M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
A family's land may belong to women
36 The leaders of the families in Gilead's clan went to Moses and to the other leaders of the Israelites' clans. (Gilead was the descendant of Makir, who was the descendant of Manasseh. Manasseh was Joseph's son.) 2 [a] They said, ‘The Lord told you, sir, that you should decide which parts of the land to give to each Israelite family. You used special stones to do that. The Lord told you to give Zelophehad's land to his daughters. Zelophehad was in our clan. 3 But if his daughters marry, the land will then belong to their husbands. If they marry men from other tribes, the land will no longer belong to us, the tribe of Manasseh. 4 Even when the Jubilee year comes, the land will not return to our tribe. It will belong to the tribes of the men that Zelophehad's daughters have married.’
5 The Lord gave Moses his answer. So Moses gave this command to the Israelites: ‘What Joseph's descendants are saying is right. 6 This is what the Lord has commanded about the daughters of Zelophehad: Let them marry men that they want to marry. But they must marry men from the clans of their father's tribe. 7 If they do that, each tribe will keep the land that has been given to their ancestors. None of their land will go to another tribe. 8 Any young woman who receives land when her father dies must marry a man from her father's tribe. All the Israelite tribes must obey that rule. Then every Israelite person will keep the land that belonged to his ancestors. 9 No land that belongs to any tribe will become the land of another tribe. So each tribe will keep the land that their ancestors had.’
10 The daughters of Zelophehad did what the Lord had commanded Moses. 11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married sons of their father's brothers. 12 They married men from the clans of the descendants of Joseph's son, Manasseh. Because of that, their land remained with the tribe of their father's clan.
13 Those are the rules that the Lord gave to the Israelites at that time. The Lord told Moses what he should say to the people. That happened when they were beside the Jordan River in Moab, on the flat ground on the other side of the river from Jericho city.
Asaph wrote this psalm for the music leader. He should use special music.
God, help our nation[a]
80 Shepherd of Israel, listen to us!
You lead us, Joseph's family,
as your sheep.[b]
God, you sit on your throne as king,
above the cherubs.[c]
Show everyone your bright glory!
2 Shine on Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.
Show your great power!
Come and rescue us!
3 God, turn us to come back to you.
Look at us with a smile on your face!
Then we will be safe.
4 Lord God Almighty,
we, your people, are praying to you.
How long will you continue to be angry with us?
5 You have caused us to eat tears as our food.
Buckets full of tears is what we drink.
6 You have caused the people who live near us
to laugh at us.
Our enemies insult us.
7 God Almighty, turn us to come back to you.
Look at us with a smile on your face!
Then we will be safe.
8 You pulled us out from Egypt,
like a vine that you dug out of the ground.
You chased nations out of this land,
and you planted us here.[d]
9 You prepared the ground ready for us.
We put down roots like a vine.[e]
We grew well and we covered all the land.
10 Our branches gave shade to the mountains,
and to the big cedar trees.
11 Our branches reached the Mediterranean Sea,
and as far as the Euphrates River.
12 Why have you knocked down the walls
that protected us?[f]
Now, anyone who passes can rob our fruit.
13 Wild pigs from the forest attack your vine.
Other wild animals eat all the fruit.
14 Come back to us, God Almighty!
Look down from heaven
and see what is happening!
Take care of your special vine.
15 You planted it with your own right hand.
You caused it to grow, like a strong son.[g]
16 But now the enemy has cut down your vine,
and they have burned it with fire.
Show them that you are angry with them,
and destroy them!
17 Give strength to the one who sits at your right hand.
He is the man that you have chosen to serve you.[h]
18 Then we will never turn away from you.
Give to us new life and strength,
so that we may always worship you.
19 Lord God Almighty, turn us to come back to you.
Look at us with a smile on your face!
Then we will be safe.
A sad song about Ephraim[a]
28 It will be very bad for Ephraim's beautiful city, Samaria! The people who live there drink too much wine and they become drunk. They are proud of their great city. It is on a hill above a valley where many good things grow. It is like a beautiful flower, but it will be beautiful no more and it will die.
2 Look! The Lord God is sending a strong and powerful army to attack it.[b] It comes like a strong storm of ice. Its wind destroys everything. It is like rain that pours down and causes a flood. He will knock down Ephraim's great city to the ground with his great power!
3 The drunk people of Samaria think that their city is great. But their enemies will knock it down and walk all over it. 4 The city is like a beautiful flower that will soon die. It is on a hill above a valley where many good things grow. But it will be like a fig on a tree. It is ready to eat before the harvest time. When someone sees it, he will quickly pick it. And he will eat it!
5 At that time. the Lord Almighty will be a great leader of his people. He will be like a beautiful crown for his people who still remain alive. 6 He will help judges to decide what is right. He will give strength to the people who keep the city safe from those who attack it.
7 But now wine causes the leaders in Ephraim to become drunk. They cannot walk in a straight line because they drink too much beer. Beer causes the priests and the prophets to fall over. Wine confuses their minds. When they see visions, they cannot understand them. When they judge people, they cannot decide what is right.
8 They are sick over all their tables. Everywhere is covered with dirt.
9 They say, ‘Why does the Lord try to teach us like that? Who does he think that we are? He speaks to us as if we are babies! He thinks that we have just left our mother's breast! 10 He teaches us one rule at a time, one line at a time. He says it several times, a little bit here, a little bit there.’
11 So now the Lord will use foreign enemies to speak to these people. He will speak to them in a strange language.
12 In the past, he said to them, ‘This is a place where you can rest when you are tired. It is a place where you can be safe.’ But his people refused to listen. 13 So the Lord's message will seem to them like, ‘One rule at a time, one line at a time, a little bit here, a little bit there.’ So as they try to move forward, they will fall over. An enemy will hurt them, and he will catch them in a trap.
A message about Jerusalem
14 So listen to the Lord's message, you leaders in Jerusalem who rule these people. Do not laugh at what the Lord is doing.
15 You boast, ‘We have made a covenant with death. Yes, we have made an agreement with Sheol. When trouble comes to our city like a deep flood of water, we will be safe. We trust in our lies to keep us safe.’
16 So the Almighty Lord says this:
‘Look! I am putting a special stone in Zion. It is a valuable stone, because it makes a strong foundation at the corner of my building. Anyone who trusts in that foundation will never be disappointed.
17 Justice and righteousness will make that foundation strong and true. But if you trust in lies, a storm of ice will destroy your safe place. A flood of water will destroy the place where you are hiding. 18 I will stop your covenant with death. Your agreement with Sheol will not continue. When trouble comes like a deep flood of water, it will drown you. 19 A flood of punishment will come again and again, and it will carry you away. It will come every morning, and all through the day and the night.’
When you understand this message from the Lord, you will be very afraid. 20 You will not be able to rest, like a tall person who tries to sleep on a short bed. Your blanket will not cover your whole body.
21 But the Lord will do a great thing, like he did at Mount Perazim. He will be very angry, as he was in the Gibeon Valley. He will do something that is very wonderful and strange.
22 So do not laugh at me when I warn you. If you do not listen, your punishment will become even worse. The Lord Almighty has told me what he has decided. He has decided to destroy the whole land.
23 So listen carefully to my message. Hear what I am saying!
24 A farmer ploughs the ground because he wants to plant seeds in it. He does not continue to plough for ever. 25 When he has prepared the ground, he plants many different seeds. He plants dill and cummin. He plants wheat, barley and different grains in their proper places.
26 God teaches the farmer and he tells him the right thing to do. 27 After the harvest, the farmer knows how to remove seeds from dill or from cummin. He will not pull a heavy iron weight over dill. He will not run the wheels of a cart over cummin. Instead, he will hit them with a light stick.
28 When he crushes grain to make flour for bread, he does not do it for a long time. He drives the wheels of his cart over the grain, but he does not let his horses crush it.
29 The Lord Almighty causes farmers to know all that. His ideas are very wise, and he shows us how to live in a wise way.
John says ‘Hello’ to a special lady
1 This letter comes from me, the leader of the believers. I am writing to you, a special lady that God has chosen, and to your children. I love all of you, because you have believed God's true message. And I am not the only one who loves you. Everyone who knows the true message about God really loves you. 2 I love you because we have all come to understand what is true. It will remain with us for ever.[a]
3 God our Father, and his Son Jesus Christ will help us. He will be kind to us and he will give us peace in our minds. This will happen because God loves us and because we believe his true message.
4 I was very happy to hear about some of your children. I am happy because they are living in a good way. They are obeying the true message about God. They are doing what God our Father has told us to do.
Do not believe false teachers
5 So now, dear lady, I want you to do something. I want all of us to love one another. I am not telling you a new command to obey. This is a command that we have had from the beginning. 6 How do we show real love? We show it when we live in a way that makes God happy. We obey his commands. He tells us to love one another, and that is how you should live. You have heard that command from the beginning.
7 I say this because many false teachers are travelling around everywhere. They do not agree that Jesus Christ was born as a human baby. People like that are telling lies. They are enemies of Christ. 8 So be careful! Do not believe their lies. Do not lose the good things that we have worked for. Make sure that you receive all the good things that God has promised to give you. 9 Remember the message which Christ taught. Anyone who teaches his own ideas instead of Christ's true message does not belong to God. Continue to believe what Christ taught. Anyone who does that belongs to God the Father and to his Son, Jesus. 10 Someone may come to you and teach you something that is different. Do not receive that person into your house. Do not receive him as a Christian. 11 If you receive people like that as Christian people, you are making yourself the same as them. You also are doing the same kind of bad work.
12 I want to tell you many more things, but I do not want to write about them in a letter. Instead, I hope to come and visit you. Then I can see you and we can talk together. Then we will be completely happy.
13 The believers here say ‘hello’ to you. They are the children of your sister that God has chosen.[b]
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