M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Parashat Vayeshev
Joseph, Favored Son
37 Now Jacob dwelled in the land where his father had sojourned, in the land of Canaan. 2 These are the genealogies of Jacob.
When Joseph was 17 years old (he was a youth), he was shepherding the flocks with his brothers—with the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons because he was the son of his old age. So he had made him a long-sleeved tunic. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak to him in shalom.
5 Then Joseph dreamed a dream and told his brothers—and they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Please listen to this dream I dreamed. 7 There we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field. All of a sudden, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.”
8 “Will you truly be a king over us?” his brothers said to him. “Will you really rule over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of his words.
9 But then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, “I have just dreamed another dream. Suddenly, there was the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowing down to me!” 10 He told it to his father as well as his brothers.
Then his father rebuked him and said to him, “What’s this dream you dreamed? Will we really come—your mother and I with your brothers—to bow down to the ground to you?” 11 So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the speech in mind.
Joseph Betrayed
12 Then his brothers went to graze their father’s flocks at Shechem. 13 Israel said to Joseph, “Aren’t your brothers grazing the flocks in Shechem? Come, let me send you to them.”
“Here I am,” he said to him.
14 Then he said to him, “Go now, and check on the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flocks and bring word back to me.”
So he sent him from the valley of Hebron and he went to Shechem. 15 A man found him there, wandering in the field, and the man asked him, “What are you looking for?”
16 “I’m looking for my brothers,” he said. “Please tell me where they’re grazing.”
17 The man said, “They moved on from here. For I heard them saying, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.
18 Now they saw him from a distance. Before he was close to them they plotted together against him in order to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes the master of dreams! 20 Come on now! Let’s kill him and throw him into one of those pits, so we can say that an evil animal devoured him. Then let’s see what becomes of his dreams.”
21 But Reuben heard and rescued him out of their hands, saying, “We must not beat him to death.” 22 In order to rescue him from their hand and to return him to his father, Reuben said to them, “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him!”
23 So as soon as Joseph came up to his brothers they stripped Joseph of his tunic (the long sleeved tunic that he had on). 24 Then they took him and threw him into the pit. (Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.)
25 Then they sat down to eat bread. When they looked up, behold, there was a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balsam, and myrrh—going to bring them down to Egypt.
26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come on! 27 Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let’s not lay our hand on him—since he’s our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers listened to him. 28 When some men, Midianite merchants, passed by, they dragged Joseph up and out of the pit and they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph to Egypt. 29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes. 30 Then he returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone! And I—where should I go?”
31 So they took Joseph’s tunic, slaughtered a billy goat, and they dipped the tunic into the blood. 32 Then they sent the long-sleeved tunic, and it was brought to their father, and they said, “We found this. Do you recognize whether or not it is your son’s tunic?”
33 He did recognize it and said, “My son’s tunic! An evil animal has devoured him! Joseph must be torn to pieces!” 34 Jacob tore his clothing and put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons got up along with all his daughters to console him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “For I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” So his father kept weeping for him.
36 Meanwhile the Midianites sold him into Egypt, to Potiphar an official of Pharaoh, the commander of the bodyguards.
Hearts Harden
7 Now the Pharisees and some of the Torah scholars who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Yeshua. 2 And they saw that some of His disciples were eating bread with unclean hands, that is, not washed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all Jewish people do not eat unless they wash their hands up to the elbow, keeping the tradition of the elders. 4 And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing.[a] There are many other traditions they have received and hold, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels.)[b]
5 The Pharisees and Torah scholars questioned Yeshua, “Why don’t Your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders? Why do they eat bread with unwashed hands?”
6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors Me with their lips
but their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’[c]
8 Having left behind the commandment of God, you hold on to the tradition of men.”
9 He was also telling them, “You set aside the commands of God, in order that you may validate your own tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death.’ [d] 11 But you say if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever you might have gained from me is korban (that is, an offering to God),’ 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 making void the word of God with your tradition that you’ve handed down. And you do many such things.”[e]
14 Then Yeshua called the crowd again and began saying to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand. 15 There is nothing outside the man that can make him unholy by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of the man that makes the man unholy.” [f] (16) [g]
17 When He had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. 18 And He said to them, “Are you then also lacking understanding? Don’t you grasp that whatever goes into the man cannot make him unholy? 19 For it does not enter into the heart but into the stomach, and then goes out into the sewer, cleansing all foods.”[h]
20 And He continued, “It is what comes out of the man that makes the man unholy. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, come evil intentions, sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustfulness, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and make the man unholy.”
Miracles Touch Gentile Lives
24 Yeshua got up and left from there to the region of Tyre. When He had entered a house, He didn’t want anyone to know; but He couldn’t escape notice. 25 A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him. She came immediately and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, from Syrophoenicia. And she kept begging Yeshua to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 He was telling her, “First let the children get their fill, for it’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
28 “Yes, Master,” she said to Him, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then He said to her, “Because of this word, go your way! The demon has left your daughter.” 30 She went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
31 Again He left the region of Tyre and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis. 32 They bring Him a deaf man who had a speech impediment, and they beg Him to lay His hand on him. 33 Yeshua took him aside from the crowd to a private place, and He put His fingers in the man’s ears. After spitting, He touched the man’s tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, He says to the man, “Ephphatha,”[i] which means “Be opened!”
35 Immediately the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly. 36 Yeshua ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them, the more they continued proclaiming it. 37 People were completely astounded, saying, “He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”
Job Curses His Own Birth
3 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. 2 Then Job answered and said:
3 “May the day I was born perish,
and the night that said,
‘A man is conceived!’
4 That day—may it be darkness;
may God above not regard it;
may no light shine on it.
5 May darkness and deep gloom reclaim it;
may a cloud settle over it;
may whatever blackens the day terrify it.
6 That night—may thick darkness seize it;
may it not be included among the days of the year,
nor be entered among the number of months.
7 Indeed, may that night be barren;
may no joyful shout enter it.
8 May those who curse, curse the day—
those ready to awaken Leviathan.
9 May its morning stars be darkened;
may it hope for light but have none—
may it never see the eyelids of dawn.
10 For it did not shut the doors of the womb on me,
nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.
11 Why did I not die at birth
and expire as I exited the womb?
12 Why did the knees welcome me,
and breasts that I might nurse?
13 For now I would be lying down and quiet;
I would be asleep and at rest
14 with kings and counselors of the earth,
who built for themselves places now desolate,
15 with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn,
like infants who never saw light?
17 There the wicked cease from turmoil,
and there the weary are at rest.
18 Prisoners are at ease together;
they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19 Small and great are there;
and slave is free from his master.
20 Why is light given to one who suffers
and life to the bitter of soul,
21 to those who long for death, but it does not come,
who dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22 who are filled with gladness
and rejoice when finding the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
and whom God has hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes instead of my bread,
and my groans pour out like water.
25 For the thing I dreaded has come upon me,
and what I feared has happened to me.
26 I have no ease, no quietness;
I have no rest, but turmoil came.”
Two Laws at War
7 Or do you not know, brothers and sisters (for I speak to those who know law), that the law is master over a person as long as he lives? 2 For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives; but if the husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3 So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law—so she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.
4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were made dead to the Torah through the body of Messiah, so that you might be joined to another—the One who was raised from the dead—in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions that came through the Torah were working in our body parts to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, having died to what confined us, so that we serve in the new way of the Ruach and not in the old way of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the Torah sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the Torah. For I would not have known about coveting if the Torah had not said, “You shall not covet.” [a] 8 But sin, taking an opportunity, worked in me through the commandment all kinds of coveting. For apart from the Torah, sin is dead.
9 Once I was alive apart from the Torah; but when the commandment came, sin came to life 10 and I died. The commandment meant for life was found to cause death. [b] 11 Sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. [c] 12 So then, the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Therefore did that which is good become death to me? May it never be! Rather it was sin working death in me—through that which is good—so that sin might be shown to be sin, and that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. 14 For we know that the Torah is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold to sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing—for what I do not want, this I practice; but what I hate, this I do. 16 But if I do what I do not want to do, then I agree with the Torah—that it is good.
17 So now it is no longer I doing it, but sin dwelling in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me—that is, in my flesh. For to will is present in me, but to do the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do; but the evil that I do not want, this I practice. 20 But if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I doing it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 So I find the principle—that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I delight in the Torah of God with respect to the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in my body parts, battling against the law of my mind and bringing me into bondage under the law of sin which is in my body parts. 24 Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—it is through Messiah Yeshua our Lord![d] So then, with my mind I myself serve the Torah of God; but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.