M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
On Unclean Persons
5 The Lord told Moses, 2 “Command the Israelis to send outside the encampment every leper, everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is ritually defiled by contact with a corpse.[a] 3 Whether male or female, send them outside the camp so that they won’t defile their camp, because I live among them.” 4 So the Israelis sent them outside the camp. The Israelis did just what the Lord had told Moses.
On Restitution for Offenses
5 The Lord told Moses, 6 “Instruct the Israelis that whenever a man or woman does something contained in the list[b] of the sins of man, thereby acting treacherously against the Lord, then that person stands guilty. 7 He[c] is to confess the sin that he had committed, pay its full compensation, add one fifth to it, and give the compensation to whomever he offended. 8 But if the person has no related redeemer to whom compensation may be made, the payment is to be brought to the Lord and given to the priest, in addition to a ram for atonement with which he is to be atoned. 9 Every offering from all the most sacred things of the Israelis that they bring to the priest is to belong to him. 10 Furthermore, everyone’s sacred things belong to him, as well as whatever a person gives to the priest.”
The Test for Marital Unfaithfulness
11 Then the Lord told Moses, 12 “Instruct the Israelis what to do if a man’s wife turns astray so that she unfaithfully acts against him, 13 a man has sexual relations[d] with her and she conceals it from her husband,[e] keeping it secret although she has defiled herself with there being no witnesses against her, but she was caught anyway. 14 If an attitude of jealousy overcomes him so that he becomes jealous at his wife when she is defiled, or if an attitude of jealousy overcomes him and he becomes jealous of his wife even though she isn’t defiled, 15 then that man is to bring his wife to the priest along with an offering for her consisting of a tenth of an ephah[f] of barley flour. He is not to pour oil or set frankincense over it, because it’s to be a jealousy offering, a memorial offering that will serve as a reminder of iniquity. 16 Then the priest is to bring it and make her stand in the Lord’s presence. 17 The priest is to put some holy water into an earthen vessel, take some dust from the floor of the tent, and put it into the water. 18 The priest is to have the woman stand in the Lord’s presence, uncover her head,[g] and put the grain offering as a memorial, a reminder of jealousy, into her hands. The priest is also to have in his hand the contaminated[h] water that carries a curse.
19 “The priest is to administer this oath to the woman: ‘If indeed another man didn’t have sexual relations[i] with you and you didn’t become unfaithful to your husband,[j] then may you be free from these waters that bring a curse. 20 But if you have become unfaithful to your husband and have become defiled because a man who isn’t your husband has had sexual relations with you…’ 21 then the priest is to have the woman commit to an oath by saying to the woman, ‘May the Lord make you a curse and a curse among your people. When the Lord makes your thigh waste away and your abdomen swell 22 and this water that brings a curse enters your abdomen, making it swell and your thigh waste away.’
“Then the woman is to say ‘Amen.’
23 “Then the priest is to write all of these words in a document and wipe it off with the contaminated water. 24 The woman is to drink the bitter water that brings a curse and the water that brings a curse is to be considered contaminated. 25 The priest is to take the offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, wave the offering in the Lord’s presence, and have her approach the altar. 26 The priest is to take a handful of grain from the memorial and offer a sacrifice on the altar, after which he is to have the woman drink the water. 27 When he has had her drink the water, if she was defiled and had acted unfaithfully toward her husband, then the contaminated water that brings a curse will enter her and infect her, causing her abdomen to swell and her thigh to waste away. Then she is to be a cursed woman among her people. 28 But if the woman isn’t defiled, then she is to be freed and will be able to bear children.[k] 29 This is the law in cases of jealousy when a woman defiles herself while under her husband’s authority: 30 When a man becomes under the control of an attitude[l] of jealousy regarding his wife, he is to present her to the Lord, and the priest is to apply this entire statute to her. 31 The husband[m] will be free from guilt, but the wife is to bear the punishment of her iniquity.”
To the Director: To Jeduthun. A Davidic Psalm.
A Prayer about Life’s Priorities
39 I told myself, “I will keep watch over my tongue to keep from sinning.
I will muzzle my mouth when the wicked are around.”
2 I was as silent as a mute person;
I said nothing, not even something good,
and my distress deepened.
3 My heart within me became incensed;[a]
as I thought about it, the fire burned.
Then I[b] spoke out:
4 “Lord, let me know how my life ends,[c]
and the standard by which you will measure[d] my days, whatever it is!
Then I will know how transient my life is.
5 Look, you have made my life span fit in your hand;
It is nothing compared to yours.
Surely every person at their best is a puff of wind.
6 In fact, people walk around as shadows.
Surely, they busy themselves for nothing,
heaping up possessions but not knowing who will get them.
7 How long, Lord, will I wait expectantly?
I have placed my hope in you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions,
and do not let fools scorn me.”
9 I remain silent;
I do not open my mouth,
for you are the one who acted.
10 Stop scourging me,
since I have been crushed by your heavy hand.
11 You rebuke by chastening a man with the consequence of iniquities;
you destroy what is attractive to him, as one would treat a moth.
Indeed, every person is a puff of wind.
12 Hear my prayer, Lord,
pay attention to my cry,
and do not ignore my tears.
I am an alien in your presence,
a stranger just like my ancestors were.
13 Stop looking at me with chastisement,[e] so I can smile again,
before I depart and am no more.
The Loved One
3 Night after night on my bed,
I sought the one I love;
I sought him, but didn’t find him.
2 I’ll get up and go all around the city,
throughout the streets, and in the squares.
I’ll seek the one I love.
I sought him, but didn’t find him.
3 The watchmen who go all around the city found me.
I asked,[a] “Have you seen the one I love?”
4 I had just passed them
when I found the one I love.
I held him and wouldn’t let him go
until I brought him to my mother’s house,
to the room of the one who conceived me.
5 Swear to me, young women of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or by the does of the field,
that you won’t awaken or arouse love
before its proper time![b]
The Lover Arrives
6 What[c] is this coming up from the desert
like columns of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh[d] and incense[e]
from all the fragrant powders of the merchant?
7 Look! It’s Solomon’s sedan chair,[f]
with 60 of the best soldiers in Israel[g] surrounding it.
8 All of them are wearing swords and are
experienced in battle.
Each has his sword on his thigh,
ready for the terror of the night.[h]
9 King Solomon made the sedan chair for himself
from the trees of Lebanon.
10 He made its posts of silver,
its back of gold.
Its seat was purple,
and its interior was lovingly inlaid
by the young women of Jerusalem.
11 Come out, young women of Zion,
and see King Solomon with the crown
with which his mother crowned him
on his wedding day—
his day of great delight.[i]
The Messiah is Superior to Moses
3 Therefore, holy brothers, partners in a heavenly calling, keep your focus on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God’s[a] household, 3 because he is worthy of greater glory than Moses in the same way that the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 After all, every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 Moses was faithful in all God’s[b] household as a servant who was to testify to what would be said later, 6 but the Messiah[c] was faithful[d] as the Son in charge of God’s[e] household, and we are his household if we hold on to our courage and the hope in which we rejoice.[f]
A Rest for the People of God
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as they did when they provoked me
during the time of testing in the wilderness.
9 There your ancestors tested me,
even though they had seen my actions 10 for 40 years.
That is why I was indignant with that generation and said,
‘They are always going astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So in my anger I swore a solemn oath
that they would never enter my rest.”[g]
12 See to it, my brothers, that no evil, unbelieving heart is found in any of you, as shown by your turning away from the living God. 13 Instead, continue to encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, 14 because we are the Messiah’s[h] partners only if we hold on to our original confidence to the end.[i] 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as they did when they provoked me.”[j]
16 Now who heard him and provoked him? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt led[k] by Moses? 17 And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned and whose bodies fell dead in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest? It was to those who disobeyed him, was it not? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief.
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