M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Division of the Territory West of the Jordan

14 What follows is an account of how the land of Canaan west of the Jordan was divided among the people of Israel. Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leaders of the families of the Israelite tribes divided it among the population. ^2 (A)As the Lord had commanded Moses, the territories of the nine and one-half tribes west of the Jordan were determined by drawing lots.^{[a] 3-4 (B)}Moses had already assigned the land east of the Jordan to the other two and one-half tribes. (The descendants of Joseph were divided into two tribes: Manasseh and Ephraim.) However, Moses gave the Levites no portion of the territory. Instead, they received cities to live in, with fields for their cattle and flocks. ⁵ The people of Israel divided the land as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Hebron Is Given to Caleb

^6 (C)One day some people from the tribe of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. One of them, Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, “You know what the Lord said in Kadesh Barnea about you and me to Moses, the man of God. ^7 (D)I was forty years old when the Lord's servant Moses sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out this land. I brought an honest report back to him. ⁸ The men who went with me, however, made our people afraid. But I faithfully obeyed the Lord my God. ^9 (E)Because I did, Moses promised me that my children and I would certainly receive as our possession the land which I walked over. ¹⁰ But now, look. It has been forty-five years since the Lord said that to Moses. That was when Israel was going through the desert, and the Lord, as he promised, has kept me alive ever since. Look at me! I am eighty-five years old ¹¹ and am just as strong today as I was when Moses sent me out. I am still strong enough for war or for anything else. ¹² Now then, give me the hill country that the Lord promised me on that day when my men and I reported. We told you then that the race of giants called the Anakim were there in large walled cities. Maybe the Lord will be with me, and I will drive them out, just as the Lord said.”

¹³ Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him the city of Hebron as his possession. ¹⁴ Hebron still belongs to the descendants of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, because he faithfully obeyed the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁵ Before this, Hebron was called the city of Arba. (Arba had been the greatest of the Anakim.)

There was now peace in the land.

The Territory Assigned to Judah

15 The families of the tribe of Judah received a part of the land described as follows:

The land reached south to the southernmost point of the wilderness of Zin, at the border of Edom. ² This southern border ran from the south end of the Dead Sea, ³ went southward from the Akrabbim Pass and on to Zin. It ran south of Kadesh Barnea, past Hezron and up to Addar, turned toward Karka, ⁴ went on to Azmon, and followed the stream on the border of Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, where the border ended. That was the southern border of Judah.

⁵ The eastern border was the Dead Sea, all the way up to the inlet where the Jordan empties into it.

The northern border began there, ⁶ extended up to Beth Hoglah, and went north of the ridge overlooking the Jordan Valley. Then it went up to the Stone of Bohan (Bohan was a son of Reuben), ⁷ from Trouble Valley up to Debir, and then turned north toward Gilgal, which faces Adummim Pass on the south side of the valley. It then went on to the springs of Enshemesh, out to Enrogel, ⁸ and up through Hinnom Valley on the south side of the hill where the Jebusite city of Jerusalem was located. The border then proceeded up to the top of the hill on the west side of Hinnom Valley, at the northern end of Rephaim Valley. ⁹ From there it went to the Springs of Nephtoah and out to the cities near Mount Ephron. There it turned toward Baalah (or Kiriath Jearim), ¹⁰ where it circled west of Baalah toward the hill country of Edom, went on the north side of Mount Jearim (or Chesalon), down to Beth Shemesh, and on past Timnah. ¹¹ The border then went out to the hill north of Ekron, turned toward Shikkeron, past Mount Baalah, and on to Jamnia. It ended at the Mediterranean Sea, ¹² which formed the western border.

Within these borders lived the people of the families of Judah.

Caleb Conquers Hebron and Debir^(F)

^13 (G)As the Lord commanded Joshua, part of the territory of Judah was given to Caleb son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah. He received Hebron, the city belonging to Arba, father of Anak. ¹⁴ Caleb drove the descendants of Anak out of the city—the clans of Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. ¹⁵ From there he went to attack the people living in Debir. (This city used to be called Kiriath Sepher.) ¹⁶ Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Achsah in marriage to the man who succeeds in capturing Kiriath Sepher.” ¹⁷ Othniel, the son of Caleb's brother Kenaz, captured the city, so Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah in marriage. ¹⁸ On the wedding day Othniel urged her^[b] to ask her father for a field. She got down from her donkey, and Caleb asked her what she wanted. ¹⁹ She answered, “I want some water holes. The land you have given me is in the dry country.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.

The Cities of Judah

²⁰ This is the land that the families of the tribe of Judah received as their possession. ²¹ The cities farthest south that belonged to them, those that were near the border of Edom, were Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, ²² Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah, ²³ Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan, ²⁴ Ziph, Telem, Bealoth, ²⁵ Hazor Hadattah, Kerioth Hezron (or Hazor), ²⁶ Amam, Shema, Moladah, ²⁷ Hazar Gaddah, Heshmon, Bethpelet, ²⁸ Hazar Shual, Beersheba, Biziothiah, ²⁹ Baalah, Iim, Ezem, ³⁰ Eltolad, Chesil, Hormah, ³¹ Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah, ³² Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain, and Rimmon: twenty-nine cities in all, along with the towns around them.

³³ The cities in the foothills were Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah, ³⁴ Zanoah, Engannim, Tappuah, Enam, ³⁵ Jarmuth, Adullam, Socoh, Azekah, ³⁶ Shaaraim, Adithaim, Gederah, and Gederothaim: fourteen cities, along with the towns around them.

³⁷ There were also Zenan, Hadashah, Migdalgad, ³⁸ Dilean, Mizpah, Joktheel, ³⁹ Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon, ⁴⁰ Cabbon, Lahmam, Chitlish, ⁴¹ Gederoth, Bethdagon, Naamah, and Makkedah: sixteen cities, along with the towns around them.

⁴² There were also Libnah, Ether, Ashan, ⁴³ Iphtah, Ashnah, Nezib, ⁴⁴ Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah: nine cities, along with the towns around them.

⁴⁵ There was Ekron with its towns and villages, ⁴⁶ and all the cities and towns near Ashdod, from Ekron to the Mediterranean Sea.

⁴⁷ There were Ashdod and Gaza, with their towns and villages, reaching to the stream on the border of Egypt and the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

⁴⁸ In the hill country there were Shamir, Jattir, Socoh, ⁴⁹ Dannah, Kiriath Sepher (or Debir), ⁵⁰ Anab, Eshtemoa, Anim, ⁵¹ Goshen, Holon, and Giloh: eleven cities, along with the towns around them.

⁵² There were Arab, Dumah, Eshan, ⁵³ Janim, Beth Tappuah, Aphekah, ⁵⁴ Humtah, Hebron, and Zior: nine cities, along with the towns around them.

⁵⁵ There were Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah, ⁵⁶ Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah, ⁵⁷ Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah: ten cities, along with the towns around them.

⁵⁸ There were Halhul, Bethzur, Gedor, ⁵⁹ Maarath, Bethanoth, and Eltekon: six cities, along with the towns around them.

⁶⁰ There were Kiriath Baal (or Kiriath Jearim) and Rabbah: two cities, along with the towns around them.

⁶¹ In the desert there were Beth Arabah, Middin, Secacah, ⁶² Nibshan, Salt City, and Engedi: six cities, along with the towns around them.

^63 (H)But the people of Judah were not able to drive out the Jebusites, who lived in Jerusalem. The Jebusites still live there with the people of Judah.

In Praise of God the Savior

In Praise of God the Almighty

Jeremiah Preaches in the Temple

7 ^1-3 The Lord sent me to the gate of the Temple where the people of Judah went in to worship. He told me to stand there and announce what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had to say to them: “Change the way you are living and the things you are doing, and I will let you go on living here. ⁴ Stop believing those deceitful words, ‘We are safe! This is the Lord's Temple, this is the Lord's Temple, this is the Lord's Temple!’

⁵ “Change the way you are living and stop doing the things you are doing. Be fair in your treatment of one another. ⁶ Stop taking advantage of aliens, orphans, and widows. Stop killing innocent people in this land. Stop worshiping other gods, for that will destroy you. ⁷ If you change, I will let you go on living here in the land which I gave your ancestors as a permanent possession.

⁸ “Look, you put your trust in deceitful words. ⁹ You steal, murder, commit adultery, tell lies under oath, offer sacrifices to Baal, and worship gods that you had not known before. ¹⁰ You do these things I hate, and then you come and stand in my presence, in my own Temple, and say, ‘We are safe!’ ^11 (A)Do you think that my Temple is a hiding place for robbers? I have seen what you are doing. ^12 (B)Go to Shiloh,^[a] the first place where I chose to be worshiped, and see what I did to it because of the sins of my people Israel. ¹³ You have committed all these sins, and even though I spoke to you over and over again, you refused to listen. You would not answer when I called you. ¹⁴ And so, what I did to Shiloh I will do to this Temple of mine, in which you trust. Here in this place that I gave to your ancestors and you, I will do the same thing that I did to Shiloh. ¹⁵ I will drive you out of my sight as I drove out your relatives, the people of Israel. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

The People's Disobedience

¹⁶ The Lord said, “Jeremiah, do not pray for these people. Do not cry or pray on their behalf; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. ¹⁷ Don't you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ^18 (C)The children gather firewood, the men build fires, and the women mix dough to bake cakes for the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. They also pour out offerings of wine to other gods, in order to hurt me. ¹⁹ But am I really the one they are hurting? No, they are hurting themselves and bringing shame on themselves. ²⁰ And so I, the Sovereign Lord, will pour out my fierce anger on this Temple. I will pour it out on people and animals alike, and even on the trees and the crops. My anger will be like a fire that no one can put out.

²¹ “My people, some sacrifices you burn completely on the altar, and some you are permitted to eat. But what I, the Lord, say is that you might as well eat them all. ²² I gave your ancestors no commands about burnt offerings or any other kinds of sacrifices when I brought them out of Egypt. ²³ But I did command them to obey me, so that I would be their God and they would be my people. And I told them to live the way I had commanded them, so that things would go well for them. ²⁴ But they did not obey or pay any attention. Instead, they did whatever their stubborn and evil hearts told them to do, and they became worse instead of better. ²⁵ From the day that your ancestors came out of Egypt until this very day I have kept on sending to you my servants, the prophets. ²⁶ Yet no one listened or paid any attention. Instead, you became more stubborn and rebellious than your ancestors.

²⁷ “So, Jeremiah, you will speak all these words to my people, but they will not listen to you; you will call them, but they will not answer. ²⁸ You will tell them that their nation does not obey me, the Lord their God, or learn from their punishment. Faithfulness is dead. No longer is it even talked about.

Sinful Deeds in Hinnom Valley

³⁰ “The people of Judah have done an evil thing. They have placed their idols, which I hate, in my Temple and have defiled it. ^31 (D)In Hinnom Valley they have built an altar called Topheth, so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire. I did not command them to do this—it did not even enter my mind. ³² And so, the time will come when it will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley. They will bury people there because there will be nowhere else to bury them. ³³ The corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals, and there will be no one to scare them off. ^34 (E)The land will become a desert. In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the happy sounds of wedding feasts.

The Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem^(A)

21 As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives. There Jesus sent two of the disciples on ahead ² with these instructions: “Go to the village there ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied up with her colt beside her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ And if anyone says anything, tell him, ‘The Master^[a] needs them’; and then he will let them go at once.”

⁴ This happened in order to make come true what the prophet had said:

⁶ So the disciples went and did what Jesus had told them to do: ⁷ they brought the donkey and the colt, threw their cloaks over them, and Jesus got on. ⁸ A large crowd of people spread their cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ^9 (C)The crowds walking in front of Jesus and those walking behind began to shout, “Praise to David's Son! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise be to God!”

¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was thrown into an uproar. “Who is he?” the people asked.

¹¹ “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee,” the crowds answered.

Jesus Goes to the Temple^(D)

¹² Jesus went into the Temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the stools of those who sold pigeons, ^13 (E)and said to them, “It is written in the Scriptures that God said, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it a hideout for thieves!”

¹⁴ The blind and the crippled came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵ The chief priests and the teachers of the Law became angry when they saw the wonderful things he was doing and the children shouting in the Temple, “Praise to David's Son!” ^16 (F)So they asked Jesus, “Do you hear what they are saying?”

“Indeed I do,” answered Jesus. “Haven't you ever read this scripture? ‘You have trained children and babies to offer perfect praise.’”

¹⁷ Jesus left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree^(G)

¹⁸ On his way back to the city early next morning, Jesus was hungry. ¹⁹ He saw a fig tree by the side of the road and went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. So he said to the tree, “You will never again bear fruit!” At once the fig tree dried up.

²⁰ The disciples saw this and were astounded. “How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?” they asked.

^21 (H)Jesus answered, “I assure you that if you believe and do not doubt, you will be able to do what I have done to this fig tree. And not only this, but you will even be able to say to this hill, ‘Get up and throw yourself in the sea,’ and it will. ²² If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

The Question about Jesus' Authority^(I)

²³ Jesus came back to the Temple; and as he taught, the chief priests and the elders came to him and asked, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you such right?”

²⁴ Jesus answered them, “I will ask you just one question, and if you give me an answer, I will tell you what right I have to do these things. ²⁵ Where did John's right to baptize come from: was it from God or from human beings?”

They started to argue among themselves, “What shall we say? If we answer, ‘From God,’ he will say to us, ‘Why, then, did you not believe John?’ ²⁶ But if we say, ‘From human beings,’ we are afraid of what the people might do, because they are all convinced that John was a prophet.” ²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We don't know.”

And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you, then, by what right I do these things.

The Parable of the Two Sons

²⁸ “Now, what do you think? There was once a man who had two sons. He went to the older one and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹ ‘I don't want to,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. ³⁰ Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. ‘Yes, sir,’ he answered, but he did not go. ³¹ Which one of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The older one,” they answered.

So Jesus said to them, “I tell you: the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you. ^32 (J)For John the Baptist came to you showing you the right path to take, and you would not believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Even when you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.

The Parable of the Tenants in the Vineyard^(K)

^33 (L)“Listen to another parable,” Jesus said. “There was once a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a hole for the wine press, and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to tenants and left home on a trip. ³⁴ When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent his slaves to the tenants to receive his share of the harvest. ³⁵ The tenants grabbed his slaves, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶ Again the man sent other slaves, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. ³⁷ Last of all he sent his son to them. ‘Surely they will respect my son,’ he said. ³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the owner's son. Come on, let's kill him, and we will get his property!’ ³⁹ So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

⁴⁰ “Now, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” Jesus asked.

⁴¹ “He will certainly kill those evil men,” they answered, “and rent the vineyard out to other tenants, who will give him his share of the harvest at the right time.”

^42 (M)Jesus said to them, “Haven't you ever read what the Scriptures say?

⁴³ “And so I tell you,” added Jesus, “the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce the proper fruits.” ^44 [b]

⁴⁵ The chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables and knew that he was talking about them, ⁴⁶ so they tried to arrest him. But they were afraid of the crowds, who considered Jesus to be a prophet.