M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

3 Now these are the nations which Yahweh left, to test Israel by them, even as many as had not known all the wars of Canaan; ² only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at least those who knew nothing of it before: ³ the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. ⁴ They were left to test Israel by them, to know whether they would listen to Yahweh’s commandments, which he commanded their fathers by Moses. ⁵ The children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁶ They took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods. ⁷ The children of Israel did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth. ⁸ Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan Rishathaim eight years. ⁹ When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior to the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. ¹⁰ Yahweh’s Spirit came on him, and he judged Israel; and he went out to war, and Yahweh delivered Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand. His hand prevailed against Cushan Rishathaim. ¹¹ The land had rest forty years, then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

¹² The children of Israel again did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and Yahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. ¹³ He gathered the children of Ammon and Amalek to himself; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm trees. ¹⁴ The children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. ¹⁵ But when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior for them: Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. The children of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. ¹⁶ Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit^[a] in length; and he wore it under his clothing on his right thigh. ¹⁷ He offered the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. ¹⁸ When Ehud had finished offering the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. ¹⁹ But he himself turned back from the stone idols that were by Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.”

The king said, “Keep silence!” All who stood by him left him.

²⁰ Ehud came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. Ehud said, “I have a message from God to you.” He arose out of his seat. ²¹ Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body. ²² The handle also went in after the blade; and the fat closed on the blade, for he didn’t draw the sword out of his body; and it came out behind. ²³ Then Ehud went out onto the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room on him, and locked them.

²⁴ After he had gone, his servants came and saw that the doors of the upper room were locked. They said, “Surely he is covering his feet^[b] in the upper room.” ²⁵ They waited until they were ashamed; and behold, he didn’t open the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them, and behold, their lord had fallen down dead on the floor.

²⁶ Ehud escaped while they waited, passed beyond the stone idols, and escaped to Seirah. ²⁷ When he had come, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he led them.

²⁸ He said to them, “Follow me; for Yahweh has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” They followed him, and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and didn’t allow any man to pass over. ²⁹ They struck at that time about ten thousand men of Moab, every strong man and every man of valor. No man escaped. ³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. Then the land had rest eighty years.

³¹ After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad. He also saved Israel.

7 The high priest said, “Are these things so?”

² He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘Get out of your land and away from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’^{(A) 4} Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land where you are now living. ⁵ He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child. ⁶ God spoke in this way: that his offspring would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷ ‘I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve me in this place.’^{(B) 8} He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ “The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him ¹⁰ and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house. ¹¹ Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food. ¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time. ¹³ On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was revealed to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his relatives, seventy-five souls. ¹⁵ Jacob went down into Egypt and he died, himself and our fathers; ¹⁶ and they were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.

¹⁷ “But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, ¹⁸ until there arose a different king who didn’t know Joseph. ¹⁹ The same took advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to abandon their babies, so that they wouldn’t stay alive. ²⁰ At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome to God. He was nourished three months in his father’s house. ²¹ When he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and reared him as her own son. ²² Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works. ²³ But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers,^[a] the children of Israel. ²⁴ Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian. ²⁵ He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn’t understand.

²⁶ “The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’ ²⁷ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{(C) 29} Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

³⁰ “When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, the voice of the Lord came to him, ³² ‘I am the God of your fathers: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’^(D) Moses trembled and dared not look. ³³ The Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ³⁴ I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.’^(E)

³⁵ “This Moses whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. ³⁷ This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.’^{[b](F) 38} This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living revelations to give to us, ³⁹ to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, ⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’^{(G) 41} They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. ⁴² But God turned away and gave them up to serve the army of the sky,^[c] as it is written in the book of the prophets,

⁴⁴ “Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen; ⁴⁵ which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations whom God drove out before the face of our fathers to the days of David, ⁴⁶ who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. ⁴⁷ But Solomon built him a house. ⁴⁸ However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. ⁵² Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. ⁵³ You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”

⁵⁴ Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. ⁵⁵ But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, ⁵⁶ and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

⁵⁷ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, then rushed at him with one accord. ⁵⁸ They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” ⁶⁰ He kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

16 Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ² “You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.” ³ For Yahweh says concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became their father in this land: ⁴ “They will die grievous deaths. They will not be lamented, neither will they be buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground. They will be consumed by the sword and by famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.”

⁵ For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning. Don’t go to lament. Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even loving kindness and tender mercies. ⁶ Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. Men won’t lament for them, cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them. ⁷ Men won’t break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. Men won’t give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

⁸ “You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.” ⁹ For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. ¹⁰ It will happen, when you tell this people all these words, and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity?’ or ‘What is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’ ¹¹ then you shall tell them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ says Yahweh, ‘and have walked after other gods, have served them, have worshiped them, have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. ¹² You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me. ¹³ Therefore I will cast you out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

¹⁴ “Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that it will no more be said, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’ ¹⁵ but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.’ I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶ “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says Yahweh, “and they will fish them up. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷ For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face. Their iniquity isn’t concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

2 When he entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was heard that he was at home. ² Immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even around the door; and he spoke the word to them. ³ Four people came, carrying a paralytic to him. ⁴ When they could not come near to him for the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. When they had broken it up, they let down the mat that the paralytic was lying on. ⁵ Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

⁶ But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

⁸ Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you reason these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven;’ or to say, ‘Arise, and take up your bed, and walk’? ¹⁰ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— ¹¹ “I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.”

¹² He arose, and immediately took up the mat and went out in front of them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

¹³ He went out again by the seaside. All the multitude came to him, and he taught them. ¹⁴ As he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he arose and followed him.

¹⁵ He was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him. ¹⁶ The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹⁷ When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

¹⁸ John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”

¹⁹ Jesus said to them, “Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast. ²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. ²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the patch shrinks and the new tears away from the old, and a worse hole is made. ²² No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins.”

²³ He was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain. ²⁴ The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”

²⁵ He said to them, “Did you never read what David did when he had need and was hungry—he, and those who were with him? ²⁶ How he entered into God’s house at the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?”

²⁷ He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸ Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”