M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

16 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Ba‘asha king of Isra’el attacked Y’hudah, and he fortified Ramah to prevent anyone’s leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Y’hudah. ² Then Asa removed silver and gold from the treasures of the house of Adonai and the royal palace; and sent this message to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who lived in Dammesek: ³ “There is a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Here, I am sending you silver and gold; go, and break your covenant with Ba‘asha king of Isra’el, so that he will leave me alone.” ⁴ Ben-Hadad did as King Asa had asked — he sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Isra’el, attacking ‘Iyon, Dan, Avel-Mayim and all the storage-cities of Naftali. ⁵ As soon as Ba‘asha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah and abandoned his work. ⁶ Asa the king took all Y’hudah and carried off the stones and timber which Ba‘asha had used to fortify Ramah. With them he fortified Geva and Mitzpah.

⁷ It was around then that Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Y’hudah and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram and didn’t rely on Adonai your God, the king of Aram’s army has escaped from your power. ⁸ The army of the Ethiopians and Luvim was huge, wasn’t it? How many chariots and horsemen did they have? Yet because you relied on Adonai, he handed them over to you. ⁹ For the eyes of Adonai move here and there throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those who are wholehearted toward him. You acted foolishly in this regard; for from now on, you will have war.” ¹⁰ But Asa became angry at the seer; in fact, because of his rage at him over this matter he threw him in prison. Moreover, at the same time, he mistreated some of the people.

¹¹ The activities of Asa from beginning to end are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah and Isra’el.

¹² In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa suffered from a disease in his legs. It was a very serious disease, yet even with this disease he did not seek out Adonai but turned to the physicians. ¹³ Asa slept with his ancestors, dying in the forty-first year of his reign. ¹⁴ They buried him in his own burial cave, which he had ordered cut for himself in the City of David. They laid him in a bed filled with sweet spices of various kinds, expertly compounded; and a very great fire was kindled in his honor.

5 Next I saw in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals; ² and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” ³ But no one in heaven, on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look inside it. ⁴ I cried and cried, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look inside it. ⁵ One of the elders said to me, “Don’t cry. Look, the Lion of the tribe of Y’hudah, the Root of David, has won the right to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶ Then I saw standing there with the throne and the four living beings, in the circle of the elders, a Lamb that appeared to have been slaughtered. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the sevenfold Spirit of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷ He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of the One sitting on the throne. ⁸ When he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down in front of the Lamb. Each one held a harp and gold bowls filled with pieces of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people; ⁹ and they sang a new song,

¹¹ Then I looked, and I heard the sound of a vast number of angels — thousands and thousands, millions and millions! They were all around the throne, the living beings and the elders; ¹² and they shouted out,

¹³ And I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth and on the sea — yes, everything in them — saying,

¹⁴ The four living beings said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshipped.

1 In the eighth month of the second year of Daryavesh, the following message from Adonai came to Z’kharyah the son of Berekhyah, the son of ‘Iddo, the prophet: ² “Adonai was extremely angry with your ancestors. ³ Therefore, tell them that Adonai-Tzva’ot says this: ‘“Return to me,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “and I will return to you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. ⁴ “Don’t be like your ancestors. The earlier prophets proclaimed to them, ‘Adonai-Tzva’ot says to turn back now from your evil ways and deeds’; but they didn’t listen or pay attention to me,” says Adonai. ⁵ “Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? ⁶ But my words and my laws, which I ordered my servants the prophets, overtook your ancestors, didn’t they? Then they turned and said, ‘Adonai has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds, just as he intended to do.’”’”

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Sh’vat, in the second year of Daryavesh, this message from Adonai came to Z’kharyah the son of Berekhyah, the son of ‘Iddo, the prophet: ⁸ It was night, and I saw there before me a man riding on a russet-colored horse. He stood among the myrtle bushes in the valley; and behind him were other horses, russet, chestnut-colored and white. ⁹ I asked, “What are these, my Lord?” The angel speaking with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.” ¹⁰ The man standing among the myrtles said, “These are those whom Adonai has sent to wander throughout the earth.” ¹¹ Then they themselves answered the angel of Adonai standing among the myrtles, “We have been wandering throughout the earth, and the whole world is quiet and at peace.” ¹² The angel of Adonai said, “Adonai-Tzva’ot, how long will you keep withholding mercy from Yerushalayim and the cities of Y’hudah? You’ve been angry with them for the past seventy years!” ¹³ Adonai replied with kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me. ¹⁴ The angel speaking with me then said to me, “Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says: ‘I am extremely jealous on behalf of Yerushalayim and Tziyon; ¹⁵ and [to the same degree] I am extremely angry with the nations that are so self-satisfied; because I was only a little angry [at Yerushalayim and Tziyon], but they made the suffering worse.’ ¹⁶ Therefore Adonai says, ‘I will return to Yerushalayim with merciful deeds. My house will be rebuilt there,’ says Adonai-Tzva’ot; ‘yes, a measuring line will be stretched out over Yerushalayim.’ ¹⁷ In addition, proclaim that Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity.’ Adonai will again comfort Tziyon, and he will again make Yerushalayim the city of his choice.”

4 When Yeshua learned that the P’rushim had heard he was making and immersing more talmidim than Yochanan ² (although it was not Yeshua himself who immersed but his talmidim), ³ Yeshua left Y’hudah and set out again for the Galil. ⁴ This meant that he had to pass through Shomron.

⁵ He came to a town in Shomron called Sh’khem, near the field Ya‘akov had given to his son Yosef. ⁶ Ya‘akov’s Well was there; so Yeshua, exhausted from his travel, sat down by the well; it was about noon. ⁷ A woman from Shomron came to draw some water; and Yeshua said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” ⁸ (His talmidim had gone into town to buy food.) ⁹ The woman from Shomron said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for water from me, a woman of Shomron?” (For Jews don’t associate with people from Shomron.) ¹⁰ Yeshua answered her, “If you knew God’s gift, that is, who it is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink of water,’ then you would have asked him; and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹ She said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep; so where do you get this ‘living water’? ¹² You aren’t greater than our father Ya‘akov, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it, and so did his sons and his cattle.” ¹³ Yeshua answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty again! On the contrary, the water I give him will become a spring of water inside him, welling up into eternal life!”

¹⁵ “Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so that I won’t have to be thirsty and keep coming here to draw water.” ¹⁶ He said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” ¹⁷ She answered, “I don’t have a husband.” Yeshua said to her, “You’re right, you don’t have a husband! ¹⁸ You’ve had five husbands in the past, and you’re not married to the man you’re living with now! You’ve spoken the truth!”

¹⁹ “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet,” the woman replied. ²⁰ “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you people say that the place where one has to worship is in Yerushalayim.” ²¹ Yeshua said, “Lady, believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Yerushalayim. ²² You people don’t know what you are worshipping; we worship what we do know, because salvation comes from the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming — indeed, it’s here now — when the true worshippers will worship the Father spiritually and truly, for these are the kind of people the Father wants worshipping him. ²⁴ God is spirit; and worshippers must worship him spiritually and truly.”

²⁵ The woman replied, “I know that Mashiach is coming” (that is, “the one who has been anointed”). “When he comes, he will tell us everything.” ²⁶ Yeshua said to her, “I, the person speaking to you, am he.”

²⁷ Just then, his talmidim arrived. They were amazed that he was talking with a woman; but none of them said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water-jar, went back to the town and said to the people there, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could it be that this is the Messiah?” ³⁰ They left the town and began coming toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile, the talmidim were urging Yeshua, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he answered, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” ³³ At this, the talmidim asked one another, “Could someone have brought him food?” ³⁴ Yeshua said to them, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants and to bring his work to completion. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest’? Well, what I say to you is: open your eyes and look at the fields! They’re already ripe for harvest! ³⁶ The one who reaps receives his wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the reaper and the sower may be glad together — ³⁷ for in this matter, the proverb, ‘One sows and another reaps,’ holds true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you haven’t worked for. Others have done the hard labor, and you have benefited from their work.”

³⁹ Many people from that town in Shomron put their trust in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all the things I did.” ⁴⁰ So when these people from Shomron came to him, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed two days, ⁴¹ and many more came to trust because of what he said. ⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer trust because of what you said, because we have heard for ourselves. We know indeed that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

⁴³ After the two days, he went on from there toward the Galil. ⁴⁴ Now Yeshua himself said, “A prophet is not respected in his own country.” ⁴⁵ But when he arrived in the Galil, the people there welcomed him, because they had seen all he had done at the festival in Yerushalayim; since they had been there too.

⁴⁶ He went again to Kanah in the Galil, where he had turned the water into wine. An officer in the royal service was there; his son was ill in K’far-Nachum. ⁴⁷ This man, on hearing that Yeshua had come from Y’hudah to the Galil, went and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸ Yeshua answered, “Unless you people see signs and miracles, you simply will not trust!” ⁴⁹ The officer said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ Yeshua replied, “You may go, your son is alive.” The man believed what Yeshua said and left. ⁵¹ As he was going down, his servants met him with the news that his son was alive ⁵² So he asked them at what time he had gotten better; and they said, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.” ⁵³ The father knew that that was the very hour when Yeshua had told him, “Your son is alive”; and he and all his household trusted. ⁵⁴ This was a second sign that Yeshua did; he did it after he had come from Y’hudah into the Galil.