M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

21 The men of Isra’el had sworn in Mitzpah that none of them would let his daughter marry a man from Binyamin. ² The people came to Beit-El and stayed there before God till evening crying out and weeping. ³ They said: “Adonai, why has this come about in Isra’el? Why should there be today in Isra’el one tribe missing?” ⁴ The next day the people got up early, built an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. ⁵ The people of Isra’el asked, “Who among the tribes of Isra’el did not come up to assemble before Adonai? For they had made a great oath to put to death whoever didn’t come up to Adonai at Mitzpah. ⁶ The people of Isra’el became sorry for Binyamin their brother and said, “Today one tribe has been cut off from Isra’el. ⁷ How are we going to obtain wives for those who remain alive, since we’ve sworn by Adonai that we won’t let our daughters marry them?”

⁸ Then they asked who from the tribes of Isra’el had not come up to Adonai at Mitzpah and found that none had come from Yavesh-Gil‘ad to the camp where the assembly was; ⁹ since when the people were counted, none of the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil‘ad were found there. ¹⁰ So the gathering sent 12,000 warriors there and ordered them, “Go, and put the people who live in Yavesh-Gil‘ad to death with the sword, including women and children. ¹¹ Completely destroy every man and every woman who has had sex with a man.” ¹² Among the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil‘ad they found 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Kena‘an.

¹³ Then the whole gathering sent a message proclaiming peace to the people of Binyamin who were at the Rock of Rimmon. ¹⁴ So Binyamin returned at that time, and the people of Isra’el gave them the women they had kept alive of the women from Yavesh-Gil‘ad. But those weren’t enough for them. ¹⁵ The people were still sorry for Binyamin because Adonai had made a division among the tribes of Isra’el.

¹⁶ The leaders of the assembly asked, “What are we to do for those who still don’t have wives, inasmuch as all the women of Binyamin have been killed?” ¹⁷ They said, “There has to be a way to help the survivors preserve Binyamin’s inheritance, so that a tribe will not be eliminated from Isra’el. ¹⁸ Yet we can’t give them our daughters as wives.” For the people of Isra’el had sworn, “Cursed be whoever gives a wife to Binyamin.”

¹⁹ Then they said, “Look, each year there’s a festival in honor of Adonai in Shiloh, north of Beit-El, on the east side of the road that goes up from Beit-El to Sh’khem, and south of Levonah.” ²⁰ They ordered the men of Binyamin, “Go, hide in the vineyards, ²¹ and keep watch. If the girls of Shiloh come out to do their dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each of you catch for himself a wife from the Shiloh girls, and go on to the land of Binyamin. ²² When their fathers or brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Give them as a personal favor to us, because we didn’t take wives for each of them in battle. You didn’t give them to them; that would have made you guilty of breaking your oath.’” ²³ So the men of Binyamin did this — they took wives for themselves from the girls who were dancing, as many as they needed. They carried them off, went back to the land of their inheritance, rebuilt the cities and lived in them. ²⁴ The people of Isra’el then left that place, each man returned to his tribe and family, and each man went out from there to the land he had inherited.

²⁵ At that time there was no king in Isra’el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.

25 Three days after Festus had entered the province, he went up from Caesarea to Yerushalayim. ² There the head cohanim and the Judean leaders informed him of the case against Sha’ul, and they asked him ³ to do them the favor of having the man sent to Yerushalayim. (They had plotted to have him ambushed and killed en route.) ⁴ Festus replied that Sha’ul was being kept under guard in Caesarea, and that he was about to go there shortly himself. ⁵ “So,” he said, “let competent men among you come down with me and press charges against the man, if he has done something wrong.”

⁶ After staying with them at most eight or ten days, Festus went down to Caesarea; and on the following day, he took his seat in court and ordered Sha’ul to be brought in. ⁷ When he arrived, the Judeans who had come down from Yerushalayim stood around him, bringing many serious charges against him which they could not prove. ⁸ In reply, Sha’ul said, “I have committed no offense — not against the Torah to which the Jews hold, not against the Temple, and not against the Emperor.”

⁹ But Festus, wanting to do the Judeans a favor, asked Sha’ul, “Would you be willing to go up to Yerushalayim and be tried before me there on these charges?” ¹⁰ Sha’ul replied, “I am standing right now in the court of the Emperor, and this is where I should be tried. I have done no wrong to the Judeans, as you very well know. ¹¹ If I am a wrongdoer, if I have done something for which I deserve to die, then I am ready to die. But if there is nothing to these charges which they are bringing against me, no one can give me to them just to grant a favor! I appeal to the Emperor!” ¹² Then Festus, after talking with his advisers, answered, “You have appealed to the Emperor; you will go to the Emperor!”

¹³ After some days, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus. ¹⁴ Since they were staying on there for some time, Festus had the opportunity to acquaint the king with Sha’ul’s situation. “There is a man here,” he said, “who was left behind in custody by Felix. ¹⁵ When I was in Yerushalayim, the head cohanim and the elders of the Judeans informed me about him and asked me to pronounce judgment against him. ¹⁶ My answer to them was that it is not the custom with Romans to give up an accused man just to grant a favor, before he has met his accusers face to face and had the opportunity to defend himself against the charge. ¹⁷ So when they arrived here with me, I did not delay, but took my seat in court the next day and ordered the man brought in.

¹⁸ “When the accusers stood up, instead of charging him with some serious crime as I had expected, ¹⁹ they disputed with him about certain points of their own religion, and particularly about somebody called Yeshua, who had died, but who Sha’ul claimed was alive. ²⁰ Being at a loss as to how to investigate such questions, I asked him if he would be willing to go to Yerushalayim and be tried on these matters there. ²¹ But since Sha’ul appealed to be kept in custody and have his case decided by His Imperial Majesty, I ordered him held until I could send him to the Emperor.”

²² Agrippa said to Festus, “I myself have been wanting to hear the man.” “Tomorrow,” he replied, “You will hear him.”

²³ So the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with much pageantry; they entered the audience room accompanied by military commanders and the prominent men of the city. Then, at the command of Festus, Sha’ul was brought in. ²⁴ Festus said, “King Agrippa and all of you here with us, do you see this man? The whole Judean community has complained to me about him both in Yerushalayim and here, crying that he shouldn’t be allowed to remain alive. ²⁵ But I discovered that he had done nothing that deserves a death sentence. Now when he himself appealed to the Emperor, I decided to send him. ²⁶ However, I have nothing specific to write to His Majesty about him. This is why I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa — so that after we have examined him, I might have something to write. ²⁷ It seems irrational to me to send a prisoner without also indicating what the charges against him are.”

35 This word came to Yirmeyahu from Adonai during the time of Y’hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y’hudah: ² “Go to the Rekhavim, speak to them, bring them to one of the rooms in the house of Adonai, and give them some wine to drink.” ³ So I took Ya’azanyah the son of Yirmeyahu, the son of Havatzinyah, and his brothers, all his sons and all the Rekhavim, ⁴ and took them into the house of Adonai, to the room of the sons of Hanan the son of Yigdalyahu, a man of God. It was by the room of the officials, which was above the room of Ma‘aseiyah the son of Shalum, the gatekeeper. ⁵ There I set in front of the members of the clan of the Rekhavim pitchers full of wine and cups, and said to them, “Drink some wine.” ⁶ But they said, “We will not drink any wine; because Yonadav the son of Rekhav, our ancestor, gave us this order: ‘You are not to drink wine, neither you nor your descendants, forever. ⁷ Also you are not to build houses, sow seed, or plant or own vineyards. Rather, you are always to live in tents; so that you may live a long time in the land, in which you are not citizens.’ ⁸ We have heeded the words of Yonadav the son of Rekhav, our ancestor, in all that he instructed us to do: not to drink wine as long as we live — we, our wives, our sons and our daughters; ⁹ not to build houses for ourselves to live in; and not to have vineyards, fields or seed. ¹⁰ We have lived in tents, and we have heeded Yonadav our ancestor and done everything he ordered us to do. ¹¹ But when N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel came up to attack the land, we said, ‘Come, let’s go up to Yerushalayim,’ because we were afraid of the army of the Kasdim and the army of Aram; hence we are living in Yerushalayim.”

¹² Then the word of Adonai came to Yirmeyahu: ¹³ “Adonai-Tzva’ot the God of Isra’el says to go to the men of Y’hudah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and say: ‘Won’t you ever learn to listen to my words?’ says Adonai. ¹⁴ ‘The words of Yonadav the son of Rekhav which he ordered his offspring, not to drink wine, are obeyed; so to this day they don’t drink any; because they heed their ancestor’s order. But I have spoken to you, spoken frequently, and you have not listened to me. ¹⁵ I have also sent you all my servants the prophets, sent them frequently, with the message, “Every one of you should turn back now from his evil way, improve your actions and not follow other gods in order to serve them. Then you will live in the land I gave you and your ancestors. But you have not paid attention or listened to me. ¹⁶ Because the descendants of Yonadav the son of Rekhav have obeyed the order of their ancestor, which he ordered them; but this people has not listened to me; ¹⁷ therefore — ” here is what Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: “I will inflict on Y’hudah and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim all the disaster I have decreed against them; because I have spoken to them, but they have not listened; and I have called out to them, but they have not answered.”’”

¹⁸ Then to the clan of the Rekhavim Yirmeyahu said, “Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: ‘Because you have heeded the order of Yonadav your ancestor, observed all his commands and done what he ordered you to do; ¹⁹ therefore Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says this: “Yonadav the son of Rekhav will never lack a descendant to stand before me.”’”