The Bible Reading Plan

19 verses

Exodus Chapter 34

¹⁰He said, "Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created-from-nothing in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people you are among will see Yahweh's work; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you. ¹¹Observe what I command you today. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. ¹²Be careful, in case you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, otherwise it be for a snare among you; ¹³but break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles; ¹⁴for you may worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹⁵Don't make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; ¹⁶and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.

¹⁷Don't make any cast-metal idols for yourselves.

¹⁸Keep the feast of unleavened bread. Eat unleavened bread for seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you left Egypt.

¹⁹All that opens the womb is mine; and all your livestock that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep. ²⁰Redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. If you choose not to redeem it, then break its neck. Redeem all the firstborn of your sons. Let no one appear before me empty-handed.

²¹Work for six days, but on the seventh day, rest. In plowing time and in harvest you must rest.

²²Observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year's end. ²³Three times a year all your males must appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. ²⁴For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders. No man will desire your land when you go up to appear in Yahweh your God's presence, three times a year.

²⁵Do not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. Don't leave the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover till the morning.

²⁶Bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to Yahweh your God's house. "Do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."

²⁷Yahweh said to Moses, "Write these words; for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."

²⁸He was there with Yahweh for forty days and forty nights; he didn't eat bread, or drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

21 verses

2 Kings Chapter 9

²²When Joram saw Jehu he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?"

²³Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, "There is treason, Ahaziah!"

²⁴Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot. ²⁵Then Jehu said to Bidkar his captain, "Pick him up, and throw him in the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how, when you and I rode together after Ahab his father, Yahweh laid this burden on him: ²⁶'Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,' says Yahweh; 'and I will repay you in this plot of ground,' says Yahweh. Now therefore take and throw him onto the plot of ground, according to the word of Yahweh."

²⁷But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu pursued him, and said, "Strike him also in the chariot!" They struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there. ²⁸His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David. ²⁹In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.

³⁰When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window. ³¹As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, "Do you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?"

³²He lifted up his face to the window, and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.

³³He said, "Throw her down!" So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses. Then he trampled her under foot. ³⁴When he had come in, he ate and drank; and he said, "See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter."

³⁵They went to bury her; but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. ³⁶Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, "This is the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel on the plot of Jezreel, ³⁷and the body of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, "This is Jezebel."'"

2 Kings Chapter 10

¹Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up [the sons of] Ahab, saying, ²"Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and armor. ³Select the best and fittest of your master's sons, set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house."

⁴But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, "Behold, the two kings didn't stand before him! So how can we stand?" ⁵He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who raised the children, sent to Jehu, saying, "We are your servants, and will do all that you ask us. We will not make any man king. You do what is good in your eyes."

16 verses

Esther Chapter 9

²⁰Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar yearly, ²²as the days in which the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned to them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending presents of food to one another, and gifts to the needy. ²³The Jews accepted the custom that they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them; ²⁴because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast "Pur," that is the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them; ²⁵but when this became known to the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he had devised against the Jews, should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

²⁶Therefore they called these days "Purim," from the word "Pur." Therefore because of all the words of this letter, and of what they had seen concerning this matter, and what had come to them, ²⁷the Jews established, and imposed on themselves, and on their descendants, and on all those who joined themselves to them, so that it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to what was written, and according to its appointed time, every year; ²⁸and that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memory of them perish from their offspring.

²⁹Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purim. ³⁰He sent letters to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth, ³¹to confirm these days of Purim in their appointed times, as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had decreed, and as they had imposed upon themselves and their descendants, in the matter of the fastings and their cry. ³²The commandment of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.

Esther Chapter 10

¹King Ahasuerus laid a tribute on the land, and on the islands of the sea. ²All the acts of his power and of his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advanced him, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia? ³For Mordecai the Jew was next to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted by the multitude of his brothers, seeking the good of his people, and speaking peace to all his descendants.

27 verses

John Chapter 11

⁵Now Jesus selflessly-loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus [their brother]. ⁶When he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was. ⁷Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let's go into Judea again."

⁸The disciples asked him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you. Are you going there again?"

⁹Jesus answered, "Aren't there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn't stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn't in him." ¹¹He said these things, and after that, he said to them, "Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep."

¹²So the disciples said, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover."

¹³Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴So Jesus said to them plainly then, "Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let's go to him."

¹⁶So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let's go also, that we may die with him."

¹⁷So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already. ¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away. ¹⁹Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house. ²¹So Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died. ²²Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you."

²³Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

²⁴Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

²⁵Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. ²⁶Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

²⁷She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are AnointedOne, God's Son who is coming into the world."

²⁸When she had said this, she went away and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, "The Teacher is here and is calling you."

²⁹When she heard this, she arose quickly and went to him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was in the place where Martha met him. ³¹Then the Jews who were with her in the house and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there."