M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 21
Preserving the Tribe of Benjamin. 1 The Israelites had sworn an oath at Mizpah saying, “None of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjaminite.” 2 The people went up to Bethel where they sat before God until the evening. They raised up their voices and wept bitterly. 3 They said, “O Lord, God of Israel, why has this happened to Israel, that today there should be one tribe missing from Israel?”
4 Early the next morning the people built an altar there and sacrificed burnt offerings and offered peace offerings. 5 The Israelites said, “Who from all of the tribes did not come up to the assembly of all of the tribes of Israel before the Lord?” (They had made a solemn oath that anyone who did not come before the Lord at Mizpah was to be put to death.) 6 The Israelites grieved for Benjamin, their brother. They said, “Today one tribe is cut off from Israel. 7 How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since we have sworn an oath to the Lord that we would not give them our daughters as their wives?”
8 Then they asked, “Which one of the tribes has not come to the Lord at Mizpah?” They found that no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the assembly. 9 When they counted the people, they realized that none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead were there. 10 The assembly sent twelve thousand brave fighting men there, giving them the command, “Go and put the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead to the sword, including women and children. 11 This is what you are to do. Wipe out every man and every woman who has slept with a man.” 12 They found four hundred young women who had never slept with a man among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead. They brought them into the camp in Shiloh which is in the land of Canaan. 13 The whole assembly sent a message to the Benjaminites who were at the rock of Rimmon, summoning them in peace. 14 The Benjaminites then returned and they were given wives from the women of Jabesh-gilead who had been kept alive. But there were not enough of them.
15 [a]The people grieved for Benjamin because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 16 The elders in the assembly said, “How are we going to provide wives for the rest of them? For the women of Benjamin have been annihilated.” 17 They said, “The Benjaminite survivors must have an inheritance, so that a tribe of Israel will not be blotted out. 18 We cannot give them our daughters as wives, for the Israelites have sworn an oath saying, ‘Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin!’ ” 19 They continued, “But look, there is an annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh, to the north of Bethel and east of the road that runs from Bethel to Shechem and on to the south of Lebonah.” 20 They instructed the Benjaminites, “Go, lie in wait in the vineyards and stay on watch. 21 When the young women of Shiloh come out dancing, rise up out of the vineyards and each man can seize a wife for himself from the young women of Shiloh, and then return to Benjamin. 22 When their fathers and their brothers complain to us, we will say, ‘Please do us this favor, for we did not take a wife for each of them during the war. You are not guilty, for you did not really give your women to them.’ ”
23 This is what the Benjaminites did. Each man took a wife for himself from among the young women who were dancing. They then went and returned to their inheritance, rebuilding the cities and dwelling in them. 24 The Israelites then left that place and each man went to his own tribe, his own clan. Each man returned to his own inheritance. 25 In those days Israel had no king, and everyone did what in his own opinion he thought to be right.
Chapter 25
Paul’s Third Trial—before Festus.[a] 1 Three days after his arrival in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, 2 where the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews informed him about Paul. They urged him 3 as a favor to send for Paul to bring him to Jerusalem. They were going to kill him in an ambush along the way.
4 Festus replied that Paul was in custody in Caesarea, and that he himself would be returning there shortly. 5 He said, “Let your authorities come down with me, and if this man has done something improper, they can bring a charge against him.”
6 After staying with them for eight to ten days, Festus went down to Caesarea. On the next day, he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be summoned. 7 When he appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him, and they leveled many serious charges against him that they were unable to prove.
8 Paul said in his defense, “I have committed no offense against the Jewish Law, or against the temple, or against the Emperor.” 9 Festus, anxious to ingratiate himself with the Jews, asked Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial there before me on these charges?”
10 Paul replied, “I am standing before the tribunal of Caesar, and this is where I should be tried. I have committed no crime against the Jews, as you yourself well know. 11 If I am guilty of any capital crime, I do not ask to be spared death. However, if there is no substance to the charges they are bringing against me, then no one has the right to turn me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”[b] 12 Then, after Festus had conferred with his advisors, he said, “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go.”
13 Paul’s Fourth Trial—before Agrippa.[c] Some days later, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus. 14 Since they spent several days there, Festus raised the subject of Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a man here who was left in custody by Felix. 15 When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and requested his condemnation. 16 I told them that it was not the custom of the Romans to hand over anyone before he had met his accusers face to face and had had an opportunity to defend himself against their charges.
17 “Therefore, when they had come here, I wasted no time; the very next day, I took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be summoned. 18 When the accusers rose, they did not charge him with any of the crimes that I was expecting. 19 Instead, they had certain points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about someone named Jesus, a dead man who Paul asserted was alive.
20 “Since I did not feel qualified to deal with such questions, I asked him if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem to stand trial on these charges. 21 But Paul appealed to be held in custody for the Emperor’s decision, and I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.” 22 Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear this man for myself.” He replied, “Tomorrow you will hear him.”
23 On the next day, Agrippa and Bernice arrived with great pomp and entered the audience hall, accompanied by officers of high rank and prominent men of the city. Festus ordered Paul to be brought in. 24 Then he said, “King Agrippa and all of you here present with us, you see this man about whom the entire Jewish community petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting loudly that he should not be allowed to live any longer.
25 “I have found nothing deserving of death, but when he made his appeal to the Emperor, I decided to send him. 26 However, I have nothing definite about him to put in writing for our sovereign. Therefore, I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this examination I may have something to write. 27 For it seems senseless to me to send on a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.”
Chapter 35
Faithfulness of the Rechabites. 1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of King Jehoiakim of Judah, the son of Josiah: 2 Go forth to the clan of the Rechabites[a] and speak to them. Have them accompany you into one of the rooms of the house of the Lord and offer them wine to drink.
3 Therefore, I took Jaazaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, his brothers and all his sons, the entire clan of the Rechabites, 4 and I brought them into the house of the Lord, to the room of the sons of Hanan, son of Igdaliah, the man of God. This room adjoins the chamber of the princes and is above the room of Maaserah, the son of Shallum, the guardian of the threshold.
5 Then I set pitchers full of wine and some cups before the Rechabites, and I said to them, “Have some wine to drink.” 6 However, they replied, “We never drink wine. Our ancestor Jonadab, the son of Rechab, gave us this command, ‘Neither you nor your children will ever drink wine. 7 Nor will you build houses or sow seed or plant vineyards or even own them. Rather, you will dwell in tents all the days of your life, so that you may live for a long time on the land where you are sojourners.’
8 “We have carefully followed all the commands given to us by our ancestor Jonadab, the son of Rechab. Throughout our lives we have never consumed wine, nor have our wives, our sons, or our daughters. 9 We have not built houses to live in, and we have no vineyards or fields or seed. 10 On the contrary, we have lived in tents and scrupulously obeyed everything commanded by our father Jonadab. 11 But when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, invaded this land, we said, ‘Let us go to Jerusalem so that we may escape the armies of the Chaldeans and the Arameans.’ That is the reason why we are living in Jerusalem.”
12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 13 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go forth and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you never come to your senses and obey my words? says the Lord. 14 The command of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, to his descendants never to drink wine has been observed to this very day; in obedience to their ancestor, they have drunk no wine. But despite the fact that I have repeated this command to you countless times, you have not obeyed me.
15 I have continued to send to you all my servants the prophets who warned you repeatedly, “Turn back, every one of you, from your evil conduct, and cease to follow other gods to serve them. Then you will continue to live in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors.” But you did not pay attention and you refused to listen to me. 16 The descendants of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, have honored the command that their ancestors gave them. You, however, have not heeded my warnings.
17 Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: I am determined to bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem every disaster with which I threatened them because they would not listen when I spoke to them and did not answer when I called to them.
18 However, to the clan of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of your father Jonadab, followed all of his instructions, and did everything that he ordered you to do, 19 therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: There will never fail to be a descendant of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, to stand before me forever.”
Psalm 7[a]
Appeal to the Divine Judge
1 A plaintive song of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush,[b] a Benjaminite.
2 O Lord, my God, I take refuge in you;
keep me safe from all my pursuers and deliver me,
3 lest like a lion they tear me to pieces
and carry me off, with no one to rescue me.
4 O Lord, my God, if I have done this,
if my hands are stained with guilt,
5 if I have repaid a friend with treachery—
I who spared the lives of those who without cause were my enemies—[c]
6 then let my foe pursue and overtake me;
let him trample my life into the ground
and leave my honor in the dust. Selah
7 Rise up, O Lord, in your indignation;
rise against the fury of my enemies.
Rouse yourself for me,
and fulfill the judgment you have decreed.
8 Let the peoples assemble in your presence
as you sit above them enthroned on high.
9 The Lord is the judge of the nations.
Therefore, pass judgment on me, O Lord, according to my righteousness,
according to my innocence, O Most High.
10 Put an end to the malice of the wicked
but continue to sustain the righteous,
O God of justice,
you who search minds and hearts.[d]
11 God is a shield to me;
he saves those who are upright of heart.
12 God is a just judge,
a God who expresses his indignation every day.
13 When a sinner refuses to repent,
God sharpens his sword,
and he bends and aims his bow.
14 He has prepared deadly weapons for him
and made his arrows into fiery shafts.
15 [e]Behold, he who conceives iniquity
and is pregnant with mischief
will give birth to lies.
16 He digs a pit and makes it deep,
but he will fall into the trap he has made.
17 His wickedness will recoil upon his own head,
and his violence will fall back on his own crown.
18 I will offer thanks to the Lord because of his righteousness,
and I will sing hymns of praise[f] to the name of the Lord Most High.
Psalm 8[g]
The Majesty of God and the Dignity of Human Beings
1 For the director.[h] “Upon the gittith.” A psalm of David.
2 O Lord, our Lord,
how glorious is your name[i] in all the earth!
You have exalted your majesty above the heavens.
3 Out of the mouths of newborn babes and infants[j]
you have brought forth praise
as a bulwark against your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.
4 When I look up at your heavens
that have been formed by your fingers,
the moon and the stars
that you set in place,
5 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man[k] that you care for him?
6 You have made him a little less than the angels[l]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
7 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands
and placed everything under his feet:
8 all sheep and oxen
as well as the beasts of the field,
9 the birds of the air, the fish of the sea,
and whatever swims in the paths of the sea.
10 O Lord, our Lord,
how glorious is your name in all the earth!
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