⁴⁶ So ^(A)you remained at Kadesh many days, the days that you remained there.

The Wilderness Years

2 “Then we turned and journeyed into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea, ^(B)as the Lord told me. And for many days we traveled around Mount Seir. ² Then the Lord said to me, ³ ‘You have been traveling around this mountain country ^(C)long enough. Turn northward ⁴ and command the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of ^(D)your brothers, the people of Esau, ^(E)who live in Seir; and ^(F)they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. ⁵ Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because ^(G)I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. ^6 (H)You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink. ⁷ For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. ^(I)He knows your going through this great wilderness. ^(J)These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ ⁸ So ^(K)we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from ^(L)the Arabah road from ^(M)Elath and ^(N)Ezion-geber.

“And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. ⁹ And the Lord said to me, ^(O)‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given ^(P)Ar to ^(Q)the people of Lot for a possession.’ ¹⁰ (^(R)The Emim formerly lived there, ^(S)a people great and many, and tall ^(T)as the Anakim. ¹¹ Like the Anakim they are also counted as ^(U)Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. ^12 (V)The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, ^(W)as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.) ¹³ ‘Now rise up and go over ^(X)the brook Zered.’ So we went over ^(Y)the brook Zered. ¹⁴ And the time from our leaving ^(Z)Kadesh-barnea until we crossed ^(AA)the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, ^(AB)until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. ¹⁵ For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.

¹⁶ “So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, ¹⁷ the Lord said to me, ¹⁸ ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. ¹⁹ And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, ^(AC)do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to ^(AD)the sons of Lot for a possession.’ ²⁰ (It is also counted as a land of ^(AE)Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— ^21 (AF)a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites,^[a] and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, ²² as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed ^(AG)the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. ²³ As for ^(AH)the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as ^(AI)Gaza, ^(AJ)the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.) ²⁴ ‘Rise up, set out on your journey and ^(AK)go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of ^(AL)Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and ^(AM)contend with him in battle. ²⁵ This day I will begin to put ^(AN)the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

29 ^(A)Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah^[a] the daughter of ^(B)Zechariah. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.

Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple

³ In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he ^(C)opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. ⁴ He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east ⁵ and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now ^(D)consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth^[b] from the Holy Place. ⁶ For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and ^(E)have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. ⁷ They also ^(F)shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore ^(G)the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them ^(H)an object of horror, of astonishment, ^(I)and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. ⁹ For behold, ^(J)our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. ¹⁰ Now ^(K)it is in my heart ^(L)to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. ¹¹ My sons, do not now be negligent, ^(M)for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.”

¹² Then the Levites arose, ^(N)Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of ^(O)the Kohathites; and of the sons of ^(P)Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the ^(Q)Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; ¹³ and of the sons of ^(R)Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of ^(S)Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; ¹⁴ and of the sons of ^(T)Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of ^(U)Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵ They gathered their brothers and ^(V)consecrated themselves and went in as the king had commanded, ^(W)by the words of the Lord, ^(X)to cleanse the house of the Lord. ¹⁶ The priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it and carried it out to ^(Y)the brook Kidron. ¹⁷ They began to consecrate ^(Z)on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the Lord. Then for eight days they consecrated the house of the Lord, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. ¹⁸ Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, “We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the showbread and all its utensils. ¹⁹ All the utensils ^(AA)that King Ahaz discarded in his reign when he was faithless, we have made ready and consecrated, and behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.”

1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

An Invasion of Locusts

A Call to Repentance

Can This Be the Christ?

²⁵ Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom ^(A)they seek to kill? ²⁶ And here he is, ^(B)speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that ^(C)the authorities really know that this is the Christ? ²⁷ But ^(D)we know ^(E)where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, ^(F)no one will know where he comes from.” ²⁸ So Jesus proclaimed, ^(G)as he taught in the temple, ^(H)“You know me, and you know where I come from. But ^(I)I have not come of my own accord. ^(J)He who sent me is true, ^(K)and him you do not know. ^29 (L)I know him, for I come ^(M)from him, and ^(N)he sent me.” ^30 (O)So they were seeking to arrest him, but ^(P)no one laid a hand on him, ^(Q)because his hour had not yet come. ³¹ Yet ^(R)many of the people believed in him. They said, ^(S)“When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

Christ Jesus Came to Save Sinners

¹² I thank him ^(A)who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, ^(B)appointing me to his service, ¹³ though formerly I was a blasphemer, ^(C)persecutor, and insolent opponent. But ^(D)I received mercy ^(E)because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴ and ^(F)the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the ^(G)faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ The saying is ^(H)trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus ^(I)came into the world to save sinners, ^(J)of whom I am the foremost. ¹⁶ But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. ¹⁷ To ^(K)the King of the ages, ^(L)immortal, ^(M)invisible, ^(N)the only God, ^(O)be honor and glory forever and ever.^[a] Amen.

¹⁸ This charge ^(P)I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with ^(Q)the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may ^(R)wage the good warfare, ^19 (S)holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have ^(T)made shipwreck of their faith, ²⁰ among whom are ^(U)Hymenaeus and ^(V)Alexander, whom I ^(W)have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to ^(X)blaspheme.