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.

Rehoboam Misleads Judah

^21 (AF)Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, ^(AG)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. ²² And the people of ^(AH)Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they ^(AI)provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they ^[j]committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³ For they, too, built for themselves ^(AJ)high places, ^(AK)memorial stones, and ^[k](AL)Asherim on every high hill and ^(AM)under every luxuriant tree. ²⁴ There were also ^(AN)male cult prostitutes in the land. They committed ^[l]all the same abominations of the nations which the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

^25 (AO)Now it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak the king of Egypt marched against Jerusalem. ²⁶ And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and ^(AP)he took everything; ^(AQ)he even took all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. ²⁷ So King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and ^(AR)entrusted them to the ^[m]care of the commanders of the ^[n]guard who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. ²⁸ And it happened as often as the king entered the house of the Lord, that the ^[o]guards would carry them and would bring them back into the ^[p]guards’ room.

^29 (AS)Now as for the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^30 (AT)And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. ³¹ And Rehoboam ^[q]lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and ^(AU)his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And his son Abijam became king in his place.

Abijam Reigns over Judah

15 ^(AV)Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah. ² He reigned for three years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was ^[r](AW)Maacah the daughter of ^[s](AX)Abishalom. ³ He walked in all the sins of his father which he had committed before him; and ^(AY)his heart was not ^[t]wholly devoted to the Lord his God, like the heart of his father David. ⁴ But for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a ^(AZ)lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem, ^5 (BA)because David did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and did not deviate from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, ^(BB)except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. ^6 (BC)And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

⁷ Now as for ^(BD)the rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^(BE)And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

Asa Succeeds Abijam

^8 (BF)And Abijam ^[u]lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and his son Asa became king in his place.

⁹ So in the twentieth year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, Asa began to reign as king of Judah. ¹⁰ He reigned for forty-one years in Jerusalem; and ^(BG)his mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. ¹¹ Now ^(BH)Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, like his father David. ^12 (BI)He also removed the male cult prostitutes from the land and ^(BJ)removed all the idols which his fathers had made. ¹³ And even his mother Maacah, ^(BK)he also removed her from the position of queen mother, because she had made an abominable image ^[v]as an Asherah; and Asa cut down her abominable image and ^(BL)burned it at the brook Kidron. ^14 (BM)But the high places ^[w]were not eliminated; nevertheless ^(BN)Asa’s heart was ^[x]wholly devoted to the Lord all his days. ¹⁵ And ^(BO)he brought into the house of the Lord the ^[y]holy gifts of his father and his own ^[z]holy gifts: silver, gold, and valuable utensils.

^16 (BP)Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. ^17 (BQ)Baasha king of Israel marched against Judah and ^[aa](BR)fortified Ramah ^(BS)in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸ Then ^(BT)Asa took all the silver and the gold that was left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the treasuries of the king’s house, and handed it over to his servants. And ^(BU)King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Aram, who lived in ^(BV)Damascus, saying, ¹⁹ “Let’s make a ^(BW)treaty between ^[ab]you and me, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold; go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.” ²⁰ So Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and ^[ac]conquered ^(BX)Ijon, ^(BY)Dan, ^(BZ)Abel-beth-maacah, and all ^(CA)Chinneroth, besides all the land of Naphtali. ²¹ When Baasha heard about it, ^(CB)he stopped ^[ad]fortifying Ramah and remained in ^(CC)Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah—no one was exempt—and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had built fortifications. And King Asa built with them ^(CD)Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.

Jehoshaphat Succeeds Asa

^23 (CE)Now as for the rest of all the acts of Asa and all his might, and all that he did and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. ²⁴ And Asa ^[ae]lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of his father David; and his son ^(CF)Jehoshaphat reigned in his place.

Cornelius’ Vision

10 Now there was a man in ^(A)Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was ^(B)called the Italian ^[a]cohort, ² a devout man and ^(C)one who feared God with all his household, and ^(D)made many charitable contributions to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. ³ About ^(E)the ^[b]ninth hour of the day he clearly saw ^(F)in a vision ^(G)an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!” ⁴ And he ^(H)looked at him intently and became terrified, and said, “What is it, lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and charitable gifts ^(I)have ascended ^(J)as a memorial offering before God. ⁵ Now dispatch some men to ^(K)Joppa and send for a man named Simon, who is also called Peter; ⁶ he is staying with a tanner named ^(L)Simon, whose house is by the sea.” ⁷ When the angel who *spoke to him left, he summoned two of his ^[c]servants and a devout soldier from his personal attendants, ⁸ and after he had explained everything to them, he sent them to ^(M)Joppa.

⁹ On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, ^(N)Peter went up on ^(O)the ^[d]housetop about ^[e](P)the sixth hour to pray. ¹⁰ But he became hungry and wanted to eat; but while they were making preparations, he ^(Q)fell into a trance; ¹¹ and he *saw ^(R)the sky opened up, and an ^[f]object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, ¹² and on it were all kinds of four-footed animals and ^[g]crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the sky. ¹³ A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, ^[h]kill and eat!” ¹⁴ But Peter said, “By no means, ^(S)Lord, for ^(T)I have never eaten anything ^[i]unholy and unclean.” ¹⁵ Again a voice came to him a second time, “^(U)What God has cleansed, no longer ^[j]consider unholy.” ¹⁶ This happened three times, and immediately the ^[k]object was taken up into the sky.

¹⁷ Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in ^[l]mind as to what ^(V)the vision which he had seen might ^[m]mean, behold, ^(W)the men who had been sent by Cornelius had asked directions to Simon’s house, and they appeared at the gate; ¹⁸ and calling out, they were asking whether Simon, who was also called Peter, was staying there. ¹⁹ While Peter was reflecting on ^(X)the vision, ^(Y)the Spirit said to him, “Behold, ^[n]three men are looking for you. ²⁰ But get up, go downstairs and ^(Z)accompany them ^[o]without misgivings, for I have sent them Myself.” ²¹ Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?” ²² They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and ^(AA)God-fearing man well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews, ^(AB)was divinely directed by a ^(AC)holy angel to send for you to come to his house and hear ^[p](AD)a message from you.” ²³ So he invited them in and gave them lodging.

Peter in Caesarea

Now on the next day he got ready and went away with them, and ^(AE)some of ^(AF)the brothers from ^(AG)Joppa accompanied him.

The Excellency of Brotherly Unity.

A Song of Ascents, of David.