M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Israel Preserves the Benjaminites

21 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah saying, “None of us will give his daughter to Benjamin in marriage.” ² So the people came to Bethel and sat there till evening before God, and lifted up their voices and wept bitterly. ³ They said, “Adonai God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that one tribe should be missing in Israel?”

⁴ Then it was on the next day that the people rose up early and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. ⁵ Then Bnei-Yisrael asked, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the assembly before Adonai?” For they had made a great oath concerning anyone who did not come up to Adonai at Mizpah saying, “He will surely be put to death.”

⁶ Now Bnei-Yisrael felt sorry for Benjamin their brother and said, “Today one tribe has been cut off from Israel. ⁷ What should we do about providing wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by Adonai not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?”

⁸ Then they inquired, “Which one of the tribes of Israel that did not go up to Adonai at Mizpah?” Then behold, no one had come to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly. ⁹ For when the people were numbered, behold not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there. ¹⁰ So the congregation sent 12,000 valiant warriors there, and commanded them saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. ¹¹ Now this is the thing that you will do: you are to utterly destroy every male and every woman who has lain with a man.” ¹² So they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead 400 young virgins who had not known man by lying with him. They brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

¹³ Then the whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed shalom to them. ¹⁴ When Benjamin returned at that time, they gave them the women whom they had spared from the women of Jabesh-gilead. Yet they were not enough for them. ¹⁵ So the people were sorry for Benjamin because Adonai had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶ Then the elders of the congregation said, “What should we do about wives for those who are left, since the women have been destroyed out of Benjamin?” ¹⁷ They said “The survivors of Benjamin must have heirs, so that a tribe would not be blotted out from Israel. ¹⁸ Yet we cannot give them wives of our daughters,” for Bnei-Yisrael had sworn saying, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin!”

¹⁹ So they said, “Behold, there is the feast of Adonai from year to year at Shiloh” (which is to the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and to the south of Lebonah). ²⁰ So they commanded the children of Benjamin saying, “Go and hide in the vineyards, ²¹ and watch, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh should come out to join in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and let each of you catch his wife from among the daughters of Shiloh. Then go to the land of Benjamin. ²² So it will be, if their fathers or brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, ‘Grant them graciously for us, because we did not provide each one of them his wife in battle—nor did you give the girls to them, else you would now be guilty.’”

²³ So the children of Benjamin did so, and took the number of wives from the dancers whom they carried off. Then they went and returned to their inheritance, and rebuilt the towns and settled in them.

²⁴ So Bnei-Yisrael departed from there at that time, each man to his tribe and family. Everyone went out from there to his own inheritance.

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

Appeal to Caesar

25 Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. ² There the ruling kohanim and the leading Judeans brought charges against Paul. They were urging him, ³ asking a favor—to have Paul sent to Jerusalem, planning an ambush to kill him on the road.

⁴ Festus then answered that Paul was being guarded at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to go there shortly. ⁵ “So then,” he said, “let the prominent men among you go down with me; and if there is any wrong in the man, let them accuse him.”

⁶ After spending not more than eight to ten days with them, he went down to Caesarea. The next day, he sat on the judgment seat and ordered Paul to be brought in. ⁷ When he arrived, the Judeans who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing against him many serious charges which they could not prove.

⁸ Paul said in his defense, “I have committed no offense against the Torah of the Jewish people, or against the Temple, or against Caesar.”

⁹ But Festus, wanting to do the Jewish leaders a favor, said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem to be tried before me?”

¹⁰ But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Judeans, as you very well know. ¹¹ If then I am in the wrong and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges, no one can turn me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

¹² Then when Festus had consulted with the council, he responded, “You have appealed to Caesar—to Caesar you shall go!”

Festus Seeks Agrippa’s Counsel

¹³ Now after several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus. ¹⁴ While they were staying there several days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, “There is a man left behind as a prisoner by Felix. ¹⁵ When I was in Jerusalem, the ruling kohanim and elders of the Judeans brought charges against him, asking for a judgment against him. ¹⁶ I answered them that it is not Roman practice to turn over anyone before the accused meets his accusers face to face and has an opportunity to make his defense concerning the charges. ¹⁷ So when they came together here, I did not delay, but on the next day sat on the judgment seat and ordered the man to be brought in. ¹⁸ When the accusers stood up, they were not bringing a charge of what crimes I suspected. ¹⁹ Instead, they had certain issues with him about their own religion and about a certain Yeshua, who had died, whom Paul claimed to be alive.

²⁰ “Since I was at a loss as to how to investigate these matters, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem to be tried there in regard to them. ²¹ But when Paul appealed to be held in custody for the decision of His Majesty the Emperor, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.”

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

“Tomorrow,” he said, “you shall hear him.”

²³ So on the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pageantry. They entered the audience hall with the commanders and the most prominent men of the city. Then at the order of Festus, Paul was brought in.

²⁴ Festus said, “King Agrippa and all present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Judean population petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting out that he ought not live any longer. ²⁵ But I found that he had done nothing deserving of death; and when he himself appealed to His Majesty the Emperor, I decided to send him. ²⁶ Yet I have nothing specific to write to my lord about him. Therefore I have brought him before you—and especially before you, King Agrippa—so that after the investigation has taken place, I might have something to write. ²⁷ For it seems illogical to me when sending a prisoner, not to report also the charges against him.”

Obedience of Rechabites

35 The word that came to Jeremiah from Adonai in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying: ² “Go to the house of the Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them into one of the chambers of the House of Adonai, and give them wine to drink.”

³ So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, his brothers and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites, ⁴ and I brought them into the House of Adonai to the chamber of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah the man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum, the doorkeeper. ⁵ I set jars full of wine and cups before the sons of the house of the Rechabites, and said to them: “Drink wine!”

⁶ But they said: “We drink no wine, for Jonadab son of Rechab our father commanded us: ‘You will drink no wine, not you nor your sons, forever. ⁷ Also you are not to build a house, or sow seed, or plant a vineyard or own one. Instead all your days you are to dwell in tents, so that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ ⁸ So we obeyed the voice of Jonadab son of Rechab our father in all that he 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, nor to own a vineyard, field or seed, ¹⁰ and we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. ¹¹ But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up against the land, we said: ‘Come, let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and for fear of the army of the Arameans. So we are dwelling in Jerusalem.”

¹² Then came the word of Adonai to Jeremiah, saying, ¹³ thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “Go, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, ‘Will you not receive instruction by listening to My words?’” says Adonai. ¹⁴ “The words of Jonadab son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are observed, and to this day they drink none, for they listen to their father’s commandment. Yet I have spoken to you, early and often, and you have not obeyed Me.

¹⁵ “I have sent also to you all My servants the prophets, sending them early and often, saying: ‘Return you now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and you will dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers; but you have not inclined your ear, nor listened to Me. ¹⁶ For the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have kept the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people have not obeyed Me.’”

¹⁷ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “I am about to bring on Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I spoke to them but they have not heard, and I have called to them but they have not answered.”

¹⁸ Now Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, 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 commanded you,” ¹⁹ therefore thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “There will never be cut off for Jonadab son of Rechab a man to stand before Me forever.”

Adonai Magen

Psalm 7

Humanity is God’s Splendor

Psalm 8