M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Inheritance of Zelophehad’s daughters
36 The leaders of the households of the clans of Gilead, Machir’s son and Manasseh’s grandson, of Joseph’s clans, approached and spoke before Moses and the chiefs, who were the leaders of the Israelite households. 2 They said, “The Lord commanded my master to give the land as an inheritance by lot to the Israelites. But my master was also commanded by the Lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters. 3 If they are married to someone from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance will be taken away from our household and given to another tribe into which they marry. Then it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance. 4 At the Israelite Jubilee, their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they married. Then their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of our ancestral tribe.”
5 Then Moses commanded the Israelites according to the Lord’s word: “The tribe of Joseph’s descendants are correct in what they’re saying. 6 This is the word that the Lord commands to Zelophehad’s daughters: They may marry whomever seems best to them, but they may only marry into one of the clans of their ancestral tribe, 7 so that the inheritance of the Israelites doesn’t transfer from one tribe to another. The Israelites will each retain the tribal inheritance of his ancestral tribe. 8 Every daughter who inherits land from an Israelite tribe must marry into one of the clans of her father’s tribe. In this way each Israelite will own the land of his ancestors. 9 An inheritance of land may not be transferred from one tribe to another, for the Israelite tribes will each retain its own inheritance.”
10 Zelophehad’s daughters did as the Lord commanded Moses. 11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, Zelophehad’s daughters, married their cousins. 12 They married into the clan of Manasseh, Joseph’s son. Their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.
Conclusion
13 These are the commandments and the case laws that the Lord commanded the Israelites through Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.
Psalm 80
For the music leader. According to “Lotus Blossoms.” A testimony of Asaph. A psalm.
80 Shepherd of Israel, listen!
You, the one who leads Joseph as if he were a sheep.
You, who are enthroned upon the winged heavenly creatures.
Show yourself 2 before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh!
Wake up your power!
Come to save us!
3 Restore us, God!
Make your face shine so that we can be saved!
4 Lord God of heavenly forces,
how long will you fume against your people’s prayer?
5 You’ve fed them bread made of tears;
you’ve given them tears to drink three times over!
6 You’ve put us at odds with our neighbors;
our enemies make fun of us.
7 Restore us, God of heavenly forces!
Make your face shine so that we can be saved!
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt.
You drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;
then it planted its roots deep, filling the land.
10 The mountains were covered by its shade;
the mighty cedars were covered by its branches.
11 It sent its branches all the way to the sea;
its shoots went all the way to the Euphrates River.[a]
12 So why have you now torn down its walls
so that all who come along can pluck its fruit,
13 so that any boar from the forest can tear it up,
so that the bugs can feed on it?
14 Please come back, God of heavenly forces!
Look down from heaven and perceive it!
Attend to this vine,
15 this root that you planted with your strong hand,
this son whom you secured as your very own.
16 It is burned with fire. It is chopped down.
They die at the rebuke coming from you.
17 Let your hand be with the one on your right side—
with the one whom you secured as your own—
18 then we will not turn away from you!
Revive us so that we can call on your name.
19 Restore us, Lord God of heavenly forces!
Make your face shine so that we can be saved!
Judgment on Ephraim and Judah
28 Oh, the majestic garland of Ephraim’s drunks
and the fading flower of its splendid beauty
on the head that flows with perfume[a]
of those hammered with wine.
2 Look! The Lord has someone who is powerful and strong;
like a hailstorm, a disastrous tempest,
like a downpour of mighty, overflowing waters,
he can level them to the ground with his hand.
3 The majestic garland of Ephraim’s drunks
will be trampled underfoot.
4 The withered flower, which is a thing of beauty[b]
as it sits on the head of those bloated with fat,[c]
will be like an early fig before the summer harvest:
whoever sees it swallows it as soon as it is in hand.
5 On that day, the Lord of heavenly forces will be a splendid garland and a beautiful wreath for the people who survive, 6 and a spirit of justice for the one who sits in judgment, and a strength for those who repel the assault at the gate.
7 These also stagger from wine and stumble from beer:
priest and prophet stagger from beer;
they are confused by wine;
they stray on account of beer;
they err when receiving visions;
they stumble when making judgments.
8 All the tables are covered with vomit;
filth overruns the place.
9 To whom will God teach knowledge?
To whom will he explain the message?
To those just weaned from milk?
To those who have hardly outgrown the breast?
10 It is “tsav letsav, tsav letsav; qav leqav, qav leqav,”[d]
a little of this, a little of that.
11 With derisive speech and a foreign tongue,
he will speak to this people.
12 He has said to them,
“This is the place of rest;
give rest to the weary;
this is the place of repose”;
but they refused to listen.
13 So the Lord’s word will be for them:
“tsav letsav, tsav letsav; qav leqav, qav leqav,”
a little of this, a little of that.
So that they will go and stagger backward,
they will be broken, snared, and captured.
The covenant with death overturned
14 Therefore, hear the Lord’s word,
you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15 You said, “We’ve cut a deal with death;[e]
with the underworld[f] we made a pact.
When the overflowing flood passes through, it won’t reach us;
for we have made lies our hiding place,
and in falsehood we take shelter.”
16 Therefore, the Lord God says:
Look! I’m laying in Zion a stone,
a tested stone, a valuable cornerstone,
a sure foundation:
the one who trusts won’t tremble.
17 I will make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the plumb line.
But hail will sweep away the hiding place of lies,
and water will overflow the shelter.
18 Your deal with death[g] will be dissolved,
and your pact with the grave[h] won’t stand.
The rushing flood: when it passes through,
you will be annihilated by it.
19 Every time it passes through it will take you,
for morning by morning it will pass,
by day and by night.
It will be nothing but terror to understand the message.
20 The bed is too short to stretch out,
and the shroud is too narrow to cover oneself.
21 Just as on Mount Perazim, the Lord will rise up;
as in the Gibeon Valley he will rage to do his deed—strange is his deed!—
And to work his work—foreign is his work!
22 So now stop your scoffing,
or your chains will be tightened,
because destruction has been ordered—I have heard it!—
by the Lord God of heavenly forces against the whole land.
Plowing and threshing
23 Listen and hear my voice;
pay attention and hear my word:
24 Does the plowman plow without stopping for planting,
opening and harrowing their ground?
25 When he has smoothed its surface,
doesn’t he scatter fennel,[i] and sow cumin,
and plant wheat and barley in their places,
and spelt as a border?
26 They are properly ordered;
their God directs them.[j]
27 Fennel[k] isn’t threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but fennel[l] is beaten with a staff,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Bread grain is crushed,
but the thresher[m] doesn’t thresh it forever.
He drives the cart wheel over it;
he spreads it out but doesn’t crush it.
29 This also comes from the Lord of heavenly forces,
who gives wondrous counsel and increases wisdom.
Greeting
1 From the elder.
To the chosen gentlewoman and her children, whom I truly love (and I am not the only one, but also all who know the truth), 2 because of the truth that remains with us and will be with us forever.
3 Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, will be ours who live in truth and love.
Love each other
4 I was overjoyed to find some of your children living in the truth, just as we had been commanded by the Father. 5 Now, dear friends, I am requesting that we love each other. It’s not as though I’m writing a new command to you, but it’s one we have had from the beginning. 6 This is love: that we live according to his commands. This is the command that you heard from the beginning: live in love.
Reject false teachers
7 Many deceivers have gone into the world who do not confess that Jesus Christ came as a human being. This kind of person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves so that you don’t lose what we’ve worked for but instead receive a full reward. 9 Anyone who goes too far and does not continue in the teaching about Christ does not have God. Whoever continues in this teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 Whoever comes to you who does not affirm this teaching should neither be received nor welcomed into your home, 11 because welcoming people like that is the same thing as sharing in their evil actions.
Plans to visit
12 I have a lot to tell you. I don’t want to use paper and ink, but I hope to visit you and talk with you face-to-face, so that our joy can be complete.
Final greeting
13 Your chosen sister’s children greet you.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible