M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 4
Defeat of the Israelites.[a] 1 At that time, the Philistines gathered for an attack on Israel. Israel went out to engage them in battle and camped at Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped at Aphek. 2 The Philistines then drew up in battle formation against Israel. After a fierce struggle Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield. 3 When the troops retired to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the Lord from Shiloh that it may go into battle among us and save us from the grasp of our enemies.”(A)
Loss of the Ark. 4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned upon the cherubim.[b] The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, accompanied the ark of God.(B) 5 When the ark of the Lord arrived in the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook. 6 The Philistines, hearing the uproar, asked, “What does this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” On learning that the ark of the Lord had come into the camp, 7 the Philistines were frightened, crying out, “Gods have come to their camp. Woe to us! This has never happened before. 8 Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods?[c] These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with various plagues in the desert. 9 Take courage and act like soldiers, Philistines; otherwise you will become slaves to the Hebrews, as they were your slaves. Fight like soldiers!” 10 The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; everyone fled to their own tents.[d] It was a disastrous defeat; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were dead.(C)
Death of Eli. 12 A Benjaminite fled from the battlefield and reached Shiloh that same day, with his clothes torn and his head covered with dirt.(D) 13 When he arrived, Eli was sitting in his chair beside the gate, watching the road, for he was troubled at heart about the ark of God. The man, however, went into the city to announce his news; then the whole city cried out. 14 When Eli heard the uproar, he wondered why there was such commotion. Just then the man rushed up to inform him. 15 Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes would not focus. So he could not see. 16 The man said to Eli: “I have come from the battlefield; today I fled from there.” He asked, “What happened, my son?” 17 And the messenger answered: “Israel fled from the Philistines; in fact, the troops suffered heavy losses. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.” 18 At this mention of the ark of God, Eli fell backward from his chair into the gateway; he died of a broken neck since he was an old man and heavy. He had judged Israel for forty years.
19 His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news about the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she crouched down in labor, and gave birth. 20 She was about to die when the women standing around her said to her, “Do not be afraid, you have given birth to a son.” Yet she neither answered nor paid any attention.(E) 21 She named the child Ichabod, saying, “Gone is the glory from Israel,” referring to the capture of the ark of God and to her father-in-law and her husband. 22 She said, “Gone is the glory from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured.(F)
Chapter 4[a]
Abraham Justified by Faith. 1 What then can we say that Abraham found, our ancestor according to the flesh?(A) 2 [b]Indeed, if Abraham was justified on the basis of his works, he has reason to boast; but this was not so in the sight of God. 3 (B)For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”[c] 4 A worker’s wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due.(C) 5 But when one does not work, yet believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 So also David declares the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven(D)
and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not record.”
9 Does this blessedness[d] apply only to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised as well? Now we assert that “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”(E) 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was he circumcised or not? He was not circumcised, but uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal on the righteousness received through faith while he was uncircumcised. Thus he was to be the father of all the uncircumcised who believe, so that to them [also] righteousness might be credited,(F) 12 as well as the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but also follow the path of faith that our father Abraham walked while still uncircumcised.
Inheritance Through Faith. 13 It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.(G) 14 For if those who adhere to the law are the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.(H) 15 For the law produces wrath;(I) but where there is no law, neither is there violation.[e] 16 For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us,(J) 17 as it is written, “I have made you father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist.(K) 18 He believed, hoping against hope,(L) that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “Thus shall your descendants be.” 19 (M)He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body as [already] dead (for he was almost a hundred years old) and the dead womb of Sarah. 20 He did not doubt God’s promise in unbelief;[f] rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God 21 and was fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to do.(N) 22 That is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”(O) 23 But it was not for him alone that it was written that “it was credited to him”; 24 it was also for us, to whom it will be credited, who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,(P) 25 who was handed over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification.(Q)
Chapter 42
1 Then all the military leaders, including Johanan, son of Kareah, Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, 2 approached Jeremiah the prophet and said, “Please grant our petition; pray for us to the Lord, your God, for all this remnant. As you see, only a few of us remain, but once we were many. 3 May the Lord, your God, show us the way we should take and what we should do.” 4 “Very well!” Jeremiah the prophet answered them: “I will pray to the Lord, your God, as you desire; whatever the Lord answers, I will tell you; I will withhold nothing from you.”(A) 5 And they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not follow all the instructions the Lord, your God, sends us through you.(B) 6 Whether we like it or not, we will obey the command of the Lord, our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us for obeying the command of the Lord, our God.”(C)
7 Ten days passed before the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he called Johanan, son of Kareah, his army leaders, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, 9 and said to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to offer your petition: 10 If indeed you will remain in this land, I will build you up, and not tear you down; I will plant you, not uproot you; for I repent of the evil I have done you.(D) 11 Do not fear the king of Babylon, as you do now. Do not fear him—oracle of the Lord—for I am with you to save you, to rescue you from his power.(E) 12 I will take pity on you, so that he will have pity on you and let you return to your land.(F) 13 But if you keep saying, “We will not stay in this land,” thus disobeying the voice of the Lord, your God, 14 and saying, “No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, nor hear the trumpet alarm, nor hunger for bread. There we will live!”(G) 15 then listen to the word of the Lord, remnant of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are set on going to Egypt and settling down there once you arrive, 16 the sword you fear shall overtake you in the land of Egypt; the hunger you dread shall pursue you to Egypt and there you shall die.(H) 17 All those determined to go to Egypt to live shall die by the sword, famine, and disease: not one shall survive or escape the evil that I am bringing upon them.(I) 18 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my furious wrath was poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my anger be poured out on you when you reach Egypt. You shall become a malediction and a horror, a curse and a reproach, and you shall never see this place again.(J)
19 The Lord has spoken to you, remnant of Judah. Do not go to Egypt! Mark well that I am warning you this day. 20 At the cost of your lives you have been deceitful, for you yourselves sent me to the Lord, your God, saying, “Pray for us to the Lord, our God; whatever the Lord, our God, shall say, tell us and we will do it.” 21 Today I have told you, but you have not listened to the voice of the Lord your God, in anything that he has sent me to tell you.(K) 22 Have no doubt about this: you shall die by the sword, famine, and disease in the place where you want to go and live.(L)
Psalm 18[a]
A King’s Thanksgiving for Victory
1 For the leader. Of David, the servant of the Lord, who sang to the Lord the words of this song after the Lord had rescued him from the clutches of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said:(A)
I
I love you, Lord, my strength,
3 Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer,
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, my saving horn,[b] my stronghold!(B)
4 Praised be the Lord, I exclaim!
I have been delivered from my enemies.
II
5 The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction terrified me.
6 The cords[c] of Sheol encircled me;
the snares of death lay in wait for me.(C)
7 In my distress I called out: Lord!
I cried out to my God.(D)
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry to him reached his ears.
8 [d]The earth rocked and shook;
the foundations of the mountains trembled;
they shook as his wrath flared up.(E)
9 Smoke rose from his nostrils,
a devouring fire from his mouth;
it kindled coals into flame.
10 He parted the heavens and came down,
a dark cloud under his feet.(F)
11 Mounted on a cherub[e] he flew,
borne along on the wings of the wind.
12 He made darkness his cloak around him;
his canopy, water-darkened stormclouds.
13 From the gleam before him, his clouds passed,
hail and coals of fire.(G)
14 The Lord thundered from heaven;
the Most High made his voice resound.(H)
15 He let fly his arrows[f] and scattered them;
shot his lightning bolts and dispersed them.(I)
16 Then the bed of the sea appeared;
the world’s foundations lay bare,(J)
At your rebuke, O Lord,
at the storming breath of your nostrils.
17 He reached down from on high and seized me;
drew me out of the deep waters.(K)
18 He rescued me from my mighty enemy,
from foes too powerful for me.
19 They attacked me on my day of distress,
but the Lord was my support.
20 He set me free in the open;
he rescued me because he loves me.
III
21 The Lord acknowledged my righteousness,
rewarded my clean hands.(L)
22 For I kept the ways of the Lord;
I was not disloyal to my God.
23 For his laws were all before me,
his decrees I did not cast aside.
24 I was honest toward him;
I was on guard against sin.
25 So the Lord rewarded my righteousness,
the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
26 Toward the faithful you are faithful;
to the honest man you are honest;(M)
27 Toward the pure, you are pure;
but to the perverse you are devious.
28 For humble people you save;
haughty eyes you bring low.(N)
29 For you, Lord, give light to my lamp;
my God brightens my darkness.(O)
30 With you I can rush an armed band,
with my God to help I can leap a wall.
31 God’s way is unerring;
the Lord’s promise is refined;
he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.(P)
IV
32 Truly, who is God except the Lord?
Who but our God is the rock?(Q)
33 This God who girded me with might,
kept my way unerring,
34 Who made my feet like a deer’s,
and set me on the heights,(R)
35 Who trained my hands for war,
my arms to string a bow of bronze.[g](S)
V
36 You have given me your saving shield;
your right hand has upheld me;
your favor made me great.
37 You made room for my steps beneath me;
my ankles never twisted.(T)
38 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn back till I destroyed them.
39 I decimated them; they could not rise;
they fell at my feet.
40 You girded me with valor for war,
subjugated my opponents beneath me.
41 You made my foes expose their necks to me;
those who hated me I silenced.
42 They cried for help, but no one saved them;
cried to the Lord but received no answer.
43 I ground them to dust before the wind;
I left them like mud in the streets.
44 You rescued me from the strife of peoples;
you made me head over nations.
A people I had not known served me;
45 as soon as they heard of me they obeyed.
Foreigners submitted before me;
46 foreigners cringed;
they came cowering from their dungeons.(U)
VI
47 The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock!(V)
Exalted be God, my savior!
48 O God who granted me vengeance,
made peoples subject to me,(W)
49 and saved me from my enemies,
Truly you have elevated me above my opponents,
from a man of lawlessness you have rescued me.
50 Thus I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing praises to your name.(X)
51 You have given great victories to your king,
and shown mercy to his anointed,
to David and his posterity forever.(Y)
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.