M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
8 The men of Ephraim's tribe asked Gideon, ‘Why have you insulted us? You should have called us to join with you to fight against the Midianites.’ They were very angry and they argued with Gideon. 2 Gideon said to them, ‘What you did in the fight was more important than what I was able to do. My family started the battle, but your tribe finished the job! 3 God chose you to take power over the leaders of Midian's army. You killed Oreb and Zeeb! Nothing that I did was as great as that!’
When Gideon said that, the men of Ephraim stopped being angry.
Zebah and Zalmunna
4 Gideon and his 300 men were weak and tired. But they went across the Jordan and they continued to chase the Midianites. 5 Gideon said to the men of Succoth, ‘Please give my soldiers some food to eat. They are very tired. We are chasing the kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, to catch them.’ 6 The city leaders of Succoth said, ‘You have not yet caught Zebah and Zalmunna. We will not give you any food until you have done that.’ 7 Gideon replied, ‘Because you say that, I will return here. When the Lord has put Zebah and Zalmunna under my power, I will come back to punish you. I will beat you with thorn branches that will tear your skin to pieces!’
8 Gideon continued his journey to Peniel. He asked their people for food too. But they gave him the same answer as the men of Succoth. 9 Gideon also warned the men of Peniel, ‘When I have won the fight against my enemies, I will return. Then I will destroy your strong tower.’
10 Zebah and Zalmunna had 15,000 men with them in Karkor. They were the only men left of their great army from the east. 120,000 of their soldiers had died in the battle. 11 Gideon went along a road near the desert. It was east of Nobah and Jogbehah. He attacked the enemy's army by surprise. 12 The two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, ran away. Gideon chased after them and he caught them. The whole Midianite army ran away in fear.
13 Then Gideon left the place of the battle to return home. He went along the road across Heres hills. 14 He caught a young man who came from Succoth. He asked him about the leaders of Succoth. The young man wrote down the names of 77 leaders and officers of the city. 15 Gideon went to Succoth with Zebah and Zalmunna. He said to the leaders, ‘Now I have brought these kings to you! You insulted me! You said, “We will not give your tired men any food until you have caught Zebah and Zalmunna.” ’
16 Then Gideon took hold of Succoth's leaders. He beat them with thorn branches to punish them. 17 He also went to Peniel and he destroyed their tower. He killed the men of that city.
18 Then Gideon said to Zebah and Zalmunna, ‘Tell me about the men that you killed at Tabor. What kind of men were they?’ The kings answered, ‘They were like you. They looked like the sons of kings.’ 19 Gideon said, ‘Those were my brothers, my own mother's sons. If you had not killed my brothers, I would not kill you. I promise you that, as surely as the Lord lives.’
20 Gideon said to his oldest son, Jether, ‘Kill them now!’ But Jether was only a boy. He was too afraid to do anything. 21 Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, ‘Kill us yourself! Let us see if you are brave enough to do that!’
So Gideon did kill them. He took away the silver images from the necks of their camels.
Gideon makes a gold ephod
22 After that, the Israelites said to Gideon, ‘Rule over us as our king! You, your son and your grandson should rule us. You have rescued us from Midian's power.’
23 But Gideon said to them, ‘I will not agree to rule over you. Nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you.’
24 Gideon also said, ‘I will ask you only to do one thing for me. Each of you should give me one ear-ring from the things that you took from our enemies.’ (The Midianites wore gold ear-rings because they were descendants of Ishmael.)
25 The people replied, ‘We are happy to give them to you.’
So they put a coat on the ground. Each man threw a ring onto it. 26 The weight of all the rings was 20 kilograms. They also had valuable silver images and jewels. They had valuable clothes that the kings of Midian wore and necklaces from the camels. 27 Gideon used the gold to make an image of an ephod. He put it in Ophrah, where he lived. All the Israelites came there and they worshipped the image.[a] It caused them to turn away from the true God. It became like a trap that caught Gideon and his family.
Gideon dies
28 The Israelites now had complete power over the Midianites. The Midianites were too ashamed to fight against them. While Gideon was alive, the land of Israel had peace for 40 years.
29 Then Gideon went back home to live. 30 He had many wives. They gave birth to 70 sons for him. 31 Gideon also had a slave wife who lived in Shechem. She gave birth to a son for him. Gideon called him Abimelech.
32 Joash's son Gideon died when he was very old. People buried him in the grave of his father, Joash. That was in Ophrah, on the land of Abiezer's clan.
33 Soon after Gideon died, the Israelites stopped being faithful to the Lord. They started to worship the idols of Baal again. They chose Baal-Berith to be their new god. 34 They no longer served the Lord their God. They forgot that he had saved them from all the enemies who lived around them. 35 The Israelites did not remain faithful to Gideon's family either. They did not remember all the good things that he had done to help Israel.
King Herod puts Peter in prison
12 At that time, King Herod took hold of some of the group of believers in Jerusalem. He wanted to cause them to suffer. 2 He sent his soldiers to cut off James's head. James was John's brother.[a]
3 King Herod saw that the Jews were happy because he had killed James. So he sent his soldiers to take hold of Peter too. This happened during the Festival of Flat Bread.[b]
4 After the soldiers caught Peter, they put him in prison. While he was in prison, four different groups of soldiers guarded him. There were four soldiers in each group.[c] Herod wanted to judge Peter in front of everybody. After the Passover festival had finished, he would bring Peter out of the prison to do this.
5 So Herod kept Peter in prison. But during that time, the group of believers prayed that God would help Peter.
Peter walks out of the prison
6 It was the night before King Herod wanted to bring Peter out of the prison and judge him. The soldiers had tied Peter to themselves with chains. So Peter was sleeping between two soldiers. Some other soldiers were guarding the doors of the prison. 7 Then, an angel from the Lord God suddenly appeared in the prison. A bright light shone in the room where Peter was sleeping. The angel touched Peter's shoulder so that Peter woke up. He said to Peter, ‘Hurry! Stand up!’ Immediately the chains fell off Peter's hands.
8 Then the angel said to him, ‘Put on your clothes and your shoes.’ Peter did what the angel told him to do. Then the angel said, ‘Now put on your coat and follow me.’ 9 So Peter followed the angel out of the prison. He was not sure that all these things were really happening to him. He thought that he might be dreaming. 10 Peter and the angel walked past the first group of soldiers in the prison. Then they walked past the second group of soldiers. After that, they came to the big metal gate in the wall of the prison. The city was outside this gate. The gate opened by itself in front of them. So Peter and the angel went out of the prison through the gate. They walked together along one street and then, suddenly, the angel went away.
11 Then Peter understood what had happened. He said to himself, ‘Now I know that these things really have happened to me. The Lord God sent one of his angels to rescue me from Herod's power. The Jewish leaders wanted Herod to cause me to suffer. But God has saved me from those bad things.’
12 When Peter realized what God had done for him, he went to Mary's house. She was the mother of John Mark. Many people were meeting together in her house. They were praying to God.[d]
13 Peter knocked on the outside door of the house. A servant girl called Rhoda came to the door. 14 She recognized Peter's voice and she was very happy. But she did not open the door. Instead, she ran back into the house and she said to all the people there, ‘Peter is standing outside the door!’
15 The people in the house said to her, ‘You are crazy.’ But she told them again that Peter really was there. So then they said, ‘It is not him, but it is his angel.’[e]
16 While all this was happening, Peter was still knocking at the door. Then someone went and opened the door. They were all very surprised when they saw him there. 17 Peter raised his hand towards them so that they would all be quiet. Then he explained to them how the Lord God had brought him out of the prison. He said to them, ‘Tell James and all the other believers what has happened to me.’[f] Then he left the house and he went away to another place.
18 When morning arrived, there was a lot of trouble at the prison. The soldiers did not understand what had happened to Peter. 19 When Herod knew about it, he said to the soldiers, ‘Go and look for Peter!’ But they could not find him anywhere. Herod then asked the soldiers who guarded the prison some questions. They could not explain what had happened. So Herod commanded other soldiers to cut off their heads.
After this happened, Herod left Judea. He went to Caesarea and he stayed there for some time.
King Herod dies
20 At that time, King Herod was angry with the people who lived in Tyre and Sidon. A group of men from these cities went together to speak to Herod about the problem. A man called Blastus was an important servant in King Herod's house. The group of men said to Blastus, ‘Please help us when we speak to King Herod.’ Then they went and they said to Herod, ‘Please stop being angry with our people. We want to be friends again.’ They said this because they needed to buy food in King Herod's country.[g]
21 Herod decided on which day he would meet with them. He put on his beautiful clothes and he sat in his special seat as king. Then he spoke his message to all the people. 22 When he spoke, the people shouted, ‘This is not a man who is speaking to us. This is the voice of a god!’
23 Herod let the people praise him, instead of God. So, immediately, an angel of the Lord God caused him to become very ill. Worms ate his body and later he died.
Barnabas and Saul return to Antioch
24 Everywhere that the believers went, they told people God's message. People heard the message in more and more places and many of them believed in Jesus.
25 Barnabas and Saul had gone to Jerusalem to help the believers there. They finished their work and then they returned to Antioch. They took John Mark with them.
King Nebuchadnezzar will take Jerusalem
21 The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. King Zedekiah sent Malkijah's son Pashhur, to speak to Jeremiah. He also sent the priest Zephaniah, Maaseiah's son. They went to say to Jeremiah, 2 ‘Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, is attacking us. Please ask the Lord to help us. Perhaps he will do a powerful miracle as he has done for us in the past. Perhaps he will cause Nebuchadnezzar to go away and leave us alone.’[a]
3 Jeremiah answered them, ‘Tell Zedekiah that the Lord, Israel's God, says this:
4 “Your soldiers have gone outside the city to fight against the king of Babylon and his soldiers. But I will make the weapons of your soldiers useless. You will have to bring them all back into the city. 5 I myself will use my great power and strength to fight against you. I will do that because I am very angry with you. 6 I will attack everything that lives in this city, both people and animals. A very bad disease will kill them.”
7 The Lord also says this: “Then I will put King Zedekiah of Judah under the power of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I will do the same thing to any of his officers or people who are still alive. Those are the people that war, famine or disease has not already killed. I will give them to King Nebuchadnezzar and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will tell his soldiers to kill them. He will not be kind to them and he will kill them all.”
8 But also tell the people that the Lord says this: “I will let you choose between two things. One is a way that will give you life. The other is a way that will give you death. 9 Anyone who stays in the city will die. War or famine or disease will kill them. But you may choose to leave the city. You may put yourselves under the power of Babylon's army that is attacking the city. Anyone who does that will continue to live. 10 I, the Lord, tell you this: I have decided not to rescue this city. Instead I will destroy it. I will give it to the king of Babylon. He will destroy it with fire.” ’
A message to Judah's kings
11 This is the Lord's message to the king of Judah, to his family and his officers:
12 ‘Descendants of King David, the Lord says this to you:
Every day you must be fair as you judge people.
Punish those who rob other people.
Punish those who are cruel to other people.
Help the people that they have hurt.
If you do not do judge in a fair way,
I will be very angry.
My anger will burn like a hot fire
that nobody can stop.
It will destroy you
because of the evil things that you have done.’
The Lord says:
13 ‘I have turned against you, Jerusalem's palace.
Kings sit there on their thrones,
on a high rock above the valley.
You say, “We are safe here in our strong building.
No enemy can get in here to attack us.”
14 But I will punish you for everything that you have done.
I will destroy your palace with fire.
That fire will destroy everything that is around you.’
That is what the Lord says.
Jesus speaks to Pharisees and to some teachers of God's Law
7 A group of Pharisees and some teachers of God's Law came from Jerusalem to talk with Jesus. 2 They had been watching Jesus' disciples. Some of the disciples did not wash their hands before they ate a meal. That is to say, they did not wash them in the right way. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat food until they have washed their hands carefully. They do this because of what their leaders taught them. 4 When they come from the market place, they always wash themselves carefully. Unless they do this, they do not eat anything. Their leaders also gave them rules about how they should wash cups, pots and metal bowls.)
5 The Pharisees and the teachers of God's Law said to Jesus, ‘Your disciples do not obey the things that our leaders taught many years ago. Your disciples have not washed their hands in the right way. They are eating their food with unclean hands. That is not right.’
6 Jesus said to them, ‘You are hypocrites! What God's prophet Isaiah wrote about you long ago is true:
God says, “These people say good things about me,
but they do not really want to obey me.
7 They say that I am great.
But what they say has no purpose.
They teach their own rules, which I did not give to them.” ’[a]
8 Jesus then said, ‘You have stopped obeying God. Instead you obey the ideas that men teach.’
9 He said to them, ‘You refuse to obey God's rules, because then you can keep your own ideas! 10 For example, Moses wrote, “You must love your father and your mother. You must obey them.” He also said, “You must kill anyone who curses his father or his mother.”[b] 11 But you teach that a person may say to his father or to his mother, “I would have given gifts to help you. But I cannot do that, because I have given them to God instead.” 12 If he says that, you let him do nothing to help his father or his mother. 13 This shows that you have not obeyed what God says is right. Instead, you have obeyed the ideas that you received from your leaders many years ago. And you do many other things like that.’
14 Jesus asked the crowd of people to come to him again. He said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, so that you can understand these things. 15 People do not become unclean because of things that go into their bodies from outside. They become unclean because of the things that come out from their minds. 16 [You have heard my words. So do what I say.’][c]
Jesus explains to his disciples what he had taught
17 Jesus left the crowd of people and he went into a house. Then his disciples asked him to explain what he had taught.
18 Jesus said, ‘I am surprised that you too do not understand what I am saying. You should understand that food will not make people unclean. Food goes into people's bodies from outside. 19 But food does not go into people's minds. It goes into their stomachs and then it passes out of their bodies.’
When Jesus said this, he was teaching that all foods are clean.
20 Jesus then said, ‘People become unclean because of what comes out from them, not because of what goes in. 21 Evil thoughts come out from people's minds. As a result they do wrong things. They have sex in wrong ways. They rob people. They murder people. 22 They have sex with another man's wife. They are greedy. They are cruel to other people. They deceive people. They live like wild animals. They are jealous of other people. They say bad things about other people. They are proud and foolish.
23 All these wrong things begin inside people's minds and then they come out. That is what makes them unclean.’
Jesus travels out of Israel
24 Jesus left that place. He went away to the region around Tyre. He went into a house. He did not want anyone to know that he was there. But it was not possible to keep this a secret. 25 Immediately, a certain woman heard that he was there. This woman had a daughter who had a bad spirit in her. The woman came to Jesus and she went down on her knees by his feet. 26 She was not a Jew. Her family was from Phoenicia in the country of Syria. She asked Jesus to make the bad spirit go out of her daughter.
27 Jesus said to the woman, ‘First, the children must eat all that they want. It is not right to take food from the children and then throw it to the dogs.’
28 The woman replied, ‘Yes, sir. That is true. But small pieces of food drop while the children eat. And the dogs under the table eat those pieces.’
29 ‘That is a good answer,’ Jesus replied. ‘Now the bad spirit has left your daughter. You may go.’
30 The woman went to her home. She saw her child, who was lying on the bed. The bad spirit had left the girl.
Jesus makes a man well again
31 Then Jesus went away from Tyre. He travelled through the city of Sidon. Then he went towards Lake Galilee. He was in the region called ‘The ten cities’.
32 Some people brought a man to Jesus. This man could not hear anything and he could not speak clearly. The people asked Jesus to put his hand on the man.
33 Jesus led the man away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spat on his hands and touched the man's tongue. 34 Jesus looked up towards heaven. He cried with a low, sad sound. Then he said to the man, ‘Ephphatha!’ That means, ‘Become open!’ 35 When Jesus said this, the man started to hear. Also, his tongue was able to move properly so that he could speak clearly.
36 Jesus told the people that they must not tell anyone about this. But every time Jesus asked them not to say anything, they spoke even more about it. 37 The people were very surprised about everything that Jesus did. They said, ‘Jesus has done everything well. If people cannot hear, Jesus makes them able to hear. If people cannot speak, Jesus makes them able to speak.’
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