M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
36 1-2 Then the heads of the subclan of Gilead (of the clan of Machir, of the tribe of Manasseh, one of the sons of Joseph) came to Moses and the leaders of Israel with a petition: “The Lord instructed you to divide the land by lot among the people of Israel,” they reminded Moses, “and to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. 3 But if they marry into another tribe, their land will go with them to the tribe into which they marry. In this way the total area of our tribe will be reduced 4 and will not be returned at the Year of Jubilee.”
5 Then Moses replied publicly, giving them these instructions from the Lord: “The men of the tribe of Joseph have a proper complaint. 6 This is what the Lord has further commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘Let them be married to anyone they like, so long as it is within their own tribe. 7 In this way none of the land of the tribe will shift to any other tribe, for the inheritance of every tribe is to remain permanently as it was first allotted. 8 The girls throughout the tribes of Israel who are heiresses must marry within their own tribe, so that their land won’t leave the tribe. 9 In this way no inheritance shall move from one tribe to another.’”
10 The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses. 11-12 These girls, Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, were married to men in their own tribe of Manasseh (son of Joseph); so their inheritance remained in their tribe.
13 These are the commandments and ordinances that the Lord gave to the people of Israel through Moses, while they were camped on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho.
80 O Shepherd of Israel who leads Israel like a flock; O God enthroned above the Guardian Angels, bend down your ear and listen as I plead. Display your power and radiant glory. 2 Let Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh see you rouse yourself and use your mighty power to rescue us.
3 Turn us again to yourself, O God. Look down on us in joy and love;[a] only then shall we be saved.
4 O Jehovah, God of heaven’s armies, how long will you be angry and reject our prayers? 5 You have fed us with sorrow and tears 6 and have made us the scorn of the neighboring nations. They laugh among themselves.
7 Turn us again to yourself, O God of Hosts. Look down on us in joy and love;[b] only then shall we be saved. 8 You brought us from Egypt as though we were a tender vine and drove away the heathen from your land and planted us. 9 You cleared the ground and tilled the soil, and we took root and filled the land. 10 The mountains were covered with our shadow; we were like the mighty cedar trees,[c] 11 covering the entire land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates River. 12 But now you have broken down our walls, leaving us without protection. 13 The boar from the forest roots around us, and the wild animals feed on us.
14 Come back, we beg of you, O God of the armies of heaven, and bless us. Look down from heaven and see our plight and care for this your vine! 15 Protect what you yourself have planted, this son you have raised for yourself. 16 For we are chopped and burned by our enemies. May they perish at your frown. 17 Strengthen the man you love,[d] the son of your choice, 18 and we will never forsake you again. Revive us to trust in you.
19 Turn us again to yourself, O God of the armies of heaven. Look down on us, your face aglow with joy and love—only then shall we be saved.
28 Woe to the city of Samaria, surrounded by her rich valley—Samaria, the pride and delight of the drunkards of Israel! Woe to her fading beauty, the crowning glory of a nation of men lying drunk in the streets! 2 For the Lord will send a mighty army (the Assyrians) against you; like a mighty hailstorm he will burst upon you and dash you to the ground. 3 The proud city of Samaria—yes, the joy and delight of the drunkards of Israel—will be hurled to the ground and trampled beneath the enemies’ feet. 4 Once glorious, her fading beauty surrounded by a fertile valley will suddenly be gone, greedily snatched away as an early fig is hungrily snatched and gobbled up!
5 Then at last the Lord Almighty himself will be their crowning glory, the diadem of beauty to his people who are left. 6 He will give a longing for justice to your judges and great courage to your soldiers who are battling to the last before your gates. 7 But Jerusalem is now led by drunks! Her priests and prophets reel and stagger, making stupid errors and mistakes. 8 Their tables are covered with vomit; filth is everywhere.
9 “Who does Isaiah think he is,” the people say, “to speak to us like this! Are we little children, barely old enough to talk? 10 He tells us everything over and over again, a line at a time and in such simple words!”
11 But they won’t listen; the only language they can understand is punishment! So God will punish them by sending against them foreigners who speak strange gibberish! Only then will they listen to him! 12 They could have rest in their own land if they would obey him, if they were kind and good. He told them that, but they wouldn’t listen to him. 13 So the Lord will spell it out for them again, repeating it over and over in simple words whenever he can; yet over this simple, straightforward message they will stumble and fall and be broken, trapped and captured.
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffing rulers in Jerusalem:
15 You have struck a bargain with death, you say, and sold yourselves to the devil[a] in exchange for his protection against the Assyrians. “They can never touch us,” you say, “for we are under the care of one who will deceive and fool them.”
16 But the Lord God says, “See, I am placing a Foundation Stone in Zion—a firm, tested, precious Cornerstone that is safe to build on. He who believes need never run away again. 17 I will take the line and plummet of justice to check the foundation wall you built; it looks so fine, but it is so weak a storm of hail will knock it down! The enemy will come like a flood and sweep it away, and you will be drowned. 18 I will cancel your agreement of compromise with death and the devil, so when the terrible enemy floods in, you will be trampled into the ground. 19 Again and again that flood will come and carry you off, until at last the unmixed horror of the truth of my warnings will finally dawn on you.”
20 The bed you have made is far too short to lie on; the blankets are too narrow to cover you. 21 The Lord will come suddenly and in anger, as at Mount Perazim and Gibeon, to do a strange, unusual thing—to destroy his own people! 22 So scoff no more, lest your punishment be made even greater, for the Lord God has plainly told me that he is determined to crush you.
23-24 Listen to me, listen as I plead: Does a farmer always plow and never sow? Is he forever harrowing the soil and never planting it? 25 Does he not finally plant his many kinds of grain, each in its own section of his land? 26 He knows just what to do, for God has made him see and understand. 27 He doesn’t thresh all grains the same. A sledge is never used on dill, but it is beaten with a stick. A threshing wheel is never rolled on cummin, but it is beaten softly with a flail. 28 Bread grain is easily crushed, so he doesn’t keep on pounding it. 29 The Lord Almighty is a wonderful teacher and gives the farmer wisdom.
1 From: John, the old Elder of the church.
To: That dear woman Cyria, one of God’s very own, and to her children whom I love so much, as does everyone else in the church. 2 Since the Truth is in our hearts forever, 3 God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son will bless us with great mercy and much peace, and with truth and love.
4 How happy I am to find some of your children here and to see that they are living as they should, following the Truth, obeying God’s command.
5 And now I want to urgently remind you, dear friends, of the old rule God gave us right from the beginning, that Christians should love one another. 6 If we love God, we will do whatever he tells us to. And he has told us from the very first to love each other.
7 Watch out for the false leaders—and there are many of them around—who don’t believe that Jesus Christ came to earth as a human being with a body like ours. Such people are against the truth and against Christ. 8 Beware of being like them and losing the prize that you and I have been working so hard to get. See to it that you win your full reward from the Lord. 9 For if you wander beyond the teaching of Christ, you will leave God behind; while if you are loyal to Christ’s teachings, you will have God too. Then you will have both the Father and the Son.
10 If anyone comes to teach you, and he doesn’t believe what Christ taught, don’t even invite him into your home. Don’t encourage him in any way. 11 If you do, you will be a partner with him in his wickedness.
12 Well, I would like to say much more, but I don’t want to say it in this letter, for I hope to come to see you soon, and then we can talk over these things together and have a joyous time.
13 Greetings from the children of your sister—another choice child of God.
Sincerely, John
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.