Formation Journal Reading Plan

10:1 Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly.

10:2 Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered Ezra, “We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land. Yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing.

10:3 Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law.

10:4 Arise; for the matter belongs to you, and we are with you. Be courageous, and do it.”

10:5 Then Ezra arose, and made the chiefs of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they would do according to this word. So they swore.

10:6 Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the room of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of their trespass of the captivity.

10:7 They made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem;

10:8 and that whoever didn’t come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the assembly of the captivity.

10:9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month: and all the people sat in the broad place before the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.

10:10 Ezra the priest stood up, and said to them, “You have trespassed, and have married foreign women, to increase the guilt of Israel.

10:11 Now therefore make confession to Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign women.”

10:12 Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “As you have said concerning us, so must we do.

10:13 But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand outside; neither is this a work of one day or two; for we have greatly transgressed in this matter.

10:14 Let now our princes be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God be turned from us, until this matter is resolved.”

10:15 Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this; and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.

10:16 The children of the captivity did so. Ezra the priest, with certain heads of fathers’ households, after their fathers’ houses, and all of them by their names, were set apart; and they sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.

10:17 They made an end with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.

10:18 Among the sons of the priests there were found who had married foreign women: of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers, Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah.

10:19 They gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.

10:20 Of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.

10:21 Of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah.

10:22 Of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.

10:23 Of the Levites: Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah (the same is Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.

10:24 Of the singers: Eliashib. Of the porters: Shallum, and Telem, and Uri.

10:25 Of Israel: Of the sons of Parosh: Ramiah, and Izziah, and Malchijah, and Mijamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah.

10:26 Of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Elijah.

10:27 Of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and Zabad, and Aziza.

10:28 Of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai.

10:29 Of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, Jeremoth.

10:30 Of the sons of Pahathmoab: Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, and Binnui, and Manasseh.

10:31 Of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,

10:32 Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah.

10:33 Of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei.

10:34 Of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, and Uel,

10:35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi,

10:36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,

10:37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu,

10:38 and Bani, and Binnui, Shimei,

10:39 and Shelemiah, and Nathan, and Adaiah,

10:40 Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,

10:41 Azarel, and Shelemiah, Shemariah,

10:42 Shallum, Amariah, Joseph.

10:43 Of the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Iddo, and Joel, Benaiah.

10:44 All these had taken foreign wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had children.

1:1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

1:2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

1:3 They said to me, “The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

1:4 It happened, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

1:5 and said, “I beg you, Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments:

1:6 Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father’s house have sinned.

1:7 We have dealt very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which you commanded your servant Moses.

1:8 “Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples;

1:9 but if you return to me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from there, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.’

1:10 “Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand.

1:11 Lord, I beg you, let your ear be attentive now to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who delight to fear your name; and please prosper your servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Now I was cup bearer to the king.

34:1 By David; when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed. I will bless Yahweh at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.

34:2 My soul shall boast in Yahweh. The humble shall hear of it, and be glad.

34:3 Oh magnify Yahweh with me. Let us exalt his name together.

34:4 I sought Yahweh, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.

34:5 They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame.

34:6 This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

34:7 The angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

34:8 Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

34:9 Oh fear Yahweh, you his saints, for there is no lack with those who fear him.

34:10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.

3:1 Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?

3:2 Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

3:3 For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God?

3:4 May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.”

3:5 But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.

3:6 May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?

3:7 For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

3:8 Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned.

3:9 What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin.

3:10 As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.

3:11 There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.

3:12 They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not, so much as one.”

3:13 “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips;”

3:14 “whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”

3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood.

3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways.

3:17 The way of peace, they haven’t known.”

3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

3:19 Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.

3:20 Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.