M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The People Complain
14 Then all the community lifted up their voices,[a] and the people wept during that night. 2 And all the Israelites[b] grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and all the community said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt or in this desert! 3 Why did Yahweh bring us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little children will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” 4 They said to each other,[c] “Let us appoint a leader, and we will return to Egypt.”
5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before[d] the assembly of the community of the Israelites.[e] 6 Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, from the explorers of the land, tore their garments. 7 And they said to all the community of the Israelites,[f] “The land that we went through to explore is an exceptionally good land.[g] 8 If Yahweh delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and he will give it to us, a land that is flowing with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against Yahweh, and you will not fear the people of the land, because they will be our food. Their protection[h] has been turned from them; Yahweh is with us. You should not fear them.” 10 And all the community said to stone them with stones, but the glory of Yahweh appeared in the tent of assembly among the Israelites.[i]
11 And Yahweh said to Moses, “How long until this people will despise me, and how long until they will not believe in me, and in all the signs that I have done in their[j] midst? 12 I will strike them[k] with disease, and I will dispossess them;[l] I will make you into a greater and stronger nation than them.”[m]
13 And Moses said to Yahweh, “Then the Egyptians will hear that you brought up this people from their[n] midst in your power, 14 and they will tell it[o] to the inhabitants of this land. They heard that you, Yahweh, are in the midst of this people, that you are seen eye to eye, and your cloud is standing over them, and in a column of cloud you go before them by day and in a column of fire at night. 15 But if you destroy this people all at once,[p] the nations that will have heard your message will say, 16 ‘Yahweh was unable to bring this people in the land that he swore by an oath, and he slaughtered them in the desert.’ 17 But now, please, let the power of my Lord be great, just has you spoke,
18 ‘Yahweh is slow to anger[q]
and great of loyal love,
forgiving[r] sin and rebellion;
but surely he leaves nothing unpunished,
visiting the sin of the fathers on the sons
to the third and fourth generations.’
19 Please forgive the sin of this people according to the greatness of your loyal love, just as you forgave[s] this people, from Egypt until now.”
20 Yahweh said, “I have forgiven them according to your word; 21 but as I am alive, the glory of Yahweh will fill all the earth. 22 But because all the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the desert yet tested me these ten times and did not listen to my voice, 23 they will not see the land that I swore by oath to their ancestors,[t] and all those who despised me will not see it. 24 But my servant Caleb, because another spirit was with him, he remained true after me, and I will bring him into the land that he entered,[u] and his offspring will take possession of it. 25 And the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; tomorrow turn and set out for the desert by way of the Red Sea.”[v]
26 And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27 “How long will I bear this evil community who are grumbling against me? I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites[w] which they are making[x] against me. 28 Say to them, ‘Surely as I live,’ declares[y] Yahweh, ‘just as you spoke in my hearing,[z] so I will do to you; 29 in this desert your corpses will fall, and all your counted ones, according to all your number, from twenty years old[aa] and above who grumbled against me. 30 You yourselves will not come into the land that I swore by oath[ab] to make you to dwell in it, but Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 But your little children, whom you said would be plunder, I will bring them, and they will know the land that you rejected. 32 But for you, all your corpses will fall in this desert. 33 And your children will be shepherds in the desert forty years,[ac] and you will bear your unfaithfulness until all your corpses have fallen[ad] in the desert. 34 According to the number of the days[ae] that you explored the land, forty days,[af] a day for each year,[ag] you will bear your sins forty years,[ah] and you will know my opposition.’ 35 I, Yahweh, have spoken; I will surely do this to all this evil community who has banded together against me. In this desert they will come to an end, and there they will die.”
36 As for the men whom Moses sent to explore the land, who returned and made the community grumble against him by spreading a report over the land, 37 the men who spread the evil report of the land died by the plague before Yahweh.[ai] 38 But Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh lived from among the men who went to explore the land.
39 And Moses spoke words to all the Israelites,[aj] and the people mourned greatly. 40 They rose early in the morning and went to the top of the mount, saying, “Here we are. We will go up to the place that Yahweh said, because we have sinned.” 41 But Moses said, “Why are you going against the command of Yahweh? It will not succeed. 42 You should not go up because Yahweh is not in your midst; do not let yourselves be defeated in the presence of your enemies, 43 because the Amalekites[ak] and the Canaanites[al] are there before you,[am] and you will fall by the sword; because you have turned back from Yahweh, and Yahweh will not be with you.” 44 But they dared to go to the top of the mountain, and the ark of the covenant of Yahweh and Moses did not depart from the midst of the camp. 45 So the Amalekites[an] and the Canaanites[ao] who were living on the mountain descended, and they beat them down, up to Hormah.
An Oracle Concerning Sacrifices
A psalm of Asaph.[a]
50 The Supreme God, God, Yahweh, has spoken
and summoned the earth,
from the rising of the sun
to its setting.
2 From Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.
3 Our God comes and he is not silent.
Before him fire devours,
and around him it is very tempestuous.
4 He summons the heavens above
and the earth that he might judge his people:
5 “Gather to me my loyal ones,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 And the heavens declare his righteousness,
because God himself is judge. Selah
7 “Hear, O my people, and I will speak,
O Israel, and I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8 It is not concerning a lack of your sacrifices that I rebuke you,
and your burnt offerings are before me continually.
9 I will not take from your house a bull
or from your stalls a he-goat,
10 because every animal of the forest is mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know every bird of the mountains,
and every moving creature in the field is mine.
12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
because the world and its fullness are mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a thank offering
and pay your vows to the Most High.
15 And call me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will glorify me.”
16 But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to recite my statutes
and mention my covenant with your mouth,[b]
17 while you yourself hate discipline,
and cast my words behind you?
18 When you see a thief, then you are pleased with him,
and your association is with adulterers.
19 You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and you harness your tongue to deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your mother’s son.
21 These things you have done, and I have been silent;
You imagined that I was just like you.
I will rebuke you and present an argument before your eyes.
22 Now consider this, you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there will be none to deliver.
23 He who sacrifices a thank offering honors me,
and he who orders his way;
I will show him the salvation of God.”
Leaders of Judah and Jerusalem
3 For look, the Lord Yahweh of hosts is removing every source of support[a]
from Jerusalem and from Judah:
all of the supplies of bread
and all of the supplies of water,
2 mighty warrior and man of war,
judge and prophet,
and diviner and elder,
3 captain of fifty and the honorable men of rank,
and counselor and skillful magicians and skillful enchanter.
4 And I will make boys their princes,
and children shall rule over them.
5 And the people will be oppressed by each other[b]
and a man by his neighbor.
The boy will act arrogantly toward the elder,
and the dishonorable toward the honorable.
6 Indeed, a man will seize his brother
in the house of his father:
“You have a cloak;[c]
you shall be a leader for us,
and this heap of ruins shall be under your hand!”
7 He will lift up his voice on that day, saying,
“I will not be a healer;
in my house there is no bread
and there is no cloak.
You shall not make me the leader of the people!”
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,
and Judah has fallen
because their speech and their deeds are against Yahweh,
defying the eyes of his glory.
9 The look on their faces testifies against them
and they declare their sin like Sodom;
they do not hide it.
Woe to their soul!
For they have dealt out evil to themselves.
10 Tell the innocent[d] that it is good
for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
11 Woe to the wicked![e] It is bad!
For what is done by his hands will be done to him.
12 My people—children are their oppressors,
and women rule over them.
My people, your leaders are misleading you,
and they confuse the course of your paths.
13 Yahweh takes his stand to conduct a legal case
and takes his stand to judge the peoples.
14 Yahweh enters into judgment with the elders of his people and its princes.
“And you! You have devoured the vineyard;
the spoil of the poor is in your houses!
15 Why[f] do you crush my people
and grind the face of the poor?”
declares[g] the Lord Yahweh of hosts.
The Pride of Jerusalem’s Women
16 And Yahweh said: “Because[h] the daughters of Zion are haughty,
and they walk with outstretched neck,
and they give flirting glances with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,[i]
and with their feet they rattle their bangles,[j]
17 the Lord will make the heads[k] of the daughters of Zion scabby,
and Yahweh will lay their foreheads bare.”
18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets
and the headbands and the crescent necklaces,
19 the pendants and the bracelets and the veils,
20 the headdresses and the armlets and the sashes,
and the perfume boxes[l] and the amulets,
21 the signet rings and the nose rings,
22 the festal robes and the mantles,
and the cloaks and the handbags,
23 and the mirrors and the linen garments,
and the turbans and the wraps.
24 And this shall happen: There will be
a stench instead of perfume,
and a rope instead of a sash,
and baldness instead of a well-set hairdo,
and a clothing wrap of sackcloth instead of a rich robe,
branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men shall fall by the sword,
and your warriors in battle.
26 And her[m] gates shall lament and mourn,
and she shall be banished;
she shall sit upon the ground.
4 And seven women shall grasp at one man on that day, saying,
“We will eat our own bread,
and we will wear our own clothing;
only let us be called by your name![n]
Take away our disgrace!”
The Glory of the Branch of Yahweh
2 On that day the branch of Yahweh shall become beautiful and glorious,
and the fruit of the land shall become the pride and glory of the survivors[o] of Israel.
3 And this shall happen: He who is left in Zion
and he who remains in Jerusalem will be called holy,
everyone written for life in Jerusalem,
4 when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion
and cleansed the blood of Jerusalem from her midst
by a spirit of judgment
and by a spirit of burning.
5 Then Yahweh will create over all of the site[p] of Mount Zion[q]
and over her assembly a cloud by day
and smoke and the brightness of flaming fire by night.
Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy,
6 and it will be a shelter for shade from the heat by day,
and a refuge and a hiding place from rainstorm and from rain.
Examples of Faith in Action
11 Now faith is the realization of what is hoped for, the proof of things not seen. 2 For by this the people of old were approved. 3 By faith we understand the worlds were created by the word of God, in order that what is seen did not come into existence from what is visible.
4 By faith Abel offered to God a greater sacrifice than Cain, by which he was approved that he was righteous, because[a] God approved him for his gifts, and through it[b] he still speaks, although he[c] is dead. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up, so that he did not experience death, and he was not found, because God took him up. For before his removal, he had been approved as having been pleasing[d] to God. 6 Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and is a rewarder of those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, having been warned about things not yet seen, out of reverence constructed an ark for the deliverance of his family, by which he pronounced sentence on the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when he[e] was called, obeyed to go out to a place that he was going to receive for an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he lived in the land of promise as a stranger, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the fellow heirs of the same promise. 10 For he was expecting the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 By faith also, with Sarah[f],[g] he received the ability to procreate[h] even past the normal age[i], because he regarded the one who had promised to be faithful. 12 And therefore these were fathered from one man, and he being as good as dead, as the stars of heaven in number and like the innumerable sand by the shore of the sea.
13 These all died in faith without receiving the promises, but seeing them from a distance and welcoming them, and admitting that they were strangers and temporary residents on the earth. 14 For those who say such things make clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 And if they remember[j] that land from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered Isaac, and the one who received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son, 18 with reference to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants will be named,”[k] 19 having reasoned that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which he received him back also as a symbol. 20 By faith also Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things that were going to happen. 21 By faith Jacob, as he[l] was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, as he[m] was dying, mentioned about the exodus of the sons of Israel and gave instructions about his bones.
23 By faith Moses, when he[n] was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw the child was handsome, and they were not afraid of the edict of the king. 24 By faith Moses, when he[o] was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing instead to be mistreated with the people of God rather than to experience the transitory enjoyment of sin, 26 considering reproach endured for the sake of Christ[p] greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the anger of the king, for he persevered as if he[q] saw the invisible one. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, in order that the one who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. 29 By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if on dry land; the Egyptians, when they made the attempt[r], were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they[s] had been marched around for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she[t] welcomed the spies in peace.
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, accomplished justice, obtained what was promised, shut the mouths of lions, 34 extinguished the effectiveness of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong from weakness, became mighty in battle, put to flight enemy battle lines. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. But others were tortured, not accepting release, in order that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 And others experienced mocking and flogging[u], and in addition bonds and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by murder with a sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, impoverished, afflicted, mistreated, 38 of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about on deserts and mountains and in caves and in holes in the ground. 39 And although they[v] all were approved[w] through their faith, they did not receive what was promised, 40 because[x] God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.
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