M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Elimelech and His Family Move to Moab
1 1-2 Long ago, in the days before Israel had a king, there was a famine in the land. So a man named Elimelech, who belonged to the clan of Ephrath and who lived in Bethlehem in Judah, went with his wife Naomi and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion to live for a while in the country of Moab. While they were living there, 3 Elimelech died, and Naomi was left alone with her two sons, 4 who married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. About ten years later 5 Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left all alone, without husband or sons.
Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem
6 Some time later Naomi heard that the Lord had blessed his people by giving them good crops; so she got ready to leave Moab with her daughters-in-law. 7 They started out together to go back to Judah, but on the way 8 she said to them, “Go back home and stay with your mothers. May the Lord be as good to you as you have been to me and to those who have died. 9 And may the Lord make it possible for each of you to marry again and have a home.”
So Naomi kissed them good-bye. But they started crying 10 and said to her, “No! We will go with you to your people.”
11 “You must go back, my daughters,” Naomi answered. “Why do you want to come with me? Do you think I could have sons again for you to marry? 12 Go back home, for I am too old to get married again. Even if I thought there was still hope, and so got married tonight and had sons, 13 would you wait until they had grown up? Would this keep you from marrying someone else? No, my daughters, you know that's impossible. The Lord has turned against me, and I feel very sorry for you.”[a]
14 Again they started crying. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye and went back home,[b] but Ruth held on to her. 15 So Naomi said to her, “Ruth, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god.[c] Go back home with her.”
16 But Ruth answered, “Don't ask me to leave you! Let me go with you. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 Wherever you die, I will die, and that is where I will be buried. May the Lord's worst punishment come upon me if I let anything but death[d] separate me from you!”
18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.
19 They went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived, the whole town became excited, and the women there exclaimed, “Is this really Naomi?”
20 “Don't call me Naomi,” she answered; “call me Marah,[e] because Almighty God has made my life bitter. 21 When I left here, I had plenty, but the Lord has brought me back without a thing. Why call me Naomi when the Lord Almighty has condemned me and sent me trouble?”
22 This, then, was how Naomi came back from Moab with Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the barley harvest was just beginning.
Paul Defends Himself before Agrippa
26 Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak on your own behalf.” Paul stretched out his hand and defended himself as follows:
2 “King Agrippa! I consider myself fortunate that today I am to defend myself before you from all the things these Jews accuse me of, 3 particularly since you know so well all the Jewish customs and disputes. I ask you, then, to listen to me with patience.
4 “All the Jews know how I have lived ever since I was young. They know how I have spent my whole life, at first in my own country and then in Jerusalem. 5 (A)They have always known, if they are willing to testify, that from the very first I have lived as a member of the strictest party of our religion, the Pharisees. 6 And now I stand here to be tried because of the hope I have in the promise that God made to our ancestors— 7 the very thing that the twelve tribes of our people hope to receive, as they worship God day and night. And it is because of this hope, Your Majesty, that I am being accused by these Jews! 8 (B)Why do you who are here find it impossible to believe that God raises the dead?
9 (C)“I myself thought that I should do everything I could against the cause of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 That is what I did in Jerusalem. I received authority from the chief priests and put many of God's people in prison; and when they were sentenced to death, I also voted against them. 11 Many times I had them punished in the synagogues and tried to make them deny their faith. I was so furious with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.
Paul Tells of His Conversion(D)
12 “It was for this purpose that I went to Damascus with authority and orders from the chief priests. 13 It was on the road at midday, Your Majesty, that I saw a light much brighter than the sun, coming from the sky and shining around me and the men traveling with me. 14 All of us fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by hitting back, like an ox kicking against its owner's stick.’ 15 ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. And the Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus, whom you persecute. 16 But get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant. You are to tell others what you have seen of me[a] today and what I will show you in the future. 17 I will rescue you from the people of Israel and from the Gentiles to whom I will send you. 18 You are to open their eyes and turn them from the darkness to the light and from the power of Satan to God, so that through their faith in me they will have their sins forgiven and receive their place among God's chosen people.’
Paul Tells of His Work
19 “And so, King Agrippa, I did not disobey the vision I had from heaven. 20 (E)First in Damascus and in Jerusalem and then in the whole country of Israel and among the Gentiles, I preached that they must repent of their sins and turn to God and do the things that would show they had repented. 21 It was for this reason that these Jews seized me while I was in the Temple, and they tried to kill me. 22 But to this very day I have been helped by God, and so I stand here giving my witness to all, to small and great alike. What I say is the very same thing which the prophets and Moses said was going to happen: 23 (F)that the Messiah must suffer and be the first one to rise from death, to announce the light of salvation to the Jews and to the Gentiles.”
24 As Paul defended himself in this way, Festus shouted at him, “You are mad, Paul! Your great learning is driving you mad!”
25 Paul answered, “I am not mad, Your Excellency! I am speaking the sober truth. 26 King Agrippa! I can speak to you with all boldness, because you know about these things. I am sure that you have taken notice of every one of them, for this thing has not happened hidden away in a corner. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do!”
28 Agrippa said to Paul, “In this short time do you think you will make me a Christian?”
29 “Whether a short time or a long time,” Paul answered, “my prayer to God is that you and all the rest of you who are listening to me today might become what I am—except, of course, for these chains!”
30 Then the king, the governor, Bernice, and all the others got up, 31 and after leaving they said to each other, “This man has not done anything for which he should die or be put in prison.” 32 And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been released if he had not appealed to the Emperor.”
Baruch Reads the Scroll in the Temple
36 (A)In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, 2 “Get a scroll and write on it everything that I have told you about Israel and Judah and all the nations. Write everything that I have told you from the time I first spoke to you, when Josiah was king, up to the present. 3 Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the destruction that I intend to bring on them, they will turn from their evil ways. Then I will forgive their wickedness and their sins.”
4 So I called Baruch son of Neriah and dictated to him everything that the Lord had said to me. And Baruch wrote it all down on a scroll. 5 Then I gave Baruch the following instructions: “I am no longer allowed to go into the Temple. 6 But I want you to go there the next time the people are fasting. You are to read the scroll aloud, so that they will hear everything that the Lord has said to me and that I have dictated to you. Do this where everyone can hear you, including the people of Judah who have come in from their towns. 7 Perhaps they will pray to the Lord and turn from their evil ways, because the Lord has threatened this people with his terrible anger and fury.” 8 So Baruch read the Lord's words in the Temple exactly as I had told him to do.
9 In the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim was king of Judah, the people fasted to gain the Lord's favor. The fast was kept by all who lived in Jerusalem and by all who came there from the towns of Judah. 10 Then, while all the people were listening, Baruch read from the scroll everything that I had said. He did this in the Temple, from the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan, the court secretary. His room was in the upper court near the entrance of the New Gate of the Temple.
The Scroll Is Read to the Officials
11 Micaiah, the son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan, heard Baruch read from the scroll what the Lord had said. 12 Then he went to the royal palace, to the room of the court secretary, where all the officials were in session. Elishama, the court secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials were there. 13 Micaiah told them everything that he had heard Baruch read to the people. 14 Then the officials sent Jehudi (the son of Nethaniah, grandson of Shelemiah, and great-grandson of Cushi) to tell Baruch to bring the scroll that he had read to the people. Baruch brought them the scroll. 15 “Sit down,” they said, “and read the scroll to us.” So Baruch did. 16 After he had read it, they turned to one another in alarm and said to Baruch, “We must report this to the king.” 17 Then they asked him, “Tell us, now, how did you come to write all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it to you?”
18 Baruch answered, “Jeremiah dictated every word of it to me, and I wrote it down in ink on this scroll.”
19 Then they told him, “You and Jeremiah must go and hide. Don't let anyone know where you are.”
The King Burns the Scroll
20 The officials put the scroll in the room of Elishama, the court secretary, and went to the king's court, where they reported everything to the king. 21 Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He took it from the room of Elishama and read it to the king and all the officials who were standing around him. 22 It was winter and the king was sitting in his winter palace in front of the fire. 23 As soon as Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king cut them off with a small knife and threw them into the fire. He kept doing this until the entire scroll was burned up. 24 But neither the king nor any of his officials who heard all this was afraid or showed any sign of sorrow. 25 Although Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, he paid no attention to them. 26 Then he ordered Prince Jerahmeel, together with Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel, to arrest me and my secretary Baruch. But the Lord had hidden us.
Jeremiah Writes Another Scroll
27 After King Jehoiakim had burned the scroll that I had dictated to Baruch, the Lord told me 28 to take another scroll and write on it everything that had been on the first one. 29 The Lord told me to say to the king, “You have burned the scroll, and you have asked Jeremiah why he wrote that the king of Babylonia would come and destroy this land and kill its people and its animals. 30 So now, I, the Lord, say to you, King Jehoiakim, that no descendant of yours will ever rule over David's kingdom. Your corpse will be thrown out where it will be exposed to the sun during the day and to the frost at night. 31 I will punish you, your descendants, and your officials because of the sins all of you commit. Neither you nor the people of Jerusalem and of Judah have paid any attention to my warnings, and so I will bring on all of you the disaster that I have threatened.”
32 Then I took another scroll and gave it to my secretary Baruch, and he wrote down everything that I dictated. He wrote everything that had been on the first scroll and similar messages that I dictated to him.
God's Promise to Baruch
45 (A)In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, Baruch wrote down what I had dictated to him. Then I told him 2 that the Lord, the God of Israel, had said, “Baruch, 3 you are saying, ‘I give up! The Lord has added sorrow to my troubles. I am worn out from groaning, and I can't find any rest!’
4 “But I, the Lord, am tearing down what I have built and pulling up what I have planted. I will do this to the entire earth. 5 Are you looking for special treatment for yourself Don't do it. I am bringing disaster on all people, but you will at least escape with your life, wherever you go. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
Thanksgiving to God for His Justice[a]
9 I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell of all the wonderful things you have done.
2 I will sing with joy because of you.
I will sing praise to you, Almighty God.
3 My enemies turn back when you appear;
they fall down and die.
4 You are fair and honest in your judgments,
and you have judged in my favor.
5 You have condemned the heathen
and destroyed the wicked;
they will be remembered no more.
6 Our enemies are finished forever;
you have destroyed their cities,
and they are completely forgotten.
7 But the Lord is king forever;
he has set up his throne for judgment.
8 He rules the world with righteousness;
he judges the nations with justice.
9 The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a place of safety in times of trouble.
10 Those who know you, Lord, will trust you;
you do not abandon anyone who comes to you.
11 Sing praise to the Lord, who rules in Zion!
Tell every nation what he has done!
12 God remembers those who suffer;
he does not forget their cry,
and he punishes those who wrong them.
13 (A)Be merciful to me, O Lord!
See the sufferings my enemies cause me!
Rescue me from death, O Lord,
14 that I may stand before the people of Jerusalem
and tell them all the things for which I praise you.
I will rejoice because you saved me.
15 The heathen have dug a pit and fallen in;
they have been caught in their own trap.
16 The Lord has revealed himself by his righteous judgments,
and the wicked are trapped by their own deeds.
17 Death is the destiny of all the wicked,
of all those who reject God.
18 The needy will not always be neglected;
the hope of the poor will not be crushed forever.
19 Come, Lord! Do not let anyone defy you!
Bring the heathen before you
and pronounce judgment on them.
20 Make them afraid, O Lord;
make them know that they are only mortal beings.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.