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Bible Reading Plan
Daily Bible Reading
April 14 - Bible-in-a-Year
niv
Deuteronomy 21-22
Chapter 21
Atonement for an Unsolved Murder
1 If someone is found slain, lying in a field in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who the killer was,(a) 2 your elders and judges shall go out and measure the distance from the body to the neighboring towns. 3 Then the elders of the town nearest the body shall take a heifer that has never been worked and has never worn a yoke(b) 4 and lead it down to a valley that has not been plowed or planted and where there is a flowing stream. There in the valley they are to break the heifer's neck. 5 The Levitical priests shall step forward, for the Lord your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings(c) in the name of the Lord and to decide all cases of dispute and assault.(d) 6 Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands(e) over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall declare: "Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done. 8 Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord , and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent person." Then the bloodshed will be atoned for,(f) 9 and you will have purged(g) from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the Lord .
Marrying a Captive Woman
10 When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands(h) and you take captives,(i) 11 if you notice among the captives a beautiful(j) woman and are attracted to her,(k) you may take her as your wife. 12 Bring her into your home and have her shave her head,(l) trim her nails 13 and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month,(m) then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife. 14 If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.(n)
The Right of the Firstborn
15 If a man has two wives,(o) and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,(p) 16 when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.(q) 17 He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double(r) share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father's strength.(s) The right of the firstborn belongs to him.(t)
A Rebellious Son
18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious(u) son(v) who does not obey his father and mother(w) and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard." 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death.(x) You must purge the evil(y) from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.(z)
Various Laws
22 If someone guilty of a capital offense(aa) is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, 23 you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight.(ab) Be sure to bury(ac) it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God's curse.(ad) You must not desecrate(ae) the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Chapter 22
1 If you see your fellow Israelite's ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner.(a) 2 If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back. 3 Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it.
4 If you see your fellow Israelite's donkey(b) or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.(c)
5 A woman must not wear men's clothing, nor a man wear women's clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.
6 If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.(d) 7 You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go,(e) so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.(f)
8 When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.(g)
9 Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard;(h) if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.[a]
10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.(i)
11 Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.(j)
12 Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.(k)
Marriage Violations
13 If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her(l), dislikes her 14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, "I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity," 15 then the young woman's father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate(m) proof that she was a virgin. 16 Her father will say to the elders, "I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. 17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.' But here is the proof of my daughter's virginity." Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, 18 and the elders(n) shall take the man and punish him. 19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels[b] of silver and give them to the young woman's father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
20 If, however, the charge is true(o) and no proof of the young woman's virginity can be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing(p) in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father's house. You must purge the evil from among you.
22 If a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both the man who slept(q) with her and the woman must die.(r) You must purge the evil from Israel.
23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man's wife. You must purge the evil from among you.(s)
25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed,(t) there was no one to rescue her.
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,(u) 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[c] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
30 A man is not to marry his father's wife; he must not dishonor his father's bed.[d](v)
Job 14
Chapter 14
1 "Mortals, born of woman,(a)
are of few days(b) and full of trouble.(c)
2 They spring up like flowers(d) and wither away;(e)
like fleeting shadows,(f) they do not endure.(g)
3 Do you fix your eye on them?(h)
Will you bring them[a] before you for judgment?(i)
4 Who can bring what is pure(j) from the impure?(k)
No one!(l)
5 A person's days are determined;(m)
you have decreed the number of his months(n)
and have set limits he cannot exceed.(o)
6 So look away from him and let him alone,(p)
till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.(q)
7 "At least there is hope for a tree:(r)
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots(s) will not fail.(t)
8 Its roots may grow old in the ground
and its stump(u) die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water(v) it will bud
and put forth shoots like a plant.(w)
10 But a man dies and is laid low;(x)
he breathes his last and is no more.(y)
11 As the water of a lake dries up
or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,(z)
12 so he lies down and does not rise;(aa)
till the heavens are no more,(ab) people will not awake
or be roused from their sleep.(ac)
13 "If only you would hide me in the grave(ad)
and conceal me till your anger has passed!(ae)
If only you would set me a time
and then remember(af) me!(ag)
14 If someone dies, will they live again?
All the days of my hard service(ah)
I will wait for my renewal[b](ai) to come.
15 You will call and I will answer you;(aj)
you will long for the creature your hands have made.(ak)
16 Surely then you will count my steps(al)
but not keep track of my sin.(am)
17 My offenses will be sealed(an) up in a bag;(ao)
you will cover over my sin.(ap)
18 "But as a mountain erodes and crumbles(aq)
and as a rock is moved from its place,(ar)
19 as water wears away stones
and torrents(as) wash away the soil,(at)
so you destroy a person's hope.(au)
20 You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;(av)
you change their countenance and send them away.(aw)
21 If their children are honored, they do not know it;
if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.(ax)
22 They feel but the pain of their own bodies(ay)
and mourn only for themselves.(az)"
Acts 4:23-37
Chapter 4
23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.(aa) "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.(ab) 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:(ac)
"‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord
and against his anointed one.[b]'[c](ad)
27 Indeed Herod(ae) and Pontius Pilate(af) met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus,(ag) whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.(ah) 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.(ai) 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders(aj) through the name of your holy servant Jesus."(ak)
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.(al) And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit(am) and spoke the word of God(an) boldly.(ao)
The Believers Share Their Possessions
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.(ap) 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify(aq) to the resurrection(ar) of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace(as) was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them,(at) brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet,(au) and it was distributed to anyone who had need.(av)
36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas(aw) (which means "son of encouragement"), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.(ax)
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