M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
11 At that time all mankind spoke a single language. 2 As the population grew and spread eastward, a plain was discovered in the land of Babylon and was soon thickly populated. 3-4 The people who lived there began to talk about building a great city, with a temple-tower reaching to the skies—a proud, eternal monument to themselves.
“This will weld us together,” they said, “and keep us from scattering all over the world.” So they made great piles of hard-burned brick, and collected bitumen to use as mortar.
5 But when God came down to see the city and the tower mankind was making, 6 he said, “Look! If they are able to accomplish all this when they have just begun to exploit their linguistic and political unity, just think of what they will do later! Nothing will be unattainable for them![a] 7 Come, let us go down and give them different languages, so that they won’t understand each other’s words!”
8 So, in that way, God scattered them all over the earth; and that ended the building of the city. 9 That is why the city was called Babel (meaning “confusion”), because it was there that Jehovah confused them by giving them many languages, thus widely scattering them across the face of the earth.
10-11 Shem’s line of descendants included Arpachshad, born two years after the flood when Shem was 100 years old; after that he lived another 500 years and had many sons and daughters.
12-13 When Arpachshad was thirty-five years old, his son Shelah was born,[b] and after that he lived another 403 years and had many sons and daughters.
14-15 Shelah was thirty years old when his son Eber was born, living 403 years after that, and had many sons and daughters.
16-17 Eber was thirty-four years old when his son Peleg was born. He lived another 430 years afterwards and had many sons and daughters.
18-19 Peleg was thirty years old when his son Reu was born. He lived another 209 years afterwards and had many sons and daughters.
20-21 Reu was thirty-two years old when Serug was born. He lived 207 years after that, with many sons and daughters.
22-23 Serug was thirty years old when his son Nahor was born. He lived 200 years afterwards, with many sons and daughters.
24-25 Nahor was twenty-nine years old at the birth of his son Terah. He lived 119 years afterwards and had sons and daughters.
26 By the time Terah was seventy years old, he had three sons, Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
27 And Haran had a son named Lot. 28 But Haran died young, in the land where he was born (in Ur of the Chaldeans), and was survived by his father.
29 Meanwhile, Abram married his half sister[c] Sarai, while his brother Nahor married their orphaned niece, Milcah, who was the daughter of their brother Haran; and she had a sister named Iscah. 30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children. 31 Then Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (his son Haran’s child), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, and left Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; but they stopped instead at the city of Haran and settled there. 32 And there Terah died at the age of 205.[d]
10 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of sickness and disease.
2-4 Here are the names of his twelve disciples: Simon (also called Peter), Andrew (Peter’s brother), James (Zebedee’s son), John (James’s brother), Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew (the tax collector), James (Alphaeus’s son), Thaddaeus, Simon (a member of “The Zealots,” a subversive political party), Judas Iscariot (the one who betrayed him).
5 Jesus sent them out with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, 6 but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep. 7 Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.[a] 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure the lepers, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!
9 “Don’t take any money with you; 10 don’t even carry a duffle bag with extra clothes and shoes, or even a walking stick; for those you help should feed and care for you. 11 Whenever you enter a city or village, search for a godly man and stay in his home until you leave for the next town. 12 When you ask permission to stay, be friendly, 13 and if it turns out to be a godly home, give it your blessing; if not, keep the blessing. 14 Any city or home that doesn’t welcome you—shake off the dust of that place from your feet as you leave. 15 Truly, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off at Judgment Day than they.
16 “I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. Be as wary as serpents and harmless as doves. 17 But beware! For you will be arrested and tried, and whipped in the synagogues. 18 Yes, and you must stand trial before governors and kings for my sake. This will give you the opportunity to tell them about me, yes, to witness to the world.
19 “When you are arrested, don’t worry about what to say at your trial, for you will be given the right words at the right time. 20 For it won’t be you doing the talking—it will be the Spirit of your heavenly Father speaking through you!
21 “Brother shall betray brother to death, and fathers shall betray their own children. And children shall rise against their parents and cause their deaths. 22 Everyone shall hate you because you belong to me. But all of you who endure to the end shall be saved.
23 “When you are persecuted in one city, flee to the next! I[b] will return before you have reached them all! 24 A student is not greater than his teacher. A servant is not above his master. 25 The student shares his teacher’s fate. The servant shares his master’s! And since I, the master of the household, have been called ‘Satan,’[c] how much more will you! 26 But don’t be afraid of those who threaten you. For the time is coming when the truth will be revealed: their secret plots will become public information.
27 “What I tell you now in the gloom, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ears, proclaim from the housetops!
28 “Don’t be afraid of those who can kill only your bodies—but can’t touch your souls! Fear only God who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Not one sparrow (What do they cost? Two for a penny?) can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. 30 And the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t worry! You are more valuable to him than many sparrows.
32 “If anyone publicly acknowledges me as his friend, I will openly acknowledge him as my friend before my Father in heaven. 33 But if anyone publicly denies me, I will openly deny him before my Father in heaven.
34 “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! No, rather, a sword. 35 I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 36 a man’s worst enemies will be right in his own home! 37 If you love your father and mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. 38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.
39 “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will save it.
40 “Those who welcome you are welcoming me. And when they welcome me they are welcoming God who sent me. 41 If you welcome a prophet because he is a man of God, you will be given the same reward a prophet gets. And if you welcome good and godly men because of their godliness, you will be given a reward like theirs.
42 “And if, as my representatives, you give even a cup of cold water to a little child, you will surely be rewarded.”
10 As I lay on the ground in front of the Temple, weeping and praying and making this confession, a large crowd of men, women, and children gathered around and cried with me.
2 Then Shecaniah (the son of Jehiel of the clan of Elam) said to me, “We acknowledge our sin against our God, for we have married these heathen women. But there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 3 For we agree before our God to divorce our heathen wives and to send them away with our children; we will follow your commands and the commands of the others who fear our God. We will obey the laws of God. 4 Take courage and tell us how to proceed in setting things straight, and we will fully cooperate.”
5 So I stood up and demanded that the leaders of the priests and the Levites and all the people of Israel swear that they would do as Shecaniah had said; and they all agreed. 6 Then I went into the room of Jehohanan in the Temple and refused all food and drink, for I was mourning because of the sin of the returned exiles.
7-8 Then a proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem that everyone should appear at Jerusalem within three days and that the leaders and elders had decided that anyone who refused to come would be disinherited and excommunicated from Israel. 9 Within three days, on the fifth day of December,[a] all the men of Judah and Benjamin had arrived and were sitting in the open space before the Temple; and they were trembling because of the seriousness of the matter and because of the heavy rainfall. 10 Then I, Ezra the priest, arose and addressed them:
“You have sinned, for you have married heathen women; now we are even more deeply under God’s condemnation than we were before. 11 Confess your sin to the Lord God of your fathers and do what he demands: separate yourselves from the heathen people about you and from these women.”
12 Then all the men spoke up and said, “We will do what you have said. 13 But this isn’t something that can be done in a day or two, for there are many of us involved in this sinful affair. And it is raining so hard that we can’t stay out here much longer. 14 Let our leaders arrange trials for us. Everyone who has a heathen wife will come at the scheduled time with the elders and judges of his city; then each case will be decided and the situation will be cleared up, and the fierce wrath of our God will be turned away from us.”
15 Only Jonathan (son of Asahel), Jahzeiah (son of Tikvah), Meshullam, and Shabbethai the Levite opposed this course of action.
16-19 So this was the plan that was followed: Some of the clan leaders and I were designated as judges; we began our work on December 15 and finished by March 15.
Following is the list of priests who had married heathen wives (they vowed to divorce their wives and acknowledged their guilt by offering rams as sacrifices): Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, Gedaliah.
20 The sons of Immer: Hanani, Zebadiah.
21 The sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, Uzziah.
22 The sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, Elasah.
23 The Levites who were guilty: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (also called Kelita), Pethahaiah, Judah, Eliezer.
24 Of the singers, there was Eliashib.
Of the gatekeepers, Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
25 Here is the list of ordinary citizens who were declared guilty:
From the clan of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Hashabiah, Benaiah.
26 From the clan of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, Elijah.
27 From the clan of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, Aziza.
28 From the clan of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai.
29 From the clan of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, Jeremoth.
30 From the clan of Pahath-moab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, Manasseh.
31-32 From the clan of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah.
33 From the clan of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei.
34-42 From the clan of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel, Banaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Mattenai, Jaasu, Bani, Binnui, Shimei, Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah, Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah, Shallum, Amariah, Joseph.
43 From the clan of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, Benaiah.
44 Each of these men had heathen wives, and many had children by these wives.
10 In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer, Cornelius, a captain of an Italian regiment. 2 He was a godly man, deeply reverent, as was his entire household. He gave generously to charity and was a man of prayer. 3 While wide awake one afternoon he had a vision—it was about three o’clock—and in this vision he saw an angel of God coming toward him.
“Cornelius!” the angel said.
4 Cornelius stared at him in terror. “What do you want, sir?” he asked the angel.
And the angel replied, “Your prayers and charities have not gone unnoticed by God! 5-6 Now send some men to Joppa to find a man named Simon Peter, who is staying with Simon, the tanner, down by the shore, and ask him to come and visit you.”
7 As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a godly soldier, one of his personal bodyguard, 8 and told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.
9-10 The next day as they were nearing the city, Peter went up on the flat roof of his house to pray. It was noon and he was hungry, but while lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the sky open and a great canvas sheet,[a] suspended by its four corners, settle to the ground. 12 In the sheet were all sorts of animals, snakes, and birds forbidden to the Jews for food.[b]
13 Then a voice said to him, “Go kill and eat any of them you wish.”
14 “Never, Lord,” Peter declared, “I have never in all my life eaten such creatures, for they are forbidden by our Jewish laws.”
15 The voice spoke again, “Don’t contradict God! If he says something is kosher, then it is.”
16 The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was pulled up again to heaven.
17 Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? What was he supposed to do?
Just then the men sent by Cornelius had found the house and were standing outside at the gate, 18 inquiring whether this was the place where Simon Peter lived!
19 Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, “Three men have come to see you. 20 Go down and meet them and go with them. All is well, I have sent them.”
21 So Peter went down. “I’m the man you’re looking for,” he said. “Now what is it you want?”
22 Then they told him about Cornelius the Roman officer, a good and godly man, well thought of by the Jews, and how an angel had instructed him to send for Peter to come and tell him what God wanted him to do.
23 So Peter invited them in and lodged them overnight.
The next day he went with them, accompanied by some other believers from Joppa.
24 They arrived in Caesarea the following day, and Cornelius was waiting for him and had called together his relatives and close friends to meet Peter. 25 As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell to the floor before him in worship.
26 But Peter said, “Stand up! I’m not a god!”
27 So he got up, and they talked together for a while and then went in where the others were assembled.
28 Peter told them, “You know it is against the Jewish laws for me to come into a Gentile home like this. But God has shown me in a vision that I should never think of anyone as inferior. 29 So I came as soon as I was sent for. Now tell me what you want.”
30 Cornelius replied, “Four days ago I was praying as usual at this time of the afternoon, when suddenly a man was standing before me clothed in a radiant robe! 31 He told me, ‘Cornelius, your prayers are heard and your charities have been noticed by God! 32 Now send some men to Joppa and summon Simon Peter, who is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner, down by the shore.’ 33 So I sent for you at once, and you have done well to come so soon. Now here we are, waiting before the Lord, anxious to hear what he has told you to tell us!”
34 Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that the Jews are not God’s only favorites! 35 In every nation he has those who worship him and do good deeds and are acceptable to him. 36-37 I’m sure you have heard about the Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus, the Messiah, who is Lord of all creation. This message has spread all through Judea, beginning with John the Baptist in Galilee. 38 And you no doubt know that Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power, and he went around doing good and healing all who were possessed by demons, for God was with him.
39 “And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Israel and in Jerusalem, where he was murdered on a cross. 40-41 But God brought him back to life again three days later and showed him to certain witnesses God had selected beforehand—not to the general public, but to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he sent us to preach the Good News everywhere and to testify that Jesus is ordained of God to be the Judge of all—living and dead. 43 And all the prophets have written about him, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.”
44 Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those listening! 45 The Jews who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit would be given to Gentiles too! 46-47 But there could be no doubt about it,[c] for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
Peter asked, “Can anyone object to my baptizing them, now that they have received the Holy Spirit just as we did?” 48 So he did, baptizing them in the name of Jesus, the Messiah. Afterwards Cornelius begged him to stay with them for several days.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.