Judgment on the House of Jeroboam

14 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. ² And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please arise, and disguise yourself, that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Indeed, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that ^(A)I would be king over this people. ^3 (B)Also take ^[a]with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will become of the child.” ⁴ And Jeroboam’s wife did so; she arose ^(C)and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were ^[b]glazed by reason of his age.

⁵ Now the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Here is the wife of Jeroboam, coming to ask you something about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman.”

⁶ And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person? For I have been sent to you with bad news. ⁷ Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ^(D)“Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, ⁸ and ^(E)tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, ^(F)who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; ⁹ but you have done more evil than all who were before you, ^(G)for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and ^(H)have cast Me behind your back— ¹⁰ therefore behold! ^(I)I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and ^(J)will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, ^(K)bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. ¹¹ The dogs shall eat ^(L)whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the Lord has spoken!” ’ ¹² Arise therefore, go to your own house. ^(M)When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³ And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall ^[c]come to the grave, because in him ^(N)there is found something good toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

^14 (O)“Moreover the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam; ^[d]this is the day. What? Even now! ¹⁵ For the Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will ^(P)uproot Israel from this ^(Q)good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them ^(R)beyond ^[e]the River, ^(S)because they have made their ^[f]wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶ And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, ^(T)who sinned and who made Israel sin.”

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to ^(U)Tirzah. ^(V)When she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸ And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, ^(W)according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

Death of Jeroboam

¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he ^(X)made war and how he reigned, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ²⁰ The period that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. So he rested with his fathers. Then ^(Y)Nadab his son reigned in his place.

Christ’s Epistle^(A)

3 Do ^(B)we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, ^(C)epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? ^2 (D)You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; ³ clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ^(E)ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not ^(F)on tablets of stone but ^(G)on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

The Spirit, Not the Letter

⁴ And we have such trust through Christ toward God. ^5 (H)Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but ^(I)our sufficiency is from God, ⁶ who also made us sufficient as ^(J)ministers of ^(K)the new covenant, not ^(L)of the letter but of the ^[a]Spirit; for ^(M)the letter kills, ^(N)but the Spirit gives life.

Glory of the New Covenant

⁷ But if ^(O)the ministry of death, ^(P)written and engraved on stones, was glorious, ^(Q)so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, ⁸ how will ^(R)the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? ⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry ^(S)of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. ¹⁰ For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. ¹¹ For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

¹² Therefore, since we have such hope, ^(T)we use great boldness of speech— ¹³ unlike Moses, ^(U)who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at ^(V)the end of what was passing away. ¹⁴ But ^(W)their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. ¹⁵ But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. ¹⁶ Nevertheless ^(X)when one turns to the Lord, ^(Y)the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now ^(Z)the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is ^(AA)liberty. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding ^(AB)as in a mirror ^(AC)the glory of the Lord, ^(AD)are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as ^[b]by the Spirit of the Lord.

Egypt Attacks Judah^(A)

12 Now ^(B)it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, that ^(C)he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel along with him. ^2 (D)And it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord, ³ with twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and people without number who came with him out of Egypt—^(E)the Lubim and the Sukkiim and the Ethiopians. ⁴ And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came to Jerusalem.

⁵ Then ^(F)Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah, who were gathered together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Thus says the Lord: ‘You have forsaken Me, and therefore I also have left you in the hand of Shishak.’ ”

⁶ So the leaders of Israel and the king ^(G)humbled themselves; and they said, ^(H)“The Lord is righteous.”

⁷ Now when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, ^(I)the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. ⁸ Nevertheless ^(J)they will be his servants, that they may distinguish ^(K)My service from the service of the kingdoms of the nations.”

^9 (L)So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house; he took everything. He also carried away the gold shields which Solomon had ^(M)made. ¹⁰ Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them ^(N)to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. ¹¹ And whenever the king entered the house of the Lord, the guard would go and bring them out; then they would take them back into the guardroom. ¹² When he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and things also went well in Judah.

The End of Rehoboam’s Reign^(O)

¹³ Thus King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Now ^(P)Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king; and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, ^(Q)the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah, an ^(R)Ammonitess. ¹⁴ And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.

¹⁵ The acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, ^(S)and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? ^(T)And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. ¹⁶ So Rehoboam ^[a]rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David. Then ^(U)Abijah^[b] his son reigned in his place.

^29 (A)And it came to pass, when He drew near to ^[a]Bethphage and ^(B)Bethany, at the mountain called ^(C)Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, ³⁰ saying, “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. ³¹ And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’ ”

³² So those who were sent went their way and found it just ^(D)as He had said to them. ³³ But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?”

³⁴ And they said, “The Lord has need of him.” ³⁵ Then they brought him to Jesus. ^(E)And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. ³⁶ And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.

³⁷ Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to ^(F)rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, ³⁸ saying:

³⁹ And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”

⁴⁰ But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, ^(I)the stones would immediately cry out.”

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

⁴¹ Now as He drew near, He saw the city and ^(J)wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this ^(K)your day, the things that ^(L)make for your ^(M)peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For days will come upon you when your enemies will ^(N)build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, ^44 (O)and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and ^(P)they will not leave in you one stone upon another, ^(Q)because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus Cleanses the Temple^(R)

^45 (S)Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who ^[b]bought and sold in it, ⁴⁶ saying to them, “It is written, ^(T)‘My house ^[c]is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ^(U)‘den of thieves.’ ”

⁴⁷ And He ^(V)was teaching daily in the temple. But ^(W)the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, ⁴⁸ and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to ^(X)hear Him.