M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

21 The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the priests [exclusive of the high priest], the sons of Aaron, and say to them that none of them shall defile himself for the dead among his people [by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial],

² Except for his near [blood] kin, for his mother, father, son, daughter, brother,

³ And for his sister, a virgin, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may be defiled.

⁴ He shall not even defile himself, being a [bereaved] husband [his wife not being his blood kin] or being a chief man among his people, and so profane himself.

⁵ The priests [like the other Israelite men] shall not shave the crown of their heads or clip off the corners of their beard or make any cuttings in their flesh.

⁶ They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy.

⁷ They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or polluted or profane or divorced, for [the priest] is holy to his God.

⁸ You shall consecrate him therefore, for he offers the bread of your God; he shall be holy to you, for I the Lord Who sanctifies you am holy.

⁹ The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire [after being stoned].^(A)

¹⁰ But he who is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured and who is consecrated to put on the [sacred] garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose or rend his clothes [in mourning],

¹¹ Neither shall he go in where any dead body lies nor defile himself [by doing so, even] for his father or for his mother;

¹² Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary nor desecrate or make ceremonially unclean the sanctuary of his God, for the crown or consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the Lord.

¹³ He shall take a wife in her virginity.

¹⁴ A widow or a divorced woman or a woman who is polluted or profane or a harlot, these he shall not marry, but he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people,^(B)

¹⁵ That he may not profane or dishonor his children among his people; for I the Lord do sanctify the high priest.

¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁷ Say to Aaron, Any one of your sons in their successive generations who has any blemish, let him not come near to offer the bread of his God.

¹⁸ For no man who has a blemish shall approach [God’s altar to serve as priest], a man blind or lame, or he who has a disfigured face or a limb too long,

¹⁹ Or who has a fractured foot or hand,

²⁰ Or is a hunchback, or a dwarf, or has a defect in his eye, or has scurvy or itch, or scabs or skin trouble, or has damaged testicles.

²¹ No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish and is disfigured or deformed shall come near [the altar] to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire. He has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.

²² He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things,

²³ But he shall not come within the veil or come near the altar [of incense], because he has a blemish, that he may not desecrate and make unclean My sanctuaries and hallowed things; for I the Lord do sanctify them.^(C)

²⁴ And Moses told it to Aaron and to his sons and to all the Israelites.

Psalm 26

[A Psalm] of David.

¹ Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity; I have [expectantly] trusted in, leaned on, and relied on the Lord without wavering and I shall not slide.

² Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; test my heart and my mind.

³ For Your loving-kindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth [faithfully].

⁴ I do not sit with false persons, nor fellowship with pretenders;

⁵ I hate the company of evildoers and will not sit with the wicked.

⁶ I will wash my hands in innocence, and go about Your altar, O Lord,

⁷ That I may make the voice of thanksgiving heard and may tell of all Your wondrous works.

⁸ Lord, I love the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells.

⁹ Gather me not with sinners and sweep me not away [with them], nor my life with bloodthirsty men,

¹⁰ In whose hands is wickedness, and their right hands are full of bribes.

¹¹ But as for me, I will walk in my integrity; redeem me and be merciful and gracious to me.

¹² My foot stands on an even place; in the congregations will I bless the Lord.

Psalm 27

[A Psalm] of David.

¹ The Lord is my Light and my Salvation—whom shall I fear or dread? The Lord is the Refuge and Stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?

² When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

³ Though a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, [even then] in this will I be confident.

⁴ One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple.^(A)

⁵ For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; in the secret place of His tent will He hide me; He will set me high upon a rock.

⁶ And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me; in His tent I will offer sacrifices and shouting of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

⁷ Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; have mercy and be gracious to me and answer me!

⁸ You have said, Seek My face [inquire for and require My presence as your vital need]. My heart says to You, Your face (Your presence), Lord, will I seek, inquire for, and require [of necessity and on the authority of Your Word].

⁹ Hide not Your face from me; turn not Your servant away in anger, You Who have been my help! Cast me not off, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation!

¹⁰ Although my father and my mother have forsaken me, yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child].^(B)

¹¹ Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain and even path because of my enemies [those who lie in wait for me].

¹² Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me; they breathe out cruelty and violence.

¹³ [What, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living!

¹⁴ Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.

4 Then I returned and considered all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun: And I beheld the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they [too] had no comforter.

² So I praised and thought more fortunate those who have been long dead than the living, who are still alive.

³ But better than them both [I thought] is he who has not yet been born, who has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

⁴ Then I saw that all painful effort in labor and all skill in work comes from man’s rivalry with his neighbor. This is also vanity, a vain striving after the wind and a feeding on it.

⁵ The fool folds his hands together and eats his own flesh [destroying himself by indolence].

⁶ Better is a handful with quietness than both hands full with painful effort, a vain striving after the wind and a feeding on it.

⁷ Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun [in one of its peculiar forms].

⁸ Here is one alone—no one with him; he neither has child nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labor, neither is his eye satisfied with riches, neither does he ask, For whom do I labor and deprive myself of good? This is also vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility); yes, it is a painful effort and an unhappy business.^(A)

⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good [more satisfying] reward for their labor;

¹⁰ For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!

¹¹ Again, if two lie down together, then they have warmth; but how can one be warm alone?

¹² And though a man might prevail against him who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

¹³ Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who ^[a]no longer knows how to receive counsel (friendly reproof and warning)—

¹⁴ Even though [the youth] comes out of prison to reign, while the other, born a king, becomes needy.

¹⁵ I saw all the living who walk under the sun with the youth who was to stand up in the king’s stead.

¹⁶ There was no end to all the people; he was over all of them. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity (emptiness, falsity, vainglory) and a striving after the wind and a feeding on it.

6 Let all who are under the yoke as bond servants esteem their own [personal] masters worthy of honor and fullest respect, so that the name of God and the teaching [about Him] may not be brought into disrepute and blasphemed.

² Let those who have believing masters not be disrespectful or scornful [to them] on the grounds that they are brothers [in Christ]; rather, they should serve [them all the better] because those who benefit by their kindly service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these duties.

³ But if anyone teaches otherwise and does not ^[a]assent to the sound and wholesome messages of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and the teaching which is in agreement with godliness (piety toward God),

⁴ He is puffed up with pride and stupefied with conceit, [although he is] woefully ignorant. He has a ^[b]morbid fondness for controversy and disputes and strife about words, which result in (produce) envy and jealousy, quarrels and dissension, abuse and insults and slander, and base suspicions,

⁵ And protracted wrangling and wearing discussion and perpetual friction among men who are corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, who imagine that godliness or righteousness is a ^[c]source of profit [a moneymaking business, a means of livelihood]. From such withdraw.

⁶ [And it is, indeed, a source of immense profit, for] godliness accompanied with contentment (that contentment which is a sense of ^[d]inward sufficiency) is great and abundant gain.

⁷ For we brought nothing into the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world;

⁸ But if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content (satisfied).

⁹ But those who crave to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish (useless, godless) and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction and miserable perishing.

¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have been led astray and have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many ^[e]acute [mental] pangs.

¹¹ But as for you, O man of God, flee from all these things; aim at and pursue righteousness (right standing with God and true goodness), godliness (which is the loving fear of God and being Christlike), faith, love, steadfastness (patience), and gentleness of heart.

¹² Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold of the eternal life to which you were summoned and [for which] you confessed the good confession [of faith] before many witnesses.

¹³ In the presence of God, Who preserves alive all living things, and of Christ Jesus, Who in His testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I [solemnly] charge you

¹⁴ To keep all His precepts unsullied and flawless, irreproachable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Anointed One),

¹⁵ Which [appearing] will be shown forth in His own proper time by the blessed, only Sovereign (Ruler), the King of kings and the Lord of lords,

¹⁶ Who alone has immortality [in the sense of exemption from every kind of death] and lives in unapproachable light, Whom no man has ever seen or can see. Unto Him be honor and everlasting power and dominion. Amen (so be it).

¹⁷ As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be proud and arrogant and contemptuous of others, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on God, Who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for [our] enjoyment.

¹⁸ [Charge them] to do good, to be rich in good works, to be liberal and generous of heart, ready to share [with others],

¹⁹ In this way laying up for themselves [the riches that endure forever as] a good foundation for the future, so that they may grasp that which is life indeed.

²⁰ O Timothy, guard and keep the deposit entrusted [to you]! Turn away from the irreverent babble and godless chatter, with the vain and empty and worldly phrases, and the subtleties and the contradictions in what is falsely called knowledge and spiritual illumination.

²¹ [For] by making such profession some have erred (missed the mark) as regards the faith. Grace (divine favor and blessing) be with you all! Amen (so be it).