M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Boundaries of the Land
34 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Command the people of Israel, and say to them, When you enter the land of Canaan (this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan in its full extent), 3 your south side shall be from the wilderness of Zin along the side of Edom, and your southern boundary shall be from the end of the Salt Sea on the east; 4 and your boundary shall turn south of the ascent of Akrab′bim, and cross to Zin, and its end shall be south of Ka′desh-bar′nea; then it shall go on to Ha′zar-ad′dar, and pass along to Azmon; 5 and the boundary shall turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and its termination shall be at the sea.
6 “For the western boundary, you shall have the Great Sea and its[a] coast; this shall be your western boundary.
7 “This shall be your northern boundary: from the Great Sea you shall mark out your line to Mount Hor; 8 from Mount Hor you shall mark it out to the entrance of Hamath, and the end of the boundary shall be at Zedad; 9 then the boundary shall extend to Ziphron, and its end shall be at Hazar-enan; this shall be your northern boundary.
10 “You shall mark out your eastern boundary from Hazar-enan to Shepham; 11 and the boundary shall go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of A′in; and the boundary shall go down, and reach to the shoulder of the sea of Chin′nereth on the east; 12 and the boundary shall go down to the Jordan, and its end shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land with its boundaries all round.”
13 Moses commanded the people of Israel, saying, “This is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half-tribe; 14 for the tribe of the sons of Reuben by fathers’ houses and the tribe of the sons of Gad by their fathers’ houses have received their inheritance, and also the half-tribe of Manas′seh; 15 the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.”
Tribal Leaders
16 The Lord said to Moses, 17 “These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance: Elea′zar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun. 18 You shall take one leader of every tribe, to divide the land for inheritance. 19 These are the names of the men: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephun′neh. 20 Of the tribe of the sons of Simeon, Shemu′el the son of Ammi′hud. 21 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Eli′dad the son of Chislon. 22 Of the tribe of the sons of Dan a leader, Bukki the son of Jogli. 23 Of the sons of Joseph: of the tribe of the sons of Manas′seh a leader, Han′niel the son of Ephod. 24 And of the tribe of the sons of E′phraim a leader, Kemu′el the son of Shiphtan. 25 Of the tribe of the sons of Zeb′ulun a leader, Eli-za′phan the son of Parnach. 26 Of the tribe of the sons of Is′sachar a leader, Pal′tiel the son of Azzan. 27 And of the tribe of the sons of Asher a leader, Ahi′hud the son of Shelo′mi. 28 Of the tribe of the sons of Naph′tali a leader, Pedah′el the son of Ammi′hud. 29 These are the men whom the Lord commanded to divide the inheritance for the people of Israel in the land of Canaan.”
38 Yet he, being compassionate,
forgave their iniquity,
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often,
and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert!
41 They tested him again and again,
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not keep in mind his power,
or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;
43 when he wrought his signs in Egypt,
and his miracles in the fields of Zo′an.
44 He turned their rivers to blood,
so that they could not drink of their streams.
45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar,
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycamores with frost.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,
and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He let loose on them his fierce anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
a company of destroying angels.
50 He made a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague.
51 He smote all the first-born in Egypt,
the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 Then he led forth his people like sheep,
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid;
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountain which his right hand had won.
55 He drove out nations before them;
he apportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God,
and did not observe his testimonies,
57 but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
they moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard, he was full of wrath,
and he utterly rejected Israel.
60 He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among men,
61 and delivered his power to captivity,
his glory to the hand of the foe.
62 He gave his people over to the sword,
and vented his wrath on his heritage.
63 Fire devoured their young men,
and their maidens had no marriage song.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.
66 And he put his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph,
he did not choose the tribe of E′phraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loves.
69 He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded for ever.
70 He chose David his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from tending the ewes that had young he brought him
to be the shepherd of Jacob his people,
of Israel his inheritance.
72 With upright heart he tended them,
and guided them with skilful hand.
Judah’s Song of Victory
26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
he sets up salvation
as walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates,
that the righteous nation which keeps faith
may enter in.
3 Thou dost keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he trusts in thee.
4 Trust in the Lord for ever,
for the Lord God
is an everlasting rock.
5 For he has brought low
the inhabitants of the height,
the lofty city.
He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,
casts it to the dust.
6 The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor,
the steps of the needy.”
7 The way of the righteous is level;
thou[a] dost make smooth the path of the righteous.
8 In the path of thy judgments,
O Lord, we wait for thee;
thy memorial name
is the desire of our soul.
9 My soul yearns for thee in the night,
my spirit within me earnestly seeks thee.
For when thy judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals perversely
and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 O Lord, thy hand is lifted up,
but they see it not.
Let them see thy zeal for thy people, and be ashamed.
Let the fire for thy adversaries consume them.
12 O Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us,
thou hast wrought for us all our works.
13 O Lord our God,
other lords besides thee have ruled over us,
but thy name alone we acknowledge.
14 They are dead, they will not live;
they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end thou hast visited them with destruction
and wiped out all remembrance of them.
15 But thou hast increased the nation, O Lord,
thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified;
thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land.
16 O Lord, in distress they sought thee,
they poured out a prayer[b]
when thy chastening was upon them.
17 Like a woman with child,
who writhes and cries out in her pangs,
when she is near her time,
so were we because of thee, O Lord;
18 we were with child, we writhed,
we have as it were brought forth wind.
We have wrought no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
19 Thy dead shall live, their bodies[c] shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For thy dew is a dew of light,
and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall.
20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until the wrath is past.
21 For behold, the Lord is coming forth out of his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed upon her,
and will no more cover her slain.
Testing the Spirits
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because he first loved us. 20 If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.