M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

20 Adonai said to Y’hoshua, ² “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘Select the cities of refuge about which I spoke to you through Moshe; ³ so that anyone who kills someone by mistake and unknowingly may escape there; they will serve as refuges for you from the next-of-kin avenger. ⁴ He is to flee to one of those cities, stand at the entrance to the city gate and state his cause to the city leaders. Then they will bring him into the city with them and give him a place, so that he may live among them. ⁵ If the next-of-kin avenger pursues him, they are not to hand over the killer to him; because he struck his fellow community member unknowingly and had not hated him previously. ⁶ So he will live in that city until he stands trial before the community, until the death of the cohen hagadol who is in office at the time. When that time comes, the killer may return to his own city and his own house, to the city from which he fled.’”

⁷ So they set apart Kedesh in the Galil, in the hills of Naftali; Sh’khem in the hills of Efrayim; and Kiryat-Arba (that is, Hevron) in the hills of Y’hudah. ⁸ Beyond the Yarden east of Yericho they selected Betzer in the desert, on the plateau, out of the tribe of Re’uven; Ramot in Gil‘ad out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of M’nasheh.

⁹ These were the cities selected for all the people of Isra’el and for the foreigner living among them, so that anyone who kills any person by mistake could flee there and not die at the hand of the next-of-kin avenger prior to standing trial before the community.

21 Then the leaders of the ancestral clans of the L’vi’im approached El‘azar the cohen, Y’hoshua the son of Nun and the leaders of the ancestral clans of the tribes of the people of Isra’el. ² It was at Shiloh in the land of Kena‘an that they spoke to them; they said, “Adonai ordered through Moshe that we be given cities to live in, with the surrounding open land for our livestock.” ³ So out of their inheritance the people of Isra’el gave the L’vi’im the following cities with the surrounding open land:

⁴ The lot came out for the families of the K’hati. The descendants of Aharon the cohen, who were of the L’vi’im, received by lot thirteen cities from the tribes of Y’hudah, Shim‘on and Binyamin. ⁵ The rest of the descendants of K’hat received by lot ten cities from the families of the tribes of Efrayim and Dan and the half-tribe of M’nasheh. ⁶ The descendants of Gershon received by lot thirteen cities from the families of the tribes of Yissakhar, Asher, Naftali and the half-tribe of M’nasheh in Bashan. ⁷ The descendants of M’rari according to their families received twelve cities from the tribes of Re’uven, Gad and Z’vulun. ⁸ The people of Isra’el gave by lot to the L’vi’im these cities with the surrounding open land, as Adonai had ordered through Moshe.

⁹ They gave from the tribe of the descendants of Y’hudah and from the tribe of the descendants of Shim‘on these cities here mentioned by name; ¹⁰ they were for the descendants of Aharon, of the families of the K’hati, who were among the descendants of Levi; because theirs was the first lot. ¹¹ They gave them: Kiryat-Arba — this Arba was the father of ‘Anak — (that is, Hevron), in the hills of Y’hudah, with the surrounding open land; ¹² but the fields and villages of the city they gave to Kalev the son of Y’funeh as his possession. ¹³ Thus to the descendants of Aharon the cohen they gave: Hevron with its surrounding open land, already a city of refuge for the killer; Livnah with its surrounding open land; ¹⁴ Yatir with its surrounding open land; Esht’moa with its surrounding open land; ¹⁵ Holon with its surrounding open land; D’vir with its surrounding open land; ¹⁶ ‘Ayin with its surrounding open land, Yutah with its surrounding open land and Beit-Shemesh with its surrounding open land — nine cities out of these two tribes. ¹⁷ Out of the tribe of Binyamin: Giv‘on with its surrounding open land, Geva with its surrounding open land, ¹⁸ ‘Anatot with its surrounding open land and ‘Almon with its surrounding open land — four cities. ¹⁹ All the cities of the descendants of Aharon, the cohanim, numbered thirteen cities with their surrounding open land.

²⁰ The families of the descendants of K’hat, who were L’vi’im, that is, the rest of the descendants of K’hat, received the cities of their lot. Out of the tribe of Efrayim ²¹ they gave them: Sh’khem with its surrounding open land, in the hills of Efrayim, the city of refuge for the killer; Gezer with its surrounding open land; ²² Kivtzayim with its surrounding open land and Beit-Horon with its surrounding open land — four cities. ²³ Out of the tribe of Dan: Elt’ke with its surrounding open land, Gib’ton with its surrounding open land, ²⁴ Ayalon with its surrounding open land and Gat-Rimmon with its surrounding open land — four cities. ²⁵ Out of the half-tribe of M’nasheh: Ta‘nakh with its surrounding open land and Gat-Rimmon with its surrounding open land — two cities. ²⁶ All the cities of the families of the rest of the descendants of K’hat numbered ten with their surrounding open land.

²⁷ To the descendants of Gershon, of the families of the L’vi’im, out of the half-tribe of M’nasheh they gave: Golan in Bashan with its surrounding open land, the city of refuge for the killer; and B’esht’rah with its surrounding open land — two cities. ²⁸ Out of the tribe of Yissakhar: Kishyon with its surrounding open land, Dovrat with its surrounding open land, ²⁹ Yarmut with its surrounding open land and ‘Ein-Ganim with its surrounding open land — four cities. ³⁰ Out of the tribe of Asher: Mishal with its surrounding open land, ‘Avdon with its surrounding open land, ³¹ Helkat with its surrounding open land and Rechov with its surrounding open land — four cities. ³² Out of the tribe of Naftali: Kedesh in the Galil with its surrounding open land, the city of refuge for the killer; Hammot-Dor with its surrounding open land; and Kartan with its surrounding open land — three cities. ³³ All the cities of the Gershuni according to their families were thirteen cities with their surrounding open land.

³⁴ To the families of the descendants of M’rari, the rest of the L’vi’im, out of the tribe of Z’vulun: Yokne‘am with its surrounding open land, Kartah with its surrounding open land, ³⁵ Dimnah with its surrounding open land and Nahalal with its surrounding open land — four cities. {⁽³⁶⁾ Out of the tribe of Re’uven: Betzer with its surrounding open land, Yachtzah with its surrounding open land, ⁽³⁷⁾ K’demot with its surrounding open land and Mefa‘at with its surrounding open land — four cities.}* ^36 (38) Out of the tribe of Gad: Ramot in Gil‘ad with its surrounding open land, the city of refuge for the killer; Machanayim with its surrounding open land; ^37 (39) Heshbon with its surrounding open land and Ya‘zer with its surrounding open land — four cities in all. ^38 (40) All these were the cities of the descendants of M’rari according to their families, the rest of the families of the L’vi’im; their lot totaled twelve cities.

^39 (41) All the cities of the L’vi’im, forty-eight cities with their surrounding open land, are to be in among the lands possessed by the people of Isra’el — ^40 (42) these cities, each with its surrounding open land; thus is it to be with all these cities.

^41 (43) So Adonai gave Isra’el all the land which he swore to give to their ancestors, and they took possession of it and lived in it. ^42 (44) Then Adonai gave them rest all around, according to everything he had sworn to their ancestors. Not a man from all their enemies stood against them; Adonai handed all their enemies over to them. ^43 (45) Not one good thing that Adonai had spoken of to the household of Isra’el failed to happen; it all took place.

1 Dear Theophilos:

In the first book, I wrote about everything Yeshua set out to do and teach, ² until the day when, after giving instructions through the Ruach HaKodesh to the emissaries whom he had chosen, he was taken up into heaven.

³ After his death he showed himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. During a period of forty days they saw him, and he spoke with them about the Kingdom of God.

⁴ At one of these gatherings, he instructed them not to leave Yerushalayim but to wait for “what the Father promised, which you heard about from me. ⁵ For Yochanan used to immerse people in water; but in a few days, you will be immersed in the Ruach HaKodesh!”

⁶ When they were together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore self-rule to Isra’el?” ⁷ He answered, “You don’t need to know the dates or the times; the Father has kept these under his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Ruach HaKodesh comes upon you; you will be my witnesses both in Yerushalayim and in all Y’hudah and Shomron, indeed to the ends of the earth!”

⁹ After saying this, he was taken up before their eyes; and a cloud hid him from their sight. ¹⁰ As they were staring into the sky after him, suddenly they saw two men dressed in white standing next to them. ¹¹ The men said, “You Galileans! Why are you standing, staring into space? This Yeshua, who has been taken away from you into heaven, will come back to you in just the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

¹² Then they returned the Shabbat-walk distance from the Mount of Olives to Yerushalayim. ¹³ After entering the city, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. The names of the emissaries were Kefa, Ya‘akov, Yochanan, Andrew, Philip, T’oma, Bar-Talmai, Mattityahu, Ya‘akov Ben-Halfai, Shim‘on “the Zealot,” and Y’hudah Ben-Ya‘akov. ¹⁴ These all devoted themselves single-mindedly to prayer, along with some women, including Miryam (Yeshua’s mother), and his brothers.

¹⁵ During this period, when the group of believers numbered about 120, Kefa stood up and addressed his fellow-believers: ¹⁶ “Brothers, the Ruach HaKodesh spoke in advance through David about Y’hudah, and these words of the Tanakh had to be fulfilled. He was guide for those who arrested Yeshua — ¹⁷ he was one of us and had been assigned a part in our work.” ¹⁸ (With the money Y’hudah received for his evil deed, he bought a field; and there he fell to his death. His body swelled up and burst open, and all his insides spilled out. ¹⁹ This became known to everyone in Yerushalayim, so they called that field Hakal-D’ma — which in their language means “Field of Blood”). ²⁰ “Now,” said Kefa, “it is written in the book of Psalms,

²¹ Therefore, one of the men who have been with us continuously throughout the time the Lord Yeshua traveled around among us, ²² from the time Yochanan was immersing people until the day Yeshua was taken up from us — one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.”

²³ They nominated two men — Yosef Bar-Sabba, surnamed Justus, and Mattityahu. ²⁴ Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen ²⁵ to take over the work and the office of emissary that Y’hudah abandoned to go where he belongs.” ²⁶ Then they drew lots to decide between the two, and the lot fell to Mattityahu. So he was added to the eleven emissaries.

24 As Yeshua left the Temple and was going away, his talmidim came and called his attention to its buildings. ² But he answered them, “You see all these? Yes! I tell you, they will be totally destroyed — not a single stone will be left standing!”

³ When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the talmidim came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that you are coming, and that the ‘olam hazeh is ending?”

⁴ Yeshua replied: “Watch out! Don’t let anyone fool you! ⁵ For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will lead many astray. ⁶ You will hear the noise of wars nearby and the news of wars far off; see to it that you don’t become frightened. Such things must happen, but the end is yet to come. ⁷ For peoples will fight each other, nations will fight each other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various parts of the world; ⁸ all this is but the beginning of the ‘birth-pains.’ ⁹ At that time you will be arrested and handed over to be punished and put to death, and all peoples will hate you because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will be trapped into betraying and hating each other, ¹¹ many false prophets will appear and fool many people; ¹² and many people’s love will grow cold because of increased distance from Torah. ¹³ But whoever holds out till the end will be delivered. ¹⁴ And this Good News about the Kingdom will be announced throughout the whole world as a witness to all the Goyim. It is then that the end will come.

¹⁵ “So when you see the abomination that causes devastation spoken about through the prophet Dani’el standing in the Holy Place”^[a] (let the reader understand the allusion), ¹⁶ “that will be the time for those in Y’hudah to escape to the hills. ¹⁷ If someone is on the roof, he must not go down to gather his belongings from his house; ¹⁸ if someone is in the field, he must not turn back to get his coat. ¹⁹ What a terrible time it will be for pregnant women and nursing mothers! ²⁰ Pray that you will not have to escape in winter or on Shabbat. ²¹ For there will be trouble then worse than there has ever been from the beginning of the world until now, and there will be nothing like it again!^{[b] 22} Indeed, if the length of this time had not been limited, no one would survive; but for the sake of those who have been chosen, its length will be limited.

²³ “At that time, if someone says to you, ‘Look! Here’s the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ don’t believe him. ²⁴ For there will appear false Messiahs and false prophets performing great miracles — amazing things! — so as to fool even the chosen, if possible. ²⁵ There! I have told you in advance! ²⁶ So if people say to you, ‘Listen! He’s out in the desert!’ don’t go; or, ‘Look! He’s hidden away in a secret room!’ don’t believe it. ²⁷ For when the Son of Man does come, it will be like lightning that flashes out of the east and fills the sky to the western horizon. ²⁸ Wherever there’s a dead body, that’s where you find the vultures.

²⁹ “But immediately following the trouble of those times,

³⁰ “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, all the tribes of the Land will mourn,^[e] and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with tremendous power and glory.^{[f] 31} He will send out his angels with a great shofar;^[g] and they will gather together his chosen people from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

³² “Now let the fig tree teach you its lesson: when its branches begin to sprout and leaves appear, you know that summer is approaching. ³³ In the same way, when you see all these things, you are to know that the time is near, right at the door. ³⁴ Yes! I tell you that this people will certainly not pass away before all these things happen. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³⁶ “But when that day and hour will come, no one knows — not the angels in heaven, not the Son, only the Father. ³⁷ For the Son of Man’s coming will be just as it was in the days of Noach. ³⁸ Back then, before the Flood, people went on eating and drinking, taking wives and becoming wives, right up till the day Noach entered the ark; ³⁹ and they didn’t know what was happening until the Flood came and swept them all away. It will be just like that when the Son of Man comes. ⁴⁰ Then there will be two men in a field — one will be taken and the other left behind. ⁴¹ There will be two women grinding flour at the mill — one will be taken and the other left behind. ⁴² So stay alert, because you don’t know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³ But you do know this: had the owner of the house known when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not allowed his house to be broken into. ⁴⁴ Therefore you too must always be ready, for the Son of Man will come when you are not expecting him.

⁴⁵ “Who is the faithful and sensible servant whose master puts him in charge of the household staff, to give them their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶ It will go well with that servant if he is found doing his job when his master comes. ⁴⁷ Yes, I tell you that he will put him in charge of all he owns. ⁴⁸ But if that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is taking his time’; ⁴⁹ and he starts beating up his fellow servants and spends his time eating and drinking with drunkards; ⁵⁰ then his master will come on a day the servant does not expect, at a time he doesn’t know; ⁵¹ and he will cut him in two and put him with the hypocrites, where people will wail and grind their teeth!