M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

23 A long time afterwards, when Adonai had given Isra’el rest from all their surrounding enemies, and Y’hoshua was old, with age taking its toll, ² Y’hoshua summoned all Isra’el — their leaders, heads, judges and officials — and said to them, “I am old; age is taking its toll. ³ You have seen everything that Adonai your God has done to all these nations because of you, for it is Adonai your God who has fought on your behalf. ⁴ Here, I have allotted to you land for inheritance according to your tribes between the Yarden and the Great Sea to the west; it includes the land of the nations I have destroyed and the nations which remain. ⁵ Adonai your God will thrust them out ahead of you and drive them out of your sight, so that you will possess their land, as Adonai your God told you.

⁶ “Therefore be very firm about keeping and doing everything written in the book of the Torah of Moshe and not turning aside from it either to the right or to the left. ⁷ Then you won’t become like those nations remaining among you. Don’t even mention the name of their gods, let alone have people swear by them, serve them or worship them; ⁸ but cling to Adonai your God, as you have done to this day. ⁹ This is why Adonai has driven out great, strong nations ahead of you; and it explains why no one has prevailed against you to this day, ¹⁰ why one man of you has chased a thousand — it is because Adonai your God has fought on your behalf, as he said to you.

¹¹ “Therefore take great care to love Adonai your God. ¹² Otherwise, if you retreat and cling to the remnant of these other nations remaining among you, if you make marriages with them and have children with them and they with you, ¹³ know for certain that Adonai your God will stop driving out these nations from your sight. Instead, they will become a snare and a trap for you, whipping your sides and pricking your eyes, until you perish from this good land which Adonai your God has given you.

¹⁴ “Today I am going the way of all the earth. Therefore consider in all your heart and being that not one of all the good things Adonai your God said concerning you has failed to happen; it has all come to pass; nothing of it has failed. ¹⁵ Nevertheless, just as all the good things Adonai your God promised you have come upon you, likewise Adonai will bring upon you all the bad things too, until he has destroyed you from this good land which Adonai your God has given you. ¹⁶ When you violate the covenant of Adonai your God, which he ordered you to obey, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then the anger of Adonai will blaze up against you; and you will perish quickly from the good land which he has given you!”

3 One afternoon at three o’clock, the hour of minchah prayers, as Kefa and Yochanan were going up to the Temple, ² a man crippled since birth was being carried in. Every day people used to put him at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, so that he could beg from those going into the Temple court. ³ When he saw Kefa and Yochanan about to enter, he asked them for some money. ⁴ But they stared straight at him; and Kefa said, “Look at us!” ⁵ The crippled man fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ Kefa said, “I don’t have silver, and I don’t have gold, but what I do have I give to you: in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua of Natzeret, walk!” ⁷ And taking hold of him by his right hand, Kefa pulled him up. Instantly his feet and ankles became strong; ⁸ so that he sprang up, stood a moment, and began walking. Then he entered the Temple court with them, walking and leaping and praising God! ⁹ Everyone saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰ They recognized him as the same man who had formerly sat begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were utterly amazed and confounded at what had happened to him. ¹¹ While he clung to Kefa and Yochanan, all the people came running in astonishment toward them in Shlomo’s Colonnade.

¹² Seeing this, Kefa addressed the people: “Men of Isra’el! Why are you amazed at this? Or why do you stare at us as if we had made this man walk through some power or godliness of our own? ¹³ The God of Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov, the God of our fathers,^[a] has glorified his servant Yeshua — the same Yeshua you handed over and disowned before Pilate, even after he had decided to release him. ¹⁴ You denied the holy and innocent one, and instead asked for the reprieve of a murderer! ¹⁵ You killed the author of life!

“But God has raised him from the dead! Of this we are witnesses. ¹⁶ And it is through putting trust in his name that his name has given strength to this man whom you see and know. Yes, it is the trust that comes through Yeshua which has given him this perfect healing in the presence of you all.

¹⁷ “Now, brothers, I know that you did not understand the significance of what you were doing; neither did your leaders. ¹⁸ But this is how God fulfilled what he had announced in advance, when he spoke through all the prophets, namely, that his Messiah was to die.

¹⁹ “Therefore, repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be erased; ²⁰ so that times of refreshing may come from the Lord’s presence; and he may send the Messiah appointed in advance for you, that is, Yeshua. ²¹ He has to remain in heaven until the time comes for restoring everything, as God said long ago, when he spoke through the holy prophets. ²² For Moshe himself said, ‘Adonai will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You are to listen to everything he tells you. ²³ Everyone who fails to listen to that prophet will be removed from the people and destroyed.’^{[b] 24} Indeed, all the prophets announced these days, starting with Sh’mu’el and continuing through all who followed.

²⁵ “You are the sons of the prophets; and you are included in the covenant which God made with our fathers when he said to Avraham, ‘By your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.’^{[c] 26} So it is to you first that God has sent his servant whom he has raised up, so that he might bless you by turning each one of you from your evil ways.”

¹⁴ Here is what Adonai says: “As for all my evil neighbors who encroach on the heritage I gave to my people Isra’el as their possession, I will uproot them from their own land, and I will uproot Y’hudah from among them. ¹⁵ Then, after I have uprooted them, I will take pity on them again and bring them back, each one to his inheritance, each one to his own land. ¹⁶ Then, if they will carefully learn my people’s ways, swearing by my name, ‘As Adonai lives,’ just as they taught my people to swear by Ba‘al, they will be built up among my people. ¹⁷ But if they refuse to listen, then I will uproot that nation, uproot and destroy it,” says Adonai.

26 When Yeshua had finished speaking, he said to his talmidim, ² “As you know, Pesach is two days away, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be nailed to the execution-stake.”

³ Then the head cohanim and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of Kayafa the cohen hagadol. ⁴ They made plans to arrest Yeshua surreptitiously and have him put to death; ⁵ but they said, “Not during the festival, or the people will riot.”

⁶ Yeshua was in Beit-Anyah, at the home of Shim‘on, the man who had had tzara’at. ⁷ A woman who had an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume approached Yeshua while he was eating and began pouring it on his head. ⁸ When the talmidim saw it, they became very angry. “Why this waste?” they asked. ⁹ “This could have been sold for a lot of money and given to the poor.” ¹⁰ But Yeshua, aware of what was going on, said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing for me. ¹¹ The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. ¹² She poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial. ¹³ Yes! I tell you that throughout the whole world, wherever this Good News is proclaimed, what she has done will be told in her memory.”

¹⁴ Then one of the Twelve, the one called Y’hudah from K’riot, went to the head cohanim ¹⁵ and said, “What are you willing to give me if I turn Yeshua over to you?” They counted out thirty silver coins and gave them to Y’hudah.^{[a] 16} From then on he looked for a good opportunity to betray him.

¹⁷ On the first day for matzah, the talmidim came to Yeshua and asked, “Where do you want us to prepare your Seder?” ¹⁸ “Go into the city, to so-and-so,” he replied, “and tell him that the Rabbi says, ‘My time is near, my talmidim and I are celebrating Pesach at your house.’” ¹⁹ The talmidim did as Yeshua directed and prepared the Seder.

²⁰ When evening came, Yeshua reclined with the twelve talmidim; ²¹ and as they were eating, he said, “Yes, I tell you that one of you is going to betray me.” ²² They became terribly upset and began asking him, one after the other, “Lord, you don’t mean me, do you?” ²³ He answered, “The one who dips his matzah in the dish with me is the one who will betray me. ²⁴ The Son of Man will die just as the Tanakh says he will; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him had he never been born!” ²⁵ Y’hudah, the one who was betraying him, then asked, “Surely, Rabbi, you don’t mean me?” He answered, “The words are yours.”

²⁶ While they were eating, Yeshua took a piece of matzah, made the b’rakhah, broke it, gave it to the talmidim and said, “Take! Eat! This is my body!” ²⁷ Also he took a cup of wine, made the b’rakhah, and gave it to them, saying, “All of you, drink from it! ²⁸ For this is my blood, which ratifies the New Covenant, my blood shed on behalf of many, so that they may have their sins forgiven. ²⁹ I tell you, I will not drink this ‘fruit of the vine’ again until the day I drink new wine with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”

³⁰ After singing the Hallel, they went out to the Mount of Olives. ³¹ Yeshua then said to them, “Tonight you will all lose faith in me, as the Tanakh says, ‘I will strike the shepherd dead, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’^{[b] 32} But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you into the Galil.” ³³ “I will never lose faith in you,” Kefa answered, “even if everyone else does.” ³⁴ Yeshua said to him, “Yes! I tell you that tonight before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!” ³⁵ “Even if I must die with you,” Kefa replied, “I will never disown you!” And all the talmidim said the same thing.

³⁶ Then Yeshua went with his talmidim to a place called Gat-Sh’manim and said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” ³⁷ He took with him Kefa and Zavdai’s two sons. Grief and anguish came over him, ³⁸ and he said to them, “My heart is so filled with sadness that I could die! Remain here and stay awake with me.” ³⁹ Going on a little farther, he fell on his face, praying, “My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me! Yet — not what I want, but what you want!” ⁴⁰ He returned to the talmidim and found them sleeping. He said to Kefa, “Were you so weak that you couldn’t stay awake with me for even an hour? ⁴¹ Stay awake, and pray that you will not be put to the test — the spirit indeed is eager, but human nature is weak.”

⁴² A second time he went off and prayed. “My Father, if this cup cannot pass away unless I drink it, let what you want be done.” ⁴³ Again he returned and found them sleeping, their eyes were so heavy.

⁴⁴ Leaving them again, he went off and prayed a third time, saying the same words. ⁴⁵ Then he came to the talmidim and said, “For now, go on sleeping, take your rest. . . . Look! The time has come for the Son of Man to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ Get up! Let’s go! Here comes my betrayer!”

⁴⁷ While Yeshua was still speaking, Y’hudah (one of the Twelve!) came, and with him a large crowd carrying swords and clubs, from the head cohanim and elders of the people. ⁴⁸ The betrayer had arranged to give them a signal: “The man I kiss is the one you want — grab him!” ⁴⁹ He went straight up to Yeshua, said, “Shalom, Rabbi!” and kissed him. ⁵⁰ Yeshua said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they moved forward, laid hold of Yeshua and arrested him.

⁵¹ At that, one of the men with Yeshua reached for his sword, drew it out and struck at the servant of the cohen hagadol, cutting off his ear. ⁵² Yeshua said to him, “Put your sword back where it belongs, for everyone who uses the sword will die by the sword. ⁵³ Don’t you know that I can ask my Father, and he will instantly provide more than a dozen armies of angels to help me? ⁵⁴ But if I did that, how could the passages in the Tanakh be fulfilled that say it has to happen this way?”

⁵⁵ Then Yeshua addressed the crowd: “So you came out to take me with swords and clubs, the way you would the leader of a rebellion? Every day I sat in the Temple court, teaching; and you didn’t seize me then. ⁵⁶ But all this has happened so that what the prophets wrote may be fulfilled.” Then the talmidim all deserted him and ran away.

⁵⁷ Those who had seized Yeshua led him off to Kayafa the cohen hagadol, where the Torah-teachers and elders were assembled. ⁵⁸ Kefa followed him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the cohen hagadol; then he went inside and sat down with the guards to see what the outcome would be.

⁵⁹ The head cohanim and the whole Sanhedrin looked for some false evidence against Yeshua, so that they might put him to death. ⁶⁰ But they didn’t find any, even though many liars came forward to give testimony. At last, however, two people came forward and said, ⁶¹ “This man said, ‘I can tear down God’s Temple and build it again in three days.’” ⁶² The cohen hagadol stood up and said, “Have you nothing to say to the accusation these men are making?” ⁶³ Yeshua remained silent. The cohen hagadol said to him, “I put you under oath! By the living God, tell us if you are the Mashiach, the Son of God!” ⁶⁴ Yeshua said to him, “The words are your own. But I tell you that one day you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of HaG’vurah and coming on the clouds of heaven.”^{[c] 65} At this, the cohen hagadol tore his robes. “Blasphemy!” he said. “Why do we still need witnesses? You heard him blaspheme! ⁶⁶ What is your verdict?” “Guilty,” they answered. “He deserves death!” ⁶⁷ Then they spit in his face and pounded him with their fists; and those who were beating him ⁶⁸ said, “Now, you ‘Messiah,’ ‘prophesy’ to us: who hit you that time?”

⁶⁹ Kefa was sitting outside in the courtyard when a servant girl came up to him. “You too were with Yeshua from the Galil,” she said. ⁷⁰ But he denied it in front of everyone — “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” ⁷¹ He went out onto the porch, and another girl saw him and said to the people there, “This man was with Yeshua of Natzeret.” ⁷² Again he denied it, swearing, “I don’t know the man!” ⁷³ After a little while, the bystanders approached Kefa and said, “You must be one of them — your accent gives you away.” ⁷⁴ This time he began to invoke a curse on himself as he swore, “I do not know the man!” — and immediately a rooster crowed. ⁷⁵ Kefa remembered what Yeshua had said, “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times”; and he went outside and cried bitterly.