M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Samson visits Gaza

16 One day, Samson went to Gaza. He met a prostitute there and he slept with her. ² The people of Gaza heard that Samson was in their city. The men met together and they waited for Samson to leave. They hid themselves all night at the gate of the city. They waited there quietly and they thought, ‘We will kill him at dawn when he tries to leave the city.’^[a]

³ But Samson only stayed with the woman until the middle of the night. Then he got up and he went to leave through the city gate. He took hold of its doors and the two posts that held them. He pulled them all down together, with the metal bar that locked them. He carried them all in one piece on his shoulders. He left them at the top of the hill near Hebron.

Samson and Delilah

⁴ Some time later, Samson met a woman who was called Delilah. She lived in Sorek valley. Samson loved her. ⁵ The rulers of the Philistines went to visit Delilah. They said to her, ‘Do something clever to discover what makes Samson so strong. We want to find a way to take hold of him and tie him up. If you do that, we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.’

⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, ‘Please tell me what makes you so strong. How could someone tie you up so that you become helpless?’

⁷ Samson replied, ‘Someone would have to use seven new strings for bows. The strings must not have become dry. If they use those strings to tie me up, I will become weak, like other men.’

⁸ So the Philistine rulers gave Delilah seven new strings for bows. She used them to tie Samson up while he was asleep. ⁹ Some Philistine men hid in a room of her house. Then she shouted, ‘Samson, the Philistines are here!’ But he broke the seven strings very easily. They were like thin cotton that a fire burns. So they did not discover the secret about his strength.

¹⁰ Delilah said to Samson, ‘You have deceived me as if I was a fool! Tell me the truth! How can someone really make you weak?’

¹¹ Samson said to her, ‘They would have to use new ropes that no one has used. If they tie me up with those, I will become weak, like other men.’

¹² So Delilah took some new ropes and she tied Samson up with them. Some Philistine men were hiding in the room, as they did before. Then she shouted, ‘Samson, the Philistines are here!’ But he broke the ropes off his arms, as if they were thin string.

¹³ Then Delilah said to Samson, ‘You have deceived me again as if I was a fool. Now you must tell me the truth. Tell me how someone can make you weak.’

Samson replied, ‘You see that my long hair is tied in seven tails. You must tie them into the cloth that is on the loom. Fix them there very strongly. If you do that, I will become weak, like other men.’ ¹⁴ Delilah did this while Samson was asleep. She took the seven tails of his hair and she tied them into the cloth on the loom. She fixed them with a strong peg. Then she shouted, ‘Samson, the Philistines are here!’ He woke up and he pulled out the peg. He tore his hair away from the cloth on the loom so that he was free.^[b]

¹⁵ Then Delilah said to him, ‘I realize that you do not really love me, because you will not tell me your secret. You have deceived me three times, as if I was a fool. You have refused to tell me what makes you so strong.’ ¹⁶ She continued to say the same thing to Samson many times. Her words made Samson very upset. He felt that he wanted to die.

¹⁷ Finally, Samson told her his secret. He said to her, ‘No one has ever cut my hair. Even before I was born, I belonged to God as a Nazirite. If someone cuts off my hair, I would have no more strength. I would become as weak as any other man.’

¹⁸ Delilah realized that Samson had told her the truth. So she sent a message to the rulers of the Philistines. She told them, ‘Samson has now told me his secret. So come back once more.’ So the Philistine rulers went to visit Delilah again. They took their pieces of silver with them. ¹⁹ Delilah made Samson sleep with his head on her knees. She called a man to come and he cut off the seven tails of Samson's hair. This made Samson helpless, so that he had no more strength.

²⁰ Then Delilah shouted, ‘Samson, the Philistines are here!’ He woke up and he thought, ‘I will make myself free as I have always done before.’ But he did not realize that the Lord had gone away from him.

²¹ The Philistines took hold of Samson. They cut out his eyes. They tied him up with bronze chains. They made him do hard work as their prisoner. He had to push a heavy stone to make grain into flour.

²² But after they had cut off Samson's hair, it began to grow again.

Samson dies

²³ One day, the rulers of the Philistines met together to have a big feast. They offered a great sacrifice to their god, Dagon. They said, ‘Dagon has put our enemy, Samson, under our power.’

²⁴ When the people saw what had happened to Samson, they praised their god. They said, ‘Our god has let us catch our enemy. He was the enemy who destroyed our land and who killed many of us.’

²⁵ The people were very happy at the feast. They shouted, ‘Bring Samson here for us to see him! He can help us to enjoy our party.’

So they brought Samson out of the prison. The people were happy to see him. They made him stand between the pillars of the temple. ²⁶ A young man held Samson's hand to lead him. Samson said to him, ‘Put me where I can touch the pillars which hold up the temple's roof. I want to rest my body on them.’

²⁷ The temple was full of men and women, as well as all the Philistine rulers. About 3,000 people were on the roof as they watched Samson. They were laughing at him. ²⁸ Samson prayed to the Lord, ‘Remember me, Almighty Lord. Please make me strong again one more time. I want to punish the Philistines because they cut out my two eyes.’

²⁹ Then Samson put his hands on the two pillars in the centre of the building. He put his right hand on one pillar and his left hand on the other pillar. He got ready to push. ³⁰ Samson shouted out, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ Then he pushed the pillars with all his strength. The temple fell down on the rulers and all the other people in it. In that way, Samson killed more people as he died than he had killed while he lived.

³¹ Then his brothers and all his father's family came to get his body. They carried it back home. They buried him in the grave of his father, Manoah. That was between Zorah and Eshtaol. Samson had led Israel for 20 years.

Paul visits Macedonia and Greece again

20 After that, the trouble in Ephesus finished. Then Paul asked the believers to meet together with him. He spoke to them to help them. He told them to be strong and to trust God. Then he said ‘goodbye’ to them. After that he left them and he travelled on to Macedonia. ² He visited many places in that region. He spoke to the believers in each place. He helped them to be strong. After that, he arrived in Greece.^[a]

³ Paul stayed in Greece for three months. One day, he was preparing to travel to Syria by ship. But then he heard news that some Jews wanted to kill him on the journey. So he decided to travel through Macedonia and return to Jerusalem.^[b]

⁴ These are the men who went with Paul: Sopater, the son of Pyrrhus, from Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica; Gaius from Derbe; Timothy; Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia region. ⁵ These men had all left by ship before we did. When they arrived in Troas, they waited for us there.^[c]

⁶ As for us, we sailed by ship from Philippi, after the festival when the Jews eat flat bread.^[d]

After five days we arrived in Troas. We met the other men there and we all stayed there for seven days.

Paul visits the believers in Troas for the last time

⁷ On the Sunday evening, we met together with the believers. We broke bread into pieces and we shared it with each other. Paul spoke to the believers for a long time, until midnight. This was because he wanted to leave Troas the next day.

⁸ Many lamps were burning in the upstairs room where we met together. ⁹ A young man called Eutychus was at the meeting. He was sitting on the edge of a window. When Paul had talked for a long time, Eutychus started to sleep. When he was really sleeping, he fell out of the window. He dropped down a long way to the ground. Some of the believers lifted him up, but he was dead. ¹⁰ So Paul went down the stairs to them all. He lay on top of the young man and held him with his arms. Then Paul said to them all, ‘Do not be afraid. He is still alive.’ ¹¹ Paul went back upstairs. He shared bread with the believers and he ate more food. Paul talked to them for a long time, until the sun rose in the morning. Then he left Troas.

¹² The other believers took Eutychus to his home. They were very happy because he was alive.

Paul travels from Troas to Miletus

¹³ Paul decided to travel to Assos across the land. But we got on a ship and we sailed to Assos. We agreed with Paul that we would wait for him there. ¹⁴ When he met us at Assos, he came on the ship with us. Then we all sailed to Mitylene. ¹⁵ We sailed from there and we arrived the next day at the coast near Chios. The day after that, we came to Samos. The next day, we arrived at Miletus. ¹⁶ Paul had decided to leave quickly from there. He did not want to visit Ephesus, because he did not want to remain in Asia for a long time. Instead, he wanted to travel to Jerusalem quickly. He wanted to arrive there before the day of the Pentecost festival.

Paul meets with the leaders of the believers

¹⁷ When we were in Miletus, Paul sent someone to Ephesus with a message. This message was for the leaders of the believers in Ephesus. Paul asked them to come to Miletus to meet him there. ¹⁸ When they arrived, Paul said to them, ‘You yourselves know about everything that I did here in Asia. You saw how I lived from the first day that I arrived in this region. I was with you for the whole time. ¹⁹ I did not say that I was an important man. Instead, I worked as a servant of the Lord Jesus. I often was sad because of trouble that came to me. Some Jewish people spoke against my message. They wanted to hurt me. ²⁰ But I have not been afraid to teach God's message. I have taught you everything that would help you. I have done this outside for everyone to hear. I have also taught you in your own homes. ²¹ I have taught the same things both to Jewish people and to Gentiles. I have said clearly to them all, “You must stop doing wrong things. Change the way that you live and turn to God. Believe in our Lord Jesus.”

²² Now I am going to Jerusalem. God's Holy Spirit has shown me that I must go there. I do not know what will happen to me there. ²³ But I do know that much trouble will come to me. The Holy Spirit has told me about that. He said to me, “People will put you in prison and they will hurt you.” ²⁴ But even if people kill me, this is not important to me. The Lord Jesus gave me some work to do. It is important that I finish his work. I must tell people the good news about how kind and good God is.

²⁵ I have lived among you and I have taught you all about the kingdom of God. But now I know that none of you will see me again. ²⁶ So I want to say this clearly to you today. If any of you have not believed in Jesus, it is not because of me. ²⁷ I have told you everything that God wants you to know. ²⁸ You who are leaders should be careful about how you live. Also take care of the group of people that the Holy Spirit has chosen you to lead. Keep them safe like shepherds who take care of their sheep. All the believers belong to God because his Son, Jesus, died for them. He bought them with his blood which poured out on the cross.

²⁹ I know that trouble will come to you after I leave. Bad people will come to teach you. They will cause trouble for the believers, like dangerous wild animals that attack sheep. ³⁰ Even men from your own group of believers will teach things that are not true. They want to deceive other believers, so that they leave you and join with them. ³¹ So be very careful! For three years I taught you, in the day and in the night. I warned you to be careful, so that I even cried about it.

³² Now I ask God to keep you safe. I brought God's message to you, which tells us how kind he is. That message will cause you to be strong. As a result, God will give to you all the good things that he has for his own special people. ³³ When I stayed among you, I did not ask you to give me money or clothes. ³⁴ You yourselves know that I worked with my hands. I did that to get money. Then my friends and I could have the things that we needed. ³⁵ In this way I have shown you how you should live. You should work well so that you may help sick or weak people. You should remember what Jesus himself said: “It may make you happy when you receive things. But it makes you more happy when you give things to someone.” ’

³⁶ Then Paul finished speaking. He went down on his knees together with the leaders of the believers. He prayed with them all. ³⁷ They all cried a lot, because Paul wanted to leave them. They hugged him and they kissed him to say ‘goodbye’. ³⁸ They were very sad because Paul had said, ‘I will never see you again.’

After that, they walked with Paul to the ship.

Jeremiah's letter

29 Jeremiah sent a letter from Jerusalem to the people of Judah who were in Babylon. He sent it to the Israelite leaders and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people who were there. Nebuchadnezzar had taken them there as prisoners from Jerusalem. ² He sent the letter after King Nebuchadnezzar had taken King Jeconiah and his mother away from Jerusalem. He had taken them to Babylon with Jeconiah's officers, and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. He had also taken away to Babylon the men who had special skills to work with wood or metal. ³ King Zedekiah of Judah was sending some men to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. They were Shaphan's son Elasah, and Hilkiah's son Gemariah. Jeremiah gave his letter to them to take to Babylon. This is what the letter said:

⁴ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, sends this message to all the people of Judah who are in Babylon. He sent them there from Jerusalem as prisoners. ⁵ He says, ‘Build houses for yourselves. Make Babylon your home. Plant gardens. Eat the food that grows in them. ⁶ Marry, so that you have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons to marry. Let your daughters marry too. Then they also can give birth to sons and daughters. Your descendants should become more and more, not fewer. ⁷ Work well to help the foreign place where I have sent you to live. Try to make it a successful place. Pray to the Lord that it will do well. If it does well, you will also do well.’

⁸ Yes, the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, ‘Some of the prophets and the other people use magic to tell you what will happen in the future. Do not let them deceive you with their lies. Do not listen to the dreams that they tell you about. ⁹ They say that they are speaking with my authority. But the things that they prophesy are lies. I have not sent them to speak to you.’ That is what the Lord says.

¹⁰ The Lord says, ‘You will live in Babylon for 70 years. Then I will choose to help you. I will be kind to you, as I promised. I will bring you back here to your home. ¹¹ I, the Lord, tell you this: I have decided what I will do for you. I have plans to help you to do well. I do not want to hurt you. I want to give you hope for a good life in the future. ¹² At that time, when you call out to me for help, I will hear your prayers. ¹³ You will want to find me, and I will be ready to meet with you. If you really want to find me, ¹⁴ I will be there for you.’ That is what the Lord says. ‘I will bring you back from the nations and all the places where I sent you as prisoners. You will no longer have to live in those foreign places.’^[a]

¹⁵ You may say, ‘The Lord has chosen prophets to bring his message to us here in Babylon.’ ¹⁶ But listen to what the Lord says about the people who are still here in Jerusalem. The enemy did not take them with you as prisoners to Babylon. That includes the king who now rules David's kingdom.^{[b] 17} The Lord Almighty says, ‘I will send war, famine and disease to hurt them. They will be like bad figs that nobody can eat. ¹⁸ I will use war, famine and disease to chase them away from their homes. I will send them to live among other nations. The people of all the nations in the world will see how disgusting they are. People will use their names as a curse. They will see how foolish they are and they will laugh at them. ¹⁹ I will do that because they have not listened to my message. I sent my servants, the prophets, to speak to them many times, but the people in Jerusalem refused to listen.’ That is what the Lord says.

The Lord also says, ‘You people of Judah who are now in Babylon have not listened to my message either. ²⁰ I sent you away from Jerusalem as prisoners to Babylon. All of you must also listen carefully to my message.’

²¹ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this about Kolaiah's son Ahab and Maaseiah's son Zedekiah: ‘They are speaking to you in my name, but they are prophesying lies. So I will put them under the power of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He will kill them while you watch. ²² They will be an example to the people of Judah who are now living in Babylon. When they want to curse someone, they will say, “May the Lord punish you in the same way that the king of Babylon killed Zedekiah and Ahab. He burned them to death in a fire!” ²³ That will happen to them because of the terrible sins that they have done in Israel. They have sex with the wives of their neighbours. They have used my name to tell lies. They have spoken messages that I did not command them to speak. I know what they have done because I have seen it all.’ That is what the Lord says.

A message to Shemaiah

²⁴ The Lord told Jeremiah to send this message to Shemaiah, who came from Nehelam: ²⁵ ‘The Lord Almighty, Israel's God says, “You sent a letter on your own authority to all the people in Jerusalem. Those people included the priest Zephaniah, Maaseiah's son, and all the other priests. In your letter, you said to Zephaniah: ²⁶ The Lord chose you to be priest instead of Jehoiada. You are the officer who has authority over the Lord's temple. If there is any crazy man who says that he is a prophet, you must take hold of him. It is your duty to tie him up. Put heavy pieces of wood on his legs and iron chains around his neck. ²⁷ That is your job, so I do not know why you have not punished Jeremiah, the man from Anathoth. He is there and he is prophesying to you. ²⁸ He has even sent a message to us here in Babylon. He told us that we will be here for a long time. He told us to build houses and make our homes here. He says that we should plant gardens to grow food for ourselves.” ’

²⁹ When Zephaniah the priest received Shemaiah's letter, he read it to the prophet Jeremiah. ³⁰ Then the Lord said to Jeremiah, ³¹ ‘Send a message to all the people of Judah who are now in Babylon. Tell them that the Lord says this about Shemaiah, the man from Nehelam: “Shemaiah has prophesied to you. But I did not send him to you. He has caused you to believe a lie.” ³² So the Lord says, “I will certainly punish Shemaiah and his family. He will not have any descendants who remain among my people. None of them will receive any of the good things that I will do for my people. I will punish him because he has taught my people to turn against me.” That is what the Lord has said.’

Pilate asks Jesus questions

15 Very early the next morning, all the Jewish leaders met together. The leaders of the priests met with the leaders, the teachers of God's Law, and the other important Jews. They decided what they would do. They tied Jesus' hands and feet and they took him to Pilate's house. They put him under Pilate's authority.^[a]

² Pilate asked Jesus, ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’

Jesus replied, ‘You have said it.’

³ Then the leaders of the priests told Pilate that Jesus had done many bad things. ⁴ So Pilate asked him again, ‘What is your answer? You should say something! Listen! They are saying that you have done many bad things.’

⁵ But Jesus still did not reply to what the men were saying against him. Pilate was very surprised about that.

⁶ During the Passover festival each year, Pilate let one person go free out of the prison. The people had to ask him for the person that they wanted. ⁷ A man called Barabbas was in the prison at that time. He and some other men had fought against the Roman rulers. And they had killed someone when they were fighting. ⁸ The crowd came to Pilate. They asked him to do what he usually did at this time.

⁹ Pilate asked the people, ‘Do you want me to let the king of the Jews go free?’ ¹⁰ Pilate knew why the leaders of the priests had brought Jesus to him. They were jealous because people liked Jesus so much. ¹¹ But the leaders of the priests talked strongly to the people. They said, ‘Ask Pilate to let Barabbas go free instead of Jesus.’

¹² Pilate asked the crowd again, ‘So what should I do to Jesus? He is the man that you call “the king of the Jews”.’

¹³ The people shouted back to Pilate: ‘Kill him on a cross!’

¹⁴ ‘Why should I kill him?’ Pilate asked. ‘What bad things has he done?’

But the people shouted even louder, ‘Kill him on a cross!’

¹⁵ Pilate decided to do what the crowd wanted.^[b] So he let Barabbas go free. He said to his soldiers, ‘Hit Jesus many times with a whip.^[c] Then take him and fix him on a cross to die.’

¹⁶ So the soldiers took Jesus to the yard at the ruler's house. They told all the soldiers in their group to come there. ¹⁷ Then they put a dark red coat on Jesus. They used some branches with thorns to make a crown for him.^[d] They put it on his head.

¹⁸ Then the soldiers began to laugh at Jesus. They said, ‘Hello, King of the Jews, you are great!’ ¹⁹ They took a stick and they hit him on the head with it many times. They spat on him. Then they went down on their knees in front of him. They told him how great he was. ²⁰ When they had stopped laughing at him, they took the dark red coat off him. They put his own clothes back on him. Then they took him away to the place where they would kill him on a cross.

The soldiers put Jesus on a cross

²¹ When the soldiers were taking Jesus out to that place, a man called Simon was there. He was coming in from outside the city. He was from the city of Cyrene, and he was the father of Alexander and Rufus. The soldiers told Simon that he must carry Jesus' cross. ²² The soldiers took Jesus to a place that is called Golgotha. (Golgotha means ‘the place of a skull’.)^[e]

²³ They tried to give Jesus some wine to drink. They had mixed some medicine called myrrh into the wine. But Jesus would not drink it. ²⁴ Then the soldiers fixed Jesus onto the cross. They took his clothes for themselves. They played a game to decide which soldier would receive each of his clothes.

²⁵ It was about nine o'clock in the morning when the soldiers fixed Jesus to the cross. ²⁶ They put a notice there to show the reason why they were killing him. It said, ‘The King of the Jews’. ²⁷ They also put two robbers on crosses near to Jesus. One robber was on Jesus' right side. The other robber was on his left side. ²⁸ [The Bible says that this would happen.^[f] It says, ‘People thought of him as someone who did not obey God's Law.’]^[g]

²⁹ The people who walked near there insulted Jesus. They laughed at him and they said, ‘Oh! You said that you would destroy the temple. And you said that in three days you would build it again. ³⁰ If you can really do that, save yourself. Come down from the cross!’

³¹ The leaders of the priests and the teachers of God's Law laughed at him. They said to each other, ‘This man saved other people, did he? But he cannot save his own life! ³² If he is the Messiah, the king of Israel, he should come down from the cross now. Then we would see it and we would believe in him.’ The two men who were on the crosses next to Jesus also insulted him.

Jesus dies

³³ At midday, the whole country became dark for three hours. ³⁴ At three o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus shouted loudly, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ That means, ‘My God, my God, why have you left me alone?’

³⁵ Some people who were standing near there heard him. They said to each other, ‘Look! He is shouting to Elijah.’

³⁶ One man ran to get a piece of cloth. He poured cheap wine on it, and he put it on the end of a stick. Then he lifted it up to Jesus so that he could drink the wine from it. The man said, ‘Wait! Now we will see if Elijah comes to take him down from the cross.’

³⁷ Then Jesus shouted loudly, and after that he died.

³⁸ And the curtain inside the temple completely tore into two parts from the top down to the bottom.^[h]

³⁹ The captain of the soldiers was standing there in front of Jesus.^[i] He saw how Jesus died. ‘It must be true!’ he said. ‘This man really was the Son of God.’

⁴⁰ Some women were also there. They were watching these events from a long way away. Mary from Magdala was one of the women. Mary the mother of the younger James and Joses was also there. Salome was there too. ⁴¹ These women had travelled with Jesus when he was in Galilee and they had helped him. Many other women were also there near the cross. They had come to Jerusalem with Jesus.

Joseph buries Jesus' dead body

⁴² It was Friday and the Jews were preparing for their day of rest on the Sabbath. ⁴³ That evening, a man called Joseph went to see Pilate. Joseph was from a town called Arimathea. He was a good man and he was one of the group of important Jewish leaders. He was waiting for the time when God would start to rule his people in his kingdom. Joseph bravely asked Pilate for the dead body of Jesus to bury it. ⁴⁴ Pilate was surprised that Jesus had already died. He asked the captain of the soldiers to come to him. He asked him if Jesus had already died. ⁴⁵ The captain told Pilate that Jesus was already dead. So then Pilate let Joseph go and take Jesus' dead body. ⁴⁶ Joseph bought a piece of linen cloth. He took Jesus' body down from the cross and he put the cloth around it. Then he put the body in a large hole in a rock. People had made that hole to put dead bodies in. After this, Joseph rolled a big stone across the front of the hole to shut it.

⁴⁷ Mary from Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses were watching. They saw where Joseph had put Jesus' dead body.