Formation Journal Reading Plan

8:1 Oh that thou wert as my brother, That sucked the breasts of my mother! When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; Yea, and none would despise me.

8:2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, Who would instruct me; I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine, Of the juice of my pomegranate.

8:3 His left hand should be under my head, And his right hand should embrace me.

8:4 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, That ye stir not up, nor awake my love, Until he please.

8:5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple-tree I awakened thee: There thy mother was in travail with thee, There was she in travail that brought thee forth.

8:6 Set me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm: For love is strong as death; Jealousy is cruel as Sheol; The flashes thereof are flashes of fire, A very flame of Jehovah.

8:7 Many waters cannot quench love, Neither can floods drown it: If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, He would utterly be contemned.

8:8 We have a little sister, And she hath no breasts: What shall we do for our sister In the day when she shall be spoken for?

8:9 If she be a wall, We will build upon her a turret of silver: And if she be a door, We will inclose her with boards of cedar.

8:10 I am a wall, and my breasts like the towers thereof Then was I in his eyes as one that found peace.

8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; He let out the vineyard unto keepers; Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.

8:12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: Thou, O Solomon, shalt have the thousand, And those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

8:13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, The companions hearken for thy voice: Cause me to hear it.

8:14 Make haste, my beloved, And be thou like to a roe or to a young hart Upon the mountains of spices.

1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

1:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly! they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward.

1:5 Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

1:6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil.

1:7 Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

1:8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

1:9 Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

1:10 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

1:11 What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.

1:12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts?

1:13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies,—I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting.

1:14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them.

1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

1:17 learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

1:19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

1:20 but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

1:21 How is the faithful city become a harlot! she that was full of justice! righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

1:22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water.

1:23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

1:24 Therefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies;

1:25 and I will turn my hand upon thee, and thoroughly purge away thy dross, and will take away all thy tin;

1:26 and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteousness, a faithful town.

1:27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness.

1:28 But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and they that forsake Jehovah shall be consumed.

1:29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

1:30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.

1:31 And the strong shall be as tow, and his work as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

74:1 Maschil of Asaph. O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

74:2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old, Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance; And mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

74:3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual ruins, All the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary.

74:4 Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly; They have set up their ensigns for signs.

74:5 They seemed as men that lifted up Axes upon a thicket of trees.

74:6 And now all the carved work thereof They break down with hatchet and hammers.

74:7 They have set thy sanctuary on fire; They have profaned the dwelling-place of thy name by casting it to the ground.

74:8 They said in their heart, Let us make havoc of them altogether: They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.

74:9 We see not our signs: There is no more any prophet; Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

74:10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?

74:11 Why drawest thou back thy hand, even thy right hand? Pluck it out of thy bosom and consume them.

9:1 For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:

9:2 for I know your readiness, of which I glory on your behalf to them of Macedonia, that Achaia hath been prepared for a year past; and your zeal hath stirred up very many of them.

9:3 But I have sent the brethren, that our glorying on your behalf may not be made void in this respect; that, even as I said, ye may be prepared:

9:4 lest by any means, if there come with me any of Macedonia and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be put to shame in this confidence.

9:5 I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brethren, that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your aforepromised bounty, that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty, and not of extortion.