M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

14 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. ² Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please get up and disguise yourself, so that you won’t be recognized as Jeroboam’s wife. Go to Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who said that I would be king over this people. ³ Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the child.”

⁴ Jeroboam’s wife did so, and arose and went to Shiloh, and came to Ahijah’s house. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were set by reason of his age. ⁵ Yahweh said to Ahijah, “Behold, Jeroboam’s wife is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick. Tell her such and such; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman.”

⁶ So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, “Come in, Jeroboam’s wife! Why do you pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy news. ⁷ Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel, ⁸ and tore the kingdom away from David’s house, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in my eyes, ⁹ but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods, molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back, ¹⁰ therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who urinates on a wall,^[a] he who is shut up and he who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung until it is all gone. ¹¹ The dogs will eat he who belongs to Jeroboam who dies in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field, for Yahweh has spoken it.”’ ¹² Arise therefore, and go to your house. When your feet enter into the city, the child will die. ¹³ All Israel will mourn for him and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. ¹⁴ Moreover Yahweh will raise up a king for himself over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Even now. ¹⁵ For Yahweh will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River,^[b] because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking Yahweh to anger. ¹⁶ He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he has sinned, and with which he has made Israel to sin.”

¹⁷ Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸ All Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.

¹⁹ The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he fought and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ²⁰ The days which Jeroboam reigned were twenty two years; then he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.

²¹ Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. ²² Judah did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, above all that their fathers had done. ²³ For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ There were also sodomites in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh drove out before the children of Israel.

²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; ²⁶ and he took away the treasures of Yahweh’s house and the treasures of the king’s house. He even took away all of it, including all the gold shields which Solomon had made. ²⁷ King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. ²⁸ It was so, that as often as the king went into Yahweh’s house, the guard bore them, and brought them back into the guard room.

²⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ³⁰ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. ³¹ Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s city. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. Abijam his son reigned in his place.

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ^[a] Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, ² to the saints and faithful brothers^[b] in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, ⁴ having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have toward all the saints, ⁵ because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News ⁶ which has come to you, even as it is in all the world and is bearing fruit and growing, as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth, ⁷ even as you learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on your^[c] behalf, ⁸ who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

⁹ For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy, ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, ¹³ who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, ¹⁴ in whom we have our redemption,^[d] the forgiveness of our sins.

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. ¹⁸ He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. ¹⁹ For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

²¹ You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, ²² yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him, ²³ if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly, ²⁵ of which I was made a servant according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you to fulfill the word of God, ²⁶ the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints, ²⁷ to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; ²⁹ for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.

44 Then he brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which looks toward the east; and it was shut. ² Yahweh said to me, “This gate shall be shut. It shall not be opened, no man shall enter in by it; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has entered in by it. Therefore it shall be shut. ³ As for the prince, he shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before Yahweh. He shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out the same way.”

⁴ Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked, and behold, Yahweh’s glory filled Yahweh’s house; so I fell on my face.

⁵ Yahweh said to me, “Son of man, mark well, and see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I tell you concerning all the ordinances of Yahweh’s house and all its laws; and mark well the entrance of the house, with every exit of the sanctuary. ⁶ You shall tell the rebellious, even the house of Israel, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “You house of Israel, let that be enough of all your abominations, ⁷ in that you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood; and they have broken my covenant, to add to all your abominations. ⁸ You have not performed the duty of my holy things; but you have set performers of my duty in my sanctuary for yourselves.” ⁹ The Lord Yahweh says, “No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any foreigners who are among the children of Israel.

¹⁰ “‘“But the Levites who went far from me when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, they will bear their iniquity. ¹¹ Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house, and ministering in the house. They shall kill the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. ¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols, and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have lifted up my hand against them,” says the Lord Yahweh, “and they will bear their iniquity. ¹³ They shall not come near to me, to execute the office of priest to me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. ¹⁴ Yet I will make them performers of the duty of the house, for all its service and for all that will be done therein.

¹⁵ “‘“But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who performed the duty of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me. They shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood,” says the Lord Yahweh. ¹⁶ “They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister to me, and they shall keep my instruction.

¹⁷ “‘“It will be that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments. No wool shall come on them while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. ¹⁸ They shall have linen turbans on their heads, and shall have linen trousers on their waists. They shall not clothe themselves with anything that makes them sweat. ¹⁹ When they go out into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they minister and lay them in the holy rooms. They shall put on other garments, that they not sanctify the people with their garments.

²⁰ “‘“They shall not shave their heads, or allow their locks to grow long. They shall only cut off the hair of their heads. ²¹ None of the priests shall drink wine when they enter into the inner court. ²² They shall not take for their wives a widow, or her who is put away; but they shall take virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. ²³ They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

²⁴ “‘“In a controversy they shall stand to judge. They shall judge it according to my ordinances. They shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts. They shall make my Sabbaths holy.

²⁵ “‘“They shall go in to no dead person to defile themselves; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister who has had no husband, they may defile themselves. ²⁶ After he is cleansed, they shall reckon to him seven days. ²⁷ In the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering,” says the Lord Yahweh.

²⁸ “‘They shall have an inheritance: I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel. I am their possession. ²⁹ They shall eat the meal offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. ³⁰ The first of all the first fruits of every thing, and every offering of everything, of all your offerings, shall be for the priest. You shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, to cause a blessing to rest on your house. ³¹ The priests shall not eat of anything that dies of itself or is torn, whether it is bird or animal.

A Psalm.