M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Ritual and Moral Holiness
19 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2 “Speak to all the congregation of the Israelites and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.(A) 3 You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.(B) 4 Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.(C)
5 “When you offer a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, offer it in such a way that it is acceptable on your behalf. 6 It shall be eaten on the same day you offer it or on the next day, and anything left over until the third day shall be consumed in fire. 7 If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be acceptable. 8 All who eat it shall be subject to punishment, because they have profaned what is holy to the Lord, and any such person shall be cut off from the people.
9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.(D) 10 You shall not strip your vineyard bare or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.
11 “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another.(E) 12 And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.(F)
13 “You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning.(G) 14 You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.(H)
15 “You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.(I) 16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand idly by when the blood[a] of your neighbor is at stake: I am the Lord.(J)
17 “You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself.(K) 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.(L)
19 “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.(M)
20 “If a man has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave, designated for another man but not ransomed or given her freedom, an inquiry shall be held. They shall not be put to death, since she has not been freed, 21 but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram as guilt offering.(N) 22 And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he committed, and the sin he committed shall be forgiven him.
23 “When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall regard their fruit as forbidden;[b] three years it shall be forbidden[c] to you; it must not be eaten. 24 In the fourth year all their fruit shall be set apart for rejoicing in the Lord.(O) 25 But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that their yield may be increased for you: I am the Lord your God.
26 “You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft.(P) 27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.(Q) 28 You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord.(R)
29 “Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, that the land not become prostituted and full of depravity.(S) 30 You shall keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary: I am the Lord.(T)
31 “Do not turn to mediums and spiritualists; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.(U)
32 “You shall rise before the aged and defer to the old, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
33 “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.(V) 34 The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.(W)
35 “You shall not cheat in measuring length, weight, or quantity. 36 You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances and observe them: I am the Lord.”
Psalm 23
The Divine Shepherd
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.(A)
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;[a](B)
3 he restores my soul.[b]
He leads me in right paths[c]
for his name’s sake.(C)
4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley,[d]
I fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.(D)
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.(E)
6 Surely[e] goodness and mercy[f] shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.[g](F)
Psalm 24
Entrance into the Temple
Of David. A Psalm.
1 The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it,(G)
2 for he has founded it on the seas
and established it on the rivers.
3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?(H)
4 Those who have clean hands and pure hearts,
who do not lift up their souls to what is false
and do not swear deceitfully.(I)
5 They will receive blessing from the Lord
and vindication from the God of their salvation.(J)
6 Such is the company of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.[h] Selah
7 Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in!(K)
8 Who is the King of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty,
the Lord, mighty in battle.(L)
9 Lift up your heads, O gates!
and be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in!(M)
10 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory. Selah
The Futility of Self-Indulgence
2 I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But again, this also was vanity.(A) 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”(B) 3 I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4 I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself;(C) 5 I made myself gardens and parks and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.(D) 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house; I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and delights of the flesh, many concubines.[a](E)
9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me.(F) 10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure from all my toil, and this was my reward from all my toil.(G) 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.(H)
Wisdom and Joy Given to One Who Pleases God
12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly, for what can the king’s successor do? Only what has already been done.(I) 13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
14 The wise have eyes in their head,
but fools walk in darkness.
Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls all of them.(J) 15 Then I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?” And I said to myself that this also is vanity.(K) 16 For there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or of fools, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How can the wise die just like fools? 17 So I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.(L)
18 I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to my successor,(M) 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors under the sun,(N) 21 because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.(O) 22 What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun?(P) 23 For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.(Q)
24 There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,(R) 25 for apart from him[b] who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.(S)
False Asceticism
4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later[a] times some will renounce[b] the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,(A) 2 through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron. 3 They forbid marriage and abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.(B) 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving,(C) 5 for it is sanctified by God’s word and by prayer.
A Good Minister of Jesus Christ
6 If you put these instructions before the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant[c] of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching that you have followed.(D) 7 Have nothing to do with profane and foolish tales. Train yourself in godliness,(E) 8 for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.(F) 9 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. 10 For to this end we toil and suffer reproach,[d] because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.(G)
11 Command and teach these things.(H) 12 Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.(I) 13 Until I arrive, give attention to the public reading of scripture,[e] to exhorting, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders.(J) 15 Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.(K)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.