will swarm like locusts.
People will shout their victory over you.”
15 Yahweh made the earth by his power.
He set up the world by his wisdom.
He stretched out heaven by his understanding.
16 When he thunders, the water in the sky roars.
He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain.
He brings wind out of his storehouses.
17 Everyone is stupid and ignorant.
Metalsmiths are put to shame by their idols.
Their statues are false gods.
18 They can’t breathe.
They are worthless jokes.
When they are punished, they will disappear.
19 Jacob’s God isn’t like them.
He made everything,
and Israel is the tribe that belongs to him.
His name is Yahweh Tsebaoth.
20 “You are my war club and my weapon for battle.
I will use you to crush nations.
I will use you to destroy kingdoms.
21 I will use you to crush horses and their riders.
I will use you to crush chariots and their drivers.
22 I will use you to crush men and women.
I will use you to crush the old and the young.
I will use you to crush young men and women.
23 I will use you to crush shepherds and their flocks.
I will use you to crush farmers and their oxen.
I will use you to crush governors and officials.
24 “In your presence I will pay back Babylon
and all the people who live in Babylon
for all the evil things that they did in Zion,”
declares Yahweh.
25 “I am against you, Babylon, you destructive mountain.
You have destroyed the whole earth,” declares Yahweh.
“I will use my power against you,
roll you off the cliffs,
and make you a scorched mountain.
26 People won’t find any stones in you to use as a cornerstone.
They won’t find any stones in you to use for a foundation.
You will become permanent ruins,” declares Yahweh.
27 Raise your battle flag throughout the world.
Blow the ram’s horn among the nations.
Prepare nations to attack Babylon.
Tell the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz to attack it.
Appoint a commander to lead the attack.
Bring up horses like a swarm of locusts.
28 Prepare nations to attack Babylon.
Prepare the king of the Medes, their governors, all their deputies,
and all the countries that they rule.
29 The earth trembles and writhes in pain.
Yahweh carries out his plans against Babylon
to make Babylon a wasteland so that no one will live there.
30 The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting.
They stay in their fortified cities.
Their strength has failed. They have become women.
Their buildings are set on fire.
The bars across their gates are broken.
31 Runners run to meet runners.
Messengers follow messengers.
They inform the king of Babylon that his entire city is captured.
32 The river crossings have been taken.
The enemy has burned its marshes,
and its soldiers are terrified.
33 This is what Yahweh Tsebaoth, the Elohim of Israel, says:
The people of Babylon are like a threshing floor[b]
at the time it is trampled.
Their harvest time will come soon.
34 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured us.
He has thrown us into confusion.
He has turned us into empty jars.
He has swallowed us like a monster.
He has filled his belly with our delicacies.
Then he spit us out.
35 The people who live in Zion say,
“May the violence done to us be done to Babylon.”
Jerusalem says,
“May the people of Babylon be held responsible for our deaths.”
36 This is what Yahweh says:
I am going to take up your cause and get revenge for you.
I will dry up Babylon’s sea and make its springs dry.
37 Babylon will become piles of rubble.
It will become a dwelling place for jackals,
something horrible, and an object of contempt,
where no one lives.
38 Its people are like roaring lions and growling lion cubs.
39 When they are excited,
I will prepare a feast for them
and make them drunk so that they will shout and laugh.
They will fall into a deep sleep and never wake up again,
declares Yahweh.
40 I will take them to be slaughtered like lambs, rams, and male goats.
41 “Sheshach has been captured.
Babylon, the city that the whole world praised, has been taken captive.
42 What a horrifying sight Babylon will be to the nations!
The sea will rise over Babylon,
and its roaring waves will cover it.
43 Its cities will be ruined.
It will become a desert, a land where no one lives
and where no human travels.
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon.
I will make Bel spit out everything that it has swallowed.
Nations will no longer stream to Babylon,
and its walls will fall.
45 “Leave it, my people!
Run for your lives!
Run from the burning anger of Yahweh.
46 Don’t lose courage or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land.
One rumor comes one year; another rumor comes the next year.
Rumors of violence are in the land.
Rumors that one ruler will fight against another are in the land.
47 That is why the days are coming when I will punish Babylon’s idols.
The whole country will be put to shame,
and all its soldiers will lie dead.
48 Then heaven and earth and everything in them will rejoice over Babylon,
because destroyers from the north will attack it,”
declares Yahweh.
49 Because the people of Babylon have killed many Israelites
and because they have killed many people throughout the earth,
Babylon must fall.
50 You people who escaped from the sword, leave!
Don’t just stand there.
Remember Yahweh in a distant land, and think about Jerusalem.
51 We have been put to shame, and we have been disgraced.
Shame covers our faces, because foreigners have gone
into the holy places of Yahweh’s temple.
52 “That is why the days are coming,” declares Yahweh,
“when I will punish their idols,
and those who are wounded will moan everywhere in the land.
53 The people of Babylon might go up to heaven.
They might fortify their strongholds.
But destroyers will still come from me against them,”
declares Yahweh.
54 Cries of agony are heard from Babylon.
Sounds of terrible destruction are heard
from the land of the Babylonians.
55 Yahweh will destroy Babylon.
He will silence the loud noise coming from it.
Waves of enemies will come roaring in like raging water.
The noise will be heard everywhere.
56 A destroyer will attack Babylon,
its soldiers will be captured,
and their bows and arrows will be broken.
“I, Yahweh, am a God who punishes evil.
I will certainly punish them.
57 I will make their officials and wise men drunk,
along with their governors, officers, and soldiers.
They will fall into a deep sleep and never wake up,”
declares the Melek, whose name is Yahweh Tsebaoth.
58 This is what Yahweh Tsebaoth says:
The thick walls of Babylon will be leveled,
and its high gates will be set on fire.
People exhaust themselves for nothing.
The nations wear themselves out only to have a fire.
59 This is the message that the prophet Jeremiah gave to Seraiah, son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah, when Seraiah went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s rule. (Seraiah was the quartermaster.)
60 Jeremiah wrote on a scroll all the disasters that would happen to Babylon. He wrote all these things that have been written about Babylon. 61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, see that you read all this. 62 Then say, ‘Yahweh, you have threatened to destroy this place so that no person or animal will live here, and it will become a permanent ruin.’ 63 When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. 64 Say, ‘Babylon will sink like this scroll. It will never rise again because of the disasters that I will bring on it.’”
The words of Jeremiah end here.
Psalm 30
A psalm by David sung at the dedication of the temple.
1 I will honor you highly, O Yahweh,
because you have pulled me out of the pit
and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
2 O Yahweh my Elohim,
I cried out to you for help,
and you healed me.
3 O Yahweh, you brought me up from the grave.
You called me back to life
from among those who had gone into the pit.
4 Make music to praise Yahweh, you faithful people who belong to him.
Remember his holiness by giving thanks.
5 His anger lasts only a moment.
His favor lasts a lifetime.
Weeping may last for the night,
but there is a song of joy in the morning.
6 When all was well with me, I said,
“I will never be shaken.”
7 O Yahweh, by your favor you have made my mountain stand firm.
When you hid your face, I was terrified.
8 I will cry out to you, O Yahweh.
I will plead to Adonay for mercy:
9 “How will you profit if my blood is shed,
if I go into the pit?
Will the dust of my body give thanks to you?
Will it tell about your truth?”
10 Hear, O Yahweh, and have pity on me!
O Yahweh, be my helper!
11 You have changed my sobbing into dancing.
You have removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy
12 so that my soul[a] may praise you with music and not be silent.
O Yahweh my Elohim, I will give thanks to you forever.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.