M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
20 “The Lord will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds with which you have forsaken me.(A) 21 The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you off the land that you are entering to possess.(B) 22 The Lord will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought,[a] and with blight and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.(C) 23 The sky over your head shall be bronze and the earth under you iron.(D) 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land into powder, and only dust shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.
25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way and flee before them seven ways. You shall become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.(E) 26 Your corpses shall be food for every bird of the air and animal of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.(F) 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, scurvy, and itch, of which you cannot be healed.(G) 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind; 29 you shall grope about at noon as blind people grope in darkness, but you shall be unable to find your way, and you shall be continually abused and robbed, without anyone to help.(H) 30 You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house but not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard but not enjoy its fruit.(I) 31 Your ox shall be butchered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be stolen in front of you and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies without anyone to help you. 32 Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people while you look on; you will strain your eyes looking for them all day but be powerless to do anything.(J) 33 A people whom you do not know shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors; you shall be continually abused and crushed(K) 34 and driven mad by the sight that your eyes shall see. 35 The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.(L) 36 The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, where you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone.(M) 37 You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you.(N)
38 “You shall carry much seed into the field but shall gather little in, for the locust shall consume it.(O) 39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall have sons and daughters, but they shall not remain yours, for they shall go into captivity.(P) 42 All your trees and the fruit of your ground the cicada shall take over.(Q) 43 Aliens residing among you shall ascend above you higher and higher, while you shall descend lower and lower.(R) 44 They shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to them; they shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.(S)
45 “All these curses shall come upon you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God by observing the commandments and the decrees that he commanded you.(T) 46 They shall be among you and your descendants as a sign and a portent forever.
47 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,(U) 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.(V) 49 The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,(W) 50 a grim-faced nation showing no respect to the old or favor to the young. 51 It shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, leaving you neither grain, wine, and oil nor the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, until it has made you perish.(X) 52 It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the Lord your God has given you.(Y) 53 In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you.(Z) 54 Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children, 55 giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because nothing else remains to him, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns. 56 She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter,(AA) 57 begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in your towns.
58 “If you do not diligently observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, fearing this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,(AB) 59 then the Lord will overwhelm both you and your offspring with severe and lasting afflictions and grievous and lasting maladies. 60 He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were in dread, and they shall cling to you.(AC) 61 Every other malady and affliction, even though not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will inflict on you until you are destroyed.(AD) 62 Although once you were as numerous as the stars in heaven, you shall be left few in number because you did not obey the Lord your God.(AE) 63 And just as the Lord took delight in making you prosperous and numerous, so the Lord will take delight in bringing you to ruin and destruction; you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to possess.(AF) 64 The Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.(AG) 65 Among those nations you shall find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit.(AH) 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of your life. 67 In the morning you shall say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and at evening you shall say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see.(AI) 68 The Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, by a route that I promised you would never see again, and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”
25 My soul clings to the dust;
revive me according to your word.(A)
26 When I told of my ways, you answered me;
teach me your statutes.(B)
27 Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous works.(C)
28 My soul melts away for sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word.(D)
29 Put false ways far from me,
and graciously teach me your law.
30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I set your ordinances before me.
31 I cling to your decrees, O Lord;
let me not be put to shame.(E)
32 I run the way of your commandments,
for you enlarge my understanding.(F)
33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes,
and I will observe it to the end.(G)
34 Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
and observe it with my whole heart.(H)
35 Lead me in the path of your commandments,
for I delight in it.
36 Turn my heart to your decrees
and not to selfish gain.(I)
37 Turn my eyes from looking at vanities;
be gracious to me[a] according to your word.(J)
38 Confirm to your servant your promise,
which is for those who fear you.(K)
39 Turn away the disgrace that I dread,
for your ordinances are good.
40 See, I have longed for your precepts;
in your righteousness be gracious to me.[b](L)
41 Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord,
your salvation according to your promise.(M)
42 Then I shall have an answer for those who taunt me,
for I trust in your word.(N)
43 Do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,
for my hope is in your ordinances.
44 I will keep your law continually,
forever and ever.
45 I shall walk at liberty,
for I have sought your precepts.
46 I will also speak of your decrees before kings
and shall not be put to shame;(O)
47 I find my delight in your commandments
because I love them.
48 I revere your commandments, which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes.(P)
An Invitation to Abundant Life
55 Hear, everyone who thirsts;
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.(A)
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.(B)
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.(C)
4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.(D)
5 Now you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.(E)
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;(F)
7 let the wicked forsake their way
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.(G)
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.(H)
10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,(I)
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.(J)
12 For you shall go out in joy
and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall burst into song,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.(K)
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle,
and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.(L)
The Proclamation of John the Baptist
3 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”[a](A) 3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’ ”(B)
4 Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.(C) 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins.(D)
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his[b] baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?(E) 8 Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance,(F) 9 and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.(G) 10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.(H)
11 “I baptize you with[c] water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I, and I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with[d] the Holy Spirit and fire.(I) 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”(J)
The Baptism of Jesus
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.(K) 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him.(L) 17 And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved,[e] with whom I am well pleased.”(M)
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.