M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
24 And the Lord said to Moses,
2 Command the Israelites that they bring to you pure oil from beaten olives for the light [of the golden lampstand] to cause a lamp to burn continually.
3 Outside the veil of the Testimony [between the Holy and the Most Holy Places] in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord continually; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.
4 He shall keep the lamps in order upon the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord continually.(A)
5 And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake [of the showbread or bread of the Presence].
6 And you shall set them in two rows, six in a row, upon the table of pure gold before the Lord.
7 You shall put pure frankincense [in a bowl or spoon] beside each row, that it may be with the bread as a memorial portion, an offering to be made by fire to the Lord.
8 Every Sabbath day Aaron shall set the showbread in order before the Lord continually; it is on behalf of the Israelites, an everlasting covenant.
9 And the bread shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a sacred place, for it is for [Aaron] a most holy portion of the offerings to the Lord made by fire, a perpetual due [to the high priest].
10 Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the Israelites, and he and a man of Israel quarreled and strove together in the camp.
11 The Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name [of the Lord] and cursed. They brought him to Moses—his mother was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.
12 And they put him in custody until the will of the Lord might be declared to them.
13 And the Lord said to Moses,
14 Bring him who has cursed out of the camp, and let all who heard him lay their hands upon his head; then let all the congregation stone him.
15 And you shall say to the Israelites, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.
16 And he who blasphemes the Name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him; the stranger as well as he who was born in the land shall be put to death when he blasphemes the Name [of the Lord].
17 And he who kills any man shall surely be put to death.
18 And he who kills a beast shall make it good, beast for beast.
19 And if a man causes a blemish or disfigurement on his neighbor, it shall be done to him as he has done:
20 Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused a blemish or disfigurement on a man, so shall it be done to him.(B)
21 He who kills a beast shall replace it; he who kills a man shall be put to death.
22 You shall have the same law for the sojourner among you as for one of your own nationality, for I am the Lord your God.
23 Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they brought him who had cursed out of the camp and stoned him with stones. Thus the Israelites did as the Lord commanded Moses.
Psalm 31
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 In You, O Lord, do I put my trust and seek refuge; let me never be put to shame or [have my hope in You] disappointed; deliver me in Your righteousness!
2 Bow down Your ear to me, deliver me speedily! Be my Rock of refuge, a strong Fortress to save me!
3 Yes, You are my Rock and my Fortress; therefore for Your name’s sake lead me and guide me.
4 Draw me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for You are my Strength and my Stronghold.
5 Into Your hands I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth and faithfulness.(A)
6 [You and] I abhor those who pay regard to vain idols; but I trust in, rely on, and confidently lean on the Lord.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy and steadfast love, because You have seen my affliction, You have taken note of my life’s distresses,
8 And You have not given me into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a broad place.
9 Have mercy and be gracious unto me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; with grief my eye is weakened, also my inner self and my body.
10 For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing; my strength has failed because of my iniquity, and even my bones have wasted away.
11 To all my enemies I have become a reproach, but especially to my neighbors, and a dread to my acquaintances, who flee from me on the street.
12 I am forgotten like a dead man, and out of mind; like a broken vessel am I.
13 For I have heard the slander of many; terror is on every side! While they schemed together against me, they plotted to take my life.
14 But I trusted in, relied on, and was confident in You, O Lord; I said, You are my God.
15 My times are in Your hands; deliver me from the hands of my foes and those who pursue me and persecute me.
16 Let Your face shine on Your servant; save me for Your mercy’s sake and in Your loving-kindness.
17 Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, or disappointed, for I am calling upon You; let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol (the place of the dead).
18 Let the lying lips be silenced, which speak insolently against the [consistently] righteous with pride and contempt.
19 Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear, revere, and worship You, goodness which You have wrought for those who trust and take refuge in You before the sons of men!
20 In the secret place of Your presence You hide them from the plots of men; You keep them secretly in Your pavilion from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the Lord! For He has shown me His marvelous loving favor when I was beset as in a besieged city.
22 As for me, I said in my haste and alarm, I am cut off from before Your eyes. But You heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to You for aid.
23 O love the Lord, all you His saints! The Lord preserves the faithful, and plentifully pays back him who deals haughtily.
24 Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord!
7 A good name is better than precious perfume, and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better and gains gladness.(A)
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth and sensual joy.
5 It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.
6 For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)!
7 Surely oppression and extortion make a wise man foolish, and a bribe destroys the understanding and judgment.
8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning of it, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
9 Do not be quick in spirit to be angry or vexed, for anger and vexation lodge in the bosom of fools.(B)
10 Do not say, Why were the old days better than these? For it is not wise or because of wisdom that you ask this.
11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance, yes, more excellent it is for those [the living] who see the sun.
12 For wisdom is a defense even as money is a defense, but the excellency of knowledge is that wisdom shields and preserves the life of him who has it.
13 Consider the work of God: who can make straight what He has made crooked?
14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider that God has made the one side by side with the other, so that man may not find out anything that shall be after him.
15 I have seen everything in the days of my vanity (my emptiness, falsity, vainglory, and futility): there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in [spite of] his evildoing.
16 Be not [morbidly exacting and externally] righteous overmuch, neither strive to make yourself [pretentiously appear] overwise—why should you [get puffed up and] destroy yourself [with presumptuous self-sufficiency]?
17 [Although all have sinned] be not wicked overmuch or willfully, neither be foolish—why should you die before your time?
18 It is good that you should take hold of this and from that withdraw not your hand; for he who [reverently] fears and worships God will come forth from them all.
19 [True] wisdom is a strength to the wise man more than ten rulers or valiant generals who are in the city.(C)
20 Surely there is not a righteous man upon earth who does good and never sins.(D)
21 Do not give heed to everything that is said, lest you hear your servant cursing you—
22 For often your own heart knows that you have likewise cursed others.
23 All this have I tried and proved by wisdom. I said, I will be wise [independently of God]—but it was far from me.
24 That which is is far off, and that which is deep is very deep—who can find it out [true wisdom independent of the fear of God]?(E)
25 I turned about [penitent] and my heart was set to know and to search out and to seek [true] wisdom and the reason of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness [and what had led me into such wickedness and madness].
26 And I found that [of all sinful follies none has been so ruinous in seducing one away from God as idolatrous women] more bitter than death is the woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are bands. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her.
27 Behold, this I have found, says the Preacher, while weighing one thing after another to find out the right estimate [and the reason]—
28 Which I am still seeking but have not found—one upright man among a thousand have I found, but an upright woman among all those [one thousand in my harem] have I not found.(F)
29 Behold, this is the only [reason for it that] I have found: God made man upright, but they [men and women] have sought out many devices [for evil].
3 But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear].
2 For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane.
3 [They will be] without natural [human] affection (callous and inhuman), relentless (admitting of no truce or appeasement); [they will be] slanderers (false accusers, troublemakers), intemperate and loose in morals and conduct, uncontrolled and fierce, haters of good.
4 [They will be] treacherous [betrayers], rash, [and] inflated with self-conceit. [They will be] lovers of sensual pleasures and vain amusements more than and rather than lovers of God.
5 For [although] they hold a form of piety (true religion), they deny and reject and are strangers to the power of it [their conduct belies the genuineness of their profession]. Avoid [all] such people [turn away from them].
6 For among them are those who worm their way into homes and captivate silly and weak-natured and spiritually dwarfed women, loaded down with [the burden of their] sins [and easily] swayed and led away by various evil desires and seductive impulses.
7 [These weak women will listen to anybody who will teach them]; they are forever inquiring and getting information, but are never able to arrive at a recognition and knowledge of the Truth.
8 Now just as [a]Jannes and Jambres were hostile to and resisted Moses, so these men also are hostile to and oppose the Truth. They have depraved and distorted minds, and are reprobate and counterfeit and to be rejected as far as the faith is concerned.(A)
9 But they will not get very far, for their rash folly will become obvious to everybody, as was that of those [magicians mentioned].
10 Now you have closely observed and diligently followed my teaching, conduct, purpose in life, faith, patience, love, steadfastness,
11 Persecutions, sufferings—such as occurred to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 Indeed all who delight in piety and are determined to live a devoted and godly life in Christ Jesus will meet with persecution [will be made to suffer because of their religious stand].
13 But wicked men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and leading astray others and being deceived and led astray themselves.
14 But as for you, continue to hold to the things that you have learned and of which you are convinced, knowing from whom you learned [them],
15 And how from your childhood you have had a knowledge of and been acquainted with the sacred Writings, which are able to instruct you and give you the understanding for salvation which comes through faith in Christ Jesus [through the [b]leaning of the entire human personality on God in Christ Jesus in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness].
16 Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action),
17 So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation