M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

13 Avram went up from Egypt — he, his wife and everything he had, and Lot with him — into the Negev. ² Avram became wealthy, with much cattle, silver and gold. ³ As he went on his travels from the Negev, he came to Beit-El, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beit-El and ‘Ai, ⁴ where he had first built the altar; and there Avram called on the name of Adonai.

(iii) ⁵ Lot, who was traveling with Avram, also had flocks, herds and tents. ⁶ But the land could not support their living together, because their possessions were too great for them to remain together. ⁷ Moreover, quarreling arose between Avram’s and Lot’s herdsmen. The Kena‘ani and the P’rizi were then living in the land. ⁸ Avram said to Lot, “Please, let’s not have quarreling between me and you, or between my herdsmen and yours, since we’re kinsmen. ⁹ Isn’t the whole land there in front of you? Please separate yourself from me — if you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left.” ¹⁰ Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Yarden was well watered everywhere, before Adonai destroyed S’dom and ‘Amora, like the garden of Adonai, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Tzo‘ar. ¹¹ So Lot chose all the plain of the Yarden for himself, and Lot traveled eastward; thus they separated themselves from each other. ¹² Avram lived in the land of Kena‘an; and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, setting up his tent near S’dom. ¹³ Now the men of S’dom were evil, committing great sins against Adonai.

¹⁴ Adonai said to Avram, after Lot had moved away from him, “Look all around you from where you are, to the north, the south, the east and the west. ¹⁵ All the land you see I will give to you and your descendants forever, ¹⁶ and I will make your descendants as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth — so that if a person can count the specks of dust on the earth, then your descendants can be counted. ¹⁷ Get up and walk through the length and breadth of the land, because I will give it to you.” ¹⁸ Avram moved his tent and came to live by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hevron. There he built an altar to Adonai.

12 One Shabbat during that time, Yeshua was walking through some wheat fields. His talmidim were hungry, so they began picking heads of grain and eating them. ² On seeing this, the P’rushim said to him, “Look! Your talmidim are violating Shabbat!” ³ But he said to them, “Haven’t you ever read what David did when he and those with him were hungry? ⁴ He entered the House of God and ate the Bread of the Presence!” — which was prohibited, both to him and to his companions; it is permitted only to the cohanim. ⁵ “Or haven’t you read in the Torah that on Shabbat the cohanim profane Shabbat and yet are blameless? ⁶ I tell you, there is in this place something greater than the Temple! ⁷ If you knew what ‘I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifice’^[a] meant, you would not condemn the innocent. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord of Shabbat!”

⁹ Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue. ¹⁰ A man there had a shriveled hand. Looking for a reason to accuse him of something, they asked him, “Is healing permitted on Shabbat?” ¹¹ But he answered, “If you have a sheep that falls in a pit on Shabbat, which of you won’t take hold of it and lift it out? ¹² How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore, what is permitted on Shabbat is to do good.” ¹³ Then to the man he said, “Hold out your hand.” As he held it out, it became restored, as sound as the other one. ¹⁴ But the P’rushim went out and began plotting how they might do away with Yeshua. ¹⁵ Aware of this, he left that area.

Many people followed him; and he healed them all ¹⁶ but warned them not to make him known. ¹⁷ This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Yesha‘yahu the prophet,

²² Then some people brought him a man controlled by demons who was blind and mute; and Yeshua healed him, so that he could both speak and see. ²³ The crowds were astounded and asked, “This couldn’t be the Son of David, could it?” ²⁴ But when the P’rushim heard of it, they said, “It is only by Ba‘al-Zibbul” — the ruler of the demons — “that this man drives out demons.”

²⁵ However, knowing what they were thinking, Yeshua said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not survive. ²⁶ If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself; so how can his kingdom survive? ²⁷ Besides, if I drive out demons by Ba‘al-Zibbul, by whom do your people drive them out? So, they will be your judges! ²⁸ But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you!

²⁹ “Or again, how can someone break into a strong man’s house and make off with his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? After that he can ransack his house.

³⁰ “Those who are not with me are against me, and those who do not gather with me are scattering. ³¹ Because of this, I tell you that people will be forgiven any sin and blasphemy, but blaspheming the Ruach HaKodesh will not be forgiven. ³² One can say something against the Son of Man and be forgiven; but whoever keeps on speaking against the Ruach HaKodesh will never be forgiven, neither in the ‘olam hazeh nor in the ‘olam haba.

³³ “If you make a tree good, its fruit will be good; and if you make a tree bad, its fruit will be bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴ You snakes! How can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what overflows from the heart. ³⁵ The good person brings forth good things from his store of good, and the evil person brings forth evil things from his store of evil. ³⁶ Moreover, I tell you this: on the Day of Judgment people will have to give account for every careless word they have spoken; ³⁷ for by your own words you will be acquitted, and by your own words you will be condemned.”

³⁸ At this some of the Torah-teachers said, “Rabbi, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.” ³⁹ He replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign? No! None will be given to it but the sign of the prophet Yonah. ⁴⁰ For just as Yonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster,^[c] so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the depths of the earth. ⁴¹ The people of Ninveh will stand up at the Judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they turned from their sins to God when Yonah preached, but what is here now is greater than Yonah. ⁴² The Queen of the South will stand up at the Judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Shlomo, but what is here now is greater than Shlomo.

⁴³ “When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it travels through dry country seeking rest and does not find it. ⁴⁴ Then it says to itself, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house standing empty, swept clean and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they come and live there — so that in the end, the person is worse off than he was before. This is how it will be for this wicked generation.”

⁴⁶ He was still speaking to the crowd when his mother and brothers appeared outside, asking to talk with him. ^{47 [d] 48} But to the one who had informed him he replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹ Pointing to his talmidim, he said, “Look! Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰ Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants, that person is my brother and sister and mother.”

2 In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of Artach’shashta the king, it happened that I took the wine and brought it to the king. Prior to then I had never appeared sad in his presence. ² The king asked, “Why do you look so sad? You’re not sick, so this must be some deep inner grief.” At this, I became very fearful, ³ as I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why shouldn’t I look sad, when the city, the place where my ancestors’ tombs are, lies in ruins; and its gates are completely burned up?” ⁴ The king asked me, “What is it that you want?” I prayed to the God of heaven, ⁵ then said to the king, “If it pleases the king, if your servant has won your favor, send me to Y’hudah, to the city of my ancestors’ tombs, so that I can rebuild it.” ⁶ With the queen sitting next to him, the king asked me, “How long is your trip going to take? When will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a time.

⁷ I then said to the king, “If it pleases the king, have letters given to me for the governors of the territory beyond the [Euphrates] River, so that they will let me pass through until I reach Y’hudah; ⁸ and also a letter for Asaf the supervisor of the royal forests, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress belonging to the house, for the city wall and for the house I will be occupying.” The king gave me these, according to the good hand of my God on me.

⁹ I went to the governors of the territory beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. The king had sent with me an escort of army captains and cavalry. ¹⁰ When Sanvalat the Horoni and Toviyah the servant, the ‘Amoni, heard about this, they were very displeased that someone had come to promote the welfare of the people of Isra’el.

¹¹ So I reached Yerushalayim. After I had been there for three days, ¹² I got up during the night, I and a few men with me. I hadn’t told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Yerushalayim; and I didn’t take any animal with me except the animal on which I was riding. ¹³ I went out by night through the Valley Gate, to the Dragon’s Well and the Dung Gate, and inspected the places where the walls of Yerushalayim were broken down and where its gates had been burned down. ¹⁴ Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. ¹⁵ So I went up the valley in the dark and went on inspecting the wall; then I turned back, entered through the Valley Gate and returned, ¹⁶ without the officials’ knowing where I had gone or what I had done. Till then, I hadn’t said anything about this to the Judeans, cohanim, nobles, officials or anyone who would be responsible for the work.

¹⁷ Afterwards, I said to them, “You see what a sad state we are in, how Yerushalayim lies in ruins, with it gates burned up. Come, let’s rebuild the wall of Yerushalayim, so that we won’t continue in disgrace.” ¹⁸ I also told them of the gracious hand of my God that had been on me, also what the king had said to me. They said, “Let’s start building at once,” and energetically set out to do this good work.

¹⁹ When Sanvalat the Horoni, Toviyah the servant, the ‘Amoni, and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they began mocking us and jeering, “What is this you are doing? Are you going to rebel against the king?” ²⁰ But I answered them: “The God of heaven will enable us to succeed. Therefore we his servants will set about rebuilding. But you have no share, right or history to commemorate in Yerushalayim.”

12 It was around this time that King Herod began arresting and persecuting certain members of the Messianic community; ² and he had Ya‘akov, Yochanan’s brother, put to death by the sword. ³ When Herod saw how much this pleased the Judeans, he went on to arrest Kefa as well. It was during the Days of Matzah, ⁴ so when Herod seized him, he threw him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each, with the intention of bringing him to public trial after Pesach. ⁵ So Kefa was being held under watch in prison, but intense prayer was being made to God on his behalf by the Messianic community.

⁶ The night before Herod was going to bring him to trial, Kefa was sleeping between two soldiers. He was bound with two chains; and guards were at the door, keeping watch over the prison. ⁷ Suddenly an angel of Adonai stood there, and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Kefa’s side and woke him. “Hurry! Get up!” he said; and the chains fell off his hands. ⁸ The angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals,” and he did. “Throw on your robe,” he said, “and follow me!” ⁹ Going out, Kefa followed him but did not realize that what was happening through the angel was real — he thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ Having passed a first guard and a second, they arrived at the iron gate leading to the city. This opened to them by itself, and they made their exit. They went down the length of one street, and suddenly the angel left him. ¹¹ Then Kefa came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord sent his angel to rescue me from Herod’s power and from everything the Judean people were hoping for.”

¹² Realizing what had happened, he went to the house of Miryam the mother of Yochanan (surnamed Mark), where many people had gathered to pray. ¹³ He knocked at the outside door, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴ She recognized Kefa’s voice and was so happy that she ran back in without opening the door, and announced that Kefa was standing outside. ¹⁵ “You’re out of your mind!” they said to her. But she insisted it was true. So they said, “It is his angel.” ¹⁶ Meanwhile, Kefa kept knocking; and when they opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. ¹⁷ Motioning to them with his hand to be quiet, he told them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison and said, “Tell all this to Ya‘akov and the brothers.” Then he left and went elsewhere.

¹⁸ When daylight came, there was no small commotion among the soldiers over what had become of Kefa. ¹⁹ Herod had a thorough search made for him, but they failed to find him, so he cross-examined the guards and ordered them put to death. Then Herod went down from Y’hudah to Caesarea and spent some time there.

²⁰ Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tzor and Tzidon, so they joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, the king’s chief personal servant, they asked for peace; because they depended on the king’s lands for their food supply. ²¹ A day was set, and Herod in his royal robes sat on the throne and made a speech to them. ²² The mob cried out, “This is the voice of a god, not a man!” ²³ At once, because Herod did not give the glory to God, an angel of Adonai struck him down. He was eaten away by worms and died.

²⁴ But the word of the Lord went on growing and being multiplied.

²⁵ Bar-Nabba and Sha’ul, having completed their errand, returned from Yerushalayim, bringing with them Yochanan, surnamed Mark.