M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
23 1
4 Then God met Balaam, and Balaam[b] said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and have offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”(D) 5 The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you must say.”(E) 6 So he returned to Balak,[c] who was standing beside his burnt offerings with all the officials of Moab. 7 Then Balaam[d] uttered his oracle, saying,
“Balak has brought me from Aram,
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:
‘Come, curse Jacob for me.
Come, denounce Israel!’(F)
8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?(G)
9 For from the top of the crags I see him;
from the hills I behold him.
Here is a people living alone
and not reckoning itself among the nations!(H)
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob
or number the dust cloud[e] of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
and let my end be like his!”(I)
11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them.”(J) 12 He answered, “Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth?”(K)
Balaam’s Second Oracle
13 So Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only part of them and shall not see them all; then curse them for me from there.” 14 So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah. He built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.(L) 15 Balaam[f] said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offerings, while I meet the Lord over there.” 16 The Lord met Balaam, put a word into his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you shall say.”(M) 17 When he came to him, he was standing beside his burnt offerings with the officials of Moab. Balak said to him, “What has the Lord said?” 18 Then Balaam[g] uttered his oracle, saying,
“Rise, Balak, and hear;
listen to me, O son of Zippor:
19 God is not a human being, that he should lie,
or a mortal, that he should change his mind.
Has he promised, and will he not do it?
Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?(N)
20 See, I received a command to bless;
he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.(O)
21 He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,
nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them,
acclaimed as a king among them.(P)
22 God, who brings them out of Egypt,
is like the horns of a wild ox for them.(Q)
23 Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob,
no divination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
‘See what God has done!’
24 Look, a people rising up like a lioness
and rousing itself like a lion!
It does not lie down until it has eaten the prey
and drunk the blood of the slain.”(R)
25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.” 26 But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not speak to you, saying, ‘Whatever the Lord says, that is what I must do’?”(S)
27 So Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.”(T) 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.[h] 29 Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”(U) 30 So Balak did as Balaam had said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Psalm 64
Prayer for Protection from Enemies
To the leader. A Psalm of David.
1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;
preserve my life from the dread enemy.(A)
2 Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,
from the scheming of evildoers,(B)
3 who whet their tongues like swords,
who aim bitter words like arrows,(C)
4 shooting from ambush at the blameless;
they shoot suddenly and without fear.(D)
5 They hold fast to their evil purpose;
they talk of laying snares secretly,
thinking, “Who can see us?[a](E)
6 Who can search out our crimes?[b]
We have thought out a cunningly conceived plot.”
For the human heart and mind are deep.(F)
7 But God will shoot his arrow at them;
they will be wounded suddenly.
8 Because of their tongue he will bring them to ruin;[c]
all who see them will shake with horror.(G)
9 Then everyone will fear;
they will tell what God has brought about
and ponder what he has done.(H)
10 Let the righteous rejoice in the Lord
and take refuge in him.
Let all the upright in heart glory.(I)
Psalm 65
Thanksgiving for Earth’s Bounty
To the leader. A Psalm of David. A Song.
1 Praise is due to you,
O God, in Zion,
and to you shall vows be performed,(J)
2 O you who answer prayer!
To you all flesh shall come.(K)
3 When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us,
you forgive our transgressions.(L)
4 Happy are those whom you choose and bring near
to live in your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
your holy temple.(M)
5 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,
O God of our salvation;
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas.(N)
6 By your[d] strength you established the mountains;
you are girded with might.(O)
7 You silence the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.(P)
8 Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and water it;
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide the people with grain,
for so you have prepared it.(Q)
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow;
the hills gird themselves with joy;(R)
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks;
the valleys deck themselves with grain;
they shout and sing together for joy.(S)
Proclamation against Babylon
13 The oracle concerning Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw.(A)
2 On a bare hill raise a signal;
cry aloud to them;
wave the hand for them to enter
the gates of the nobles.(B)
3 I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,
have summoned my warriors, my proudly exulting ones,
to execute my anger.[a](C)
4 Listen, a tumult on the mountains
as of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar of kingdoms,
of nations gathering together!
The Lord of hosts is mustering
an army for battle.(D)
5 They come from a distant land,
from the end of the heavens,
the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,
to destroy the whole earth.(E)
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty
7 Therefore all hands will be feeble,
and every human heart will melt,(G)
8 and they will be terrified.
Pangs and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at one another;
their faces will be aflame.(H)
9 See, the day of the Lord is coming,
cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it.(I)
10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations
will not give their light;
the sun will be dark at its rising,
and the moon will not shed its light.(J)
11 I will punish the world for its evil
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
and lay low the insolence of tyrants.(K)
12 I will make mortals more rare than fine gold
and humans than the gold of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble,
and the earth will be shaken out of its place
at the wrath of the Lord of hosts
in the day of his fierce anger.(L)
14 Like a gazelle on the run
or like sheep with no one to gather them,
all will turn back to their own people,
and all will flee to their own lands.(M)
15 Whoever is found will be thrust through,
and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces
before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered
and their wives raped.(N)
17 See, I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who have no regard for silver
and do not delight in gold.(O)
18 Their bows will slaughter the young men;
they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;
their eyes will not pity children.(P)
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the splendor and pride of the Chaldeans,
will be like Sodom and Gomorrah
when God overthrew them.(Q)
20 It will never be inhabited
or lived in for all generations;
Arabs will not pitch their tents there;
shepherds will not make their flocks lie down there.(R)
21 But wild animals will lie down there,
and its houses will be full of howling creatures;
there ostriches will live,
and there goat-demons will dance.(S)
22 Hyenas will cry in its towers
and jackals in the pleasant palaces;
its time is close at hand;
and its days will not be prolonged.(T)
Salutation
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To the exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance.(A)
A Living Hope
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead(B) 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.(C) 6 In this you rejoice,[a] even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials,(D) 7 so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.(E) 8 Although you have not seen[b] him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,(F) 9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.[c]
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace intended for you made careful search and inquiry,(G) 11 inquiring about the time and circumstances[d] that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings intended for Christ and the subsequent glory.(H) 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look!(I)
A Call to Holy Living
13 Therefore prepare your minds for action;[e] discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed.(J) 14 Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. 15 Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct,(K) 16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”(L)
17 If you invoke as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person’s work, live in fear during the time of your exile.(M) 18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile conduct inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.(N) 20 He was destined before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.(O) 21 Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your trust and hope are in God.
22 Now that you have purified your souls[f] by your obedience to the truth[g] so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart.[h](P) 23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.[i](Q) 24 For
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,(R)
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
That word is the good news that was announced to you.(S)
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.