M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Concerning Unsolved Murders
21 “Suppose someone is found murdered in a field in the land that the Lord your God is going to give you, and you do not know who killed him. 2 Your leaders and judges are to go out and measure the distance from the place where the body was found to each of the nearby towns. 3 Then the leaders of the town nearest to where the body was found are to select a young cow that has never been used for work. 4 They are to take it down to a spot near a stream that never runs dry and where the ground has never been plowed or planted, and there they are to break its neck. 5 The levitical priests are to go there also, because they are to decide every legal case involving violence. The Lord your God has chosen them to serve him and to pronounce blessings in his name. 6 Then all the leaders from the town nearest the place where the murdered person was found are to wash their hands over the cow 7 and say, ‘We did not murder this one, and we do not know who did it. 8 Lord, forgive your people Israel, whom you rescued from Egypt. Forgive us and do not hold us responsible for the murder of an innocent person.’ 9 And so, by doing what the Lord requires, you will not be held responsible for the murder.
Concerning Women Prisoners of War
10 “When the Lord your God gives you victory in battle and you take prisoners, 11 you may see among them a beautiful woman that you like and want to marry. 12 Take her to your home, where she will shave her head,[a] cut her fingernails, 13 and change her clothes. She is to stay in your home and mourn for her parents for a month; after that, you may marry her. 14 Later, if you no longer want her, you are to let her go free. Since you forced her to have intercourse with you, you cannot treat her as a slave and sell her.
Concerning the First Son's Inheritance
15 “Suppose a man has two wives and they both bear him sons, but the first son is not the child of his favorite wife. 16 When the man decides how he is going to divide his property among his children, he is not to show partiality to the son of his favorite wife by giving him the share that belongs to the first-born son. 17 He is to give a double share of his possessions to his first son, even though he is not the son of his favorite wife. A man must acknowledge his first son and give him the share he is legally entitled to.
Concerning a Disobedient Son
18 “Suppose someone has a son who is stubborn and rebellious, a son who will not obey his parents, even though they punish him. 19 His parents are to take him before the leaders of the town where he lives and make him stand trial. 20 They are to say to them, ‘Our son is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey us; he wastes money and is a drunkard.’ 21 Then the men of the city are to stone him to death, and so you will get rid of this evil. Everyone in Israel will hear what has happened and be afraid.
Various Laws
22 “If someone has been put to death for a crime and the body is hung on a post, 23 (A)it is not to remain there overnight. It must be buried the same day, because a dead body hanging on a post brings God's curse on the land. Bury the body, so that you will not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
A Prayer for Help against Enemies[a] (A)
108 I have complete confidence, O God!
I will sing and praise you!
Wake up, my soul!
2 Wake up, my harp and lyre!
I will wake up the sun.
3 I will thank you, O Lord, among the nations.
I will praise you among the peoples.
4 Your constant love reaches above the heavens;
your faithfulness touches the skies.
5 Show your greatness in the sky, O God,
and your glory over all the earth.
6 Save us by your might; answer my prayer,
so that the people you love may be rescued.
7 From his sanctuary[b] God has said,
“In triumph I will divide Shechem
and distribute Sukkoth Valley to my people.
8 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh too;
Ephraim is my helmet
and Judah my royal scepter.
9 But I will use Moab as my washbowl,
and I will throw my sandals on Edom,
as a sign that I own it.
I will shout in triumph over the Philistines.”
10 Who, O God, will take me into the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Have you really rejected us?
Aren't you going to march out with our armies?
12 Help us against the enemy;
human help is worthless.
13 With God on our side we will win;
he will defeat our enemies.
The Complaint of Someone in Trouble[c]
109 I praise you, God; don't remain silent!
2 Wicked people and liars have attacked me.
They tell lies about me,
3 and they say evil things about me,
attacking me for no reason.
4 They oppose me, even though I love them
and have prayed for them.[d]
5 They pay me back evil for good
and hatred for love.
6 Choose some corrupt judge to try my enemy,
and let one of his own enemies accuse him.
7 May he be tried and found guilty;
may even his prayer be considered a crime!
8 (B)May his life soon be ended;
may someone else take his job!
9 May his children become orphans,
and his wife a widow!
10 May his children be homeless beggars;
may they be driven from[e] the ruins they live in!
11 May his creditors take away all his property,
and may strangers get everything he worked for.
12 May no one ever be kind to him
or care for the orphans he leaves behind.
13 May all his descendants die,
and may his name be forgotten in the next generation.
14 May the Lord remember the evil of his ancestors
and never forgive his mother's sins.
15 May the Lord always remember their sins,
but may they themselves be completely forgotten!
16 That man never thought of being kind;
he persecuted and killed
the poor, the needy, and the helpless.
17 He loved to curse—may he be cursed!
He hated to give blessings—may no one bless him!
18 He cursed as naturally as he dressed himself;
may his own curses soak into his body like water
and into his bones like oil!
19 May they cover him like clothes
and always be around him like a belt!
20 Lord, punish my enemies in that way—
those who say such evil things against me!
21 But my Sovereign Lord, help me as you have promised,
and rescue me because of the goodness of your love.
22 I am poor and needy;
I am hurt to the depths of my heart.
23 Like an evening shadow I am about to vanish;
I am blown away like an insect.
24 My knees are weak from lack of food;
I am nothing but skin and bones.
25 (C)When people see me, they laugh at me;
they shake their heads in scorn.
26 Help me, O Lord my God;
because of your constant love, save me!
27 Make my enemies know
that you are the one who saves me.
28 They may curse me, but you will bless me.
May my persecutors be defeated,[f]
and may I, your servant, be glad.
29 May my enemies be covered with disgrace;
may they wear their shame like a robe.
30 I will give loud thanks to the Lord;
I will praise him in the assembly of the people,
31 because he defends the poor
and saves them from those who condemn them to death.
God Is Lord of the Future
48 Listen to this, people of Israel,
you that are descended from Judah:
You swear by the name of the Lord
and claim to worship the God of Israel—
but you don't mean a word you say.
2 And yet you are proud to say
that you are citizens of the holy city
and that you depend on Israel's God,
whose name is the Lord Almighty.
3 The Lord says to Israel,
“Long ago I predicted what would take place;
then suddenly I made it happen.
4 I knew that you would prove to be stubborn,
as rigid as iron and unyielding as bronze.
5 And so I predicted your future long ago,
announcing events before they took place,
to keep you from claiming
that your idols and images made them happen.
6 “All I foretold has now taken place;
you have to admit my predictions were right.
Now I will tell you of new things to come,
events that I did not reveal before.
7 Only now am I making them happen;
nothing like this took place in the past.
If it had, you would claim that you knew all about it.
8 I knew that you couldn't be trusted,
that you have always been known as a rebel.
That is why you never heard of this at all,
why no word of it ever came to your ears.
9 “In order that people will praise my name,
I am holding my anger in check;
I am keeping it back and will not destroy you.
10 I have tested you in the fire of suffering,
as silver is refined in a furnace.
But I have found that you are worthless.
11 What I do is done for my own sake—
I will not let my name be dishonored
or let anyone else share the glory
that should be mine and mine alone.”
Cyrus, the Lord's Chosen Leader
12 (A)The Lord says,
“Listen to me, Israel, the people I have called!
I am God, the first, the last, the only God!
13 My hands made the earth's foundations
and spread the heavens out.
When I summon earth and sky,
they come at once and present themselves.
14 “Assemble and listen, all of you!
None of the gods could predict
that the man I have chosen would attack Babylon;
he will do what I want him to do.
15 I am the one who spoke and called him;
I led him out and gave him success.
16 “Now come close to me and hear what I say.
From the beginning I have spoken openly
and have always made my words come true.”
(Now the Sovereign Lord has given me his power and sent me.)
The Lord's Plan for His People
17 The holy God of Israel,
the Lord who saves you, says:
“I am the Lord your God,
the one who wants to teach you for your own good
and direct you in the way you should go.
18 “If only you had listened to my commands!
Then blessings would have flowed for you
like a stream that never goes dry.
Victory would have come to you
like the waves that roll on the shore.
19 Your descendants would be as numerous as grains of sand,
and I would have made sure they were never destroyed.”
20 (B)Go out from Babylon, go free!
Shout the news gladly; make it known everywhere:
“The Lord has saved his servant Israel!”
21 When the Lord led his people through a hot, dry desert,
they did not suffer from thirst.
He made water come from a rock for them;
he split the rock open, and water flowed out.
22 (C)“There is no safety for sinners,” says the Lord.
The Fall of Babylon
18 After this I saw another angel coming down out of heaven. He had great authority, and his splendor brightened the whole earth. 2 (A)He cried out in a loud voice: “She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen! She is now haunted by demons and unclean spirits; all kinds of filthy and hateful birds live in her. 3 (B)For all the nations have drunk her wine—the strong wine of her immoral lust. The kings of the earth practiced sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the world grew rich from her unrestrained lust.”
4 (C)Then I heard another voice from heaven, saying,
“Come out, my people! Come out from her!
You must not take part in her sins;
you must not share in her punishment!
5 (D)For her sins are piled up as high as heaven,
and God remembers her wicked ways.
6 (E)Treat her exactly as she has treated you;
pay her back double for all she has done.
Fill her cup with a drink twice as strong
as the drink she prepared for you.
7 (F)Give her as much suffering and grief
as the glory and luxury she gave herself.
For she keeps telling herself:
‘Here I sit, a queen!
I am no widow,
I will never know grief’
8 Because of this, in one day she will be struck with plagues—
disease, grief, and famine.
And she will be burned with fire,
because the Lord God, who judges her, is mighty.”
9 (G)The kings of the earth who took part in her immorality and lust will cry and weep over the city when they see the smoke from the flames that consume her. 10 They stand a long way off, because they are afraid of sharing in her suffering. They say, “How terrible! How awful! This great and mighty city Babylon! In just one hour you have been punished!”
11 (H)The merchants of the earth also cry and mourn for her, because no one buys their goods any longer; 12 (I)no one buys their gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls; their goods of linen, purple cloth, silk, and scarlet cloth; all kinds of rare woods and all kinds of objects made of ivory and of expensive wood, of bronze, iron, and marble; 13 and cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; wine and oil, flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and carriages, slaves, and even human lives. 14 The merchants say to her, “All the good things you longed to own have disappeared, and all your wealth and glamor are gone, and you will never find them again!” 15 (J)The merchants, who became rich from doing business in that city, will stand a long way off, because they are afraid of sharing in her suffering. They will cry and mourn, 16 and say, “How terrible! How awful for the great city! She used to dress herself in linen, purple, and scarlet, and cover herself with gold ornaments, precious stones, and pearls! 17 (K)And in one hour she has lost all this wealth!”
All the ships' captains and passengers, the sailors and all others who earn their living on the sea, stood a long way off, 18 (L)and cried out as they saw the smoke from the flames that consumed her: “There never has been another city like this great city!” 19 (M)They threw dust on their heads, they cried and mourned, saying, “How terrible! How awful for the great city! She is the city where all who have ships sailing the seas became rich on her wealth! And in one hour she has lost everything!”
20 (N)Be glad, heaven, because of her destruction! Be glad, God's people and the apostles and prophets! For God has condemned her for what she did to you!
21 (O)Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “This is how the great city Babylon will be violently thrown down and will never be seen again. 22 (P)The music of harps and of human voices, of players of the flute and the trumpet, will never be heard in you again! No workman in any trade will ever be found in you again; and the sound of the millstone will be heard no more! 23 Never again will the light of a lamp be seen in you; no more will the voices of brides and grooms be heard in you. Your merchants were the most powerful in all the world, and with your false magic you deceived all the peoples of the world!”
24 (Q)Babylon was punished because the blood of prophets and of God's people was found in the city; yes, the blood of all those who have been killed on earth.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.