M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

15 Sh’mu’el said to Sha’ul, “Adonai sent me to anoint you king over his people, over Isra’el. Now listen to what Adonai has to say. ² Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says: ‘I remember what ‘Amalek did to Isra’el, how they fought against Isra’el when they were coming up from Egypt. ³ Now go and attack ‘Amalek, and completely destroy everything they have. Don’t spare them, but kill men and women, children and babies, cows and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

⁴ Sha’ul summoned the people and reviewed them in T’la’im — 200,000 foot soldiers, with another 10,000 men from Y’hudah. ⁵ Sha’ul arrived at the city of ‘Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. ⁶ Sha’ul said to the Keni, “Go away, withdraw, leave your homes there with the ‘Amaleki. Otherwise, I might destroy you along with them, even though you were kind to all the people of Isra’el when they came out of Egypt. So the Keni went away from among the ‘Amaleki. ⁷ Then Sha’ul attacked ‘Amalek, starting at Havilah and continuing toward Shur, at the border of Egypt. ⁸ He took Agag the king of ‘Amalek alive; but he completely destroyed the people, putting them to the sword. ⁹ However, Sha’ul and the people spared Agag, along with the best of the sheep and cattle, and even the second best, also the lambs, and everything that was good — they weren’t inclined to destroy these things. But everything that was worthless or weak they completely destroyed.

¹⁰ Then the word of Adonai came to Sh’mu’el: ¹¹ “I regret setting up Sha’ul as king, because he has turned back from following me and hasn’t obeyed my orders.” This made Sh’mu’el very sad, so that he cried to Adonai all night. ¹² Sh’mu’el got up early in the morning to meet Sha’ul; however, Sh’mu’el was told, “Sha’ul came to Karmel to set up a monument for himself there, but now he has left and is on his way down to Gilgal.” ¹³ Sh’mu’el went to Sha’ul; Sha’ul said to him, “May Adonai bless you! I have done what Adonai ordered.” ¹⁴ But Sh’mu’el answered, “If so, why do I hear sheep bleating and cows mooing?” ¹⁵ Sha’ul said, “They brought them from the ‘Amaleki, because the people spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to Adonai your God. But we completely destroyed the rest.” ¹⁶ Then Sh’mu’el said to Sha’ul, “Stop! I’m going to tell you what Adonai said to me last night.” He said, “Speak.” ¹⁷ Sh’mu’el then said, “You may be small in your own sight, but you are head of the tribes of Isra’el — Adonai anointed you king over Isra’el! ¹⁸ Now Adonai sent you on a mission and told you, ‘Go and completely destroy ‘Amalek, those sinners; keep making war on them until they have been exterminated. ¹⁹ Why did you seize the spoil instead of paying attention to what Adonai said? From Adonai’s viewpoint, you have done an evil thing.” ²⁰ Sha’ul said to Sh’mu’el, “I did too pay attention to what Adonai said, and I carried out the mission on which Adonai sent me. I brought back Agag the king of ‘Amalek, and I completely destroyed ‘Amalek. ²¹ But the people took some of the spoil, the best of the sheep and cattle set aside for destruction, to sacrifice to Adonai your God in Gilgal.” ²² Sh’mu’el said,

²⁴ Sha’ul said to Sh’mu’el, “I have sinned. I violated the order of Adonai and your words too, because I was afraid of the people and listened to what they said. ²⁵ Now, please, pardon my sin; and come back with me, so that I can worship Adonai.” ²⁶ But Sh’mu’el said to Sha’ul, “I will not go back with you, because you have rejected the word of Adonai, and Adonai has rejected you as king over Isra’el.” ²⁷ As Sh’mu’el was turning around to leave, he took hold of the hem of his cloak, and it tore. ²⁸ Sh’mu’el said to him, “Adonai has torn the kingdom of Isra’el away from you today and given it to a fellow countryman of yours who is better than you. ²⁹ Moreover, the Eternal One of Isra’el will not lie or change his mind, because he isn’t a mere human being subject to changing his mind.” ³⁰ Then Sha’ul said, “I have sinned; but in spite of that, please show me respect now before the leaders of my people and before Isra’el by coming back with me, so that I can worship Adonai your God.” ³¹ So Sh’mu’el followed Sha’ul back, and Sha’ul worshipped Adonai.

³² Then Sh’mu’el said, “Bring Agag the king of ‘Amalek here to me. Agag came to him in chains and said, “Without doubt, mine will be a bitter death.” ³³ Sh’mu’el said,

Then Sh’mu’el cut Agag in pieces before Adonai in Gilgal.

³⁴ Sh’mu’el returned to Ramah, and Sha’ul went up to his house in Giv‘at-Sha’ul. ³⁵ Never again did Sh’mu’el see Sha’ul, until the day he died. But Sh’mu’el grieved over Sha’ul, and Adonai regretted that he had made Sha’ul king over Isra’el.

13 Everyone is to obey the governing authorities. For there is no authority that is not from God, and the existing authorities have been placed where they are by God. ² Therefore, whoever resists the authorities is resisting what God has instituted; and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For rulers are no terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you like to be unafraid of the person in authority? Then simply do what is good, and you will win his approval; ⁴ for he is God’s servant, there for your benefit. But if you do what is wrong, be afraid! Because it is not for nothing that he holds the power of the sword; for he is God’s servant, there as an avenger to punish wrongdoers. ⁵ Another reason to obey, besides fear of punishment, is for the sake of conscience. ⁶ This is also why you pay taxes; for the authorities are God’s public officials, constantly attending to these duties. ⁷ Pay everyone what he is owed: if you owe the tax-collector, pay your taxes; if you owe the revenue-collector, pay revenue; if you owe someone respect, pay him respect; if you owe someone honor, pay him honor. ⁸ Don’t owe anyone anything — except to love one another; for whoever loves his fellow human being has fulfilled Torah. ⁹ For the commandments, “Don’t commit adultery,” “Don’t murder,” “Don’t steal,” “Don’t covet,”^[a] and any others are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”^{[b] 10} Love does not do harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fullness of Torah.

¹¹ Besides all this, you know at what point of history we stand; so it is high time for you to rouse yourselves from sleep; for the final deliverance is nearer than when we first came to trust. ¹² The night is almost over, the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and arm ourselves with the weapons of light. ¹³ Let us live properly, as people do in the daytime — not partying and getting drunk, not engaging in sexual immorality and other excesses, not quarrelling and being jealous. ¹⁴ Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Yeshua the Messiah; and don’t waste your time thinking about how to provide for the sinful desires of your old nature.

52 Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for eleven years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu, from Livnah. ² He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, following the example of everything Y’hoyakim had done. ³ And it was because of Adonai’s anger that all these things happened to Yerushalayim and Y’hudah, until he had thrown them out of his presence.

Tzidkiyahu rebelled against the king of Bavel; ⁴ so in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel marched against Yerushalayim with his entire army. He set up camp against it and built siege towers against it on every side. ⁵ The city remained under siege into the eleventh year of King Tzidkiyahu.

⁶ On the ninth day of the fourth month, when the famine in the city was so severe that there was no food for the people of the land, ⁷ they broke through into the city. All the soldiers fled and left the city by night through the gate between the two walls, near the king’s garden. Because the Kasdim were surrounding the city, they took the route through the ‘Aravah. ⁸ But the army of the Kasdim went in pursuit of the king and overtook Tzidkiyahu on the plains near Yericho; all his troops deserted him. ⁹ Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Bavel in Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, where he passed judgment on him. ¹⁰ The king of Bavel slaughtered his sons before his eyes; he also slaughtered all the leading men of Y’hudah in Rivlah. ¹¹ Then the king of Bavel put out Tzidkiyahu’s eyes, bound him in chains, carried him off to Bavel and kept him in prison until the day of his death.

¹² In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was also the nineteenth year of King N’vukhadretzar, king of Bavel, N’vuzar’adan, the commander of the guard and a close associate of the king of Bavel, entered Yerushalayim. ¹³ He burned down the house of Adonai, the royal palace and all the houses in Yerushalayim — every notable person’s house he burned to the ground. ¹⁴ The whole army of the Kasdim, who were with the commander of the guard, broke down all the walls of Yerushalayim on every side. ¹⁵ N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard then deported some of the poor people, the remaining population of the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Bavel and the rest of the common people. ¹⁶ But N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard left behind some of the poor people of the land to be vineyard-workers and farmers.

¹⁷ The Kasdim smashed the bronze columns of the house of Adonai, also the trolleys and bronze Sea that were in the house of Adonai, and carried their bronze to Bavel. ¹⁸ They also took away the pots, shovels, snuffers, basins, pans, and all the bronze articles they had used in worship. ¹⁹ The commander of the guard took the cups, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, menorahs, pans and bowls — everything made of gold and everything made of silver. ²⁰ The bronze in the two columns, the one Sea, and the twelve bronze bulls under the bases, all of which Shlomo had made for the house of Adonai, was more than could be weighed. ²¹ As for the columns, the height of one column was thirty-one-and-a-half feet; it took a twenty-one-foot measuring line to go around it; and its thickness was four fingers — it was hollow. ²² On it was a capital of brass eight-and-three quarters feet high, with netting and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze; the second column was similar, also with pomegranates. ²³ There were ninety-six pomegranates on the outside; while the total number of pomegranates in the netting was one hundred.

²⁴ The commander of the guard took [prisoner] S’rayah the chief cohen, Tz’fanyah the second-ranking cohen, and three doorkeepers. ²⁵ From the city he took an official in charge of the soldiers, seven close associates of the king who had been found in the city, the army commander’s secretary in charge of military conscription, and sixty of the common people found inside the city. ²⁶ N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Bavel in Rivlah. ²⁷ There in Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, the king of Bavel had them put to death. Thus Y’hudah was carried away captive out of his land.

²⁸ The numbers of people deported by N’vukhadretzar were as follows: in the seventh year, 3,023 persons from Y’hudah; ²⁹ in the eighteenth year of N’vukhadretzar, 832 persons from Yerushalayim; ³⁰ and in the twenty-third year of N’vukhadretzar, N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard deported 745 persons from Y’hudah; the total comes to 4,600 persons.

³¹ In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Y’hoyakhin king of Y’hudah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Eveel-M’rodakh began his reign as king of Bavel; and in his first year, he commuted the sentence of Y’hoyakhin king of Y’hudah and released him from prison. ³² He treated him with kindness and gave him a throne higher than those of the other kings there with him in Bavel. ³³ So Y’hoyakhin no longer had to wear prison clothes; moreover, he was provided with food as long as he lived, ³⁴ and he was granted a daily allowance by the king of Bavel to spend on his other needs for as long as he lived, until the day of his death.