M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Cities and pastures of the Levites
35 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Moab plains by the Jordan across from Jericho: 2 Command the Israelites that they give cities from their inherited property to the Levites in which to live. You will also give the Levites pastures around their cities. 3 The cities will be theirs in which to live. Their pastures will be for their cattle, their possessions, and all their animals. 4 The pastures of the cities that you must give to the Levites will extend from the wall of the city outward for one thousand five hundred feet in all directions. 5 You will measure outside the city on the east side three thousand feet, on the south side three thousand feet, on the west side three thousand feet, and on the north side three thousand feet, with the city in the middle. These will be their cities’ pastures.
6 Six of the cities that you give to the Levites will be refuge cities. You will allow the person who kills someone to flee there. In addition to these you will give them forty-two cities. 7 All the cities that you give to the Levites will total forty-eight, along with their pastures. 8 As for the cities that you give from the property of the Israelites, you will take more from the larger tribes and less from the smaller. Each in proportion to its inheritance will give cities to the Levites.
Refuge cities
9 The Lord spoke to Moses: 10 Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11 identify for yourselves cities to be refuge cities, where a person who kills someone by accident may flee. 12 The cities will be for you a place of refuge from the close relative of the dead. The person who killed someone may not be put to death until he stands before the community for judgment. 13 You will establish six refuge cities for yourselves. 14 You will establish three cities across the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan. They will be the refuge cities. 15 These six cities will be refuge for Israelites, immigrants, and temporary residents, as a place to flee for anyone who kills a person by accident.
16 But if someone strikes a person with an iron object and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must definitely be put to death. 17 If someone strikes another with a stone in hand that could cause death and he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer must definitely be put to death. 18 Or if someone strikes with a wood object in hand that could cause death, he is a murderer. The murderer must definitely be put to death. 19 The close relative responsible for the blood[a] of the dead is the one who will put the murderer to death. When he meets him, he will execute him. 20 If in hatred someone hits another or throws something at him with premeditation, he will be put to death. 21 Or if in hostility someone strikes another with his hand and he dies, the one who struck is a murderer and he will be put to death. The close relative will put the murderer to death when he meets him.
22 But if suddenly and without hostility someone hits another or throws any object at him without premeditation, 23 or accidentally drops any stone on him that could cause death and he dies—even though they weren’t enemies and no evil was intended— 24 then the community must come to a verdict between the killer and the close relative in accordance with these case laws. 25 The community will protect the killer from the hand of the close relative and return him to the refuge city where he fled. He will live there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with holy oil. 26 But if the killer ever goes outside the boundaries of the refuge city where he fled 27 and the close relative finds him outside the boundary of his refuge city and kills him, he will not be responsible for his blood. 28 The killer must live in his refuge city until the high priest’s death. After the high priest’s death the killer may return to the land he owns.
29 These will be the regulations and case laws for all time in all your settlements.
30 Anyone who kills another will be executed on the evidence of witnesses. But one witness alone cannot testify against a person for a death sentence. 31 You may not accept a ransom for the life of a killer, who is guilty of a capital crime, for he must definitely be put to death. 32 You may not accept a ransom for someone who has fled to his refuge city so that he can return and live in the land before the priest’s death. 33 You may not pollute the land in which you live, for the blood pollutes the land. There can be no recovery[b] for the land from the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it. 34 You will not make the land in which you live unclean, the land in the middle of which I reside, for I the Lord reside among the Israelites.
Psalm 79
A psalm of Asaph.
79 The nations have come into your inheritance, God!
They’ve defiled your holy temple.
They’ve made Jerusalem a bunch of ruins.
2 They’ve left your servants’ bodies
as food for the birds;
they’ve left the flesh of your faithful
to the wild animals of the earth.
3 They’ve poured out the blood of the faithful
like water all around Jerusalem,
and there’s no one left to bury them.
4 We’ve become a joke to our neighbors,
nothing but objects of ridicule
and disapproval to those around us.
5 How long will you rage, Lord? Forever?
How long will your anger burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations
who don’t know you,
on the kingdoms
that haven’t called on your name.
7 They’ve devoured Jacob
and demolished his pasture.
8 Don’t remember the iniquities of past generations;
let your compassion hurry to meet us
because we’ve been brought so low.
9 God of our salvation, help us
for the glory of your name!
Deliver us and cover our sins
for the sake of your name!
10 Why should the nations say,
“Where’s their God now?”
Let vengeance for the spilled blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our very eyes!
11 Let the prisoners’ groaning reach you.
With your powerful arm
spare those who are destined to die.
12 Pay back our neighbors seven times over,
right where it hurts,
for the insults they used on you, Lord.
13 We are, after all, your people
and the sheep of your very own pasture.
We will give you thanks forever;
we will proclaim your praises
from one generation to the next.
Scattered people return
27 On that day, the Lord will take a great sword, harsh and mighty, and will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the writhing serpent, and will kill the dragon that is in the sea. 2 On that day:
Sing about a delightful vineyard!
3 I, the Lord, am its guardian.
Every moment I water it;
night and day I guard it from attack.
4 I’m not angry,
but if it yields thorns and thistles for me,
I will march to battle against it;
I will torch it completely.
5 Or let them[a] cling to me for refuge;
let them make peace with me;
let them make peace with me.
6 In coming days,[b]
Jacob will take root;
Israel will blossom and sprout
and fill the whole world with produce.
7 Did God strike Israel as he struck those who struck him?
Was Israel killed as his killers were killed?[c]
8 By frightening Jerusalem, by sending her away,[d]
you contended with her,
expelling with a fierce blast
on the day of the east wind.
9 By this Jacob’s guilt is reconciled,
and this was how his sins were finally removed:
he made all the altar stones like shattered chalk,
sacred poles[e] and incense altars that couldn’t stand.
10 The fortified city lies alone,
a hut forsaken,
abandoned like the desert.
Calves graze there;
they lie down there and feed on its boughs.
11 When its branches are dry, they are broken.
Women come and set fire to it.
These people have no understanding;
therefore, their maker won’t have compassion;
the one who formed them won’t be gracious.
12 On that day, the Lord will beat grain from the channel of the Euphrates up to the Valley of Egypt. You will be collected, Israelites, one by one. 13 On that day, a great trumpet will be played. Those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come. They will bow to the Lord at his holy mountain in Jerusalem.
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God. Whoever loves someone who is a parent loves the child born to the parent. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep God’s commandments. 3 This is the love of God: we keep God’s commandments. God’s commandments are not difficult, 4 because everyone who is born from God defeats the world. And this is the victory that has defeated the world: our faith. 5 Who defeats the world? Isn’t it the one who believes that Jesus is God’s Son?
Testimony about Jesus
6 This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. Not by water only but by water and blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 The three are testifying— 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and the three are united in agreement. 9 If we receive human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because this is what God testified: he has testified about his Son. 10 The one who believes in God’s Son has the testimony within; the one who doesn’t believe God has made God a liar, because that one has not believed the testimony that God gave about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have God’s Son does not have life.
Confidence in prayer
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of God’s Son so that you can know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence that we have in our relationship with God: If we ask for anything in agreement with his will, he listens to us. 15 If we know that he listens to whatever we ask, we know that we have received what we asked from him. 16 If anyone sees a brother or sister committing a sin that does not result in death, they should pray, and God will give life to them—that is, to those who commit sins that don’t result in death. There is a sin that results in death—I’m not saying that you should pray about that. 17 Every unrighteous action is sin, but there is a sin that does not result in death.
Be on guard
18 We know that everyone born from God does not sin, but the ones born from God guard themselves,[a] and the evil one cannot touch them. 19 We know we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 We know that God’s Son has come and has given us understanding to know the one who is true. We are in the one who is true by being in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols!
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible