M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 11
Conquest of the North. 1 When Jabin, the king of Hazor, heard about this, he sent to Jobab, the king of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph, 2 to the kings from the north who lived in the mountains, in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, in the western slopes, and in the highlands in Naphath-dor in the west, 3 to the Canaanites who lived in the east and the west, to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites who lived in the mountains, and to the Hivites who lived below Hermon in the land of Mizpah. 4 They went out along with all of their armies. There were as many of them as there is sand on the shore of the sea, along with a very large number of horses and chariots. 5 When all of these kings gathered together, they went and camped around the waters of Merom to do battle with Israel.
6 The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow, around this time, I will deliver all of them up to be slain by Israel. You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.” 7 Joshua and the whole army with him surprised them at the waters of Merom and attacked them. 8 The Lord delivered them into the hands of the Israelites who defeated them and pursued them to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth-maim and to the valley of Mizpah in the east. They continued to slay them until there were no survivors. 9 Joshua did as the Lord had directed: the horses were hamstrung and the chariots were burned.
10 Joshua then turned back to Hazor and he captured it, putting its king to the sword. (Hazor had been at the head of all of those kingdoms.) 11 They also put everyone in it to the sword. They totally destroyed it, not leaving any survivors, and they burned Hazor to the ground. 12 Joshua captured all of these cities and their kings and he put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as the Lord had commanded Moses, his servant. 13 But as for the cities built upon mounds, Israel did not burn any of them except for Hazor which Joshua burned. 14 The Israelites carried off the cattle and the spoils from these cities for themselves, but they put every person to the sword, totally destroying them and not leaving any survivors. 15 Whatever the Lord had commanded Moses is what Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did these things. He left nothing undone[a] from everything that the Lord had commanded Moses.
16 Joshua’s Conquests as Ordered by Moses. Joshua conquered the entire land: the hill country, the Negeb, the whole of Goshen, the western slopes, the Arabah, and the mountains of Israel with their foothills, 17 from Mount Halak and the uplands toward Seir, up to Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon beneath Mount Hermon. He captured all of their kings and he struck them down, putting them to death.
18 Joshua waged war upon all of these kings for a long time.[b] 19 The Israelites conquered them all in battle. They did not make a covenant of peace with any city except with the Hivites who lived in Gibeon. 20 It was the Lord himself who had hardened their hearts so that they fought against Israel and thus he might totally wipe them out, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses to do.
21 It was at that time that Joshua went and crushed the Anakim[c] from the mountain country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, from all of the hill country of Judah, and from all of the hill country of Israel. Joshua totally wiped them out along with their cities. 22 No Anakim were left in the land of the Israelites. The only ones who survived lived in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod. 23 So Joshua conquered the entire land just as the Lord had directed Moses to do. Joshua gave it to Israel following their tribal divisions, and there was a respite from fighting in the land.
Psalm 144[a]
Prayer for Victory and Peace
1 [b]Of David.
Blessed be the Lord,[c] my Rock,
who trains my hands for war
and my fingers for battle.
2 You are my safeguard[d] and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield in whom I take refuge,
the one who subdues nations under me.
3 O Lord, what is man that you care for him,
or the son of man that you think of him?[e]
4 Man is nothing more than a breath;
his days are like a fleeting shadow.[f]
5 [g]Part the heavens, O Lord, and descend;
touch the mountains so that they smoke.[h]
6 Flash forth lightning bolts and scatter my foes;
rout them with your arrows.[i]
7 Reach forth your hand[j] from on high;
deliver me and rescue me
from the mighty waters
and from the power of foreign foes
8 whose mouths utter lies[k]
and whose right hands are raised to swear to untruths.
9 [l]I will sing a new song to you, my God;
on a ten-stringed lyre I will play music for you.[m]
10 You grant victory to kings
and deliverance to your servant David from the cruel sword.[n]
11 Deliver me and rescue me
from the hands of foreign foes
whose mouths utter lies
and whose right hands are raised to swear to untruths.[o]
12 [p]May our sons in their youth
be like carefully nurtured plants,
and may our daughters be like pillars
designed to adorn a palace.[q]
13 May our barns be filled
with every kind of crop.
May our sheep increase by thousands,
by tens of thousands in our fields,[r]
14 and may our cattle be well fed.[s]
May there be no breach in our walls,
no going into exile,
no cries of distress in our streets.
15 Blessed are the people for whom this is true;
blessed[t] are the people whose God is the Lord.
Chapter 5[a]
Evil Everywhere
1 Roam through the streets of Jerusalem,
look around and take careful note;
search through the public squares.
If you can find even one person
who acts justly and seeks the truth,
I will pardon this city.
2 Even though they say, “As the Lord lives,”
they are in fact swearing falsely.
3 Do your eyes not search for truth, O Lord?
When you struck them, they felt no anguish;
when you brought them down, they refused correction.
They have made their faces harder than stone
and refused to repent.
4 Then I thought, “These are only the poor;
they tend to act foolishly.
For they do not know the way of the Lord
or the ordinances of their God.
5 Therefore, I will go to their leaders
and speak to them.
Surely they will know the way of the Lord
and their responsibilities to their God.”
But those, too, had broken the yoke
and torn away from their bonds.
6 Therefore, lions from the forest will tear them to pieces,
and wolves from the desert will ravage them.
Leopards will be on the prowl around their cities;
all those who depart from them
will be torn to pieces
because of their many crimes
and their apostasies
without number.
7 Why should I forgive you?
Your children have forsaken me to swear by gods
that are not gods in any way.
When I gave them everything they needed,
they committed adultery
and hastened to the houses of prostitutes.
8 They are well-fed and lusty stallions,
each one neighing for his neighbor’s wife.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?
asks the Lord.
Shall I not take vengeance on a nation such as this?
10 Ascend to her vineyards and ravage them
but do not totally destroy them.
Strip off her branches,
for these people no longer belong to the Lord.
11 Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have been completely unfaithful to me, says the Lord.
12 They have denied the Lord,
boldly asserting, “He will do nothing.
No harm will come to us;
we will not endure either sword or famine.
13 The prophets are nothing but wind;
the word is not in them.
Their dire predictions will redound upon them.”
14 Therefore, the Lord, the God of hosts, has this to say:
Because you have said these things,
my words will become a fire in your mouth,
and I will make this people like wood
that the fire will consume.
15 Be forewarned that I will bring against you
a nation from a great distance,
O house of Israel, says the Lord—
a long-existent nation,
a nation founded long ago,
a people whose language you do not know
and whose speech you cannot understand.
16 The quivers of these people are like open graves;
all of them are mighty warriors.
17 They will devour your harvest and your food,
they will devour your sons and your daughters;
they will devour your flocks and your herds,
they will devour your vines and your fig trees;
with their swords they will destroy
your fortified towns in which you place your trust.
18 [b]Yet even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not completely destroy you. 19 And when the people ask, “Why has the Lord, our God, done all this to us?” reply to them, “As you have forsaken the Lord and served alien gods in your own land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”
20 Announce this in the house of Jacob,
proclaim it in Judah:
21 Pay attention to this,
you foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes but do not see,
who have ears but do not hear.
22 Do you have no fear of me? asks the Lord.
Do you not tremble before me?
I was the one who established the sand
as the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it can never pass.
Its waves may rise up but cannot prevail;
they may roar but cannot cross the limits.
23 But this people has a rebellious and stubborn heart;
they have risen up in defiance and gone away.
24 Nor do they say to themselves,
“Let us fear the Lord, our God,
who gives us in their proper season
the autumn and spring rains
and unfailingly provides for us
the weeks designated for the harvest.”
25 Your iniquities have upset the order of nature,
and your sins have deprived you of its bounty.
26 For there are wicked scoundrels among my people
who, like fowlers, set traps,
but with men as their quarry.
27 Like a cage full of birds,
their houses are full of treachery.
As a result, they have grown rich and powerful,
28 well fed and well groomed.
Their wickedness knows no bounds,
and they do not practice justice in their dealings.
They do not uphold the rights of the orphan
or defend the cause of the needy.
29 How can I fail to punish such things?
says the Lord.
How can I refuse to exact vengeance on a nation such as this?
30 An appalling and outrageous situation
has occurred in the land.
31 The prophets prophesy falsely,
the priests are in league with them,
and the people are delighted with this situation.
But when the end comes, what will you do?
The Coming of the Son of Man[a]
The Ministry in Judea and Jerusalem
Chapter 19
Marriage and Celibacy.[b] 1 When Jesus had finished this discourse, he left Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3 Some Pharisees came forward and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason whatsoever?” 4 He replied, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ 5 and said: ‘That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two become one flesh’? 6 And so they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 He replied, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. 9 Now I say to you: if a man divorces his wife for any reason except if the marriage was unlawful and marries another, he commits adultery.”
10 His disciples said to him, “If that is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” 11 He replied, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who have been made so from birth and eunuchs who were made so by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let those accept this who can do so.”[c]
13 Jesus Receives Little Children.[d] Then people brought children to him so that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them. For it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.” 15 And after he had laid his hands on them he proceeded on his way.
16 The Rich Young Man.[e] Then a man came forward and asked him, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to achieve eternal life?” 17 He said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said, “Which ones?” And Jesus answered, “You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. 19 Honor your father and your mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.”
20 The young man said to him, “I have observed all these. Is there anything more I must do?” 21 Jesus replied, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away grieving, for he possessed great wealth.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I say to you, it will be difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were astonished, and they asked, “Who then can be saved?” 26 Jesus looked at them and said, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
27 Reward for Following Jesus.[f] Then Peter said in reply, “We have given up everything to follow you. What then will there be for us?” 28 Jesus replied, “Amen, I say to you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will yourselves sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
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