M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Defeat at Ai
7 The Israelites, however, were unfaithful(A) regarding the things set apart for destruction. Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set apart, and the Lord’s anger burned against the Israelites.
2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven,(B) east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and scout the land.” So the men went up and scouted Ai.
3 After returning to Joshua they reported to him, “Don’t send all the people, but send about two thousand or three thousand[a] men to attack Ai. Since the people of Ai are so few, don’t wear out all our people there.” 4 So about three thousand men[b] went up there, but they fled from the men of Ai.(C) 5 The men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of them and chased them from outside the city gate to the quarries,[c] striking them down on the descent. As a result, the people lost heart.[d](D)
6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening,(E) as did the elders of Israel; they all put dust on their heads.(F) 7 “Oh, Lord God,” Joshua said, “why did you ever bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites for our destruction? If only we had been content to remain on the other side of the Jordan! 8 What can I say, Lord, now that Israel has turned its back and run from its enemies? 9 When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth.(G) Then what will you do about your great name?” (H)
10 The Lord then said to Joshua, “Stand up! Why have you fallen facedown? 11 Israel has sinned. They have violated my covenant that I appointed for them. They have taken some of what was set apart. They have stolen, deceived, and put those things with their own belongings.(I) 12 This is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies. They will turn their backs and run from their enemies, because they have been set apart for destruction.(J) I will no longer be with you unless you remove from among you what is set apart.
13 “Go and consecrate the people. Tell them to consecrate themselves for tomorrow,(K) for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There are things that are set apart among you, Israel. You will not be able to stand against your enemies until you remove what is set apart. 14 In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe the Lord selects is to come forward clan by clan. The clan the Lord selects is to come forward family by family. The family the Lord selects is to come forward man by man. 15 The one who is caught with the things set apart must be burned, along with everything he has, because he has violated the Lord’s covenant and committed an outrage in Israel.”(L)
Achan Judged
16 Joshua got up early the next morning. He had Israel come forward tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was selected. 17 He had the clans of Judah come forward, and the Zerahite clan was selected. He had the Zerahite clan come forward by heads of families,[e] and Zabdi was selected. 18 He then had Zabdi’s family come forward man by man, and Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was selected.
19 So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel,(M) and make a confession to him.[f] I urge you, tell me what you have done. Don’t hide anything from me.”
20 Achan replied to Joshua, “It is true. I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel.(N) This is what I did: 21 When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Babylon,[g] five pounds[h] of silver, and a bar of gold weighing a pound and a quarter,[i] I coveted them and took them.(O) You can see for yourself. They are concealed in the ground inside my tent, with the silver under the cloak.” 22 So Joshua sent messengers who ran to the tent, and there was the cloak, concealed in his tent, with the silver underneath. 23 They took the things from inside the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites, and spread them out in the Lord’s presence.
24 Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the cloak, and the bar of gold, his sons and daughters, his ox, donkey, and sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and brought them up to the Valley of Achor.(P) 25 Joshua said, “Why have you brought us trouble?(Q) Today the Lord will bring you trouble!” So all Israel stoned them[j] to death. They burned their bodies, threw stones on them, 26 and raised over him a large pile of rocks that remains still today.(R) Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore that place is called the Valley of Achor[k] still today.
Psalm 137
Lament of the Exiles
1 By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and wept
when we remembered Zion.(A)
2 There we hung up our lyres
on the poplar trees,(B)
3 for our captors there asked us for songs,
and our tormentors, for rejoicing:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”(C)
4 How can we sing the Lord’s song
on foreign soil?(D)
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.(E)
6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!(F)
7 Remember, Lord, what the Edomites said
that day[a] at Jerusalem:
“Destroy it! Destroy it
down to its foundations!” (G)
8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who pays you back
what you have done to us.(H)
9 Happy is he who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rocks.(I)
Psalm 138
A Thankful Heart
Of David.
1 I will give you thanks with all my heart;(J)
I will sing your praise before the heavenly beings.[b](K)
2 I will bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name
for your constant love and truth.
You have exalted your name
and your promise above everything else.[c](L)
3 On the day I called, you answered me;
you increased strength within me.[d](M)
1 The words of Jeremiah,(A) the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests living in Anathoth(B) in the territory of Benjamin. 2 The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah(C) son of Amon, king of Judah. 3 It also came throughout the days of Jehoiakim(D) son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah(E) son of Josiah, king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
The Call of Jeremiah
4 The word of the Lord came to me:
5 I chose you before I formed you in the womb;
I set you apart before you were born.(F)
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.(G)
6 But I protested, “Oh no, Lord God! Look, I don’t know how to speak(H) since I am only a youth.”(I)
7 Then the Lord said to me:
Do not say, “I am only a youth,”(J)
for you will go to everyone I send you to
and speak whatever I tell you.(K)
8 Do not be afraid of anyone,(L)
for I will be with you to rescue you.(M)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
9 Then the Lord reached out his hand, touched my mouth,(N) and told me:
I have now filled your mouth with my words.(O)
10 See, I have appointed you today
over nations and kingdoms
to uproot and tear down,
to destroy and demolish,(P)
to build and plant.(Q)
Two Visions
11 Then the word of the Lord came to me, asking, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” (R)
I replied, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”
12 The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I watch over[a] my word to accomplish it.”(S) 13 Again the word of the Lord came to me asking, “What do you see?”
And I replied, “I see a boiling pot,(T) its lip tilted from the north to the south.”
14 Then the Lord said to me, “Disaster will be poured out[b] from the north(U) on all who live in the land. 15 Indeed, I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north.”(V)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
They will come, and each king will set up his throne
at the entrance to Jerusalem’s gates.
They will attack all her surrounding walls
and all the other cities of Judah.
16 “I will pronounce my judgments against them for all the evil they did when they abandoned me to burn incense to other gods and to worship the works of their own hands.(W)
17 “Now, get ready. Stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not be intimidated by them(X) or I will cause you to cower before them. 18 Today, I am the one who has made you a fortified city,(Y) an iron pillar, and bronze walls(Z) against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the population. 19 They will fight against you but never prevail over you,(AA) since I am with you to rescue you.”(AB)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
The Tradition of the Elders
15 Then(A) Jesus was approached by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, who asked,(B) 2 “Why do your disciples(C) break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”[a](D)
3 He answered them, “Why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? 4 For God said:[b] Honor your father and your mother;[c](E) and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.[d](F) 5 But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple,” 6 he does not have to honor his father.’[e] In this way, you have nullified the word of God[f] because of your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:
8 This people[g] honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
9 They worship me in vain,
teaching as doctrines human commands.”[h](G)
Defilement Is from Within
10 Summoning the crowd, he told them, “Listen and understand: 11 It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles(H) a person, but what comes out of the mouth—this defiles a person.”(I)
12 Then the disciples came up and told him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”
13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted.(J) 14 Leave them alone! They are blind guides.[i] And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”(K)
15 Then Peter said, “Explain this parable to us.”(L)
16 “Do you still lack understanding?” he[j] asked. 17 “Don’t you realize[k] that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated?[l] 18 But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person.(M) 19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies,(N) slander.(O) 20 These are the things that defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”(P)
A Gentile Mother’s Faith
21 When Jesus left there,(Q) he withdrew to the area of Tyre and Sidon.(R) 22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out,[m] “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.”(S)
23 Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples(T) approached him and urged him, “Send her away because she’s crying out after us.”
24 He replied, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”(U)
25 But she came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!”
26 He answered, “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”(V)
27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” And from that moment[n] her daughter was healed.(W)
Healing Many People
29 Moving on from there,(X) Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee.(Y) He went up on a mountain and sat there, 30 and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them. 31 So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, and the blind seeing,(Z) and they gave glory to the God of Israel.
Feeding of the Four Thousand
32 Jesus called his disciples and said,(AA) “I have compassion on the crowd, because they’ve already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the way.”
33 The disciples said to him, “Where could we get enough bread in this desolate place(AB) to feed such a crowd?”
34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked them.
“Seven,” they said, “and a few small fish.”
35 After commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.(AC) 37 They all ate and were satisfied. They collected the leftover pieces—seven large baskets full. 38 Now there were four thousand men who had eaten, besides women and children. 39 After dismissing the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan.[o](AD)
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