M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Towns for the Levites
35 The Lord spoke to Moses in Moab, beside the Jordan River. Jericho was on the other side of the river. 2 The Lord said, ‘Tell the people this. They must give some of their land to the Levites. Then the Levites can build towns to live in. They will also have the land round the towns for their animals.
3 The Levites must have towns to live in and land for their cows and all their animals. 4 The fields that you give to them for their animals must reach 500 metres from the walls of each town. 5 You must also measure 1,000 metres outside the town on each side, the east side, the south side, the west side and the north side. So the town will be in the centre. Those fields of grass will belong to them for each of their towns.
The safe cities
6 Six of the Levites' towns must be safe places. If anyone kills another person, he can run there to be safe. The Levites must also have another 42 towns. 7 In that way, the Levites will have 48 towns and land for their animals. 8 Each of the Israelite tribes must give to the Levites towns from their own land. The larger tribes will give more towns. The smaller tribes will give fewer towns. That is because the larger tribes have received more land than the smaller tribes.’
9 The Lord said to Moses, 10 ‘Tell the Israelites to do this when they cross the Jordan River and they go into Canaan. 11 They must choose some towns to be safe places. If anyone kills another person but he did not mean to, he can run there to be safe. 12 Those towns will be places where the killer can be safe from the dead person's relative.[a] The killer will not die before the people in the town have judged him. 13 You must choose six towns to be safe places. 14 Three towns must be in Canaan and three towns must be on the other side of the Jordan River. 15 Those six towns will be safe places for Israelites and for foreign people who live among them. Anyone who has killed another person may run to one of these towns and be safe there. But they will only be safe if they did not mean to kill the other person.
16 Murderers are different. You must kill a murderer. Maybe someone hits another person with a heavy iron tool. If the person dies, the murderer must also die. 17 Someone might hit another person with a big stone. If the person dies, the man is a murderer. He must die. 18 A man might hit a person with a dangerous weapon made from wood. If the person dies, the man is a murderer. He must die. 19 The dead person's relative himself must kill the murderer when he meets him.
20 These are other examples of murder: A man might push another person hard because he hates him. A man might throw something at another person to hurt him. 21 Or a man might hit someone with his hand because he hates him. If the person dies as a result, you must kill the murderer. The dead person's relative must kill the murderer when he meets him.
22 But when a man kills another person, it might be a mistake. For example, he might push someone very hard, or he might throw something at another person. If he did not hate the other person, then it might be a mistake. 23 Or he might drop a heavy stone on someone when he had not seen them. If he did not hate the other person, perhaps he did not mean to hurt him. 24 If that happens, the people must judge who is right. They must choose between the killer and the dead person's relative. They must use those rules to decide if the man is a murderer. 25 If the man is a killer but not a murderer, the people must keep him safe from the dead person's relative. They must send him back to the safe city that he ran to. He will live there safely until the death of the leader of God's priests.
26 But one day, the killer might go outside the border of the safe city that he ran to. 27 If he does that, the dead person's relative might find him outside the safe city. Then, if the dead person's relative kills him, the relative will not be guilty of murder. 28 That is because the killer should have stayed in his safe city until the death of the leader of the priests. But after the leader of the priests dies, the killer may return to his own home.
29 Wherever you and your descendants live, these are the rules that you must obey for all future time.
30 Before you kill a murderer, people must agree that they saw him kill someone. But if only one person saw what happened, that is not enough for you to kill him.
31 You must not accept money to pay for the life of a murderer. If he is guilty of murder, you must kill him.
32 Also, you must not accept money from a killer who has run to a safe city. You must not let him return to his own home until the leader of the priests has died.
33 Murder causes the land where you live to become unclean. You have to make it clean again. You must kill anyone who murders another person. That is the only way to make the land clean again. 34 You must not make the land where you live become unclean. It is the land where I also live. That is because I, the Lord, live among the Israelites.’
Asaph wrote this psalm.
God, help us![a]
79 God, foreign nations have attacked your own land.
They have spoiled your holy temple.[b]
They have destroyed the buildings in Jerusalem.
2 They have let birds come down
and eat the dead bodies of your people.
Your servants have become food for wild animals to eat.
3 The blood of your servants has poured out
all over the streets of Jerusalem.
There is nobody left there
to bury their bodies.
4 The nations that live near to us
do not respect us.
They laugh at us and they insult us.
5 Lord, how long will this continue?
Will you be angry with us for ever?
Will you always be angry,
like a fire that continues to burn?
6 Please punish those nations
that do not respect you.
Be angry with the kingdoms
that do not pray to you.
7 They have destroyed Jacob's descendants
and the land where they live.[c]
8 Our ancestors did bad things,
but do not say that we are guilty because of that.
Be kind and send help to us quickly.
We are in a lot of trouble!
9 God, help us! You are the one who can save us.
Rescue us,
so that people will respect your great name.
Forgive our sins,
so that people know you are good.
10 Foreign nations are saying about us,
‘Their God cannot help them!’
That is not right!
People of those nations have murdered your servants,
so punish them for us to see.
11 Listen to the prisoners who are in pain!
They are calling out for help.
Use your great power to make them free,
before their enemies kill them.
12 Lord, those countries near to us
have insulted you.
Punish them as they deserve,
seven times over!
Give them as much trouble as they have given to you.
13 Then we will continue to thank you for ever.
You take care of us,
as the sheep in your field.
We will tell our children and grandchildren to praise you,
as you deserve.
27 At that time, the Lord will punish Leviathan. The Lord will use his great and powerful sword to destroy that monster. Leviathan is a snake that moves very fast in the sea and it turns in every direction. But the Lord will kill it.
God will take care of his people
2 At that time, sing a song about a beautiful vineyard!
3 I, the Lord, keep it safe. I will continue to put water on it. I will guard it night and day, so that nobody can hurt it.
4 I am not angry now. If there were thorn bushes or weeds in my vineyard, I would attack them. I would burn them all. 5 But my enemies should turn to me for help. They should agree to live in peace with me. Yes, that is what they should do.
6 The time will come when Jacob will grow well, like a strong plant in the ground. Yes, Israel will make flowers and branches. Their fruit will fill all the world.
7 The Lord did not punish Israel's people as much as he punished their enemies. He did not kill them as much as he killed their enemies. 8 But Lord you sent your people to a land far away. That is how you punished them. You blew them away with a storm that came from the east. 9 In that way the Lord punished Jacob's descendants for their sins. They are no longer guilty. This will be the result when God has taken away Jacob's sin completely: All the stones in their altars will become small pieces of chalk. There will be no Asherah pole or altars for incense that continue to stand.
10 The strong city will become empty. Nobody will live there any more. It will be like an empty desert. Young cows will eat the grass there, and they will lie down there. They will eat all the leaves on the branches of the tree. 11 When the branches become dry, they break off the tree. Women will take the sticks and they will make fires with them. That is what these people are like. They do not understand anything. So their Maker will not help them or be kind to them.
12 At that time, the Lord will shake the tree! He will do that to his people everywhere from the River Euphrates to the Stream of Egypt.[a] Then he will bring together all of you, one by one, you Israelite people.
13 At that time, they will hear the sound of a loud trumpet. Then people who were dying in exile in Assyria will come. People who went away into Egypt will also come. They will worship the Lord on his holy hill in Jerusalem.[b]
Believe in Jesus Christ
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is God's Messiah has become a child of God. And if we love God, our Father, we will love his other children too. 2 How do we know that we love God's children? We know it when we love God and we do what he tells us to do. 3 Because, if we really love God, we will obey his commands. And those commands are not difficult for us to obey. 4 Because we have become God's children, we can live in a good way. We can refuse to live like people who belong to this world. We are able to win against the wrong ways of this world because we trust Jesus Christ. 5 It is only people who believe that Jesus is the Son of God who can do that. Only they can win against the wrong ways of this world.
6 Jesus Christ is the man that God sent into the world. John baptized Jesus in water. When Jesus died, his blood poured out. God showed that Jesus is his Son with the water and with the blood. It was not only with the water of Jesus' baptism. It was also with the blood of his death. God's Holy Spirit also shows us that Jesus is God's Son. The Holy Spirit always says what is true. 7 So there are three things that show us clearly that Jesus came from God. 8 Those things are the Holy Spirit, the water of Jesus' baptism and the blood of his death on the cross. These all show us the same thing, that Jesus came from God.[a]
9 We believe people who tell us about things that they know. So we can believe even more what God says. He has told us what is true about his Son. So we should believe his message.
10 Anyone who believes in Jesus, the Son of God, will know that what God says is true. But anyone who does not believe God is saying that God tells lies. He does not believe the message that God has told us clearly about his Son. 11 This is what God has told us: God has given us life with him that never ends. We receive this life when we believe in his Son, Jesus. 12 So whoever belongs to the Son has this true life. But anyone who does not belong to the Son of God does not have this true life.
Christians have true life with God
13 I have written these things to you who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I want you to know that you have true life with God for ever. 14 Also, we can trust God to help us when we turn to him. We know that he will hear us. When we ask for anything that he wants us to have, he listens to us. 15 Since we know that, we also know that God will give to us the things that we ask for. It is like we have already received those things from him.
16 If you see that another Christian is doing something bad, this is what you should do. If it is a sin that does not cause death, pray that God will help him. Then God will help that person to live for ever with him. That is for a sin which does not cause death. But there is a sin that causes death. If another Christian does that, I am not saying that you should pray for God to help that person. 17 Any wrong thing that a person does is sin. But not all sins cause death.[b]
18 Nobody who has become a child of God continues to do wrong things. Instead, the Son of God keeps him safe.[c] Satan cannot do anything against a child of God. 19 We know that we belong to God. We know that Satan rules all the people who belong to this world. 20 We also know that the Son of God has come into the world. He has helped us to understand what is true. As a result, we know the only true God. We live together with this true God, because we belong to his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God. He is the one who gives us life with God for ever.
21 My little children, be careful to keep away from idols.[d]
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