M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Blowing of the trumpet
29 The first day of the seventh month[a] will be a holy occasion for you. You will not do any job-related work. It will be for you a day of the trumpet’s sound. 2 You will offer an entirely burned offering as a soothing smell to the Lord: one bull from the herd, one ram, and seven male lambs one year old, all flawless. 3 Their grain offering will be fine flour mixed with oil, three-tenths for the bull, two-tenths for the ram, 4 and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs. 5 There will be one male goat for a purification offering to seek reconciliation for yourselves. 6 This is in addition to the monthly entirely burned offering with its grain offering, and the regular entirely burned offering with its grain offering and drink offerings as prescribed. It will be a soothing smell, a food gift to the Lord.
Day of Reconciliation
7 The tenth day of this seventh month will be a holy occasion for you. You will deny yourselves and not do any work. 8 You will present an entirely burned offering to the Lord as a soothing smell: one bull from the herd, one ram, and seven male lambs one year old. They will be flawless. 9 Their grain offering will be fine flour mixed with oil, three-tenths for the bull, two-tenths for the one ram, 10 and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs. 11 There will be one male goat for a purification offering in addition to the purification offering of reconciliation, and the regular entirely burned offering with its grain offering and drink offerings.
Festival of Booths
12 The fifteenth day of the seventh month[b] will be a holy occasion for you. You will not do any job-related work. You will celebrate a festival to the Lord for seven days. 13 You will present an entirely burned offering, a food gift as a soothing smell to the Lord: thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, and fourteen male lambs one year old. They will be flawless. 14 Their grain offering will be fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths for each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths for each of the two rams, 15 and one-tenth for each of the fourteen lambs. 16 There will be one male goat for a purification offering in addition to the regular entirely burned offering with its grain offering and its drink offering.
17 On the second day: twelve bulls from the herd, two rams, and fourteen male lambs one year old, all flawless. 18 The grain offering and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs will be as prescribed for their number. 19 There will be one male goat for a purification offering in addition to the regular entirely burned offering with its grain offering and drink offerings.
20 On the third day: eleven bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs one year old, all flawless. 21 The grain offering and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs will be as prescribed for their number. 22 There will be one male goat for a purification offering in addition to the regular entirely burned offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
23 On the fourth day: ten bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs one year old, all flawless. 24 The grain offering and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs will be as prescribed for their number. 25 There will be one male goat for a purification offering in addition to the regular entirely burned offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
26 On the fifth day: nine bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs one year old, all flawless. 27 The grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs will be as prescribed for their number. 28 There will be one male goat for a purification offering in addition to the regular entirely burned offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
29 On the sixth day: eight bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs one year old, all flawless. 30 The grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs will be as prescribed for their number. 31 There will be one male goat for a purification offering in addition to the regular entirely burned offering with its grain offering and its drink offerings.
32 On the seventh day: seven bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs one year old, all flawless. 33 The grain offering and their drink offering for the bulls, rams, and lambs will be as prescribed for their number. 34 There will be one male goat for a purification offering in addition to the regular entirely burned offering with its grain offering and its drink offering.
35 On the eighth day you will have a holiday. You will not do any job-related work. 36 You will present an entirely burned offering, a food gift as a soothing smell to the Lord: one bull, one ram, and seven male lambs one year old, all without blemish. 37 The grain offering and their drink offerings for the bull, ram, and lambs will be as prescribed for their number. 38 There will be one male goat for a purification offering in addition to the regular entirely burned offering with its grain offering and its drink offering.
39 These you will offer to the Lord at your appointed times in addition to your payments for solemn promises, your spontaneous gifts, your entirely burned offerings, your grain offerings, your drink offerings, and your well-being sacrifices.
40 [c] Moses told the Israelites everything that the Lord commanded Moses.
BOOK III
(Psalms 73–89)
Psalm 73
A psalm of Asaph.
73 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are have a pure heart.
2 But me? My feet had almost stumbled;
my steps had nearly slipped
3 because I envied the arrogant;
I observed how the wicked are well off:
4 They suffer no pain;
their bodies are fit and strong.
5 They are never in trouble;
they aren’t weighed down like other people.
6 That’s why they wear arrogance like a necklace,
why violence covers them like clothes.
7 Their eyes bulge out from eating so well;
their hearts overflow with delusions.
8 They scoff and talk so cruel;
from their privileged positions
they plan oppression.
9 Their mouths dare to speak against heaven!
Their tongues roam the earth!
10 That’s why people keep going back to them,
keep approving what they say.[a]
11 And what they say is this: “How could God possibly know!
Does the Most High know anything at all!”
12 Look at these wicked ones,
always relaxed, piling up the wealth!
13 Meanwhile, I’ve kept my heart pure for no good reason;
I’ve washed my hands to stay innocent for nothing.
14 I’m weighed down all day long.
I’m punished every morning.
15 If I said, “I will talk about all this,”
I would have been unfaithful to your children.
16 But when I tried to understand these things,
it just seemed like hard work
17 until I entered God’s sanctuary
and understood what would happen to the wicked.
18 You will definitely put them on a slippery path;
you will make them fall into ruin!
19 How quickly they are devastated,
utterly destroyed by terrors!
20 As quickly as a dream departs from someone waking up, my Lord,
when you are stirred up, you make them disappear.[b]
21 When my heart was bitter,
when I was all cut up inside,
22 I was stupid and ignorant.
I acted like nothing but an animal toward you.
23 But I was still always with you!
You held my strong hand!
24 You have guided me with your advice;
later you will receive me with glory.
25 Do I have anyone else in heaven?
There’s nothing on earth I desire except you.
26 My body and my heart fail,
but God is my heart’s rock and my share forever.
27 Look! Those far from you die;
you annihilate all those who are unfaithful to you.
28 But me? It’s good for me to be near God.
I have taken my refuge in you, my Lord God,
so I can talk all about your works!
Fallen, fallen is Babylon
21 An oracle about the wilderness near the sea.
Like whirlwinds sweeping through the arid southern plain,
it comes from the desert, from a fearsome land.
2 A harsh vision was proclaimed to me:
The betrayer betrays, and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media!
Put an end to all her groaning.
3 Therefore, I’m shaken to my core in anguish.
Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor.
I’m too bent over to hear,
too dismayed to see.
4 My heart pounds; convulsions overpower me.
He has turned my evening of pleasure into dread—
5 setting the table, spreading the cloth, eating, drinking.
“Arise, captains!
Polish the shields.”
6 The Lord said this to me:
“Go, post a lookout to report what he sees.
7 When he sees chariots, pairs of horsemen,
donkey riders, camel riders,
he should listen carefully,
carefully, very carefully.”
8 Then the seer[a] called out:
“Upon a watchtower, Lord,
I’m standing all day;
and upon my observation post
I’m stationed throughout the night.
9 Here they come:
charioteers, pairs of horsemen!”
One spoke up and said,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon,
and all the images of her gods
are shattered on the ground!”
10 Oh, my downtrodden people, threshed on my threshing floor,
what I heard from the Lord of heavenly forces,
the God of Israel, I reported to you.
A mysterious dialogue
11 An oracle about Dumah.[b]
Someone is calling to me from Seir:
“Guard, how long is the night?
Guard, how long is the night?”
12 The guard said,
“Morning has come, but it is still night.
If you must inquire, inquire;
come back again.”
13 An oracle about the desert.
In the woods, in the desert where you camp,
caravans of the Dedanites 14 meet the thirsty with water;
inhabitants of the land of Tema greet the refugees with bread.
15 They have fled from swords,
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
and from the intensity of battle.
16 So the Lord said to me: Within a year, according to the number of years for which a laborer is hired, all the glory of Kedar will end; 17 there will be few Kedarite archers remaining. The Lord God of Israel has spoken.
Appearance of false teachers
2 But false prophets also arose among the people. In the same way, false teachers will come among you. They will introduce destructive opinions and deny the master who bought them, bringing quick destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow them in their unrestrained immorality, and because of these false teachers the way of truth will be slandered. 3 In their greed they will take advantage of you with lies. The judgment pronounced against them long ago hasn’t fallen idle, nor is their destruction sleeping.
Active judgment of God
4 God didn’t spare the angels when they sinned but cast them into the lowest level of the underworld and committed them to chains of darkness, keeping them there until the judgment. 5 And he didn’t spare the ancient world when he brought a flood on the world of ungodly people, even though he protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, along with seven others. 6 God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to total destruction, reducing them to ashes as a warning to ungodly people. 7 And he rescued righteous Lot, who was made miserable by the unrestrained immorality of unruly people. (8 While that righteous man lived among them he felt deep distress every day on account of the immoral actions he saw and heard.) 9 These things show that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from their trials, and how to keep the unrighteous for punishment on the Judgment Day. 10 This is especially true for those who follow after the corrupt cravings of the sinful nature and defy the Lord’s authority.
Evil character of the false teachers
These reckless, brash people aren’t afraid to insult the glorious ones, 11 yet angels, who are stronger and more powerful, don’t use insults when pronouncing the Lord’s judgment on them. 12 These false teachers are like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They slander what they don’t understand and, like animals, they will be destroyed. 13 In this way, they will receive payment for their wrongdoing.
They even enjoy unruly parties in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, taking delight in their seductive pleasures while feasting with you. 14 They are always looking for someone with whom to commit adultery. They are always on the lookout for opportunities to sin. They ensnare people whose faith is weak. They have hearts trained in greed. They are under God’s curse. 15 Leaving the straight path, they have gone off course, following the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the payment of doing wrong. 16 But Balaam was rebuked for his wrongdoing. A donkey, which has no voice, spoke with a human voice and put a stop to the prophet’s madness.
17 These false teachers are springs without water, mists driven by the wind. The underworld has been reserved for them. 18 With empty, self-important speech, they use sinful cravings and unrestrained immorality to ensnare people who have only just escaped life with those who have wandered from the truth. 19 These false teachers promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of immorality; whatever overpowers you, enslaves you. 20 If people escape the moral filth of this world through the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, then get tangled up in it again and are overcome by it, they are worse off than they were before. 21 It would be better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having come to know it, to turn back from the holy commandment entrusted to them. 22 They demonstrate the truth of the proverb: “A dog returns to its own vomit, and a washed sow wallows in the mud.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible