M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

18 In those days there was no king in Israel. In those days the tribe of the Danites sought an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day, their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel. ² The children of Dan sent five men of their family from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land!”

They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. ³ When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite; so they went over there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What do you do in this place? What do you have here?”

⁴ He said to them, “Thus and thus has Micah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I have become his priest.”

⁵ They said to him, “Please ask counsel of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.”

⁶ The priest said to them, “Go in peace. Your way in which you go is before Yahweh.”

⁷ Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in safety, in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land possessing authority, that might put them to shame in anything, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with anyone else. ⁸ They came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brothers asked them, “What do you say?”

⁹ They said, “Arise, and let’s go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. Do you stand still? Don’t be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land. ¹⁰ When you go, you will come to an unsuspecting people, and the land is large; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything that is in the earth.”

¹¹ The family of the Danites set out from Zorah and Eshtaol with six hundred men armed with weapons of war. ¹² They went up and encamped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. Therefore they call that place Mahaneh Dan to this day. Behold, it is behind Kiriath Jearim. ¹³ They passed from there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

¹⁴ Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brothers, “Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim,^[a] and a carved image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do.” ¹⁵ They went over there and came to the house of the young Levite man, even to the house of Micah, and asked him how he was doing. ¹⁶ The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. ¹⁷ The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.

¹⁸ When these went into Micah’s house, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹ They said to him, “Hold your peace, put your hand on your mouth, and go with us. Be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?”

²⁰ The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went with the people. ²¹ So they turned and departed, and put the little ones, the livestock, and the goods before them. ²² When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house gathered together and overtook the children of Dan. ²³ As they called to the children of Dan, they turned their faces, and said to Micah, “What ails you, that you come with such a company?”

²⁴ He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away! What more do I have? How can you ask me, ‘What ails you?’”

²⁵ The children of Dan said to him, “Don’t let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.”

²⁶ The children of Dan went their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house. ²⁷ They took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword; then they burned the city with fire. ²⁸ There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone else; and it was in the valley that lies by Beth Rehob. They built the city and lived in it. ²⁹ They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel; however the name of the city used to be Laish. ³⁰ The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. ³¹ So they set up for themselves Micah’s engraved image which he made, and it remained all the time that God’s house was in Shiloh.

22 “Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you.”

² When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet.

He said, ³ “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are today. ⁴ I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, ⁵ as also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify, from whom also I received letters to the brothers, and traveled to Damascus to bring them also who were there to Jerusalem in bonds to be punished.

⁶ “As I made my journey and came close to Damascus, about noon suddenly a great light shone around me from the sky. ⁷ I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ ⁸ I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.’

⁹ “Those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they didn’t understand the voice of him who spoke to me. ¹⁰ I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Arise, and go into Damascus. There you will be told about all things which are appointed for you to do.’ ¹¹ When I couldn’t see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.

¹² “One Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well reported of by all the Jews who lived in Damascus, ¹³ came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ In that very hour I looked up at him. ¹⁴ He said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth. ¹⁵ For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ Now why do you wait? Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

¹⁷ “When I had returned to Jerusalem and while I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance ¹⁸ and saw him saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not receive testimony concerning me from you.’ ¹⁹ I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue those who believed in you. ²⁰ When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.’

²¹ “He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’ ”

²² They listened to him until he said that; then they lifted up their voice and said, “Rid the earth of this fellow, for he isn’t fit to live!”

²³ As they cried out, threw off their cloaks, and threw dust into the air, ²⁴ the commanding officer commanded him to be brought into the barracks, ordering him to be examined by scourging, that he might know for what crime they shouted against him like that. ²⁵ When they had tied him up with straps, Paul asked the centurion who stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and not found guilty?”

²⁶ When the centurion heard it, he went to the commanding officer and told him, “Watch what you are about to do, for this man is a Roman!”

²⁷ The commanding officer came and asked him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?”

He said, “Yes.”

²⁸ The commanding officer answered, “I bought my citizenship for a great price.”

Paul said, “But I was born a Roman.”

²⁹ Immediately those who were about to examine him departed from him, and the commanding officer also was afraid when he realized that he was a Roman, because he had bound him. ³⁰ But on the next day, desiring to know the truth about why he was accused by the Jews, he freed him from the bonds and commanded the chief priests and all the council to come together, and brought Paul down and set him before them.

32 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ² Now at that time the king of Babylon’s army was besieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah’s house.

³ For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy, and say, ‘Yahweh says, “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it; ⁴ and Zedekiah king of Judah won’t escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes will see his eyes; ⁵ and he will bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him,” says Yahweh, “though you fight with the Chaldeans, you will not prosper”’?”

⁶ Jeremiah said, “Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ⁷ ‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.”’”

⁸ “So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to Yahweh’s word, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself.’

“Then I knew that this was Yahweh’s word. ⁹ I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels^[a] of silver. ¹⁰ I signed the deed, sealed it, called witnesses, and weighed the money in the balances to him. ¹¹ So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open; ¹² and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard.

¹³ “I commanded Baruch before them, saying, ¹⁴ Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.’ ¹⁵ For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Houses and fields and vineyards will yet again be bought in this land.’

¹⁶ Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to Yahweh, saying,

¹⁷ “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you. ¹⁸ You show loving kindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The great, the mighty God, Yahweh of Armies is your name: ¹⁹ great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings; ²⁰ who performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, both in Israel and among other men; and made yourself a name, as it is today; ²¹ and brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, with wonders, with a strong hand, with an outstretched arm, and with great terror; ²² and gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. ²³ They came in and possessed it, but they didn’t obey your voice and didn’t walk in your law. They have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do. Therefore you have caused all this evil to come upon them.

²⁴ “Behold, siege ramps have been built against the city to take it. The city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, of the famine, and of the pestilence. What you have spoken has happened. Behold, you see it. ²⁵ You have said to me, Lord Yahweh, ‘Buy the field for money, and call witnesses;’ whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.”

²⁶ Then Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁷ “Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? ²⁸ Therefore Yahweh says: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it. ²⁹ The Chaldeans, who fight against this city, will come and set this city on fire, and burn it with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.

³⁰ “For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says Yahweh. ³¹ For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even to this day, so that I should remove it from before my face, ³² because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger—they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ³³ They have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. Although I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. ³⁴ But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. ³⁵ They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through fire to Molech, which I didn’t command them. It didn’t even come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”

³⁶ Now therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says concerning this city, about which you say, “It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:” ³⁷ “Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place. I will cause them to dwell safely. ³⁸ Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. ³⁹ I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good and the good of their children after them. ⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me. ⁴¹ Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.”

⁴² For Yahweh says: “Just as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them. ⁴³ Fields will be bought in this land, about which you say, ‘It is desolate, without man or animal. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ ⁴⁴ Men will buy fields for money, sign the deeds, seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South; for I will cause their captivity to be reversed,” says Yahweh.

BOOK 1