M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
10 Then Jehu wrote a letter to the city council of Samaria and to the guardians of Ahab’s seventy sons—all of whom were living there.
2-3 “Upon receipt of this letter, select the best one of Ahab’s sons to be your king, and prepare to fight for his throne. For you have chariots and horses and a fortified city and an armory.”
4 But they were too frightened to do it. “Two kings couldn’t stand against this man! What can we do?” they said.
5 So the manager of palace affairs and the city manager, together with the city council and the guardians of Ahab’s sons, sent him this message:
“Jehu, we are your servants and will do anything you tell us to. We have decided that you should be our king instead of one of Ahab’s sons.”
6 Jehu responded with this message: “If you are on my side and are going to obey me, bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel at about this time tomorrow.”
(These seventy sons of King Ahab were living in the homes of the chief men of the city, where they had been raised since childhood.) 7 When the letter arrived, all seventy of them were murdered, and their heads were packed into baskets and presented to Jehu at Jezreel. 8 When a messenger told Jehu that the heads of the king’s sons had arrived, he said to pile them in two heaps at the entrance of the city gate, and to leave them there until the next morning.
9-10 In the morning he went out and spoke to the crowd that had gathered around them. “You aren’t to blame,” he told them. “I conspired against my master and killed him, but I didn’t kill his sons! The Lord has done that, for everything he says comes true. He declared through his servant Elijah that this would happen to Ahab’s descendants.”
11 Jehu then killed all the rest of the members of the family of Ahab who were in Jezreel, as well as all of his important officials, personal friends, and private chaplains. Finally, no one was left who had been close to him in any way.[a] 12 Then he set out for Samaria and stayed overnight at a shepherd’s inn along the way. 13 While he was there he met the brothers of King Ahaziah of Judah.
“Who are you?” he asked them.
And they replied, “We are brothers[b] of King Ahaziah. We are going to Samaria to visit the sons of King Ahab and of the Queen Mother, Jezebel.”
14 “Grab them!” Jehu shouted to his men. And he took them out to the cistern and killed all forty-two of them.
15 As he left the inn, he met Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, who was coming to meet him. After they had greeted each other, Jehu said to him, “Are you as loyal to me as I am to you?”
“Yes,” Jehonadab replied.
“Then give me your hand,” Jehu said, and he helped him into the royal chariot.
16 “Now come along with me,” Jehu said, “and see how much I have done for the Lord.” So Jehonadab rode along with him. 17 When he arrived in Samaria he butchered all of Ahab’s friends and relatives, just as Elijah, speaking for the Lord, had predicted.
Then Jehu called a meeting of all the people of the city and said to them, “Ahab hardly worshiped Baal at all in comparison to the way I am going to! 18-19 Summon all the prophets and priests of Baal, and call together all his worshipers. See to it that every one of them comes, for we worshipers of Baal are going to have a great celebration to praise him. Any of Baal’s worshipers who don’t come will be put to death.”
But Jehu’s plan was to exterminate them. 20-21 He sent messengers throughout all Israel summoning those who worshiped Baal; and they all came and filled the temple of Baal from one end to the other. 22 He instructed the head of the robing room, “Be sure that every worshiper wears one of the special robes.”
23 Then Jehu and Jehonadab (son of Rechab) went into the temple to address the people: “Check to be sure that only those who worship Baal are here; don’t let anyone in who worships the Lord!”
24 As the priests of Baal began offering sacrifices and burnt offerings, Jehu surrounded the building with eighty of his men and told them, “If you let anyone escape, you’ll pay for it with your own life.”
25 As soon as he had finished sacrificing the burnt offering, Jehu went out and told his officers and men, “Go in and kill the whole bunch of them. Don’t let a single one escape.”
So they slaughtered them all and dragged their bodies outside. Then Jehu’s men went into the inner temple, 26 dragged out the pillar used for the worship of Baal, and burned it. 27 They wrecked the temple and converted it into a public toilet, which it still is today. 28 Thus Jehu destroyed every trace of Baal from Israel. 29 However, he didn’t destroy the gold calves at Bethel and Dan—this was the great sin of Jeroboam (son of Nebat), for it resulted in all Israel sinning.
30 Afterwards the Lord said to Jehu, “You have done well in following my instructions to destroy the dynasty of Ahab. Because of this I will cause your son, your grandson, and your great-grandson to be the kings of Israel.”
31 But Jehu didn’t follow the Lord God of Israel with all his heart, for he continued to worship Jeroboam’s gold calves that had been the cause of such great sin in Israel.
32-33 At about that time the Lord began to whittle down the size of Israel. King Hazael conquered several sections of the country east of the Jordan River, as well as all of Gilead, Gad, and Reuben; he also conquered parts of Manasseh from the Aroer River in the valley of the Arnon as far as Gilead and Bashan.
34 The rest of Jehu’s activities are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. 35 When Jehu died, he was buried in Samaria; and his son Jehoahaz became the new king. 36 In all, Jehu reigned as king of Israel, in Samaria, for twenty-eight years.
1 From: Paul, Jesus Christ’s missionary, sent out by God to tell men and women everywhere about the eternal life he has promised them through faith in Jesus Christ.
2 To: Timothy, my dear son. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord shower you with his kindness, mercy, and peace.
3 How I thank God for you, Timothy. I pray for you every day, and many times during the long nights I beg my God to bless you richly. He is my fathers’ God and mine, and my only purpose in life is to please him.
4 How I long to see you again. How happy I would be, for I remember your tears as we left each other.
5 I know how much you trust the Lord, just as your mother Eunice and your grandmother Lois do; and I feel sure you are still trusting him as much as ever.
6 This being so, I want to remind you to stir into flame the strength and boldness[a] that is in you, that entered into you when I laid my hands upon your head and blessed you. 7 For the Holy Spirit, God’s gift, does not want you to be afraid of people, but to be wise and strong, and to love them and enjoy being with them.
8 If you will stir up this inner power, you will never be afraid to tell others about our Lord or to let them know that I am your friend even though I am here in jail for Christ’s sake. You will be ready to suffer with me for the Lord, for he will give you strength in suffering.
9 It is he who saved us and chose us for his holy work not because we deserved it but because that was his plan long before the world began—to show his love and kindness to us through Christ. 10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, who broke the power of death and showed us the way of everlasting life through trusting him. 11 And God has chosen me to be his missionary, to preach to the Gentiles and teach them.
12 That is why I am suffering here in jail, and I am certainly not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to safely guard all that I have given him until the day of his return.
13 Hold tightly to the pattern of truth I taught you, especially concerning the faith and love Christ Jesus offers you.[b] 14 Guard well the splendid, God-given ability you received as a gift from the Holy Spirit who lives within you.
15 As you know, all the Christians who came here from Asia have deserted me; even Phygellus and Hermogenes are gone. 16 May the Lord bless Onesiphorus and all his family because he visited me and encouraged me often. His visits revived me like a breath of fresh air, and he was never ashamed of my being in jail. 17 In fact, when he came to Rome, he searched everywhere trying to find me, and finally did. 18 May the Lord give him a special blessing at the day of Christ’s return. And you know better than I can tell you how much he helped me at Ephesus.
2 “O Jezreel,[a] rename your brother and sister. Call your brother Ammi (which means ‘Now you are mine’); name your sister Ruhamah (‘Pitied’), for now God will have mercy upon her!
2 “Plead with your mother, for she has become another man’s wife—I am no longer her husband. Beg her to stop her harlotry, to quit giving herself to others. 3 If she doesn’t, I will strip her as naked as the day she was born and cause her to waste away and die of thirst as in a land riddled with famine and drought. 4 And I will not give special favors to her children as I would to my own, for they are not my children; they belong to other men.
5 “For their mother has committed adultery. She did a shameful thing when she said, ‘I’ll run after other men and sell myself to them for food and drinks and clothes.’
6 “But I will fence her in with briars and thornbushes; I’ll block the road before her to make her lose her way, so that 7 when she runs after her lovers, she will not catch up with them. She will search for them but not find them. Then she will think, ‘I might as well return to my husband, for I was better off with him than I am now.’
8 “She doesn’t realize that all she has, has come from me. It was I who gave her all the gold and silver she used in worshiping Baal, her god!
9 “But now I will take back the wine and ripened corn I constantly supplied, and the clothes I gave her to cover her nakedness—I will no longer give her rich harvests of grain in its season or wine at the time of the grape harvest. 10 Now I will expose her nakedness in public for all her lovers to see, and no one will be able to rescue her from my hand.
11 “I will put an end to all her joys, her parties, holidays, and feasts. 12 I will destroy her vineyards and her orchards—gifts she claims her lovers gave her—and let them grow into a jungle; wild animals will eat their fruit.
13 “For all the incense she burned to Baal her idol and for the times when she put on her earrings and jewels and went out looking for her lovers and deserted me—for all these things I will punish her,” says the Lord.
14 “But I will court her again and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her tenderly there. 15 There I will give back her vineyards to her and transform her Valley of Troubles into a Door of Hope. She will respond to me there, singing with joy as in days long ago in her youth after I had freed her from captivity in Egypt.
16 “In that coming day,” says the Lord, “she will call me ‘My Husband’ instead of ‘My Master.’[b] 17 O Israel, I will cause you to forget your idols, and their names will not be spoken anymore.
18 “At that time I will make a treaty between you and the wild animals, birds, and snakes, not to fear each other anymore; and I will destroy all weapons, and all wars will end.
“Then you will lie down in peace and safety, unafraid; 19 and I will bind you to me forever with chains of righteousness and justice and love and mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and love, and you will really know me then as you never have before.
21-22 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will answer the pleading of the sky for clouds, to pour down water on the earth in answer to its cry for rain. Then the earth can answer the parched cry of the grain, the grapes, and the olive trees for moisture and for dew—and the whole grand chorus shall sing together that ‘God sows!’[c] He has given all!
23 “At that time I will sow a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself! I will pity those who are ‘not pitied,’[d] and I will say to those who are ‘not my people,’ ‘Now you are my people’; and they will reply, ‘You are our God!’”
97 Oh, how I love them. I think about them all day long. 98 They make me wiser than my enemies because they are my constant guide. 99 Yes, wiser than my teachers, for I am ever thinking of your rules. 100 They make me even wiser than the aged.
101 I have refused to walk the paths of evil, for I will remain obedient to your Word. 102-103 No, I haven’t turned away from what you taught me; your words are sweeter than honey. 104 And since only your rules can give me wisdom and understanding, no wonder I hate every false teaching.
105 Your words are a flashlight to light the path ahead of me and keep me from stumbling. 106 I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again and again: I will obey these wonderful laws of yours.
107 I am close to death at the hands of my enemies; oh, give me back my life again, just as you promised me. 108 Accept my grateful thanks and teach me your desires. 109 My life hangs in the balance, but I will not give up obedience to your laws. 110 The wicked have set their traps for me along your path, but I will not turn aside. 111 Your laws are my joyous treasure forever. 112 I am determined to obey you until I die.
113 I hate those who are undecided whether or not to obey you; but my choice is clear—I love your law. 114 You are my refuge and my shield, and your promises are my only source of hope. 115 Begone, you evil-minded men! Don’t try to stop me from obeying God’s commands. 116 Lord, you promised to let me live! Never let it be said that God failed me. 117 Hold me safe above the heads of all my enemies; then I can continue to obey your laws.
118 But you have rejected all who reject your laws. They are only fooling themselves. 119 The wicked are the scum you skim off and throw away; no wonder I love to obey your laws! 120 I tremble in fear of you; I fear your punishments.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.