Formation Journal Reading Plan

5:1 Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews.

5:2 For there were that said, “We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain, that we may eat and live.”

5:3 Some also there were that said, “We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain, because of the famine.”

5:4 There were also some who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute using our fields and our vineyards as collateral.

5:5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children. Behold, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters have been brought into bondage. Neither is it in our power to help it; for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

5:6 I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

5:7 Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, “You exact usury, everyone of his brother.” I held a great assembly against them.

5:8 I said to them, “We, after our ability, have redeemed our brothers the Jews that were sold to the nations; and would you even sell your brothers, and should they be sold to us?” Then they held their peace, and found never a word.

5:9 Also I said, “The thing that you do is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the nations our enemies?

5:10 I likewise, my brothers and my servants, lend them money and grain. Please let us stop this usury.

5:11 Please restore to them, even this day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, that you are charging them.”

5:12 Then they said, “We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do, even as you say.” Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they would do according to this promise.

5:13 Also I shook out my lap, and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that doesn’t perform this promise; even thus be he shaken out, and emptied.” All the assembly said, “Amen,” and praised Yahweh. The people did according to this promise.

5:14 Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that is, twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor.

5:15 But the former governors who were before me were supported by the people, and took bread and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver; yes, even their servants ruled over the people: but I didn’t do so, because of the fear of God.

5:16 Yes, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither bought we any land: and all my servants were gathered there to the work.

5:17 Moreover there were at my table, of the Jews and the rulers, one hundred fifty men, besides those who came to us from among the nations that were around us.

5:18 Now that which was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine: yet for all this I didn’t demand the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy on this people.

5:19 Remember to me, my God, for good, all that I have done for this people.

35:11 Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don’t know about.

35:12 They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul.

35:13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom.

35:14 I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.

35:15 But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease.

35:16 Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.

35:17 Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my precious life from the lions.

35:18 I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will praise you among many people.

35:19 Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes.

35:20 For they don’t speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.

35:21 Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me. They said, “Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!”

35:22 You have seen it, Yahweh. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me.

35:23 Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!

35:24 Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me.

35:25 Don’t let them say in their heart, “Aha! That’s the way we want it!” Don’t let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”

35:26 Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me.

35:27 Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favor my righteous cause. Yes, let them say continually, “Yahweh be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!”

35:28 My tongue shall talk about your righteousness and about your praise all day long.

5:12 Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.

5:13 For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law.

5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.

5:15 But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

5:16 The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification.

5:17 For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.

5:18 So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.

5:19 For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.

5:20 The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly;

5:21 that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

6:2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

6:3 Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

6:4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

6:5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

6:7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

6:8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;

6:9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!

6:10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

6:11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

6:12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

6:13 Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

6:14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.