M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

20 And the Lord said to Moses,

² Moreover, you shall say to the Israelites, Any one of the Israelites or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech [the fire god worshiped with human sacrifices] shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

³ I also will set My face against that man [opposing him, withdrawing My protection from him, and excluding him from My covenant] and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his children to Molech, defiling My sanctuary and profaning My holy name.

⁴ And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from the man when he gives one of his children [as a burnt offering] to Molech [the fire god] and they overlook it or neglect to take legal action to punish him, winking at his sin, and do not kill him [as My law requires],

⁵ Then I will set My face against that man and against his family and will cut him off from among their people, him and all who follow him to [unfaithfulness to Me, and thus] play the harlot after Molech.

⁶ The person who turns to those who have familiar spirits and to wizards, [being unfaithful to Israel’s Maker Who is her Husband, and thus] playing the harlot after them, I will set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people [that he may not be included in the atonement made for them].^(A)

⁷ Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the Lord your God.

⁸ And you shall keep My statutes and do them. I am the Lord Who sanctifies you.

⁹ Everyone who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or mother; his bloodguilt is upon him.

¹⁰ The man who commits adultery with another’s wife, even his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.^(B)

¹¹ And the man who lies carnally with his father’s wife has uncovered his father’s nakedness; both of the guilty ones shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon their own heads.

¹² And if a man lies carnally with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have wrought confusion, perversion, and defilement; their blood shall be upon their own heads.

¹³ If a man lies with a male as if he were a woman, both men have committed an offense (something perverse, unnatural, abhorrent, and detestable); they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

¹⁴ And if a man takes a wife and her mother, it is wickedness and an outrageous offense; all three shall be burned with fire, both he and they [after being stoned to death], that there be no wickedness among you.^(C)

¹⁵ And if a man lies carnally with a beast, he shall surely be [stoned] to death, and you shall slay the beast.

¹⁶ If a woman approaches any beast and lies carnally with it, you shall [stone] the woman and the beast; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹⁷ If a man takes his sister, his father’s or his mother’s daughter, and sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a wicked and shameful thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people; he has had sexual relations with his sister; he shall bear his iniquity.

¹⁸ And if a man shall lie with a woman having her menstrual pains and shall uncover her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood; and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

¹⁹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is to make naked his close kin; they shall bear their iniquity.

²⁰ And if a man shall lie carnally with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless [not literally, but in a legal sense].

²¹ And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is impurity; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless [not literally, but in a legal sense].

²² You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out [as it did those before you].^(D)

²³ You shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I was wearied and grieved by them.

²⁴ But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, Who has separated you from the peoples.

²⁵ You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable with beast or with bird or with anything with which the ground teems or that creeps, which I have set apart from you as unclean.

²⁶ And you shall be holy to Me; for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.

²⁷ A man or woman who is a medium and has a familiar spirit or is a wizard shall surely be put to death, be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.

Psalm 25

[A Psalm] of David.

¹ Unto You, O Lord, do I bring my life.

² O my God, I trust, lean on, rely on, and am confident in You. Let me not be put to shame or [my hope in You] be disappointed; let not my enemies triumph over me.

³ Yes, let none who trust and wait hopefully and look for You be put to shame or be disappointed; let them be ashamed who forsake the right or deal treacherously without cause.

⁴ Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.

⁵ Guide me in Your truth and faithfulness and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You [You only and altogether] do I wait [expectantly] all the day long.

⁶ Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercy and loving-kindness; for they have been ever from of old.

⁷ Remember not the sins (the lapses and frailties) of my youth or my transgressions; according to Your mercy and steadfast love remember me, for Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.

⁸ Good and upright is the Lord; therefore will He instruct sinners in [His] way.

⁹ He leads the humble in what is right, and the humble He teaches His way.

¹⁰ All the paths of the Lord are mercy and steadfast love, even truth and faithfulness are they for those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.

¹¹ For Your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity and my guilt, for [they are] great.

¹² Who is the man who reverently fears and worships the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that he should choose.

¹³ He himself shall dwell at ease, and his offspring shall inherit the land.

¹⁴ The secret [of the sweet, satisfying companionship] of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its [deep, inner] meaning.^(A)

¹⁵ My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He will pluck my feet out of the net.

¹⁶ [Lord] turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.

¹⁷ The troubles of my heart are multiplied; bring me out of my distresses.

¹⁸ Behold my affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins [of thinking and doing].

¹⁹ Consider my enemies, for they abound; they hate me with cruel hatred.

²⁰ O keep me, Lord, and deliver me; let me not be ashamed or disappointed, for my trust and my refuge are in You.

²¹ Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for and expect You.

²² Redeem Israel, O God, out of all their troubles.

3 To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven:

² A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted,^(A)

³ A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up,

⁴ A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

⁶ A time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away,

⁷ A time to rend and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak,^(B)

⁸ A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.^(C)

⁹ What profit remains for the worker from his toil?

¹⁰ I have seen the painful labor and exertion and miserable business which God has given to the sons of men with which to exercise and busy themselves.

¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

¹² I know that there is nothing better for them than to be glad and to get and do good as long as they live;

¹³ And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.

¹⁴ I know that whatever God does, it endures forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. And God does it so that men will [reverently] fear Him [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is].^(D)

¹⁵ That which is now already has been, and that which is to be already has been; and God seeks that which has passed by [so that history repeats itself].

¹⁶ Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice there was wickedness, and that in the place of righteousness wickedness was there also.

¹⁷ I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time [appointed] for every matter and purpose and for every work.

¹⁸ I said in my heart regarding the subject of the sons of men, God is trying (separating and sifting) them, that they may see that by themselves [under the sun, without God] they are but like beasts.

¹⁹ For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even [in the end] one thing befalls them both. As the one dies, so dies the other. Yes, they all have one breath and spirit, so that a ^[a]man has no preeminence over a beast; for all is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)!

²⁰ All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

²¹ Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the beast, whether it goes downward to the earth?

²² So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his portion. For who shall bring him back to see what will happen after he is gone?

5 Do not sharply censure or rebuke an older man, but entreat and plead with him as [you would with] a father. Treat younger men like brothers;

² [Treat] older women like mothers [and] younger women like sisters, in all purity.

³ [Always] treat with great consideration and give aid to those who are truly widowed (solitary and without support).

⁴ But if a widow has children or grandchildren, see to it that these are first made to understand that it is their religious duty [to defray their natural obligation to those] at home, and make return to their parents or grandparents [for all their care by contributing to their maintenance], for this is acceptable in the sight of God.

⁵ Now [a woman] who is a real widow and is left entirely alone and desolate has fixed her hope on God and perseveres in supplications and prayers night and day,

⁶ Whereas she who lives in pleasure and self-gratification [giving herself up to luxury and self-indulgence] is dead even while she [still] lives.

⁷ Charge [the people] thus, so that they may be without reproach and blameless.

⁸ If anyone fails to provide for his relatives, and especially for those of his own family, he has disowned the faith [by failing to accompany it with fruits] and is worse than an unbeliever [who performs his obligation in these matters].

⁹ Let no one be put on the roll of widows [who are to receive church support] who is under sixty years of age or who has been the wife of more than one man;

¹⁰ And she must have a reputation for good deeds, as one who has brought up children, who has practiced hospitality to strangers [of the brotherhood], washed the feet of the saints, helped to relieve the distressed, [and] devoted herself diligently to doing good in every way.

¹¹ But refuse [to enroll on this list the] younger widows, for when they become restive and their natural desires grow strong, they withdraw themselves against Christ [and] wish to marry [again].

¹² And so they incur condemnation for having set aside and slighted their previous pledge.

¹³ Moreover, as they go about from house to house, they learn to be idlers, and not only idlers, but gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not say and talking of things they should not mention.

¹⁴ So I would have younger [widows] marry, bear children, guide the household, [and] not give opponents of the faith occasion for slander or reproach.

¹⁵ For already some [widows] have turned aside after Satan.

¹⁶ If any believing woman or believing man has [relatives or persons in the household who are] widows, let him relieve them; let the church not be burdened [with them], so that it may [be free to] assist those who are truly widows (those who are all alone and are dependent).

¹⁷ Let the elders who perform the duties of their office well be considered doubly worthy of honor [and of adequate ^[a]financial support], especially those who labor faithfully in preaching and teaching.

¹⁸ For the Scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain, and again, The laborer is worthy of his hire.^(A)

¹⁹ Listen to no accusation [presented before a judge] against an elder unless it is confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.^(B)

²⁰ As for those who are guilty and persist in sin, rebuke and admonish them in the presence of all, so that the rest may be warned and stand in wholesome awe and fear.

²¹ I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the chosen angels that you guard and keep [these rules] without personal prejudice or favor, doing nothing from partiality.

²² Do not be in a hurry in the laying on of hands [giving the sanction of the church too hastily in reinstating expelled offenders or in ordination in questionable cases], nor share or participate in another man’s sins; keep yourself pure.

²³ Drink water no longer exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

²⁴ The sins of some men are conspicuous (openly evident to all eyes), going before them to the judgment [seat] and proclaiming their sentence in advance; but the sins of others appear later [following the offender to the bar of judgment and coming into view there].

²⁵ So also, good deeds are evident and conspicuous, and even when they are not, they cannot remain hidden [indefinitely].