M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

4 Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”

² Elisha said to her, “What should I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.”

³ Then he said, “Go, borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers. ⁴ Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full.”

⁵ So she went from him, and shut the door on herself and on her sons. They brought the containers to her, and she poured oil. ⁶ When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.”

He said to her, “There isn’t another container.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷ Then she came and told the man of God. He said, “Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”

⁸ One day Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman; and she persuaded him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. ⁹ She said to her husband, “See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God who passes by us continually. ¹⁰ Please, let’s make a little room on the roof. Let’s set a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp stand for him there. When he comes to us, he can stay there.”

¹¹ One day he came there, and he went to the room and lay there. ¹² He said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him. ¹³ He said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Behold, you have cared for us with all this care. What is to be done for you? Would you like to be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the army?’”

She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”

¹⁴ He said, “What then is to be done for her?”

Gehazi answered, “Most certainly she has no son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵ He said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the door. ¹⁶ He said, “At this season next year, you will embrace a son.”

She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.”

¹⁷ The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season when the time came around, as Elisha had said to her. ¹⁸ When the child was grown, one day he went out to his father to the reapers. ¹⁹ He said to his father, “My head! My head!”

He said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

²⁰ When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died. ²¹ She went up and laid him on the man of God’s bed, and shut the door on him, and went out. ²² She called to her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come again.”

²³ He said, “Why would you want to go to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath.”

She said, “It’s all right.”

²⁴ Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward! Don’t slow down for me, unless I ask you to.”

²⁵ So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her afar off, he said to Gehazi his servant, “Behold, there is the Shunammite. ²⁶ Please run now to meet her, and ask her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with your child?’”

She answered, “It is well.”

²⁷ When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”

²⁸ Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”

²⁹ Then he said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand, and go your way. If you meet any man, don’t greet him; and if anyone greets you, don’t answer him again. Then lay my staff on the child’s face.”

³⁰ The child’s mother said, “As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.”

So he arose, and followed her.

³¹ Gehazi went ahead of them, and laid the staff on the child’s face; but there was no voice and no hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, “The child has not awakened.”

³² When Elisha had come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and lying on his bed. ³³ He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh. ³⁴ He went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself on him; and the child’s flesh grew warm. ³⁵ Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth, then went up and stretched himself out on him. Then the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. ³⁶ He called Gehazi, and said, “Call this Shunammite!” So he called her.

When she had come in to him, he said, “Take up your son.”

³⁷ Then she went in, fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; then she picked up her son, and went out.

³⁸ Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, “Get the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.”

³⁹ One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered a lap full of wild gourds from it, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew; for they didn’t recognize them. ⁴⁰ So they poured out for the men to eat. As they were eating some of the stew, they cried out and said, “Man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.

⁴¹ But he said, “Then bring meal.” He threw it into the pot; and he said, “Serve it to the people, that they may eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

⁴² A man from Baal Shalishah came, and brought the man of God some bread of the first fruits: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give to the people, that they may eat.”

⁴³ His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?”

But he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for Yahweh says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”

⁴⁴ So he set it before them and they ate and had some left over, according to Yahweh’s word.

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ^[a] our hope, ² to Timothy, my true child in faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³ As I urged you when I was going into Macedonia, stay at Ephesus that you might command certain men not to teach a different doctrine, ⁴ and not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than God’s stewardship, which is in faith. ⁵ But the goal of this command is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith, ⁶ from which things some, having missed the mark, have turned away to vain talking, ⁷ desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they say nor about what they strongly affirm.

⁸ But we know that the law is good if a person uses it lawfully, ⁹ as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, ¹⁰ for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine, ¹¹ according to the Good News of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

¹² I thank him who enabled me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he counted me faithful, appointing me to service, ¹³ although I used to be a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent. However, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. ¹⁴ The grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ The saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. ¹⁶ However, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might display all his patience for an example of those who were going to believe in him for eternal life. ¹⁷ Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

¹⁸ I commit this instruction to you, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which were given to you before, that by them you may wage the good warfare, ¹⁹ holding faith and a good conscience, which some having thrust away made a shipwreck concerning the faith, ²⁰ of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme.

8 In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, even to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first. ² I saw the vision. Now it was so, that when I saw, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai. ³ Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a ram which had two horns stood before the river. The two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. ⁴ I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward. No animals could stand before him. There wasn’t any who could deliver out of his hand, but he did according to his will, and magnified himself.

⁵ As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west over the surface of the whole earth, and didn’t touch the ground. The goat had a notable horn between his eyes. ⁶ He came to the ram that had the two horns, which I saw standing before the river, and ran on him in the fury of his power. ⁷ I saw him come close to the ram, and he was moved with anger against him, and struck the ram, and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to stand before him; but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. There was no one who could deliver the ram out of his hand. ⁸ The male goat magnified himself exceedingly. When he was strong, the great horn was broken; and instead of it there came up four notable horns toward the four winds of the sky.

⁹ Out of one of them came out a little horn which grew exceedingly great—toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the glorious land. ¹⁰ It grew great, even to the army of the sky; and it cast down some of the army and of the stars to the ground and trampled on them. ¹¹ Yes, it magnified itself, even to the prince of the army; and it took away from him the continual burnt offering, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. ¹² The army was given over to it together with the continual burnt offering through disobedience. It cast down truth to the ground, and it did its pleasure and prospered.

¹³ Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who spoke, “How long will the vision about the continual burnt offering, and the disobedience that makes desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the army to be trodden under foot be?”

¹⁴ He said to me, “To two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary will be cleansed.”

¹⁵ When I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. Then behold, there stood before me someone with the appearance of a man. ¹⁶ I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, which called and said, “Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.”

¹⁷ So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was frightened, and fell on my face; but he said to me, “Understand, son of man, for the vision belongs to the time of the end.”

¹⁸ Now as he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face toward the ground; but he touched me and set me upright.

¹⁹ He said, “Behold, I will make you know what will be in the latter time of the indignation, for it belongs to the appointed time of the end. ²⁰ The ram which you saw, that had the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. ²¹ The rough male goat is the king of Greece. The great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. ²² As for that which was broken, in the place where four stood up, four kingdoms will stand up out of the nation, but not with his power.

²³ “In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have come to the full, a king of fierce face, and understanding riddles, will stand up. ²⁴ His power will be mighty, but not by his own power. He will destroy awesomely, and will prosper in what he does. He will destroy the mighty ones and the holy people. ²⁵ Through his policy he will cause deceit to prosper in his hand. He will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many in their security. He will also stand up against the prince of princes, but he will be broken without human hands.

²⁶ “The vision of the evenings and mornings which has been told is true; but seal up the vision, for it belongs to many days to come.”

²⁷ I, Daniel, fainted, and was sick for some days. Then I rose up and did the king’s business. I wondered at the vision, but no one understood it.