M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 19
Various Rules of Conduct. 1 The Lord said to Moses: 2 Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.[a](A) 3 [b]Each of you revere your mother and father,(B) and keep my sabbaths.(C) I, the Lord, am your God.
4 Do not turn aside to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves.(D) I, the Lord, am your God.
5 When you sacrifice your communion sacrifice to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that it is acceptable on your behalf. 6 It must be eaten on the day of your sacrifice or on the following day. Whatever is left over until the third day shall be burned in fire. 7 If any of it is eaten on the third day, it will be a desecrated offering and not be accepted;(E) 8 whoever eats of it then shall bear the penalty for having profaned what is sacred to the Lord. Such a one shall be cut off(F) from the people.
9 [c]When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.(G) 10 Likewise, you shall not pick your vineyard bare, nor gather up the grapes that have fallen. These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien. I, the Lord, am your God.
11 [d]You shall not steal. You shall not deceive or speak falsely to one another.(H) 12 You shall not swear falsely by my name, thus profaning the name of your God.(I) I am the Lord.
13 You shall not exploit your neighbor. You shall not commit robbery. You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your laborer.(J) 14 [e]You shall not insult the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the Lord.
15 You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your neighbor justly.(K) 16 You shall not go about spreading slander among your people; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am the Lord.
17 [f]You shall not hate any of your kindred in your heart. Reprove your neighbor openly so that you do not incur sin because of that person.(L) 18 Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your own people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.(M)
19 [g]Keep my statutes: do not breed any of your domestic animals with others of a different species; do not sow a field of yours with two different kinds of seed; and do not put on a garment woven with two different kinds of thread.(N)
20 [h](O)If a man has sexual relations with a female slave who has been acquired by another man but has not yet been redeemed or given her freedom, an investigation shall be made. They shall not be put to death, because she has not been freed. 21 The man shall bring to the entrance of the tent of meeting as his reparation to the Lord a ram as a reparation offering.(P) 22 With the ram of the reparation offering the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the wrong the man has committed, so that he will be forgiven for the wrong he has committed.
23 When you come into the land and plant any fruit tree there,(Q) first look upon its fruit as if it were uncircumcised. For three years, it shall be uncircumcised for you; it may not be eaten. 24 In the fourth year, however, all of its fruit shall be dedicated to the Lord in joyous celebration. 25 Not until the fifth year may you eat its fruit, to increase the yield for you. I, the Lord, am your God.
26 Do not eat anything with the blood still in it.(R) Do not recite charms or practice soothsaying.[i](S) 27 Do not clip your hair at the temples, nor spoil the edges of your beard. 28 Do not lacerate your bodies for the dead, and do not tattoo yourselves.[j](T) I am the Lord.
29 You shall not degrade your daughter by making a prostitute of her;(U) otherwise the land will prostitute itself and become full of lewdness. 30 Keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary.(V) I am the Lord.
31 Do not turn to ghosts or consult spirits, by which you will be defiled.(W) I, the Lord, am your God.
32 Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the old, and fear your God. I am the Lord.
33 When an alien resides with you in your land, do not mistreat such a one.(X) 34 You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt.(Y) I, the Lord, am your God.
35 Do not act dishonestly in using measures of length or weight or capacity. 36 You shall have a true scale and true weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin.[k](Z) I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 Be careful, then, to observe all my statutes and decrees. I am the Lord.
Psalm 23[a]
The Lord, Shepherd and Host
1 A psalm of David.
I
The Lord is my shepherd;[b]
there is nothing I lack.(A)
2 In green pastures he makes me lie down;
to still waters he leads me;
3 (B)he restores my soul.
He guides me along right paths[c]
for the sake of his name.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,(C)
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff comfort me.
II
5 [d]You set a table before me
in front of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;(D)
my cup overflows.(E)
6 Indeed, goodness and mercy[e] will pursue me
all the days of my life;
I will dwell in the house of the Lord(F)
for endless days.
Psalm 24[f]
The Glory of God in Procession to Zion
1 A psalm of David.
I
The earth is the Lord’s and all it holds,(G)
the world and those who dwell in it.
2 For he founded it on the seas,
established it over the rivers.(H)
II
3 Who may go up the mountain of the Lord?(I)
Who can stand in his holy place?
4 [g]“The clean of hand and pure of heart,
who has not given his soul to useless things,
what is vain.
5 He will receive blessings from the Lord,
and justice from his saving God.
6 Such is the generation that seeks him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.”
Selah
III
7 Lift up your heads, O gates;[h]
be lifted, you ancient portals,
that the king of glory may enter.(J)
8 Who is this king of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in war.
9 Lift up your heads, O gates;
rise up, you ancient portals,
that the king of glory may enter.
10 Who is this king of glory?
The Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory.
Selah
Chapter 2
Study of Pleasure-seeking. 1 I said in my heart,[a] “Come, now, let me try you with pleasure and the enjoyment of good things.” See, this too was vanity. 2 Of laughter I said: “Mad!” and of mirth: “What good does this do?” 3 Guided by wisdom,[b] I probed with my mind how to beguile my senses with wine and take up folly, until I should understand what is good for human beings to do under the heavens during the limited days of their lives.
4 I undertook great works; I built myself houses and planted vineyards; 5 I made gardens and parks, and in them set out fruit trees of all sorts. 6 And I constructed for myself reservoirs to water a flourishing woodland. 7 I acquired male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I also owned vast herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than all who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I amassed for myself silver and gold, and the treasures of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and delights of men, many women.[c] 9 I accumulated much more than all others before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom, too, stayed with me. 10 Nothing that my eyes desired did I deny them, nor did I deprive myself of any joy; rather, my heart rejoiced in the fruit of all my toil. This was my share for all my toil. 11 (A)But when I turned to all the works that my hands had wrought, and to the fruit of the toil for which I had toiled so much, see! all was vanity and a chase after wind. There is no profit under the sun. 12 What about one who succeeds a king? He can do only what has already been done.[d]
Study of Wisdom and Folly. I went on to the consideration of wisdom, madness and folly. 13 And I saw that wisdom has as much profit over folly as light has over darkness.
14 Wise people have eyes in their heads,
but fools walk in darkness.
Yet I knew that the same lot befalls both.[e](B) 15 So I said in my heart, if the fool’s lot is to befall me also, why should I be wise? Where is the profit? And in my heart I decided that this too is vanity. 16 (C)The wise person will have no more abiding remembrance than the fool; for in days to come both will have been forgotten. How is it that the wise person dies[f] like the fool! 17 Therefore I detested life, since for me the work that is done under the sun is bad; for all is vanity and a chase after wind.
Study of the Fruits of Toil
To Others the Profits. 18 And I detested all the fruits of my toil under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who is to come after me. 19 And who knows whether that one will be wise or a fool? Yet that one will take control of all the fruits of my toil and wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So my heart turned to despair over all the fruits of my toil under the sun. 21 For here is one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and that one’s legacy must be left to another who has not toiled for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 (D)For what profit comes to mortals from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which they toil under the sun? 23 Every day sorrow and grief are their occupation; even at night their hearts are not at rest. This also is vanity.
24 [g](E)There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink and provide themselves with good things from their toil. Even this, I saw, is from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat or drink apart from God? 26 [h](F)For to the one who pleases God, he gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the one who displeases, God gives the task of gathering possessions for the one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chase after wind.
Chapter 4
False Asceticism.[a] 1 Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will turn away from the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and demonic instructions(A) 2 through the hypocrisy of liars with branded consciences. 3 They forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.(B) 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected when received with thanksgiving,(C) 5 for it is made holy by the invocation of God in prayer.[b]
Counsel to Timothy. 6 [c]If you will give these instructions to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching you have followed. 7 Avoid profane and silly myths. Train yourself for devotion,(D) 8 for, while physical training is of limited value, devotion is valuable in every respect, since it holds a promise of life both for the present and for the future.(E) 9 This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance.(F) 10 For this we toil and struggle,[d] because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the savior of all, especially of those who believe.(G)
11 [e]Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one have contempt for your youth,[f] but set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity.(H) 13 Until I arrive, attend to the reading,[g] exhortation, and teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was conferred on you through the prophetic word[h] with the imposition of hands of the presbyterate.(I) 15 Be diligent in these matters, be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to everyone. 16 Attend to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in both tasks, for by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.