M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
David and Ziba
16 When David had passed a little beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of saddled donkeys carrying two hundred loaves of bread, one hundred clusters of raisins, one hundred summer fruits, and one skin of wine.
2 The king said to Ziba, “Why do you have these things?”
Ziba replied, “The donkeys are for the household of the king to ride. The bread and the summer fruit are for the servants to eat. The wine is for those who become weary in the wilderness to drink.”
3 The king said, “And where is your master’s son?”
Ziba said to the king, “He is staying in Jerusalem, for he said, ‘Today they will return to me the house of Israel and my father’s kingdom.’ ”
4 Then David said to Ziba, “Everything that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours.”
Ziba replied, “I bow before you. May I find favor in your sight, my lord the king.”
Shimei Curses David
5 When King David came to Bahurim, a man of the family of the house of Saul came out. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he came out continuously cursing. 6 He threw stones at David and all of the servants of King David, as well as all of the people and all of the warriors who were at his right and left. 7 Shimei said when he cursed: “Come out! Come out! You bloodthirsty man, you scoundrel! 8 The Lord has returned upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. And the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. You are taken in your own evil, because you are a man of blood.”
9 Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “How can this dead dog curse my lord the king! Let me go over and remove his head.”
10 The king responded, “What do you have against me, sons of Zeruiah? Suppose that he curses because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David.’ Who shall then say, ‘Why do you do so?’ ”
11 David then said to Abishai and to all of his servants, “My son who came from my own body seeks my life, and now also this Benjamite. Leave him alone and let him curse if the Lord has so instructed him. 12 Perhaps today the Lord will look upon my guilt and return kindness instead of his cursing.”
13 So David and his men continued on the road, and Shimei went along on the hillside beside them, cursing, throwing stones, and flinging dust at them as he went. 14 The king and all of the people who were with him arrived at their destination exhausted, but he refreshed himself there.
The Advice of Ahithophel and Hushai
15 Now Absalom and all of the Israelite people entered Jerusalem, and Ahithophel was with him. 16 When Hushai the Arkite, the friend of David, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”
17 Then Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this the extent of your commitment to your friend? Why have you not gone with your friend?”
18 Hushai said to Absalom, “No! For whom the Lord, this people, and all men of Israel have chosen, his I will be and with him I will remain. 19 Furthermore, whom shall I serve? Should it not be his son? As I served your father, so shall I be with you.”
20 Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your advice. What shall we do?”
21 Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Lie with your father’s concubines, whom he left to watch over the palace. When all Israel hears that you have made yourself abhorred by your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.” 22 So they set up a tent for Absalom on the roof, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all of Israel.
23 In those days, the advice that Ahithophel gave was as when one inquired a word from God. Such was all of the advice of Ahithophel, whether that which he gave to David or to Absalom.
The Offering for the Saints
9 It is redundant for me to write to you concerning the ministry to the saints. 2 I know your willingness, for which I boast of you to those in Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 Yet I have sent the brothers, lest our boasting of you might be in vain in this case, that, as I said, you may be ready; 4 and lest if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you) should be ashamed of this confident boasting. 5 Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brothers to go ahead to you and arrange beforehand your bountiful gift you previously promised, that it might be prepared as a gift, not as a matter of greed.
6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Let every man give according to the purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 God is able to make all grace abound toward you, so that you, always having enough of everything, may abound to every good work. 9 As it is written:
“He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor;
His righteousness remains forever.”[a]
10 Now He who supplies seed to the sower and supplies bread for your food will also multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. 11 So you will be enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which makes us give thanks to God.
12 For the administration of this service not only supplies the need of the saints, but is abundant also through many thanksgivings to God. 13 Meanwhile, through the performance of this ministry, they glorify God for the profession of your faith in the gospel of Christ and for your liberal sharing with them and with all others. 14 And in their prayer for you, they long for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. 15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.
The Sins of Oholah and Oholibah
23 The word of the Lord came again to me, saying: 2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. 3 And they committed harlotries in Egypt. They committed harlotries in their youth. There their breasts were pressed, and there their virgin bosom was handled. 4 Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister. And they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
Samaria
5 Oholah played the harlot when she was Mine. And she lusted after her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, 6 who were clothed in purple, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. 7 Thus she committed her harlotries with them, with all those who were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself. 8 She did not forsake her harlotries from the time in Egypt. For in her youth they lay with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured their harlotry upon her.
9 Therefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians after whom she doted. 10 They uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters and killed her with the sword. And she became a byword among women, for they had executed judgments on her.
Jerusalem
11 Now her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her harlotries more than her sister in her harlotries. 12 She lusted after the Assyrians her neighbors, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. 13 Then I saw that she was defiled, that they both took the same way.
14 So she increased her harlotries. And she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, 15 girded with belts on their loins, exceeding in dyed attire on their heads, all of them looking like officials, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity. 16 And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them into Chaldea. 17 The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their harlotry, and she was polluted with them, and her soul became disgusted with them. 18 So she uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness. Then My soul became disgusted with her, as My soul became disgusted with her sister. 19 Yet she multiplied her harlotries while remembering the days of her youth in which she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. 20 For she lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 21 Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth when the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth.
Judgment on Jerusalem
22 Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom you were alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side: 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them. All of them are desirable young men, captains and rulers, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. 24 They shall come against you with weapons, chariots and wagons, and with an assembly of peoples. They shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler and shield and helmet. And I will set the judgment before them, and they shall judge you according to their customs. 25 I will set My jealousy against you, so that they deal furiously with you. They shall take away your nose and your ears. And your remnant shall fall by the sword. They shall take your sons and your daughters. And your remnant shall be devoured by the fire. 26 They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your fair jewels. 27 Thus I will make your lewdness and your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt to cease from you so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.
28 For thus says the Lord God: I will deliver you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those from whom you were alienated. 29 And they shall deal with you hatefully, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare. And the nakedness of your harlotries shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotries. 30 I will do these things to you because you have gone whoring after the nations, because you have polluted yourself with their idols. 31 You have walked in the way of your sister. Therefore I will give her cup into your hand.
32 Thus says the Lord God:
You shall drink of your sister’s cup,
which is deep and wide;
you shall be laughed to scorn and held in derision;
it contains much.
33 You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,
the cup of horror and desolation,
the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 You shall drink it and drain it,
then you shall gnaw at its fragments
and tear off your own breasts;
for I have spoken, says the Lord God.
35 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, now bear the punishment of your lewdness and your harlotries.
Judgment on the Sisters
36 The Lord moreover said to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. 37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. Thus with their idols they have committed adultery and have also caused their sons whom they bore to Me to pass through the fire for them as food. 38 Moreover they have done this to Me: They have defiled My sanctuary in the same day and have profaned My Sabbaths. 39 For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into My sanctuary to profane it. And thus they have done in the midst of My house.
40 Furthermore, they have even sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and they came. For them you washed yourself, painted your eyes, and decked yourself with ornaments. 41 And you sat on a stately couch with a table prepared before it on which you had set My incense and My oil.
42 A sound of a multitude at ease was with her, and drunkards were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort. And they put bracelets on the hands of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43 Then I said to her who was worn out by adulteries, “Will they now commit harlotries with her when she is so?” 44 Yet they went in to her as they go in to a woman who plays the harlot. So they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women. 45 But righteous men shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.
46 For thus says the Lord God: Bring up a company against them and give them over to terror and devastation. 47 The company shall stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords. They shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.
48 Thus I will cause lewdness to cease from the land, that all women may be warned and not commit lewdness as you have done. 49 Your lewdness shall be recompensed upon you, and you shall bear the punishment of worshipping your idols. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God.
Psalm 70(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David. To bring remembrance.
1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
Make haste to help me, O Lord.
2 May those who seek my life
be ashamed and confused;
may those who desire my harm
be driven back and humiliated.
3 May they turn back as a consequence of their shame
who say “Aha! Aha!”
4 May all those who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You;
and may those who love Your salvation continually say,
“God be magnified!”
5 But I am poor and needy;
make haste to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay!
Psalm 71(B)
1 In You, O Lord, I seek refuge;
may I never be put to shame.
2 Deliver me in Your righteousness and help me escape;
incline Your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock of refuge
to enter continually;
You have given commandment to save me;
for You are my rock and my stronghold.
4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
out of the hand of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For You are my hope, O Lord God;
You are my confidence from my youth.
6 On You I have supported myself from the womb;
You took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise will continually be about You.
7 I am like a wondrous sign to many;
You are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth will be filled with Your praise
and with Your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
do not forsake me when my strength fails.
10 For my enemies speak against me;
and those who watch for my life take counsel together,
11 saying, “God has forsaken him;
pursue and catch him,
for there is none to deliver him.”
12 O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, act quickly to help me.
13 May the adversaries of my life be ashamed and confused;
may those who seek my harm
be enveloped in scorn and dishonor.
14 But I will hope continually,
and will add to all Your praise.
15 My mouth will declare Your righteousness
and Your salvation all the day,
for I cannot know their numbers.
16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.
17 O God, You have taught me from my youth;
and until now I have proclaimed Your wondrous works.
18 Now also when I am old and gray,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I have proclaimed Your strength to this generation,
and Your power to everyone who is to come.
19 Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heights;
You have done great deeds;
O God, who is like You?
20 You who have shown me great distresses and troubles
will revive me again,
and will bring me up again
from the depths of the earth.
21 You will increase my greatness,
and You will encircle and comfort me.
22 I will give You thanks with the harp,
even Your truth, O my God;
to You I will sing with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will rejoice
when I sing to You,
and my soul, which You have redeemed.
24 My tongue also will speak of Your righteousness
all the day long;
for those who seek my harm are ashamed,
for they have been put to shame.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.