M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Eternal One: Go, talk to the priests, Aaron’s sons, and tell them that I don’t want any priest to make himself ritually impure by having contact with a dead person in Israel. ² There is an exception: a priest is allowed to touch the dead body of his closest family members—his mother, father, son, daughter, brother, ³ and any sister who is still a virgin when she dies. Since she has no husband, the priest is her closest relative, so he is allowed to make himself impure for her. ⁴ A priest must not render himself impure and defile himself by touching the corpse of a person related to him only by marriage. ⁵ Priests are not allowed to mourn like other people by shaving their heads, trimming their beards, or cutting gashes into their bodies. ⁶ Priests are to be holy to Me and not treat My sacred name with contempt. They bring the fire-offerings to Me, the food of their God, and so they must be sacred. ⁷ Priests are not to marry women defiled by prostitution or women who are divorced, for priests are holy to Me.

⁸ You must set the priest apart as special and treat him as holy, for he brings the food to your God. The priests must be considered holy to you because I, the Eternal, am holy, and I have set you apart from all other nations. ⁹ If a priest’s daughter dabbles in prostitution, then she desecrates herself and also her father. She is to be burned to death.

¹⁰ Of the brotherhood of priests, the high priest is the one whose head has been anointed with oil and who has been ordained to wear the sacred garments. He is not to leave his hair uncombed or tear his garments when he is mourning. ¹¹ He is not to go near any dead bodies—not even his father’s or mother’s—or else he will make himself impure. ¹² The high priest is not allowed to go outside the sanctuary during the time of mourning and thereby desecrate God’s sanctuary, for he has been anointed with the sacred oil of his God. I am the Eternal One. ¹³ He is to marry a woman who is a virgin. ¹⁴ He is not allowed to choose a widow, a divorced woman, or a prostitute as a wife—any woman who has already had sexual relations. He is only allowed to marry a virgin from his own community. ¹⁵ This arrangement will guarantee that his future offspring will not be treated badly among his people, for I am the Eternal who makes him holy.

Eternal One: ^17-18 Go, talk with Aaron, and tell him that throughout future generations those who are physically marred are not allowed to approach the sanctuary and offer food to Me. This includes those who are blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed. ¹⁹ It includes those who have a broken foot or an injured hand, ²⁰ hunchbacks, dwarves, anyone with a defective eye or a festering rash or scabs or crushed testicles. ²¹ No one from Aaron’s offspring who has a physical defect is allowed to approach the sanctuary and present fire-offerings to Me; since he is not perfect, he must not approach to offer his God’s food. ²² He is allowed to eat a portion of the food offered to God, including the sacred and most sacred, ²³ but he is not allowed to go behind the veil or approach the altar because of his imperfection. This is the rule so that he does not desecrate My holy places. I am the Eternal One who consecrates him.

4 Teacher: Then I looked again and saw all the oppression that happens under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and no one offered to help and comfort them. The oppressors exercise all the power, while the powerless have no one to help and comfort them. ² It struck me that the dead are actually better off than the living who must go on living; ³ and, even better, are those who were never born in the first place. At least they have never had to witness all of the injustices that take place under the sun.

Teacher: ⁴ Then I saw yet another thing: envy fuels achievement. All the work and skills people develop come from their desire to be better than their neighbors. Even this is fleeting, like trying to embrace the wind.

⁷ Again I observed another example of how fleeting life is under the sun: ⁸ a person who is all alone—with no child, no sibling—yet he works hard his entire life. Still he is never satisfied with the wealth he gains. Does he stop to ask, “Why am I working so hard?” or “Why am I depriving myself of life’s simple pleasures?” This, too, is fleeting, like trying to catch hold of a breath; it’s a miserable situation.

⁹ Two are better than one because a good return comes when two work together. ¹⁰ If one of them falls, the other can help him up. But who will help the pitiful person who falls down alone? ¹¹ In the same way, if two lie down together, they can keep each other warm. But how will the one who sleeps alone stay warm against the night? ¹² And if one person is vulnerable to attack, two can drive the attacker away. As the saying goes, “A rope made of three strands is not quickly broken.”

¹³ A poor, wise youth is better off than an old, foolish king who no longer accepts advice. ¹⁴ For example, once a young man marched out of prison to become king; it had not mattered how poor he once had been in his kingdom. ¹⁵ I saw all those who live out their lives under the sun flock to the side of a second youth who took the king’s place. ¹⁶ There seemed to be no limit to all the people who were under his authority. Yet those who will come later will not be happy with him and will refuse to follow him. Even this, you see, is fleeting—power and influence do not last—like trying to pursue the wind.^[a]