M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

13 If a prophet arises among you, or a dreamer of dreams, and gives you a sign or a wonder,

² And the sign or the wonder he foretells to you comes to pass, and if he says, Let us go after other gods—gods you have not known—and let us serve them,

³ You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being.

⁴ You shall walk after the Lord your God and [reverently] fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and cling to Him.

⁵ But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has talked rebellion and turning away from the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of bondage; that man has tried to draw you aside from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So shall you put the evil away from your midst.

⁶ If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own life entices you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods—gods you have not known, you nor your fathers,

⁷ Of the gods of the peoples who are round about you, near you or far away from you, from one end of the earth to the other—

⁸ You shall not give consent to him or listen to him; nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him.

⁹ But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people.

¹⁰ And you shall stone him to death with stones, because he has tried to draw you away from the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

¹¹ And all Israel shall hear and [reverently] fear, and shall never again do any such wickedness as this among you.

¹² If you hear it said in one of your cities which the Lord your God has given you in which to dwell

¹³ That certain base fellows have gone out from your midst and have enticed away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods—gods you have not known—

¹⁴ Then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently. And behold, if it is true and certain that such an abominable thing has been done among you,

¹⁵ You shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly and all who are in it and its beasts with the edge of the sword.

¹⁶ And you shall collect all its spoil into the midst of its open square and shall burn the city with fire with every bit of its spoil [as a whole burnt offering] to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap [of ruins] forever; it shall not be built again.

¹⁷ And nothing of the accursed thing shall cling to your hand, so that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger, and show you mercy and have compassion on you and multiply you, as He swore to your fathers,

¹⁸ If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you this day, to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.

14 You are the sons of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves or make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead,

² For you are a holy people [set apart] to the Lord your God; and the Lord has chosen you to be a peculiar people to Himself, above all the nations on the earth.

³ You shall not eat anything that is abominable [to the Lord and so forbidden by Him].

⁴ These are the beasts which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,

⁵ The hart, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

⁶ And every beast that parts the hoof and has it divided into two and brings up and chews the cud among the beasts you may eat.

⁷ Yet these you shall not eat of those that chew the cud or have the hoof split in two: the camel, the hare, and the coney, because they chew the cud but divide not the hoof; they are unclean for you.

⁸ And the swine, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you. You shall not eat of their flesh or touch their dead bodies.

⁹ These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales you may eat,

¹⁰ And whatever has not fins and scales you may not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹ Of all clean birds you may eat.

¹² But these are the ones which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the ospray,

¹³ The buzzard, the kite in its several species,

¹⁴ The raven in all its species,

¹⁵ The ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, the hawk of any variety,

¹⁶ The little owl, the great owl, the horned owl,

¹⁷ The pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant,

¹⁸ The stork, the heron of any variety, the hoopoe, and the bat.

¹⁹ And all flying insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten.

²⁰ But of all clean winged things you may eat.

²¹ You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the stranger or the foreigner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to an alien. [They are not under God’s law in this matter] but you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You shall not [even] boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

²² You shall surely tithe all the yield of your seed produced by your field each year.

²³ And you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place in which He will cause His Name [and Presence] to dwell the tithe (tenth) of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and your flock, that you may learn [reverently] to fear the Lord your God always.

²⁴ And if the distance is too long for you to carry your tithe, or the place where the Lord your God chooses to set His Name [and Presence] is too far away for you, when the Lord your God has blessed you,

²⁵ Then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place [of worship] which the Lord your God has chosen.

²⁶ And you may spend that money for whatever your appetite craves, for oxen, or sheep, or new wine or strong[er] drink, or whatever you desire; and you shall eat there before the Lord your God and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

²⁷ And you shall not forsake or neglect the Levite [God’s minister] in your towns, for he has been given no share or inheritance with you.

²⁸ At the end of every three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase the same year and lay it up within your towns.

²⁹ And the Levite [because he has no part or inheritance with you] and the stranger or temporary resident, and the fatherless and the widow who are in your towns shall come and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

Psalm 99

¹ The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble [with reverential fear]! He sits [enthroned] above the cherubim, let the earth quake!

² The Lord is great in Zion, and He is high above all the peoples.

³ Let them confess and praise Your great name, awesome and reverence inspiring! It is holy, and holy is He!^(A)

⁴ The strength of the king who loves righteousness and equity You establish in uprightness; You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob (Israel).

⁵ Extol the Lord our God and worship at His footstool! Holy is He!

⁶ Moses and Aaron were among His priests, and Samuel was among those who called upon His name; they called upon the Lord, and He answered them.

⁷ He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept His testimonies and the statutes that He gave them.^(B)

⁸ You answered them, O Lord our God; You were a forgiving God to them, although avenging their evildoing and wicked practices.

⁹ Extol the Lord our God and worship at His holy hill, for the Lord our God is holy!

Psalm 100

A Psalm of thanksgiving and for the thank offering.

¹ Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!

² Serve the Lord with gladness! Come before His presence with singing!

³ Know (perceive, recognize, and understand with approval) that the Lord is God! It is He Who has made us, not we ourselves [and we are His]! We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.^(C)

⁴ Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name!

⁵ For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations.

Psalm 101

A Psalm of David.

¹ I will sing of mercy and loving-kindness and justice; to You, O Lord, will I sing.

² I will behave myself wisely and give heed to the blameless way—O when will You come to me? I will walk within my house in integrity and with a blameless heart.

³ I will set no base or wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of them who turn aside [from the right path]; it shall not grasp hold of me.

⁴ A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil person or thing.

⁵ Whoso privily slanders his neighbor, him will I cut off [from me]; he who has a haughty look and a proud and arrogant heart I cannot and I will not tolerate.

⁶ My eyes shall [look with favor] upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks blamelessly, he shall minister to me.

⁷ He who works deceit shall not dwell in my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.

⁸ Morning after morning I will root up all the wicked in the land, that I may eliminate all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.

41 Listen in silence before Me, O islands and regions bordering on the sea! And let the people gather and renew their strength [for the argument; let them offer their strongest arguments]! Let them come near, then let them speak; let us come near together for judgment [and decide the point at issue between us concerning the enemy advancing from the east].

² Who has roused up one [Cyrus] from the east, whom He calls in righteousness to His service and whom victory meets at every step? He [the Lord] subdues nations before him and makes him ruler over kings. He turns them to dust with the sword [of Cyrus], and to driven straw and chaff with his bow.^(A)

³ He [Cyrus] pursues them and passes safely and unhindered, even by a way his feet had not trod and so swiftly that his feet do not touch the ground.

⁴ Who has prepared and done this, calling forth and guiding the destinies of the generations [of the nations] from the beginning? I, the Lord—the first [existing before history began] and with the last [an ever-present, unchanging God]—I am He.

⁵ The islands and coastlands have seen and fear; the ends of the earth tremble. They draw near and come;

⁶ They help every one his neighbor and say to his brother [in his tiresome idol making], Be of good courage!

⁷ So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths [the metal] with the hammer [encourages] him who smites the anvil, saying of the soldering, That is good! And he fastens it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

⁸ But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham My friend,^(B)

⁹ You whom I [the Lord] have taken from the ends of the earth and have called from the corners of it, and said to you, You are My servant—I have chosen you and not cast you off [even though you are exiled].

¹⁰ Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice.^(C)

¹¹ Behold, all they who are enraged and inflamed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; they who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.

¹² You shall seek those who contend with you but shall not find them; they who war against you shall be as nothing, as nothing at all.

¹³ For I the Lord your God hold your right hand; I am the Lord, Who says to you, Fear not; I will help you!

¹⁴ Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I will help you, says the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ Behold, I will make you to be a new, sharp, threshing instrument which has teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shall make the hills like chaff.

¹⁶ You shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest or whirlwind shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the Lord, you shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ The poor and needy are seeking water when there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

¹⁸ I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

¹⁹ I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the wild olive; I will set the cypress in the desert, the plane [tree] and the pine [tree] together,

²⁰ That men may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹ [You idols made by men’s hands, prove your divinity!] Produce your cause [set forth your case], says the Lord. Bring forth your strong proofs, says the King of Jacob.

²² Let them bring them forth and tell us what is to happen. Let them tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them and know the outcome of them; or declare to us the things to come.

²³ Tell us the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; yes, do good or do evil [something or other], that we may stare in astonishment and be dismayed as we behold [the miracle] together!

²⁴ Behold, you [idols] are nothing, and your work is nothing! The worshiper who chooses you is an abomination [extremely disgusting and shamefully vile in God’s sight].^(D)

²⁵ I have raised up and impelled to action one from the north ^[a][Cyrus], and he comes; from the rising of the sun he calls upon My name [recognizing that his victories have been granted to him by Me]. And he shall tread upon rulers and deputies as upon mortar and as the potter treads clay. [He comes with the suddenness of a comet, but none of the idol oracles of the nations has anticipated it.]^(E)

²⁶ [What idol] has declared this from the beginning, that we could know? And beforetime, that we could say that he is [unquestionably] right? Yes, there is none who declares it, yes, there is none who proclaims it; yes, [for the truth is, O you dumb idols] there is none who hears you speak!

²⁷ I [the Lord] first gave to Zion the announcement, Behold, [the Jews will be restored to their own land, and the man Cyrus shall be raised up who will deliver them] behold them! And to Jerusalem I gave a herald [Isaiah] bringing the good news.^(F)

²⁸ For I look [upon the heathen prophets and the priests of pagan practices] and there is no man among them [who could predict these events], and among these [idols] there is no counselor who, when I ask of him, can answer a word.

²⁹ Behold, these [pagan prophets and priests] are all emptiness (falseness and futility)! Their works are worthless; their molten images are empty wind (confusion and waste).

11 A reed [as a measuring rod] was then given to me, [shaped] like a staff, and I was told: Rise up and measure the sanctuary of God and the altar [of incense], and [number] those who worship there.^(A)

² But leave out of your measuring the court outside the sanctuary of God; omit that, for it is given over to the Gentiles (the nations), and they will trample the holy city underfoot for 42 months (three and one-half years).^(B)

³ And I will grant the power of prophecy to My two witnesses for 1,260 (42 months; three and one-half years), dressed in sackcloth.

⁴ These [witnesses] are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth.^(C)

⁵ And if anyone attempts to injure them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their enemies; if anyone should attempt to harm them, thus he is doomed to be slain.^(D)

⁶ These [two witnesses] have power to shut up the sky, so that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying (their ^[a]prediction of events relating to Christ’s kingdom and its speedy triumph); and they also have power to turn the waters into blood and to smite and scourge the earth with all manner of plagues as often as they choose.^(E)

⁷ But when they have finished their testimony and their evidence is all in, the beast (monster) that comes up out of the Abyss (bottomless pit) will wage war on them, and conquer them and kill them.^(F)

⁸ And their dead bodies [will lie exposed] in the open street (^[b]a public square) of the great city which is in a spiritual sense called [by the mystical and allegorical names of] Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.^(G)

⁹ For three and a half days men from the races and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and will not allow them to be put in a tomb.

¹⁰ And those who dwell on the earth will gloat and exult over them and rejoice exceedingly, taking their ease and sending presents [in congratulation] to one another, because these two prophets had been such a vexation and trouble and torment to all the dwellers on the earth.

¹¹ But after three and a half days, by God’s gift the breath of life again entered into them, and they rose up on their feet, and great dread and terror fell on those who watched them.^(H)

¹² Then [the two witnesses] heard a strong voice from heaven calling to them, Come up here! And before the very eyes of their enemies they ascended into heaven in a cloud.^(I)

¹³ And at that [very] hour there was a tremendous earthquake and one tenth of the city was destroyed (fell); seven thousand people perished in the earthquake, and those who remained were filled with dread and terror and were awe-struck, and they glorified the God of heaven.

¹⁴ The second woe (calamity) has passed; now the third woe is speedily to come.

¹⁵ The seventh angel then blew [his] trumpet, and there were mighty voices in heaven, shouting, The dominion (kingdom, sovereignty, rule) of the world has now come into the possession and become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (the Messiah), and He shall reign forever and ever (for the eternities of the eternities)!^(J)

¹⁶ Then the twenty-four elders [of ^[c]the heavenly Sanhedrin], who sit on their thrones before God, prostrated themselves before Him and worshiped,

¹⁷ Exclaiming, To You we give thanks, Lord God Omnipotent, [the One] Who is and [ever] was, for assuming the high sovereignty and the great power that are Yours and for beginning to reign.

¹⁸ And the heathen (the nations) raged, but Your wrath (retribution, indignation) came, the time when the dead will be judged and Your servants the prophets and saints rewarded—and those who revere (fear) Your name, both low and high and small and great—and [the time] for destroying the corrupters of the earth.^(K)

¹⁹ Then the sanctuary of God in heaven was thrown open, and the ark of His covenant was seen standing inside in His sanctuary; and there were flashes of lightning, loud rumblings (blasts, mutterings), peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a terrific hailstorm.^(L)