M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 13
The Angel and Manoah.[a] 1 The Israelites once again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. The Lord delivered them over into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2 There was a certain man from Zorah, named Manoah, who was a Danite. His wife was barren and childless. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and childless, but you will conceive and have a son. 4 Make sure you do not drink any wine or strong drink. Do not eat any unclean thing, 5 for you will conceive and have a son. No razor is ever to touch his head, for he will be a Nazirite,[b] one dedicated to God from the womb. He will begin the deliverance of Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.”
6 The woman went and told her husband, “A man of God has visited me. He looked like an angel of God, truly wondrous. I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. 7 He said to me, ‘Behold, you will conceive and have a son. Do not drink any wine or strong drink. Do not eat anything unclean, for from the womb until the day he dies he will be a Nazirite of God.’ ”
8 Manoah prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, let the man of God whom you sent to us visit us again so that he might teach us how to raise the child who is to be born.”
9 God listened to Manoah, and the angel of God visited the woman again when she was out in the fields, but Manoah, her husband, was not with her. 10 The woman quickly ran to tell her husband, “Behold, the man who appeared to me the other day is here.”
11 Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” He answered, “I am.” 12 Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, how should we treat the child?” 13 The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, “Your wife must do the things I said to her. 14 She cannot eat any of the products of the vine nor drink any strong drink nor eat anything unclean. She is to do everything that I commanded her to do.”
15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “Would you please stay here until we prepare a kid goat for you?” 16 The angel of the Lord answered Manoah, “Even though you hold me here, I will not eat anything. If you prepare a burnt offering, offer it up to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize that it was an angel of the Lord.) 17 Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we can honor you when these things happen?” 18 [c]The angel of the Lord answered, “Why do you ask me my name? It is a mystery.”
19 Manoah took a young goat together with a grain offering and he offered them up to the Lord on a rock. He did a wondrous thing as Manoah and his wife looked on. 20 As the flames rose up from the altar into the heavens, the angel of the Lord rose up from the altar in the flames as Manoah and his wife looked on. They fell prostrate on the ground.
21 When the angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it had been an angel of the Lord. 22 Manoah said to his wife, “We will surely die, for we have seen God!” 23 But his wife answered, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, then he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from our hands, nor would he have revealed all of these things, nor would he have told us these things.”
24 The woman gave birth to a son whose name was Samson. The child grew and the Lord blessed him. 25 The Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him while he was in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Chapter 17
Paul in Thessalonica.[a] 1 After they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they reached Thessalonica[b] where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 Following his usual practice, Paul went in, and for three Sabbaths he argued with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead. “And the Christ,” he said, “is this Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.” 4 Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many God-fearing Greeks as well as not a few prominent women.
5 However, the Jews became jealous, and they recruited some ruffians from the marketplace, formed a mob, and soon had the city in an uproar. They stormed Jason’s house, intending to bring them out before the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them there, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren before the city magistrates, shouting, “These people who have been causing trouble all over the world have come here also, 7 and Jason has given them shelter. They are all acting in opposition to the decrees of Caesar, claiming that there is another king named Jesus.” 8 Upon hearing this, the mob and the magistrates were greatly agitated. 9 They then took a bond from Jason and the others before releasing them.
10 Paul in Beroea. As soon as it got dark, the brethren sent Paul and Silas away to Beroea. Upon their arrival, they immediately went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 The people there were more receptive than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with great eagerness, and they examined the Scriptures every day to check whether these things were so. 12 Many of them became believers, as did a considerable number of influential Greek women and men.
13 However, when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God was being proclaimed by Paul in Beroea, they followed him there to cause trouble and stir up the crowds. 14 Therefore, the brethren immediately sent Paul on his way to the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind. 15 After Paul’s escorts brought him as far as Athens, they returned with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
16 Paul in Athens.[c] While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was outraged to note that the city was full of idols. 17 Therefore, he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, and also in the city square with whoever chanced to be there. 18 Even a few Epicurean and Stoic philosophers[d] argued with him. Some asked, “What is this man babbling about?” Others said, “Apparently, he is here to promote foreign deities,” because he was preaching about Jesus and the resurrection.
19 Therefore, they took him and brought him to the Areopagus[e] and asked him, “Can you explain to us what this new doctrine is that you are teaching? 20 You are presenting strange ideas to us, and we would like to find out what they all mean.” 21 The major pastime of the Athenians and the foreigners living there was to spend their time telling or listening to the latest ideas.
22 Paul’s Speech at the Areopagus.[f]Then Paul stood before them in the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens, I have seen how religious you are. 23 For as I walked around, looking carefully at your shrines, I noticed among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What, therefore, you worship as unknown, I now proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in shrines made by human hands. 25 Nor is he served by human hands as though he were in need of anything. Rather, it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and all other things. 26 From one ancestor,[g] he created all peoples to occupy the entire earth, and he decreed their appointed times and the boundaries of where they would live.
27 “He did all this so that people might seek God in the hope that by groping for him they might find him, even though indeed he is not far from any one of us. 28 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’[h] As even your own poets have said, ‘We are all his offspring.’
29 “Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like an image of gold or silver or stone, fashioned by human art and imagination. 30 God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, but now he commands people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world with justice by a man whom he has appointed. He has given public confirmation of this to all by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, “We should like to hear you speak further on this subject at another time.” 33 After that, Paul left them. 34 However, some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius[i] the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, as well as some others.
Chapter 26
Jeremiah’s Arrest and Conviction.[a][b] 1 At the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, the son of Josiah, this word came from the Lord to Jeremiah: 2 Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lord’s house and speak to all the people from the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord. Tell them everything I order you to say, without omitting a single word. 3 Perhaps they will listen and all of them will turn from their evil ways, causing me to relent in my determination to inflict disaster upon them because of their evil deeds.
4 Say to them: Thus says the Lord: If you refuse to listen to me and to live according to my law that I have set before you, 5 and if you fail to heed the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send to you time and again even though you do not listen to them, 6 then I will treat this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city an object of cursing for all the nations of the earth.
7 The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the Lord. 8 But when Jeremiah had finished saying everything that the Lord had commanded him to proclaim to all the people, then the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him and cried out, “You will be put to death for this. 9 Why have you prophesied in the Lord’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and that this city will be desolate and deserted?” And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.
10 When the high officials of Judah heard what was happening, they came up from the king’s palace to the house of the Lord and took their places there at the entry of the New Gate[c] of the house of the Lord. 11 The priests and the prophets then addressed the officials and all the people, saying, “This man deserves to be condemned to death because he has prophesied against this city all the things that you heard with your own ears.”
12 Then Jeremiah replied to all the officials and all the people, saying, “The Lord himself sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. 13 Now, therefore, if you amend your ways and your actions and listen to the word of the Lord, your God, the Lord will relent in his determination to inflict the disaster that he has decreed for you. 14 As for me, I am in your hands. Do with me whatever seems right and proper to you. 15 However, you can be certain that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants. For truly the Lord sent me to speak all these things for you to hear.”
16 Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve to be sentenced to death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord, our God.” 17 And some of the elders of the land came forward and said to all the assembled people, 18 “Micah of Moresheth, who prophesied during the days of King Hezekiah of Judah, proclaimed this to all the people of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Zion will become a plowed field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
and the temple mount a wooded height.
19 “Did King Hezekiah of Judah and the people of Judah put him to death for this? Rather, did they not fear the Lord and entreat his favor, and did the Lord then not revoke the disaster with which he had threatened them? Are we not on the verge of inflicting a terrible disaster upon ourselves?”
20 The Prophet Uriah’s Fate. There was also another man who used to prophesy in the name of the Lord, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied exactly the same things against this city and this land just as Jeremiah had done. 21 When King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and officials, heard his words, the king was determined to put Uriah to death. However, Uriah learned of this plot and fled in fear to Egypt.
22 Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan, the son of Achbor, to Egypt with some other men. 23 They brought back Uriah from Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him put to the sword and consigned his dead body into the burial place used for common people.
24 However Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, gave his support to Jeremiah, and as a result, Jeremiah was not handed over to the people to be put to death.
Chapter 12
The Parable of the Tenants.[a] 1 Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went off on a journey.
2 “When the time arrived, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. 3 But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again, he sent them another servant, but they beat him over the head and treated him shamefully. 5 Then he sent another, and that one they killed. He also sent many others, some of whom they beat, and others of whom they killed.
6 “Finally, he had only one other to send—his beloved son. And so he sent him to them, thinking: ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ 8 And so they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and put those tenants to death and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this Scripture:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11 by the Lord this has been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes’?”
12 They wanted to arrest him because they realized that this parable was directed at them, but they were afraid of the crowd. Therefore, they left him and went away.
Controversies[b]
13 God or Caesar.[c] Then they sent some Pharisees and Herodians to trap him in what he said. 14 They came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful and are not concerned with anyone’s opinion no matter what his station in life. Rather, you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful or not for us to pay taxes to Caesar? Should we pay them or not?”
15 He was aware of their hypocrisy and said to them, “Why are you trying to trap me? Bring me a denarius[d] and let me examine it.” 16 When they brought one, he asked them, “Whose image is this, and whose inscription?” They replied and said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what is due to Caesar, and to God what is due to God.” His reply left them completely amazed at him.
18 Marriage and the Resurrection.[e] Then some Sadducees, who assert that there is no resurrection, approached him and posed this question, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote down for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall take his brother’s wife and raise up children for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first brother took a wife and died, leaving no children. 21 The second brother married the widow and died, leaving no children. The same was true of the third brother. 22 None of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman herself died. 23 Now at the resurrection, when they rise up, whose wife will she be, inasmuch as all seven had her?”
24 Jesus said to them, “Is not this the reason you are in error—namely, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. They are like angels in heaven.
26 “And in regard to the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account about the bush, how God said to him: ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ 27 He is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are very badly mistaken.”
28 The Greatest Commandment.[f] Then one of the scribes who had listened to these discussions, and who had observed how well Jesus answered them, asked Jesus, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”[g]
29 Jesus answered, “The first is: ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one! 30 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
32 Then the scribe said to him, “Well said, Teacher. You have truly said, ‘He is one, and there is no other besides him.’ 33 And ‘to love him with all your heart, and with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself,’ is worth more than any burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw with what great understanding he had spoken, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any question.
35 Jesus Is Lord.[h] While Jesus was teaching in the temple area, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?[i] 36 David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared:
‘The Lord said to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet.” ’
37 David himself calls him ‘Lord’; so how can he be his son?” And the large crowd listened to him with delight.
38 Denunciation of the Scribes.[j] In his teaching, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, to be greeted respectfully in the marketplace, 39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 40 They devour the houses of widows, while for the sake of appearance they recite lengthy prayers. They will receive the severest possible condemnation.”
41 The Poor Widow’s Offering.[k] As Jesus was sitting opposite the treasury,[l] he watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many wealthy people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow also came and put in two copper coins, that is, about a penny.[m] 43 Then he called his disciples to him and said, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow has given more than all the other contributors to the treasury. 44 For the others have all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has given everything she possessed, all that she had to live on.”
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