M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Distribution of Territory West of the Jordan

14 And these are the inheritances which the people of Israel received in the land of Canaan, which Elea′zar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel distributed to them. ² Their inheritance was by lot, as the Lord had commanded Moses for the nine and one-half tribes. ³ For Moses had given an inheritance to the two and one-half tribes beyond the Jordan; but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them. ⁴ For the people of Joseph were two tribes, Manas′seh and E′phraim; and no portion was given to the Levites in the land, but only cities to dwell in, with their pasture lands for their cattle and their substance. ⁵ The people of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses; they allotted the land.

Hebron Allotted to Caleb

⁶ Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal; and Caleb the son of Jephun′neh the Ken′izzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Ka′desh-bar′nea concerning you and me. ⁷ I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Ka′desh-bar′nea to spy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. ⁸ But my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. ⁹ And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children for ever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ ¹⁰ And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness; and now, lo, I am this day eighty-five years old. ¹¹ I am still as strong to this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war, and for going and coming. ¹² So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day; for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities: it may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out as the Lord said.”

¹³ Then Joshua blessed him; and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephun′neh for an inheritance. ¹⁴ So Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephun′neh the Ken′izzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁵ Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kir′iath-ar′ba;^[a] this Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim. And the land had rest from war.

The Territory of Judah

15 The lot for the tribe of the people of Judah according to their families reached southward to the boundary of Edom, to the wilderness of Zin at the farthest south. ² And their south boundary ran from the end of the Salt Sea, from the bay that faces southward; ³ it goes out southward of the ascent of Akrab′bim, passes along to Zin, and goes up south of Ka′desh-bar′nea, along by Hezron, up to Addar, turns about to Karka, ⁴ passes along to Azmon, goes out by the Brook of Egypt, and comes to its end at the sea. This shall be your south boundary. ⁵ And the east boundary is the Salt Sea, to the mouth of the Jordan. And the boundary on the north side runs from the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Jordan; ⁶ and the boundary goes up to Beth-hoglah, and passes along north of Beth-arabah; and the boundary goes up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben; ⁷ and the boundary goes up to Debir from the Valley of Achor, and so northward, turning toward Gilgal, which is opposite the ascent of Adum′mim, which is on the south side of the valley; and the boundary passes along to the waters of En-she′mesh, and ends at En-ro′gel; ⁸ then the boundary goes up by the valley of the son of Hinnom at the southern shoulder of the Jeb′usite (that is, Jerusalem); and the boundary goes up to the top of the mountain that lies over against the valley of Hinnom, on the west, at the northern end of the valley of Reph′aim; ⁹ then the boundary extends from the top of the mountain to the spring of the Waters of Nephto′ah, and from there to the cities of Mount Ephron; then the boundary bends round to Ba′alah (that is, Kir′iath-je′arim); ¹⁰ and the boundary circles west of Ba′alah to Mount Se′ir, passes along to the northern shoulder of Mount Je′arim (that is, Ches′alon), and goes down to Beth-she′mesh, and passes along by Timnah; ¹¹ the boundary goes out to the shoulder of the hill north of Ekron, then the boundary bends round to Shik′keron, and passes along to Mount Ba′alah, and goes out to Jabneel; then the boundary comes to an end at the sea. ¹² And the west boundary was the Great Sea with its coast-line. This is the boundary round about the people of Judah according to their families.

Caleb Occupies His Portion

¹³ According to the commandment of the Lord to Joshua, he gave to Caleb the son of Jephun′neh a portion among the people of Judah, Kir′iath-ar′ba, that is, Hebron (Arba was the father of Anak). ¹⁴ And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, She′shai and Ahi′man and Talmai, the descendants of Anak. ¹⁵ And he went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir; now the name of Debir formerly was Kir′iath-se′pher. ¹⁶ And Caleb said, “Whoever smites Kir′iath-se′pher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife.” ¹⁷ And Oth′ni-el the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. ¹⁸ When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field; and she alighted from her ass, and Caleb said to her, “What do you wish?” ¹⁹ She said to him, “Give me a present; since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

The Towns of Judah

²⁰ This is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Judah according to their families. ²¹ The cities belonging to the tribe of the people of Judah in the extreme South, toward the boundary of Edom, were Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, ²² Kinah, Dimo′nah, Ada′dah, ²³ Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan, ²⁴ Ziph, Telem, Be-a′loth, ²⁵ Ha′zor-hadat′tah, Ker′i-oth-hezron (that is, Hazor), ²⁶ Amam, Shema, Mola′dah, ²⁷ Ha′zar-gad′dah, Heshmon, Beth-pel′et, ²⁸ Hazar-shu′al, Beer-sheba, Biziothi′ah, ²⁹ Ba′alah, I′im, Ezem, ³⁰ Elto′lad, Chesil, Hormah, ³¹ Ziklag, Madman′nah, Sansan′nah, ³² Leba′oth, Shilhim, A′in, and Rimmon: in all, twenty-nine cities, with their villages.

³³ And in the lowland, Eshta′ol, Zorah, Ashnah, ³⁴ Zano′ah, En-gan′nim, Tap′pu-ah, Enam, ³⁵ Jarmuth, Adul′lam, Socoh, Aze′kah, ³⁶ Sha-ara′im, Aditha′im, Gede′rah, Gederotha′im: fourteen cities with their villages.

³⁷ Zenan, Hadash′ah, Mig′dal-gad, ³⁸ Di′lean, Mizpeh, Jok′theel, ³⁹ Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon, ⁴⁰ Cabbon, Lahmam, Chitlish, ⁴¹ Gede′roth, Beth-da′gon, Na′amah, and Makke′dah: sixteen cities with their villages.

⁴² Libnah, Ether, Ashan, ⁴³ Iphtah, Ashnah, Nezib, ⁴⁴ Ke-i′lah, Achzib, and Mare′shah: nine cities with their villages.

⁴⁵ Ekron, with its towns and its villages; ⁴⁶ from Ekron to the sea, all that were by the side of Ashdod, with their villages.

⁴⁷ Ashdod, its towns and its villages; Gaza, its towns and its villages; to the Brook of Egypt, and the Great Sea with its coast-line.

⁴⁸ And in the hill country, Shamir, Jattir, Socoh, ⁴⁹ Dannah, Kir′iath-san′nah (that is, Debir), ⁵⁰ Anab, Esh′temoh, Anim, ⁵¹ Goshen, Holon, and Giloh: eleven cities with their villages.

⁵² Arab, Dumah, Eshan, ⁵³ Janim, Beth-Tap′puah, Aphe′kah, ⁵⁴ Humtah, Kir′iath-ar′ba (that is, Hebron), and Zi′or: nine cities with their villages.

⁵⁵ Ma′on, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah, ⁵⁶ Jezreel, Jok′de-am, Zano′ah, ⁵⁷ Kain, Gib′e-ah, and Timnah: ten cities with their villages.

⁵⁸ Halhul, Beth-zur, Gedor, ⁵⁹ Ma′arath, Beth-anoth, and El′tekon: six cities with their villages.

⁶⁰ Kir′iath-ba′al (that is, Kir′iath-je′arim), and Rabbah: two cities with their villages.

⁶¹ In the wilderness, Beth-arabah, Middin, Seca′cah, ⁶² Nibshan, the City of Salt, and En-ged′i: six cities with their villages.

⁶³ But the Jeb′usites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive out; so the Jeb′usites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.

Praise for God’s Help

Praise for God’s Care for Jerusalem

Jeremiah Proclaims God’s Judgment on the Nation

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. ³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will let you dwell in this place. ⁴ Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’^[a]

⁵ “For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice one with another, ⁶ if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, ⁷ then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers for ever.

⁸ “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. ⁹ Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Ba′al, and go after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? ¹¹ Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the Lord. ¹² Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³ And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, ¹⁴ therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. ¹⁵ And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of E′phraim.

The People’s Disobedience

¹⁶ “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I do not hear you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. ¹⁹ Is it I whom they provoke? says the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own confusion? ²⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”

²¹ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. ²² For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. ²³ But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ ²⁴ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. ²⁵ From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day; ²⁶ yet they did not listen to me, or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

²⁷ “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. ²⁸ And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

³⁰ “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. ³¹ And they have built the high place^[b] of To′pheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. ³² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no more be called To′pheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter: for they will bury in To′pheth, because there is no room elsewhere. ³³ And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth; and none will frighten them away. ³⁴ And I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

21 And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth′phage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. ³ If any one says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and he will send them immediately.” ⁴ This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷ they brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat thereon. ⁸ Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ And the crowds that went before him and that followed him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”^{[a] 10} And when he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹ And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

¹² And Jesus entered the temple of God^[b] and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. ¹³ He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you make it a den of robbers.”

¹⁴ And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant; ¹⁶ and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,

¹⁷ And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

¹⁸ In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. ¹⁹ And seeing a fig tree by the wayside he went to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. ²⁰ When the disciples saw it they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” ²¹ And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will be done. ²² And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

The Authority of Jesus Questioned

²³ And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”^{[c] 24} Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you a question; and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵ The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven or from men?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ²⁶ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we are afraid of the multitude; for all hold that John was a prophet.” ²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

The Parable of the Two Sons

²⁸ “What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he repented and went. ³⁰ And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. ³¹ Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. ³² For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

³³ “Hear another parable.^[d] There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. ³⁴ When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; ³⁵ and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶ Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. ³⁷ Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ ³⁹ And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰ When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹ They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

⁴³ Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it. ⁴⁴ And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but when it falls on any one,^[e] it will crush him.”^[f]

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶ But when they tried to arrest him, they feared the multitudes, because they held him to be a prophet.