M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Wives for the Benjamites

21 In Mizpah the men of Israel had taken an oath: “No one among us will give his daughter to a Benjamite as his wife.”

² So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening. They raised their voices and wept, sobbing loudly. ³ They said, “Why, Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel, that today a tribe is missing from Israel?”

⁴ In the morning the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

⁵ The children of Israel said, “Who from all the tribes of Israel did not go up with the assembly to the Lord?” For they vowed a solemn oath regarding whoever did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah stating, “He must be killed.”

⁶ The children of Israel lamented for Benjamin their brother, and said, “One tribe is cut off from Israel today. ⁷ What can we do to find wives for those who are left? For we swore by the Lord not to give them our daughters as wives.” ⁸ So they said, “Is there anyone from among the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah?” Then they learned that no one from the camp of Jabesh Gilead had come to the assembly. ⁹ When the people were counted, indeed, there was not a man there from among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead.

¹⁰ So the assembly sent twelve thousand valorous men there and commanded them, “Go and strike down the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, including women and children. ¹¹ This is what you will do: You will kill every man and every woman who has slept with a man.” ¹² So among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead they found four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹³ Then the whole assembly sent someone to speak to the Benjamites who were at Rimmon Rock, and they declared peace. ¹⁴ So the Benjamites returned at that time, and they gave to them the women who were still alive from among the women of Jabesh Gilead. Yet they did not find enough for them.

¹⁵ The people felt sorry for Benjamin, for the Lord had made a gap among the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶ The elders of the assembly said, “What can we do to find wives for those who are left? The Benjamite women were destroyed.” ¹⁷ They said, “There must be an inheritance for the remnant of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be wiped out from Israel. ¹⁸ Yet we cannot give them our daughters for wives, for the children of Israel swore, ‘Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin.’ ” ¹⁹ They said, “Wait! There is an annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the main road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

²⁰ So they commanded the Benjamites, “Go and hide in the vineyards. ²¹ Watch, and then when the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, come out from the vineyards and have every man grab a wife for himself from among the daughters of Shiloh. Then go to the land of Benjamin. ²² When their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain, we will say to them, ‘Be favorable to them for our sakes, because we did not take for each man a wife in the battle; for you have not given women to them at the time, thereby making yourselves guilty.’ ”

²³ So the Benjamites did this. They carried away wives for each man from among the dancers that they caught. Then they returned to their inheritance, rebuilt the cities, and lived in them.

²⁴ At that time, the children of Israel departed from there each man to his tribe and to his family. They went out from there to their own inheritance.

²⁵ In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Paul Appeals to Caesar

25 Now three days after Festus had come into the province, he went from Caesarea up to Jerusalem. ² The high priest and the elders of the Jews spoke to him against Paul. And they begged him, ³ asking as a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem, plotting to kill him along the way. ⁴ Festus said that Paul should be kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly. ⁵ He also said, “Let the men in authority go down with me. If there is anything wrong in the man, let them accuse him.”

⁶ Having stayed among them more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day he sat on the judgment seat and ordered that Paul be brought in. ⁷ When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him and brought many serious charges against him which they could not prove, ⁸ while he defended himself, saying, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned at all.”

⁹ Desiring to do the Jews a favor, Festus answered, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem to be judged concerning these charges before me?”

¹⁰ Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you know very well. ¹¹ If I am doing wrong or have done anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die. But if these are empty charges of which these men accuse me, no one may deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.”

¹² When Festus had conferred with the council, he then answered, “To Caesar you have appealed. To Caesar you shall go.”

Paul Before Agrippa and Bernice

¹³ After several days King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus. ¹⁴ When they had been there many days, Festus stated Paul’s case to the king, saying, “There is a man left as a prisoner by Felix. ¹⁵ When I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me about him, asking for a sentence against him.

¹⁶ “I answered, ‘It is not the custom of the Romans to deliver any man to die before he who is accused meets the accusers face to face and has the opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge brought against him.’ ¹⁷ So when they assembled here, without delay I sat on the judgment seat the next day and ordered that the man be brought in. ¹⁸ When the accusers stood up, they brought no accusation against him of such crimes as I had supposed. ¹⁹ But they had disagreements with him about their own religion and about a Man named Jesus, who had died, but whom Paul asserted was alive. ²⁰ Being perplexed about such questions, I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried there concerning these charges. ²¹ But when Paul had appealed to be under guard for the decision of Caesar, I ordered that he be secured until I could send him to Caesar.”

²² Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear the man myself.”

He said, “Tomorrow you shall hear him.”

²³ The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the hall with the commanders and the leading men of the city. When Festus gave the order, Paul was brought in. ²⁴ Festus said, “King Agrippa, and all the men who are present with us, you see this man, concerning whom the whole assembly of the Jews petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. ²⁵ I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death. But when he himself appealed to Caesar, I decided to send him. ²⁶ But I have nothing to write to His Majesty concerning him. Therefore I have brought him before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that upon examination, I might have something to write. ²⁷ For it seems unreasonable to me to send a prisoner without signifying the charges against him.”

The Rekabites’ Obedience

35 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying: ² Go to the house of the Rekabites and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.

³ Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rekabites, ⁴ and I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door. ⁵ Then I set before the sons of the house of the Rekabites pots full of wine and cups, and I said to them, “Drink wine.”

⁶ But they said, “We will drink no wine. For Jonadab the son of Rekab our father commanded us, saying, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever. ⁷ You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor own one; but all your days you shall dwell in tents so that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ ⁸ Thus we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rekab, our father, in all that he has charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters, ⁹ nor to build houses for us to dwell in; and we do not have vineyard, or field, or seed. ¹⁰ But we have lived in tents only and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. ¹¹ But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem before the army of the Chaldeans and before the army of the Arameans.’ So we have dwelt in Jerusalem.”

¹² Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: ¹³ Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction by listening to My words? says the Lord. ¹⁴ The words of Jonadab the son of Rekab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed. For to this day they drink none, but they obey their father’s commandment. However, I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you did not obey Me. ¹⁵ I also have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, “Return now every man from his evil way and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and you will dwell in the land that I have given to you and to your fathers.” But you have not inclined your ear nor obeyed Me. ¹⁶ Indeed, the sons of Jonadab the son of Rekab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them, but this people has not obeyed Me.

¹⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel: I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them but they have not listened, and I have called them but they have not answered.

¹⁸ Jeremiah said to the house of the Rekabites: Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he has commanded you, ¹⁹ therefore thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rekab shall not lack a man to stand before Me always.

Psalm 7

A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite.

Psalm 8

For the Music Director. According to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.