M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

25 ¶ And Samuel died, and all Israel gathered together and lamented him and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

² ¶ And there was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

³ Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance, but the man was hard and evil in his doings, and he was of the lineage of Caleb.

⁴ And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

⁵ And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Climb up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.

⁶ And thus shall ye say to him, May thou live and peace be unto thee and peace be unto thy house and peace be unto all that thou hast.

⁷ I have recently heard that thou hast shearers. Now thy shepherds who were with us, we did not hurt them, neither was there anything missing unto them all the while they were in Carmel.

⁸ Ask thy slaves, and they will tell thee. Therefore, let the young men find grace in thine eyes, for we come in a good day; give, I pray thee, whatever is in thy hand unto thy slaves and to thy son David.

⁹ And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David and ceased.

¹⁰ And Nabal answered David’s slaves and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many slaves nowadays that break from their masters.

¹¹ Shall I then take my bread and my water and my slaughtered meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it unto men that I do not know where they are from?

¹² ¶ So David’s young men left and returned and came and told him all those words.

¹³ Then David said unto his men, Gird ye on each man his sword. And each one girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, and they left two hundred with the stuff.

¹⁴ And one of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master, and he railed on them.

¹⁵ But the men were very good unto us and never hurt us, neither did we miss anything all the time that we have been conversant with them when we were in the fields.

¹⁶ They were a wall unto us both by night and day all the time that we were feeding the sheep with them.

¹⁷ Now, therefore, know and consider what thou must do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial that no one can speak to him.

¹⁸ ¶ Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched flour and one hundred bunches of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and laid them on asses.

¹⁹ And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told nothing to her husband Nabal.

²⁰ And it was so as she rode on the ass that she came down a secret part of the mountain, and, behold, David and his men came down against her, and she met them.

²¹ Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him, and he has returned unto me evil for good.

²² Let God do so and more also unto the enemies of David if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that piss against the wall.

²³ And when Abigail saw David, she hastened and lighted off the ass and fell before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground

²⁴ and fell at his feet and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be, and let thy handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thy audience; and hear the words of thy handmaid.

²⁵ Let not my lord, I pray thee, take to heart this man of Belial, even Nabal, for as his name is, so is he; Nabal {Heb. fool} is his name, and folly is with him; but I, thy handmaid, did not see the servants of my lord whom thou didst send.

²⁶ Now, therefore, my lord, as the LORD lives and as thy soul lives, seeing the LORD has withheld thee from coming to shed blood and from avenging thyself with thy own hand, now let thy enemies and those that seek evil to my lord be as Nabal.

²⁷ And now this blessing which thy handmaid has brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the servants that follow my lord.

²⁸ I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thy handmaid, for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house because my lord fights the battles of the LORD, and evil has not been found in thee all thy days.

²⁹ Yet a man is risen to pursue thee and to seek thy soul, but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God, and he shall hurl forth the souls of thine enemies as out of the middle of a sling.

³⁰ And it shall come to pass when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning thee and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel,

³¹ that this shall be no stumblingblock unto thee nor grief of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless or that my lord has avenged himself; but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thy handmaid.

³² ¶ Then David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel who sent thee this day to meet me;

³³ and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou who hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging myself with my own hand.

³⁴ For in very deed as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hastened and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that piss against the wall.

³⁵ So David received of her hand that which she had brought him and said unto her, Go up in peace to thy house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted thy person.

³⁶ ¶ And Abigail came to Nabal, and, behold, he held a banquet in his house like the banquet of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken; therefore, she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

³⁷ But it came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

³⁸ And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, and he died.

³⁹ And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD that judged the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept his slave from evil, for the LORD has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent word unto Abigail to take her to him to wife.

⁴⁰ And when the slaves of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke with her, saying, David sent us unto thee to take thee to him to wife.

⁴¹ And she arose and bowed herself on her face to the earth and said, Behold, let thy handmaid be a slave to wash the feet of the slaves of my lord.

⁴² And Abigail hastened and arose and rode upon an ass with five damsels of hers that went after her, and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife.

⁴³ David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they were also both of them his wives.

⁴⁴ For Saul had given Michal, his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti, the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

6 ¶ Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go unto judgment before the unjust, and not before the saints?

² Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

³ Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more the things that pertain to this life?

⁴ If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set as judges the most humble who are in the congregation. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}

⁵ I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brothers?

⁶ But brother goes to judgment against brother, and that before the unbelievers.

⁷ Now therefore there is certainly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather suffer the wrong? why do ye not rather be defrauded?

⁸ But ye do wrong and defraud and do this to your brothers.

⁹ ¶ Know ye not that the unjust shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals

¹⁰ nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

¹¹ And such were some of you, but now ye are washed, but now ye are sanctified, but now ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God.

¹² ¶ All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient; all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

¹³ Foods are for the belly, and the belly for foods; but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

¹⁴ And God, who raised up the Lord, will also raise up us by his own power.

¹⁵ Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? In no wise.

¹⁶ What? know ye not that he who is joined to the harlot is one body with her? For they shall be, saith he, two in one flesh.

¹⁷ But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

¹⁸ Flee fornication. Any other sin that a man does is outside the body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body.

¹⁹ What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom ye have of God, and that ye are not your own?

²⁰ For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

4 ¶ Thou also, son of man, take a tile and lay it before thee and portray upon it the city of Jerusalem

² and lay siege against it and build a fort against it and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about.

³ And take an iron pan and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city; and set thy face against it and it shall be for an encompassment, and thou shalt lay siege against the city. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴ Thou shalt sleep upon thy left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it; according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity.

⁵ For I have summed up for thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁶ And when thou hast accomplished them, thou shalt sleep on thy right side this second time, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: a day for a year; I have appointed thee each day for a year.

⁷ Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against her.

⁸ And, behold, I laced bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn from one side to another until thou hast ended the days appointed thee upon thy sides.

⁹ ¶ Take also unto thee wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet and fitches and put them in one vessel and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.

¹⁰ And thy food which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time shalt thou eat it.

¹¹ Thou shalt also drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from time to time shalt thou drink.

¹² And thou shalt eat barley cakes baked under the ashes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that comes out of man, in their sight.

¹³ And the LORD said, Even thus shall the sons of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.

¹⁴ Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul is not defiled: for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither has abominable flesh come into my mouth.

¹⁵ Then he said unto me, Behold, I give thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread with it.

¹⁶ Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I break the sustenance of bread in Jerusalem; and they shall eat bread by weight, and with anguish; and they shall drink water by measure, and with terror.

¹⁷ For they shall lack bread and water, and terrorize one another, and faint because of their iniquity.

To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ I waited patiently for the LORD, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry.

² He brought me up also out of the pit of hopelessness, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and straightened my steps.

³ And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God; many shall see it and fear and shall wait on the LORD.

⁴ Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

⁵ Thou hast increased, O LORD my God, thy wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts regarding us; they are beyond our ability to express, declare, or speak; they cannot be told.

⁶ ¶ Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; burnt offering and sin offering thou hast not required.

⁷ Then said I, Behold, I come; in the volume of the book it is written of me,

⁸ I delight to do thy will, O my God; thy law is within my bowels.

⁹ I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.

¹⁰ I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy truth and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy mercy and thy truth from the great congregation.

¹¹ ¶ Do not withhold thy tender mercies from me, O LORD; let thy mercy and thy truth continually preserve me.

¹² For innumerable evils have compassed me about; my iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to see; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart fails me.

¹³ Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me.

¹⁴ Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my life to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.

¹⁵ Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.

¹⁶ Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee; let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.

¹⁷ When I am poor and needy; the Lord will remember me; thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ Blessed is he that understands regarding the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the day of evil.

² The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth, and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.

³ The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; thou wilt soften all his bed in his sickness.

⁴ I said, LORD, be merciful unto me; heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.

⁵ ¶ My enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die and his name perish?

⁶ And if he came to see me, he spoke lies: his heart gathered iniquity to itself, and when he goes out, he tells it.

⁷ All that hate me congregate together and murmur against me; against me do they devise my hurt.

⁸ A disease of Belial, they say, cleaves fast unto him, and now that he lies he shall rise up no more.

⁹ Even the man of my peace, in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

¹⁰ But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me and raise me up that I may requite them.

¹¹ In this I shall know that I have pleased thee, that my enemy does not triumph over me.

¹² And as for me, thou sustained me in my integrity and hast seated me before thy face for ever.

¹³ Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.