The Daily Audio Bible

15 It was in the twenty-seventh year of Yarov‘am king of Isra’el that ‘Azaryah the son of Amatzyah, king of Y’hudah, began his reign. ² He was sixteen years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for fifty-two years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Y’kholyahu, from Yerushalayim. ³ He did what was right from Adonai’s perspective, following the example of everything his father Amatzyah had done. ⁴ However, the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and offered on the high places.

⁵ Adonai struck the king, so that he had tzara‘at until his dying day, so that he lived in a separate house, while Yotam the king’s son ran the king’s household and was regent over the people of the land.

⁶ Other activities of ‘Azaryah and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah. ⁷ So ‘Azaryah slept with his ancestors the kings of Isra’el, and they buried him with his ancestors in the City of David. Then Yotam his son took his place as king.

⁸ It was in the thirty-eighth year of ‘Azaryah king of Y’hudah that Z’kharyah the son of Yarov‘am began his reign over Isra’el in Shomron; he ruled for six months. ⁹ He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, just as his ancestors had done; he did not turn from all the sins of Yarov‘am the son of N’vat, who made Isra’el sin.

¹⁰ Shalum the son of Yavesh formed a conspiracy against him. He struck him in the presence of the people and killed him; then he took his place as king.

¹¹ Other activities of Z’kharyah are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Isra’el. ¹² The word of Adonai which he had spoken to Yehu was, “Your descendants down to the fourth generation will sit on the throne of Isra’el”; and that is exactly what happened.

¹³ Shalum the son of Yavesh began his reign in the thirty-ninth year of ‘Uziyah king of Y’hudah; he ruled in Shomron for only a month. ¹⁴ Menachem the son of Gadi went up from Tirtzah, came to Shomron, struck Shalum the son of Yavesh in Shomron and killed him. Then he took his place as king.

¹⁵ Other activities of Shalum and the conspiracy he formed are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Isra’el

¹⁶ From Tirtzah Menachem attacked Tifsach, all the people in it and its territory, because they had not opened their gates to him. So he sacked the city and ripped apart all its pregnant women.

¹⁷ It was in the thirty-ninth year of ‘Azaryah king of Y’hudah that Menachem the son of Gadi began his reign over Isra’el; he ruled ten years in Shomron. ¹⁸ He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective; throughout his life he did not turn from the sins of Yarov‘am the son of N’vat, who made Isra’el sin.

¹⁹ Pul the king of Ashur invaded the land. Menachem gave Pul thirty-three tons of silver, so that he would confirm Menachem’s hold on the kingdom. ²⁰ He did this by taxing the wealthy men in Isra’el; from each he required one-and-a-quarter pounds of silver to give to the king of Ashur. Then the king of Ashur turned around and left the land.

²¹ Other activities of Menachem and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Isra’el. ²² Menachem slept with his ancestors, and P’kachyah his son took his place as king.

²³ It was in the fiftieth year of ‘Azaryah king of Y’hudah that P’kachyah the son of Menachem began his reign over Isra’el in Shomron; he ruled for two years. ²⁴ He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective; he did not turn from the sins of Yarov‘am the son of N’vat, who made Isra’el sin.

²⁵ Pekach the son of Remalyahu, one of his commanders, conspired against him. With Argov, Aryeh and fifty men from Gil‘ad, he assassinated him in the palace stronghold in Shomron. After killing him, he took his place as king.

²⁶ Other activities of P’kachyah and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Isra’el.

²⁷ It was in the fifty-second year of ‘Azaryah king of Y’hudah that Pekach the son of Remalyah began to reign over Isra’el in Shomron; his reign lasted twenty years. ²⁸ He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective; he did not turn from the sins of Yarov‘am the son of N’vat, who made Isra’el sin.

²⁹ During the time of Pekach king of Isra’el, Tiglat-Pil’eser king of Ashur came and conquered ‘Iyon, Avel-Beit-Ma‘akhah, Yanoach, Kedesh, Hatzor, Gil‘ad, and the Galil — all the land of Naftali — and took them captive to Ashur.

³⁰ Hoshea the son of Elah conspired against Pekach the son of Remalyah, struck him, killed him and took his place as king in the twentieth year of Yotam the son of ‘Uziyah.

³¹ Other activities of Pekach and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Isra’el.

³² It was in the second year of Pekach the son of Remalyah, king of Isra’el, that Yotam the son of ‘Uziyah king of Y’hudah began his reign. ³³ He was twenty-five years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for sixteen years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Yerusha the daughter of Tzadok. ³⁴ He did what was right from Adonai’s perspective, following the example of everything his father ‘Uziyah had done. ³⁵ However, the high places were not taken away; and the people still sacrificed and offered on the high places.

He built the Upper Gate of the house of Adonai.

³⁶ Other activities of Yotam and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah.

³⁷ It was during this period that Adonai began sending against Y’hudah Retzin the king of Aram and Pekach the son of Remalyah.

³⁸ Yotam slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David his ancestor. Then Achaz his son took his place as king.

16 It was in the seventeenth year of Pekach the son of Remalyah that Achaz the son of Yotam king of Y’hudah began his reign. ² Achaz was twenty years old when he began to rule, and he reigned sixteen years in Yerushalayim. But he did not do what was right from the perspective of Adonai his God, as David his ancestor had done. ³ Rather, he lived in the manner of the kings of Isra’el; he even made his son pass through fire [as a sacrifice], in keeping with the abominable practices of the pagans, whom Adonai had thrown out ahead of the people of Isra’el. ⁴ He also sacrificed and offered on the high places, on the hills and under any green tree.

⁵ Then Retzin king of Aram and Pekach son of Remalyah, king of Isra’el, came up to fight against Yerushalayim. They put Achaz under siege, but they could not overcome him. ⁶ It was at that time that Retzin king of Aram recovered Eilat for Aram and drove the Judeans from Eilat; whereupon people from Edom came to Eilat to live, as they do to this day. ⁷ Then Achaz sent messengers to Tiglat-Pil’eser king of Ashur with this message: “I am your servant and your son. Come up, and save me from the king of Aram and the king of Isra’el, who are attacking me.” ⁸ Achaz took the silver and gold that was in the house of Adonai and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as a present to the king of Ashur. ⁹ The king of Ashur heeded him — the king of Ashur attacked Dammesek and captured it; then he carried its people captive to Kir and killed Retzin.

¹⁰ When King Achaz went to Dammesek to meet Tiglat-Pil’eser king of Ashur and saw the altar that was in Dammesek, he sent a drawing and model of the altar to Uriyah the cohen, with details of its construction and decoration. ¹¹ Then Uriyah the cohen built an altar exactly according to the design King Achaz had sent from Dammesek; Uriyah the cohen had it ready by the time King Achaz returned from Dammesek. ¹² When the king arrived from Dammesek he saw the altar, and the king approached the altar and offered on it. ¹³ He offered his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering and splashed the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. ¹⁴ The bronze altar, which was before Adonai, he brought from in front of the house, from between his own altar and the house of Adonai, and put it on the north side of his own altar. ¹⁵ Then King Achaz instructed Uriyah the cohen as follows: “Henceforth, it is on the large altar that you are to offer the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, together with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering and their drink offerings; and you are to splash all the blood of the burnt offering against it and all the blood of the sacrifice. As for the bronze altar, I will take care of that.” ¹⁶ Uriyah the cohen acted in accordance with everything King Achaz ordered. ¹⁷ King Achaz removed the panels of the trolleys and took the basins off them; he took the Sea off the bronze oxen supporting it and set it on the stone pavement; ¹⁸ and, because of the king of Ashur, he removed from the house of Adonai the colonnade used on Shabbat that had been built for it and the king’s entranceway outside it.

¹⁹ Other activities of Achaz and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah. ²⁰ Achaz slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. Then Hizkiyahu his son took his place as king.

¹³ Then some of the Jewish exorcists who traveled from place to place tried to make use of the name of the Lord Yeshua in connection with people who had evil spirits. They would say, “I exorcise you by the Yeshua that Sha’ul is proclaiming!” ¹⁴ One time, seven sons of a Jewish cohen gadol named Skeva were doing this; ¹⁵ and the evil spirit answered them. It said, “Yeshua I know. And Sha’ul I recognize. But you? Who are you?” ¹⁶ Then the man with the evil spirit fell upon them, overpowered them and gave them such a beating that they ran from the house, naked and bleeding.

¹⁷ When all this became known to the residents of Ephesus, fear fell on all of them, Jews and Greeks alike; and the name of the Lord Yeshua came to be held in high regard. ¹⁸ Many of those who had earlier made professions of faith now came and admitted publicly their evil deeds; ¹⁹ and a considerable number of those who had engaged in occult practices threw their scrolls in a pile and burned them in public. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, it came to fifty thousand drachmas. ²⁰ Thus the message about the Lord continued in a powerful way to grow in influence.

²¹ Some time later, Sha’ul decided by the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and then go to Yerushalayim. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome.” ²² So he dispatched two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia; but he himself remained in the province of Asia for awhile.

²³ It was at this time that a major furor arose concerning the Way. ²⁴ There was a silversmith named Demetrius who manufactured from silver, objects connected with the worship of the goddess Artemis; and he provided no small amount of work for the craftsmen. ²⁵ He called a meeting of them and of those engaged in similar trades, and said, “Men, you understand that this line of business provides us our living. ²⁶ And you can see and hear for yourselves that not only here in Ephesus, but in practically the whole province of Asia, this Sha’ul has convinced and turned away a considerable crowd by saying that man-made gods aren’t gods at all. ²⁷ Now the danger is not only that the reputation of our trade will suffer, but that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will come to be taken lightly. It could end up with the goddess herself, who is worshipped throughout the province of Asia and indeed throughout the whole world, being ignominiously brought down from her divine majesty!”

²⁸ Hearing this, they were filled with rage and began bellowing, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” ²⁹ Soon the whole city was in an uproar. As one man, the mob rushed into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Sha’ul’s traveling companions from Macedonia. ³⁰ Sha’ul himself wanted to appear before the crowd, but the talmidim wouldn’t let him. ³¹ Even some of the officials of the province, friends of his, sent a message begging him not to risk entering the theater. ³² Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing and others something else, because the assembly was in complete confusion, and the great majority didn’t even know why they were there. ³³ Some of the crowd explained the situation to Alexander, whom the Jews had pushed to the front. So Alexander motioned for silence, hoping to make a defense speech to the people. ³⁴ But as soon as they recognized that he was a Jew, they began bellowing in unison, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” and they kept it up for about two hours.

³⁵ At last, the city clerk was able to quiet the crowd. “Men of Ephesus!” he said, “Is there anyone who doesn’t know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone which fell from the sky? ³⁶ Since this is beyond dispute, you had better calm down and not do anything rash. ³⁷ For you have brought these men here who have neither robbed the temple nor insulted your goddess. ³⁸ So if Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open and the judges are there — let them bring charges and counter-charges. ³⁹ But if there is something more you want, it will have to be settled in a lawful assembly. ⁴⁰ For we are in danger of being accused of rioting on account of what has happened today. There is no justification for it; and if we are asked, we will be unable to give any reasonable explanation for this disorderly gathering.” ⁴¹ And with these words, he dismissed the assembly.