The Bible Reading Plan

Exodus Chapter 30

¹Make an altar to burn incense on. Make it of acacia wood. ²It will be a cubit long, and a cubit wide. It is to be square, and two cubits high. Its horns are to be of one piece with it. ³Overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and make a gold molding around it. ⁴Make two golden rings for it under its molding; on its two ribs, make them on its two sides; they'll be places for poles to carry it with. ⁵Make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. ⁶Put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you. ⁷Aaron must burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. He should burn it when he tends the lamps. ⁸Aaron must burn it when he lights the lamps at evening, a perpetual incense in Yahweh's presence throughout your generations. ⁹Don't offer strange incense on it, nor burnt offerings, nor meal offerings; and don't pour any drink offerings on it. ¹⁰Aaron is to make atonement on its horns once every year. He must make atonement for it with the blood of the sin offering of atonement, once every year throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh."

¹¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹²When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are counted among them, then each man is to give a ransom for his soul to Yahweh when you count them, that there be no plague among them when you count them. ¹³Everyone who passes over to those who are counted must give this, half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs); half a shekel as an offering to Yahweh. ¹⁴Everyone who passes over to those who are counted, from twenty years old and older, will give the offering to Yahweh. ¹⁵The rich will not give more, and the poor will not give less, than the half shekel, when they give Yahweh's offering, to make atonement for your souls. ¹⁶Take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel in Yahweh's presence, to make atonement for your souls."

2 Kings Chapter 3

⁴Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he supplied the king of Israel with one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams. ⁵But when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. ⁶King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel. ⁷He went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me against Moab to battle?" He said, "I will go up. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." ⁸Then he said, "Which way shall we go up?" He answered, "The way of the wilderness of Edom."

⁹So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom, and they marched for seven days' along a circuitous route. There was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them. ¹⁰The king of Israel said, "Alas! For Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab."

¹¹But Jehoshaphat said, "Isn't there a prophet of Yahweh here, that we may inquire of Yahweh by him?" One of the king of Israel's servants answered, "Elisha the son of Shaphat, who poured water on the hands of Elijah, is here."

¹²Jehoshaphat said, "Yahweh's word is with him." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

¹³Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father, and to the prophets of your mother." The king of Israel said to him, "No, for Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab."

¹⁴Elisha said, "As Yahweh of Armies lives, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I respect the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward you, nor see you. ¹⁵But now bring me a musician." When the musician played, Yahweh's hand came on him. ¹⁶He said, "Yahweh says, 'Make this valley full of trenches.' ¹⁷For Yahweh says, 'You will not see wind, nor will you see rain, yet that valley will be filled with water, and you will drink, both you and your livestock and your [other] animals. ¹⁸This is an easy thing in Yahweh's sight. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. ¹⁹You shall strike every fortified city and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.'"

²⁰In the morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.

²¹Now when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, they gathered themselves together, all who were able to put on armor, young and old, and stood on the border. ²²They rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood. ²³They said, "This is blood. The kings are surely destroyed, and they have struck each other. Now therefore, Moab, to the plunder!"

²⁴When they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land attacking the Moabites. ²⁵They beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land each man threw his stone, and filled it. They also stopped all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees, until in Kir Hareseth all they left was its stones; however the men armed with slings went around it and attacked it. ²⁶When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too severe for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not. ²⁷Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. There was great wrath against Israel; and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.

Esther Chapter 2

¹⁹When the virgins were gathered together the second time, Mordecai was sitting in the king's gate. ²⁰Esther had not yet made known her relatives nor her people, as Mordecai had commanded her; for Esther obeyed Mordecai, like she did when she was brought up by him. ²¹In those days, while Mordecai was sitting in the king's gate, two of the king's eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, who were doorkeepers, were angry, and sought to lay hands on king Ahasuerus. ²²This thing became known to Mordecai, who informed Esther the queen; and Esther informed the king in Mordecai's name. ²³When this matter was investigated, and it was found to be so, they were both hanged on a tree; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the king's presence.

Esther Chapter 3

¹After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. ²All the king's servants who were in the king's gate bowed down, and paid homage to Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai didn't bow down or pay him homage. ³Then the king's servants, who were in the king's gate, said to Mordecai, "Why do you disobey the king's commandment?" ⁴Now it came to pass, when they spoke daily to him, and he didn't listen to them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's reason would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew. ⁵When Haman saw that Mordecai didn't bow down, nor pay him homage, Haman was full of wrath. ⁶But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone, for they had made known to him Mordecai's people. Therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even Mordecai's people.

⁷In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast "Pur", that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, and chose the twelfth month, which is the month Adar. ⁸Haman said to King Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their laws are different than other people's. They don't keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not for the king's profit to allow them to remain. ⁹If it pleases the king, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who are in charge of the king's business, to bring it into the king's treasuries."

John Chapter 7

¹After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn't walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. ²Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand. ³So his brothers said to him, "Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your acts which you do. ⁴For no one does anything in secret while he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world." ⁵For even his brothers didn't believe in him.

⁶So Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. ⁷The world can't hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its actions are evil. ⁸You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled."

⁹Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. ¹⁰But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret. ¹¹So the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, "Where is he?" ¹²There was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others said, "Not so, but he leads the multitude astray." ¹³Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews. ¹⁴But when it was the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. ¹⁵The Jews therefore marveled, saying, "How does this man know letters, having never been educated?"

¹⁶So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. ¹⁷If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself. ¹⁸He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. ¹⁹Didn't Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?"

²⁰The multitude answered, "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?"

²¹Jesus answered them, "I did one work and you all marvel because of it. ²²Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy. ²³If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath? ²⁴Don't judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment."

²⁵So some of them of Jerusalem said, "Isn't this the one they seek to kill? ²⁶Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly AnointedOne? ²⁷However we know where this man comes from, but when AnointedOne comes, no one will know where he comes from."

²⁸So Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, "You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don't know. ²⁹I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."

³⁰So they sought to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. ³¹But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, "When AnointedOne comes, he won't do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?"