M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

1 There was a man from Ramatayim-Tzofim, in the hills of Efrayim, whose name was Elkanah the son of Yerocham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tochu, the son of Tzuf, from Efrat. ² He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other P’ninah. P’ninah had children, but Hannah had no children. ³ This man went up from his city every year to worship and sacrifice to Adonai-Tzva’ot in Shiloh. The two sons of ‘Eli, Hofni and Pinchas, were cohanim of Adonai there.

⁴ One day, when Elkanah was sacrificing, he gave a portion of the sacrifice to his wife P’ninah and portions to each of her sons and daughters; ⁵ but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved Hannah, even though Adonai had kept her from having children. ⁶ Her rival taunted her and made her feel bad, because Adonai had kept her from having children. ⁷ He did the same every year; and each time she went up to the house of Adonai, she taunted her so much that she would cry and not eat. ⁸ Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why are you crying, and why aren’t you eating? Why be so sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” ⁹ So Hannah got up after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. ‘Eli the cohen was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of the temple of Adonai. ¹⁰ In deep depression she prayed to Adonai and cried. ¹¹ Then she took a vow; she said, “Adonai-Tzva’ot, if you will notice how humiliated your servant is, if you will remember me and not forget your servant but will give your servant a male child, then I will give him to Adonai for as long as he lives; and no razor will ever come on his head.” ¹² She prayed for a long time before Adonai; and as she did so, ‘Eli was watching her mouth. ¹³ Hannah was speaking in her heart — her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard — so ‘Eli thought she was drunk. ¹⁴ ‘Eli said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Stop drinking your wine!” ¹⁵ But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a very unhappy woman. I have not drunk either wine or other strong liquor; rather, I’ve been pouring out my soul before Adonai. ¹⁶ Don’t think of your servant as a worthless woman; because I have been speaking from the depth of my distress and anger.” ¹⁷ Then ‘Eli replied, “Go in peace. May the God of Isra’el grant what you have asked of him.” ¹⁸ She replied, “May your servant find favor in your sight.” So the woman went on her way, and she ate, and her face was no longer sad. ¹⁹ They got up early in the morning and worshipped before Adonai, then returned and came to their house in Ramah.

Elkanah had sexual relations with Hannah his wife, and Adonai remembered her. ²⁰ She conceived; and in due time she gave birth to a son, whom she named Sh’mu’el, “because I asked Adonai for him.”

²¹ The husband, Elkanah, went up with all his household to offer the yearly sacrifice to Adonai and fulfill his vow. ²² But Hannah did not go up, explaining to her husband, “Not till the child has been weaned. Then I will bring him, so that he can appear before Adonai and live there forever.” ²³ Her husband Elkanah answered her, “Do what seems good to you; stay here until you have weaned him. Only may Adonai bring about what he said.” So the woman stayed behind and nursed the child, until she weaned him. ²⁴ After weaning him, she took him up with her, along with three young bulls, a bushel of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of Adonai in Shiloh, even though he was just a child. ²⁵ After the bull had been slaughtered, the child was brought to ‘Eli; ²⁶ and she said, “My lord, as sure as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here near you, praying to Adonai. ²⁷ I prayed for this child, and Adonai has granted the request I asked of him. ²⁸ Therefore, I too have loaned him to Adonai — as long as he lives, he is on loan to Adonai.” And he prostrated himself there before Adonai.

1 From: Sha’ul, a slave of the Messiah Yeshua, an emissary because I was called and set apart for the Good News of God.

² God promised this Good News in advance through his prophets in the Tanakh. ³ It concerns his Son — he is descended from David physically; ⁴ he was powerfully demonstrated to be Son of God spiritually, set apart by his having been resurrected from the dead; he is Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord. ⁵ Through him we received grace and were given the work of being an emissary on his behalf promoting trust-grounded obedience among all the Gentiles, ⁶ including you, who have been called by Yeshua the Messiah.

⁷ To: All those in Rome whom God loves, who have been called, who have been set apart for him:

Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

⁸ First, I thank my God through Yeshua the Messiah for all of you, because the report of your trust is spreading throughout the whole world. ⁹ For God, whom I serve in my spirit by spreading the Good News about his Son, is my witness that I regularly remember you ¹⁰ in my prayers; and I always pray that somehow, now or in the future, I might, by God’s will, succeed in coming to visit you. ¹¹ For I long to see you, so that I might share with you some spiritual gift that can make you stronger — ¹² or, to put it another way, so that by my being with you, we might, through the faith we share, encourage one another. ¹³ Brothers, I want you to know that although I have been prevented from visiting you until now, I have often planned to do so, in order that I might have some fruit among you, just as I have among the other Gentiles. ¹⁴ I owe a debt to both civilized Greeks and uncivilized people, to both the educated and the ignorant; ¹⁵ therefore I am eager to proclaim the Good News also to you who live in Rome.

¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the Good News, since it is God’s powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in it is revealed how God makes people righteous in his sight; and from beginning to end it is through trust — as the Tanakh puts it, “But the person who is righteous will live his life by trust.”^[a]

¹⁸ What is revealed is God’s anger from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who in their wickedness keep suppressing the truth; ¹⁹ because what is known about God is plain to them, since God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities — both his eternal power and his divine nature — have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse; ²¹ because, although they know who God is, they do not glorify him as God or thank him. On the contrary, they have become futile in their thinking; and their undiscerning hearts have become darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they have become fools! ²³ In fact, they have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for mere images, like a mortal human being, or like birds, animals or reptiles!

²⁴ This is why God has given them up to the vileness of their hearts’ lusts, to the shameful misuse of each other’s bodies. ²⁵ They have exchanged the truth of God for falsehood, by worshipping and serving created things, rather than the Creator — praised be he for ever. Amen. ²⁶ This is why God has given them up to degrading passions; so that their women exchange natural sexual relations for unnatural; ²⁷ and likewise the men, giving up natural relations with the opposite sex, burn with passion for one another, men committing shameful acts with other men and receiving in their own persons the penalty appropriate to their perversion. ²⁸ In other words, since they have not considered God worth knowing, God has given them up to worthless ways of thinking; so that they do improper things. ²⁹ They are filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and vice; stuffed with jealousy, murder, quarrelling, dishonesty and ill-will; they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God; they are insolent, arrogant and boastful; they plan evil schemes; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they are brainless, faithless, heartless and ruthless. ³² They know well enough God’s righteous decree that people who do such things deserve to die; yet not only do they keep doing them, but they applaud others who do the same.

39 In the ninth year of Tzidkiyahu king of Y’hudah, in the tenth month, N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel marched against Yerushalayim with his entire army and began to lay siege against it. ² On the ninth day of the fourth month of the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu, they broke through into the city. ³ All the officers of the king of Bavel entered and sat at the Middle Gate — Nergal-Sar’etzer, Samgar-N’vo, Sars’khim the Rav-Saris, Nergal-Sar’etzer the Rav-Mag and all the other officers of the king of Bavel. ⁴ When Tzidkiyahu the king of Y’hudah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled, leaving the city by night through the king’s garden, exiting from the gate between the two walls, and continuing out by the route through the ‘Aravah. ⁵ But the army of the Kasdim went in pursuit of them and overtook Tzidkiyahu on the plains near Yericho. Upon capturing him, they brought him up to N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel at Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, where he passed judgment on him. ⁶ The king of Bavel slaughtered the sons of Tzidkiyahu before his eyes in Rivlah; the king of Bavel also slaughtered all the leading men of Y’hudah. ⁷ Then he put out Tzidkiyahu’s eyes and bound him in chains to be carried off to Bavel. ⁸ The Kasdim burned down the royal palace and the people’s houses, and they broke down the walls of Yerushalayim. ⁹ N’vuzar’adan commander of the guard then deported to Bavel the remaining population of the city, the deserters who had defected to him, and the rest of the people remaining. ¹⁰ But N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard left behind in the territory of Y’hudah some of the poor people, those who had nothing, and at the same time gave them vineyards and fields.

¹¹ Concerning Yirmeyahu, N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel gave N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard this order: ¹² “Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but treat him as he tells you.” ¹³ So N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard, N’vushazban the Rav-Saris, Nergal-Sar’etzer the Rav-Mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Bavel ¹⁴ sent to have Yirmeyahu taken out of the guards’ quarters; they committed him to the care of G’dalyahu the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan, to be brought home. There he lived among the people.

¹⁵ This word of Adonai came to Yirmeyahu while he was imprisoned in the guards’ quarters: ¹⁶ “Go and tell ‘Eved-Melekh the Ethiopian that Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: ‘“I am about to fulfill my words about this city for disaster, not for good; when the day arrives, they will come true before your eyes. ¹⁷ But at that time I will rescue you,” says Adonai, “and I will not hand you over to the men you fear. ¹⁸ Yes, I will keep you safe; you will not fall by the sword, but you will escape with your life, because you have put your trust in me,” says Adonai.’”