M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Wives for the Benjaminites

21 The Israelites had made a pledge at Mizpah, declaring, “None of us will allow his daughter to marry a Benjaminite.” ² But the people came to Bethel and sat there until evening before God, raising their voices and crying bitterly. ³ “Lord, God of Israel,” they said, “why has this happened among us that as of today one tribe will be missing from Israel?” ⁴ And the next day, the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered entirely burned offerings and well-being sacrifices.

⁵ Then the Israelites asked, “Were there any out of all the tribes of Israel who didn’t march up to the assembly before the Lord?” Indeed, they had made a solemn pledge that anyone who didn’t march up before the Lord at Mizpah would be put to death. ⁶ The Israelites had a change of heart concerning their relatives the Benjaminites. They said, “Today one tribe has been cut off from Israel. ⁷ What can we do to provide wives for the ones who are left, since we ourselves have made a pledge before the Lord not to allow our daughters to marry them?” ⁸ So they asked, “Is there anyone from the tribes of Israel who didn’t march up before the Lord at Mizpah?” There was! No one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the assembly at the camp. ⁹ When the people’s attendance was taken, not one of those who lived in Jabesh-gilead had been there.

¹⁰ The community dispatched twelve thousand warriors there with these orders: “Go kill all the people in Jabesh-gilead, including women and children. ¹¹ Here’s what you should do: Exterminate every man and every woman who has slept with a man.” ¹² Among the people of Jabesh-gilead, they found four hundred young women who had not known a man intimately or slept with one, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan. ¹³ The whole community then sent word to the Benjaminites who were at the rock of Rimmon and offered them a truce.^{[a] 14} So the Benjaminites returned at that time, and they gave them the women from Jabesh-gilead that they had allowed to live. Even so, there weren’t enough for them.

¹⁵ Since the people had a change of heart concerning the Benjaminites because the Lord had caused a rupture in the tribes of Israel, ¹⁶ the community elders said, “What can we do to provide wives for the ones who are left, seeing that the Benjaminite women have been destroyed? ¹⁷ There must be a surviving line for those who remain from Benjamin,” they continued, “so that a tribe won’t be erased from Israel. ¹⁸ But we can’t allow our daughters to marry them, for we Israelites have made this pledge: ‘Let anyone who provides a wife for Benjamin be cursed!’ ¹⁹ However,” they said, “the annual festival of the Lord is under way in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the main road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.” ²⁰ So they instructed the Benjaminites, “Go and hide like an ambush in the vineyards ²¹ and watch. At the moment the women of Shiloh come out to participate in the dances, rush out from the vineyards. Each one of you, capture a wife for yourself from the women of Shiloh and go back to the land of Benjamin. ²² When their fathers or brothers come to us to object, we’ll tell them, ‘Do us a favor for their sake. We didn’t capture enough women for every man during the battle, and this way you are not guilty because you didn’t give them anything willingly.’” ²³ And that is what the Benjaminites did. They took wives for their whole group from the dancers whom they abducted. They returned to their territory, rebuilt the cities, and lived in them. ²⁴ Likewise, the Israelites set out from there at that time, heading home to their respective tribes and clans. They all left there for their own territories.

²⁵ In those days there was no king in Israel; each person did what they thought to be right.

Paul appeals to Caesar

25 Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. ² The chief priests and Jewish leaders presented their case against Paul. Appealing to him, ³ they asked as a favor from Festus that he summon Paul to Jerusalem. They were planning to ambush and kill him along the way. ⁴ But Festus responded by keeping Paul in Caesarea, since he was to return there very soon himself. ⁵ “Some of your leaders can come down with me,” he said. “If he’s done anything wrong, they can bring charges against him.”

⁶ He stayed with them for no more than eight or ten days, then went down to Caesarea. The following day he took his seat in the court and ordered that Paul be brought in. ⁷ When he arrived, many Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him. They brought serious charges against him, but they couldn’t prove them. ⁸ In his own defense, Paul said, “I’ve done nothing wrong against the Jewish Law, against the temple, or against Caesar.”

⁹ Festus, wanting to put the Jews in his debt, asked Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem to stand trial before me concerning these things?”

¹⁰ Paul replied, “I’m standing before Caesar’s court. I ought to be tried here. I have done nothing wrong to the Jews, as you well know. ¹¹ If I’m guilty and have done something that deserves death, then I won’t try to avoid death. But if there is nothing to their accusations against me, no one has the authority to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

¹² After Festus conferred with his advisors, he responded, “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go.”

King Agrippa informed about Paul

¹³ After several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea to welcome Festus. ¹⁴ Since they were staying there for many days, Festus discussed the case against Paul with the king. He said, “There is a man whom Felix left in prison. ¹⁵ When I was in Jerusalem, the Jewish chief priests and elders brought charges against him and requested a guilty verdict in his case. ¹⁶ I told them it is contrary to Roman practice to hand someone over before they have faced their accusers and had opportunity to offer a defense against the charges. ¹⁷ When they came here, I didn’t put them off. The very next day I took my seat in the court and ordered that the man be brought before me. ¹⁸ When the accusers took the floor, they didn’t charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. ¹⁹ Instead, they quibbled with him about their own religion and about some dead man named Jesus, who Paul claimed was alive. ²⁰ Since I had no idea how to investigate these matters, I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem to stand trial there on these issues. ²¹ However, Paul appealed that he be held in custody pending a decision from His Majesty the emperor, so I ordered that he be held until I could send him to Caesar.”

²² Agrippa said to Festus, “I want to hear the man myself.”

“Tomorrow,” Festus replied, “you will hear him.”

²³ The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great fanfare. They entered the auditorium with the military commanders and the city’s most prominent men. Festus then ordered that Paul be brought in. ²⁴ Festus said, “King Agrippa and everyone present with us: You see this man! The entire Jewish community, both here and in Jerusalem, has appealed to me concerning him. They’ve been calling for his immediate death. ²⁵ I’ve found that he has done nothing deserving death. When he appealed to His Majesty, I decided to send him to Rome. ²⁶ I have nothing definite to write to our lord emperor. Therefore, I’ve brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this investigation, I might have something to write. ²⁷ After all, it would be foolish to send a prisoner without specifying the charges against him.”

35 Jeremiah received the Lord’s word during the rule of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son: ² Go to the Rechabite family and invite them to come to one of the rooms of the Lord’s temple. When they arrive, offer them some wine to drink. ³ So I took Jaazaniah, Jeremiah’s son and Habazziniah’s grandson, and his brothers and all his sons, and the whole Rechabite family. ⁴ I brought them to the room in the Lord’s temple assigned to the sons of Hanan, Igdaliah’s son, the man of God. The room was next to the one used by the chief officers and right above the room of Maaseiah, Shallum’s son, the temple doorkeeper.^{[a] 5} Then I set bowls full of wine before the Rechabites, along with several cups, and I said to them, “Have some.”

⁶ But they refused: “We don’t drink wine because our ancestor Jonadab, Rechab’s son, commanded us, ‘You and your children are never to drink wine; ⁷ nor are you to build or own houses or plant gardens and vineyards; rather, you are always to dwell in tents so you may live a long time in the fertile land you pass through.’ ⁸ We have obeyed everything our ancestor Jonadab, Rechab’s son, commanded us. No one in our household, including our wives and children, has ever had wine. ⁹ And we haven’t built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields, or crops. ¹⁰ We have lived in tents and done everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. ¹¹ But when Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the country, we said, ‘We better go to Jerusalem to escape the Babylonian and Aramean armies.’ That’s why we’re here in Jerusalem.”

¹² Then the Lord’s word came to Jeremiah: ¹³ The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Go and tell the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem: Can’t you learn a lesson about what it means to obey me? declares the Lord. ¹⁴ Jonadab, Rechab’s son, commanded his descendants not to drink wine, and to this very day they have not drunk wine, obeying their ancestor’s instruction. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you haven’t listened to me. ¹⁵ I have sent you all my servants, the prophets, time and again, saying, “Each of you, turn from your evil ways and reform your actions; don’t worship or serve other gods. Then you may live in the fertile land I gave to you and your ancestors.” But you haven’t paid attention or listened to me. ¹⁶ The descendants of Jonadab, Rechab’s son, have thoroughly obeyed their ancestor, but this people have not listened to me. ¹⁷ Therefore, this is what the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: I’m going to bring upon the people of Judah and all those who live in Jerusalem the disaster I pronounced against them, because they wouldn’t listen to me or respond when I called.

¹⁸ Then Jeremiah said to the Rechabite family: The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Because you have obeyed all Jonadab’s instructions and you have done everything he commanded you, ¹⁹ the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel proclaims: Jonadab, Rechab’s son, will always have a descendant that stands before me.

Psalm 7

A shiggayon^[a] of David, which he sang to the Lord about Cush, a Benjaminite.

Psalm 8

For the music leader. According to the Gittith.^[e] A psalm of David.