M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

24 Yo’ash was seven years old when he began his reign, and he reigned forty years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Tzivyah, from Be’er-Sheva. ² Yo’ash did what was right from Adonai’s perspective throughout the lifetime of Y’hoyada the cohen. ³ Y’hoyada chose two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

⁴ Some time later, Yo’ash decided to restore the house of Adonai. ⁵ He gathered the cohanim and L’vi’im and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Y’hudah, and collect money each year from all Isra’el to repair the house of your God. See that you do this promptly.” But when the L’vi’im procrastinated, ⁶ the king summoned Y’hoyada the chief and said to him, “Why haven’t you demanded that the L’vi’im bring in from Y’hudah and Yerushalayim the tax prescribed by Moshe the servant of Adonai and by the community of Isra’el, for the tent of the testimony?” ⁷ For the sons of that wicked ‘Atalyahu had broken up the house of God, and they had given all the consecrated things belonging to the house of Adonai to the ba‘alim.

⁸ Then, at the king’s order, they made a box and placed it outside the entrance to the house of Adonai. ⁹ They proclaimed throughout Y’hudah and Yerushalayim that the tax Moshe the servant of God had imposed on Isra’el in the desert should be brought in for Adonai. ¹⁰ All the leaders and all the people were glad to bring in their contributions and put them in the box, until it was full. ¹¹ When the box was brought to the king’s officials by the L’vi’im, and when they saw how much money there was, the king’s secretary and the chief cohen’s official came and emptied the box; then they took it and returned it to its place. They did this daily, and they collected money in abundance.

¹² The king and Y’hoyada gave it to those in charge of taking care of the house of Adonai. They, in turn, hired stone-workers and carpenters to restore the house of Adonai, also iron- and bronze-workers to repair the house of Adonai. ¹³ The workers got on with their tasks, so that the restoration progressed well, until they had returned the house of God to its earlier condition and strengthened it. ¹⁴ When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Y’hoyada, and it was used to make equipment for the house of Adonai — articles for ministry, buckets, fire pans, and utensils of gold and silver. So they offered burnt offerings in the house of Adonai regularly throughout the time of Y’hoyada.

¹⁵ But Y’hoyada grew old; and when he was full of days, he died. He was 130 years old when he died. ¹⁶ They buried him in the City of David among the kings, because he had served Isra’el, God and his house well.

¹⁷ After Y’hoyada died, the leaders of Y’hudah came and prostrated themselves before the king. Then the king listened to them; ¹⁸ and they abandoned the house of Adonai the God of their ancestors and served the sacred poles and the idols. In consequence of their guilt, [God’s] anger fell on Y’hudah and Yerushalayim. ¹⁹ In spite of this, he sent them prophets to bring them back to Adonai; they warned them, but they wouldn’t pay attention. ²⁰ The Spirit of God covered Z’kharyah the son of Y’hoyada the cohen; he stood above the people and addressed them: “Thus says God: ‘Why are you transgressing the mitzvot of Adonai and courting disaster? Because you have abandoned Adonai, he has abandoned you.” ²¹ But they conspired against him and stoned him to death at the order of the king in the courtyard of the house of Adonai. ²² Thus Yo’ash the king did not remember the kindness which Y’hoyada, [Z’kharyah’s] father, had done for him, but put his son to death. As he was dying he said, “May Adonai see this and take vengeance!”

²³ The following spring, the army of Aram came up against him. They attacked Y’hudah and Yerushalayim, slaughtered all the people’s leaders and sent all their spoil to the king of Dammesek. ²⁴ Although the army of Aram attacked with only a small company of men, Adonai handed over a very great army to them, because they had abandoned Adonai the God of their ancestors. Thus they executed judgment against Yo’ash.

²⁵ After they had left him — and they left him seriously wounded — his own servants conspired against him because he had shed the blood of the sons of Y’hoyada the cohen; and they killed him in his own bed. After he died, they buried him in the City of David, but they didn’t bury him in the tombs of the kings. ²⁶ Those who conspired against him were Zavad the son of Shim‘at the ‘Amonit and Y’hozavad the son of Shimrit the Mo’avit.

²⁷ As for his sons, the heavy tribute imposed on him, and the rebuilding of the house of God, they are recorded in the commentary of the Annals of the Kings. Then Amatzyahu his son took his place as king.

11 I was given a measuring rod like a stick and told, “Get up, and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count how many people are worshipping there! ² But the court outside the Temple, leave that out; don’t measure it; because it has been given to the Goyim, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months.

³ “Also I will give power to my two witnesses; and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth.” ⁴ These are the two olive trees and the two menorahs standing before the Lord of the earth. ⁵ If anyone tries to do them harm, fire comes out of their mouth and consumes their enemies — yes, if anyone tries to harm them, that is how he must die. ⁶ They have the authority to shut up the sky, so that no rain falls during the period of their prophesying; also they have the authority to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

⁷ When they finish their witnessing, the beast coming up out of the Abyss will fight against them, overcome them and kill them; ⁸ and their dead bodies will lie in the main street of the great city whose name, to reflect its spiritual condition, is “S’dom” and “Egypt” — the city where their Lord was executed on a stake. ⁹ Some from the nations, tribes, languages and peoples see their bodies for three-and-a-half days and do not permit the corpses to be placed in a tomb. ¹⁰ The people living in the Land rejoice over them, they celebrate and send each other gifts, because these two prophets tormented them so.

¹¹ But after the three-and-a-half days a breath of life from God entered them, they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. ¹² Then the two heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up into heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them. ¹³ In that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were awestruck and gave glory to the God of heaven.

¹⁴ The second woe has passed; see, the third woe is coming quickly

¹⁵ The seventh angel sounded his shofar; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,

¹⁶ The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones in God’s presence fell on their faces and worshipped God, ¹⁷ saying,

¹⁹ Then the Temple of God in heaven was opened, and the Ark of the Covenant was seen in his Temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake and violent hail.

7 In the fourth year of King Daryavesh, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Kislev, a message from Adonai came to Z’kharyah. ² He sent Sar’etzer and Regem-Melekh with his men to Beit-El in order to ask Adonai’s favor, ³ as they inquired of the cohanim of the house of Adonai-Tzva’ot and the prophets, “Should we go into mourning and abstain from pleasure during the fifth month, as we have been doing for all these years?” ⁴ It was then that this message came to me from Adonai-Tzva’ot: ⁵ “Speak to all the people of the land and to the cohanim. Tell them, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months throughout these seventy years, were you really fasting for me? Was it for me? ⁶ Rather, when you eat and drink, it’s just to please yourselves, isn’t it? ⁷ Isn’t this just what Adonai proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Yerushalayim was inhabited and prosperous, as were the cities around her; and the Negev and the Sh’felah were inhabited?’”

⁸ Then this message from Adonai came to Z’kharyah: ⁹ “In the past Adonai-Tzva’ot said, ‘Administer true justice. Let everyone show mercy and compassion to his brother. ¹⁰ Don’t oppress widows, orphans, foreigners or poor people. Don’t plot evil against each other.’ ¹¹ But they wouldn’t listen, they stubbornly turned their shoulder away and stopped up their ears, so that they wouldn’t have to hear it. ¹² Yes, they made their hearts as hard as a diamond, so that they wouldn’t hear the Torah and the messages that Adonai-Tzva’ot had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. This is why great anger came from Adonai-Tzva’ot; ¹³ and it came about that just as they hadn’t listened when he called, so Adonai-Tzva’ot said, ‘I won’t listen when they call; ¹⁴ but with the power of a whirlwind I will disperse them among all the nations which they have not known.’ Thus the land was left desolate after them, so that no one came or went. They had turned a pleasant land into a desert.”

10 “Yes, indeed! I tell you, the person who doesn’t enter the sheep-pen through the door, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. ² But the one who goes in through the gate is the sheep’s own shepherd. ³ This is the one the gate-keeper admits, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep, each one by name, and leads them out. ⁴ After taking out all that are his own, he goes on ahead of them; and the sheep follow him because they recognize his voice. ⁵ They never follow a stranger but will run away from him, because strangers’ voices are unfamiliar to them.”

⁶ Yeshua used this indirect manner of speaking with them, but they didn’t understand what he was talking to them about. ⁷ So Yeshua said to them again, “Yes, indeed! I tell you that I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All those who have come before me have been thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. ⁹ I am the gate; if someone enters through me, he will be safe and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand, since he isn’t a shepherd and the sheep aren’t his own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf drags them off and scatters them. ¹³ The hired worker behaves like this because that’s all he is, a hired worker; so it doesn’t matter to him what happens to the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me — ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father — and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. ¹⁶ Also I have other sheep which are not from this pen; I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd.

¹⁷ “This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life — in order to take it up again! ¹⁸ No one takes it away from me; on the contrary, I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is what my Father commanded me to do.”

¹⁹ Again there was a split among the Judeans because of what he said. ²⁰ Many of them said, “He has a demon!” and “He’s meshugga! Why do you listen to him?” ²¹ Others said, “These are not the deeds of a man who is demonized — how can a demon open blind people’s eyes?”

²² Then came Hanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter, ²³ and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area, in Shlomo’s Colonnade. ²⁴ So the Judeans surrounded him and said to him, “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us publicly!” ²⁵ Yeshua answered them, “I have already told you, and you don’t trust me. The works I do in my Father’s name testify on my behalf, ²⁶ but the reason you don’t trust is that you are not included among my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me, ²⁸ and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands. ²⁹ My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one can snatch them from the Father’s hands. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

³¹ Once again the Judeans picked up rocks in order to stone him. ³² Yeshua answered them, “You have seen me do many good deeds that reflect the Father’s power; for which one of these deeds are you stoning me?” ³³ The Judeans replied, “We are not stoning you for any good deed, but for blasphemy — because you, who are only a man, are making yourself out to be God ^[a].” ³⁴ Yeshua answered them, “Isn’t it written in your Torah, ‘I have said, “You people are Elohim’ ”?^{[b] 35} If he called ‘elohim’ the people to whom the word of Elohim was addressed (and the Tanakh cannot be broken), ³⁶ then are you telling the one whom the Father set apart as holy and sent into the world, ‘You are committing blasphemy,’ just because I said, ‘I am a son of Elohim’?

³⁷ “If I am not doing deeds that reflect my Father’s power, don’t trust me. ³⁸ But if I am, then, even if you don’t trust me, trust the deeds; so that you may understand once and for all that the Father is united with me, and I am united with the Father.” ³⁹ One more time they tried to arrest him, but he slipped out of their hands.

⁴⁰ He went off again beyond the Yarden, where Yochanan had been immersing at first, and stayed there. ⁴¹ Many people came to him and said, “Yochanan performed no miracles, but everything Yochanan said about this man was true.” ⁴² And many people there put their trust in him.