Israel's Refusal to Enter the Land

¹⁹ “Then we set out from Horeb and ^(A)went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And ^(B)we came to Kadesh-barnea. ²⁰ And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. ²¹ See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. ^(C)Do not fear or be dismayed.’ ²² Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ ²³ The thing seemed good to me, and ^(D)I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. ²⁴ And ^(E)they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. ²⁵ And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’

²⁶ “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. ²⁷ And ^(F)you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord ^(G)hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, ^(H)to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. ²⁸ Where are we going up? ^(I)Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, ^(J)“The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen ^(K)the sons of the Anakim there.”’ ²⁹ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. ³⁰ The Lord your God who goes before you ^(L)will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, ³¹ and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God ^(M)carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ ³² Yet in spite of this word ^(N)you did not believe the Lord your God, ^33 (O)who went before you in the way ^(P)to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go.

Jotham Reigns in Judah

27 ^(A)Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah had done, ^(B)except he did not enter the temple of the Lord. But the people still followed corrupt practices. ³ He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord and did much building on the wall of ^(C)Ophel. ⁴ Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and forts and towers on the wooded hills. ⁵ He fought with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed against them. And the Ammonites gave him that year 100 talents^[a] of silver, and 10,000 cors^[b] of wheat and 10,000 of barley. The Ammonites paid him the same amount in the second and the third years. ⁶ So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God. ^7 (D)Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and his ways, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. ⁸ He was ^(E)twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. ⁹ And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, and Ahaz his son reigned in his place.

Ahaz Reigns in Judah

28 ^(F)Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, ² but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made ^(G)metal images for ^(H)the Baals, ³ and ^(I)he made offerings in the ^(J)Valley of the Son of Hinnom and ^(K)burned his sons as an offering,^[c] according to ^(L)the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ⁴ And he sacrificed and ^(M)made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

Judah Defeated

^5 (N)Therefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force. ⁶ For ^(O)Pekah the son of Remaliah killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. ⁷ And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king's son and Azrikam the commander of the palace and Elkanah the next in authority to the king.

The Lord's Relentless Judgment on Israel

Jesus at the Feast of Booths

7 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because ^(A)the Jews^[a] were seeking to kill him. ² Now ^(B)the Jews' Feast of ^(C)Booths was at hand. ^3 (D)So his brothers^[b] said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. ⁴ For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, ^(E)show yourself to the world.” ^5 (F)For not even ^(G)his brothers believed in him. ⁶ Jesus said to them, ^(H)“My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but ^(I)it hates me because I testify about it that ^(J)its works are evil. ⁸ You go up to the feast. I am not^[c] going up to this feast, for ^(K)my time has not yet fully come.” ⁹ After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

Benediction

²⁰ Now ^(A)may the God of peace ^(B)who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, ^(C)the great shepherd of the sheep, by ^(D)the blood of the eternal covenant, ^21 (E)equip you with everything good that you may do his will, ^(F)working in us^[a] that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, ^(G)to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Final Greetings

²² I appeal to you, brothers,^[b] bear with my word of exhortation, for ^(H)I have written to you briefly. ²³ You should know that ^(I)our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. ²⁴ Greet all ^(J)your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. ^25 (K)Grace be with all of you.