M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 2
David Is Anointed King.[a] 1 After this, David inquired of the Lord, asking: “Shall I go up into one of the towns of Judah?” The Lord replied to him: “Go up.” Then David asked: “To which one stall I go?” The Lord answered: “Hebron.”
2 Therefore, David went up to Hebron with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 3 David also brought up the men who were with him, along with their families, and they settled in the towns of Hebron. Then the men of Judah came to Hebron, and there they anointed David as king of the house of Judah.
4 When David received a report that the men of Jabesh-gilead were the ones who had buried Saul, 5 he sent messengers to the people of Jabesh-gilead to say to them: “May you be blessed by the Lord for having done this act of kindness to your lord Saul by burying him. 6 Now may the Lord bestow his love and faithfulness upon you. Moreover, I too will treat you with kindness because you have done this charitable deed. 7 Therefore, have courage and be valiant, for even though your lord, Saul, is dead, the house of Judah has anointed me as their king.”
The Reign of David
Ishbaal as King of Israel.[b] 8 Meanwhile the commander of Saul’s army, Abner, the son of Ner, had taken Ishbaal, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim. 9 There he made him king over Gilead, the Ashurites, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and all Israel. 10 Ishbaal, the son of Saul, was forty years old when he became king over Israel, and he reigned for two years. However, the house of Judah followed David. 11 The length of time that David was in Hebron as king of the house of Judah was seven years and six months.
12 Combat near Gibeon. Abner, the son of Ner, departed from Mahanaim with the servants of Ishbaal and went to Gibeon. 13 Joab, the son of Zeruiah, also set forth with David’s servants and encountered them at the pool of Gibeon. One group sat down on one side of the pool, while the other group sat on the opposite side.
14 Then Abner suggested to Joab: “Let us have the young men come forward and engage in hand-to-hand combat before us.” Joab replied: “Let them come forward.” 15 Therefore, they came forward and were counted: twelve men from Benjamin for Ishbaal, the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. 16 Each one grasped his opponent by the head and thrust his sword into his opponent’s side. Thus they all fell down together. Therefore, that place, which is in Gibeon, was called the Field of Swords.
17 Death of Asahel. On that day the battle was extremely fierce, and when it was finally over, Abner and the men of Israel were defeated by David’s forces. 18 The three sons of Zeruiah were there—Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Then Asahel, who was as fleet of foot as a wild gazelle, 19 pursued Abner, turning neither to the left nor to the right as he followed him.
20 Abner looked back and said: “Is that you, Asahel?” He replied: “Yes, it is.” 21 Abner then said to him: “Turn to your right or left, seize one of the young men, and take from him what is of value.” However, Asahel had no intention of forsaking his pursuit.
22 Abner once again tried to dissuade him: “Cease your pursuit of me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I look your brother Joab in the face?” 23 Nevertheless Asahel refused to turn away. Therefore, Abner struck him in the stomach with the butt of his spear, and the spear protruded through his back. He fell there and died instantaneously.
All those who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died came to a halt. 24 However, Joab and Abishai continued the pursuit of Abner until, as the sun was going down, they came to the hill of Ammah, which lies east of Giah on the road toward the wilderness of Gibeon.
25 Truce between Joab and Abner. The Benjaminites rallied to the support of Abner, gathering in a tightly knit formation behind Abner and taking their stand at the top of a hill. 26 Then Abner called out to Joab: “Will this slaughter never end? Do you not realize how bitter the end will be? How long will it take before you order your people to cease from the pursuit of their brothers?”
27 Joab replied: “As God lives, if you had not spoken, the soldiers would not have relented in their pursuit of their brothers until morning.” 28 Then Joab sounded the trumpet, and all the troops came to a halt. They abandoned their pursuit of the Israelites and did not engage in battle any further.
29 Abner and his men traveled all that night through the Arabah. Then they crossed the Jordan and continued their journey the entire morning until they came to Mahanaim. 30 After returning from the pursuit of Abner, Joab gathered his people together and discovered that, aside from Asahel, nineteen other servants of David were missing. 31 However, the forces of David had killed three hundred and sixty Benjaminites, followers of Abner. 32 They took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father at Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men marched throughout the night, and they reached Hebron at daybreak.
Chapter 13
1 If in speaking I use human tongues
and angelic as well,
but do not have love,[a]
I am nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy
and the ability to understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and have all the faith necessary to move mountains,
but do not have love,
I am nothing.
3 If I give away everything to feed the poor
and hand over my body to be burned,
but do not have love,
I achieve nothing.
4 Love is patient;
love is charitable.
Love is not envious;
it does not have an inflated opinion of itself;
it is not filled with its own importance.
5 Love is never rude;
it does not seek its own advantage.
It is not prone to anger;
neither does it brood over setbacks.
6 Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices in the truth.
7 Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
8 Love never fails.
Prophecies will eventually cease,
tongues will become silent,
and knowledge will pass away,
9 for our knowledge is partial
and our prophesying is partial;
10 but when we encounter what is perfect,
that which is imperfect will pass away.
11 When I was a child,
I used to talk like a child,
think like a child,
and reason like a child.
However, when I became a man,
I put all childish ways aside.
12 At the present time we see indistinctly, as in a mirror;
then we shall see face to face.
My knowledge is only partial now;
then I shall know fully,
even as I am fully known.
13 Thus there are three things that endure: faith, hope, and love,
and the greatest of these is love.[b]
Chapter 11
Punishment of the Rulers. 1 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the temple of the Lord that faces eastward. There at the entrance to the gate twenty-five men were standing. Among them I saw Jaazaniah, the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.
2 The Lord said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who are plotting evil deeds and offering wicked counsel in this city. 3 They say, ‘The time has not yet come to build houses. This city is the cooking pot and we are the meat.’ 4 Therefore, prophesy against them, son of man, prophesy!”
5 Then the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he instructed me to say: Thus says the Lord. This is what you are saying to yourselves, house of Israel, and I am well aware of what you are plotting. 6 You have killed many in this city and filled its streets with the slain.
7 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Those in the city whom you have slain are the meat, and the city is the pot, but I shall remove you from it.[a] 8 You are in dread of the sword, and I fully intend to bring the sword upon you, says the Lord God.
9 I will drive you from the city and hand you over to foreigners, and inflict punishments upon you. 10 You will fall by the sword, and I will pass judgment upon you at the border of Israel. You will know that I am the Lord.
11 This city shall not be a cooking pot for you, nor shall you be the meat inside it. I will judge you at the border of Israel. 12 Then you will know that I am the Lord whose statutes you have not obeyed and whose judgments you have not followed. Rather you have conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.
13 [b]While I was prophesying, Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, fell dead. I threw myself on the ground and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord God, do you intend to wipe out completely the remnant of Israel?”
14 Restoration of the People in Exile. Then the word of the Lord was addressed to me: 15 Son of man, it is about your brothers and your kinsmen and the entire house of Israel that the inhabitants of Israel have said, “They have strayed far from the Lord. This land has been given to us as our possession.”
16 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: Although I removed them far away among the nations and scattered them over the earth, I have nevertheless been a sanctuary to them for a time in the countries where they settled.
17 Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the nations and bring you together from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.
18 When they return there, they will purge it of all its vile and abominable practices. 19 I will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh.
20 Thus, they will live according to my statutes and observe and obey my ordinances. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 21 However, those whose hearts are determined to continue their vile and abominable practices I will force to answer for all they have done. Thus says the Lord God.
22 Then the cherubim lifted their wings, with the wheels beside them and the glory of the God of Israel above them, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. 23 The glory of the Lord rose from the center of the city and halted on the mountain to the east of it. 24 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God to the exiles in Chaldea. After the vision I had seen faded, 25 I told the exiles everything that the Lord had revealed to me.
Psalm 50[a]
The Worship Acceptable to God
1 A psalm of Asaph.[b]
[c]The Lord, the God of gods,[d]
has spoken and summoned the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.
3 Our God is coming, and he will not be silent;
he is preceded by a devouring fire,
and a raging tempest surrounds him.[e]
4 He summons the heavens above
and the earth to judge his people:
5 “Gather before me my faithful servants
who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”[f]
6 The heavens proclaim his saving justice,
for God himself is the judge.[g] Selah
7 [h]“Listen, my people, and I will speak.
O Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices,
for your burnt offerings are constantly before me.
9 “I will not accept a young bull from your homes
or goats from your folds.
10 For all the living creatures of the forest are mine,
animals by the thousands on my hills.
11 I know every bird of the air,
and whatever moves in the fields belongs to me.
12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that it holds.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and fulfill your vows to the Most High.
15 Then if you cry out to me in time of trouble,
I will rescue you, and you will honor me.”
16 [i]But to the wicked God says:
“How can you recite my statutes
or profess my covenant on your lips?
17 For you loathe my instruction
and cast my words behind you.
18 “When you meet a thief, you join him;
you revel in the company of adulterers.
19 You employ your mouth for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
20 “You willingly speak against your brother
and slander the child of your own mother.
21 When you do such things, can I remain silent?
Do you think that I am[j] like you?
I will correct you
and set the charge before your face.
22 “Remember this, you who forget God,[k]
lest I tear you to pieces
and there be no one to rescue you.
23 He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me;
to him who follows my way
I will show the salvation of God.”
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