M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

7 So the men of Kiryat-Ye‘arim came and brought back the ark of Adonai. They took it to the home of Avinadav on the hill and appointed his son El‘azar to guard the ark of Adonai. ² From the day that the ark arrived in Kiryat-Ye‘arim a long time elapsed, twenty years; and all the people of Isra’el yearned for Adonai.

³ Sh’mu’el addressed all the people of Isra’el; he said: “If you are returning to Adonai with all your heart, then be done with the foreign gods and ‘ashtarot that you have with you, and direct your hearts to Adonai. If you will serve only him, he will rescue you from the power of the P’lishtim.” ⁴ So the people of Isra’el banished the ba‘alim and the ‘ashtarot and served only Adonai.

⁵ Sh’mu’el said, “Gather all Isra’el to Mitzpah, and I will pray for you to Adonai.” ⁶ So they gathered together at Mitzpah, drew water and poured it out before Adonai, fasted that day, and said there, “We have sinned against Adonai.” Sh’mu’el began serving as judge over the people of Isra’el at Mitzpah.

⁷ When the P’lishtim heard that the people of Isra’el had gathered together at Mitzpah, the leaders of the P’lishtim marched up against Isra’el; and when the people of Isra’el heard about this, they were afraid of the P’lishtim. ⁸ The people of Isra’el said to Sh’mu’el, “Don’t stop crying out to Adonai our God for us, to save us from the power of the P’lishtim.” ⁹ Sh’mu’el took a baby lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to Adonai. Then Sh’mu’el cried to Adonai for Isra’el, and Adonai answered him. ¹⁰ As Sh’mu’el was presenting the burnt offering, the P’lishtim advanced to attack Isra’el. But this time, Adonai thundered violently over the P’lishtim, throwing them into such confusion that they were struck down before Isra’el. ¹¹ The men of Isra’el went out from Mitzpah, pursuing the P’lishtim and attacking them all the way to Beit-Kar.

¹² Sh’mu’el took a stone, placed it between Mitzpah and Shen, and gave it the name Even-‘Ezer [stone of help], explaining, “Adonai has helped us until now.” ¹³ Thus the P’lishtim were humbled, so that they no longer entered Isra’el’s territory; and the hand of Adonai was against the P’lishtim as long as Sh’mu’el lived. ¹⁴ The cities between ‘Ekron and Gat which the P’lishtim had captured from Isra’el were restored to Isra’el, and Isra’el rescued all this territory from the power of the P’lishtim. There was also peace between Isra’el and the Emori.

¹⁵ Sh’mu’el continued in office as judge of Isra’el as long as he lived. ¹⁶ Year by year he would travel in a circuit that included Beit-El, Gilgal and Mitzpah; and in all these places he served as judge over Isra’el. ¹⁷ Then he would return to Ramah, because that’s where his home was, and he would judge Isra’el there too. He also built an altar there to Adonai.

8 When Sh’mu’el grew old, he appointed his sons as judges over Isra’el. ² His firstborn was named Yo’el, while his second son was named Aviyah; they were judges in Be’er-Sheva. ³ However, his sons did not follow his way of life; they turned off it to pursue riches, so that they would take bribes to distort justice. ⁴ All the leaders of Isra’el gathered themselves together, approached Sh’mu’el in Ramah ⁵ and said to him, “Look, you have grown old, and your sons are not following your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” ⁶ Sh’mu’el was not pleased to hear them say, “Give us a king to judge us”; so he prayed to Adonai. ⁷ Adonai said to Sh’mu’el, “Listen to the people, to everything they say to you; for it is not you they are rejecting; they are rejecting me; they don’t want me to be king over them. ⁸ They are doing to you exactly what they have been doing to me, from the day I brought them out of Egypt until today, by abandoning me and serving other gods. ⁹ So do what they say, but give them a sober warning, telling them what kinds of rulings their king will make.”

¹⁰ Sh’mu’el reported everything Adonai had said to the people asking him for a king. ¹¹ He said, “Here is the kind of rulings your king will make: he will draft your sons and assign them to take care of his chariots, be his horsemen and be bodyguards running ahead of his chariots. ¹² He will appoint them to serve him as officers in charge of a thousand or of fifty, plowing his fields, gathering his harvest, and making his weapons and the equipment for his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters and have them be perfume-makers, cooks and bakers. ¹⁴ He will expropriate your fields, vineyards and olive groves — the very best of them! — and hand them over to his servants. ¹⁵ He will take the ten-percent tax of your crops and vineyards and give it to his officers and servants. ¹⁶ He will take your male and female servants, your best young men and your donkeys, and make them work for him. ¹⁷ He will take the ten-percent tax of your flocks, and you will become his servants. ¹⁸ When that happens, you will cry out on account of your king, whom you yourselves chose. But when that happens, Adonai will not answer you!”

¹⁹ However, the people refused to listen to what Sh’mu’el told them, and they said, “No! We want a king over us, ²⁰ so that we can be like all the nations, with our king to judge us, lead us and fight our battles.” ²¹ Sh’mu’el heard everything the people said and repeated them for Adonai to hear. ²² Adonai said to Sh’mu’el, “Do what they ask, and set up a king for them.” So Sh’mu’el told the men of Isra’el, “Each of you, return to his city.”

6 So then, are we to say, “Let’s keep on sinning, so that there can be more grace”? ² Heaven forbid! How can we, who have died to sin, still live in it? ³ Don’t you know that those of us who have been immersed into the Messiah Yeshua have been immersed into his death? ⁴ Through immersion into his death we were buried with him; so that just as, through the glory of the Father, the Messiah was raised from the dead, likewise we too might live a new life. ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was put to death on the execution-stake with him, so that the entire body of our sinful propensities might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For someone who has died has been cleared from sin. ⁸ Now since we died with the Messiah, we trust that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, never to die again; death has no authority over him. ¹⁰ For his death was a unique event that need not be repeated; but his life, he keeps on living for God. ¹¹ In the same way, consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with the Messiah Yeshua.

¹² Therefore, do not let sin rule in your mortal bodies, so that it makes you obey its desires; ¹³ and do not offer any part of yourselves to sin as an instrument for wickedness. On the contrary, offer yourselves to God as people alive from the dead, and your various parts to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will not have authority over you; because you are not under legalism but under grace.

¹⁵ Therefore, what conclusion should we reach? “Let’s go on sinning, because we’re not under legalism but under grace”? Heaven forbid! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, then, of the one whom you are obeying, you are slaves — whether of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to being made righteous? ¹⁷ By God’s grace, you, who were once slaves to sin, obeyed from your heart the pattern of teaching to which you were exposed; ¹⁸ and after you had been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. ¹⁹ (I am using popular language because your human nature is so weak.) For just as you used to offer your various parts as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led to more lawlessness; so now offer your various parts as slaves to righteousness, which leads to being made holy, set apart for God. ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relationship to righteousness; ²¹ but what benefit did you derive from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end result of those things was death. ²² However, now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you do get the benefit — it consists in being made holy, set apart for God, and its end result is eternal life. ²³ For what one earns from sin is death; but eternal life is what one receives as a free gift from God, in union with the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.

44 This word came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the people from Y’hudah living in the land of Egypt — in Migdol, Tachpanches, Nof and the land of Patros: ² “Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: ‘You have seen all the disaster I inflicted on Yerushalayim and all the cities of Y’hudah; there they are today, ruined, with no one living in them. ³ It came about because of the wicked things they did to make me angry — sacrificing to and serving other gods, whom they did not know, neither they, nor you nor your ancestors. ⁴ I had sent you all my servants the prophets, sent them frequently, with the message, “Don’t do this horrible thing which I hate!” ⁵ But they neither listened nor obeyed, so as to turn from their wickedness and stop offering to other gods. ⁶ Hence my fury and anger were poured out and ignited in the cities of Y’hudah and the streets of Yerushalayim; so that they became waste and desolate, as they are today.’

⁷ “Therefore now, Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says this: ‘Why are you committing this great sin against yourselves? The result can only be to cut you off from Y’hudah — men, women, children and babies — so that none of you remain. ⁸ For you continue provoking me with the products of your own hands, offering to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to live as aliens. It will lead only to your destruction and becoming an object of curses and reproaches among all the nations of the earth. ⁹ Have you forgotten the wicked deeds of your ancestors, the wicked deeds of the kings of Y’hudah, the wicked deeds of their wives, your own wicked deeds, and the wicked deeds of your wives, which they committed in the land of Y’hudah and in the streets of Yerushalayim? ¹⁰ To this day they remain unhumbled; they have not been afraid, and they have not lived according to my Torah or my regulations that I presented to you and your ancestors.’

¹¹ “Therefore here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: ‘I will decree disaster for you and destroy all of Y’hudah. ¹² I will take the remnant of Y’hudah, who determined to go to Egypt and live there as aliens, and they will all perish — in the land of Egypt they will fall and perish by sword and famine. They will die, from the least to the greatest, by sword and famine; and they will become an object of condemnation, astonishment, cursing and reproach. ¹³ Yes, I will punish those living in the land of Egypt, as I punished Yerushalayim, by sword, famine and plague; ¹⁴ so that none of the remnant of Y’hudah who went into the land of Egypt to live as aliens will escape or remain, to be able to return to the land of Y’hudah. They long to return and live there, but none will return except a few refugees.’”

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives were offering incense to other gods, along with all the women standing by, a huge crowd, all the people living in Patros in the land of Egypt, answered Yirmeyahu: ¹⁶ “As for the word you have just spoken to us in the name of Adonai, we will not listen to you. ¹⁷ Instead, we will certainly continue to fulfill every word our mouths have spoken: we will offer incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our ancestors, our kings and our leaders, in the cities of Y’hudah and the streets of Yerushalayim. For then we had plenty of food; everything was fine, we didn’t experience anything unpleasant. ¹⁸ But since we stopped offering to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything, and we have been destroyed by sword and famine.” ¹⁹ [Then the wives added,] “Are we the ones who offer incense to the queen of heaven? Do we pour out drink offerings to her? And did we make cakes marked with her image for her and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ consent?”

²⁰ Then Yirmeyahu said to all the people — to the men, the women, and all the people who had answered him back: ²¹ “The incense you offered in the cities of Y’hudah and in the streets of Yerushalayim — you, your ancestors, your kings, your leaders and the people of the land — Adonai kept remembering and taking note of this [insult], ²² until Adonai could no longer bear it, so evil and so detestable were your deeds. This is why your land has become a wasteland, an object for astonishment and cursing, uninhabited, as it is today. ²³ It is because you offered incense, sinned against Adonai, didn’t listen to what Adonai said, and didn’t live by his Torah, regulations and instructions that this disaster has befallen you, as it is today.”

²⁴ In addition, Yirmeyahu said to all the people, but especially the women: “Hear the word of Adonai, all Y’hudah who are in the land of Egypt; ²⁵ this is what Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: ‘You and your wives stated your intentions with your mouths and performed them with your hands — you said, “We will certainly fulfill our vows that we made to offer incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.”’ Without doubt, you will indeed fulfill every point of your vows. ²⁶ Therefore hear the word of Adonai, all Y’hudah living in the land of Egypt: ‘I swear by my own great name,’ says Adonai, ‘that no man of Y’hudah will speak my name again in the land of Egypt, swearing, “As Adonai, God, lives.” ²⁷ I am watching over them for harm, not for good. All the men of Y’hudah in the land of Egypt will be destroyed by sword and famine, until none of them is left. ²⁸ Those who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Y’hudah few in number; and all the remnant of Y’hudah who went into the land of Egypt to live will know whose word will stand — mine or theirs! ²⁹ Moreover, here is a sign for you,’ says Adonai, ‘that I will punish you in this place, so that you can know that my threats of disaster against you will come true.’ ³⁰ Adonai says, ‘I will hand over Pharaoh Hofra king of Egypt to his enemies, to those seeking his life — just as I handed Tzidkiyahu king of Y’hudah over to N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel, his enemy, who sought his life.’”