M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Chapter 17
1 The Lord said to Moses: 2 Tell Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, to remove the censers from the embers; and scatter the fire some distance away, for they have become holy— 3 [a]the censers of those who sinned at the cost of their lives. Have them hammered into plates to cover the altar, because in being presented before the Lord they have become holy. In this way they shall serve as a sign to the Israelites. 4 So taking the bronze censers which had been presented by those who were burned, Eleazar the priest had them hammered into a covering for the altar, 5 just as the Lord had directed him through Moses. This was to be a reminder to the Israelites that no unauthorized person, no one who was not a descendant of Aaron, should draw near to offer incense before the Lord, lest he meet the fate of Korah and his faction.
6 The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.” 7 But while the community was assembling against them, Moses and Aaron turned toward the tent of meeting, and the cloud now covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. 8 Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, 9 and the Lord said to Moses: 10 Remove yourselves from this community, that I may consume them at once. But they fell prostrate.
11 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, and bring it quickly to the community to make atonement for them; for wrath has come forth from the Lord and the plague has begun.”(A) 12 Aaron took his censer just as Moses directed and ran in among the assembly, where the plague had already begun among the people. Then he offered the incense and made atonement for the people, 13 while standing there between the living and the dead. And so the scourge was checked. 14 There were fourteen thousand seven hundred dead from the scourge, in addition to those who died because of Korah. 15 When the scourge had been checked, Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
Aaron’s Staff. 16 The Lord now said to Moses: 17 Speak to the Israelites and get from them a staff[b] for each ancestral house, twelve staffs in all, from all the leaders of their ancestral houses. Write each man’s name on his staff; 18 and write Aaron’s name on Levi’s staff.[c] For each head of an ancestral house shall have a staff. 19 Then deposit them in the tent of meeting, in front of the covenant, where I meet you. 20 The staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will rid myself of the Israelites’ grumbling against you.
21 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and all their leaders gave him staffs, twelve in all, one from each leader of their ancestral houses; and Aaron’s staff was among them. 22 Then Moses deposited the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant. 23 The next day, when Moses entered the tent of the covenant, Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted. It had put forth sprouts, produced blossoms, and borne ripe almonds! 24 So Moses brought out all the staffs from the Lord’s presence to all the Israelites, and each one identified his own staff and took it. 25 Then the Lord said to Moses: Put back Aaron’s staff in front of the covenant, for safe keeping as a sign to the rebellious, so that their grumbling against me may cease and they might not die. 26 Moses did this. Just as the Lord had commanded him, so he did.
Charge of the Sacred Things. 27 [d]Then the Israelites exclaimed to Moses, “We will perish; we are lost, we are all lost! 28 Anyone who approaches the tabernacle of the Lord will die! Will there be no end to our perishing?”
Chapter 18
1 The Lord said to Aaron:[e] You and your sons as well as your ancestral house with you[f] shall be responsible for any sin with respect to the sanctuary; but only you and your sons with you shall be responsible for any sin with respect to your priesthood. 2 You shall also present with you your kinsmen of the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, that they may be joined to you[g] and assist you, while you and your sons with you are in front of the tent of the covenant. 3 They shall discharge your obligations and those with respect to the whole tent; however, they shall not come near the utensils of the sanctuary or the altar, or else both they and you will die. 4 They will be joined to you to perform the duties associated with the tent of meeting, all the labor pertaining to the tent. But no unauthorized person[h] shall come near you. 5 You shall perform the duties of the sanctuary and of the altar, that wrath may not fall again upon the Israelites.
6 I hereby take your kinsmen, the Levites, from among the Israelites; they are a gift to you,(B) dedicated to the Lord for the labor they perform for the tent of meeting. 7 (C)But you and your sons with you must take care to exercise your priesthood in whatever concerns the altar and the area within the veil.[i] I give you your priesthood as a gift. Any unauthorized person who comes near shall be put to death.
The Priests’ Share of the Sacrifices. 8 The Lord said to Aaron:[j] I hereby give to you charge of the contributions made to me, including the various holy offerings of the Israelites;(D) I assign them to you and to your sons as a perquisite, a perpetual due. 9 This is what you shall have from the oblations that are most holy: every offering of theirs—namely, all their grain offerings, purification offerings, and reparation offerings which they must return to me—shall be most holy for you and for your sons. 10 You shall eat them in a most holy place;[k] every male may partake of them. As holy, they belong to you.
11 This also you shall have: the contributions that are their gifts, including the elevated offering[l] of the Israelites; I assign them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual due.(E) All in your household who are clean may eat them. 12 I also assign to you all the best(F) of the new oil and of the new wine and grain that they give to the Lord as their first produce that has been processed. 13 The first-ripened fruits of whatever is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours; all of your household who are clean may eat them. 14 Whatever is under the ban[m] in Israel shall be yours. 15 Every living thing that opens the womb, human being and beast alike, such as are to be offered to the Lord, shall be yours;(G) but you must redeem the firstborn of human beings, as well as redeem the firstborn of unclean animals. 16 For the redemption price of a son, when he is a month old, you shall pay the equivalent of five silver shekels according to the sanctuary shekel, that is, twenty gerahs. 17 But the firstborn of cattle, or the firstborn of sheep or the firstborn of goats you shall not redeem; they are holy. Their blood you must splash on the altar and their fat you must burn as an oblation of pleasing aroma to the Lord. 18 (H)Their meat, however, shall be yours, just as the brisket of the elevated offering and the right thigh belong to you. 19 As a perpetual due I assign to you and to your sons and daughters with you all the contributions of holy things which the Israelites set aside for the Lord; this is a covenant of salt[n] to last forever before the Lord, for you and for your descendants with you. 20 (I)Then the Lord said to Aaron:[o] You shall not have any heritage in their land nor hold any portion among them; I will be your portion and your heritage among the Israelites.
Tithes Due the Levites. 21 To the Levites, however, I hereby assign all tithes in Israel as their heritage in recompense for the labor they perform, the labor pertaining to the tent of meeting.(J) 22 The Israelites may no longer approach the tent of meeting, thereby incurring the penalty of death. 23 Only the Levites are to perform the labor pertaining to the tent of meeting, and they shall incur the penalty for the Israelites’ sin;[p] this is a permanent statute for all your generations. But they shall not have any heritage among the Israelites, 24 for I have assigned to the Levites as their heritage the tithes which the Israelites put aside as a contribution to the Lord. That is why I have said, they will not have any heritage among the Israelites.
Tithes Paid by the Levites. 25 The Lord said to Moses: 26 Speak to the Levites and say to them: When you take from the Israelites the tithes I have assigned you from them as your heritage, you are to make a contribution from them to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe; 27 and your contribution will be credited to you as if it were grain from the threshing floor or new wine from the vat. 28 Thus you too shall make a contribution to the Lord from all the tithes you take from the Israelites, handing over to Aaron the priest the contribution to the Lord. 29 From all the gifts to you, you shall make every contribution due to the Lord—from their best parts, that is the part to be consecrated from them.
30 Say to them also: Once you have made your contribution from the best part, the rest of the tithe will be credited to the Levites as if it were produce of the threshing floor or the produce of the vat. 31 You and your households may eat it anywhere, since it is your recompense in exchange for labor in the tent of meeting. 32 You will incur no punishment when you contribute the best part of it. But do not profane the holy offerings of the Israelites or else you shall die.
Psalm 55[a]
A Lament over Betrayal
1 For the leader. On stringed instruments. A maskil of David.
I
2 Listen, God, to my prayer;(A)
do not hide from my pleading;
3 hear me and give answer.
I rock with grief; I groan
4 at the uproar of the enemy,
the clamor of the wicked.
They heap trouble upon me,
savagely accuse me.
5 My heart pounds within me;
death’s terrors fall upon me.
6 Fear and trembling overwhelm me;
shuddering sweeps over me.
7 I say, “If only I had wings like a dove
that I might fly away and find rest.(B)
8 Far away I would flee;
I would stay in the desert.(C)
Selah
9 “I would soon find a shelter
from the raging wind and storm.”
II
10 Lord, check and confuse their tongues.
For I see violence and strife in the city
11 making rounds on its walls day and night.
Within are mischief and trouble;
12 treachery is in its midst;
oppression and fraud never leave its streets.(D)
13 For it is not an enemy that reviled me—
that I could bear—
Not a foe who viewed me with contempt,
from that I could hide.
14 But it was you, my other self,
my comrade and friend,(E)
15 You, whose company I enjoyed,
at whose side I walked
in the house of God.
III
16 Let death take them;
let them go down alive to Sheol,(F)
for evil is in their homes and bellies.
17 But I will call upon God,
and the Lord will save me.
18 At dusk, dawn, and noon
I will grieve and complain,
and my prayer will be heard.(G)
19 He will redeem my soul in peace
from those who war against me,
though there are many who oppose me.
20 God, who sits enthroned forever,(H)
will hear me and afflict them.
Selah
For they will not mend their ways;
they have no fear of God.
21 He stretched out his hand at his friends
and broke his covenant.
22 Softer than butter is his speech,
but war is in his heart.
Smoother than oil are his words,
but they are unsheathed swords.(I)
23 Cast your care upon the Lord,
who will give you support.
He will never allow
the righteous to stumble.(J)
24 But you, God, will bring them down
to the pit of destruction.(K)
These bloodthirsty liars
will not live half their days,
but I put my trust in you.(L)
Chapter 7
The Syro-Ephraimite War[a]
Crisis in Judah. 1 In the days of Ahaz,[b] king of Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah, went up to attack Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it.(A) 2 When word came to the house of David that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of the king and heart of the people trembled, as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub,[c] at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field, 4 and say to him: Take care you remain calm and do not fear; do not let your courage fail before these two stumps of smoldering brands,(B) the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans and of the son of Remaliah— 5 because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned[d] evil against you. They say, 6 “Let us go up against Judah, tear it apart, make it our own by force, and appoint the son of Tabeel[e] king there.”
7 Thus says the Lord God:
It shall not stand, it shall not be!(C)
8 [f]The head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is Rezin;
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
Within sixty-five years,
Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation.
Unless your faith is firm,
you shall not be firm!(D)
Emmanuel. 10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let it be deep as Sheol, or high as the sky![g] 12 But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the Lord!”[h] 13 Then he said: Listen, house of David! Is it not enough that you weary human beings? Must you also weary my God? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign;[i] the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son, shall name him Emmanuel. 15 Curds and honey[j] he will eat so that he may learn to reject evil and choose good; 16 for before the child learns to reject evil and choose good, the land of those two kings whom you dread shall be deserted.
17 The Lord shall bring upon you and your people and your father’s house such days as have not come since Ephraim seceded[k] from Judah (the king of Assyria). 18 On that day
The Lord shall whistle
for the fly in the farthest streams of Egypt,
and for the bee in the land of Assyria.(E)
19 All of them shall come and settle
in the steep ravines and in the rocky clefts,
on all thornbushes and in all pastures.
20 [l]On that day the Lord shall shave with the razor hired from across the River (the king of Assyria) the head, and the hair of the feet; it shall also shave off the beard.(F)
21 On that day a man shall keep alive a young cow or a couple of sheep, 22 and from their abundant yield of milk he shall eat curds; curds and honey shall be the food of all who are left in the land. 23 [m]On that day every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver shall become briers and thorns. 24 One shall have to go there with bow and arrows, for all the country shall be briers and thorns.(G) 25 But as for all the hills which were hoed with a mattock, for fear of briers and thorns you will not go there; they shall become a place for cattle to roam and sheep to trample.(H)
I. Address
Chapter 1
1 [a]James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings.(A)
II. The Value of Trials and Temptation
Perseverance in Trial. 2 (B)Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials,[b] 3 for you know that the testing[c] of your faith produces perseverance. 4 And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacks wisdom,[d] he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it.(C) 6 But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.(D) 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.
9 The brother in lowly circumstances[e] should take pride in his high standing,(E) 10 and the rich one in his lowliness, for he will pass away “like the flower of the field.”(F) 11 For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, its flower droops, and the beauty of its appearance vanishes. So will the rich person fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
Temptation. 12 (G)Blessed is the man who perseveres in temptation,[f] for when he has been proved he will receive the crown of life that he promised to those who love him. 13 [g]No one experiencing temptation should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one.(H) 14 Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.
16 [h]Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers: 17 all good giving and every perfect gift[i] is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. 18 (I)He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.[j]
III. Exhortations and Warnings
Doers of the Word. 19 Know this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to hear,[k] slow to speak, slow to wrath,(J) 20 for the wrath of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.(K) 21 Therefore, put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.(L)
22 Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.(M) 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. 24 He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like. 25 But the one who peers into the perfect law[l] of freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, such a one shall be blessed in what he does.(N)
26 [m]If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue[n] but deceives his heart, his religion is vain.(O) 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows[o] in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.(P)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.