M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

8 God remembered Noach, every living thing and all the livestock with him in the ark; so God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to go down. ² Also the fountains of the deep and the windows of the sky were stopped, the rain from the sky was restrained, ³ and the water came back from completely covering the earth. It was after 150 days that the water went down. ⁴ On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The water kept going down until the tenth month; on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁶ After forty days Noach opened the window of the ark which he had built; ⁷ and he sent out a raven, which flew back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove, to see if the water had gone from the surface of the ground. ⁹ But the dove found no place for her feet to rest, so she returned to him in the ark, because the water still covered the whole earth. He put out his hand, took her and brought her in to him in the ark. ¹⁰ He waited another seven days and again sent the dove out from the ark. ¹¹ The dove came in to him in the evening, and there in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf, so Noach knew that the water had cleared from the earth. ¹² He waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, and she didn’t return to him any more.

¹³ By the first day of the first month of the 601st year the water had dried up from off the earth; so Noach removed the covering of the ark and looked; and, yes, the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ It was on the twenty-seventh day of the second month that the earth was dry.

(iv) ¹⁵ God said to Noach, ¹⁶ “Go out from the ark, you, your wife, your sons and your son’s wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing you have with you — birds, livestock and every animal that creeps on the earth — so that they can swarm on the earth, be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noach went out with his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives; ¹⁹ every animal, every creeping thing and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark.

²⁰ Noach built an altar to Adonai. Then he took from every clean animal and every clean bird, and he offered burnt offerings on the altar. ²¹ Adonai smelled the sweet aroma, and Adonai said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, since the imaginings of a person’s heart are evil from his youth; nor will I ever again destroy all living things, as I have done. ²² So long as the earth exists, sowing time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

8 After Yeshua had come down from the hill, large crowds followed him. ² Then a man afflicted with tzara‘at came, kneeled down in front of him and said, “Sir, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ³ Yeshua reached out his hand, touched him and said, “I am willing! Be cleansed!” And at once he was cleansed from his tzara‘at. ⁴ Then Yeshua said to him, “See that you tell no one; but as a testimony to the people, go and let the cohen examine you, and offer the sacrifice that Moshe commanded.”

⁵ As Yeshua entered K’far-Nachum, a Roman army officer came up and pleaded for help. ⁶ “Sir, my orderly is lying at home paralyzed and suffering terribly!” ⁷ Yeshua said, “I will go and heal him.” ⁸ But the officer answered, “Sir, I am unfit to have you come into my home. Rather, if you will only give the command, my orderly will recover. ⁹ For I too am a man under authority. I have soldiers under me, and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes; to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” ¹⁰ On hearing this Yeshua was amazed and said to the people following him, “Yes! I tell you, I have not found anyone in Isra’el with such trust! ¹¹ Moreover, I tell you that many will come from the east and from the west to take their places at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven with Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov. ¹² But those born for the Kingdom will be thrown outside in the dark, where people will wail and grind their teeth!” ¹³ Then Yeshua said to the officer, “Go; let it be for you as you have trusted.” And his orderly was healed at that very moment.

¹⁴ Yeshua went to Kefa’s home and there saw Kefa’s mother-in-law sick in bed with a fever. ¹⁵ He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she got up and began helping him.

¹⁶ When evening came, many people held in the power of demons were brought to him. He expelled the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill. ¹⁷ This was done to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Yesha‘yahu,

¹⁸ When Yeshua saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹ A Torah-teacher approached and said to him, “Rabbi, I will follow you wherever you go.” ²⁰ Yeshua said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds flying about have nests, but the Son of Man has no home of his own.” ²¹ Another of the talmidim said to him, “Sir, first let me go and bury my father.” ²² But Yeshua replied, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

²³ He boarded the boat, and his talmidim followed. ²⁴ Then, without warning, a furious storm arose on the lake, so that waves were sweeping over the boat. But Yeshua was sleeping. ²⁵ So they came and roused him, saying, “Sir! Help! We’re about to die!” ²⁶ He said to them, “Why are you afraid? So little trust you have!” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and there was a dead calm. ²⁷ The men were astounded. They asked, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?”

²⁸ When Yeshua arrived at the other side of the lake, in the Gadarenes’ territory, there came out of the burial caves two men controlled by demons, so violent that no one dared travel on that road. ²⁹ They screamed, “What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” ³⁰ Now some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. ³¹ The demons begged him, “If you are going to drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.” ³² “All right, go!” he told them. So they came out and went into the pigs, whereupon the entire herd rushed down the hillside into the lake and drowned. ³³ The swineherds fled, went off to the town and told the whole story, including what had happened to the demonized men. ³⁴ At this, the whole town came out to meet Yeshua. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their district.

8 These are the heads of their fathers’ clans, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Bavel during the reign of Artach’shashta the king:

¹⁵ I assembled them by the river that runs to Ahava, and we camped there three days. I reviewed the people and the cohanim but found no L’vi’im there. ¹⁶ So I sent for Eli‘ezer, Ari’el, Sh’ma‘yah, Elnatan, Yariv, Elnatan, Natan, Z’kharyah and Meshulam, who were leaders, and also for Yoyariv and Elnatan, who were men of discernment. ¹⁷ I gave them instructions for Iddo, the leading man in a place called Kasifya, and told them what to say to Iddo and his brother, who were in charge of Kasifya, so that they would bring us men to minister in the house of our God. ¹⁸ Since the good hand of our God was on us, they brought us Ish-Sekhel from the descendants of Machli the son of Levi, the son of Isra’el; Sherevyah with eighteen of his sons and kinsmen; ¹⁹ Hashavyah, with Yesha‘yah, from the descendants of M’rari, and twenty of his kinsmen and their sons; ²⁰ and from the temple servants, whom David and the princes had assigned to serve the L’vi’im, two hundred temple servants, all recorded by name.

²¹ Then, there at the Ahava River, I proclaimed a fast; so that we could humble ourselves before our God and ask a safe journey of him for ourselves, our little ones and all our possessions. ²² For I would have been ashamed to ask the king for a detachment of soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies along the road, since we had said to the king, “The hand of our God is on all who seek him, for good; but his power and fury is against all who abandon him.” ²³ So we fasted and asked our God for this, and he answered our prayer.

²⁴ Then I separated twelve of the chief cohanim, along with Sherevyah, Hashavyah and ten of their kinsmen. ²⁵ I weighed out to them the silver, the gold and the utensils for the house of our God contributed by the king, his counselors, his princes and all Isra’el present there. ²⁶ I weighed out and handed over to them twenty-one-and-a-half tons of silver, three-and-a-third tons of silver articles, three-and-a-third tons of gold, ²⁷ twenty gold bowls weighing twenty-one pounds, and two vessels of fine burnished bronze as precious as gold. ²⁸ Then I told them, “You are consecrated to Adonai, the articles are holy, and the silver and gold are a voluntary offering for Adonai the God of your ancestors. ²⁹ Guard them carefully, until you weigh them before the chief cohanim and L’vi’im and the leaders of the fathers’ clans in Yerushalayim, in the rooms of the house of Adonai.” ³⁰ So the cohanim and L’vi’im received the consignment of silver and gold and the articles to bring to Yerushalayim, to the house of our God.

³¹ On the twelfth day of the first month, we left the Ahava River to go to Yerushalayim. The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and surprise attacks along the road. ³² In time, we arrived at Yerushalayim, where we rested for three days. ³³ On the fourth day, the silver, gold and articles were weighed in the house of our God and handed over to M’remot the son of Uriyah the cohen; with him was El‘azar the son of Pinchas; and with them were Yozavad the son of Yeshua and No‘adyah the son of Binui, who were L’vi’im. ³⁴ The entire consignment was numbered and weighed, and at the same time the total weight was recorded.

³⁵ The exiles who had returned from captivity offered burnt offerings to the God of Isra’el — twelve young bulls for all Isra’el, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats as a sin offering; all this was a burnt offering for Adonai.

³⁶ They also delivered the king’s orders to the king’s viceroys and governors beyond the [Euphrates] River; and these gave their support to the people and to the house of God.

8 and Sha’ul gave his approval to his murder.

Starting with that day, there arose intense persecution against the Messianic Community in Yerushalayim; all but the emissaries were scattered throughout the regions of Y’hudah and Shomron. ² Some godly men buried Stephen and mourned him deeply. ³ But Sha’ul set out to destroy the Messianic Community — entering house after house, he dragged off both men and women and handed them over to be put in prison. ⁴ However, those who were scattered announced the Good News of the Word wherever they went.

⁵ Now Philip went down to a city in Shomron and was proclaiming the Messiah to them; ⁶ and the crowds were paying close attention to what Philip said, as they heard and saw the miraculous signs he was doing. ⁷ For many people were having unclean spirits driven out of them, shrieking; also many paralytics and crippled persons were being healed; ⁸ so that there was great joy in that city.

⁹ But there was a man named Shim‘on in the city who for some time had been practicing magic and astonishing the nation of Shomron, claiming to be somebody great. ¹⁰ Everyone gave heed to him, from the lowest to the highest, saying, “This man is the power of God called ‘The Great Power’.” ¹¹ They followed him because for a considerable time he had amazed them with his magic.

¹² But when they came to believe Philip, as he announced the Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Yeshua the Messiah, they were immersed, both men and women. ¹³ Moreover, Shim‘on himself came to believe; and after being immersed, he attached himself closely to Philip; and he was amazed as he saw the miraculous signs and great works of power that kept taking place.

¹⁴ When the emissaries in Yerushalayim heard that Shomron had received the Word of God, they sent them Kefa and Yochanan, ¹⁵ who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Ruach HaKodesh. ¹⁶ For until then he had not come upon any of them; they had only been immersed into the name of the Lord Yeshua. ¹⁷ Then, as Kefa and Yochanan placed their hands on them, they received the Ruach HaKodesh.

¹⁸ Shim‘on saw that the Spirit was given when the emissaries placed their hands on them, and he offered them money. ¹⁹ “Give this power to me, too,” he said, “so that whoever I place my hands on will receive the Ruach HaKodesh.” ²⁰ But Kefa said to him, “Your silver go to ruin — and you with it, for thinking the free gift of God can be bought! ²¹ You have no part at all in this matter; because in the eyes of God, your heart is crooked. ²² So repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord. Perhaps you will yet be forgiven for holding such a thought in your heart. ²³ For I see that you are extremely bitter and completely under the control of sin!” ²⁴ Shim‘on answered, “Pray to the Lord for me, so that none of the things you have spoken about will happen to me.”

²⁵ Then, after giving a thorough witness and speaking the Word of the Lord, Kefa and Yochanan started back to Yerushalayim, announcing the Good News to many villages in Shomron.

²⁶ An angel of Adonai said to Philip, “Get up, and go southward on the road that goes down from Yerushalayim to ‘Azah, the desert road.” ²⁷ So he got up and went. On his way, he caught sight of an Ethiopian, a eunuch who was minister in charge of all the treasure of the Kandake, or queen, of Ethiopia. He had been to Yerushalayim to worship; ²⁸ and now, as he was returning home, he was sitting in his chariot, reading the prophet Yesha‘yahu. ²⁹ The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot, and stay close to it.” ³⁰ As Philip ran up, he heard the Ethiopian reading from Yesha‘yahu the prophet. “Do you understand what you’re reading?” he asked. ³¹ “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him.

³² Now the portion of the Tanakh that he was reading was this:

³⁴ The eunuch said to Philip, “Here’s my question to you — is the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip started to speak — beginning with that passage, he went on to tell him the Good News about Yeshua.

³⁶ As they were going down the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Here’s some water! Is there any reason why I shouldn’t be immersed?” ^{37 [b] 38} He ordered the chariot to stop; then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip immersed him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch saw no more of him, because he continued on his way — full of joy. ⁴⁰ But Philip showed up at Ashdod and continued proclaiming the Good News as he went through all the towns until he came to Caesarea.