M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Restoring the Kohanim and Levites

31 When all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the towns of Judah and smashed the pillars, smashed the Asherah poles and demolished the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, as well as throughout Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all Bnei-Yisrael returned to their towns, each to their own property.

² Then Hezekiah reestablished the divisions of the kohanim and the Levites together with their divisions, each of the kohanim and Levites according to his service: for burnt offerings, peace offerings, to minister, to praise, or to sing praises in the gates of the courts of Adonai. ^{[a] 3} The king also contributed a portion of his own assets for the burnt offerings: the morning and the evening burnt offerings and the burnt offerings for Shabbatot, the New Moons and the moadim, as it is written in the Torah of Adonai. ⁴ Moreover, he commanded the people, the residents of Jerusalem, to give the portion allotted to the kohanim and the Levites, so that they might devote themselves to the Torah of Adonai. ⁵ As soon as the word spread, Bnei-Yisrael gave generously the firstfruits of their grain, wine, oil, honey and all the produce of the field, as well as tithe of all the abundance. ⁶ The children of Israel and Judah who lived in the towns of Judah, also brought in the tithe of bulls and sheep, and the tithe of the sacred things consecrated to Adonai their God. They piled them in heaps. ⁷ In the third month the heaps began to accumulate and finished in the seventh month. ⁸ When Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the heaps, they blessed Adonai and His people Israel.

⁹ Hezekiah asked the kohanim and the Levites about the heaps. ¹⁰ Azariah the chief kohen from the house of Zadok, replied to him saying, “Ever since the gifts began to be brought into the House of Adonai, we have had enough to eat and more than enough, for Adonai has blessed His people with plenty left over.”

¹¹ Then Hezekiah ordered them to prepare storerooms in the House of Adonai, and they prepared them. ¹² They faithfully brought in the offerings and the tithes and the consecrated gifts. Conaniah the Levite was the leader in charge over them and Shimei his brother was next in rank. ¹³ Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath and Benaiah were supervisors under Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king and Azariah the leader in charge of the House of God. ¹⁴ Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, keeper of the East Gate, was over the freewill offerings of God, distributing the offering of Adonai and the consecrated gifts. ¹⁵ Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah faithfully assisted him in the towns of the kohanim, making allocations to their brothers by divisions—to great and little alike, ¹⁶ only considering genealogical records, to the males three years old and upward—to all who entered into the House of Adonai, to perform the daily duties according to their responsibilities and their divisions— ¹⁷ to the kohanim who were genealogically registered by their ancestral houses, as well as to the Levites 20 years old and upward, according to their duties and their divisions. ¹⁸ The genealogical registry included all their little ones, their wives and sons and daughters of the entire assembly. Thus in their faithfulness they consecrated themselves as holy.

¹⁹ As for the sons of Aaron, the kohanim, who lived in the fields of the common lands of their towns—in every town—men were designated by name to distribute portions to all the males among the kohanim and to all who were genealogically registered among the Levites. ²⁰ Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah. He did what was good, right and true before Adonai his God. ²¹ Every work he undertook in the service of the House of God and in the Torah and the mitzvot to seek his God, he did wholeheartedly and succeeded.

The Vile Prostitute and the Beast

17 Then one of the seven angels holding the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the sentencing of the great prostitute,^[a] who sits on many waters. ² The earth’s kings committed sexual immorality with her, and those who dwell on the earth got drunk with the wine of her immorality.”

³ So he carried me away in the Ruach into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. ^{[b] 4} The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.^[c] She was holding a golden cup^[d] in her hand full of detestable things and the filth of her immorality, ⁵ and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery:

“Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and the detestable things of the earth.”

⁶ And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the kedoshim and with the blood of the witnesses of Yeshua. When I saw her, I was totally astounded.

⁷ But the angel said to me, “Why are you astonished? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. ⁸ The beast that you saw was, and is not, and yet is about to rise up from the abyss and head for destruction. Those who dwell on the earth—whose names have not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world—will be astonished when they see the beast, because he was and is not and is to come.

⁹ “This calls for a mind having wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. They are also seven kings— ¹⁰ five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. ¹¹ The beast that was and is not—he himself is the eighth, and is one of the seven, and is heading for destruction. ¹² The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. ¹³ These kings are of one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast. ¹⁴ They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them—because He is Lord of lords and King of kings,^[e] and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful.”

¹⁵ Then he tells me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. ¹⁶ The ten horns that you saw, and the beast—these will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked,^[f] and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. ¹⁷ For God has put it into their hearts to do His will, and to be of one mind, and to give their royal power to the beast until the words of God are fulfilled. ¹⁸ And the woman that you saw is the great city exercising kingship over the kings of the earth.”

^{[a] 2} It will happen in that day”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot—“that I will erase the names of the idols from the land and they will no longer be remembered. Furthermore, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land. ³ If anyone still prophesies his father and his mother to whom he was born will say to him, ‘You cannot live because you tell lies in the Name of Adonai.’ When he prophesies, his own father and mother, the ones who bore him, will pierce him through. ⁴ Therefore in that day each ‘prophet’ will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will no longer wear a hairy mantle in order to deceive ⁵ but will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer—I have been a bondservant from my youth.’ ⁶ Then someone will ask him, “What are these wounds between your hands?”—and he will answer, “Those that I received in the house of my friends.”

16 “I have spoken these things to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. ² They will throw you out of the synagogues. Yes, an hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. ³ They will do these things because they have never known the Father or Me. ⁴ But I have spoken these things to you so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.”

The Ruach Reveals Truth

⁵ “But now I am going to the One who sent Me, and not one of you is asking Me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ Because I have spoken these things to you, grief has filled your heart. ⁷ But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away! For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

⁸ “When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: ⁹ concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰ concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; ¹¹ and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

¹² “I still have much more to tell you, but you cannot handle it just now. ¹³ But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; but whatever He hears, He will tell you. And He will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ Everything that the Father has is Mine. For this reason I said the Ruach will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.”

Death and Resurrection Foretold

¹⁶ “A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again in a little while, you will see Me.”

¹⁷ Then some of His disciples said to one another, “What does He mean by telling us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again in a little while, you will see Me’? And, ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”

¹⁸ They kept on saying, “What’s this He’s saying, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what He’s talking about!”

¹⁹ Yeshua knew that they wanted to question Him, so He said to them, “Are you asking each other about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again in a little while, you will see Me’? ²⁰ Amen, amen I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will celebrate. You will be filled with sorrow, but your sorrow will turn to joy!

²¹ “When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come.^[a] But when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of the joy that a human being has been born into the world. ²² So also you have sorrow now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you!

²³ “In that day, you will ask Me nothing. Amen, amen I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. ²⁴ Up to now, you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be full.

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you in metaphors. An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in metaphors, but will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶ In that day, you will ask in My name—and I’m not telling you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. ²⁸ I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

²⁹ His disciples say, “See, now You’re speaking plainly and not in metaphors. ³⁰ Now we know that You know everything and have no need to be asked anything. By this we believe that You came forth from God.”

³¹ Yeshua answered them, “Do you now believe? ³² Look, the hour is coming—indeed has come—when you will be scattered, each to his own, and you will abandon Me. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. ³³ These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have shalom. In the world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world!”