Ahijah Prophesies against the King

14 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. ² And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Now arise and ^(A)disguise yourself so that they will not know that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to ^(B)Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who ^(C)said regarding me that I would be king over this people. ^3 (D)Take ten loaves with you, some pastries, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

⁴ And Jeroboam’s wife did so, and set out and went to ^(E)Shiloh, and came to the house of ^(F)Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see ^(G)because his eyes were ^[a]glossy from his old age. ⁵ Now the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ^[b]inquire of you about her son, because he is sick. You shall say such and such to her, for it will be when she arrives, that ^(H)she is going to make herself unrecognizable.”

⁶ So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet coming in the doorway, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam; why do you make yourself unrecognizable? Nevertheless, I am sent to you with a harsh message. ⁷ Go, say to Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: “^(I)Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over My people Israel, ⁸ and ^(J)tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you—^(K)yet you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, ^(L)to do only that which was right in My sight; ⁹ you also have done more evil than all who were before you, and ^(M)you have gone and made for yourself other gods and ^(N)cast metal images to provoke Me to anger, and have ^(O)thrown Me behind your back— ¹⁰ therefore behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and ^(P)I will eliminate from Jeroboam ^[c]every male person, ^(Q)both ^[d]bond and free in Israel, and I ^(R)will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, just as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone. ^11 (S)Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs will eat. And anyone who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will eat; for the Lord has spoken it.”’ ¹² Now you, arise, go to your house. ^(T)When your feet enter the city the child will die. ¹³ Then all Israel will mourn for him and bury him, for ^[e]he alone of Jeroboam’s family will come to the grave, because in him ^(U)something good was found toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. ¹⁴ Moreover, ^(V)the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will eliminate the house of Jeroboam this day ^[f]and from now on.

¹⁵ “For the Lord will strike Israel, just as a reed sways in the water; and ^(W)He will uproot Israel from ^(X)this good land which He gave to their fathers, and ^(Y)will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, ^(Z)because they have made their ^[g]Asherim, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶ He will give up Israel ^(AA)because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he ^[h]committed and with which he misled Israel into sin.”

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to ^(AB)Tirzah. ^(AC)As she was entering the threshold of the house, the child died. ^18 (AD)Then all Israel buried him and mourned for him, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He had spoken through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

¹⁹ Now as for the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, ^(AE)how he made war and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰ And the time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years; and he ^[i]lay down with his fathers, and his son Nadab reigned in his place.

Ministers of a New Covenant

3 Are we beginning to ^(A)commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, ^(B)letters of commendation to you or from you? ^2 (C)You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all people, ³ revealing yourselves, that you are a letter of Christ, ^[a](D)delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of ^(E)the living God, not on ^(F)tablets of stone but on ^(G)tablets of ^[b](H)human hearts.

⁴ Such is the ^(I)confidence we have toward God through Christ. ⁵ Not that we are adequate in ourselves so as to consider anything as having come from ourselves, but ^(J)our adequacy is from God, ⁶ who also made us adequate as ^(K)servants of a ^(L)new covenant, not of ^(M)the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but ^(N)the Spirit gives life.

⁷ But if the ^(O)ministry of death, engraved ^(P)in letters on stones, came ^[c]with glory ^(Q)so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? ⁹ For if ^(R)the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ^(S)ministry of righteousness excel in glory. ¹⁰ For indeed what had glory in this case has no glory, because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹ For if that which fades away was ^[d]with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

^12 (T)Therefore, having such a hope, ^(U)we use great boldness in our speech, ¹³ and we are not like Moses, ^(V)who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not stare at the end of what was fading away. ¹⁴ But their minds were ^(W)hardened; for until this very day at the ^(X)reading of ^(Y)the old covenant the same veil ^[e]remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. ¹⁵ But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts; ^16 (Z)but whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where ^(AA)the Spirit of the Lord is, ^(AB)there is freedom. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled faces, ^(AC)looking as in a mirror at the ^(AD)glory of the Lord, are being ^(AE)transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from ^(AF)the Lord, the Spirit.

Shishak of Egypt Invades Judah

12 ^(A)When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong, ^(B)he and all Israel with him abandoned the Law of the Lord. ^2 (C)And it came about in King Rehoboam’s fifth year, because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, that ^(D)Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem ³ with 1,200 chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. And the people who came with him from Egypt were innumerable: ^(E)the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians. ⁴ And he captured ^(F)the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. ⁵ Then ^(G)Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the Lord says: ‘^(H)You have abandoned Me, so I also have abandoned you ^[a]to Shishak.’” ⁶ So the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The ^(I)Lord is righteous.”

⁷ When the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “^(J)They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them; and I will grant them a little deliverance, and ^(K)My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak. ⁸ But they will become his slaves, so ^(L)that they may learn the difference between My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.”

Plunder Impoverishes Judah

^9 (M)So Shishak king of Egypt went up against Jerusalem, and he took the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s palace. He took everything; ^(N)he even took the gold shields which Solomon had made. ¹⁰ Then King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place and committed them to the ^[b]care of the commanders of the ^[c]guards who guarded the entrance of the king’s house. ¹¹ As often as the king entered the house of the Lord, the ^[d]guards came and carried them and then brought them back into the ^[e]guards’ room. ¹² And ^(O)when he humbled himself, the anger of the Lord turned away from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and conditions ^(P)were also good in Judah.

^13 (Q)So King Rehoboam became powerful in Jerusalem and reigned there. For Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. ¹⁴ But he did evil ^(R)because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.

^15 (S)Now the acts of Rehoboam, from the first to the last, are they not written in the ^[f]records of ^(T)Shemaiah the prophet and of ^(U)Iddo the seer, according to genealogical enrollment? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. ¹⁶ And Rehoboam ^[g]lay down with his fathers and was buried in the city of David; and his son ^(V)Abijah became king in his place.

^29 (A)When He approached Bethphage and ^(B)Bethany, near the ^[a]mountain that is called ^(C)Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, ³⁰ saying, “Go into the village ^[b]ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. ³¹ And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘^[c]The Lord has need of it.’” ³² So those who were sent left and found it just as He had told them. ³³ And as they were untying the colt, its ^[d]owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴ They said, “^[e]The Lord has need of it.” ³⁵ And they brought it to Jesus, ^(D)and they threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. ³⁶ Now as He was going, they were spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷ And as soon as He was approaching, near the descent of ^(E)the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to ^(F)praise God ^[f]joyfully with a loud voice for all the ^[g]miracles which they had seen, ^38 [h]shouting:

^39 (J)And yet some of the Pharisees ^[i]in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples!” ⁴⁰ Jesus replied, “I tell you, if these stop speaking, ^(K)the stones will cry out!”

⁴¹ When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and ^(L)wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you had known on this day, even you, the conditions for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come upon you ^[j]when your enemies will ^(M)put up a ^[k]barricade against you, and ^(N)surround you and hem you in on every side, ⁴⁴ and they will level you to the ground, and throw down your children within you, and ^(O)they will not leave in you one stone upon ^[l]another, because you did not recognize ^(P)the time of your visitation.”

Traders Driven from the Temple

^45 (Q)And Jesus entered the temple grounds and began to drive out those who were selling, ⁴⁶ saying to them, “It is written: ‘^(R)And My house will be a house of prayer,’ ^(S)but you have made it a den of robbers.”

⁴⁷ And ^(T)He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people ^(U)were trying to put Him to death, ⁴⁸ and yet they could not find ^[m]anything that they might do, for all the people were hanging on to ^[n]every word He said.