M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 2
The People Travel North. 1 Then we turned back and set out for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea, as the Lord had instructed me. We traveled around the highlands of Seir for many days.
2 Then the Lord spoke to me, saying, 3 “You have been going around these highlands long enough. Turn to the north 4 and command the people: ‘You are to pass through the territory of your kin, the children of Esau,[a] who dwell in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so be very careful. 5 Do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even a single foot, for I have given Esau possession of the highlands of Seir. 6 You are to purchase your food with silver, and you will also purchase your drinking water with silver. 7 The Lord, your God, has blessed you in all your undertakings, and he has watched over your journey through this great wilderness these forty years. The Lord, your God, has been with you, and you have lacked for nothing.’ ”
8 So we went on, bypassing our kin, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir. We turned from the Arabah road that comes up from Elath and Ezion-geber and traveled along the desert road of Moab.
Bypassing Moab. 9 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not provoke the Moabites nor fight with them, for I will not give you their land as a possession. I have given the Ar to the children of Lot as a possession.” 10 (The Emim lived there in days of old, they were a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim. 11 Like the Anakim they were considered to be Rephaim, but the Moabites called them the Emim. 12 The Horites lived in Seir in days of old, but the children of Esau drove them out from before themselves and destroyed them, settling where they had lived, just as Israel did in the land that the Lord had given them to possess.)
13 “Now rise up and cross the Valley of the Zered.” So we crossed the Valley of the Zered. 14 It was thirty-eight years from when we left Kadesh-barnea until when we crossed over the Valley of the Zered. During this time the entire generation of men of war perished in the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. 15 For the hand of the Lord was set against them, to wipe them out from the camp until they were consumed. 16 And so the men of war among the people perished.
17 Bypassing Ammon. Then the Lord spoke to me, saying, 18 “Today you will cross over the Ar,[b] the boundary of Moab. 19 When you come up against the Ammonites, do not harass nor provoke them, for I will not give you the land of the Ammonites as a possession. I have given it to the children of Lot as a possession.” 20 (It is considered to be the land of the Rephaim, for the Rephaim lived in it in days of old, but the Ammonites call them Zamzummin. 21 They were a great and numerous people, as tall as the Anakim, but the Lord destroyed them before them. They drove them out and settled in their place. 22 He had done the same for the children of Esau in Seir when he destroyed the Horites before them. They drove them out and live where they had lived to the present. 23 The Avvim, who lived in villages up to Gaza,[c] were destroyed by the Caphtorim who came from Caphtor. They dwell in their place.)
24 Defeat of Sihon.“Rise, set out and cross over the Valley of the Arnon. I have given Sihon the Amorite, the king of Heshbon, and his land into your hands. Start to occupy it and do battle with him. 25 From today on I will place terror and fear of you in all of the nations under the heavens. Whoever hears about you will tremble and be in anguish because of you.”
26 I sent messengers from the Desert of Kedemoth to Sihon, the king of Heshbon, with words of peace saying, 27 “Let me pass through your land. I will travel on the road, and I will not turn either to the right or the left. 28 You can sell us food for silver so that we might eat, and water for silver so that we might drink, only let me pass through on foot. 29 This is what the descendants of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me. Then I will pass over the Jordan into the land that the Lord, our God, has given us.” 30 But Sihon, the king of Heshbon, would not let us pass through, for the Lord had hardened his spirit and made his heart stubborn so that he might deliver him into your hands, as he has today.
31 Then the Lord said to me, “I have begun to deliver Sihon and his land to you. Now begin to take it, so that you may inherit his land.” 32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to give battle at Jahaz. 33 The Lord, our God, delivered him over to us. We killed him and his sons and all his people. 34 It was then that we captured all of his cities and completely wiped out the men, the women, and the children of all the cities.[d] We left nothing alive 35 except for the cattle that we took as pillage along with the spoils from the cities that we captured. 36 There was not a city that was too strong for us, from Aroer on the shore of the Arnon River and the city that is in the valley, all the way up to Gilead. The Lord, our God, delivered everything into our hands. 37 But as the Lord, our God, had commanded, you did not enter the land of the Ammonites, nor the land along the River Jabbok, nor the cities in the hill country.
Psalm 83[a]
Against a Hostile Alliance
1 A song. A psalm of Asaph.[b]
2 O God, do not remain silent;[c]
do not be quiet and inactive, O God.
3 [d]Note how your enemies rage about,
how your foes increase in arrogance.[e]
4 They formulate shrewd plans against your people,
conspiring against those you love.
5 They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
let the name of Israel be totally forgotten.”
6 They conspire with a single mind,
forming an alliance[f] against you:
7 [g]the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
8 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek,
Philistia, and the inhabitants of Tyre;
9 Assyria has also joined them as an ally,
offering aid to the descendants of Lot. Selah
10 [h]Deal with them as you did with Midian,[i]
and with Sisera and Jabin at the brook of Kishon,[j]
11 who were destroyed at Endor
and became manure for the ground.
12 [k]Make their chieftains like Oreb and Zeeb,
and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
13 who boasted, “Let us seize for ourselves
the pastures of God.”
14 [l]O my God, treat them like tumbleweed,
like chaff blown before the wind.
15 As a fire rages through a forest,
as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
16 so hound them with your tempests
and terrify them with your stormwinds.[m]
17 Fill their faces with shame
so that they will seek your name,[n] O Lord.
18 [o]Let them be humiliated and terrified forever;
let them be disgraced and perish.
19 Let them know that you alone,
whose name is the Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth.
Psalm 84[p]
Longing for God’s Dwelling
1 For the director.[q] “Upon the gittith.” A psalm of the sons of Korah.
2 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts.[r]
3 My soul yearns and is filled with longing
for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
4 Just as the sparrow searches for a home
and the swallow builds a nest for herself
where she may place her young,
so do I seek your altars,[s]
O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
5 Blessed[t] are those who dwell in your house;
they offer continuous praise to you. Selah
6 Blessed are those who find strength in you,
who set their hearts upon your ways.[u]
7 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they turn it into a region of springs,
and the early rain covers it with pools.[v]
8 [w]They move forward with increasing strength
as they behold the God of gods in Zion.
9 O Lord of hosts, hear my prayer;
listen to my pleas, O God of Jacob. Selah
10 O God, look upon our shield[x]
behold the face of your anointed one.
11 It is better to spend one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper[y] in God’s house
than dwell inside the tents of the wicked.
12 The Lord God serves as our sun[z] and our shield;
the Lord showers us with grace and glory.
He does not withhold any good thing
from those who walk in integrity.
13 O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the man who puts his trust in you.
Chapter 30
Doomed Alliance with Egypt
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord,
who devise plans that were not in accord with my will,
who make alliances that were not inspired by me,
thereby adding sin upon sin.
2 They depart for Egypt
without seeking my counsel,
to take refuge in Pharaoh’s protection
and to take shelter in Egypt’s shadow.
3 Therefore, Pharaoh’s protection will be your shame,
and the shelter of Egypt’s shadow
will be your humiliation.
4 For though his princes are at Zoan
and his envoys have reached Hanes,[a]
5 everyone has been put to shame
by a people who cannot be of any use,
who afford them neither help nor profit
but only shame and disgrace.
6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb:
Through a land of hardship and distress,
of the lioness and the roaring lion,
of the viper and the flying serpent,
they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys
and their treasures on the humps of camels
to a nation that cannot be of help to them.
7 For Egypt’s help is vain and futile;
therefore I have called her
“Rahab[b] the Worthless.”
8 [c]And so go forth and in their presence
write it on a scroll,
inscribe it on a tablet,
so that it may serve hereafter
as an eternal witness.
9 They are a rebellious people,
deceitful children,
children who refuse to listen
to the instruction of the Lord.
10 To the seers they say,
“Cease to have visions!”
To the prophets they demand,
“Do not prophesy to us what is right;
reveal to us pleasant things; prophesy illusions.
11 Cease with your warnings;
turn aside from the straight path.
We wish to hear nothing further
about the Holy One of Israel.”
12 Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel:
Because you have rejected this warning,
placing your trust in fraud and deceit
and relying on them,
13 this guilt of yours will become for you
like a crack appearing in a high wall
that bulges out and continues to widen
until suddenly, in an instant,
that wall will come hurtling to the ground.
14 It will crash and break like an earthenware pot,
shattered so completely
that among its fragments not a single shard can be found
to remove an ember from the hearth
or to scoop out water from a cistern.
15 For thus says the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel:
Your salvation depends upon repentance and tranquility
and your strength upon quiet trust.
But you would have none of it.
16 “No,” you said. “We will flee upon horses.”
Therefore, you will flee.
“We will ride on swift horses,” you added.
But your pursuers will be even more swift.
17 A thousand will tremble at the threat of one;
if five threaten you, you will flee,
until you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain
or like a banner on a hill.
18 But even so the Lord is waiting to be gracious to you,
and he will rise up to grant you his compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
19 O people of Zion who dwell in Jerusalem,
you will weep no more.
The Lord will be gracious to you
when you cry out to him for help;
when he hears your call,
he will answer you.
20 Although the Lord may give you the bread of adversity
and the water of affliction,
he who is your Teacher will no longer hide himself,
but with your own eyes you will see your Teacher.
21 And when you stray from your path,
whether to the right or to the left,
you will hear his voice behind you,
sounding in your ears and saying,
“This is the way; continue to follow it.”
22 Then you will realize how unclean
are your silver-plated idols
and your gold-plated images.
You will cast them away like polluted rags
and shout at them, “Away with you!”
God’s Promise of Prosperity
23 God will send rain
for the seed you sow in the ground,
and the crops that the soil brings forth
will be rich and abundant.
When that day comes,
your cattle will graze in broad pastures.
24 The oxen and the donkeys that plow the land
will be fed with fodder
that has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
25 On every lofty mountain and on every high hill
there will be streams of water
on the day of the great slaughter
when the strongholds fall.
26 The light of the moon will match that of the sun,
and the light of the sun itself
will be seven times brighter than before,
like the light of seven days compressed into one,
when the Lord binds up the wounds of his people
and heals the injuries inflicted by his blows.
Divine Punishment of Assyria
27 See, the name of the Lord approaches from afar,
with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke.
His lips are brimming over with anger,
and his tongue is like a devouring fire.
28 His breath is like a rushing flood
that reaches up to the neck;
it will winnow the nations with the sieve of destruction
and place on the jaws of the people
a bridle that will lead them astray.
29 But as for you, your songs will be
like those on the night of a holy festival,
and you will experience joy in your hearts
such as occurs when, to the sound of a flute,
people make a pilgrimage to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Rock of Israel.
30 Then the Lord will make his majestic voice heard
and allow his arm to be seen
as it descends in furious anger
and a flame of devouring fire
amid cloudbursts and thunderstorms and hail.
31 Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the Lord
as he strikes with his rod.
32 Every stroke that the Lord inflicts upon Assyria
with his punishing rod
will be accompanied by the sound
of timbrels and lyres
as he engages in battle
with his uplifted hand.
33 The pyre has been ready for a long time,
prepared for the king.
His pyre is deep and broad,
with fire and wood in abundance.
And the breath of the Lord, like a steam of sulfur,
will set it ablaze.[d]
Salutation. 1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and the brother of James,[a] to those who have been called, who are dear to God the Father and have been kept safe by Jesus Christ: 2 may mercy, peace, and love be granted you in abundance.
Benefits of Being a Christian. 3 Beloved, I was just at the point of writing to you about the salvation we share, when it became necessary for me to write and urge you to fight earnestly for the faith that was once and for all entrusted to the saints.[b] 4 For certain men have infiltrated your ranks, people who long ago were designated for condemnation.[c] These godless persons pervert the grace of our God into an excuse for immorality and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Character and Doom of the False Teachers.[d] 5 Although you already know all this, allow me to remind you that the Lord, who once delivered the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who refused to believe.[e] 6 Remember also that the angels, who were dissatisfied with the dominion that had been assigned to them and abandoned their proper dwelling place, have been kept bound by him in darkness with eternal chains until the judgment of the great Day.[f] 7 And do not fail to remember Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities, which in a similar way indulged in sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who undergo the punishment of eternal fire.[g]
8 In the same way, these dreamers defile their bodies, make light of authority, and insult celestial beings.[h] 9 Even the archangel Michael, when he engaged in an argument with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but instead said: “May the Lord rebuke you!”[i] 10 However, these people pour abuse on anything they do not understand, and the very things that they know by instinct, like irrational animals, lead to their destruction.
11 Woe to them! They have followed in the footsteps of Cain; they have abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam for the sake of gain; and they have perished in the rebellion of Korah.[j] 12 [k]They are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without fear. They are shepherds who feed only themselves. They are like clouds blown about by winds without giving rain, or like trees in autumn barren and uprooted and so twice dead. 13 They are like wild sea waves whose foam reflects their shameless deeds, or like wandering stars for whom the gloom of darkness is stored up forever. 14 [l]Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, also prophesied against them when he said, “Behold, the Lord is coming with tens of thousands of his saints, 15 to pronounce judgment on humanity and to convict all the ungodly for all the godless deeds that each has impiously committed and for all the defiant words spoken against him by godless sinners.” 16 These are grumblers and fault-finders. They indulge their own passions,[m] and their mouths are full of bombastic talk as they flatter others in order to achieve their own ends.
17 Appeal to the Faithful. But you, dear friends, must remember the predictions made by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.[n] 18 For they said to you, “In the final age there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly passions.”[o] 19 It is these people who create divisions, who follow their natural instincts and do not possess the Spirit.
20 A Program of the Christian Life.[p] However, you, dear friends, must build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God as you await our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy, who will grant you eternal life.
22 Have compassion for those who are wavering. 23 Save others by snatching them out of the fire. And for still others have compassion mixed with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.
24 Doxology.[q] Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to bring you safely to his glorious presence, unblemished and rejoicing, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time, now, and forevermore. Amen.
Copyright © 2019 by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.