M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

A Levite and His Servant

19 At that time the people of Israel did not have a king.

There was a Levite who lived in the faraway part of the mountains of Ephraim. He had taken a slave woman. She was from the city of Bethlehem in the land of Judah. ² But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her father’s house. It was in Bethlehem in Judah. She stayed there for four months. ³ Then her husband went to ask her to come back to him. He took with him his servant and two donkeys. The Levite came to her father’s house. And she invited the Levite to come in. Her father was happy to see him. ⁴ The father-in-law, the young woman’s father, asked him to stay. So he stayed for three days. He ate, drank and slept there.

⁵ On the fourth day they got up early in the morning. The Levite was getting ready to leave. But the woman’s father said to his son-in-law, “Refresh yourself by eating something. Then you may go.” ⁶ So the two men sat down to eat and drink together. After that, the father said to him, “Please stay tonight. Relax and enjoy yourself.” ⁷ When the man got up to go, his father-in-law asked him to stay. So he stayed again that night. ⁸ On the fifth day the man got up early in the morning to leave. The woman’s father said, “Refresh yourself. Wait until this afternoon.” So the two men ate together.

⁹ Then the Levite, his slave woman and his servant got up to leave. His father-in-law, the young woman’s father, said, “It’s almost night. The day is almost gone. So spend the night here and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow morning you may get up early and go on your way home.” ¹⁰ But the Levite did not want to stay another night. He took his two saddled donkeys and his slave woman. He traveled toward the city of Jebus. (Jebus is another name for Jerusalem.)

¹¹ The day was almost over. They were near Jebus. So the servant said to his master, “Let’s stop at this city. It’s the city of the Jebusite people. Let’s spend the night here.”

¹² But his master said, “No. We won’t go inside a strange city. Those people are not Israelites. We will go on to the city of Gibeah.” ¹³ Then he said, “Come on. Let’s try to make it to Gibeah or Ramah. We can spend the night in one of those cities.” ¹⁴ So they went on. And the sun went down as they came near Gibeah. Gibeah belongs to the tribe of Benjamin. ¹⁵ So they stopped there to spend the night. They came to the public square in the middle of the city and sat down. But no one invited them home to spend the night.

¹⁶ That evening an old man came into the city from his work in the fields. His home was in the mountains of Ephraim. But now he was living in Gibeah. (The men of Gibeah were from the tribe of Benjamin.) ¹⁷ He saw the traveler, the Levite, in the public square. He asked, “Where are you going? Where did you come from?”

¹⁸ The Levite answered, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah. We’re going to my home. I’m from a faraway part of the mountains of Ephraim. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah. Now I am going to the Holy Tent of the Lord. No one has invited me to stay in his house. ¹⁹ We already have straw and food for our donkeys. There is bread and wine for me, the young woman and my servant. We don’t need anything.”

²⁰ The old man said, “You are welcome to stay at my house. Let me give you anything you need. But don’t spend the night in the public square.” ²¹ So the old man took the Levite into his house. He fed their donkeys, and they washed their feet. Then he gave them something to eat and drink.

²² While they were enjoying themselves, some wicked men of the city surrounded the house. They beat on the door. They shouted to the old man who owned the house. They said, “Bring out the man who came to your house. We want to force him to have physical relations with us.”

²³ The owner of the house went outside. And he said to them, “No, my friends. Don’t be so evil. This man is a guest in my house. Don’t do this terrible thing! ²⁴ Look, here is my daughter. She is a virgin. And here is the man’s slave woman. I will bring them out to you now. Do anything you want with them. But don’t do such a terrible thing to this man.”

²⁵ But the men would not listen to him. So the Levite took his slave woman and sent her outside to them. They raped her. They treated her very badly all night long. Then, at dawn, they let her go. ²⁶ She came back to the house where her master was staying. She fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.

²⁷ In the morning the Levite got up. He opened the door of the house. He went outside to go on his way. But there lay his slave woman. She had fallen down at the doorway of the house. Her hands were on the doorsill. ²⁸ Then the Levite said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But she did not answer. So he put her on his donkey and went home.

²⁹ When the Levite got home, he took a knife and cut his slave woman into 12 parts. Then he sent a part to each of the areas where the people of Israel lived. ³⁰ Everyone who saw this said, “Nothing like this has ever happened before. It has never happened since the people of Israel came out of Egypt. Think about it. Tell us what to do.”

23 Paul looked at the Jewish council and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life in a good way before God up to this day.” ² Ananias,^[a] the high priest, heard this and told the men who were standing near Paul to hit him on his mouth. ³ Paul said to Ananias, “God will hit you too! You are like a wall that has been painted white! You sit there and judge me, using the law of Moses. But you are telling them to hit me, and that is against the law.”

⁴ The men standing near Paul said to him, “You cannot talk like that to God’s high priest! You are insulting him!”

⁵ Paul said, “Brothers, I did not know this man was the high priest. It is written in the Scriptures, ‘You must not curse a leader of your people.’”^[b]

⁶ Some of the men in the meeting were Sadducees, and others were Pharisees. So Paul shouted to them, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee and my father was a Pharisee! I am on trial here because I hope that people will rise from death!”

⁷ When Paul said this, there was an argument between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The group was divided. ⁸ (The Sadducees believe that after people die, they cannot live again. The Sadducees also teach that there are no angels or spirits. But the Pharisees believe in them all.) ⁹ So there was a great uproar. Some of the teachers of the law, who were Pharisees, stood up and argued, “We find nothing wrong with this man! Maybe an angel or a spirit did speak to him.”

¹⁰ The argument was beginning to turn into a fight. The commander was afraid that the Jews would tear Paul to pieces. So the commander told the soldiers to go down and take Paul away and put him in the army building.

¹¹ The next night the Lord came and stood by Paul. He said, “Be brave! You have told people in Jerusalem about me. You must do the same in Rome also.”

¹² In the morning some of the Jews made a plan to kill Paul. They made a promise that they would not eat or drink anything until they had killed him. ¹³ There were more than 40 Jews who made this plan. ¹⁴ They went and talked to the leading priests and the Jewish elders. They said, “We have made a promise to ourselves that we will not eat or drink until we have killed Paul! ¹⁵ So this is what we want you to do: Send a message to the commander to bring Paul out to you. Tell him you want to ask Paul more questions. We will be waiting to kill him while he is on the way here.”

¹⁶ But Paul’s nephew heard about this plan. He went to the army building and told Paul about it. ¹⁷ Then Paul called one of the officers and said, “Take this young man to the commander. He has a message for him.”

¹⁸ So the officer brought Paul’s nephew to the commander. The officer said, “The prisoner, Paul, asked me to bring this young man to you. He wants to tell you something.”

¹⁹ The commander led the young man to a place where they could be alone. The commander asked, “What do you want to tell me?”

²⁰ The young man said, “The Jews have decided to ask you to bring Paul down to their council meeting tomorrow. They want you to think that they are going to ask him more questions. ²¹ But don’t believe them! There are more than 40 men who are hiding and waiting to kill Paul. They have all made a promise not to eat or drink until they have killed him! Now they are waiting for you to agree.”

²² The commander sent the young man away. He said to him, “Don’t tell anyone that you have told me about their plan.”

Paul Is Sent to Caesarea

²³ Then the commander called two officers. He said to them, “I need some men to go to Caesarea. Get 200 soldiers ready. Also, get 70 horsemen and 200 men with spears. Be ready to leave at nine o’clock tonight. ²⁴ Get some horses for Paul to ride. He must be taken to Governor Felix safely.” ²⁵ And he wrote a letter that said:

³¹ So the soldiers did what they were told. They took Paul and brought him to the city of Antipatris that night. ³² The next day the horsemen went with Paul to Caesarea. But the other soldiers went back to the army building in Jerusalem. ³³ The horsemen came to Caesarea and gave the letter to the governor. Then they turned Paul over to him. ³⁴ The governor read the letter. Then he asked Paul, “What area are you from?” He learned that Paul was from Cilicia. ³⁵ He said, “I will hear your case when those who are against you come here too.” Then the governor gave orders for Paul to be kept under guard in the palace. (This building had been built by Herod.)

The Promise of God

33 Now Jeremiah was still locked up in the courtyard of the guards. And the Lord spoke his word to him a second time: ² “The Lord made the earth. He made it, and he keeps it safe. The Lord is his name. This is what the Lord says: ³ ‘Judah, pray to me, and I will answer you. I will tell you important secrets. You have never heard these things before.’ ⁴ The Lord is the God of Israel. He says these things about the houses in Jerusalem and the royal palaces of Judah. They have been torn down to be used against the attack by the Babylonian army. ⁵ The Lord says, ‘Some people will come to fight against the Babylonians. They will fill these houses with dead bodies. I killed those people in my hot anger. I have turned away from this city because of all the evil its people have done.

⁶ “‘But then I will bring health and heal the people there. I will let them enjoy peace and safety. ⁷ I will make good things happen to Judah and Israel again. I will make them strong as in the past. ⁸ They sinned against me. But I will wash away that sin. They did evil and turned away from me, but I will forgive them. ⁹ Then Jerusalem will be a wonderful place! People who live there will be happy. And people from all nations will praise it. This will happen because they will hear about the good things I am doing there. They will be surprised and shocked at the good things and peace I will bring to Jerusalem.’

¹⁰ “You are saying, ‘Our country is an empty desert. There are no people or animals living there.’ It is now quiet in the streets of Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah. There are no people or animals there either. But it will be noisy there soon! ¹¹ There will be sounds of joy and gladness. There will be the happy sounds of brides and bridegrooms. There will be the sounds of people bringing their offerings to the Temple of the Lord. Their offerings will be to show thanks to the Lord. They will say,

They will say this because I will again do good things for Judah. It will be as in the beginning,” says the Lord.

¹² This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says: “This place is empty now. There are no people or animals living here. But there will be shepherds in all the towns of Judah. And there will be pastures where they let their flocks of sheep rest. ¹³ Shepherds will again count their sheep as the sheep walk in front of them. People will be counting their sheep all around the country. They will count them in the mountains and in the western mountain slopes. They will count them in southern Judah and the land of Benjamin. They will count them around Jerusalem and the other towns of Judah!”

The Good Branch

¹⁴ The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will do the things I promised. I made a special promise to the people of Israel and Judah.

¹⁷ This is what the Lord says: “Someone from David’s family will always sit on the throne. And he will rule the family of Israel. ¹⁸ And there will always be priests from the family of Levi. Those priests will always stand before me. And they will offer burnt offerings and grain offerings. And they will offer sacrifices to me.”

¹⁹ The Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah. ²⁰ “This is what the Lord says: I have an agreement with day and night. I agreed that they will continue forever. Day and night will always come at the right times. If you could change that agreement, ²¹ you could also change my agreement with David and Levi. Only then would descendants from my servant David not be the kings on their thrones. And only then would the family of Levi not be priests serving me in the Temple. ²² But I will give many descendants to my servant David. And I will give them to the family group of Levi who serve me in the Temple. They will be as many as the stars in the sky that no one can count. And they will be as many as the grains of sand on the seashore that no one can count.”

²³ The Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah: ²⁴ “Jeremiah, have you heard what the people are saying? They are saying: ‘The Lord turned away from the two families of Israel and Judah. He chose those people. But now he doesn’t think of them as a nation anymore!’”

²⁵ This is what the Lord says: “If I had not made my agreement with day and night, and if I had not made the laws for the sky and earth, ²⁶ only then might I turn away from Jacob’s descendants. And only then I might not let the descendants of David my servant rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And I will be kind to those people. I will cause good things to happen to them again.”

A Morning Prayer

David sang this when he ran away from his son Absalom.

An Evening Prayer

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A song of David.