M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

About Killing Someone

21 “If a person has been killed and is found lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you for your own and it is not known who killed him, ² then your leaders and judges will go out and see how far it is to the cities that are around the dead man. ³ The leaders of the city that is nearest to the dead man will take a young cow from the cattle. The cow must never have been worked or pulled a plow. ⁴ The leaders of that city will bring the young cow down to a valley with flowing water, which has not been plowed or planted. They will break the cow’s neck there in the valley. ⁵ Then the religious leaders, the sons of Levi, will come near for the Lord your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bring good in the name of the Lord. Every question about what is right and every fight will be decided upon by them. ⁶ All the leaders of that city nearest to the dead man will wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley. ⁷ Then they will say, ‘Our hands have not killed him. Our eyes have not seen it. ⁸ O Lord, forgive Your people Israel whom You have set free. Do not put the guilt of killing a man who did no wrong on Your people Israel.’ And they will be forgiven from the guilt of the man’s death. ⁹ So you must take away the guilt of taking the life of a good man by doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Marrying a Woman Taken in Battle

¹⁰ “When you go out to battle against those who hate you, and the Lord your God gives them to you, and you make them go with you, ¹¹ and you see a beautiful woman and have a desire for her as a wife, ¹² bring her home to your house. There she will cut off all the hair from her head and cut her nails. ¹³ She will change the clothes she wore when you took her away, and stay in your house. She will have sorrow for her father and mother for one month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife. ¹⁴ If you are not pleased with her, you should let her go wherever she wants. But do not sell her for money or act as if she were a servant because you have put her to shame.

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives, one loved and the other not loved, and both the loved and the one not loved have borne him sons, and if the first-born son belongs to the wife who is not loved, ¹⁶ on the day when the man divides what he has for his sons, he cannot make the first-born of his loved wife the first-born before the son of the wife who is not loved, who is the first-born. ¹⁷ He must respect the first-born, the son of the wife who is not loved, by giving him twice the share of all he has. He is the beginning of his strength and the right of the first-born belongs to him.

¹⁸ “If a man has a strong-willed son who goes against him and does not obey his father or mother and when they punish him he will not even listen to them, ¹⁹ then his father and mother will take hold of him and bring him to the leaders of his city at the gate of his city. ²⁰ They will say to the leaders of his city, ‘This son of ours is strong-willed and goes against us. He will not obey us. He eats and drinks too much.’ ²¹ Then all the men of his city will kill him with stones. You must get rid of the sin from among you. All Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

²² “If a man has sinned and should be put to death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, ²³ his body must not hang all night on the tree. You should be sure to bury him on the same day (for he who hangs is cursed by God). So do not make your land unclean which the Lord your God is giving you.

A Song of Praise

108 My heart will not be moved, O God. I will sing. Yes, I will sing praises with my soul. ² Wake up, different kinds of harps. I will wake up the new day. ³ I will give thanks to You among the people, O Lord. I will sing praises to You among the nations. ⁴ For Your loving-kindness is great above the heavens. And Your truth can touch the sky. ⁵ Be lifted up high above the heavens, O God. Let Your shining-greatness be over all the earth. ⁶ Save us with Your right hand and answer me. Let Your loved ones be set free.

⁷ God has said in His holy place: “I will be full of joy. I will divide Shechem and the valley of Succoth. ⁸ Gilead is Mine. Manasseh is Mine. Ephraim is the covering for My head. Judah is My law giver. ⁹ Moab is where I wash My hands. I will throw My shoe over Edom. I will call out over Philistia that I have won.”

¹⁰ Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? ¹¹ Have You not turned away from us, O God? And will You not go out with our armies, O God? ¹² O give us help against those who hate us. For the help of man is worth nothing. ¹³ With God’s help we will do great things. And He will break under His feet those who fight against us.

A Man in Trouble

109 I give praise to You, O God. Do not be quiet. ² For sinners and liars have opened their mouths against me. They have spoken against me with lying tongues. ³ They have gathered around me with words of hate. They fought against me for no reason. ⁴ I give them my love but they speak against me in return. But I am in prayer. ⁵ They pay me what is bad for what is good. They give me hate for my love.

⁶ Let a sinful man have power over him. Let one who speaks against him stand at his right hand. ⁷ When he is tried, let him be found guilty. And may his prayer become sin. ⁸ Let his days be few. Let another person take over his work. ⁹ Let his children be without a father. And let his wife be without a husband. ¹⁰ May his children go around begging. And may they look for food far from their destroyed homes. ¹¹ Let the one to whom he owes money take all that he has. May strangers take away all he has worked for. ¹² May no one show him kindness. Let no one pity his children who have no father. ¹³ Let his children be cut off. Do not let their family name be remembered by the people-to-come.

¹⁴ Let the sins of his fathers be remembered by the Lord, and do not let the sins of his mother be forgotten. ¹⁵ May these sins always be before the Lord. So He may not let them be remembered on the earth. ¹⁶ Because he did not remember to show loving-kindness. Instead he made it hard for the poor and those in need and those with a broken heart. He even put them to death. ¹⁷ He loved to curse others, so may it come to him. He did not like to have good come to others, so good was far from him. ¹⁸ He dressed himself with cursing as with a coat. They came into his body like water and into his bones like oil. ¹⁹ May they be like clothing that covers him and like a belt that he always wears. ²⁰ Let this be what the Lord pays to those who speak against me and wish bad things would happen to me.

²¹ But You, O God, the Lord, be kind to me because of Your name. Take me out of trouble because Your loving-kindness is good. ²² For I am in trouble and in need. And my heart is hurt within me. ²³ I am passing like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust. ²⁴ My knees are weak from going without food. And my body has lost all its fat. ²⁵ Others laugh at me. They look at me and shake their heads.

²⁶ Help me, O Lord my God! Save me by Your loving-kindness. ²⁷ Let them know that this is Your hand and that You, O Lord, have done it. ²⁸ Let them hope that bad things will happen. But You make good things happen. Let them be ashamed when they rise up against me. But let Your servant be full of joy. ²⁹ Let those who speak against me be dressed with shame. Let them cover themselves with shame as with a coat. ³⁰ I will give thanks to the Lord in a loud voice. I will praise Him among many people. ³¹ For He stands at the right hand of the one in need to save him from those who judge his soul.

Israel Is Not Faithful in Following the Lord

48 “Hear this, O family of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who come from the seed of Judah. They make promises in the name of the Lord, and call upon the God of Israel, but not in truth or by what is right and good. ² For they call themselves people of the holy city, and trust in the God of Israel. The Lord of All is His name. ³ I made known the things that would happen long ago. From My mouth My words went out. Then all at once I did what I said I would, and they came to pass. ⁴ I know that your heart is hard. Your neck is like iron, and your forehead is like brass. ⁵ So I made them known to you long ago. I told you before they happened, or else you might say, ‘My false god has done them. My objects of worship have made them happen.’ ⁶ You have heard, now look at all this. And will you say that you will not tell about it? I tell you new things from this time on, even hidden things which you have not known. ⁷ They are made now, not long ago. Before today you have never heard of them, or you would say, ‘See, I knew them.’ ⁸ You have not heard. You have not known. Even from long ago your ear has not been open, because I knew that you could not be trusted. You have been known to fight against the law and not obey from birth. ⁹ Because of My name I hold back My anger. For My praise I keep Myself from cutting you off. ¹⁰ See, I have tested you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the fire of suffering. ¹¹ For My own good, for My own good, I will do this. For why should I allow My name to be put to shame? I will not give My shining-greatness to another.

God Will Take Israel Out of Trouble

¹² “Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel whom I called. I am He. I am the first, and I am the last. ¹³ My hand put the earth in its place. And My right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand together. ¹⁴ Gather together, all of you, and listen! Who among them has made these things known? The Lord loves him. He will do to Babylon what pleases him, and his arm will be against the Babylonians. ¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and he will do well. ¹⁶ Come near to Me and listen to this: From the beginning I have not spoken in secret. From the time it came to be, I was there. And now the Lord God has sent me and His Spirit.”

¹⁷ The Lord Who bought you and saves you, the Holy One of Israel, says, “I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to do well, Who leads you in the way you should go. ¹⁸ If only you had listened to My Laws! Then your peace would have been like a river and your right-standing with God would have been like the waves of the sea. ¹⁹ Your children’s children would have been like the sand. Those born to you would have been like the sand. Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before Me.”

²⁰ Go out from Babylon! Run from the Babylonians! Call out for joy and let this be known to the end of the earth, saying, “The Lord has bought and set free His servant Jacob!” ²¹ They were not thirsty when He led them through the deserts. He made water flow out of the rock for them. He broke the rock, and the water flowed out. ²² “There is no peace for the sinful,” says the Lord.

Babylon Is Destroyed

18 Then I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had much power. The earth was made bright with his shining-greatness. ² He cried out with a loud voice, “The big and powerful city of Babylon is destroyed. Demons and every kind of unclean spirit live there. Unclean birds that are hated are there. ³ For she gave her wine to the nations of the world. It was the wine of her desire for sex sins. The kings of the earth have done these sex sins with her. The men of the earth who buy and sell have become rich from the riches she received while living in sin.”

⁴ I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out from her, my people. Do not be a part of her sins so you will not share her troubles. ⁵ For her sins are as high as heaven. God is ready to punish her for her sins. ⁶ Pay her back for what she has paid you. Give back to her twice as much for what she has done. In her own cup give her twice as much as she gave. ⁷ Give her as much trouble and suffering as the fun and the rich living she chose for herself. In her heart she says, ‘I sit here like a queen. I am not a woman whose husband has died. I will never have sorrow.’ ⁸ Because of this, troubles of death and sorrow and no food will come to her in one day. She will be burned with fire. For the Lord God is powerful. He is the One Who says she is guilty.

Kings Cry Because of Babylon

⁹ “Then the kings of the earth will cry for her and be sorry when they see the smoke of her burning. They are the ones who did sex sins with her and lived as rich people. ¹⁰ They stand a long way from her because they are afraid of her sufferings. They say, ‘It is bad! It is bad for the big and powerful city of Babylon. For in one hour she is destroyed.’ ¹¹ The men of the earth who buy and sell are sorry for her and cry. They cry because there is no one to buy their things anymore. ¹² They sold gold and silver and stones worth much money and pearls. They sold fine linen and purple and red silk cloth. They sold all kinds of perfumed wood. They sold things made from the teeth of animals and things made from wood that cost much money. They sold brass and iron and stone. ¹³ They sold spices and perfumes of all kinds. They sold wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat. They sold cows and sheep and horses and wagons. They sold men who are not free and they sold the lives of men. ¹⁴ They say to her, ‘All the good things you wanted so much are gone from you. Your riches are gone. The things you liked so much are gone. You will never have them again.’ ¹⁵ The men of the earth who became rich by buying and selling in that city will stand a long way back because they are afraid of her sufferings. They will cry and have sorrow. ¹⁶ They will say, ‘It is bad! It is bad for that powerful city. She dressed in fine linen of purple and red. She covered herself with gold and pearls and stones worth much money. ¹⁷ For in one hour her riches are destroyed.’ The captain of every ship and all who traveled on ships and all who worked on ships stood a long way back. ¹⁸ They cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘Has there ever been such a city as powerful as this one?’ ¹⁹ They threw dirt on their heads. They cried out with much sorrow and said, ‘It is bad! It is bad for the powerful city! She is the place where all those who owned ships on the sea became rich from all her riches. For in one hour everything is gone!’

²⁰ “Be full of joy because of her, O heaven! Be full of joy, you who belong to God and missionaries and early preachers! For God has punished her for what she did to you.”

²¹ Then a strong angel picked up a large stone like those used for grinding wheat. He threw it into the sea, saying, “The big and strong city of Babylon will be thrown down like this. It will never be found again. ²² The sound of those playing on harps and on flutes and on horns will not be heard in you again. No workman doing any kind of work will be found in you again. The sound of the grinding-stone will not be heard in you again. ²³ No light will ever shine in you again. There will be no more happy voices from a wedding heard in you. Your men who bought and sold were the most powerful on earth. You fooled people over all the world by your witchcraft. ²⁴ And in this city was found the blood of the early preachers and of those who belonged to God and of all those who had been killed on the earth.”