M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
15 Later, during the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit the young woman he thought was still his wife.[a] He brought along a young goat as a gift and said to her father, “I want to go into my wife's bedroom.”
“You can't do that,” he replied. 2 “When you left the way you did, I thought you were divorcing[b] her. So I arranged for her to marry one of the young men who were at your party. But my younger daughter is even prettier, and you can have her as your wife.”
3 “This time,” Samson answered, “I have a good reason for really hurting some Philistines.”
Samson Takes Revenge
4 Samson went out and caught 300 foxes and tied them together in pairs with oil-soaked rags around their tails. 5 Then Samson took the foxes into the Philistine wheat fields that were ready to be harvested. He set the rags on fire and let the foxes go. The wheat fields went up in flames, and so did the stacks of wheat that had already been cut. Even the Philistine vineyards and olive orchards burned.
6 Some of the Philistines started asking around, “Who could have done such a thing?”
“It was Samson,” someone told them. “He married the daughter of that man in Timnah, but then the man gave Samson's wife to one of the men at the wedding.”
The Philistine leaders went to Timnah and burned to death Samson's wife and her father.[c]
7 When Samson found out what they had done, he went to them and said, “You killed them! And I won't rest until I get even with you.” 8 Then Samson started hacking them to pieces with his sword.[d]
Samson left Philistia and went to live in the cave at Etam Rock. 9 But it wasn't long before the Philistines invaded Judah[e] and set up a huge army camp at Jawbone.[f]
10 The people of Judah asked, “Why have you invaded our land?”
The Philistines answered, “We've come to get Samson. We're going to do the same things to him that he did to our people.”
11 Three thousand men from Judah went to the cave at Etam Rock and said to Samson, “Don't you know that the Philistines rule us, and they will punish us for what you did?”
“I was only getting even with them,” Samson replied. “They did the same things to me first.”
12 “We came here to tie you up and turn you over to them,” said the men of Judah.
“I won't put up a fight,” Samson answered, “but you have to promise not to hurt me yourselves.”
13-14 “We promise,” the men said. “We will only tie you up and turn you over to the Philistines. We won't kill you.” Then they tied up his hands and arms with two brand-new ropes and led him away from Etam Rock.
When the Philistines saw that Samson was being brought to their camp at Jawbone, they started shouting and ran toward him. But the Lord's Spirit took control of Samson, and Samson broke the ropes, as though they were pieces of burnt cloth. 15 Samson glanced around and spotted the jawbone of a donkey. The jawbone had not yet dried out, so it was still hard and heavy. Samson grabbed it and started hitting Philistines—he killed 1,000 of them! 16 After the fighting was over, he made up this poem about what he had done to the Philistines:
I used a donkey's jawbone
to kill a thousand men;
I beat them with this jawbone
over and over again.[g]
17 Samson tossed the jawbone on the ground and decided to call the place Jawbone Hill.[h] It is still called that today.
18 Samson was so thirsty that he prayed, “Our Lord, you helped me win a battle against a whole army. Please don't let me die of thirst now. Those heathen Philistines will carry off my dead body.”
19 Samson was tired and weary, but God sent water gushing from a rock.[i] Samson drank some and felt strong again.
Samson named the place Caller Spring,[j] because he had called out to God for help. The spring is still there at Jawbone.
20 Samson was a leader[k] of Israel for 20 years, but the Philistines were still the rulers of Israel.
Paul in Ephesus
19 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled across the hill country to Ephesus, where he met some of the Lord's followers. 2 He asked them, “When you put your faith in Jesus, were you given the Holy Spirit?”
“No!” they answered. “We have never even heard of the Holy Spirit.”
3 “Then why were you baptized?” Paul asked.
They answered, “Because of what John taught.”[a]
4 (A) Paul replied, “John baptized people so they would turn to God. But he also told them someone else was coming, and they should put their faith in him. Jesus is the one that John was talking about.” 5 After the people heard Paul say this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 Then Paul placed his hands on them. The Holy Spirit was given to them, and they spoke unknown languages and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in this group.
8 For three months Paul went to the synagogue and talked bravely with the people about God's kingdom. He tried to win them over, 9 but some of them were stubborn and refused to believe. In front of everyone they said terrible things about God's Way. Paul left and took the followers with him to the lecture hall of Tyrannus. He spoke there every day 10 for two years, until every Jew and Gentile[b] in Asia had heard the Lord's message.
The Sons of Sceva
11 God gave Paul the power to work great miracles. 12 People even took handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul's body, and they carried them to everyone who was sick. All of the sick people were healed, and the evil spirits went out.
13 Some Jewish men started going around trying to force out evil spirits by using the name of the Lord Jesus. They said to the spirits, “Come out in the name of that same Jesus that Paul preaches about!”
14 Seven sons of a high priest named Sceva were doing this, 15 when an evil spirit said to them, “I know Jesus! And I have heard about Paul. But who are you?” 16 Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them up. They ran out of the house, naked and bruised.
17 When the Jews and Gentiles[c] in Ephesus heard about this, they were so frightened that they praised the name of the Lord Jesus. 18 Many who were followers now started telling everyone about the evil things they had been doing. 19 Some who had been practicing witchcraft even brought their books and burned them in public. These books were worth about 50,000 silver coins. 20 So the Lord's message spread and became even more powerful.
The Riot in Ephesus
21 After all this had happened, Paul decided[d] to visit Macedonia and Achaia on his way to Jerusalem. Paul had said, “From there I will go on to Rome.” 22 So he sent his two helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia. But he stayed on in Asia for a while.
23 At that time there was serious trouble because of the Lord's Way.[e] 24 A silversmith named Demetrius had a business that made silver models of the temple of the goddess Artemis. Those who worked for him earned a lot of money. 25 Demetrius brought together everyone who was in the same business and said:
Friends, you know we make a good living at this. 26 But you have surely seen and heard how this man Paul is upsetting a lot of people, not only in Ephesus, but almost everywhere in Asia. He claims that the gods we humans make are not really gods at all. 27 Everyone will start saying terrible things about our business. They will stop respecting the temple of the goddess Artemis, who is worshiped in Asia and all over the world. Our great goddess will be forgotten!
28 When the workers heard this, they got angry and started shouting, “Great is Artemis, the goddess of the Ephesians!” 29 Soon the whole city was in a riot, and some men grabbed Gaius and Aristarchus, who had come from Macedonia with Paul. Then everyone in the crowd rushed to the place where the town meetings were held.
30 Paul wanted to go out and speak to the people, but the Lord's followers would not let him. 31 A few of the local officials were friendly to Paul, and they sent someone to warn him not to go.
32 Some of the people in the meeting were shouting one thing, and others were shouting something else. Everyone was completely confused, and most of them did not even know why they were there.
33 Several of the Jewish leaders pushed a man named Alexander to the front of the crowd and started telling him what to say. He motioned with his hand and tried to explain what was going on. 34 But when the crowd saw that he was Jewish, they all shouted for two hours, “Great is Artemis, the goddess of the Ephesians!”
35 Finally, a town official made the crowd be quiet. Then he said:
People of Ephesus, who in the world doesn't know that our city is the center for worshiping the great goddess Artemis? Who doesn't know that her image which fell from heaven is right here? 36 No one can deny this, and so you should calm down and not do anything foolish. 37 You have brought men in here who have not robbed temples or spoken against our goddess.
38 If Demetrius and his workers have a case against these men, we have courts and judges. Let them take their complaints there. 39 But if you want to do more than that, the matter will have to be brought before the city council. 40 We could easily be accused of starting a riot today. There is no excuse for it! We cannot even give a reason for this uproar.
41 After saying this, he told the people to leave.
Jeremiah Accuses Hananiah of Being a False Prophet
28 (A) Later that same year, in the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah[a] was king,[b] the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur from Gibeon came up to me in the temple. And while the priests and others in the temple were listening, 2 he told me that the Lord had said:
I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, and I will smash the yoke[c] that Nebuchadnezzar[d] put on the necks of the nations to make them his slaves. 3 And within two years, I will bring back to Jerusalem everything that he took from my temple and carried off to Babylonia. 4 King Jehoiachin[e] and the other people who were taken from Judah to Babylonia will be allowed to come back here as well. All this will happen because I will smash the power of the king of Babylonia!
5 The priests and the others were still standing there, so I said:
6 Hananiah, I hope the Lord will do exactly what you said. I hope he does bring back everything the Babylonians took from the temple, and that our people who were taken to Babylonia will be allowed to return home. 7 But let me remind you and everyone else 8 that long before we were born, prophets were saying powerful kingdoms would be struck by war, disaster, and disease. 9 Now you are saying we will have peace. We will just have to wait and see if that is really what the Lord has said.[f]
10 Hananiah grabbed the wooden yoke from my neck and smashed it. 11 Then he said, “The Lord says this is the way he will smash the power Nebuchadnezzar has over the nations, and it will happen in less than two years.”
I left the temple, 12 and a little while later, the Lord told me 13-14 to go back and say to Hananiah:
I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel. You smashed a wooden yoke, but I will replace it with one made of iron. I will put iron yokes on all the nations, and they will have to do what King Nebuchadnezzar commands. I will even let him rule the wild animals.
15-16 Hananiah, I have never sent you to speak for me. And yet you have talked my people into believing your lies and rebelling against me. So now I will send you—I'll send you right off the face of the earth! You will die before this year is over.
17 Two months later, Hananiah died.
A Plot To Kill Jesus
(Matthew 26.1-5; Luke 22.1,2; John 11.45-53)
14 (A) It was now two days before Passover and the Festival of Thin Bread. The chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses were planning how they could sneak around and have Jesus arrested and put to death. 2 They were saying, “We must not do it during the festival, because the people will riot.”
At Bethany
(Matthew 26.6-13; John 12.1-8)
3 (B) Jesus was eating in Bethany at the home of Simon, who once had leprosy,[a] when a woman came in with a very expensive bottle of sweet-smelling perfume.[b] After breaking it open, she poured the perfume on Jesus' head. 4 This made some of the guests angry, and they complained, “Why such a waste? 5 We could have sold this perfume for more than 300 silver coins and given the money to the poor!” So they started saying cruel things to the woman.
6 But Jesus said:
Leave her alone! Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing for me. 7 (C) You will always have the poor with you. And whenever you want to, you can give to them. But you won't always have me here with you. 8 She has done all she could by pouring perfume on my body to prepare it for burial. 9 You may be sure that wherever the good news is told all over the world, people will remember what she has done. And they will tell others.
Judas and the Chief Priests
(Matthew 26.14-16; Luke 22.3-6)
10 Judas Iscariot[c] was one of the twelve disciples. He went to the chief priests and offered to help them arrest Jesus. 11 They were glad to hear this, and they promised to pay him. So Judas started looking for a good chance to betray Jesus.
Jesus Eats with His Disciples
(Matthew 26.17-25; Luke 22.7-14,21-23; John 13.21-30)
12 It was the first day of the Festival of Thin Bread, and the Passover lambs were being killed. Jesus' disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal?”
13 Jesus said to two of the disciples, “Go into the city, where you will meet a man carrying a jar of water.[d] Follow him, 14 and when he goes into a house, say to the owner, ‘Our teacher wants to know if you have a room where he can eat the Passover meal with his disciples.’ 15 The owner will take you upstairs and show you a large room furnished and ready for you to use. Prepare the meal there.”
16 The two disciples went into the city and found everything just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover meal.
17-18 (D) While Jesus and the twelve disciples were eating together that evening, he said, “The one who will betray me is now eating with me.”
19 This made the disciples sad, and one after another they said to Jesus, “You surely don't mean me!”
20 He answered, “It is one of you twelve men who is eating from this dish with me. 21 The Son of Man will die, just as the Scriptures say. But it is going to be terrible for the one who betrays me. That man would be better off if he had never been born.”
The Lord's Supper
(Matthew 26.26-30; Luke 22.14-23; 1 Corinthians 11.23-25)
22 During the meal Jesus took some bread in his hands. He blessed the bread and broke it. Then he gave it to his disciples and said, “Take this. It is my body.”
23 Jesus picked up a cup of wine and gave thanks to God. He gave it to his disciples, and they all drank some. 24 (E) Then he said, “This is my blood, which is poured out for many people, and with it God makes his agreement. 25 From now on I will not drink any wine, until I drink new wine in God's kingdom.” 26 Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.
Peter's Promise
(Matthew 26.31-35; Luke 22.31-34; John 13.36-38)
27 (F) Jesus said to his disciples, “All of you will reject me, as the Scriptures say,
‘I will strike down
the shepherd,
and the sheep
will be scattered.’
28 (G) But after I am raised to life, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”
29 Peter spoke up, “Even if all the others reject you, I never will!”
30 Jesus replied, “This very night before a rooster crows twice, you will say three times that you don't know me.”
31 But Peter was so sure of himself that he said, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never say I don't know you!”
All the others said the same thing.
Jesus Prays
(Matthew 26.36-46; Luke 22.39-46)
32 Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he told them, “Sit here while I pray.”
33 Jesus took along Peter, James, and John. He was sad and troubled and 34 told them, “I am so sad that I feel as if I am dying. Stay here and keep awake with me.”
35-36 Jesus walked on a little way. Then he knelt down on the ground and prayed, “Father,[e] if it is possible, don't let this happen to me! Father, you can do anything. Don't make me suffer by drinking from this cup.[f] But do what you want, and not what I want.”
37 When Jesus came back and found the disciples sleeping, he said to Simon Peter, “Are you asleep? Can't you stay awake for just one hour? 38 Stay awake and pray that you won't be tested. You want to do what is right, but you are weak.”
39 Jesus went back and prayed the same prayer. 40 But when he returned to the disciples, he found them sleeping again. They simply could not keep their eyes open, and they did not know what to say.
41 When Jesus returned to the disciples the third time, he said, “Are you still sleeping and resting?[g] Enough of this! The time has come for the Son of Man to be handed over to sinners. 42 Get up! Let's go. The one who will betray me is already here.”
Jesus Is Arrested
(Matthew 26.47-56; Luke 22.47-53; John 18.3-12)
43 Jesus was still speaking, when Judas the betrayer came up. He was one of the twelve disciples, and a mob of men armed with swords and clubs were with him. They had been sent by the chief priests, the nation's leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses. 44 Judas had told them ahead of time, “Arrest the man I greet with a kiss.[h] Tie him up tight and lead him away.”
45 Judas walked right up to Jesus and said, “Teacher!” Then Judas kissed him, 46 and the men grabbed Jesus and arrested him.
47 Someone standing there pulled out a sword. He struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
48 Jesus said to the mob, “Why do you come with swords and clubs to arrest me like a criminal? 49 (H) Day after day I was with you and taught in the temple, and you didn't arrest me. But what the Scriptures say must come true.”
50 All of Jesus' disciples ran off and left him. 51 One of them was a young man who was wearing only a linen cloth. And when the men grabbed him, 52 he left the cloth behind and ran away naked.
Jesus Is Questioned by the Council
(Matthew 26.57-68; Luke 22.54,55,63-71; John 18.13,14,19-24)
53 Jesus was led off to the high priest. Then the chief priests, the nation's leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses all met together. 54 Peter had followed at a distance, and when he reached the courtyard of the high priest's house, he sat down with the guards to warm himself beside a fire.
55 The chief priests and the whole council tried to find someone to accuse Jesus of a crime, so they could put him to death. But they could not find anyone to accuse him. 56 Many people did tell lies against Jesus, but they did not agree on what they said. 57 Finally, some men stood up and lied about him. They said, 58 (I) “We heard him say he would tear down this temple that we built. He also claimed that in three days he would build another one without any help.” 59 But even then they did not agree on what they said.
60 The high priest stood up in the council and asked Jesus, “Why don't you say something in your own defense? Don't you hear the charges they are making against you?” 61 But Jesus kept quiet and did not say a word. The high priest asked him another question, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the glorious God?”[i]
62 (J) “Yes, I am!” Jesus answered.
“Soon you will see
the Son of Man
sitting at the right side[j]
of God All-Powerful,
and coming with the clouds
of heaven.”
63 At once the high priest ripped his robe apart and shouted, “Why do we need more witnesses? 64 (K) You heard him claim to be God! What is your decision?” They all agreed he should be put to death.
65 Some of the people started spitting on Jesus. They blindfolded him, hit him with their fists, and said, “Tell us who hit you!” Then the guards took charge of Jesus and beat him.
Peter Says He Doesn't Know Jesus
(Matthew 26.69-75; Luke 22.56-62; John 18.15-18,25-27)
66 While Peter was still in the courtyard, a servant girl of the high priest came up 67 and saw Peter warming himself by the fire. She stared at him and said, “You were with Jesus from Nazareth!”
68 Peter replied, “That isn't true! I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have any idea what you mean.” He went out to the gate, and a rooster crowed.[k]
69 The servant girl saw Peter again and said to the people standing there, “This man is one of them!”
70 “No, I'm not!” Peter replied.
A little while later some of the people said to Peter, “You certainly are one of them. You're a Galilean!”
71 This time Peter began to curse and swear, “I don't even know the man you're talking about!”
72 At once the rooster crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered that Jesus had told him, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will say three times that you don't know me.” So Peter started crying.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.