M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 21
Reign of Manasseh. 1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, following the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. He set up altars to Baal and also made an asherah, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done. He bowed down to the whole host of heaven and served them.(A) 4 He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said: In Jerusalem I will set my name. 5 And he built altars for the whole host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 He immolated his child by fire. He practiced soothsaying and divination, and reintroduced the consulting of ghosts and spirits.
He did much evil in the Lord’s sight and provoked him to anger.(B) 7 The Asherah idol he had made, he placed in the Lord’s house, of which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon: In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I shall set my name forever.(C) 8 I will no longer make Israel step out of the land I gave their ancestors, provided that they are careful to observe all I have commanded them and the entire law which Moses my servant enjoined upon them. 9 But they did not listen.
Manasseh misled them into doing even greater evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed at the coming of the Israelites. 10 Then the Lord spoke through his servants the prophets: 11 “Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has practiced these abominations, and has done greater evil than all that was done by the Amorites before him, and has led Judah into sin by his idols,(D) 12 therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I am about to bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that, when any hear of it, their ears shall ring: 13 I will measure Jerusalem with the same cord as I did Samaria, and with the plummet I used for the house of Ahab. I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a dish, wiping it inside and out.(E) 14 I will cast off the survivors of my inheritance. I will deliver them into enemy hands, to become prey and booty for all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and provoked me from the day their ancestors came forth from Egypt until this very day.” 16 Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that it filled the length and breadth of Jerusalem, in addition to the sin he caused Judah to commit by doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight.
17 The rest of the acts of Manasseh, with all that he did and the sin he committed, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. 18 Manasseh rested with his ancestors; he was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzza, and his son Amon succeeded him as king.
Reign of Amon. 19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz, from Jotbah.
20 He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, as his father Manasseh had done. 21 He walked in all the ways of his father; he served the idols his father had served, and bowed down to them. 22 He abandoned the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in the way of the Lord.
23 Officials of Amon plotted against him and killed the king in his palace, 24 but the people of the land[a] then slew all who had plotted against King Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his stead. 25 The rest of the acts of Amon, which he did, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. 26 He was buried in his own grave in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah succeeded him as king.
III. Jesus, Faithful and Compassionate High Priest
Chapter 3
Jesus, Superior to Moses.[a] 1 Therefore, holy “brothers,” sharing in a heavenly calling, reflect on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was “faithful in [all] his house.”(A) 3 But he is worthy of more “glory” than Moses, as the founder of a house has more “honor” than the house itself.(B) 4 Every house is founded by someone, but the founder of all is God. 5 Moses was “faithful in all his house” as a “servant” to testify to what would be spoken, 6 [b](C)but Christ was faithful as a son placed over his house. We are his house, if [only] we hold fast to our confidence and pride in our hope.
Israel’s Infidelity a Warning. 7 [c]Therefore, as the holy Spirit says:
“Oh, that today you would hear his voice,(D)
8 ‘Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion
in the day of testing in the desert,
9 where your ancestors tested and tried me
and saw my works(E) 10 for forty years.
Because of this I was provoked with that generation
and I said, “They have always been of erring heart,
and they do not know my ways.”
11 As I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter into my rest.”’”
12 Take care, brothers, that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart, so as to forsake the living God. 13 Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,” so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin. 14 We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end,(F) 15 for it is said:
“Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
‘Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion.’”(G)
16 (H)Who were those who rebelled when they heard? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt under Moses? 17 With whom was he “provoked for forty years”? Was it not those who had sinned, whose corpses fell in the desert?(I) 18 And to whom did he “swear that they should not enter into his rest,” if not to those who were disobedient?(J) 19 And we see that they could not enter for lack of faith.
Chapter 14
1 Samaria[a] has become guilty,
for she has rebelled against her God.
They shall fall by the sword,
their infants shall be dashed to pieces,(A)
their pregnant women shall be ripped open.(B)
Sincere Conversion and New Life
2 Return, Israel, to the Lord, your God;
you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
3 Take with you words,
and return to the Lord;
Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity,
and take what is good.
Let us offer the fruit of our lips.(C)
4 [b]Assyria will not save us,
nor will we mount horses;(D)
We will never again say, ‘Our god,’
to the work of our hands;
for in you the orphan finds compassion.”(E)
5 I will heal their apostasy,
I will love them freely;
for my anger is turned away from them.
6 I will be like the dew for Israel:(F)
he will blossom like the lily;
He will strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
7 and his shoots will go forth.(G)
His splendor will be like the olive tree
and his fragrance like Lebanon cedar.(H)
8 Again they will live in his shade;
they will raise grain,
They will blossom like the vine,
and his renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.
9 Ephraim! What more have I to do with idols?(I)
I have humbled him, but I will take note of him.
I am like a verdant cypress tree.[c]
From me fruit will be found for you!
Epilogue
Psalm 139[a]
The All-knowing and Ever-present God
1 For the leader. A psalm of David.
I
Lord, you have probed me, you know me:
2 you know when I sit and stand;[b](A)
you understand my thoughts from afar.
3 You sift through my travels and my rest;
with all my ways you are familiar.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
Lord, you know it all.
5 Behind and before you encircle me
and rest your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
far too lofty for me to reach.(B)
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence, where can I flee?
8 If I ascend to the heavens, you are there;
if I lie down in Sheol, there you are.(C)
9 If I take the wings of dawn[c]
and dwell beyond the sea,
10 Even there your hand guides me,
your right hand holds me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely darkness shall hide me,
and night shall be my light”[d]—
12 Darkness is not dark for you,
and night shines as the day.
Darkness and light are but one.(D)
II
13 You formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.(E)
14 I praise you, because I am wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works!
My very self you know.
15 My bones are not hidden from you,
When I was being made in secret,
fashioned in the depths of the earth.[e]
16 Your eyes saw me unformed;
in your book all are written down;(F)
my days were shaped, before one came to be.
III
17 How precious to me are your designs, O God;
how vast the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the sands;
when I complete them, still you are with me.(G)
19 When you would destroy the wicked, O God,
the bloodthirsty depart from me!(H)
20 Your foes who conspire a plot against you
are exalted in vain.
IV
21 Do I not hate, Lord, those who hate you?
Those who rise against you, do I not loathe?(I)
22 With fierce hatred I hate them,
enemies I count as my own.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.