M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Dan’s Family Captures Laish
18 At that time Israel did not have a king. And at that time the tribe of Dan was still looking for a land where they could live, a land of their own. The Danites had not yet been given their own land among the tribes of Israel. 2 So, from their family groups, they chose five soldiers from the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out and explore the land. They were told, “Go, explore the land.”
They came to the mountains of Ephraim, to Micah’s house, where they spent the night. 3 When they came near Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite.[a] So they stopped there and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing here? Why are you here?”
4 He told them what Micah had done for him, saying, “He hired me. I am his priest.”
5 They said to him, “Please ask God if our journey will be successful.”
6 The priest said to them, “Go in peace. The Lord is pleased with your journey.”
7 So the five men left. When they came to the city of Laish, they saw that the people there lived in safety, like the people of Sidon. They thought they were safe and had plenty of everything. They lived a long way from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone else.
8 When the five men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their relatives asked them, “What did you find?”
9 They answered, “We have seen the land, and it is very good. We should attack them. Aren’t you going to do something? Don’t wait! Let’s go and take that land! 10 When you go, you will see there is plenty of land—plenty of everything! The people are not expecting an attack. Surely God has handed that land over to us!”
11 So six hundred Danites left Zorah and Eshtaol ready for war. 12 On their way they set up camp near the city of Kiriath Jearim in Judah. That is why the place west of Kiriath Jearim is named Mahaneh Dan[b] to this day. 13 From there they traveled on to the mountains of Ephraim. Then they came to Micah’s house.
14 The five men who had explored the land around Laish said to their relatives, “Do you know in one of these houses there are a holy vest, household gods, an idol, and a statue? You know what to do.” 15 So they stopped at the Levite’s house, which was also Micah’s house, and greeted the Levite. 16 The six hundred Danites stood at the entrance gate, wearing their weapons of war. 17 The five spies went into the house and took the idol, the holy vest, the household idols, and the statue. The priest and the six hundred men armed for war stood by the entrance gate.
18 When the spies went into Micah’s house and took the image, the holy vest, the household idols, and the statue, the priest asked them, “What are you doing?”
19 They answered, “Be quiet! Don’t say a word. Come with us and be our father and priest. Is it better for you to be a priest for one man’s house or for a tribe and family group in Israel?” 20 This made the priest happy. So he took the holy vest, the household idols, and the idol and went with the Danites. 21 They left Micah’s house, putting their little children, their animals, and everything they owned in front of them.
22 When they had gone a little way from Micah’s house, the men who lived near Micah were called out and caught up with them. 23 The men with Micah shouted at the Danites, who turned around and said to Micah, “What’s the matter with you? Why have you been called out to fight?”
24 Micah answered, “You took my gods that I made and my priest. What do I have left? How can you ask me, ‘What’s the matter?’”
25 The Danites answered, “You should not argue with us. Some of our angry men might attack you, killing you and your family.” 26 Then the Danites went on their way. Micah knew they were too strong for him, so he turned and went back home.
27 Then the Danites took what Micah had made and his priest and went on to Laish. They attacked those peaceful people and killed them with their swords and then burned the city. 28 There was no one to save the people of Laish. They lived too far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone else. Laish was in a valley near Beth Rehob.
The people of Dan rebuilt the city and lived there. 29 They changed the name of Laish to Dan, naming it for their ancestor Dan, one of the sons of Israel.
30 The people of Dan set up the idols in the city of Dan. Jonathan son of Gershom, Moses’ son, and his sons served as priests for the tribe of Dan until the land was captured. 31 The people of Dan set up the idols Micah had made as long as the Holy Tent of God was in Shiloh.
Paul Speaks to the People
22 Paul said, “Brothers and fathers, listen to my defense to you.” 2 When they heard him speaking the Hebrew language,[a] they became very quiet. Paul said, 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in the country of Cilicia, but I grew up in this city. I was a student of Gamaliel,[b] who carefully taught me everything about the law of our ancestors. I was very serious about serving God, just as are all of you here today. 4 I persecuted the people who followed the Way of Jesus, and some of them were even killed. I arrested men and women and put them in jail. 5 The high priest and the whole council of elders can tell you this is true. They gave me letters to the brothers in Damascus. So I was going there to arrest these people and bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 “About noon when I came near Damascus, a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed all around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The voice said, ‘I am Jesus from Nazareth whom you are persecuting.’ 9 Those who were with me did not understand the voice, but they saw the light. 10 I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘Get up and go to Damascus. There you will be told about all the things I have planned for you to do.’ 11 I could not see, because the bright light had made me blind. So my companions led me into Damascus.
12 “There a man named Ananias came to me. He was a religious man; he obeyed the law of Moses, and all the Jews who lived there respected him. 13 He stood by me and said, ‘Brother Saul, see again!’ Immediately I was able to see him. 14 He said, ‘The God of our ancestors chose you long ago to know his plan, to see the Righteous One, and to hear words from him. 15 You will be his witness to all people, telling them about what you have seen and heard. 16 Now, why wait any longer? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, trusting in him to save you.’
17 “Later, when I returned to Jerusalem, I was praying in the Temple, and I saw a vision. 18 I saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem now! The people here will not accept the truth about me.’ 19 But I said, ‘Lord, they know that in every synagogue I put the believers in jail and beat them. 20 They also know I was there when Stephen, your witness, was killed. I stood there agreeing and holding the coats of those who were killing him!’ 21 But the Lord said to me, ‘Leave now. I will send you far away to the other nations.’ ”
22 The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they began shouting, “Get rid of him! He doesn’t deserve to live!” 23 They shouted, threw off their coats,[c] and threw dust into the air.[d]
24 Then the commander ordered the soldiers to take Paul into the army building and beat him. He wanted to make Paul tell why the people were shouting against him like this. 25 But as the soldiers were tying him up, preparing to beat him, Paul said to an officer nearby, “Do you have the right to beat a Roman citizen[e] who has not been proven guilty?”
26 When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. The officer said, “Do you know what you are doing? This man is a Roman citizen.”
27 The commander came to Paul and said, “Tell me, are you really a Roman citizen?”
He answered, “Yes.”
28 The commander said, “I paid a lot of money to become a Roman citizen.”
But Paul said, “I was born a citizen.”
29 The men who were preparing to question Paul moved away from him immediately. The commander was frightened because he had already tied Paul, and Paul was a Roman citizen.
Paul Speaks to Leaders
30 The next day the commander decided to learn why the Jews were accusing Paul. So he ordered the leading priests and the council to meet. The commander took Paul’s chains off. Then he brought Paul out and stood him before their meeting.
Jeremiah Buys a Field
32 This is the word the Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the tenth year Zedekiah was king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was surrounding Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet was under arrest in the courtyard of the guard, which was at the palace of the king of Judah.
3 Zedekiah king of Judah had put Jeremiah in prison there. Zedekiah had asked, “Why have you prophesied the things you have?” (Jeremiah had said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I will soon hand the city of Jerusalem over to the king of Babylon, and he will capture it. 4 Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the Babylonian army, but he will surely be handed over to the king of Babylon. And he will speak to the king of Babylon face to face and see him with his own eyes. 5 The king will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I have punished him,’ says the Lord. ‘If you fight against the Babylonians, you will not succeed.’”)
6 While Jeremiah was in prison, he said, “The Lord spoke this word to me: 7 Your cousin Hanamel, son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you soon. Hanamel will say to you, ‘Jeremiah, you are my nearest relative, so buy my field near the town of Anathoth. It is your right and your duty to buy that field.’
8 “Then it happened just as the Lord had said. My cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said to me, ‘Buy for yourself my field near Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. It is your right and duty to buy it and own it.’ So I knew this was a message from the Lord.
9 “I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, weighing out seven ounces of silver for him. 10 I signed the record and sealed it and had some people witness it. I also weighed out the silver on the scales. 11 Then I took both copies of the record of ownership—the one that was sealed that had the demands and limits of ownership, and the one that was not sealed. 12 And I gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah. My cousin Hanamel, the other witnesses who signed the record of ownership, and many Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard saw me give the record of ownership to Baruch.
13 “With all the people watching, I told Baruch, 14 ‘This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: Take both copies of the record of ownership—the sealed copy and the copy that was not sealed—and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time. 15 This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: In the future my people will once again buy houses and fields for grain and vineyards in the land of Israel.’
16 “After I gave the record of ownership to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, 17 Oh, Lord God, you made the skies and the earth with your very great power. There is nothing too hard for you to do. 18 You show love and kindness to thousands of people, but you also bring punishment to children for their parents’ sins. Great and powerful God, your name is the Lord All-Powerful. 19 You plan and do great things. You see everything that people do, and you reward people for the way they live and for what they do. 20 You did miracles and wonderful things in the land of Egypt. You have continued doing them in Israel and among the other nations even until today. So you have become well known. 21 You brought your people, the Israelites, out of Egypt using signs and miracles and your great power and strength. You brought great terror on everyone. 22 You gave them this land that you promised to their ancestors long ago, a fertile land. 23 They came into this land and took it for their own, but they did not obey you or follow your teachings. They did not do everything you commanded. So you made all these terrible things happen to them.
24 “Look! The enemy has surrounded the city and has built roads to the top of the walls to capture it. Because of war, hunger, and terrible diseases, the city will be handed over to the Babylonians who are attacking it. You said this would happen, and now you see it is happening. 25 But now, Lord God, you tell me, ‘Buy the field with silver and call in witnesses.’ You tell me this while the Babylonian army is ready to capture the city.”
26 Then the Lord spoke this word to Jeremiah: 27 “I am the Lord, the God of every person on the earth. Nothing is impossible for me. 28 So this is what the Lord says: I will soon hand over the city of Jerusalem to the Babylonian army and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will capture it. 29 The Babylonian army is already attacking the city of Jerusalem. They will soon enter it and start a fire to burn down the city and its houses. The people of Jerusalem offered sacrifices to Baal on the roofs[a] of those same houses and poured out drink offerings to other idols to make me angry. 30 From their youth, the people of Israel and Judah have done only the things I said were wrong. They have made me angry by worshiping idols made with their own hands,” says the Lord. 31 “From the day Jerusalem was built until now, this city has made me angry, so angry that I must remove it from my sight. 32 I will destroy it, because of all the evil the people of Israel and Judah have done. The people, their kings and officers, their priests and prophets, all the people of Judah, and the people of Jerusalem have made me angry. 33 They turned their backs to me, not their faces. I tried to teach them again and again, but they wouldn’t listen or learn. 34 They put their hateful idols in the place where I have chosen to be worshiped, so they made it unclean. 35 In the Valley of Ben Hinnom they built places to worship Baal so they could burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to Molech. But I never commanded them to do such a hateful thing. It never entered my mind that they would do such a thing and cause Judah to sin.
36 “You are saying, ‘Because of war, hunger, and terrible diseases, the city will be handed over to the king of Babylon.’ But the Lord, the God of Israel, says about Jerusalem: 37 I forced the people of Israel and Judah to leave their land, because I was furious and very angry with them. But soon I will gather them from all the lands where I forced them to go, and I will bring them back to this place, where they may live in safety. 38 The people of Israel and Judah will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will make them truly want to be one people with one goal. They will truly want to worship me all their lives, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.
40 “I will make an agreement with them that will last forever. I will never turn away from them; I will always do good to them. I will make them want to respect me so they will never turn away from me. 41 I will enjoy doing good to them. And with my whole being I will surely plant them in this land and make them grow.”
42 This is what the Lord says: “I have brought this great disaster to the people of Israel and Judah. In the same way I will bring the good things that I promise to do for them. 43 You are saying, ‘This land is an empty desert, without people or animals. It has been handed over to the Babylonians.’ But in the future, people will again buy fields in this land. 44 They will use their money to buy fields. They will sign and seal their agreements and call in witnesses. They will again buy fields in the land of Benjamin, in the area around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the mountains, in the western hills, and in southern Judah. I will make everything as good for them as it once was,” says the Lord.
Two Ways to Live
1 Happy are those who don’t listen to the wicked,
who don’t go where sinners go,
who don’t do what evil people do.
2 They love the Lord’s teachings,
and they think about those teachings day and night.
3 They are strong, like a tree planted by a river.
The tree produces fruit in season,
and its leaves don’t die.
Everything they do will succeed.
4 But wicked people are not like that.
They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
5 So the wicked will not escape God’s punishment.
Sinners will not worship with God’s people.
6 This is because the Lord takes care of his people,
but the wicked will be destroyed.
The Lord’s Chosen King
2 Why are the nations so angry?
Why are the people making useless plans?
2 The kings of the earth prepare to fight,
and their leaders make plans together
against the Lord
and his appointed one.
3 They say, “Let’s break the chains that hold us back
and throw off the ropes that tie us down.”
4 But the one who sits in heaven laughs;
the Lord makes fun of them.
5 Then the Lord warns them
and frightens them with his anger.
6 He says, “I have appointed my own king
to rule in Jerusalem on my holy mountain, Zion.”
7 Now I will tell you what the Lord has declared:
He said to me, “You are my son.
Today I have become your father.
8 If you ask me, I will give you the nations;
all the people on earth will be yours.
9 You will rule over them with an iron rod.
You will break them into pieces like pottery.”
10 So, kings, be wise;
rulers, learn this lesson.
11 Obey the Lord with great fear.
Be happy, but tremble.
12 Show that you are loyal to his son,
or you will be destroyed by his anger,
because he can quickly become angry.
But happy are those who trust him for protection.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.