M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

Getting Wives for the Men of Benjamin

21 At Mizpah, the men of Israel made a promise. This was their promise: “Not one of us will let his daughter marry a man from the tribe of Benjamin.”

² The Israelites went to the city of Bethel. There they sat before God until evening. They cried loudly as they sat there. ³ They said to God, “Lord, you are the God of the Israelites. Why has this terrible thing happened to us? Why has one tribe of the Israelites been taken away?”

⁴ Early the next day, the Israelites built an altar. They put burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to God on that altar. ⁵ Then the Israelites said, “Are there any tribes of Israel who did not come here to meet with us before the Lord?” They asked this question because they had made a serious promise. They had promised that anyone who did not come together with the other tribes at the city of Mizpah would be killed.

⁶ Then the Israelites felt sorry for their relatives, the people of Benjamin. They said, “Today, one tribe has been separated from Israel. ⁷ We made a promise with an oath before the Lord. We promised not to allow our daughters to marry a man from Benjamin. How can we make sure that the men of Benjamin will have wives?”

⁸ Then the Israelites asked, “Which one of the tribes of Israel did not come here to Mizpah? We have come together before the Lord. Surely one family was not here!” Then they found that no one from the city of Jabesh Gilead had met together with the other Israelites. ⁹ The Israelites counted everyone to see who was there and who was not. They found that no one from Jabesh Gilead was there. ¹⁰ So the Israelites sent 12,000 soldiers to the city of Jabesh Gilead. They told the soldiers, “Go to Jabesh Gilead, and use your swords to kill everyone who lives there, even the women and children. ¹¹ You must do this! You must kill every man in Jabesh Gilead and every woman who has had sexual relations with a man. But do not kill any woman who has never had sex with a man.” So the soldiers did these things.^{[a] 12} The 12,000 soldiers found 400 young women in the city of Jabesh Gilead who had never had sex with a man. They brought these women to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹³ Then the Israelites sent a message to the men of Benjamin. They offered to make peace with the men of Benjamin. The men of Benjamin were at the place named the Rock of Rimmon. ¹⁴ So the men of Benjamin came back to Israel. The Israelites gave them the women from Jabesh Gilead who they had not killed. But there were not enough women for all the men of Benjamin.

¹⁵ The Israelites felt sorry for the men of Benjamin. They felt sorry for them because the Lord had separated them from the other tribes of Israel. ¹⁶ The elders of the Israelites said, “The women of the tribe of Benjamin have been killed. Where can we get wives for the men of Benjamin who are still alive? ¹⁷ The men of Benjamin who are still alive must have children to continue their families. This must be done so that a tribe in Israel will not die out! ¹⁸ But we cannot allow our daughters to marry the men of Benjamin. We have made this promise: ‘Bad things will happen to anyone who gives a wife to a man of Benjamin.’ ¹⁹ We have an idea! This is the time for the festival of the Lord at the city of Shiloh. This festival is celebrated every year there.” (The city of Shiloh is north of the city of Bethel and east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem. And it is also to the south of the city of Lebonah.)

²⁰ So the elders told the men of Benjamin about their idea. They said, “Go and hide in the vineyards. ²¹ Watch for the time during the festival when the young women from Shiloh come out to join the dancing. Then run out from where you are hiding in the vineyards. Each of you should take one of the young women from the city of Shiloh. Take them to the land of Benjamin and marry them. ²² The fathers or brothers of the young women will come and complain to us. But we will say, ‘Be kind to the men of Benjamin. Let them marry the women. We could not get wives for each of them during the war. And you did not willingly give the women to the men of Benjamin, so you did not break your promise.’”

²³ So that is what the men of the tribe of Benjamin did. While the young women were dancing, each man caught one of them. They took them away and married them. Then they went back to their land. The men of Benjamin built cities again in that land, and they lived in them. ²⁴ Then the Israelites went home. They went to their own land and tribe.

²⁵ In those days the Israelites did not have a king, so everyone did whatever they thought was right.

Paul Asks to See Caesar

25 Festus became governor, and three days later he went from Caesarea to Jerusalem. ² The leading priests and the important Jewish leaders made charges against Paul before Festus. ³ They asked Festus to do them a favor. They wanted him to send Paul back to Jerusalem because they had a plan to kill Paul on the way. ⁴ But Festus answered, “No, Paul will be kept in Caesarea. I will be going there soon myself, ⁵ and your leaders can go with me. If this man has really done anything wrong, they can accuse him there.”

⁶ Festus stayed in Jerusalem another eight or ten days and then went back to Caesarea. The next day Festus told the soldiers to bring Paul before him. Festus was seated on the judgment seat. ⁷ Paul came into the room, and the Jews who had come from Jerusalem stood around him. They made many serious charges against him, but they could not prove anything. ⁸ Paul defended himself, saying, “I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law, against the Temple, or against Caesar.”

⁹ But Festus wanted to please the Jews. So he asked Paul, “Do you want to go to Jerusalem for me to judge you there on these charges?”

¹⁰ Paul said, “I am standing at Caesar’s judgment seat now. This is where I should be judged. I have done nothing wrong to the Jews, and you know it. ¹¹ If I have done something wrong and the law says I must die, then I agree that I should die. I don’t ask to be saved from death. But if these charges are not true, then no one can hand me over to these people. No, I want Caesar to hear my case!”

¹² Festus talked about this with his advisors. Then he said, “You have asked to see Caesar, so you will go to Caesar!”

Festus Asks King Agrippa About Paul

¹³ A few days later King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to visit Festus. ¹⁴ They stayed there many days, and Festus told the king about Paul’s case. Festus said, “There is a man that Felix left in prison. ¹⁵ When I went to Jerusalem, the leading priests and the older Jewish leaders there made charges against him. They wanted me to order his death. ¹⁶ But I told them, ‘When a man is accused of doing something wrong, Romans don’t hand him over for others to judge. First, he must face the people accusing him. And then he must be allowed to defend himself against their charges.’

¹⁷ “So when these Jews came here for the trial, I did not waste time. The next day I sat on the judgment seat and ordered Paul to be brought in. ¹⁸ The Jews stood up and accused him. But they did not accuse him of the kind of crimes I thought they would. ¹⁹ Their charges were all about their own religion and about a man named Jesus. Jesus died, but Paul said that he is still alive. ²⁰ I did not have any idea about how to judge these matters. So I asked Paul, ‘Do you want to go to Jerusalem and be judged there?’ ²¹ But Paul asked to be kept in Caesarea. He wants a decision from the emperor. So I ordered that he be held until I could send him to Caesar in Rome.”

²² Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear this man too.”

Festus said, “Tomorrow you can hear him.”

²³ The next day Agrippa and Bernice came to the meeting with great show, acting like very important people. They entered the room with military leaders and important men of the city. Festus ordered the soldiers to bring Paul in.

²⁴ Festus said, “King Agrippa and all of you gathered here with us, you see this man. All the Jewish people, here and in Jerusalem, have complained to me about him. When they complain about him, they shout that he should be killed. ²⁵ When I judged him, I did not find him guilty of any crime worthy of death. But he asked to be judged by Caesar, so I decided to send him to Rome. ²⁶ However, I don’t really know what to tell Caesar that this man has done wrong. So I have brought him before all of you—especially you, King Agrippa. I hope that you can question him and give me something to write to Caesar. ²⁷ I think it is foolish to send a prisoner to Caesar without making some charges against him.”

The Recabite Family’s Good Example

35 During the time when Jehoiakim, son of King Josiah, was king of Judah, the Lord spoke this message to Jeremiah: ² “Go to the Recabite family^[a] and invite them to come to one of the side rooms of the Lord’s Temple. Offer them wine to drink.”

³ So I went to get Jaazaniah^[b] son of Jeremiah,^[c] who was the son of Habazziniah. And I got all of Jaazaniah’s brothers and sons and the whole family of the Recabites together. ⁴ Then I brought them into the Temple of the Lord. We went into the room of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah. Hanan was a man of God.^[d] The room was next to the room where the princes of Judah stay. It was over the room of Maaseiah son of Shallum. Maaseiah was the doorkeeper in the Temple. ⁵ Then I put some bowls full of wine and some cups in front of the Recabite family. And I said to them, “Drink some wine.”

⁶ But the Recabite family answered, “We never drink wine. We never drink it because our ancestor Jonadab son of Recab gave us this command: ‘You and your descendants must never drink wine. ⁷ Also you must never build houses, plant seeds, or plant vineyards. You must never do any of those things. You must live only in tents. If you do that, you will live a long time in the land where you move from place to place.’ ⁸ So we have obeyed everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. None of us ever drinks wine, and neither do our wives, sons, or daughters. ⁹ We never build houses to live in, we never own vineyards or fields, and we never plant crops. ¹⁰ We have lived in tents and have obeyed everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. ¹¹ But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked the country of Judah, we did go into Jerusalem. We said to each other, ‘Come, we must enter the city of Jerusalem so that we can escape the Babylonian army and the Aramean army.’ So we have stayed in Jerusalem.”

¹² Then this message from the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³ “The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says to go to the people of Judah and Jerusalem and tell them this message: ‘You should learn a lesson and obey my message.’ This message is from the Lord. ¹⁴ ‘Jonadab son of Recab ordered his sons not to drink wine, and that command has been obeyed. To this day the descendants of Jonadab have obeyed their ancestor’s command. They do not drink wine. But I have given commands to you people of Judah again and again, and you have not obeyed me. ¹⁵ Time after time I have sent my servants the prophets to you. They said, “You must each stop doing evil things and do what is right. Don’t follow other gods. Don’t worship or serve them. If you obey me, you will live in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.” But you have not paid attention to my message. ¹⁶ The descendants of Jonadab obeyed the commands that their ancestor gave them, but the people of Judah have not obeyed me.’

¹⁷ “So this is what the Lord God All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘I said that many bad things would happen to Judah and Jerusalem. I will soon make all those bad things happen. I spoke to the people, but they refused to listen. I called out to them, but they didn’t answer me.’”

¹⁸ Then Jeremiah said to the Recabite family, “This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have obeyed the commands of your ancestor Jonadab. You have followed all of his teachings. You have done everything he commanded.’ ¹⁹ So the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘There will always be a descendant of Jonadab son of Recab to serve me.’”

A song^[a] of David that he sang to the Lord about Cush from the tribe of Benjamin.

To the director: With the gittith. A song of David.