M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Atonement for Unsolved Murder
21 “If a murder victim is found fallen in the open country of the land that the Lord your God is about to give you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, 2 then let your elders and judges go out and measure the distance from the dead body to the neighboring cities. 3 Then the elders of the city nearest the body are to take a heifer that hasn’t been put to work or hasn’t pulled a yoke 4 and[a] are to lead the heifer to a flowing stream in a valley that has never been tilled or planted. They are to break the heifer’s neck there. 5 Then the priests of the descendants of Levi are to step forward, because the Lord your God chose them to serve and pronounce blessings in his name.[b] Every case of dispute and assault is to be subject to their ruling. 6 All the elders of the city nearest the dead body are to wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they are to make this declaration: ‘Our hands didn’t shed this blood, nor were we witnesses to the crime. 8 Make atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and don’t charge the blood of an innocent man against them.’[c] Then the blood that has been shed will be atoned for. 9 This is how you will remove the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right in the sight of the Lord.”
Marriage to a War Captive
10 “If you go to battle against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your control, you may take some prisoners captive. 11 If you see among the prisoners a beautiful woman and you desire her, then you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her to your house, but shave her head and trim her nails. 13 Remove her prisoner’s clothing and let her remain for a month in your house, mourning her parents. After that, you may[d] become her husband and she is to become your wife. 14 If you aren’t pleased with her and you send her away, you must not sell her for money or mistreat her, since you will have dishonored her.”
Preferential Treatment Prohibited
15 “If a man has two wives where one is loved but the other is unloved, and both[e] of them bear him sons, but the firstborn is the son of the unloved wife, 16 then when he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, he must not give preference to the firstborn of the beloved wife over the firstborn of the unloved wife. 17 Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn of the unloved wife by giving him double of everything he owns, because he is really the first fruit of his father’s[f] strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.”
Death to a Rebellious Son
18 “If a man has a stubborn son who does not obey his parents,[g] and although they try to discipline him, he still refuses to pay attention to them, 19 then his parents[h] are to seize him and bring him before the elders at the gate of his city. 20 Then they are to declare to the elders of their city: ‘Our son is stubborn and rebellious. He does not obey us. He lives wildly and is a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of his city are to stone him with boulders so that he dies. This is how you will remove this evil from among you. Then all Israel will hear of it and will be afraid.”
Burial of the Executed
22 “If a man is guilty of a capital offense, is executed, and then is impaled on a tree, 23 his body must not remain overnight on the tree. You must bury him that same day, because cursed of God is the one who has been hanged on a tree. Don’t defile your land that the Lord is about to give you as your inheritance.”
A song. A Davidic psalm.
A Plea for Victory
108 My heart is firm, God;
I will sing and praise you with my whole being.
2 Awake, harp and lyre!
I will wake up at dawn.
3 I will give thanks to you among the peoples, Lord!
I will sing praise to you among the nations.
4 For your gracious love extends to the sky,[a]
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 May you be exalted above the heavens, God,
and your glory be over all the earth.
6 In order that those you love may be rescued,
deliver with your power[b] and answer me!
7 God had promised in his sanctuary:
“I will triumph and divide Shechem,
then I will measure the valley of Succoth!
8 Gilead and Manasseh belong to me,
while Ephraim is my chief stronghold
and Judah is my scepter.
9 Moab is my washbasin;
I will fling my shoe on Edom
and shout over Philistia.”
10 Who will lead me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me as far as Edom?
11 God, you have rejected us, have you not,
since you did not march out with our army, God?
12 Give us help against the enemy,
because human help is useless.[c]
13 I will find strength in God,
for he will trample on our foes.
To the Director. A Davidic psalm.
A Prayer against the Evil One
109 God, whom I praise,
do not be silent,
2 for the mouths of wicked and deceitful people
are opened against me;
they speak against me with lying tongues.
3 They surround me with hate-filled words,
attacking me for no reason.
4 Instead of receiving[d] my love, they accuse me,
though I continue in prayer.
5 They devise evil against me instead of good,
and hatred in place of my love.
6 Appoint an evil person over him;
may an accuser stand at his right side.[e]
7 When he is judged, may he be found guilty;
may his prayer be regarded as sin.
8 May his days be few;
may another take over his position.[f]
9 May his children become fatherless,
and his wife a widow.
10 May his children roam around begging,
seeking food[g] while driven far[h] from their ruined homes.
11 May creditors seize all his possessions,
and may foreigners loot the property he has acquired.[i]
12 May no one extend gracious love to him,
or show favor to his fatherless children.
13 May his descendants[j] be eliminated,
and their memory[k] be erased from the next generation.
14 May his ancestors’ guilt be remembered in the Lord’s presence,
and may his mother’s guilt not be erased.
15 May what[l] they have done[m] be continually in the Lord’s presence;
and may their memory be excised from the earth.
16 For he didn’t think to extend gracious love;
he harassed to death the poor, the needy, and the broken hearted.[n]
17 He loved to curse—may his curses[o] return upon him!
He took no delight in blessing others[p]—
so may blessings[q] be far from him.
18 He wore curses like a garment—
may they[r] enter his inner being like water
and his bones like oil.
19 May those curses[s] wrap around him like a garment,
or like a belt that one always wears.
20 May this be the way the Lord repays my accuser,
those who speak evil against me.
21 Now you, Lord my God, defend[t] me for your name’s sake;
because your gracious love is good, deliver me!
22 Indeed, I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am fading[u] away like a shadow late in the day;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees give way[v] from fasting,
and my skin is lean, deprived of oil.
25 I have become an object of derision to them—
they shake their heads whenever they see me.
26 Help me, Lord my God!
Deliver me in accord with your gracious love!
27 Then they will realize that your hand is in this—
that you, Lord, have accomplished it.
28 They will curse,
but you will bless.
When they attack,[w] they will[x] be humiliated,
while your servant rejoices.
29 May my accusers be clothed with shame
and wrapped in their humiliation as with a robe.
God the Creator and Redeemer
48 “Listen to this, house of Jacob,
you who are called by the name of Israel,
and who have come forth from Judah’s loins;[a]
you who swear oaths in the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel—
but not in truth, nor in good faith.
2 For they name themselves after the holy city,
and rely on the God of Israel—
the Lord of the Heavenly Armies is his name.
3 I foretold the former things long ago;
it[b] went forth from my mouth,
and I disclosed them;
Suddenly, I acted,
and they came to pass.
4 Because I knew[c] that you are obstinate,
and because your neck is an iron sinew,
and your forehead is bronze,
5 I told you these things long ago;
I announced them to you before they happened
so that you couldn’t say, ‘My idol did them;
my[d] carved image or metal idol ordained them.’
6 “You have heard—now look at them all!
How[e] can you not admit them?
From now on, I’ll make you hear new things,
hidden things that you have not known.
7 They are created now, and not long ago;
you didn’t hear them before today,
so you cannot say, ‘Yes, I knew them.’
8 And[f] neither had you heard, nor did you understand,
nor did you open[g] your ear long ago.[h]
Indeed, I knew that[i] you would act very deceitfully,
and they would call[j] you a rebel from birth.
9 I defer my anger for my name’s sake,
and as my first act[k] I’m restraining it for you,
so as not to cut you off.
10 Look, I have refined you, but not like silver;
I have purified[l] you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake—Yes, for my own sake!—I’m doing it;
indeed, how can I be profaned?[m]
Furthermore, I won’t give my glory to another.”
The Lord Calls Israel
12 “Listen to these things,[n] Jacob,
and Israel, whom I have called.
I am the One: I am the first,
I am even[o] the last.
13 Moreover, my hands laid[p] the earth’s foundation,
and my right hand spread out the heavens.
I call out to them,
and[q] they stand up together.
14 Let all of them come together and listen:[r]
Who is there among them that could declare[s] these things?
“The Lord loves me,[t]
and he will accomplish[u] my purpose[v] against Babylon;
his arm[w] will be against the Chaldeans.
15 I—Yes, I!—have spoken;
indeed, I’ve called and[x] I’ve brought him,
and he will make his path successful.[y]
16 Draw near to me, and[z] listen to this:
‘From the beginning I haven’t spoken in secret;
at[aa] the time it happened, I was there.’
And now the Lord God, and his Spirit, has sent me.[ab]
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 directs you[ac] in the path by which[ad] you should go.
18 Now[ae] if only you had paid attention to my commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
and your success like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants would’ve been like the sand,
and your offspring[af] like its numberless grains.
Their name wouldn’t have been cut off
or annihilated out of my reach.
20 “Go out from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans!
With happy shouts, announce
and[ag] proclaim this[ah] to the ends[ai] of the earth:
Say, ‘The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!’
21 They didn’t thirst when he led him[aj] through the desolate places.
He made water gush[ak] from a rock for them;
he split open the rock, and water gushed out.
22 “But[al] there is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”
The Vision of the Fall of Babylon
18 After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority,[a] and the earth was made bright by his splendor. 2 He cried out in a powerful voice,
“Fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen!
She has become a home for demons.
She is a prison for every unclean spirit,
a prison for every unclean bird,
and a prison for every unclean
and hated beast.
3 For all the nations have drunk
from the wine of her sexual immorality,
and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her.
The world’s businesses have become rich
from her luxurious excesses.”
The Warning to Leave Babylon
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
“Come out of her, my people,
so that you don’t participate in her sins
and also suffer from her diseases.
5 For her sins are piled as high as heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes.
6 Do to her as she herself has done,
and give her double for her deeds.
Mix a double drink for her in the cup she mixed.
7 Just as she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
inflict on her just as much torture and misery.
In her heart she says,
‘I am a queen on a throne, not a widow.
I will never see misery.’
8 For this reason, her diseases that result in death, misery, and famine
will come in a single day.
She will be burned up in a fire,
because powerful is the Lord God who judges her.”
9 The kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality with her and lived in luxury with her, will cry and mourn over her when they see the smoke rising from the fire that consumes her.[b] 10 Frightened by the torture that she experiences,[c] they will stand far away and cry out,
“How terrible, how terrible it is for that great city,
the powerful city Babylon,
because your judgment arrived in a single hour!”
11 The world’s businesses cry and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo anymore— 12 cargo of gold, silver, gems, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all articles made of ivory, all articles made of very costly wood, bronze, iron, marble, 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots, and slaves (that is, human souls)—
14 “The fruit that you crafted has abandoned you.
All your dainties and your splendor are lost,[d]
and no one will ever find them again.”
15 Frightened by the severity of her punishment, businesses that had become rich because of her will stand at a distance, crying and mourning:
16 “How terrible, how terrible it is for the great city
that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet
and was adorned with gold, gems, and pearls,
17 because all this wealth has been destroyed in a single hour!”
Every ship’s captain, everyone who traveled by ship, sailors, and everyone who made a living from the sea stood far away. 18 When they saw the smoke rising from the fire that consumed her,[e] they began to cry out, “What city was like that great city?” 19 Then they threw dust on their heads and shouted while crying and mourning:
“How terrible, how terrible it is for the great city,
where all who had ships at sea became rich from her wealth,
because it has been destroyed in a single hour!
20 Be happy about her, heaven, saints, apostles, and prophets,
for God has condemned her for you!”
The Vision of the Powerful Angel with the Millstone
21 Then a powerful angel picked up a stone that was like a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
“The great city Babylon will be thrown down violently—
and will never be found again.
22 The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters
will never be heard within you again.
No artisan of any trade
will ever be found within you again.
The sound of a millstone
will never be heard within you again.
23 The light from a lamp
will never shine within you again.
The voice of a bridegroom and bride
will never be heard within you again.
For your merchants were the important people of the world,
and all the nations were deceived by your witchcraft.
24 The blood of the world’s prophets, saints,
and all who had been murdered
was found within her.”
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