M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Judah and Tamar
38 It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and settled near a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah. 2 There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; he married her and went in to her. 3 She conceived and bore a son, and he named him Er.(A) 4 Again she conceived and bore a son whom she named Onan. 5 Yet again she bore a son, and she named him Shelah. She[a] was in Chezib when she bore him. 6 Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn; her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.(B) 8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her; raise up offspring for your brother.”(C) 9 But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, he spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother.(D) 10 What he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also. 11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up,” for he feared that he too would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.(E)
12 In course of time the wife of Judah, Shua’s daughter, died; when Judah’s time of mourning was over,[b] he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.(F) 13 When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14 she put off her widow’s garments, put on a veil, wrapped herself up, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him in marriage.(G) 15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 He went over to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” 17 He answered, “I will send you a kid from the flock.” And she said, “Only if you give me a pledge until you send it.”(H) 18 He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord and the staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him.(I) 19 Then she got up and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood.(J)
20 When Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite to recover the pledge from the woman, he could not find her. 21 He asked the townspeople, “Where is the prostitute who was at Enaim by the wayside?” But they said, “No prostitute has been here.” 22 So he returned to Judah and said, “I have not found her; moreover, the townspeople said, ‘No prostitute has been here.’ ” 23 Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as her own, otherwise we will be laughed at; you see, I sent this kid, and you could not find her.”
24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself; moreover, she is pregnant as a result of prostitution.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.”(K) 25 As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “It was the owner of these who made me pregnant.” And she said, “Take note, please, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.”(L) 26 Then Judah acknowledged them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not lie with her again.(M)
27 When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb. 28 While she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and bound on his hand a crimson thread, saying, “This one came out first.” 29 But just then he drew back his hand and out came his brother, and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore he was named Perez.[c](N) 30 Afterward his brother came out with the crimson thread on his hand, and he was named Zerah.[d]
Feeding the Four Thousand
8 In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, 2 “I have compassion for the crowd because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.(A) 3 If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.” 4 His disciples replied, “How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?” 5 He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.”(B) 6 Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. 7 They had also a few small fish, and after blessing them he ordered that these, too, should be distributed.(C) 8 They ate and were filled, and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 10 And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.[a]
The Demand for a Sign
11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him.(D) 12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.”(E) 13 And he left them, and getting into the boat again he went across to the other side.
The Yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod
14 Now the disciples[b] had forgotten to bring any bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”[c](F) 16 They said to one another, “It is because we have no bread.” 17 And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?(G) 18 Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” They said to him, “Twelve.”(H) 20 “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?” And they said to him, “Seven.”(I) 21 Then he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”(J)
Jesus Cures a Blind Man at Bethsaida
22 They came to Bethsaida. Some people[d] brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him.(K) 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?”(L) 24 And the man[e] looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus[f] laid his hands on his eyes again, and he looked intently, and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 Then he sent him away to his home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”[g](M)
Peter’s Declaration about Jesus
27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”(N) 28 And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”(O) 29 He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”[h](P) 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.(Q)
Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.(R) 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”(S)
34 He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come[i] after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.(T) 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,[j] will save it.(U) 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words[k] in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”(V)
Eliphaz Speaks: Job Has Sinned
4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
2 “If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?
But who can keep from speaking?(A)
3 See, you have instructed many;
you have strengthened the weak hands.(B)
4 Your words have supported those who were stumbling,
and you have made firm the feeble knees.(C)
5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;
it touches you, and you are dismayed.(D)
6 Is not your fear of God your confidence
and the integrity of your ways your hope?(E)
7 “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?
Or where were the upright cut off?(F)
8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity
and sow trouble reap the same.(G)
9 By the breath of God they perish,
and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.(H)
10 The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,
and the teeth of the young lions are broken.(I)
11 The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.(J)
12 “Now a word came stealing to me;
my ear received the whisper of it.(K)
13 Amid thoughts from visions of the night,
when deep sleep falls on mortals,
14 dread came upon me and trembling,
which made all my bones shake.(L)
15 A spirit glided past my face;
the hair of my flesh bristled.
16 It stood still,
but I could not discern its appearance.
A form was before my eyes;
there was silence; then I heard a voice:
17 ‘Can mortals be righteous before[a] God?
Can humans be pure before[b] their Maker?(M)
18 Even in his servants he puts no trust,
and his angels he charges with error;(N)
19 how much more those who live in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like a moth.(O)
20 Between morning and evening they are destroyed;
they perish forever without any regarding it.(P)
21 Their tent cord is plucked up within them,
and they die devoid of wisdom.’(Q)
Life in the Spirit
8 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.(A) 2 For the law of the Spirit[a] of life in Christ Jesus has set you[b] free from the law of sin and of death.(B) 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin,[c] he condemned sin in the flesh,(C) 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.[d](D) 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit[e] set their minds on the things of the Spirit.[f](E) 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit[g] is life and peace.(F) 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot,(G) 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,[h] since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.(H) 10 But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit[i] is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus[j] from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through[k] his Spirit that dwells in you.(I)
12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are obligated, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.(J) 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.(K) 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba![l] Father!”(L) 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness[m] with our spirit that we are children of God,(M) 17 and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.(N)
Future Glory
18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God, 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.(O) 24 For in[n] hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes[o] with groanings too deep for words.(P) 27 And God,[p] who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit[q] intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.(Q)
28 We know that all things work together[r] for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.(R) 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.[s](S) 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.(T)
God’s Love in Christ Jesus
31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?(U) 32 He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else? 33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.(V) 34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ[t] who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.(W) 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”(X)
37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us.(Y) 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,(Z) 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.