M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Samuel’s Death
25 (A)Then Samuel died; and all Israel assembled and (B)mourned for him, and they (C)buried him at his house in Ramah. And David set out and went down to the (D)wilderness of Paran.
Nabal and Abigail
2 Now there was a man in (E)Maon whose business was in (F)Carmel; and the man was very [a]rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it came about while (G)he was shearing his sheep in Carmel 3 (now the man’s name was Nabal, and his (H)wife’s name was Abigail. And the woman was [b]intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was (I)a Calebite), 4 that David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5 So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel and [c]visit Nabal, and greet him in my name; 6 and this is what you shall say: ‘[d]Have a long life, (J)peace to you, and peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! 7 Now then, I have heard (K)that you have shearers. Now, your shepherds have been with us; we have not harmed them, (L)nor has anything of theirs gone missing all the days they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on (M)a [e]festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David.’”
9 When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal in accordance with all these words in David’s name; then they waited. 10 But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “(N)Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master. 11 Shall I then (O)take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men [f]whose origin I do not know?” 12 So David’s young men made their way back and returned; and they came and informed him in accordance with all these words. 13 Then David said to his men, “Each of you strap on his sword.” So each man strapped on his sword. And David also strapped on his sword, and about (P)four hundred men went up behind David, while two hundred (Q)stayed with the baggage.
14 Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to [g](R)greet our master, and he spoke to them in anger. 15 Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not (S)harmed, nor did anything go missing [h]as long as we went with them, while we were in the fields. 16 (T)They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep. 17 Now then, be aware and [i]consider what you should do, because harm is plotted against our master and against all his household; and he is such a [j]worthless man that no one can speak to him.”
Abigail Intercedes
18 Then Abigail hurried and (U)took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine, and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain, and a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she said to her young men, “(V)Go on ahead of me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 And it happened as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; so she met them. 21 Now David had said, “It is certainly for nothing that I have guarded everything that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing has gone missing of all that belonged to him! For he has (W)returned me evil for good. 22 (X)May God do so to the enemies of David, and more so, (Y)if by morning I leave alive as much as one [k]male of any who belong to him.”
23 When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face in front of David (Z)and bowed herself to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said, “On me [l]alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your slave speak [m]to you, and listen to the words of your slave. 25 Please do not let my lord [n]pay attention to this [o]worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. [p]Nabal is his name, and stupidity is with him; but I your slave did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
26 “Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord has restrained you from [q]shedding blood, and (AA)from [r]avenging yourself by your own hand, now then, (AB)may your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be like Nabal. 27 And now let (AC)this [s]gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who [t]accompany my lord. 28 Please forgive (AD)the offense of your slave; for (AE)the Lord will certainly make for my lord an [u]enduring house, because my lord is (AF)fighting the battles of the Lord, and (AG)evil will not be found in you all your days. 29 Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your [v]life, then the [w]life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the [x]lives of your enemies (AH)He will sling out [y]as from the hollow of a sling. 30 And when the Lord does for my lord in accordance with all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and (AI)appoints you ruler over Israel, 31 this will not become an obstacle to you, or a [z]troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord’s having [aa]avenged himself. (AJ)When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your slave.”
32 Then David said to Abigail, “(AK)Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, 33 and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, (AL)who have kept me this day from [ab]bloodshed and from [ac]avenging myself by my own hand. 34 Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, (AM)who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, there certainly would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one [ad]male.” 35 So David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “(AN)Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to [ae]you and [af](AO)granted your request.”
36 Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was having (AP)a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was cheerful within him, (AQ)for he was very drunk; so (AR)she did not tell him anything [ag]at all until the morning light. 37 But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him so that he became like a stone. 38 About ten days later, (AS)the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
David Marries Abigail
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has (AT)pleaded the cause of the shame inflicted on me by the hand of Nabal, and (AU)has kept back His servant from evil. The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent [ah](AV)a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife. 40 When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” 41 And she got up (AW)and bowed with her face to the ground, and said, “Behold, your slave is a servant (AX)to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” 42 Then (AY)Abigail got up quickly, and rode on a donkey, with her five female attendants who [ai]accompanied her; and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife.
43 David had also taken Ahinoam of (AZ)Jezreel, and (BA)they both became his wives.
44 But Saul had given his daughter (BB)Michal, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from (BC)Gallim.
Lawsuits Discouraged
6 Does any one of you, when he has a [a]case against [b]his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and (A)not before the [c]saints? 2 Or (B)do you not know that (C)the [d]saints will judge (D)the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to form the smallest [e]law courts? 3 (E)Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? 4 So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, [f]do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? 5 (F)I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you anyone wise who will be able to decide between his (G)brothers and sisters, 6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before (H)unbelievers?
7 Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. (I)Why not rather suffer the wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 On the contrary, you yourselves do wrong and defraud. And this to your (J)brothers and sisters!
9 Or (K)do you not know that the unrighteous will not (L)inherit the kingdom of God? (M)Do not be deceived; (N)neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor [g]homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will (O)inherit the kingdom of God. 11 (P)Such were some of you; but you were (Q)washed, but you were (R)sanctified, but you were (S)justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and [h]in the Spirit of our God.
The Body Is the Lord’s
12 (T)All things are permitted for me, but not all things are of benefit. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 (U)Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, however God will (V)do away with both [i]of them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but (W)for the Lord, and (X)the Lord is for the body. 14 Now God has not only (Y)raised the Lord, but (Z)will also raise us up through His power. 15 (AA)Do you not know that (AB)your bodies are parts of Christ? Shall I then take away the parts of Christ and make them parts of a prostitute? [j](AC)Far from it! 16 Or (AD)do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “(AE)The two shall become one flesh.” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is (AF)one spirit with Him. 18 (AG)Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the [k]sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or (AH)do you not know that (AI)your body is a [l]temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from [m]God, and that (AJ)you are not your own? 20 For (AK)you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in (AL)your body.
Siege of Jerusalem Predicted
4 “Now you, son of man, (A)get yourself a brick, place it before you, and inscribe a city on it—Jerusalem. 2 Then (B)lay siege against it, build a siege wall, pile up an assault ramp, set up camps, and place battering rams against it all around. 3 Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city, and direct your face toward it so that (C)it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a (D)sign to the house of Israel.
4 “Then you are to lie down on your left side and put the wrongdoing of the house of Israel on it; you shall (E)bear their wrongdoing for the number of days that you lie on it. 5 For I have assigned you a number of days corresponding to the years of their wrongdoing, 390 days; so (F)you shall bear the wrongdoing of the house of Israel. 6 When you have completed these days, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the wrongdoing of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for (G)each year. 7 Then you shall direct your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and (H)prophesy against it. 8 Now behold, I will (I)put ropes [a]around you so that you cannot turn from your one side to your other until you have completed the days of your siege.
Defiled Bread
9 “But as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and (J)spelt, and put them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, 390 days. 10 Your food which you eat shall be (K)twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. 11 The water you drink shall be a [b]sixth of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. 12 You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human (L)dung.” 13 Then the Lord said, “In this way the sons of Israel will eat their bread (M)unclean among the nations where I will scatter them.” 14 But I said, “(N)Oh, Lord [c]God! Behold, [d]I have (O)never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what (P)died of itself or was torn by animals, nor has any (Q)unclean meat ever entered my mouth!” 15 Then He said to me, “See, I will give you cow’s dung in place of human dung, so that you may prepare your bread over it.” 16 Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to (R)break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by (S)weight and with anxiety, and drink water by (T)measure and in horror, 17 because bread and water will be scarce; and they will tremble with one another and (U)waste away in their guilt.
God Sustains His Servant.
For the music director. A Psalm of David.
40 I (A)waited [a]patiently for the Lord;
And He reached down to me and (B)heard my cry.
2 He brought me up out of the (C)pit of [b]destruction, out of the mud;
And (D)He set my feet on a rock, (E)making my footsteps firm.
3 He put a (F)new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
Many will (G)see and fear
And will trust in the Lord.
4 How (H)blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust,
And (I)has not turned to the [c]proud, nor to those who (J)become involved in falsehood.
5 Many, Lord my God, are (K)the wonders which You have done,
And Your (L)thoughts toward us;
There is no one to compare with You.
If I would declare and speak of them,
They (M)would be too numerous to count.
6 (N)You have not desired [d]sacrifice and meal offering;
You have [e]opened my ears;
You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
It is [f]written of me in the scroll of the book.
8 (O)I delight to do Your will, my God;
(P)Your Law is within my [g]heart.”
9 I have (Q)proclaimed good news of righteousness in the great congregation;
Behold, I will (R)not restrain my lips,
Lord, (S)You know.
10 I have (T)not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have (U)spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your mercy and Your truth from the great congregation.
11 You, Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me;
[h]Your (V)mercy and Your truth will continually watch over me.
12 For evils beyond number have (W)surrounded me;
My (X)guilty deeds have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see;
They are (Y)more numerous than the hairs of my head,
And my (Z)heart has [i]failed me.
13 (AA)Be pleased, Lord, to rescue me;
(AB)Hurry, Lord, to help me.
14 May those be (AC)ashamed and humiliated together
Who (AD)seek my [j]life to destroy it;
May those be turned back and dishonored
Who delight [k]in my hurt.
15 May those (AE)be [l]appalled because of their shame
Who (AF)say to me, “Aha, aha!”
16 (AG)May all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
May those who love Your salvation continually (AH)say,
“The Lord be exalted!”
17 But (AI)I am afflicted and needy;
(AJ)May the Lord be mindful of me.
You are my help and my savior;
Do not delay, my God.
The Psalmist in Sickness Complains of Enemies and False Friends.
For the music director. A Psalm of David.
41 Blessed is one who (AK)considers the [m]helpless;
The Lord will save him (AL)on a day of [n]trouble.
2 The Lord will (AM)protect him and keep him alive,
And he will be called [o](AN)blessed upon the earth;
And (AO)do not turn him over to the desire of his enemies.
3 The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed;
In his illness, You [p]restore him to health.
4 As for me, I said, “Lord, be gracious to me;
(AP)Heal my soul, for (AQ)I have sinned against You.”
5 My enemies (AR)speak evil against me,
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And [q]when he comes to see me, he (AS)speaks [r]empty words;
His heart gathers wickedness to itself;
When he goes outside, he tells it.
7 All who hate me whisper together against me;
They (AT)plot my harm against me, saying,
8 “A wicked thing is poured out [s]upon him,
So that when he lies down, he will (AU)not get up again.”
9 Even my [t](AV)close friend in whom I trusted,
Who ate my bread,
Has lifted up his heel against me.
10 But You, Lord, be gracious to me and (AW)raise me up,
That I may repay them.
11 By this I know that (AX)You are pleased with me,
Because (AY)my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.
12 As for me, (AZ)You uphold me in my integrity,
And You place me (BA)in Your presence forever.
13 (BB)Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
From everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.
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