M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Unsolved Murders
21 In the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess, if a person who has been killed is found lying in the open country and it is not known who struck him down, 2 then your elders and your judges are to go out and measure the distance from the person who was killed to each of the surrounding towns.
3 The elders of the city that is closest to the person who was killed are to take a heifer that has not been worked and has not pulled with a yoke. 4 The elders of that city are to bring the heifer down to a gully that has a flowing stream and that has not been plowed and sown, and they are to break the neck of the heifer there in the gully.
5 Then the priests, the descendants of Levi, are to come near, because the Lord your God has chosen them to serve and to bless you in the name of the Lord, and every dispute and every case of assault is to be decided according to their ruling. 6 Then all the elders of the city closest to the person who was killed are to wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the gully.
7 Then they are to testify by saying, “Our hands did not pour out this blood, and our eyes did not observe it. 8 Atone, Lord, for your people whom you have redeemed, and do not charge us with taking innocent life among your people Israel.” Then their bloodguilt will be atoned for.
9 In this way you will purge away from among you the guilt of shedding the blood of an innocent person by doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Captive Wives
10 When you go out for battle against your enemies and the Lord your God gives them into your hands, if you take some of them as captives, 11 and you see in that group of captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her and would like to take her as your wife, 12 then you will bring her into your house. She is to shave her head and trim her nails. 13 She also is to remove the clothing she wore when she was captured and to stay in your house and weep for her father and her mother for a month. After that you may come to her and become her husband and she will become your wife.
14 Then if you are no longer pleased with her, you are to let her go as she desires. You must not sell her for money. You are not to deal with her as a slave,[a] because you have humiliated her.
Family Law
15 If a man has two wives, and one is loved and one is not loved, and both the loved one and the unloved one have borne children for him, and the firstborn son belongs to the unloved wife, 16 then on the day that he bequeaths what he owns to his sons, he cannot declare the son of the loved wife as his firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved wife, who is the true firstborn. 17 He must acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of everything that is recognized as his. Because that son is the beginning of his father’s virility, the legal right of the firstborn belongs to him.
18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey the voice of his father and his mother, and they discipline him, but he will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city and to the gate of his hometown. 20 Then they will say to the elders of his city, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He does not obey us. He is a worthless glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his city are to stone him to death, and so you will purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and fear.
Miscellaneous Laws
22 If there is a man whose sin justly deserves a death sentence, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,[b] 23 his dead body is not to remain on the tree overnight. You must bury him on the same day, because a person left hanging on a tree is cursed by God. You are not to defile your ground that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Psalm 108
My Heart Is Steadfast
(Psalm 108:1-5 parallels Psalm 57:7-11)
(Psalm 108:6-13 parallels Psalm 60:5-12)
Heading
A song. A psalm by David.
David’s Confident Praise
1 My heart is steadfast, O God.
I will sing and I will make music.
Indeed, I will sing with all my being.[a]
2 Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
3 I will give you thanks among the peoples, Lord,
and I will make music to you among the nations,[b]
4 because your great mercy reaches above the heavens,
and your faithfulness to the skies.
David’s Prayer
5 Be exalted above the heavens, O God.
Let your glory be over all the earth.
6 So that the ones you love may be rescued,
bring salvation by your right hand and answer me.
David’s Confidence in God’s Help
7 God has spoken in his holiness.[c]
I will triumph. I will distribute Shechem,
and I will measure off the Valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine.
Ephraim is my helmet. Judah is my scepter.
9 Moab is my washbasin. On Edom I toss my sandal.
I shout aloud over Philistia.[d]
10 Who will bring me into the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Is it not you, O God, who have rejected us?
Is it not you, O God, who no longer go out with our armies?
12 Give us help against the foe,
for human help is worthless.
13 In God we will do mighty deeds.
He is the one who will trample our foes.
Psalm 109
Deceitful Men Have Opened Their Mouths
Heading
For the choir director. By David. A psalm.
The Problem and the Prayer
1 O God whom I praise, do not be silent,
2 because they have opened wicked, deceitful mouths against me.
They have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 They surround me with hateful words.
They attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me,
but I am a man of prayer.[e]
5 They repay me with evil for good,
with hatred for my love.
The Curse
6 Appoint an evil one to testify against him,
and let an accuser[f] stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
and let his prayer be sin.
8 Let his days be few.
Let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children always wander and beg.
Let them seek food far from their ruined homes.[g]
11 Let a creditor confiscate all he has.
Let strangers plunder everything he worked for.
12 Let there be no one to extend mercy to him.
Let there be no one to show favor to his fatherless children.
13 Let his descendants be cut off.
In the next generation let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the guilt of his fathers be remembered before the Lord.
Let the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
15 Let their sins remain before the Lord continually,
and let the memory of these people be cut off from the earth.
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy,
but he pursued the poor man and the needy
and the brokenhearted to put them to death.
17 Since he loved cursing, so let it fall on him.
He found no pleasure in blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 Since he wore cursing as his clothing,
let it enter into his stomach like water
and into his bones like oil.
19 Let it be like a garment wrapped around him,
like a belt tied around him forever.
20 May the Lord do all this to my accusers
and to those who speak evil against my life.
Prayer for Help
21 But you, Lord God, deal with me for the sake of your name.
Because of the goodness of your mercy, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded[h] within me.
23 Like a shadow after it lengthens, I go away.
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees give way from fasting,
and my flesh has become lean, without fat.
25 But I—I am scorned by them.
They see me. They shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God.
Save me according to your mercy.
27 Let them know that this is your hand.
You, O Lord, have done it.
28 They may curse, but you will bless.
They rose up, but they will be put to shame.
Then your servant will rejoice.
29 My accusers will be dressed with disgrace.
Their shame will wrap around them like a robe.
Closing Praise
30 With my mouth I will keep on thanking the Lord.
In the midst of many people I will praise him.
31 For the Lord stands at the right hand of the needy,
to save his life from those who condemn him.
Judgment Is Coming on Stubborn Israel
48
Hear this, you house of Jacob,
you who call yourselves by the name of Israel,
who came forth from the waters of Judah,
who swear by the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in true righteousness.
2 Yes, they name themselves after the Holy City,
and they lean on the God of Israel—
the Lord of Armies is his name.
3 Things that took place long ago,
I announced before they happened.
From my mouth the announcement went out.
I made these things known.
Then suddenly I acted, and they came about.
4 I did this because I know that you are stubborn.
Your neck is as stiff as iron,
and your forehead is as hard as bronze.
5 I declared this to you long ago.
Before it came about, I announced it to you,
to prevent you from saying, “My false god did it.
My wooden idol and my metal image commanded it.”
6 You heard all this.
Now look at the facts.
Won’t you admit that I am right?
From now on I will also announce new things to you,
hidden things that you never knew.
7 These things are being created right now, not long ago.
You have not heard of them before today,
so you cannot say, “Oh, I already knew that!”
8 No, you have never heard them.
You certainly never knew them.
Your ear was not open, even back then.
Yes, I knew that you would be extremely unfaithful.
You were called a rebel before you were born.
9 For my name’s sake, I am slow to express my anger.
So that I will be praised, I will hold it back from you.
As a result, you are not cut off.
10 You see, I refined you, but not in the same way silver is refined.
I tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I will act.
Why should my name be defiled?
My glory I will not give to another.
12 Listen to me, Jacob.
Listen to me, Israel, whom I called.
I am he. I am the first.
I am also the last.
13 It was my hand that laid the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens.
I summon them and they stand together.
14 Gather together, all of you, and listen.
Who among them announced these things?
The Lord’s Servant Cyrus
The Lord loves him.
He will carry out his desire against Babylon,
and his arm is against Chaldea.
15 I, yes I, have spoken. I am the one who called him.
I have brought him, and his mission will succeed.
16 Come close to me and hear this.
From the beginning, I have not spoken in secret.
From the time it first existed, I was there.
And now God the Lord has sent me with his Spirit.
17 This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you how to succeed,
who leads you in the way you should walk.
18 If only you would have listened carefully to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants[a] would have been like sand,
and the children from your body like grains of sand.
Their name would never have been cut off or destroyed
from my presence.
20 Get out of Babylon. Flee from Chaldea.
With a joyful voice declare and announce this.
Send it out to the end of the earth.
Say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
21 They did not suffer thirst in the desolate places
through which he led them.
He made water flow for them from a rock.
He split open a rock, and water gushed out.
22 There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.
Babylon Has Fallen
18 After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was given light by his glory. 2 He called out with a loud voice, saying:
Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the Great.
She has become a dwelling place for demons,
and a prison for every unclean spirit,
and a prison for every unclean bird,[a]
and a prison for every unclean and hated beast.
3 For all the nations have drunk from[b] the wine of her adulterous desire,
and the kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
and the merchants of the earth became rich from the abundance of her luxury.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven say:
Come out of her, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
and so that you will not receive any of her plagues,
5 because her sins have reached heaven
and God has remembered her crimes.
6 Pay her back even as she has paid.
Pay her back double for what she has done.
In the cup that she mixed, mix her a double portion.
7 As much glory and luxury as she gave herself,
give that much torture and grief to her,
because in her heart she says:
I sit as a queen,
I am not a widow, and
I will never mourn.
8 For this reason her plagues will come on a single day:
death, mourning, and famine,
and she will be burned in fire,
because the Lord God, who judges her, is powerful.
Some Mourn Babylon’s Destruction
9 “The kings of the earth who committed adultery and lived in luxury with her will weep and mourn for her when they see the smoke from her burning. 10 They will stand far away because of terror at her torment and say:
Woe, woe, the great city,
Babylon, the strong city!
For your judgment came in a single hour.
11 “The merchants of the earth also weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo anymore, 12 a cargo of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet fabric, every kind of aromatic wood and ivory article, and every article made of precious wood, brass, iron, and marble; 13 also cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, high quality flour, grain, cattle, sheep, horses, and carriages, as well as bodies and souls of people.
14 “The fruit your soul desired has left you. All your costly and splendid things have passed away from you. No one will ever find them again.
15 “The merchants who sold those things and were made rich by Babylon will stand far away out of terror at her torment. They are going to weep and mourn, 16 saying:
Woe, woe to the great city that was clothed in fine linen
and purple and scarlet,
adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls,
17 because such great wealth was made a wasteland in a single hour.
“Every ship captain and all the ocean travelers and the sailors and those who make their living on the sea stood far away 18 and cried out when they saw the smoke rise from her burning. They said, ‘Who is like the great city?’ 19 They threw dust on their heads and cried out as they wept and mourned, saying:
Woe, woe to the great city
by whom all who have ships on the sea were made rich from her treasures,
because she was made a wasteland in a single hour.
20 Rejoice over her, heaven,
also you saints, apostles, and prophets,
because God has judged her for the judgment you received from her.”
21 A mighty angel picked up a stone like a large millstone and, as he threw it into the sea, he said:
This is the way Babylon, the great city,
will be overthrown with violence and
will never again be found.
22 The sound of harpists and musicians, flutists and trumpeters,
will never be heard in you again.
No craftsman of any trade
will ever be found in you again.
The sound of a millstone
will never be heard in you again.
23 The light of a lamp
will never shine in you again.
The voice of bridegroom and bride
will never be heard in you again,
because your merchants were the great ones of the earth,
because your witchcraft led all the nations astray,
24 and the blood of prophets and saints was found in this city,[c]
along with the blood of all those who were slain on the earth.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.