M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

33 And Jacob lifteth up his eyes, and looketh, and lo, Esau is coming, and with him four hundred men; and he divideth the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two maid-servants;

² and he setteth the maid-servants and their children first, and Leah and her children behind, and Rachel and Joseph last.

³ And he himself passed over before them, and boweth himself to the earth seven times, until his drawing nigh unto his brother,

⁴ and Esau runneth to meet him, and embraceth him, and falleth on his neck, and kisseth him, and they weep;

⁵ and he lifteth up his eyes, and seeth the women and the children, and saith, `What [are] these to thee?' And he saith, `The children with whom God hath favoured thy servant.'

⁶ And the maid-servants draw nigh, they and their children, and bow themselves;

⁷ and Leah also draweth nigh, and her children, and they bow themselves; and afterwards Joseph hath drawn nigh with Rachel, and they bow themselves.

⁸ And he saith, `What to thee [is] all this camp which I have met?' and he saith, `To find grace in the eyes of my lord.'

⁹ And Esau saith, `I have abundance, my brother, let it be to thyself that which thou hast.'

¹⁰ And Jacob saith, `Nay, I pray thee, if, I pray thee, I have found grace in thine eyes, then thou hast received my present from my hand, because that I have seen thy face, as the seeing of the face of God, and thou art pleased with me;

¹¹ receive, I pray thee, my blessing, which is brought to thee, because God hath favoured me, and because I have all [things];' and he presseth on him, and he receiveth,

¹² and saith, `Let us journey and go on, and I go on before thee.'

¹³ And he saith unto him, `My lord knoweth that the children [are] tender, and the suckling flock and the herd [are] with me; when they have beaten them one day, then hath all the flock died.

¹⁴ Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant, and I -- I lead on gently, according to the foot of the work which [is] before me, and to the foot of the children, until that I come unto my lord, to Seir.'

¹⁵ And Esau saith, `Let me, I pray thee, place with thee some of the people who [are] with me;' and he said, `Why [is] this? I find grace in the eyes of my lord.'

¹⁶ And turn back on that day doth Esau on his way to Seir;

¹⁷ and Jacob hath journeyed to Succoth, and buildeth to himself a house, and for his cattle hath made booths, therefore hath he called the name of the place Succoth.

¹⁸ And Jacob cometh in to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which [is] in the land of Canaan, in his coming from Padan-Aram, and encampeth before the city,

¹⁹ and he buyeth the portion of the field where he hath stretched out his tent, from the hand of the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitah;

²⁰ and he setteth up there an altar, and proclaimeth at it God -- the God of Israel.

4 And again he began to teach by the sea, and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he, having gone into the boat, sat in the sea, and all the multitude was near the sea, on the land,

² and he taught them many things in similes, and he said to them in his teaching:

³ `Hearken, lo, the sower went forth to sow;

⁴ and it came to pass, in the sowing, some fell by the way, and the fowls of the heaven did come and devour it;

⁵ and other fell upon the rocky ground, where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang forth, because of not having depth of earth,

⁶ and the sun having risen, it was scorched, and because of not having root it did wither;

⁷ and other fell toward the thorns, and the thorns did come up, and choke it, and fruit it gave not;

⁸ and other fell to the good ground, and was giving fruit, coming up and increasing, and it bare, one thirty-fold, and one sixty, and one an hundred.'

⁹ And he said to them, `He who is having ears to hear -- let him hear.'

¹⁰ And when he was alone, those about him, with the twelve, did ask him of the simile,

¹¹ and he said to them, `To you it hath been given to know the secret of the reign of God, but to those who are without, in similes are all the things done;

¹² that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they may turn, and the sins may be forgiven them.'

¹³ And he saith to them, `Have ye not known this simile? and how shall ye know all the similes?

¹⁴ He who is sowing doth sow the word;

¹⁵ and these are they by the way where the word is sown: and whenever they may hear, immediately cometh the Adversary, and he taketh away the word that hath been sown in their hearts.

¹⁶ `And these are they, in like manner, who on the rocky ground are sown: who, whenever they may hear the word, immediately with joy do receive it,

¹⁷ and have not root in themselves, but are temporary; afterward tribulation or persecution having come because of the word, immediately they are stumbled.

¹⁸ `And these are they who toward the thorns are sown: these are they who are hearing the word,

¹⁹ and the anxieties of this age, and the deceitfulness of the riches, and the desires concerning the other things, entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

²⁰ `And these are they who on the good ground have been sown: who do hear the word, and receive, and do bear fruit, one thirty-fold, and one sixty, and one an hundred.'

²¹ And he said to them, `Doth the lamp come that under the measure it may be put, or under the couch -- not that it may be put on the lamp-stand?

²² for there is not anything hid that may not be manifested, nor was anything kept hid but that it may come to light.

²³ If any hath ears to hear -- let him hear.'

²⁴ And he said to them, `Take heed what ye hear; in what measure ye measure, it shall be measured to you; and to you who hear it shall be added;

²⁵ for whoever may have, there shall be given to him, and whoever hath not, also that which he hath shall be taken from him.'

²⁶ And he said, `Thus is the reign of God: as if a man may cast the seed on the earth,

²⁷ and may sleep, and may rise night and day, and the seed spring up and grow, he hath not known how;

²⁸ for of itself doth the earth bear fruit, first a blade, afterwards an ear, afterwards full corn in the ear;

²⁹ and whenever the fruit may yield itself, immediately he doth send forth the sickle, because the harvest hath come.'

³⁰ And he said, `To what may we liken the reign of God, or in what simile may we compare it?

³¹ As a grain of mustard, which, whenever it may be sown on the earth, is less than any of the seeds that are on the earth;

³² and whenever it may be sown, it cometh up, and doth become greater than any of the herbs, and doth make great branches, so that under its shade the fowls of the heaven are able to rest.'

³³ And with many such similes he was speaking to them the word, as they were able to hear,

³⁴ and without a simile he was not speaking to them, and by themselves, to his disciples he was expounding all.

³⁵ And he saith to them on that day, evening having come, `We may pass over to the other side;'

³⁶ and having let away the multitude, they take him up as he was in the boat, and other little boats also were with him.

³⁷ And there cometh a great storm of wind, and the waves were beating on the boat, so that it is now being filled,

³⁸ and he himself was upon the stern, upon the pillow sleeping, and they wake him up, and say to him, `Teacher, art thou not caring that we perish?'

³⁹ And having waked up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, `Peace, be stilled;' and the wind did lull, and there was a great calm:

⁴⁰ and he said to them, `Why are ye so fearful? how have ye not faith?'

⁴¹ and they feared a great fear, and said one to another, `Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea do obey him?'

9 And in the twelfth month -- it [is] the month of Adar -- on the thirteenth day of it, in which the word of the king, even his law, hath come to be done, in the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to rule over them, and it is turned that the Jews rule over those hating them --

² the Jews have been assembled in their cities, in all provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to put forth a hand on those seeking their evil, and no man hath stood in their presence, for their fear hath fallen on all the peoples.

³ And all heads of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the governors, and those doing the work that the king hath, are lifting up the Jews, for a fear of Mordecai hath fallen upon them;

⁴ for great [is] Mordecai in the house of the king, and his fame is going into all the provinces, for the man Mordecai is going on and becoming great.

⁵ And the Jews smite among all their enemies -- a smiting of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction -- and do with those hating them according to their pleasure,

⁶ and in Shushan the palace have the Jews slain and destroyed five hundred men;

⁷ and Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,

⁸ and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,

⁹ and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha,

¹⁰ ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, adversary of the Jews, they have slain, and on the prey they have not put forth their hand.

¹¹ On that day hath come the number of the slain in Shushan the palace before the king,

¹² and the king saith to Esther the queen, `In Shushan the palace have the Jews slain and destroyed five hundred men, and the ten sons of Haman; in the rest of the provinces of the king what have they done? and what [is] thy petition? and it is given to thee; and what thy request again? and it is done.'

¹³ And Esther saith, `If to the king [it be] good, let it be given also to-morrow, to the Jews who [are] in Shushan, to do according to the law of to-day; and the ten sons of Haman they hang on the tree.'

¹⁴ And the king saith -- `to be done so;' and a law is given in Shushan, and the ten sons of Haman they have hanged.

¹⁵ And the Jews who [are] in Shushan are assembled also on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and they slay in Shushan three hundred men, and on the prey they have not put forth their hand.

¹⁶ And the rest of the Jews, who [are] in the provinces of the king, have been assembled, even to stand for their life, and to rest from their enemies, and to slay among those hating them five and seventy thousand, and on the prey they have not put forth their hand;

¹⁷ on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, even to rest on the fourteenth of it, and to make it a day of banquet and of joy.

¹⁸ And the Jews who [are] in Shushan have been assembled, on the thirteenth day of it, and on the fourteenth of it, even to rest on the fifteenth of it, and to make it a day of banquet and of joy.

¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages, who are dwelling in cities of the villages, are making the fourteenth day of the month of Adar -- joy and banquet, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.

²⁰ And Mordecai writeth these things, and sendeth letters unto all the Jews who [are] in all provinces of the king Ahasuerus, who are near and who are far off,

²¹ to establish on them, to be keeping the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and the fifteenth day of it, in every year and year,

²² as days on which the Jews have rested from their enemies, and the month that hath been turned to them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to a good day, to make them days of banquet and of joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the needy.

²³ And the Jews have received that which they had begun to do, and that which Mordecai hath written unto them,

²⁴ because Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, adversary of all the Jews, had devised concerning the Jews to destroy them, and had caused to fall Pur -- that [is] the lot -- to crush them and to destroy them;

²⁵ and in her coming in before the king, he said with the letter, `Let his evil device that he devised against the Jews turn back upon his own head,' and they have hanged him and his sons on the tree,

²⁶ therefore they have called these days Purim -- by the name of the lot -- therefore, because of all the words of this letter, and what they have seen concerning this, and what hath come unto them,

²⁷ the Jews have established and received upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all those joined unto them, and it doth not pass away, to be keeping these two days according to their writing, and according to their season, in every year and year;

²⁸ and these days are remembered and kept in every generation and generation, family and family, province and province, and city and city, and these days of Purim do not pass away from the midst of the Jews, and their memorial is not ended from their seed.

²⁹ And Esther the queen, daughter of Abihail, writeth, and Mordecai the Jew, with all might, to establish this second letter of Purim,

³⁰ and he sendeth letters unto all the Jews, unto the seven and twenty and a hundred provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus -- words of peace and truth --

³¹ to establish these days of Purim, in their seasons, as Mordecai the Jew hath established on them, and Esther the queen, and as they had established on themselves, and on their seed -- matters of the fastings, and of their cry.

³² And a saying of Esther hath established these matters of Purim, and it is written in the Book.

10 And the king Ahasuerus setteth a tribute on the land and the isles of the sea;

² and all the work of his strength, and his might, and the explanation of the greatness of Mordecai with which the king made him great, are they not written on the book of the Chronicles of Media and Persia?

³ For Mordecai the Jew [is] second to king Ahasuerus, and a great man of the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking good for his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.

4 What, then, shall we say Abraham our father, to have found, according to flesh?

² for if Abraham by works was declared righteous, he hath to boast -- but not before god;

³ for what doth the writing say? `And Abraham did believe God, and it was reckoned to him -- to righteousness;'

⁴ and to him who is working, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt;

⁵ and to him who is not working, and is believing upon Him who is declaring righteous the impious, his faith is reckoned -- to righteousness:

⁶ even as David also doth speak of the happiness of the man to whom God doth reckon righteousness apart from works:

⁷ `Happy they whose lawless acts were forgiven, and whose sins were covered;

⁸ happy the man to whom the Lord may not reckon sin.'

⁹ [Is] this happiness, then, upon the circumcision, or also upon the uncircumcision -- for we say that the faith was reckoned to Abraham -- to righteousness?

¹⁰ how then was it reckoned? he being in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision;

¹¹ and a sign he did receive of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith in the uncircumcision, for his being father of all those believing through uncircumcision, for the righteousness also being reckoned to them,

¹² and father of circumcision to those not of circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of the faith, that [is] in the uncircumcision of our father Abraham.

¹³ For not through law [is] the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, of his being heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith;

¹⁴ for if they who are of law [are] heirs, the faith hath been made void, and the promise hath been made useless;

¹⁵ for the law doth work wrath; for where law is not, neither [is] transgression.

¹⁶ Because of this [it is] of faith, that [it may be] according to grace, for the promise being sure to all the seed, not to that which [is] of the law only, but also to that which [is] of the faith of Abraham,

¹⁷ who is father of us all (according as it hath been written -- `A father of many nations I have set thee,') before Him whom he did believe -- God, who is quickening the dead, and is calling the things that be not as being.

¹⁸ Who, against hope in hope did believe, for his becoming father of many nations according to that spoken: `So shall thy seed be;'

¹⁹ and not having been weak in the faith, he did not consider his own body, already become dead, (being about a hundred years old,) and the deadness of Sarah's womb,

²⁰ and at the promise of God did not stagger in unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, having given glory to God,

²¹ and having been fully persuaded that what He hath promised He is able also to do:

²² wherefore also it was reckoned to him to righteousness.

²³ And it was not written on his account alone, that it was reckoned to him,

²⁴ but also on ours, to whom it is about to be reckoned -- to us believing on Him who did raise up Jesus our Lord out of the dead,

²⁵ who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised up because of our being declared righteous.