M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
4 When all the nation had fully passed over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua,
2 Take twelve men from among the people, one man out of every tribe,
3 And command them, Take twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan from the place where the priests’ feet stood firm; carry them over with you and leave them at the place where you lodge tonight.
4 Then Joshua called the twelve men of the Israelites whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe.
5 And Joshua said to them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God in the midst of the Jordan, and take up every man of you a stone on his shoulder, as is the number of the tribes of the Israelites,
6 That this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, What do these stones mean to you?
7 Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial forever.
8 And the Israelites did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord told Joshua, and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there.
9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.
10 For the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people passed over in haste.
11 When all the people had passed over, the ark of the Lord and the priests went over in the presence of the people.
12 And the sons of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh passed over armed before the [other] Israelites, as Moses had bidden them;
13 About 40,000 [of these] prepared for war passed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for battle.
14 On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him, as they stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.
15 And the Lord said to Joshua,
16 Order the priests bearing the ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan.
17 So Joshua commanded the priests, Come up out of the Jordan.
18 And when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord had come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of their feet were lifted up to the dry land, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and flowed over all its banks as they had before.
19 And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month and encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.
20 And those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan Joshua set up in Gilgal.
21 And he said to the Israelites, When your children ask their fathers in time to come, What do these stones mean?
22 You shall let your children know, Israel came over this Jordan on dry ground.
23 For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which He dried up for us until we passed over,
24 That all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty and that you may reverence and fear the Lord your God forever.
Psalm 129
A Song of [a]Ascents.
1 Many a time and much have they afflicted me from my youth up—let Israel now say—
2 Many a time and much have they afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows.
4 The Lord is [uncompromisingly] righteous; He has cut asunder the thick cords by which the wicked [enslaved us].
5 Let them all be put to shame and turned backward who hate Zion.
6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up,
7 With which the mower fills not his hand, nor the binder of sheaves his bosom—
8 While those who go by do not say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you! We bless you in the name of the Lord!
Psalm 130
A Song of [b]Ascents.
1 Out of the depths have I cried to You, O Lord.
2 Lord, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
3 If You, Lord, should keep account of and treat [us according to our] sins, O Lord, who could stand?(A)
4 But there is forgiveness with You [just what man needs], that You may be reverently feared and worshiped.(B)
5 I wait for the Lord, I expectantly wait, and in His word do I hope.
6 I am looking and waiting for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, I say, more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is mercy and loving-kindness, and with Him is plenteous redemption.
8 And He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities.
Psalm 131
A Song of [c]Ascents. Of David.
1 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in matters too great or in things too wonderful for me.
2 Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me [ceased from fretting].
3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever.
64 Oh, that You would rend the heavens and that You would come down, that the mountains might quake and flow down at Your presence—
2 As when fire kindles the brushwood and the fire causes the waters to boil—to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence!
3 When You did terrible things which we did not expect, You came down; the mountains quaked at Your presence.
4 For from of old no one has heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who works and shows Himself active on behalf of him who [earnestly] waits for Him.
5 You meet and spare him who joyfully works righteousness (uprightness and justice), [earnestly] remembering You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned; we have long continued in our sins [prolonging Your anger]. And shall we be saved?
6 For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God’s favor, hurrying us toward destruction].(A)
7 And no one calls on Your name and awakens and bestirs himself to take and keep hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the [consuming] power of our iniquities.(B)
8 Yet, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our Potter, and we all are the work of Your hand.
9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, or [seriously] remember iniquity forever. Behold, consider, we beseech You, we are all Your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house, [the temple] where our fathers praised You, is burned with fire, and all our pleasant and desirable places are in ruins.
12 Considering these [calamities], will You restrain Yourself, O Lord [and not come to our aid]? Will You keep silent and not command our deliverance but humble and afflict us exceedingly?
12 At that [a]particular time Jesus went through the fields of standing grain on the Sabbath; and His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick off the spikes of grain and to eat.(A)
2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, See there! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful and not permitted on the Sabbath.
3 He said to them, Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, and those who accompanied him—(B)
4 How he went into the house of God and ate the loaves of the showbread—which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for the men who accompanied him, but for the priests only?
5 Or have you never read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the sanctity of the Sabbath [breaking it] and yet are guiltless?(C)
6 But I tell you, Something greater and [b]more exalted and more majestic than the temple is here!
7 And if you had only known what this saying means, I desire mercy [readiness to help, to spare, to forgive] rather than sacrifice and sacrificial victims, you would not have condemned the guiltless.(D)
8 For the Son of Man is Lord [even] of the Sabbath.
9 And going on from there, He went into their synagogue.
10 And behold, a man was there with one withered hand. And they said to Him, Is it lawful or allowable to cure people on the Sabbath days?—that they might accuse Him.
11 But He said to them, What man is there among you, if he has only one sheep and it falls into a pit or ditch on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?
12 How much better and of more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful and allowable to do good on the Sabbath days.
13 Then He said to the man, Reach out your hand. And the man reached it out and it was restored, as sound as the other one.
14 But the Pharisees went out and held a consultation against Him, how they might do away with Him.
15 But being aware of this, Jesus went away from there. And many people [c]joined and accompanied Him, and He cured all of them,
16 And strictly charged them and sharply warned them not to make Him [d]publicly known.
17 This was in fulfillment of what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah,
18 Behold, My Servant Whom I have chosen, My Beloved in and with Whom My soul is well pleased and [e]has found its delight. I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall proclaim and [f]show forth justice to the nations.
19 He will not strive or wrangle or cry out loudly; nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets;
20 A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering (dimly burning) wick He will not quench, till He brings [g]justice and a just cause to victory.
21 And in and on His name will the Gentiles (the [h]peoples outside of Israel) set their hopes.(E)
22 Then a blind and dumb man under the power of a demon was brought to Jesus, and He cured him, so that the blind and dumb man both spoke and saw.
23 And all the [crowds of] people were stunned with bewildered wonder and said, This cannot be the Son of David, can it?
24 But the Pharisees, hearing it, said, This [i]Man drives out demons only by and with the help of Beelzebub, the prince of demons.
25 And knowing their thoughts, He said to them, Any kingdom that is divided against itself is being brought to desolation and laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will last or continue to stand.
26 And if Satan drives out Satan, he has become divided against himself and disunified; how then will his kingdom last or continue to stand?
27 And if I drive out the demons by [help of] Beelzebub, by whose [help] do your sons drive them out? [j]For this reason they shall be your judges.
28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you [[k]before you expected it].
29 Or how can a person go into a strong man’s house and carry off his goods (the entire equipment of his house) without first binding the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.
30 He who is not with Me [definitely [l]on My side] is against Me, and he who does not [definitely] gather with Me and for [m]My side scatters.
31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy (every evil, abusive, [n]injurious speaking, or indignity against sacred things) can be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the [Holy] Spirit shall not and [o]cannot be forgiven.
32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Spirit, the Holy One, will not be forgiven, either in this world and age or in the world and age to come.
33 Either make the tree sound (healthy and good), and its fruit sound (healthy and good), or make the tree rotten (diseased and bad), and its fruit rotten (diseased and bad); for the tree is known and recognized and judged by its fruit.
34 You offspring of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil (wicked)? For out of the fullness (the overflow, the [p]superabundance) of the heart the mouth speaks.
35 The good man from his inner good treasure [q]flings forth good things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouse [r]flings forth evil things.
36 But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every [s]idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak.
37 For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced.
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, Teacher, we desire to see a sign or miracle from You [proving that You are what You claim to be].
39 But He replied to them, An evil and adulterous generation (a generation [t]morally unfaithful to God) seeks and demands a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 For even as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.(F)
41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, Someone more and greater than Jonah is here!(G)
42 The queen of the South will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, Someone more and greater than Solomon is here.(H)
43 But when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it roams through dry [arid] places in search of rest, but it does not find any.
44 Then it says, I will go back to my house from which I came out. And when it arrives, it finds the place unoccupied, swept, put in order, and decorated.
45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and make their home there. And the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first. So also shall it be with this wicked generation.
46 Jesus was still speaking to the people when behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to Him.
47 [u]Someone said to Him, Listen! Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to You.
48 But He replied to the man who told Him, Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?
49 And stretching out His hand toward [not only the twelve disciples but all] [v]His adherents, He said, Here are My mother and My brothers.
50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother!
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