M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Sabbath Year
25 The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai. He said, 2 “Speak to the Israelites. Tell them, ‘You will enter the land I am going to give you. When you do, you must honor the Lord every seventh year by not farming the land that year. 3 For six years plant your fields. Trim the branches in your vineyards and gather your crops. 4 But the seventh year must be a year of sabbath rest for the land. The land must rest during it. It is a sabbath year to honor the Lord. Do not plant your fields. Do not trim the branches in your vineyards. 5 Do not gather what grows without being planted. And do not gather the grapes from the vines you have not taken care of. The land must have a year of rest. 6 Anything the land produces during the sabbath year will be food for you. It will be for you and your male and female servants. Your hired workers will eat it. So will people who live with you for a while. 7 And so will your livestock and the wild animals that are in your land. Anything the land produces can be eaten.
The Year of Jubilee
8 “ ‘Count off seven sabbath years. Count off seven times seven years. The seven sabbath years add up to a total of 49 years. 9 The tenth day of the seventh month is the day when sin is paid for. On that day blow the trumpet all through your land. 10 Set the 50th year apart. Announce freedom all over the land to everyone who lives there. The 50th year will be a Year of Jubilee for you. Each of you must return to your own family property. And each of you must return to your own tribe. 11 The 50th year will be a Year of Jubilee for you. Do not plant anything. Do not gather what grows without being planted. And do not gather the grapes from the vines you have not taken care of. 12 It is a Year of Jubilee. It will be holy for you. Eat only what the fields produce.
13 “ ‘In the Year of Jubilee all of you must return to your own property.
14 “ ‘Suppose you sell land to any of your own people. Or you buy land from them. Then do not take advantage of each other. 15 The price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last Year of Jubilee. Here is how the price you charge must be decided. It must be based on the number of years left for gathering crops before the next Year of Jubilee. 16 When there are many years left, you must raise the price. When there are only a few years left, you must lower the price. That is because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops the land will produce. 17 Do not take advantage of each other. Instead, have respect for your God. I am the Lord your God.
18 “ ‘Follow my rules. Be careful to obey my laws. Then you will live safely in the land. 19 The land will produce its fruit. You will eat as much as you want. And you will live there in safety. 20 Suppose you say, “In the seventh year we will not plant anything or gather our crops. So what will we eat?” 21 I will send you a great blessing in the sixth year. The land will produce enough for three years. 22 While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat food from the old crop. You will continue to eat food from it until the crops from the ninth year are gathered.
23 “ ‘The land must not be sold without a way of getting it back. That is because it belongs to me. You are only outsiders and strangers in my land. 24 You must make sure that you can buy the land back. That applies to all the land that belongs to you.
25 “ ‘Suppose one of your own people becomes poor. And suppose they have to sell some of their land. Then their nearest relative must come and buy back what they have sold. 26 But suppose they do not have anyone to buy it back for them. And suppose things go well for them and they earn enough money to buy it back themselves. 27 Then they must decide how much the crops have become worth since the time they sold the land. They must take that amount off the price the land was sold for. They must give the one selling it back to them the money that is left. Then they can go back to their own property. 28 But suppose they have not earned enough money to pay them back. Then the buyer they sold the land to will keep it until the Year of Jubilee. At that time it will be returned to them. Then they can go back to their property.
29 “ ‘Suppose someone sells a house in a city that has a wall around it. Then for a full year after they sell it they have the right to buy it back. 30 But suppose they do not buy it back before the full year has passed. Then the house in the walled city will continue to belong to the buyer and the buyer’s children. It will not be returned to the seller in the Year of Jubilee. 31 But houses in villages that do not have walls around them must be treated like property outside walled cities. Those houses can be bought back at any time. And they must be returned in the Year of Jubilee.
32 “ ‘The Levites always have the right to buy back their houses in the towns that belong to them. 33 So their property among the Israelites can be bought back. That applies to a house sold in any of their towns. Any house that is sold must be returned to its original owner in the Year of Jubilee. That is because the houses of the Levites will always belong to them. 34 But the grasslands around their towns must never be sold. They will belong to them for all time to come.
35 “ ‘Suppose any of your own people become poor. And suppose they can’t take care of themselves. Then help them just as you would help an outsider or a stranger. In that way, the poor can continue to live among you. 36 Do not charge them interest of any kind. Instead, have respect for God. Then those who have become poor can continue to live among you. 37 If you lend them money, you must not charge them interest. And you must not sell them food for more than it cost you. 38 I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of Egypt. I did it to give you the land of Canaan. I wanted to be your God.
39 “ ‘Suppose any of your own people become poor. And suppose they sell themselves to you. Then do not make them work as slaves. 40 You must treat them like hired workers. Or you must treat them like those living among you for a while. They must work for you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 Then they and their children must be set free. They will go back to their own tribes. They will go back to the property their people have always owned. 42 The Israelites are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. So they must not be sold as slaves. 43 Show them pity when you rule over them. Have respect for God.
44 “ ‘You must get your male and female slaves from the nations that are around you. You can buy slaves from them. 45 You can also buy as slaves some of the people living among you for a while. You can also buy members of their families born among you. They will become your property. 46 You can leave them to your children as their share of your property. You can make them slaves for life. But when you rule over your own people, you must be kind to them.
47 “ ‘Suppose an outsider living among you for a while becomes rich. Then suppose any of your own people become poor. Then they sell themselves to the outsider living among you. Or they sell themselves to a member of the outsider’s family. 48 Then they keep the right to buy themselves back after they have sold themselves. One of their relatives can buy them back. 49 An uncle or a cousin can buy them back after they have sold themselves. In fact, any relative in their tribe can do it. Or suppose things go well for them. Then they can buy themselves back. 50 They and their buyer must count the number of years from the time of the sale up to the Year of Jubilee. The price for their freedom must be based on the amount paid to a hired man for that number of years. 51 Suppose there are many years until the Year of Jubilee. Then for their freedom they must pay a larger share of the price paid for them. 52 But suppose there are only a few years left until the Year of Jubilee. Then they must count the number of years that are left. The payment for their freedom must be based on that number. 53 They must be treated as workers hired from year to year. You must make sure that those they must work for are kind to them when they rule over them.
54 “ ‘Suppose they are not bought back in any of those ways. Then they and their children must still be set free in the Year of Jubilee. 55 That’s because the Israelites belong to me. They are my servants. I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
A maskil of David.
32 Blessed is the person whose lawless acts are forgiven.
Their sins have been taken away.
2 Blessed is the person whose sin the Lord never counts against them.
That person doesn’t want to cheat anyone.
3 When I kept silent about my sin,
my body became weak
because I groaned all day long.
4 Day and night
you punished me.
I became weaker and weaker
as I do in the heat of summer.
5 Then I admitted my sin to you.
I didn’t cover up the wrong I had done.
I said, “I will admit my lawless acts to the Lord.”
And you forgave the guilt of my sin.
6 Let everyone who is faithful pray to you
while they can still look to you.
When troubles come like a flood,
they certainly won’t reach those who are faithful.
7 You are my hiding place.
You will keep me safe from trouble.
You will surround me with songs sung by those who praise you
because you save your people.
8 I will guide you and teach you the way you should go.
I will give you good advice and watch over you with love.
9 Don’t be like a horse or a mule.
They can’t understand anything.
They have to be controlled by bits and bridles.
If they aren’t, they won’t come to you.
10 Sinful people have all kinds of trouble.
But the Lord’s faithful love
is all around those who trust in him.
11 Be glad because of what the Lord has done for you.
Be joyful, you who do what is right!
Sing, all you whose hearts are honest!
8 Who is like a wise person?
Who knows how to explain things?
A person’s wisdom makes their face bright.
It softens the look on their face.
Obey the King
2 I’m telling you to obey the king’s command. You promised to serve him. You made a promise to God. 3 Don’t be in a hurry to quit your job in the palace. Don’t stand up for something the king doesn’t like. He’ll do anything he wants to. 4 The king has the final word. So who can ask him, “What are you doing?”
5 No one who obeys his command will be harmed.
Those who are wise will know the proper time and way to approach him.
6 There’s a proper time and way for people to do everything.
That’s true even though a person might be suffering greatly.
7 No one knows what lies ahead.
So who can tell someone else what’s going to happen?
8 No one can stop the wind from blowing.
And no one has the power to decide when they will die.
No one is let out of the army in times of war.
And evil won’t let go of those who practice it.
9 I understood all these things. I used my mind to study everything that’s done on earth. A man sometimes makes life hard for others. But he ends up hurting himself. 10 I also saw sinful people being buried. They used to come and go from the place of worship. And others praised them in the city where they worshiped. That doesn’t have any meaning either.
11 Sometimes the sentence for a crime isn’t carried out quickly. So people make plans to commit even more crimes. 12 An evil person may be guilty of a hundred crimes. Yet they may still live a long time. But I know that things will go better with those who have great respect for God. 13 Sinful people don’t respect God. So things won’t go well with them. Like a shadow, they won’t be around very long.
14 Here’s something else on this earth that doesn’t have any meaning. Sometimes godly people get what sinful people should receive. And sinful people get what godly people should receive. Here’s what I’m telling you. That doesn’t have any meaning either. 15 So I advise everyone to enjoy life. A person on this earth can’t do anything better than eat and drink and be glad. Then they will enjoy their work. They’ll be happy all the days of the life God has given them on earth.
16 I used my mind to understand what it really means to be wise. I wanted to observe the hard work people do on earth. They don’t close their eyes and go to sleep day or night. 17 I saw everything God has done. No one can understand what happens on earth. People might try very hard to figure it out. But they still can’t discover what it all means. Wise people might claim they know. But they can’t really understand it either.
4 I give you a command in the sight of God and Christ Jesus. Christ will judge the living and the dead. Because he and his kingdom are coming, here is the command I give you. 2 Preach the word. Be ready to serve God in good times and bad. Correct people’s mistakes. Warn them. Encourage them with words of hope. Be very patient as you do these things. Teach them carefully. 3 The time will come when people won’t put up with true teaching. Instead, they will try to satisfy their own desires. They will gather a large number of teachers around them. The teachers will say what the people want to hear. 4 The people will turn their ears away from the truth. They will turn to stories that aren’t true. 5 But I want you to keep your head no matter what happens. Don’t give up when times are hard. Work to spread the good news. Do everything God has given you to do.
6 I am already being poured out like a drink offering. The time when I will leave is near. 7 I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is a crown waiting for me. It is given to those who are right with God. The Lord, who judges fairly, will give it to me on the day he returns. He will not give it only to me. He will also give it to all those who are longing for him to return.
Personal Words
9 Do your best to come to me quickly. 10 Demas has deserted me. He has gone to Thessalonica. He left me because he loved this world. Crescens has gone to Galatia. Titus has gone to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you. He helps me in my work for the Lord. 12 I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring my coat. I left it with Carpus at Troas. Also bring my books. Most of all, bring the ones made out of animal skins.
14 Remember Alexander, the one who works with metal. He did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will pay him back for what he has done. 15 You too should watch out for him. He strongly opposed our message.
16 The first time I was put on trial, no one came to help me. Everyone deserted me. I hope they will be forgiven for it. 17 The Lord stood at my side. He gave me the strength to preach the whole message. Then all the Gentiles heard it. I was saved from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will save me from every evil attack. He will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. Give him glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Final Greetings
19 Greet Priscilla and Aquila. Greet those who live in the house of Onesiphorus.
20 Erastus stayed in Corinth. I left Trophimus sick in Miletus. 21 Do your best to get here before winter.
Eubulus greets you. So do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers and sisters.
22 May the Lord be with your spirit. May God’s grace be with you all.
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