M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

19 Some time later, when Nachash the king of the people of ‘Amon died, his son became king in his place. ² David said, “I will be kind to Hanun the son of Nachash, because his father showed grace to me.” So David sent messengers to comfort him about his father.

David’s servants entered the territory of the people of ‘Amon to go to Hanun and comfort him; ³ but the leaders of the people of ‘Amon said to Hanun, “Do you really think David is honoring your father by sending people to comfort you? Haven’t his servants come to you in order to look the city over, overthrow it and reconnoiter the land?” ⁴ So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved them, cut off their clothes halfway up, at their hips, and then sent them away. ⁵ Some people reported to David how the men had been treated. He sent a delegation to meet them, because the men had been deeply humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Yericho until your beards have grown back, and then return.”

⁶ Aware that they had made themselves utterly abhorrent to David, Hanun and the people of ‘Amon sent thirty-three tons of silver to hire chariots and horsemen from Aram-Naharayim, Aram-Ma‘akhah and Tzovah. ⁷ They hired 32,000 chariots, as well as the king of Ma‘akhah with his people, who came and pitched their camp in front of Meidva. Then the people of ‘Amon assembled themselves from their cities and went out to fight. ⁸ When David heard of it, he sent Yo’av with his entire army of trained soldiers.

⁹ The army of ‘Amon came out and went into battle formation at the city gate, while the kings who had come were alone in the countryside. ¹⁰ When Yo’av saw that he would be fighting on two fronts, ahead and behind, he chose the best troops of Isra’el to deploy against Aram; ¹¹ while the rest of the army he put under the command of Avishai his brother to deploy against the army of ‘Amon. ¹² He said, “If Aram is too strong for me, you help me; but if the army of ‘Amon is too strong for you, then I will help you. ¹³ Take courage, and let’s be strong for the sake of our people and the cities of our God. May Adonai do what seems good to him.”

¹⁴ So Yo’av and the people with him went to engage Aram in battle, and they fled before him. ¹⁵ When the people of ‘Amon saw that Aram had fled, they likewise fled before Avishai his brother and retreated into the city. Then Yo’av went to Yerushalayim.

¹⁶ When Aram saw that Isra’el had gotten the better of them, they sent messengers and brought out the people of Aram who lived beyond the [Euphrates] River, with Shofakh the commander of Hadar‘ezer’s army at their head. ¹⁷ It was reported to David; so he gathered all Isra’el together and crossed the Yarden to engage them. David deployed his forces for battle against Aram; and after he had done so, fought them. ¹⁸ But Aram fled before Isra’el; David killed 7,000 chariot-drivers and 40,000 foot soldiers from Aram; and he killed Shofakh the commander of the army. ¹⁹ When all Hadar‘ezer’s servants saw that they had been defeated by Isra’el, they made peace with David and became his subjects; and Aram would no longer help the people of ‘Amon.

20 In the spring, at the time when kings go out to war, Yo’av led the army out in force and laid waste to the country of the people of ‘Amon; then he came and laid siege to Rabbah. But David stayed in Yerushalayim, while Yo’av attacked Rabbah and destroyed it. ² David took the crown off Malkam’s head and found it to weigh sixty-six pounds, with its gold and precious stones; and it was placed on David’s head. He carried off great quantities of spoil from the city. ³ In addition, he brought out the people who were in it and set them to work with saws, iron harrows and axes. This is what he did to all the cities of the people of ‘Amon. Then David and all the people returned to Yerushalayim.

⁴ A while after this there was war at Gezer with the P’lishtim. Sibkhai the Hushati killed Sipai, one of the giants, and they were defeated. ⁵ There was more war with the P’lishtim; and Elchanan the son of Ya’ir killed Lachmi the brother of Golyat the Gitti, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s beam. ⁶ There was again war at Gat, where there was a very tall man whose fingers and toes numbered twenty-four, six [fingers on each hand] and six [toes on each foot]; and he too was a son of the giant. ⁷ When he mocked Isra’el, Y’honatan the son of Shim‘a David’s brother killed him. ⁸ These were sons of the giant in Gat; they fell at the hands of David and his servants.

1 From: Kefa, an emissary of Yeshua the Messiah

To: God’s chosen people, living as aliens in the Diaspora — in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bythinia — ² chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and set apart by the Spirit for obeying Yeshua the Messiah and for sprinkling with his blood:

Grace and shalom be yours in full measure.

³ Praised be God, Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who, in keeping with his great mercy, has caused us, through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah from the dead, to be born again to a living hope, ⁴ to an inheritance that cannot decay, spoil or fade, kept safe for you in heaven. ⁵ Meanwhile, through trusting, you are being protected by God’s power for a deliverance ready to be revealed at the Last Time. ⁶ Rejoice in this, even though for a little while you may have to experience grief in various trials. ⁷ Even gold is tested for genuineness by fire. The purpose of these trials is so that your trust’s genuineness, which is far more valuable than perishable gold, will be judged worthy of praise, glory and honor at the revealing of Yeshua the Messiah.

⁸ Without having seen him, you love him. Without seeing him now, but trusting in him, you continue to be full of joy that is glorious beyond words. ⁹ And you are receiving what your trust is aiming at, namely, your deliverance.

¹⁰ The prophets, who prophesied about this gift of deliverance that was meant for you, pondered and inquired diligently about it. ¹¹ They were trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of the Messiah in them was referring in predicting the Messiah’s sufferings and the glorious things to follow. ¹² It was revealed to them that their service when they spoke about these things was not for their own benefit, but for yours. And these same things have now been proclaimed to you by those who communicated the Good News to you through the Ruach HaKodesh sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things!

¹³ Therefore, get your minds ready for work, keep yourselves under control, and fix your hopes fully on the gift you will receive when Yeshua the Messiah is revealed. ¹⁴ As people who obey God, do not let yourselves be shaped by the evil desires you used to have when you were still ignorant. ¹⁵ On the contrary, following the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in your entire way of life; ¹⁶ since the Tanakh says,

“You are to be holy because I am holy.”^[a]

¹⁷ Also, if you are addressing as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person’s actions, you should live out your temporary stay on earth in fear. ¹⁸ You should be aware that the ransom paid to free you from the worthless way of life which your fathers passed on to you did not consist of anything perishable like silver or gold; ¹⁹ on the contrary, it was the costly bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah, as of a lamb without defect or spot. ²⁰ God knew him before the founding of the universe, but revealed him in the acharit-hayamim for your sakes. ²¹ Through him you trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory; so that your trust and hope are in God.

²² Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, so that you have a sincere love for your brothers, love each other deeply, with all your heart. ²³ You have been born again not from some seed that will decay, but from one that cannot decay, through the living Word of God that lasts forever. ²⁴ For

Moreover, this Word is the Good News which has been proclaimed to you.

3 The word of Adonai came to Yonah a second time: ² “Set out for the great city of Ninveh, and proclaim to it the message I will give you.” ³ So Yonah set out and went to Ninveh, as Adonai had said. Now Ninveh was such a large city that it took three days just to cross it. ⁴ Yonah began his entry into the city and had finished only his first day of proclaiming, ‘In forty days Ninveh will be overthrown,’ ⁵ when the people of Ninveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. ⁶ When the news reached the king of Ninveh, he got up from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. ⁷ He then had this proclamation made throughout Ninveh: “By decree of the king and his nobles, no person or animal, herd or flock, is to put anything in his mouth; they are neither to eat nor drink water. ⁸ They must be covered with sackcloth, both people and animals; and they are to cry out to God with all their might — let each of them turn from his evil way and from the violence they practice. ⁹ Who knows? Maybe God will change his mind, relent and turn from his fierce anger; and then we won’t perish.”

¹⁰ When God saw by their deeds that they had turned from their evil way, he relented and did not bring on them the punishment he had threatened.

8 After this, Yeshua traveled about from town to town and village to village, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God. With him were the Twelve, ² and a number of women who had been healed from evil spirits and illnesses — Miryam (called Magdalit), from whom seven demons had gone out; ³ Yochanah the wife of Herod’s finance minister Kuza; Shoshanah; and many other women who drew on their own wealth to help him.

⁴ After a large crowd had gathered from the people who kept coming to him from town after town, Yeshua told this parable: ⁵ “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the path and was stepped on, and the birds flying around ate it up. ⁶ Some fell on rock; and after it sprouted, it dried up from lack of moisture. ⁷ Some fell in the midst of thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. ⁸ But some fell into rich soil, and grew, and produced a hundred times as much as had been sown.” After saying this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear with, let him hear!”

⁹ His talmidim asked him what this parable might mean, ¹⁰ and he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God; but the rest are taught in parables, so that they may look but not see, and listen but not understand.^[a]

¹¹ “The parable is this: the seed is God’s message. ¹² The ones along the path are those who hear, but then the Adversary comes and takes the message out of their hearts, in order to keep them from being saved by trusting it. ¹³ The ones on rock are those who, when they hear the word, accept it with joy; but these have no root — they go on trusting for awhile; but when a time of testing comes, they apostatize. ¹⁴ As for what fell in the midst of thorns these are the ones who hear; but as they go along, worries and wealth and life’s gratifications crowd in and choke them, so that their fruit never matures. ¹⁵ But what fell in rich soil — these are the ones who, when they hear the message, hold onto it with a good, receptive heart; and by persevering, they bring forth a harvest.

¹⁶ “No one who has lit a lamp covers it with a bowl or puts it under a bed; no, he puts it on a stand; so that those coming in may see the light. ¹⁷ For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nothing is covered up that will not be known and come out into the open. ¹⁸ Pay attention, then, to how you hear! For anyone who has something will be given more; but from anyone who has nothing, even what he seems to have will be taken away.”

¹⁹ Then Yeshua’s mother and brothers came to see him, but they couldn’t get near him because of the crowd. ²⁰ It was reported to him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and want to see you.” ²¹ But he gave them this answer: “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s message and act on it!”

²² One day Yeshua got into a boat with his talmidim and said to them, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” ²³ So they set out; and as they were sailing, he fell asleep. A windstorm came down on the lake, so that the boat began to fill up with water, putting them in great danger. ²⁴ They went and woke him, saying, “Rabbi! Rabbi! We’re about to die!” He woke up, rebuked the wind and the rough water; and they calmed down, so that it was still. ²⁵ Then he said to the talmidim, “Where is your trust?” Awestruck, they marveled, asking one another, “Who can this be, that he commands even the wind and the water, and they obey him?”

²⁶ They sailed on and landed in the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite the Galil. ²⁷ As Yeshua stepped ashore, a man from the town who had demons came to meet him. For a long time he had not worn clothes; and he lived, not in a house, but in the burial caves. ²⁸ Catching sight of Yeshua, he screamed, fell down in front of him and yelled, “Yeshua! Son of God Ha‘Elyon! What do you want with me? I beg you, don’t torture me!” ²⁹ For Yeshua had ordered the unclean spirit to come out of the man. It had often taken hold of him — he had been kept under guard, chained hand and foot, but had broken the bonds and been driven by the demon into the desert. ³⁰ Yeshua asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he said, because many demons had entered him. ³¹ They begged Yeshua not to order them to go off into the Bottomless Pit.

³² Now there was a herd of many pigs, feeding on the hill; and the demons begged him to let them go into these. So he gave them permission. ³³ The demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, whereupon the herd rushed down the hillside into the lake and were drowned.

³⁴ When the swineherds saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the town and in the country; ³⁵ and the people came out to see for themselves. They came to Yeshua and found the man out of whom the demons had gone, sitting — dressed and in his right mind — at the feet of Yeshua; and they were frightened. ³⁶ Those who had seen it told how the formerly demonized man had been delivered.

³⁷ Then all the people of the Gerasene district asked him to leave them, for they had been seized with great fear. So he boarded the boat and returned. ³⁸ The man from whom the demons had gone out begged that he might go with him; but Yeshua sent him away, saying, ³⁹ “Go back to your home and tell how much God has done for you.” He went away proclaiming throughout the whole town how much Yeshua had done for him.

⁴⁰ When Yeshua got back, the crowd welcomed him; for they were all expecting him. ⁴¹ Then there came a man named Ya’ir who was president of the synagogue. Falling at Yeshua’s feet, he pleaded with him to come to his house; ⁴² for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old; and she was dying.

As he went, with the crowds on every side virtually choking him, ⁴³ a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, ⁴⁴ came up behind him and touched the tzitzit on his robe; instantly her hemorrhaging stopped. ⁴⁵ Yeshua asked, “Who touched me?” When they all denied doing it, Kefa said, “Rabbi! The crowds are hemming you in and jostling you!” ⁴⁶ But Yeshua said, “Someone did touch me, because I felt power go out of me.” ⁴⁷ Seeing she could not escape notice, the woman, quaking with fear, threw herself down before him and confessed in front of everyone why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. ⁴⁸ He said to her, “My daughter, your trust has saved you; go in peace.”

⁴⁹ While Yeshua was still speaking, a man came from the synagogue president’s house. “Your daughter has died,” he said. “Don’t bother the rabbi any more.” ⁵⁰ But on hearing this, Yeshua answered him, “Don’t be afraid! Just go on trusting, and she will be made well.” ⁵¹ When he arrived at the house, he didn’t allow anyone to go in with him except Kefa, Yochanan, Ya‘akov and the child’s father and mother ⁵² All the people were wailing and mourning for her; but he said, “Don’t weep; she hasn’t died, she’s sleeping.” ⁵³ They jeered at him, since they knew she had died. ⁵⁴ But he took her by the hand, called out, “Little girl, get up!” ⁵⁵ and her spirit returned. She stood up at once, and he directed that something be given her to eat. ⁵⁶ Her parents were astounded, but he instructed them to tell no one what had happened.