M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
18 As has already been stated, there was no king in Israel at that time. The tribe of Dan was trying to find a place to settle, for they had not yet driven out the people living in the land assigned to them. 2 So the men of Dan chose five army heroes from the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol as scouts to go and spy out the land they were supposed to settle in. Arriving in the hill country of Ephraim, they stayed at Micah’s home. 3 Noticing the young Levite’s accent, they took him aside and asked him, “What are you doing here? Why did you come?” 4 He told them about his contract with Micah, and that he was his personal priest.
5 “Well, then,” they said, “ask God whether or not our trip will be successful.”
6 “Yes,” the priest replied, “all is well. The Lord is taking care of you.”
7 So the five men went on to the town of Laish and noticed how secure everyone felt. Their manner of life was Phoenician, and they were wealthy. They lived quietly and were unprepared for an attack, for there were no tribes in the area strong enough to try it. They lived a great distance from their relatives in Sidon, and had little or no contact with the nearby villages. 8 So the spies returned to their people in Zorah and Eshtaol.
“What about it?” they were asked. “What did you find?”
9-10 And the men replied, “Let’s attack! We have seen the land and it is ours for the taking—a broad, fertile, wonderful place—a real paradise. The people aren’t even prepared to defend themselves! Come on, let’s go! For God has given it to us!”
11 So six hundred armed troops of the tribe of Dan set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. 12 They camped first at a place west of Kiriath-jearim in Judah (which is still called “The Camp of Dan”), 13 then they went on up into the hill country of Ephraim.
As they passed the home of Micah, 14 the five spies told the others. “There is a shrine in there with an ephod, some teraphim, and many plated idols. It’s obvious what we ought to do!”
15-16 So the five men went over to the house and with all of the armed men standing just outside the gate, they talked to the young priest and asked him how he was getting along. 17 Then the five spies entered the shrine and took the idols, the ephod, and the teraphim.
18 “What are you doing?” the young priest demanded when he saw them carrying them out.
19 “Be quiet and come with us,” they said. “Be a priest to all of us. Isn’t it better for you to be a priest to a whole tribe in Israel instead of just to one man in his private home?”
20 The young priest was then quite happy to go with them, and he took along the ephod, the teraphim, and the idols. 21 They started on their way again, placing their children, cattle, and household goods at the front of the column. 22 When they were quite a distance from Micah’s home, Micah and some of his neighbors came chasing after them, 23 yelling at them to stop.
“What do you want, chasing after us like this?” the men of Dan demanded.
24 “What do you mean, ‘What do I want’!” Micah retorted. “You’ve taken away all my gods and my priest, and I have nothing left!”
25 “Be careful how you talk, mister,” the men of Dan replied. “Somebody’s apt to get angry and kill every one of you.”
26 So the men of Dan kept going. When Micah saw that there were too many of them for him to handle, he turned back home.
27 Then, with Micah’s idols and the priest, the men of Dan arrived at the city of Laish. There weren’t even any guards, so they went in and slaughtered all the people and burned the city to the ground. 28 There was no one to help the inhabitants, for they were too far away from Sidon, and they had no local allies, for they had no dealings with anyone. This happened in the valley next to Beth-rehob. Then the people of the tribe of Dan rebuilt the city and lived there. 29 The city was named “Dan” after their ancestor, Israel’s son, but it had originally been called Laish.
30 Then they set up the idols and appointed a man named Jonathan (son of Gershom and grandson of Moses!) and his sons as their priests. This family continued as priests until the city was finally conquered by its enemies. 31 So Micah’s idols were worshiped by the tribe of Dan as long as the Tabernacle remained at Shiloh.
22 “Brothers and fathers, listen to me as I offer my defense.” 2 (When they heard him speaking in Hebrew, the silence was even greater.) 3 “I am a Jew,” he said, “born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, but educated here in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, at whose feet I learned to follow our Jewish laws and customs very carefully. I became very anxious to honor God in everything I did, just as you have tried to do today. 4 And I persecuted the Christians, hounding them to death, binding and delivering both men and women to prison. 5 The High Priest or any member of the Council can testify that this is so. For I asked them for letters to the Jewish leaders in Damascus, with instructions to let me bring any Christians I found to Jerusalem in chains to be punished.
6 “As I was on the road, nearing Damascus, suddenly about noon a very bright light from heaven shone around me. 7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me?’
8 “‘Who is it speaking to me, sir?’ I asked. And he replied, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.’ 9 The men with me saw the light but didn’t understand what was said.
10 “And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’
“And the Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what awaits you in the years ahead.’
11 “I was blinded by the intense light and had to be led into Damascus by my companions. 12 There a man named Ananias, as godly a man as you could find for obeying the law and well thought of by all the Jews of Damascus, 13 came to me, and standing beside me said, ‘Brother Paul, receive your sight!’ And that very hour I could see him!
14 “Then he told me, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Messiah[a] and hear him speak. 15 You are to take his message everywhere, telling what you have seen and heard. 16 And now, why delay? Go and be baptized and be cleansed from your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’
17-18 “One day after my return to Jerusalem, while I was praying in the Temple, I fell into a trance and saw a vision of God saying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem, for the people here won’t believe you when you give them my message.’
19 “‘But Lord,’ I argued, ‘they certainly know that I imprisoned and beat those in every synagogue who believed on you. 20 And when your witness Stephen was killed, I was standing there agreeing—keeping the coats they laid aside as they stoned him.’
21 “But God said to me,
22 The crowd listened until Paul came to that word, then with one voice they shouted, “Away with such a fellow! Kill him! He isn’t fit to live!” 23 They yelled and threw their coats in the air and tossed up handfuls of dust.
24 So the commander brought him inside and ordered him lashed with whips to make him confess his crime. He wanted to find out why the crowd had become so furious!
25 As they tied Paul down to lash him, Paul said to an officer standing there, “Is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been tried?”
26 The officer went to the commander and asked, “What are you doing? This man is a Roman citizen!”
27 So the commander went over and asked Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”
“Yes, I certainly am.”
28 “I am too,” the commander muttered, “and it cost me plenty!”
“But I am a citizen by birth!”
29 The soldiers standing ready to lash him, quickly disappeared when they heard Paul was a Roman citizen, and the commander was frightened because he had ordered him bound and whipped.
30 The next day the commander freed him from his chains and ordered the chief priests into session with the Jewish Council. He had Paul brought in before them to try to find out what the trouble was all about.
32 The following message came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah (which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign). 2 At this time Jeremiah was imprisoned in the dungeon beneath the palace,[a] while the Babylonian army was besieging Jerusalem. 3 King Zedekiah had put him there for continuing to prophesy that the city would be conquered by the king of Babylon, 4 and that King Zedekiah would be caught and taken as a prisoner before the king of Babylon for trial and sentencing.
5 “He shall take you to Babylon and imprison you there for many years until you die. Why fight the facts? You can’t win! Surrender now!” Jeremiah had told him again and again.
6-7 Then this message from the Lord came to Jeremiah: Your cousin Hanamel (son of Shallum) will soon arrive to ask you to buy the farm he owns in Anathoth, for by law you have a chance to buy before it is offered to anyone else.
8 So Hanamel came, as the Lord had said he would, and visited me in the prison. “Buy my field in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin,” he said, “for the law gives you the first right to purchase it.” Then I knew for sure that the message I had heard was really from the Lord.
9 So I bought the field, paying Hanamel seventeen pieces of silver. 10 I signed and sealed the deed of purchase before witnesses, weighed out the silver, and paid him. 11 Then I took the sealed deed containing the terms and conditions and also the unsealed copy, 12 and publicly, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who had signed the deed, and as the prison guards watched, I handed the papers to Baruch (son of Neriah, who was the son of Mahseiah). 13 And I said to him as they all listened:
14 “The Lord, God of Israel, says: Take both this sealed deed and the copy and put them into a pottery jar to preserve them for a long time. 15 For the Lord, God of Israel, says: In the future these papers will be valuable.[b] Someday people will again own property here in this country and will be buying and selling houses and vineyards and fields.”
16 Then after I had given the papers to Baruch I prayed: 17 “O Lord God! You have made the heavens and earth by your great power; nothing is too hard for you! 18 You are loving and kind to thousands, yet children suffer for their fathers’ sins; you are the great and mighty God, the Lord Almighty. 19 You have all wisdom and do great and mighty miracles; for your eyes are open to all the ways of men, and you reward everyone according to his life and deeds. 20 You have done incredible things in the land of Egypt—things still remembered to this day. And you have continued to do great miracles in Israel and all around the world. You have made your name very great, as it is today.
21 “You brought Israel out of Egypt with mighty miracles and great power and terror. 22 You gave Israel this land that you promised their fathers long ago—a wonderful land that ‘flows with milk and honey.’ 23 Our fathers came and conquered it and lived in it, but they refused to obey you or to follow your laws; they have hardly done one thing you told them to. That is why you have sent all this terrible evil upon them. 24 See how the siege mounds have been built against the city walls, and the Babylonians shall conquer the city by sword, famine, and disease. Everything has happened just as you said—as you determined it should! 25 And yet you say to buy the field—paying good money for it before these witnesses—even though the city will belong to our enemies.”
26 Then this message came to Jeremiah: 27 I am the Lord, the God of all mankind; is there anything too hard for me? 28 Yes, I will give this city to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; he shall conquer it. 29 And the Babylonians outside the walls shall come in and set fire to the city and burn down all these houses, where the roofs have been used to offer incense to Baal and to pour out libations to other gods, causing my fury to rise! 30 For Israel and Judah have done nothing but wrong since their earliest days; they have infuriated me with all their evil deeds. 31 From the time this city was built until now, it has done nothing but anger me; so I am determined to be rid of it.
32 The sins of Israel and Judah—the sins of the people, of their kings, officers, priests, and prophets—stir me up. 33 They have turned their backs upon me and refused to return; day after day, year after year, I taught them right from wrong, but they would not listen or obey. 34 They have even defiled my own Temple by worshiping their abominable idols there. 35 And they have built high altars to Baal in the valley of Hinnom. There they have burnt their children as sacrifices to Molech—something I never commanded and cannot imagine suggesting. What an incredible evil, causing Judah to sin so greatly!
36 Now therefore the Lord God of Israel says concerning this city that it will fall to the king of Babylon through warfare, famine, and disease, 37 but I will bring my people back again from all the countries where in my fury I will scatter them. I will bring them back to this very city and make them live in peace and safety. 38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 39 And I will give them one heart and mind to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants.
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, promising never again to desert them but only to do them good. I will put a desire into their hearts to worship me, and they shall never leave me. 41 I will rejoice to do them good and will replant them in this land with great joy. 42 Just as I have sent all these terrors and evils upon them, so will I do all the good I have promised them.
43 Fields will again be bought and sold in this land now ravaged by the Babylonians, where men and animals alike have disappeared. 44 Yes, fields shall once again be bought and sold—deeds signed and sealed and witnessed—in the country of Benjamin and here in Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah and in the hill country, in the Philistine Plain and in the Negeb too, for some day I will restore prosperity to them.
1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow evil men’s advice, who do not hang around with sinners, scoffing at the things of God. 2 But they delight in doing everything God wants them to, and day and night are always meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely.
3 They are like trees along a riverbank bearing luscious fruit each season without fail. Their leaves shall never wither, and all they do shall prosper.
4 But for sinners, what a different story! They blow away like chaff before the wind. 5 They are not safe on Judgment Day; they shall not stand among the godly.
6 For the Lord watches over all the plans and paths of godly men, but the paths of the godless lead to doom.
2 What fools the nations are to rage[a] against the Lord! How strange that men should try to outwit God! 2 For a summit conference of the nations has been called to plot against the Lord and his Messiah, Christ the King.[b] 3 “Come, let us break his chains,” they say, “and free ourselves from all this slavery to God.”
4 But God in heaven merely laughs! He is amused by all their puny plans. 5 And then in fierce fury he rebukes them and fills them with fear.
6 For the Lord declares,[c] “This is the King of my choice, and I have enthroned him in Jerusalem, my holy city.”
7 His chosen one replies,[d] “I will reveal the everlasting purposes of God, for the Lord has said to me, ‘You are my Son. This is your Coronation Day. Today I am giving you your glory.’” 8 “Only ask and I will give you all the nations of the world. 9 Rule them with an iron rod; smash them like clay pots!”
10 O kings and rulers of the earth, listen while there is time. 11 Serve the Lord with reverent fear; rejoice with trembling. 12 Fall down before his Son and kiss his feet[e] before his anger is roused and you perish. I am warning you—his wrath will soon begin. But oh, the joys of those who put their trust in him!
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.