M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Shmittah: Cancellation of Debts
15 “At the end of every seven years you are to cancel debts. 2 This is how you are to cancel debts: every creditor is to release what he has loaned to his neighbor. He must not force his neighbor or his brother to repay, for Adonai’s debt cancellation has been proclaimed. 3 A foreigner you may force, but your hand is to release whatever your brother owes you.
4 “However, there should be no poor among you, for Adonai will surely bless you in the land Adonai your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess. 5 If only you would carefully listen to the voice of Adonai your God, being careful to do all these mitzvah that I am commanding you today! 6 For Adonai your God will bless you as He promised you. So you will lend to many nations, but not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.
7 “If there is a poor man among you—any of your brothers within any of your gates in your land that Adonai your God is giving you—you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother. [a] 8 Rather, you must surely open your hand to him and you must surely lend him enough for his need—whatever he is lacking. 9 Watch yourself, so there is no unworthy thing in your heart saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of cancelling debts, is near,’ and your eye is evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing. Then he may call out to Adonai against you, and it will be a sin upon you. 10 You must surely give to him, and your heart is not to be grieved when you give to him—for because of this thing Adonai your God will bless you in all your work and in every undertaking of your hand.
11 “For there will never cease to be poor people in the land. Therefore I am commanding you, saying, ‘You must surely open your hand to your brother—to your needy and poor in your land.’
12 “If your fellow Hebrew—a man or woman—is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you are to set him free. 13 When you set him free, you are not to send him away empty-handed. 14 You are to surely provide for him from your flock and threshing floor and winepress. As Adonai your God has blessed you, you are to give to him. 15 You will remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God redeemed you; therefore I am commanding you this thing today.
16 “Now if he tells you, ‘I will not go away from you’—because he loves you and your household since he is well off with you— 17 then you are to take an awl and put it through his ear to the door, and he will be your servant forever. And to your female slave you are to do the same. 18 It should not seem hard to you when you set him free from you, for he has served you six years—double the value of a hired worker. So Adonai your God will bless you in all that you do.
19 “All the firstborn males that are born in your herd and your flock you are to consecrate to Adonai your God. You are to do no work with the firstborn of your herd or shear the firstborn of your flock. 20 You are to eat it before Adonai your God year after year in the place Adonai chooses—you and your household. 21 But if it has any blemish—if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish—you are not to sacrifice it to Adonai your God. 22 You are to eat it within your gates, the unclean and the clean together, just as they eat the gazelle or deer. 23 Only its blood you are not to eat—you must pour it out on the ground like water.
Prayer in Affliction
Psalm 102
1 A prayer of the afflicted one, when he is faint and pours out his lament before Adonai:
2 Adonai, hear my prayer,
let my cry come to You.
3 Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress.
Turn Your ear to me—in the day I call,
answer me quickly.
4 For my days vanished like smoke,
and my bones were burned like coals.
5 My heart is stricken and withered like grass,
so that I even forget to eat my bread.
6 Because of the sound of my groaning,
my bones cling to my flesh.
7 I am like a pelican of the desert,
like an owl of the waste places.
8 I lie awake, like a lonely bird on a roof.
9 My enemies taunt me all day.
My deriders use my name to curse.
10 For I have eaten ashes like bread,
and mixed my drink with tears—
11 because of Your indignation and wrath,
for You have picked me up and tossed me aside.
12 My days are like a lengthening shadow,
and I wither away like grass.
13 But You, Adonai, sit enthroned forever.
Your renown is from generation to generation.
14 You will arise and have compassion on Zion,
for it is time to show favor to her,
for the appointed time has come,
15 for her stones are dear to Your servants,
and they cherish her dust.
16 So the nations will fear Adonai’s Name
and all the kings of the earth Your glory.
17 For Adonai has rebuilt Zion.
He has appeared in His glory.
18 He has turned to the prayer of the destitute,
and has not despised their prayer.
19 Let it be written for a generation to come,
that a people to be created may praise Adonai.
20 For He looks down from His holy height,
from heaven Adonai gazes on the earth,
21 to hear the groaning of the prisoner,
to set free those condemned to death,
22 to declare the Name of Adonai in Zion
and His praise in Jerusalem,
23 when the peoples and the kingdoms
assemble to worship Adonai.
24 He brought down my strength in midcourse.
He shortened my days.
25 I say, “My God,
do not take me up in the middle of my days.
Your years endure through all generations!
26 Long ago You founded the earth,
the heavens are the work of Your hands.
27 They will perish, but You will remain.
All of them will wear out like a garment.
Like clothing You change them, so they change.
28 But You are the same,
and Your years will never end.
29 The children of Your servants will live.
Their descendants will be established before You.”
First Servant Song: Justice
42 Behold My servant[a], whom I uphold.
My Chosen One,[b] in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Ruach on Him,[c]
He will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry out or raise His voice,
or make His voice heard in the street.
3 A bruised reed He will not break.
A smoldering wick He will not snuff out.
He will faithfully bring forth justice.[d]
4 He will not be disheartened or crushed
until He establishes justice on earth.
The islands will wait for His Torah.
5 Thus says God, Adonai,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it,
and Ruach to those who walk in it[e]—
6 “I, Adonai, called You in righteousness,
I will take hold of Your hand,
I will keep You and give You
as a covenant to the people,[f]
as a light to the nations,[g]
7 by opening blind eyes,
bringing prisoners out of the dungeon,
and those sitting in darkness out of the prison house.[h]
8 “I am Adonai—that is My Name!
My glory I will not give to another,
Or My praise to graven images.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
Now I declare new things.
Before they spring forth
I announce them to you.”
10 Sing to Adonai a new song,
His praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea with all its fullness,
islands and their inhabitants.
11 Let the desert and its cities exult—
the villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the dwellers of Sela sing for joy.
Let them shout for joy
from the top of the mountains.
12 Let them give glory to Adonai
and declare His praise in the islands.
13 Adonai goes out as a mighty one.
He stirs up His zeal like a man of war.
He will shout, yes, raise a war cry!
He will prevail over His enemies.
14 “I have held My peace a long time,
I have been still and restrained Myself.
Now like a woman in labor I groan,
gasping and panting at once.
15 I will lay waste mountains and hills,
and dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn the rivers into islands,
and dry up the pools.
16 I will bring the blind by a way they do not know.
in paths they have not known, I will guide them.
I will turn darkness before them to light
and the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do,
and I will not forsake them.
17 They will be turned back, utterly put to shame—
those trusting in idols,
who say to molten images, ‘You are our gods.’
18 Hear, you deaf!
Look, you blind, so you may see.
19 Who is blind, but My Servant?
Or deaf as My Messenger that I send?
Who is so blind as the one in covenant with Me,
blind as Adonai’s Servant?
20 You have seen many things,
but you do not pay attention.
Though ears are open, no one hears.”[i]
21 Adonai was pleased,
for the sake of His righteousness,
to make Torah great and glorious.
22 But this is a people robbed and looted.
all of them trapped in holes,
hidden away in prisons.
They have become a prey
with no one to deliver them,
and plunder,
with none to say, “Give them back!”
23 Who among you will give ear to this?
Who will listen and heed hereafter?
24 Who gave Jacob to the looter,
Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not Adonai?
Have we not sinned against Him?
In His ways they were unwilling to walk
and His Torah they did not obey.
25 So He poured out on him the fury of His anger,
and the fierceness of battle.
it blazed all around him, yet he did not understand it.
it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart.
Mother, Child, Dragon, and War
12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. [a] 2 She is pregnant—crying out in birth pains, in agony to give birth.[b]
3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: a great fiery red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns, and seven royal crowns on his heads. [c] 4 His tail sweeps away a third of the stars of heaven—it hurled them to the earth.[d] Now the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that whenever she gave birth he might devour her child.
5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with an iron rod.[e] And her child was snatched away to God and to His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God so they might take care of her for 1,260 days.
7 And war broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels making war against the dragon.[f] The dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they were not strong enough, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down—the ancient serpent, called the devil and satan, who deceives the whole world.[g] He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. [h] 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Anointed One, for the accuser of our brothers and sisters—the one who accuses them before our God day and night[i]—has been thrown out. 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives even in the face of death.
12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you with great rage, knowing that his time is short.
13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been thrown to the earth, he stalked the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of the great eagle,[j] so that she might fly away from the presence of the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is taken care of—for a time, times, and half a time.[k]
15 And from out of his mouth, the serpent spewed water like a river after the woman, in order to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the aid of the woman. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed from his mouth. 17 So the dragon became enraged at the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring—those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yeshua. 18 And he stood on the shore of the sea.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.