M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 11
Tower of Babel.[a] 1 The whole world had the same language and the same words. 2 When they were migrating from the east, they came to a valley in the land of Shinar[b] and settled there. 3 They said to one another, “Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.” They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky,[c] and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.”
5 The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built. 6 Then the Lord said: If now, while they are one people and all have the same language, they have started to do this, nothing they presume to do will be out of their reach. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that no one will understand the speech of another. 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel,[d] because there the Lord confused the speech of all the world. From there the Lord scattered them over all the earth.
Descendants from Shem to Abraham.[e] 10 (A)These are the descendants of Shem. When Shem was one hundred years old, he begot Arpachshad, two years after the flood. 11 Shem lived five hundred years after he begot Arpachshad, and he had other sons and daughters. 12 When Arpachshad was thirty-five years old, he begot Shelah.[f] 13 Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years after he begot Shelah, and he had other sons and daughters.
14 When Shelah was thirty years old, he begot Eber. 15 Shelah lived four hundred and three years after he begot Eber, and he had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber[g] was thirty-four years old, he begot Peleg. 17 Eber lived four hundred and thirty years after he begot Peleg, and he had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg was thirty years old, he begot Reu. 19 Peleg lived two hundred and nine years after he begot Reu, and he had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu was thirty-two years old, he begot Serug. 21 Reu lived two hundred and seven years after he begot Serug, and he had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug was thirty years old, he begot Nahor. 23 Serug lived two hundred years after he begot Nahor, and he had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor was twenty-nine years old, he begot Terah. 25 Nahor lived one hundred and nineteen years after he begot Terah, and he had other sons and daughters.
26 When Terah was seventy years old, he begot Abram,[h] Nahor and Haran.(B)
II. The Story of the Ancestors of Israel
Terah. 27 These are the descendants of Terah.[i] Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran begot Lot. 28 Haran died before Terah his father, in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.[j] 29 Abram and Nahor took wives; the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai,[k] and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.(C) 30 Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to go to the land of Canaan. But when they reached Haran, they settled there.(D) 32 The lifetime of Terah was two hundred and five years; then Terah died in Haran.[l]
Chapter 10
The Mission of the Twelve. 1 [a]Then he summoned his twelve disciples[b] and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.(A) 2 The names of the twelve apostles[c] are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; 4 Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
The Commissioning of the Twelve. 5 (B)Jesus sent out these twelve[d] after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. 6 (C)Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’(D) 8 [e]Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. 9 (E)Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; 10 (F)no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. 11 (G)Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. 12 As you enter a house, wish it peace. 13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you.[f] 14 [g](H)Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. 15 Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.(I)
Coming Persecutions. 16 (J)“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. 17 [h]But beware of people,(K) for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues,(L) 18 and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. 19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say.(M) 20 For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 [i](N)Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 22 You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end[j] will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.[k] 24 (O)No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, for the slave that he become like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul,[l] how much more those of his household!
Courage Under Persecution. 26 (P)“Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.[m](Q) 27 What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28 And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.(R) 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. 30 Even all the hairs of your head are counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. 32 [n]Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. 33 But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.(S)
Jesus: A Cause of Division. 34 (T)“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. 35 For I have come to set
a man ‘against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36 and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’
The Conditions of Discipleship. 37 (U)“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take up his cross[o] and follow after me is not worthy of me. 39 [p](V)Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Rewards. 40 “Whoever receives you receives me,[q] and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.(W) 41 [r]Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”(X)
Chapter 10
Response to the Crisis. 1 While Ezra prayed and acknowledged their guilt, weeping and prostrate before the house of God, a very large assembly of Israelites gathered about him, men, women, and children; and the people wept profusely. 2 Then Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, made this appeal to Ezra: “We have indeed betrayed our God by taking as wives foreign women of the peoples of the land. Yet in spite of this there still remains a hope for Israel. 3 Let us therefore enter into a covenant before our God to dismiss all our foreign wives and the children born of them, in keeping with what you, my lord, advise, and those who are in dread of the commandments of our God. Let it be done according to the law! 4 Rise, then, for this is your duty! We are with you, so have courage and act!”
5 Ezra stood and demanded an oath from the leaders of the priests, from the Levites and from all Israel that they would do as had been proposed; and they swore it. 6 Then Ezra left his place before the house of God and entered the chamber of Johanan, son of Eliashib,[a] where he spent the night neither eating food nor drinking water, for he was in mourning over the apostasy of the exiles. 7 A proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem that all the exiles should gather together in Jerusalem, 8 and that whoever failed to appear within three days would, according to the judgment of the leaders and elders, suffer the confiscation of all his possessions, and would be excluded from the assembly of the exiles.
9 All the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered together in Jerusalem within the three-day period: it was in the ninth month,[b] on the twentieth day of the month. All the people, sitting in the open place before the house of God, were trembling both over the matter at hand and because it was raining. 10 (A)Then Ezra, the priest, stood up and said to them: “Your apostasy in taking foreign women as wives has added to Israel’s guilt. 11 But now, give praise to the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do his will: separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women.” 12 In answer, the whole assembly cried out with a loud voice: “Yes, it is our duty to do as you say! 13 But the people are numerous and it is the rainy season, so that we cannot remain outside; besides, this is not a task that can be performed in a single day or even two, for those of us who have sinned in this regard are many. 14 Let our leaders represent the whole assembly; then let all those in our cities who have taken foreign women for wives appear at appointed times, accompanied by the elders and magistrates of each city in question, till we have turned away from us our God’s burning anger over this affair.” 15 Only Jonathan, son of Asahel, and Jahzeiah, son of Tikvah, were against this proposal, with Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them.
16 [c]The exiles did as agreed. Ezra the priest appointed as his assistants men who were heads of ancestral houses, one for each ancestral house, all of them designated by name. They held sessions to examine the matter, beginning with the first day of the tenth month. 17 By the first day of the first month they had finished dealing with all the men who had taken foreign women for wives.
The List of Transgressors. 18 Among the priests, the following were found to have taken foreign women for wives: Of the descendants of Jeshua, son of Jozadak, and his kinsmen: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19 They pledged themselves to dismiss their wives, and as a guilt offering for their guilt they gave a ram from the flock. 20 Of the descendants of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah; 21 of the descendants of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, and Uzziah; 22 of the descendants of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah.
23 (B)Of the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (also called Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
24 Of the singers: Eliashib; of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25 Of the people of Israel: Of the descendants of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Malchijah, and Benaiah; 26 of the descendants of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, and Elijah; 27 of the descendants of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, and Aziza; 28 of the descendants of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai; 29 of the descendants of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth; 30 of the descendants of Pahath-moab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, and Manasseh; 31 of the descendants of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, 32 Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah; 33 of the descendants of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei; 34 of the descendants of Begui: Maadai, Amram, Uel, 35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, 36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, 37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu; 38 of the descendants of Binnui: Shimei, 39 Shelemiah, Nathan, and Adaiah; 40 of the descendants of Zachai: Shashai, Sharai, 41 Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, 42 Shallum, Amariah, Joseph; 43 of the descendants of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, Benaiah.
44 [d]All these had taken foreign wives; but they sent them away, both the women and their children.
IV. The Inauguration of the Gentile Mission
Chapter 10
The Vision of Cornelius.(A) 1 [a]Now in Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Cohort called the Italica,[b] 2 devout and God-fearing along with his whole household, who used to give alms generously[c] to the Jewish people and pray to God constantly. 3 One afternoon about three o’clock,[d] he saw plainly in a vision an angel of God come in to him and say to him, “Cornelius.” 4 He looked intently at him and, seized with fear, said, “What is it, sir?” He said to him, “Your prayers and almsgiving have ascended as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send some men to Joppa and summon one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is staying with another Simon, a tanner, who has a house by the sea.”(B) 7 When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier[e] from his staff, 8 explained everything to them, and sent them to Joppa.
The Vision of Peter. 9 [f]The next day, while they were on their way and nearing the city, Peter went up to the roof terrace to pray at about noontime.[g] 10 He was hungry and wished to eat, and while they were making preparations he fell into a trance. 11 (C)He saw heaven opened and something resembling a large sheet coming down, lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all the earth’s four-legged animals and reptiles and the birds of the sky. 13 A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter. Slaughter and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “Certainly not, sir. For never have I eaten anything profane and unclean.”(D) 15 The voice spoke to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you are not to call profane.”(E) 16 This happened three times, and then the object was taken up into the sky.
17 [h]While Peter was in doubt about the meaning of the vision he had seen, the men sent by Cornelius asked for Simon’s house and arrived at the entrance. 18 They called out inquiring whether Simon, who is called Peter, was staying there. 19 As Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said [to him], “There are three men here looking for you.(F) 20 So get up, go downstairs, and accompany them without hesitation, because I have sent them.” 21 Then Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your being here?” 22 They answered, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, respected by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear what you have to say.”(G) 23 So he invited them in and showed them hospitality.
The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went with him. 24 [i]On the following day he entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 (H)When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and, falling at his feet, paid him homage. 26 Peter, however, raised him up, saying, “Get up. I myself am also a human being.” 27 While he conversed with him, he went in and found many people gathered together 28 (I)and said to them, “You know that it is unlawful for a Jewish man to associate with, or visit, a Gentile, but God has shown me that I should not call any person profane or unclean.[j] 29 And that is why I came without objection when sent for. May I ask, then, why you summoned me?”
30 Cornelius replied, “Four days ago[k] at this hour, three o’clock in the afternoon, I was at prayer in my house when suddenly a man in dazzling robes stood before me and said, 31 ‘Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your almsgiving remembered before God. 32 Send therefore to Joppa and summon Simon, who is called Peter. He is a guest in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.’ 33 So I sent for you immediately, and you were kind enough to come. Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to listen to all that you have been commanded by the Lord.”
Peter’s Speech.[l] 34 Then Peter proceeded to speak and said,[m] “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.(J) 35 Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him. 36 [n]You know the word [that] he sent to the Israelites[o] as he proclaimed peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all,(K) 37 what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached,(L) 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth[p] with the holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.(M) 39 We are witnesses[q] of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and [in] Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. 40 This man God raised [on] the third day and granted that he be visible, 41 not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.(N) 42 He commissioned us(O) to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.[r] 43 To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”
The Baptism of Cornelius. 44 (P)While Peter was still speaking these things, the holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.[s] 45 The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles also, 46 for they could hear them speaking in tongues and glorifying God. Then Peter responded, 47 “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the holy Spirit even as we have?”(Q) 48 He ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. 49 Then they invited him to stay for a few days.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.