M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

A Levite and His Concubine

19 In those days Israel didn’t have a king.

There was a Levite who lived deep in the hill country of Ephraim. He got a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. ² But she wasn’t faithful to him. She left him. She went back to her parents’ home in Bethlehem in Judah. She stayed there for four months. ³ Then her husband went to see her. He tried to talk her into coming back with him. He had his servant and two donkeys with him. She took her husband into her parents’ home. When her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him. ⁴ His father-in-law, the woman’s father, begged him to stay. So the Levite remained with him for three days. He ate, drank and slept there.

⁵ On the fourth day they got up early. The Levite prepared to leave. But the woman’s father said to his son-in-law, “Have something to eat. It will give you strength. Then you can go on your way.” ⁶ So the two of them sat down. They ate and drank together. After that, the woman’s father said, “Please stay tonight. Enjoy yourself.” ⁷ The man got up to go. But his father-in-law talked him into staying. So he stayed there that night. ⁸ On the morning of the fifth day, the Levite got up to go. But the woman’s father said, “Have something to eat. It will give you strength. Wait until this afternoon!” So the two of them ate together.

⁹ Then the man got up to leave. His concubine and his servant got up when he did. But his father-in-law, the woman’s father, spoke to him again. “Look,” he said. “It’s almost evening. The day is nearly over. So spend another night here. Please stay. Enjoy yourself. Early tomorrow morning you can get up and go back home.” ¹⁰ But the man didn’t want to stay another night. So he left. He went toward Jebus. Jebus is also called Jerusalem. The Levite had his two donkeys and his concubine with him. The donkeys had saddles on them.

¹¹ By the time the travelers came near Jebus, the day was almost over. So the servant said to his master, “Come. Let’s stop at this Jebusite city. Let’s spend the night here.”

¹² His master replied, “No. We won’t go into any city where strangers live. The people there aren’t Israelites. We’ll continue on to Gibeah.” ¹³ He added, “Come. Let’s try to reach Gibeah or Ramah. We can spend the night in one of those places.” ¹⁴ So they continued on. As they came near Gibeah in Benjamin, the sun went down. ¹⁵ They stopped there to spend the night. They went to the city’s main street and sat down. But no one took them home for the night.

¹⁶ That evening an old man came into the city. He had been working in the fields. He was from the hill country of Ephraim. But he was living in Gibeah. The people who lived there were from the tribe of Benjamin. ¹⁷ The old man saw the traveler in the main street. He asked, “Where are you going? Where did you come from?”

¹⁸ The Levite answered, “We’ve come from Bethlehem in Judah. We’re on our way to Ephraim. I live deep in the hill country there. I’ve been to Bethlehem. Now I’m going to the house of the Lord. But no one has taken me home for the night. ¹⁹ We have straw and feed for our donkeys. We have food and wine for ourselves. We have enough for me, the woman and the young man with us. We don’t need anything.”

²⁰ “You are welcome at my house,” the old man said. “I’d be happy to supply anything you might need. But don’t spend the night in the street.” ²¹ So the old man took him into his house and fed his donkeys. After the travelers had washed their feet, they had something to eat and drink.

²² They were inside enjoying themselves. But some of the evil men who lived in the city surrounded the house. They pounded 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 have sex with him.”

²³ The owner of the house went outside. He said to them, “No, my friends. Don’t do such an evil thing. This man is my guest. So don’t do this terrible thing. ²⁴ Look, here is my virgin daughter. And here’s the Levite’s concubine. I’ll bring them out to you now. You can have them. Do to them what you want to. But don’t do such a terrible thing to this man.”

²⁵ The men wouldn’t listen to him. So the Levite sent his concubine out to them. They forced her to have sex with them. They raped her all night long. As the night was ending, they let her go. ²⁶ At sunrise she went back to the house where her master was staying. She fell down at the door. She stayed there until daylight.

²⁷ Later that morning her master got up. He opened the door of the house. He stepped out to continue on his way. But his concubine was lying there. She had fallen at the doorway of the house. Her hands were reaching out toward the door. ²⁸ He said to her, “Get up. Let’s go.” But there wasn’t any answer. Then he put her dead body on his donkey. And he started out for home.

²⁹ When he reached home, he got a knife. He cut up his concubine. He cut her into 12 pieces. He sent them into all the territories of Israel. ³⁰ Everyone who saw it spoke to one another. They said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen or done before. Nothing like this has happened since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Just imagine! We must do something! So let’s hear your ideas!”

23 Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin. “My brothers,” he said, “I have always done my duty to God. To this day I feel that I have done nothing wrong.” ² Ananias the high priest heard this. So he ordered the men standing near Paul to hit him on the mouth. ³ Then Paul said to him, “You pretender! God will hit you! You sit there and judge me by the law. But you yourself broke the law when you commanded them to hit me!”

⁴ Those who were standing near Paul spoke to him. They said, “How dare you talk like that to God’s high priest!”

⁵ Paul replied, “Brothers, I didn’t realize he was the high priest. It is written, ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’ ” (Exodus 22:28)

⁶ Paul knew that some of them were Sadducees and the others were Pharisees. So he called out to the members of the Sanhedrin. “My brothers,” he said, “I am a Pharisee. I come from a family of Pharisees. I believe that people will rise from the dead. That’s why I am on trial.” ⁷ When he said this, the Pharisees and the Sadducees started to argue. They began to take sides. ⁸ The Sadducees say that people will not rise from the dead. They don’t believe there are angels or spirits either. But the Pharisees believe all these things.

⁹ People were causing trouble and making a lot of noise. Some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up. They argued strongly. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” ¹⁰ The people arguing were getting out of control. The commanding officer was afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. So he ordered the soldiers to go down and take him away from them by force. The officer had told them to bring Paul into the fort.

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

The Plan to Kill Paul

¹² The next morning some Jews gathered secretly to make plans against Paul. They made a promise to themselves. They promised that they would not eat or drink anything until they killed him. ¹³ More than 40 men took part in this plan. ¹⁴ They went to the chief priests and the elders. They said, “We have made a special promise to God. We will not eat anything until we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ Now then, you and the Sanhedrin must make an appeal to the commanding officer. Ask him to bring Paul to you. Pretend you want more facts about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.”

¹⁶ But Paul’s nephew heard about this plan. So he went into the fort and told Paul.

¹⁷ Then Paul called one of the commanders. He said to him, “Take this young man to the commanding officer. He has something to tell him.” ¹⁸ So the commander took Paul’s nephew to the officer.

The commander said, “Paul, the prisoner, sent for me. He asked me to bring this young man to you. The young man has something to tell you.”

¹⁹ The commanding officer took the young man by the hand. He spoke to him in private. “What do you want to tell me?” the officer asked.

²⁰ He said, “Some Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul to the Sanhedrin tomorrow. They will pretend they want more facts about him. ²¹ Don’t give in to them. More than 40 of them are waiting in hiding to attack him. They have promised that they will not eat or drink anything until they have killed him. They are ready now. All they need is for you to bring Paul to the Sanhedrin.”

²² The commanding officer let the young man go. But he gave him a warning. “Don’t tell anyone you have reported this to me,” he said.

Paul Is Taken to Caesarea

²³ Then the commanding officer called for two of his commanders. He ordered them, “Gather a company of 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen and 200 men armed with spears. Get them ready to go to Caesarea at nine o’clock tonight. ²⁴ Provide horses for Paul so that he may be taken safely to Governor Felix.”

²⁵ Here is the letter the officer wrote.

²⁶ I, Claudius Lysias, am writing this letter.

I am sending it to His Excellency, Governor Felix.

Greetings.

²⁷ The Jews grabbed Paul. They were about to kill him. But I came with my soldiers and saved him. I had learned that he is a Roman citizen. ²⁸ I wanted to know why they were bringing charges against him. So I brought him to their Sanhedrin. ²⁹ I found out that the charge against him was based on questions about their law. But there was no charge against him worthy of death or prison. ³⁰ Then I was told about a plan against the man. So I sent him to you at once. I also ordered those bringing charges against him to present their case to you.

³¹ The soldiers followed their orders. During the night they took Paul with them. They brought him as far as Antipatris. ³² The next day they let the horsemen go on with him. The soldiers returned to the fort. ³³ The horsemen arrived in Caesarea. They gave the letter to the governor. Then they handed Paul over to him. ³⁴ The governor read the letter. He asked Paul where he was from. He learned that Paul was from Cilicia. ³⁵ So he said, “I will hear your case when those bringing charges against you get here.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s palace.

The Lord Promises to Heal His People

33 Jeremiah was still being held as a prisoner. He was kept in the courtyard of the guard. Then another message from the Lord came to him. The Lord said, ² “I made the earth. I formed it. And I set it in place. The Lord is my name. ³ Call out to me. I will answer you. I will tell you great things you do not know. And unless I do, you wouldn’t be able to find out about them.” ⁴ The Lord is the God of Israel. He speaks about the houses in Jerusalem. He talks about the royal palaces of Judah. The people had torn down many of them. They had used their stones to strengthen the city walls against attack. ⁵ That was during their fight with the armies of Babylon. The Lord says, “The houses will be filled with dead bodies. They will be the bodies of the people I will kill. I will kill them when I am very angry with them. I will hide my face from this city. That’s because its people have committed so many sins.

⁶ “But now I will bring health and healing to Jerusalem. I will heal my people. I will let them enjoy great peace and security. ⁷ I will bring Judah and Israel back from the places where they have been taken. I will build up the nation again. It will be just as it was before. ⁸ I will wash from its people all the sins they have committed against me. And I will forgive all the sins they committed when they turned away from me. ⁹ Then this city will bring me fame, joy, praise and honor. All the nations on earth will hear about the good things I do for this city. They will see the great success and peace I give it. Then they will be filled with wonder. And they will tremble with fear.”

¹⁰ The Lord says, “You say about this place, ‘It’s a dry and empty desert. It doesn’t have any people or animals in it.’ The towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem are now deserted. So they do not have any people or animals living in them. But happy sounds will be heard there once more. ¹¹ They will be the sounds of joy and gladness. The voices of brides and grooms will fill the streets. And the voices of those who bring thank offerings to my house will be heard there. They will say,

That’s because I will bless this land with great success again. It will be as it was before,” says the Lord.

¹² The Lord who rules over all says, “This place is a desert. It does not have any people or animals in it. But there will again be grasslands near all its towns. Shepherds will rest their flocks there. ¹³ Flocks will again pass under the hands of shepherds as they count their sheep,” says the Lord. “That will be done in the towns of the central hill country. It will be done in the western hills and the Negev Desert. It will be done in the territory of Benjamin. And it will be done in the villages around Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah.

¹⁴ “The days are coming,” announces the Lord. “At that time I will fulfill my good promise to my people. I made it to the people of Israel and Judah.

¹⁷ The Lord says, “David will always have a son to sit on the throne of Israel. ¹⁸ The priests, who are Levites, will always have a man to serve me. He will sacrifice burnt offerings. He will burn grain offerings. And he will offer sacrifices.”

¹⁹ A message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. ²⁰ The Lord said, “Could you ever break my covenant with the day? Could you ever break my covenant with the night? Could you ever stop day and night from coming at their appointed times? ²¹ Only then could my covenant with my servant David be broken. Only then could my covenant with the Levites who serve me as priests be broken. Only then would David no longer have someone from his family line to rule on his throne. ²² Here is what I will do for my servant David. And here is what I will do for the Levites who serve me. I will make their children after them as many as the stars in the sky. And I will make them as many as the grains of sand on the seashore. It will be impossible to count them.”

²³ A message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. The Lord said, ²⁴ “Haven’t you noticed what these people are saying? They say, ‘The Lord once chose the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah. But now he has turned his back on them.’ So they hate my people. They do not think of them as a nation anymore. ²⁵ I say, ‘What if I had not made my covenant with day and night? What if I had not established the laws of heaven and earth? ²⁶ Only then would I turn my back on the children of Jacob and my servant David. Only then would I not choose one of David’s sons to rule over the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will bless my people with great success again. I will love them with tender love.’ ”

A psalm of David when he ran away from his son Absalom.

For the director of music. A psalm of David to be played on stringed instruments.