M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
A Person Found Murdered
21 Suppose someone is found murdered, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own, and no one knows who killed the person. 2 Your elders and judges should go to where the body was found, and they should measure how far it is to the nearby cities. 3 The elders of the city nearest the body must take a young cow that has never worked or worn a yoke, 4 and they must lead her down to a valley that has never been plowed or planted, with a stream flowing through it. There they must break the young cow’s neck. 5 The priests, the sons of Levi, should come forward, because they have been chosen by the Lord your God to serve him and to give blessings in the Lord’s name. They are the ones who decide cases of quarreling and attacks. 6 Then all the elders of the city nearest the murdered person should wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley. 7 They should declare: “We did not kill this person, and we did not see it happen. 8 Lord, remove this sin from your people Israel, whom you have saved. Don’t blame your people, the Israelites, for the murder of this innocent person.” And so the murder will be paid for. 9 Then you will have removed from yourselves the guilt of murdering an innocent person, because you will be doing what the Lord says is right.
Captive Women as Wives
10 When you go to war against your enemies, the Lord will help you defeat them so that you will take them captive. 11 If you see a beautiful woman among the captives and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her into your home, where she must shave her head and cut her nails 13 and change the clothes she was wearing when you captured her. After she has lived in your house and cried for her parents for a month, you may marry her. You will be her husband, and she will be your wife. 14 But if you are not pleased with her, you must let her go anywhere she wants. You must not sell her for money or make her a slave, because you have taken away her honor.
The Oldest Son
15 A man might have two wives, one he loves and one he doesn’t. Both wives might have sons by him. If the older son belongs to the wife he does not love, 16 when that man wills his property to his sons he must not give the son of the wife he loves what belongs to the older son, the son of the wife he does not love. 17 He must agree to give the older son two shares of everything he owns, even though the older son is from the wife he does not love. That son was the first to prove his father could have children, so he has the rights that belong to the older son.
Sons Who Refuse to Obey
18 If someone has a son who is stubborn, who turns against his father and mother and doesn’t obey them or listen when they correct him, 19 his parents must take him to the elders at the city gate. 20 They will say to the elders, “Our son is stubborn and turns against us. He will not obey us. He eats too much, and he is always drunk.” 21 Then all the men in his town must throw stones at him until he dies. Get rid of the evil among you, because then all the people of Israel will hear about this and be afraid.
Other Laws
22 If someone is guilty of a sin worthy of death, he must be put to death and his body displayed on a tree. 23 But don’t leave his body hanging on the tree overnight; be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone whose body is displayed on a tree is cursed by God. You must not ruin the land the Lord your God is giving you as your own.
A Prayer for Victory
A song. A psalm of David.
108 God, my heart is steady.
I will sing and praise you with all my being.
2 Wake up, harp and lyre!
I will wake up the dawn.
3 Lord, I will praise you among the nations;
I will sing songs of praise about you to all the nations.
4 Your great love reaches to the skies,
your truth to the heavens.
5 God, you are supreme above the skies.
Let your glory be over all the earth.
6 Answer us and save us by your power
so the people you love will be rescued.
7 God has said from his Temple,
“When I win, I will divide Shechem
and measure off the Valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead and Manasseh are mine.
Ephraim is like my helmet.
Judah holds my royal scepter.
9 Moab is like my washbowl.
I throw my sandals at Edom.
I shout at Philistia.”
10 Who will bring me to the strong, walled city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 God, surely you have rejected us;
you do not go out with our armies.
12 Help us fight the enemy.
Human help is useless,
13 but we can win with God’s help.
He will defeat our enemies.
A Prayer Against an Enemy
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
109 God, I praise you.
Do not be silent.
2 Wicked people and liars have spoken against me;
they have told lies about me.
3 They have said hateful things about me
and attack me for no reason.
4 They attacked me, even though I loved them
and prayed for them.
5 I was good to them, but they repay me with evil.
I loved them, but they hate me in return.
6 They say about me, “Have an evil person work against him,
and let an accuser stand against him.
7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty,
and let even his prayers show his guilt.
8 Let his life be cut short,
and let another man replace him as leader.
9 Let his children become orphans
and his wife a widow.
10 Make his children wander around, begging for food.
Let them be forced out of the ruins in which they live.
11 Let the people to whom he owes money take everything he owns,
and let strangers steal everything he has worked for.
12 Let no one show him love
or have mercy on his orphaned children.
13 Let all his descendants die
and be forgotten by those who live after him.
14 Lord, remember how wicked his ancestors were,
and don’t let the sins of his mother be wiped out.
15 Lord, always remember their sins.
Then make people forget about them completely.
16 “He did not remember to be loving.
He hurt the poor, the needy, and those who were sad
until they were nearly dead.
17 He loved to put curses on others,
so let those same curses fall on him.
He did not like to bless others,
so do not let good things happen to him.
18 He cursed others as often as he wore clothes.
Cursing others filled his body and his life,
like drinking water and using olive oil.
19 So let curses cover him like clothes
and wrap around him like a belt.”
20 May the Lord do these things to those who accuse me,
to those who speak evil against me.
21 But you, Lord God,
be kind to me so others will know you are good.
Because your love is good, save me.
22 I am poor and helpless
and very sad.
23 I am dying like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak from fasting,
and I have grown thin.
25 My enemies insult me;
they look at me and shake their heads.
26 Lord my God, help me;
because you are loving, save me.
27 Then they will know that your power has done this;
they will know that you have done it, Lord.
28 They may curse me, but you bless me.
They may attack me, but they will be disgraced.
Then I, your servant, will be glad.
29 Let those who accuse me be disgraced
and covered with shame like a coat.
30 I will thank the Lord very much;
I will praise him in front of many people.
31 He defends the helpless
and saves them from those who accuse them.
God Controls the Future
48 The Lord says, “Family of Jacob, listen to me.
You are called Israel,
and you come from the family of Judah.
You swear by the Lord’s name
and praise the God of Israel,
but you are not honest or sincere.
2 You call yourselves people of the holy city,
and you depend on the God of Israel,
who is named the Lord All-Powerful.
3 Long ago I told you what would happen.
I said these things and made them known;
suddenly I acted, and these things happened.
4 I knew you were stubborn;
your neck was like an iron muscle,
and your head was like bronze.
5 So a long time ago I told you about these things;
I told you about them before they happened
so you couldn’t say, ‘My idols did this,
and my wooden and metal statues made these things happen.’
6 “You heard and saw everything that happened,
so you should tell this news to others.
Now I will tell you about new things,
hidden things that you don’t know yet.
7 These things are happening now, not long ago;
you have not heard about them before today.
So you cannot say, ‘We already knew about that.’
8 But you have not heard me; you have not understood.
Even long ago you did not listen to me.
I knew you would surely turn against me;
you have fought against me since you were born.
9 But for my own sake I will be patient.
People will praise me for not becoming angry
and destroying you.
10 I have made you pure, but not by fire, as silver is made pure.
I have purified you by giving you troubles.
11 I do this for myself, for my own sake.
I will not let people speak evil against me,
and I will not let some god take my glory.
Israel Will Be Free
12 “People of Jacob, listen to me.
People of Israel, I have called you to be my people.
I am God;
I am the beginning and the end.
13 I made the earth with my own hands.
With my right hand I spread out the skies.
When I call them,
they come together before me.”
14 All of you, come together and listen.
None of the gods said these things would happen.
The Lord has chosen someone
to attack the Babylonians;
he will carry out his wishes against Babylon.
15 “I have spoken; I have called him.[a]
I have brought him, and I will make him successful.
16 Come to me and listen to this.
From the beginning I have spoken openly.
From the time it began, I was there.”
Now, the Lord God
has sent me with his Spirit.
17 This is what the Lord, who saves you,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you to do what is good,
who leads you in the way you should go.
18 If you had obeyed me,
you would have had peace like a full-flowing river.
Good things would have flowed to you like the waves of the sea.
19 You would have had many children,
as many as the grains of sand.
They would never have died out
nor been destroyed.”
20 My people, leave Babylon!
Run from the Babylonians!
Tell this news with shouts of joy to the people;
spread it everywhere on earth.
Say, “The Lord has saved his servants, the people of Jacob.”
21 They did not become thirsty when he led them through the deserts.
He made water flow from a rock for them.
He split the rock,
and water flowed out.
22 “There is no peace for evil people,” says the Lord.
Babylon Is Destroyed
18 After the vision of these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven. This angel had great power, and his glory made the earth bright. 2 He shouted in a powerful voice:
“Ruined, ruined is the great city of Babylon!
She has become a home for demons
and a prison for every evil spirit,
and a prison for every unclean bird and unclean beast.
3 She has been ruined, because all the peoples of the earth
have drunk the wine of the desire of her sexual sin.
She has been ruined also because the kings of the earth
have sinned sexually with her,
and the merchants of the earth
have grown rich from the great wealth of her luxury.”
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying:
“Come out of that city, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive the disasters that will come to her.
5 Her sins have piled up as high as the sky,
and God has not forgotten the wrongs she has done.
6 Give that city the same as she gave to others.
Pay her back twice as much as she did.
Prepare wine for her that is twice as strong
as the wine she prepared for others.
7 She gave herself much glory and rich living.
Give her that much suffering and sadness.
She says to herself, ‘I am a queen sitting on my throne.
I am not a widow; I will never be sad.’
8 So these disasters will come to her in one day:
death, and crying, and great hunger,
and she will be destroyed by fire,
because the Lord God who judges her is powerful.”
9 The kings of the earth who sinned sexually with her and shared her wealth will see the smoke from her burning. Then they will cry and be sad because of her death. 10 They will be afraid of her suffering and stand far away and say:
“Terrible! How terrible for you, great city,
powerful city of Babylon,
because your punishment has come in one hour!”
11 And the merchants of the earth will cry and be sad about her, because now there is no one to buy their cargoes— 12 cargoes of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, red cloth; all kinds of citron wood and all kinds of things made from ivory, expensive wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, carriages, slaves, and human lives.
14 The merchants will say,
“Babylon, the good things you wanted are gone from you.
All your rich and fancy things have disappeared.
You will never have them again.”
15 The merchants who became rich from selling to her will be afraid of her suffering and will stand far away. They will cry and be sad 16 and say:
“Terrible! How terrible for the great city!
She was dressed in fine linen, purple and red cloth,
and she was shining with gold, precious jewels, and pearls!
17 All these riches have been destroyed in one hour!”
Every sea captain, every passenger, the sailors, and all those who earn their living from the sea stood far away from Babylon. 18 As they saw the smoke from her burning, they cried out loudly, “There was never a city like this great city!” 19 And they threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and being sad. They said:
“Terrible! How terrible for the great city!
All the people who had ships on the sea
became rich because of her wealth!
But she has been destroyed in one hour!
20 Be happy because of this, heaven!
Be happy, God’s holy people and apostles and prophets!
God has punished her because of what she did to you.”
21 Then a powerful angel picked up a large stone, like one used for grinding grain, and threw it into the sea. He said:
“In the same way, the great city of Babylon will be thrown down,
and it will never be found again.
22 The music of people playing harps and other instruments, flutes, and trumpets,
will never be heard in you again.
No workman doing any job
will ever be found in you again.
The sound of grinding grain
will never be heard in you again.
23 The light of a lamp
will never shine in you again,
and the voices of a bridegroom and bride
will never be heard in you again.
Your merchants were the world’s great people,
and all the nations were tricked by your magic.
24 You are guilty of the death of the prophets and God’s holy people
and all who have been killed on earth.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.