The Bible Reading Plan

Exodus Chapter 39

⁸He made the breastplate, the work of a skillful workman, like the work of the ephod: of gold, of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen. ⁹It was square. They made the breastplate double. It was a span long, a span wide, being double. ¹⁰They set in it four rows of stones. A row of ruby, topaz, and beryl was the first row; ¹¹and the second row, a turquoise, a sapphire, and an emerald; ¹²and the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; ¹³and the fourth row, a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in gold settings. ¹⁴The stones were according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names; like the engravings of a signet, everyone according to his name, for the twelve tribes. ¹⁵They made on the breastplate chains like cords, of braided work of pure gold. ¹⁶They made two settings of gold, and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate. ¹⁷They put the two braided chains of gold in the two rings at the ends of the breastplate. ¹⁸The other two ends of the two braided chains they put on the two settings, and put them on the shoulder straps of the ephod, in its front. ¹⁹They made two rings of gold, and put them on the two ends of the breastplate, on its edge, which was toward the side of the ephod inward. ²⁰They made two more rings of gold, and put them on the two shoulder straps of the ephod underneath, in its front, close by its coupling, above the skillfully woven band of the ephod. ²¹They bound the breastplate by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it might be on the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and that the breastplate might not come loose from the ephod, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²²He made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue. ²³The opening in the middle of the robe was like the opening of a coat of mail, with a binding around its opening, that it should not be torn. ²⁴They made on the skirts of the robe pomegranates of blue, purple, scarlet, and twined linen. ²⁵They made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates around the skirts of the robe, between the pomegranates; ²⁶a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, around the skirts of the robe, to minister in, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

2 Kings Chapter 18

¹Now in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. ²He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. ³He did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, exactly as David his father had done. ⁴He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah. He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for to those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan. ⁵He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor [among them] that were before him. ⁶For he joined with Yahweh; he didn't depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which Yahweh commanded Moses. ⁷Yahweh was with him; wherever he went he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria, and didn't serve him. ⁸He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.

⁹In the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. ¹⁰At the end of three years they took it: in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. ¹¹The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹²because they didn't obey the voice of Yahweh their God, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it.

¹³Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. ¹⁴Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, "I have offended; return from me. What you put on me, I will bear." The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵Hezekiah gave [him] all the silver that was found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king's house. ¹⁶At that time Hezekiah cut off [the gold from] the doors of the temple of Yahweh, and [from] the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the washer's field. ¹⁸When they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder. ¹⁹Rabshakeh said to them, "Say now to Hezekiah, 'The great king says, the king of Assyria, "What confidence is this in which you trust? ²⁰You say (but they are but vain words), 'There is counsel and strength for war.' Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? ²¹Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand, and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him. ²²But if you tell me, 'We trust in Yahweh our God;' isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?' ²³Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ²⁴Then how can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ²⁵Have I now come up without Yahweh against this place to destroy it? Yahweh [himself] said to me, 'Go up against this land, and destroy it.'"'"

Job Chapter 12

¹Then Job answered,

²"No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. ³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these? ⁴I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke. ⁵In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips. ⁶The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.

⁷"But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you. ⁸Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you. ⁹Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done this, ¹⁰in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? ¹¹Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food? ¹²With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.

¹³"With Him is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding. ¹⁴Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. ¹⁵Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth. ¹⁶With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. ¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools. ¹⁸He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt. ¹⁹He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty. ²⁰He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders. ²¹He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong. ²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the death-shadow. ²³He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive. ²⁴He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. ²⁵They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunk man.

John Chapter 17

¹Jesus said these things, then lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; ²even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus AnointedOne. ⁴I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do. ⁵Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.

⁶I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. ⁷Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you, ⁸for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me. ⁹I pray for them. I don't pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. ¹²While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. I have kept those whom you have given me. None of them is lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. ¹⁴I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. ¹⁸As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word, ²¹that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. ²²The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; ²³I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me and selflessly-loved them, even as you selflessly-loved me. ²⁴Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you selflessly-loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵Righteous Father, the world hasn't known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me. ²⁶I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the selfless-love with which you selflessly-loved me may be in them, and I in them."