The One Year Bible TLB (140 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
June 28Jehoahaz (the son of Jehu) began a seventeen-year reign over Israel during the twenty-third year of the reign of King Joash of Judah.
2
But he was an evil king, and he followed the wicked paths of Jeroboam, who had caused Israel to sin.
3
So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and he continually allowed King Hazael of Syria and his son Ben-hadad to conquer them.
4
But Jehoahaz prayed for the Lord’s help, and the Lord listened to him; for the Lord saw how terribly the king of Syria was oppressing Israel.
5
So the Lord raised up leaders among the Israelis to rescue them from the tyranny of the Syrians; and then Israel lived in safety again as they had in former days.
6
But they continued to sin, following the evil ways of Jeroboam; and they continued to worship the goddess Asherah at Samaria.
7
Finally the Lord reduced Jehoahaz’s army to fifty mounted troops, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry; for the king of Syria had destroyed the others as though they were dust beneath his feet.
8
The rest of the history of Jehoahaz is recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
9-10
Jehoahaz died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Joash reigned in Samaria for sixteen years. He came to the throne in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of King Joash of Judah.
11
But he was an evil man, for, like Jeroboam, he encouraged the people to worship idols and led them into sin.
12
The rest of the history of the reign of Joash, including his wars against King Amaziah of Judah, are written in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
13
Joash died and was buried in Samaria with the other kings of Israel; and Jeroboam II became the new king.
14
When Elisha was in his last illness, King Joash visited him and wept over him.
“My father! My father! You are the strength of Israel!”
*
he cried.
15
Elisha told him, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did.
16-17
“Open that eastern window,” he instructed. Then he told the king to put his hand upon the bow, and Elisha laid his own hands upon the king’s hands.
“Shoot!” Elisha commanded, and he did.
Then Elisha proclaimed, “This is the Lord’s arrow, full of victory over Syria; for you will completely conquer the Syrians at Aphek.
18
Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the floor.”
So the king picked them up and struck the floor three times.
19
But the prophet was angry with him. “You should have struck the floor five or six times,” he exclaimed, “for then you would have beaten Syria until they were entirely destroyed; now you will be victorious only three times.”
20-21
So Elisha died and was buried.
In those days bandit gangs of Moabites used to invade the land each spring. Once some men who were burying a friend spied these marauders so they hastily threw his body into the tomb of Elisha. And as soon as the body touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man revived and jumped to his feet!
22
King Hazael of Syria had oppressed Israel during the entire reign of King Jehoahaz.
23
But the Lord was gracious to the people of Israel, and they were not totally destroyed. For God pitied them, and also he was honoring his contract with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this is still true.
24
Then King Hazael of Syria died, and his son Ben-hadad reigned in his place.
25
King Joash of Israel
*
(the son of Jehoahaz) was successful on three occasions in reconquering the cities that his father had lost to Ben-hadad.
14:
1
During the second year of the reign of King Joash of Israel, King Amaziah began his reign over Judah.
2
Amaziah was twenty-five years old at the time, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. (His mother was Jehoaddin, a native of Jerusalem.)
3
He was a good king in the Lord’s sight, though not quite like his ancestor David; but he was as good a king as his father Joash.
4
However, he didn’t destroy the shrines on the hills, so the people still sacrificed and burned incense there.
5
As soon as he had a firm grip on the kingdom, he killed the men who had assassinated his father;
6
but he didn’t kill their children, for the Lord had commanded through the law of Moses that fathers shall not be killed for their children, nor children for the sins of their fathers: everyone must pay the penalty for his own sins.
7
Once Amaziah killed ten thousand Edomites in Salt Valley; he also conquered Sela and changed its name to Joktheel, as it is called to this day.
8
One day he sent a message to King Joash of Israel (the son of Jehoahaz and the grandson of Jehu), daring him to mobilize his army and come out and fight.
9
But King Joash replied, “The thistle of Lebanon demanded of the mighty cedar tree, ‘Give your daughter to be a wife for my son.’ But just then a wild animal passed by and stepped on the thistle and trod it into the ground!
10
You have destroyed Edom and are very proud about it; but my advice to you is, be content with your glory and stay home! Why provoke disaster for both yourself and Judah?”
11
But Amaziah refused to listen, so King Joash of Israel mustered his army. The battle began at Beth-shemesh, one of the cities of Judah,
12
and Judah was defeated and the army fled home.
13
King Amaziah was captured, and the army of Israel marched on Jerusalem and broke down its wall from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, a distance of about six hundred feet.
14
King Joash took many hostages and all the gold and silver from the Temple and palace treasury, also the gold cups. Then he returned to Samaria.
15
The rest of the history of Joash and his war with King Amaziah of Judah are recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
16
When Joash died, he was buried in Samaria with the other kings of Israel. And his son Jeroboam became the new king.
17
Amaziah lived fifteen years longer than Joash,
18
and the rest of his biography is recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Judah.
19
There was a plot against his life in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; but his enemies sent assassins and killed him there.
20
His body was returned on horses, and he was buried in the royal cemetery, in the City of David section of Jerusalem.
21
Then his son Azariah became the new king at the age of sixteen.
22
After his father’s death, he built Elath and restored it to Judah.
23
Meanwhile, over in Israel, Jeroboam II had become king during the fifteenth year of the reign of King Amaziah of Judah. Jeroboam’s reign lasted forty-one years.
24
But he was as evil as Jeroboam I (the son of Nebat), who had led Israel into the sin of worshiping idols.
25
Jeroboam II recovered the lost territories of Israel between Hamath and the Dead Sea, just as the Lord God of Israel had predicted through Jonah (son of Amittai) the prophet from Gathhepher.
26
For the Lord saw the bitter plight of Israel—she had no one to help her.
27
And he had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel, so he used King Jeroboam II to save her.
28
The rest of Jeroboam’s biography—all that he did, and his great power, and his wars, and how he recovered Damascus and Hamath (which had been captured by Judah)—is recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
29
When Jeroboam II died, he was buried with the other kings of Israel, and his son Zechariah became the new king of Israel.
After spending some time there, he [Paul] left for Turkey again, going through Galatia and Phrygia visiting all the believers, encouraging them and helping them grow in the Lord.
24
As it happened, a Jew named Apollos, a wonderful Bible teacher and preacher, had just arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt.
25-26
While he was in Egypt, someone had told him about John the Baptist and what John had said about Jesus, but that is all he knew. He had never heard the rest of the story! So he was preaching boldly and enthusiastically in the synagogue, “The Messiah is coming! Get ready to receive him!” Priscilla and Aquila were there and heard him—and it was a powerful sermon. Afterwards they met with him and explained what had happened to Jesus since the time of John, and all that it meant!
*
27
Apollos had been thinking about going to Greece, and the believers encouraged him in this. They wrote to their fellow-believers there, telling them to welcome him. And upon his arrival in Greece, he was greatly used of God to strengthen the church,
28
for he powerfully refuted all the Jewish arguments in public debate, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.
19:
1
While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through Turkey and arrived in Ephesus, where he found several disciples.
2
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them.
“No,” they replied, “we don’t know what you mean. What is the Holy Spirit?”
3
“Then what beliefs did you acknowledge at your baptism?” he asked.
And they replied, “What John the Baptist taught.”
4
Then Paul pointed out to them that John’s baptism was to demonstrate a desire to turn from sin to God and that those receiving his baptism must then go on to believe in Jesus, the one John said would come later.
5
As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in
*
the name of the Lord Jesus.
6
Then, when Paul laid his hands upon their heads, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other languages and prophesied.
7
The men involved were about twelve in number.
8
Then Paul went to the synagogue and preached boldly each Sabbath day
*
for three months, telling what he believed and why, and persuading many to believe in Jesus.
9
But some rejected his message and publicly spoke against Christ, so he left, refusing to preach to them again. Pulling out the believers, he began a separate meeting at the lecture hall of Tyrannus and preached there daily.
10
This went on for the next two years, so that everyone in the Turkish province of Asia Minor—both Jews and Greeks—heard the Lord’s message.
11
And God gave Paul the power to do unusual miracles,
12
so that even when his handkerchiefs or parts of his clothing were placed upon sick people, they were healed, and any demons within them came out.
Praise the Lord! Yes, really praise him!
2
I will praise him as long as I live, yes, even with my dying breath.
3
Don’t look to men for help; their greatest leaders fail;
4
for every man must die. His breathing stops, life ends, and in a moment all he planned for himself is ended.
5
But happy is the man who has the God of Jacob as his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God—
6
the God who made both earth and heaven, the seas and everything in them. He is the God who keeps every promise,
7
who gives justice to the poor and oppressed and food to the hungry. He frees the prisoners
8
and opens the eyes of the blind; he lifts the burdens from those bent down beneath their loads. For the Lord loves good men.
9
He protects the immigrants and cares for the orphans and widows. But he turns topsy-turvy the plans of the wicked.
10
The Lord will reign forever. O Jerusalem,
*
your God is King in every generation! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
A rebel doesn’t care about the facts. All he wants to do is yell.
*
3
Sin brings disgrace.
June 29New king of Judah: Azariah
Father’s name: Amaziah, the former king
His age at the beginning of his reign: 16 years old
Length of reign: 52 years, in Jerusalem
Mother’s name: Jecoliah of Jerusalem
Reigning in Israel at that time: King Jeroboam, who had been the king there for 27 years
3
Azariah was a good king, and he pleased the Lord just as his father Amaziah had.
4
But like his predecessors, he didn’t destroy the shrines on the hills where the people sacrificed and burned incense.
5
Because of this
*
the Lord struck him with leprosy, which lasted until the day of his death; so he lived in a house by himself. And his son Jotham was the acting king.
6
The rest of the history of Azariah is recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Judah.
7
When Azariah died, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David, and his son Jotham became king.
8
New king of Israel: Zechariah
Father’s name: Jeroboam
Length of reign: 6 months, in Samaria
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 38 years
9
But Zechariah was an evil king in the Lord’s sight, just like his ancestors. Like Jeroboam I (the son of Nebat), he encouraged Israel in the sin of worshiping idols.
10
Then Shallum (the son of Jabesh) conspired against him and assassinated him at Ibleam and took the crown himself.
11
The rest of the history of Zechariah’s reign is found in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
12
(So the Lord’s statement to Jehu came true, that Jehu’s son, grandson, and great-grandson would be kings of Israel.
*
)
13
New king of Israel: Shallum
Father’s name: Jabesh
Length of reign: 1 month, in Samaria
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Uzziah, who had been the king there for 39 years
14
One month after Shallum became king, Menahem (the son of Gadi) came to Samaria from Tirzah and assassinated him and took the throne.
15
Additional details about King Shallum and his conspiracy
*
are recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
16
Menahem destroyed the city of Tappuah and the surrounding countryside, for its citizens refused to accept him as their king; he killed the entire population and ripped open the pregnant women.
17
New king of Israel: Menahem
Length of reign: 10 years, in Samaria
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 39 years
18
But Menahem was an evil king. He worshiped idols, as King Jeroboam I had done so long before, and he led the people of Israel into grievous sin.
19-20
Then King Pul of Assyria invaded the land; but King Menahem bought him off with a gift of $2,000,000, so he turned around and returned home. Menahem extorted the money from the rich, assessing each one $2,000 in the form of a special tax.
21
The rest of the history of King Menahem is written in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
22
When he died, his son Pekahiah became the new king.
23
New king of Israel: Pekahiah
Father’s name: King Menahem
Length of reign: 2 years, in Samaria
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 50 years
24
But Pekahiah was an evil king, and he continued the idol worship begun by Jeroboam I (son of Nebat) who led Israel down that evil trail.
25
Then Pekah (son of Remaliah), the commanding general of his army, conspired against him with fifty men from Gilead and assassinated him in the palace at Samaria (Argob and Arieh were also slain in the revolt). So Pekah became the new king.
26
The rest of the history of King Pekahiah is recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
27
New king of Israel: Pekah
Father’s name: Remaliah
Length of reign: 20 years, in Samaria
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 52 years
28
Pekah, too, was an evil king, and he continued in the example of Jeroboam I (son of Nebat), who led all of Israel into the sin of worshiping idols.
29
It was during his reign that King Tiglath-pileser
*
led an attack against Israel. He captured the cities of Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali; and he took the people away to Assyria as captives.
30
Then Hoshea (the son of Elah) plotted against Pekah and assassinated him; and he took the throne for himself.
New king of Israel: Hoshea
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Jotham (son of Uzziah), who had been the king there for 20 years
31
The rest of the history of Pekah’s reign is recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
32-33
New king of Judah: Jotham
Father’s name: King Uzziah
His age at the beginning of his reign: 25 years old
Length of reign: 16 years, in Jerusalem
Mother’s name: Jerusha (daughter of Zadok)
Reigning in Israel at that time: King Pekah (son of Remaliah), who had been the king there for 2 years
34-35
Generally speaking, Jotham was a good king. Like his father Uzziah, he followed the Lord. But he didn’t destroy the shrines on the hills where the people sacrificed and burned incense. It was during King Jotham’s reign that the upper gate of the Temple of the Lord was built.
36
The rest of Jotham’s history is written in
The Annals of the Kings of Judah.
37
In those days the Lord caused King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel to attack Judah.
38
When Jotham died he was buried with the other kings of Judah in the royal cemetery, in the City of David section of Jerusalem. Then his son Ahaz became the new king.
16:
1
New king of Judah: Ahaz
Father’s name: Jotham
His age at the beginning of his reign: 20 years old
Length of reign: 16 years, in Jerusalem
Character of his reign: evil
Reigning in Israel at that time: King Pekah (son of Remaliah), who had been the king there for 17 years
2
But he did not follow the Lord as his ancestor David had;
3
he was as wicked as the kings of Israel. He even killed his own son by offering him as a burnt sacrifice to the gods, following the heathen customs of the nations around Judah—nations that the Lord destroyed when the people of Israel entered the land.
4
He also sacrificed and burned incense at the shrines on the hills and at the numerous altars in the groves of trees.
5
Then King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah (son of Remaliah) of Israel declared war on Ahaz and besieged Jerusalem; but they did not conquer it.
6
However, at that time King Rezin of Syria recovered the city of Elath for Syria; he drove out the Jews and sent Syrians to live there, as they do to this day.
7
King Ahaz sent a messenger to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, begging him to help him fight the attacking armies of Syria and Israel.
*
8
Ahaz took the silver and gold from the Temple and from the royal vaults and sent it as a payment to the Assyrian king.
9
So the Assyrians attacked Damascus, the capital of Syria. They took away the population of the city as captives, resettling them in Kir, and King Rezin of Syria was killed.
10
King Ahaz now went to Damascus to meet with King Tiglath-pileser, and while he was there he noticed an unusual altar in a heathen temple.
*
He jotted down its dimensions and made a sketch and sent it back to Uriah the priest with a detailed description.
11-12
Uriah built one just like it by following these directions and had it ready for the king, who, upon his return from Damascus, inaugurated it with an offering.
13
The king presented a burnt offering and a grain offering, poured a drink offering over it, and sprinkled the blood of peace offerings upon it.
14
Then he removed the old bronze altar from the front of the Temple (it had stood between the Temple entrance and the new altar), and placed it on the north side of the new altar.
15
He instructed Uriah the priest to use the new altar for the sacrifices of burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and grain offering, and the offerings of the people, including their drink offerings. The blood from the burnt offerings and sacrifices was also to be sprinkled over the new altar. So the old altar was used only for purposes of divination.
“The old bronze altar,” he said, “will be only for my personal use.”
16
Uriah the priest did as King Ahaz instructed him.
17
Then the king dismantled the wheeled stands in the Temple, removed their crosspieces and the water vats they supported, and removed the great tank from the backs of the bronze oxen and placed it upon the stone pavement.
18
In deference to the king of Assyria he also removed the festive passageway he had constructed between the palace and the Temple.
*
19
The rest of the history of the reign of King Ahaz is recorded in
The Annals of the Kings of Judah.
20
When Ahaz died he was buried in the royal cemetery, in the City of David sector of Jerusalem, and his son Hezekiah became the new king.
A team of itinerant Jews who were traveling from town to town casting out demons planned to experiment by using the name of the Lord Jesus. The incantation they decided on was this: “I adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!”
14
Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest, were doing this.
15
But when they tried it on a man possessed by a demon, the demon replied, “I know Jesus and I know Paul, but who are you?”
16
And he leaped on two of them and beat them up, so that they fled out of his house naked and badly injured.
17
The story of what happened spread quickly all through Ephesus, to Jews and Greeks alike; and a solemn fear descended on the city, and the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honored.
18-19
Many of the believers who had been practicing black magic confessed their deeds and brought their incantation books and charms and burned them at a public bonfire. (Someone estimated the value of the books at $10,000.
*
)
20
This indicates how deeply the whole area was stirred by God’s message.
21
Afterwards Paul felt impelled by the Holy Spirit
*
to go across to Greece before returning to Jerusalem. “And after that,” he said, “I must go on to Rome!”
22
He sent his two assistants, Timothy and Erastus, on ahead to Greece while he stayed awhile longer in Asia Minor.
23
But about that time, a big blowup developed in Ephesus concerning the Christians.
24
It began with Demetrius, a silversmith who employed many craftsmen to manufacture silver shrines of the Greek goddess Diana.
25
He called a meeting of his men, together with others employed in related trades, and addressed them as follows:
“Gentlemen, this business is our income.
26
As you know so well from what you’ve seen and heard, this man Paul has persuaded many, many people that handmade gods aren’t gods at all. As a result, our sales volume is going down! And this trend is evident not only here in Ephesus, but throughout the entire province!
27
Of course, I am not only talking about the business aspects of this situation and our loss of income, but also of the possibility that the temple of the great goddess Diana will lose its influence, and that Diana—this magnificent goddess worshiped not only throughout this part of Turkey but all around the world—will be forgotten!”
28
At this their anger boiled and they began shouting, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”
29
A crowd began to gather, and soon the city was filled with confusion. Everyone rushed to the amphitheater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions, for trial.
30
Paul wanted to go in, but the disciples wouldn’t let him.
31
Some of the Roman officers of the province, friends of Paul, also sent a message to him, begging him not to risk his life by entering.
32
Inside the people were all shouting, some one thing and some another—everything was in confusion. In fact, most of them didn’t even know why they were there.
33
Alexander was spotted among the crowd by some of the Jews and dragged forward. He motioned for silence and tried to speak.
34
But when the crowd realized he was a Jew, they started shouting again and kept it up for two hours: “Great is Diana of the Ephesians! Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”
35
At last the mayor was able to quiet them down enough to speak. “Men of Ephesus,” he said, “everyone knows that Ephesus is the center
*
of the religion of the great Diana, whose image fell down to us from heaven.
36
Since this is an indisputable fact, you shouldn’t be disturbed no matter what is said, and should do nothing rash.
37
Yet you have brought these men here who have stolen nothing from her temple and have not defamed her.
38
If Demetrius and the craftsmen have a case against them, the courts are currently in session and the judges can take the case at once. Let them go through legal channels.
39
And if there are complaints about other matters, they can be settled at the regular City Council meetings;
40
for we are in danger of being called to account by the Roman government for today’s riot, since there is no cause for it. And if Rome demands an explanation, I won’t know what to say.”
41
Then he dismissed them, and they dispersed.