M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

29 Hizkiyahu was twenty-five years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Aviyah the daughter of Z’kharyah. ² He did what was right from Adonai’s perspective, following the example of everything David his ancestor had done.

³ In the first month of the first year of his reign, he reopened the doors of the house of Adonai and repaired them. ⁴ Then he brought in the cohanim and L’vi’im, assembled them in the open space to the east, ⁵ and said to them, “Listen to me, L’vi’im: consecrate yourselves now, consecrate the house of Adonai the God of your ancestors, and remove the filth from the Holy Place. ⁶ For our ancestors acted treacherously, they did what is evil from the perspective of Adonai our God, they abandoned him, they turned their faces away from where Adonai lives and turned their backs on him. ⁷ They sealed the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps and stopped burning incense and offering burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Isra’el.

⁸ “Because of this, Adonai’s anger has settled on Y’hudah and Yerushalayim; and he has made them an object of horror, astonishment and mocking — as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹ Here, our ancestors have fallen by the sword; and on this account our sons, daughters and wives have gone into captivity.

¹⁰ “Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Adonai the God of Isra’el, so that his furious anger will turn away from us. ¹¹ My sons, now is not a time for being negligent; for you are the ones Adonai chose to stand before him and serve him as his ministers, offering him incense.”

¹² Then the L’vi’im set about the task — Machat the son of ‘Amasai and Yo’el the son of ‘Azaryahu from the descendants of the K’hati; of the sons of M’rari, Kish the son of ‘Avdi and ‘Azaryahu the son of Yehallel’el; of the Gershuni, Yo’ach the son of Zimah and ‘Eden the son of Yo’ach; ¹³ of the descendants of Elitzafan, Shimri and Ye‘i’el; of the descendants of Asaf, Z’kharyahu and Matanyahu; ¹⁴ of the descendants of Heman, Yechi’el and Shim‘i; and of the descendants of Y’dutun, Sh’ma‘yah and ‘Uzi’el.

¹⁵ They gathered their kinsmen, consecrated themselves and, in keeping with the king’s order and Adonai’s words, went in to cleanse the house of Adonai. ¹⁶ The cohanim went in to cleanse the inner part of the house of Adonai; all the unclean things they found in the sanctuary of Adonai they brought out into the courtyard of the house of Adonai, where the L’vi’im took and carried them out to Vadi Kidron. ¹⁷ They began consecrating on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they reached the vestibule of Adonai. Then they consecrated the house of Adonai in eight more days; so that on the sixteenth day of the first month, they had finished. ¹⁸ Then they went to Hizkiyahu the king in [the palace] and said, “We have cleansed all the house of Adonai, including the altar for burnt offerings, with all its equipment, and the table for the showbread, with all its equipment. ¹⁹ Moreover, we have reconditioned and consecrated all the articles that King Achaz threw out during his reign, when he was sinning; and they are there, in front of the altar of Adonai.”

²⁰ Next morning, Hizkiyahu the king got up early, gathered the leading men of the city and went up to the house of Adonai. ²¹ They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary and for Y’hudah; and he ordered the cohanim to offer them on the altar of Adonai. ²² After slaughtering the bulls, the cohanim took the blood and splashed it against the altar. Next, they slaughtered the rams and splashed the blood against the altar and also slaughtered the lambs and splashed the blood against the altar. ²³ After bringing the male goats for the sin offering close to the king and the assembly and laying their hands on them, ²⁴ the cohanim slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar to make atonement for all Isra’el; for the king had ordered that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be for all Isra’el.

²⁵ He stationed the L’vi’im in the house of Adonai with cymbals, lyres and lutes, in keeping with the order of David, Gad the king’s seer and Natan the prophet; for the mitzvah had come from Adonai through his prophets. ²⁶ The L’vi’im stood with the instruments of David and the cohanim with the trumpets. ²⁷ Hizkiyahu ordered that the burnt offering should be offered on the altar. The moment the burnt offering began, the song of Adonai also began, accompanied by the trumpets and the instruments of David king of Isra’el. ²⁸ The whole assembly prostrated themselves, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

²⁹ When the offering was over, the king and everyone present with him bowed down and prostrated themselves. ³⁰ Then Hizkiyahu the king and the leaders ordered the L’vi’im to sing praises to Adonai, using the words of David and of Asaf the seer. They sang praises until they were filled with joy, and they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves.

³¹ Hizkiyahu responded by saying, “Now that you have consecrated yourselves to Adonai, come close, and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of Adonai. So the community brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and as many as were willing volunteered burnt offerings. ³² In all, the burnt offerings brought by the congregation totaled 70 bulls, 100 rams and 200 lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to Adonai. ³³ The consecrated gifts amounted to 600 oxen and 3,000 sheep. ³⁴ Only there weren’t enough cohanim to skin and butcher all the burnt offerings, so their colleagues the L’vi’im assisted them until the work was finished and the cohanim had consecrated themselves (for the L’vi’im had been more diligent to consecrate themselves than the cohanim). ³⁵ Besides the abundance of burnt offerings, there was the fat of the peace offerings and drink offerings for each burnt offering.

Thus the service of the house of Adonai was restored. ³⁶ Hizkiyahu and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, since it had all happened so suddenly.

15 Then I saw another sign in heaven, a great and wonderful one — seven angels with the seven plagues that are the final ones; because with them, God’s fury is finished. ² I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire. Those defeating the beast, its image and the number of its name were standing by the sea of glass, holding harps which God had given them. ³ They were singing the song of Moshe, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:

⁵ After this I looked, and the sanctuary (that is, the Tent of Witness in heaven) was opened, ⁶ and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean bright linen and had gold belts around their chests. ⁷ One of the four living beings gave to the seven angels seven gold bowls filled with the fury of God, who lives forever and ever. ⁸ Then the sanctuary was filled with smoke from God’s Sh’khinah, that is, from his power; and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels had accomplished their purpose.

⁴ Adonai my God says this: “Shepherd the flock for slaughter. ⁵ Their buyers kill them and go unpunished; while those who sell them say, ‘Barukh Adonai! Now I’m rich!’ Even their own shepherds show them no pity. ⁶ I will no longer show pity to the inhabitants of the land,” says Adonai. “No, I will hand every one of them over to the power of a neighbor and to the power of his king; they will crush the land; and I won’t rescue them from their power.”

⁷ So I shepherded the flock for slaughter, truly the most miserable of the sheep; and I took two staffs for myself. I called the one No‘am [pleasantness], the other I called Hovalim [bound together], and I shepherded the flock. ⁸ “In a single month I got rid of three shepherds, because I grew impatient with them; and besides, they detested me. ⁹ I said, ‘I’m not going to shepherd you. Whichever one is going to die, let it die; whichever is going to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and the rest can all devour each other.’”

¹⁰ I took my staff No‘am and snapped it in two, “in order to break my covenant, which I made with all the peoples.” ¹¹ On that day when it was broken, the most miserable of the sheep who paid attention to me knew that this was indeed a message from Adonai. ¹² I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; if not, don’t.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty silver [shekels, that is, twelve ounces]. ¹³ Concerning that “princely sum” at which they valued me, Adonai said, “Throw it into the treasury!” So I took the thirty silver [shekels] and threw them into the treasury in the house of Adonai.

¹⁴ Then I snapped in two my other staff Hovalim [bound together], in order to break up the brotherhood between Y’hudah and Isra’el. ¹⁵ Adonai said to me, “This time, take the equipment of a worthless shepherd. ¹⁶ For I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who won’t bother about the ones who have been destroyed, won’t seek out the young, won’t heal the broken and won’t feed those standing still; on the contrary, he will eat the meat of the fat ones and break their hoofs in pieces.

14 “Don’t let yourselves be disturbed. Trust in God and trust in me. ² In my Father’s house are many places to live. If there weren’t, I would have told you; because I am going there to prepare a place for you. ³ Since I am going and preparing a place for you, I will return to take you with me; so that where I am, you may be also. ⁴ Furthermore, you know where I’m going; and you know the way there.”

⁵ T’oma said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going; so how can we know the way?” ⁶ Yeshua said, “I AM the Way — and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ Because you have known me, you will also know my Father; from now on, you do know him — in fact, you have seen him.”

⁸ Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.” ⁹ Yeshua replied to him, “Have I been with you so long without your knowing me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am united with the Father, and the Father united with me? What I am telling you, I am not saying on my own initiative; the Father living in me is doing his own works. ¹¹ Trust me, that I am united with the Father, and the Father united with me. But if you can’t, then trust because of the works themselves. ¹² Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever trusts in me will also do the works I do! Indeed, he will do greater ones, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ In fact, whatever you ask for in my name, I will do; so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me for something in my name, I will do it.

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commands; ¹⁶ and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforting Counselor like me, the Spirit of Truth, to be with you forever. ¹⁷ The world cannot receive him, because it neither sees nor knows him. You know him, because he is staying with you and will be united with you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans — I am coming to you. ¹⁹ In just a little while, the world will no longer see me; but you will see me. Because I live, you too will live. ²⁰ When that day comes, you will know that I am united with my Father, and you with me, and I with you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”

²² Y’hudah (not the one from K’riot) said to him, “What has happened, Lord, that you are about to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” ²³ Yeshua answered him, “If someone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ Someone who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words — and the word you are hearing is not my own but that of the Father who sent me.

²⁵ “I have told you these things while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Counselor, the Ruach HaKodesh, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything; that is, he will remind you of everything I have said to you.

²⁷ “What I am leaving with you is shalom — I am giving you my shalom. I don’t give the way the world gives. Don’t let yourselves be upset or frightened. ²⁸ You heard me tell you, ‘I am leaving, and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would have been glad that I am going to the Father; because the Father is greater than I.

²⁹ “Also, I have said it to you now, before it happens; so that when it does happen, you will trust.

³⁰ “I won’t be talking with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me; ³¹ rather, this is happening so that the world may know that I love the Father, and that I do as the Father has commanded me.

“Get up! Let’s get going!