2 Chronicles 16

⁹And he assembled all Judah and Benjamin, along with those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them, for great numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

²⁷If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, their hearts will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah; then they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

¹³Moreover, the priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel stood with Rehoboam.

¹⁴For the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the Lord.

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.

⁵In those days there was no safety for travelers, because the residents of the lands had many conflicts.

²¹Although Ahaz had taken a portion from the house of the Lord, from the royal palace, and from the princes and had presented it to the king of Assyria, it did not help him.

¹⁵Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

¹⁸So King Joash of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his fathers—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—along with his own consecrated items and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram. So Hazael withdrew from Jerusalem.

⁸Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s palace, and he sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.

⁴who despises the vile but honors those who fear the Lord, who does not revise a costly oath,

³unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,

²and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’ Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?

¹⁸He despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Seeing that he gave his hand in pledge yet did all these things, he will not escape!’

¹⁹Therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘As surely as I live, I will bring down upon his head My oath that he despised and My covenant that he broke.

³¹They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.

³²Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the Lord.

²Yet He too is wise and brings disaster; He does not call back His words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked and against the allies of evildoers.

²⁸There was no one to deliver them, because the city was far from Sidon and had no alliance with anyone; it was in a valley near Beth-rehob. And the Danites rebuilt the city and lived there.

²⁹They named it Dan, after their forefather Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city was formerly named Laish.

¹²Jehoshaphat grew stronger and stronger, and he built fortresses and store cities in Judah

¹¹So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

⁶as well as Baalath, all the store cities that belonged to Solomon, and all the cities for his chariots and horses—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.

²⁰And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, conquering Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and the whole land of Naphtali, including the region of Chinnereth.

¹⁴And when Abram heard that his relative had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men born in his household, and they set out in pursuit as far as Dan.

²²Then King Asa summoned all the men of Judah, with no exceptions, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had used for building. And with these materials King Asa built up Geba of Benjamin, as well as Mizpah.

¹⁰All the land from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem will be turned into a plain, but Jerusalem will be raised up and will remain in her place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.

⁶⁰And from the tribe of Benjamin they were given Gibeon, Geba, Alemeth, and Anathoth, together with their pasturelands. So they had thirteen cities in all among their families.

²⁹They have crossed at the ford: “We will spend the night at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees.

⁶When they had gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted, and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the Israelites at Mizpah.

²⁴Chephar-ammoni, Ophni, and Geba—twelve cities, along with their villages.

²⁵Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

¹Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha, saying:

²Jehu son of Hanani the seer went out to confront him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, the wrath of the Lord is upon you.

¹Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the Lord.

³Put not your trust in princes, in mortal man, who cannot save.

⁴When his spirit departs, he returns to the ground; on that very day his plans perish.

⁷“Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater One with us than with him.

⁸With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” So the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

³⁴As for the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, from beginning to end, they are indeed written in the Chronicles of Jehu son of Hanani, which are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel.

³with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and countless troops who came with him out of Egypt—Libyans, Sukkites, and Cushites.

¹⁶So the Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands.

⁹Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots, and they advanced as far as Mareshah.

¹⁰So Asa marched out against him and lined up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.

⁷At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and told him, “Because you have relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.

¹⁸Thus the Israelites were subdued at that time, and the men of Judah prevailed because they relied on the Lord, the God of their fathers.

⁹The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.

¹⁰Those who know Your name trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.

¹²For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

³The eyes of the Lord are in every place, observing the evil and the good.

¹⁷For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes.

²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord examines all his paths.

¹⁵The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.

²¹For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees his every step.

²⁶and tell them that this is what the king says: ‘Put this man in prison and feed him only bread and water until I return safely.’”

¹⁰After David had numbered the troops, his conscience was stricken and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg You to take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

¹¹When David got up in the morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer:

²⁶‘The Lord has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada, to be the chief officer in the house of the Lord, responsible for any madman who acts like a prophet—you must put him in stocks and neck irons.

⁴Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home.

¹⁹Uzziah, with a censer in his hand to offer incense, was enraged. But while he raged against the priests in their presence in the house of the Lord before the altar of incense, leprosy broke out on his forehead.

¹³Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” “The Lord has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.

²³Now the rest of the acts of Asa, along with all his might, all his accomplishments, and the cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his old age, however, he became diseased in his feet.

²⁴And Asa rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of his father David, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned in his place.

²⁶As for the rest of the acts of Amaziah, from beginning to end, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel?

⁷As for the rest of the acts of Jotham, along with all his wars and his ways, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

²²As for the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from beginning to end, they are recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

²⁷his acts from beginning to end—they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

²⁹As for the rest of the acts of Solomon, from beginning to end, are they not written in the Records of Nathan the Prophet, in the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the Visions of Iddo the Seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat?

⁵This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.

²⁶She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail. Instead, her condition had only grown worse.

²²In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord.

⁹For the eyes of the Lord roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in this matter. From now on, therefore, you will be at war.”

¹⁴and he failed to inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

¹⁷On hearing this, Jesus told them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

²⁴And Asa rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of his father David, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned in his place.

⁵you will die in peace. As spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so people will burn spices for you and lament, ‘Alas, O master!’ For I Myself have spoken this word, declares the Lord.”

²And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him,

¹⁹This continued day after day until two full years had passed. Finally, his intestines came out because of his disease, and he died in severe pain. And his people did not make a fire in his honor as they had done for his fathers.

¹When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could go and anoint the body of Jesus.

¹As dead flies bring a stench to the perfumer’s oil, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

²⁵Prepare from these a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer; it will be a sacred anointing oil.

²⁶Use this oil to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony,