2 Chronicles 15

¹⁴Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite from Asaph’s descendants, as he stood in the midst of the assembly.

²⁰Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has forsaken you.’”

²When Balaam looked up and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him,

¹⁰The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel’s judge and went out to war. And the Lord delivered Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram into the hand of Othniel, who prevailed against him.

²¹For no such prophecy was ever brought forth by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

²The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; His word was on my tongue.

⁸Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

²⁰Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has forsaken you.’”

⁴But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found by them.

⁹As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

¹²Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

¹³You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

³⁸But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”

⁹Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all of them, “This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Law.

¹¹so that you may teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has given them through Moses.”

⁸accompanied by certain Levites—Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-adonijah—along with the priests Elishama and Jehoram.

⁹They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the Lord. They went throughout the towns of Judah and taught the people.

¹⁰But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at His wrath, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.

¹¹Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord, saying, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster can come upon us.”

⁷For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.

⁶Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.

²⁹But if from there you will seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

³⁰When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.

¹⁵And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it with all their heart. They had sought Him earnestly, and He was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.

¹“I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. To a nation that did not call My name, I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’

²All day long I have held out My hands to an obstinate people who walk in the wrong path, who follow their own imaginations,

¹Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.

¹Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

²Bring your confessions and return to the Lord. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.

⁶In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were deserted and the travelers took the byways.

⁸The Lord will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.

⁶Seeing that they were in danger because their troops were hard-pressed, the men of Israel hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in cellars and cisterns.

⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come.

⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

²⁵There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.

²²For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

²³How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people.

¹⁵Now the acts of Rehoboam, from first to last, are they not written in the records of Shemaiah the Prophet and of Iddo the Seer concerning the genealogies? There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their days.

⁶I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

⁸Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, as well as famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

¹⁴Then the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.

¹⁷So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,

⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

⁷Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.

³⁵So do not throw away your confidence; it holds a great reward.

⁹Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

²⁰David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do it. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will neither fail you nor forsake you before all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.

¹After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

¹²At that time Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord he had built in front of the portico.

¹⁹Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured some cities from him: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, along with their villages.

¹He made a bronze altar twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.

⁷At that time on a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites.

³⁰You must keep My charge not to practice any of the abominable customs that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.”

⁵Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

¹⁶Those from every tribe of Israel who had set their hearts to seek the Lord their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

³¹Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria experienced a time of peace. It grew in strength and numbers, living in the fear of the Lord and the encouragement of the Holy Spirit.

²¹and the residents of one city will go to another, saying: ‘Let us go at once to plead before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts. I myself am going.’

²²And many peoples and strong nations will come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to plead before the Lord.”

¹⁹Some from Manasseh defected to David when he went with the Philistines to fight against Saul. (They did not help the Philistines because the Philistine rulers consulted and sent David away, saying, “It will cost us our heads if he defects to his master Saul.”)

¹Then Hezekiah sent word throughout all Israel and Judah, and he also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh inviting them to come to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem to keep the Passover of the Lord, the God of Israel.

²For the king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem had decided to keep the Passover in the second month,

²⁸When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

⁹At once the royal scribes were summoned, and on the twenty-third day of the third month (the month of Sivan), they recorded all of Mordecai’s orders to the Jews and to the satraps, governors, and princes of the 127 provinces from India to Cush—writing to each province in its own script, to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

¹³Then Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. The Cushites fell and could not recover, for they were crushed before the Lord and His army. So the people of Judah carried off a great amount of plunder

¹⁴and attacked all the cities around Gerar, because the terror of the Lord had fallen upon them. They plundered all the cities, since there was much plunder there.

²¹The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of the things devoted to destruction, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

⁵And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

²⁸Set aside a tribute for the Lord from what belongs to the soldiers who went into battle: one out of every five hundred, whether persons, cattle, donkeys, or sheep.

²⁹Take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest as an offering to the Lord.

¹⁵Saul answered, “The troops brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but the rest we devoted to destruction.”

²⁶This Shelomith and his brothers were in charge of all the treasuries for the things dedicated by King David, by the heads of families who were the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and by the army commanders.

²⁷They had dedicated some of the plunder from their battles to the repair of the house of the Lord.

¹⁴I do confess to you, however, that I worship the God of our fathers according to the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets,

¹⁶Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and the king and the people that they would be the Lord’s people.

¹²And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹⁰Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that His fierce anger will turn away from us.

⁴But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found by them.

¹²Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

¹³You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

²⁰If anyone sacrifices to any god other than the Lord alone, he must be set apart for destruction.

¹⁸Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,

²If a man or woman among you in one of the towns that the Lord your God gives you is found doing evil in the sight of the Lord your God by transgressing His covenant

³and going to worship other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven—which I have forbidden—

²²But I have had God’s help to this day, and I stand here to testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen:

¹³He will bless those who fear the Lord—small and great alike.

⁴⁰Then Elijah ordered them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let a single one escape.” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered them there.

¹³I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “May God likewise shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. May such a man be shaken out and have nothing!” The whole assembly said, “Amen,” and they praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised.

¹For the choirmaster. According to Gittith. Of Asaph. Sing for joy to God our strength; make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob.

²Lift up a song, strike the tambourine, play the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.

²⁹hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to obey carefully all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the Lord our Lord.

⁷So he said to the people of Judah, “Let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, with doors and bars. The land is still ours because we have sought the Lord our God. We have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered.

¹²Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul.

⁸Yes, we wait for You, O Lord; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.

¹²For this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God.

¹¹Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous ones; shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

⁴But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found by them.

¹³He also removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

¹⁴The high places were not removed, but Asa’s heart was fully devoted to the Lord all his days.

²and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother’s name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom.

¹⁵He even pulled down the altar at Bethel, the high place set up by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. Then he burned the high place, ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole.

¹³Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.

⁶He brought the Asherah pole from the house of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, and there he burned it, ground it to powder, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.

¹⁰and he reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother’s name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom.

⁴For when Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God, as his father David had been.

³He removed the foreign altars and high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and chopped down the Asherah poles.

⁴He commanded the people of Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandments.

⁴Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away, and the people continued sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.

¹³Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see;

¹⁴you must offer them only in the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you.

⁴³And Jehoshaphat walked in all the ways of his father Asa; he did not turn away from them, but did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The high places, however, were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

³Nevertheless, the high places were not removed; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there.

⁵¹So all the work that King Solomon had performed for the house of the Lord was completed. Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord.

²⁰Now their fellow Levites were in charge of the treasuries of the house of God and the treasuries of the dedicated things.

²¹From the descendants of Ladan, who were Gershonites through Ladan and heads of the families of Ladan the Gershonite, were Jehieli,

¹⁴The high places were not removed, but Asa’s heart was fully devoted to the Lord all his days.

¹⁵And he brought into the house of the Lord the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated.

¹In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah.

¹⁶Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their days.

¹⁷Baasha king of Israel went to war against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah.

³³In the third year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah twenty-four years.

³¹As for the rest of the acts of Nadab, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?