M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Samuel’s Birth
1 There was a man named Elkanah from Ramathaim Zophim in the mountains of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, grandson of Elihu, great-grandson of Tohu, whose father was Zuph from the tribe of Ephraim. 2 Elkanah had two wives, one named Hannah, the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none. 3 Every year this man would go from his own city to worship and sacrifice to Yahweh Tsebaoth at Shiloh. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, served there as priests of Yahweh.
4 Whenever Elkanah offered a sacrifice, he would give portions of it to his wife Peninnah and all her sons and daughters. 5 He would also give one portion to Hannah because he loved her, even though Yahweh had kept her from having children. 6 Because Yahweh had made her unable to have children, her rival Peninnah tormented her endlessly in order to make her miserable. 7 This happened year after year. Whenever Hannah went to Yahweh’s house, Peninnah would make her miserable, and Hannah would cry and not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah would ask her, “Hannah, why are you crying? Why haven’t you eaten? Why are you so downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”
9 One day, after Hannah had something to eat and drink in Shiloh, she got up. (The priest Eli was sitting on a chair by the door of Yahweh’s temple.) 10 Though she was resentful, she prayed to Yahweh while she cried. 11 She made this vow, “Yahweh Tsebaoth, if you will look at my misery, remember me, and give me a boy, then I will give him to you for as long as he lives. A razor will never be used on his head.” 12 While Hannah was praying a long time in front of Yahweh, Eli was watching her mouth. 13 She was praying silently. Her voice couldn’t be heard; only her lips were moving. Eli thought she was drunk.
14 “How long are you going to stay drunk?” Eli asked her. “Get rid of your wine.”
15 Hannah responded, “No sir. I’m not drunk. I’m depressed. I’m pouring out my heart to Yahweh. 16 Don’t take me to be a good-for-nothing woman. I was praying like this because I’ve been troubled and tormented.”
17 Eli replied, “Go in peace, and may the Elohim of Israel grant your request.”
18 “May you continue to be kind to me,” she said. Then the woman went her way and ate. She was no longer sad.[a]
19 Early in the morning Elkanah and his family got up and worshiped in front of Yahweh. Then they returned home to Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and Yahweh remembered her. 20 Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel [God Hears], because she said, “I asked Yahweh for him.”
Samuel’s Childhood
21 To keep his vow, Elkanah and his entire household again went to offer the annual sacrifice to Yahweh. 22 But Hannah didn’t go. She told her husband, “I’ll wait until the boy is weaned. Then I’ll bring him and present him to Yahweh, and he’ll stay there permanently.”
23 “Do what you think is best,” her husband Elkanah told her. “Wait until you’ve weaned him. May Yahweh keep his word.” The woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
24 As soon as she had weaned Samuel, she took him with her. She also brought a three-year-old bull,[b] half a bushel of flour, and a full wineskin. She brought him to Yahweh’s house at Shiloh while the boy was still a child.
25 Then the parents butchered the bull and brought the child to Eli. 26 “Sir,” Hannah said, “as sure as you live, I’m the woman who stood here next to you and prayed to Yahweh. 27 I prayed for this child, and Yahweh granted my request. 28 In return, I am giving him to Yahweh. He will be dedicated to Yahweh for his whole life.”
And they worshiped Yahweh there.
Greeting
1 From Paul, a servant of Yeshua Christ, called to be an apostle and appointed to spread the Good News of God.
2 (God had already promised this Good News through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. 3 This Good News is about his Son, our Lord Yeshua Christ.[a] In his human nature he was a descendant of David. 4 In his spiritual, holy nature he was declared the Son of God. This was shown in a powerful way when he came back to life. 5 Through him we have received God’s kindness[b] and the privilege of being apostles who bring people from every nation to the obedience that is associated with faith. This is for the honor of his name. 6 You are among those who have been called to belong to Yeshua Christ.)
7 To everyone in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his holy people.
Good will[c] and peace from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua Christ are yours!
Paul’s Prayer and Desire to Visit Rome
8 First, I thank my God through Yeshua Christ for every one of you because the news of your faith is spreading throughout the whole world. 9 I serve God by spreading the Good News about his Son. God is my witness that I always mention you 10 every time I pray. I ask that somehow God will now at last make it possible for me to visit you. 11 I long to see you to share a spiritual blessing with you so that you will be strengthened. 12 What I mean is that we may be encouraged by each other’s faith.
13 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I often planned to visit you. However, until now I have been kept from doing so. What I want is to enjoy some of the results of working among you as I have also enjoyed the results of working among the rest of the nations. 14 I have an obligation to those who are civilized and those who aren’t, to those who are wise and those who aren’t. 15 That’s why I’m eager to tell you who live in Rome the Good News also.
16 I’m not ashamed of the Good News. It is God’s power to save everyone who believes, Jews first and Greeks as well. 17 God’s approval is revealed in this Good News. This approval begins and ends with faith as Scripture says, “The person who has God’s approval will live by faith.”
God’s Anger against Sinful Humanity
18 God’s anger is revealed from heaven against every ungodly and immoral thing people do as they try to suppress the truth by their immoral living. 19 What can be known about God is clear to them because he has made it clear to them. 20 From the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly observed in what he made. As a result, people have no excuse. 21 They knew God but did not praise and thank him for being God. Instead, their thoughts were pointless, and their misguided minds were plunged into darkness. 22 While claiming to be wise, they became fools. 23 They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for statues that looked like mortal humans, birds, animals, and snakes.
24 For this reason God allowed their lusts to control them. As a result, they dishonor their bodies by sexual perversion with each other. 25 These people have exchanged God’s truth for a lie. So they have become ungodly and serve what is created rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen!
26 For this reason God allowed their shameful passions to control them. Their women have exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 Likewise, their men have given up natural sexual relations with women and burn with lust for each other. Men commit indecent acts with men, so they experience among themselves the punishment they deserve for their perversion.
28 And because they thought it was worthless to acknowledge God, God allowed their own immoral minds to control them. So they do these indecent things. 29 Their lives are filled with all kinds of sexual sins, wickedness, and greed. They are mean. They are filled with envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and viciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, haughty, arrogant, and boastful. They think up new ways to be cruel. They don’t obey their parents, 31 don’t have any sense, don’t keep promises, and don’t show love to their own families or mercy to others. 32 Although they know God’s judgment that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do these things but also approve of others who do them.
Jerusalem Is Captured(A)
39 In the tenth month of Zedekiah’s ninth year as king of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Jerusalem with his entire army and blockaded it. 2 On the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year as king, they broke into the city.
3 Then all the officers of the king of Babylon came in and sat in Middle Gate: Nergal (the quartermaster), Samgar Nebo (the chief officer), Nergal (the quartermaster and the chief fortuneteller), and all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon.
4 When King Zedekiah of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls, and they took the road to the plain of Jericho. 5 The Babylonian army pursued them and caught up with Zedekiah in the plain of Jericho. They arrested him and brought him to Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. The king of Babylon passed sentence on him. 6 The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons as Zedekiah watched at Riblah. He also slaughtered all the leaders of Judah. 7 Then he blinded Zedekiah, put him in bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
8 The Babylonians burned down the royal palace and the people’s homes, and they tore down the walls of Jerusalem. 9 Nebuzaradan, Babylon’s captain of the guard, captured the few people left in the city, those who surrendered to him, and the rest of the people. 10 But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left some poor people who had nothing in the land of Judah. At that time he gave them vineyards and farms.
11 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gave Nebuzaradan an order concerning Jeremiah. He said, 12 “Take him, and look after him. Don’t harm him in any way, but do for him whatever he asks.” 13 Nebuzaradan (the captain of the guard), Nebushazban (the chief official), Nergal (the quartermaster and the chief fortuneteller), and all the other leaders of the king of Babylon sent for Jeremiah. 14 They took Jeremiah out of the courtyard of the prison and handed him over to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, to take him home. So he lived among the people.
15 While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the prison, Yahweh spoke his word to him. Yahweh said, 16 “Say to Ebed Melech from Sudan, ‘This is what Yahweh Tsebaoth, the Elohim of Israel, says: I’m going to carry out my threat against this city by bringing disaster on it instead of prosperity. At that time these things will happen as you watch. 17 But at that time I will rescue you, declares Yahweh. You will not be handed over to those you fear. 18 I will certainly rescue you. You will not die in war. You will escape with your life because you trusted me, declares Yahweh.’”
Psalm 13
For the choir director; a psalm by David.
1 How long, O Yahweh? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I make decisions alone
with sorrow in my heart day after day?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look at me! Answer me, O Yahweh my Elohim!
Light up my eyes,
or else I will die
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overpowered him.”
My opponents will rejoice because I have been shaken.
5 But I trust your mercy.
My heart finds joy in your salvation.
6 I will sing to Yahweh because he has been good to me.
Psalm 14[a]
For the choir director; by David.
1 Godless fools say in their hearts,
“There is no Elohim.”
They are corrupt.
They do disgusting things.
There is no one who does good things.
2 Yahweh looks down from heaven on Adam’s descendants
to see if there is anyone who acts wisely,
if there is anyone who seeks help from Elohim.
3 Everyone has turned away.
Together they have become rotten to the core.
No one, not even one person, does good things.
4 Are all those troublemakers,
those who devour my people as if they were devouring food,
so ignorant that they do not call on Yahweh?
5 There they are—panic-stricken
because Elohim is with the person who is righteous.
6 They put the advice of oppressed people to shame
because Yahweh is their Machseh.
7 If only salvation for Israel would come from Zion!
When Yahweh restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will rejoice.
Israel will be glad.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.