Elijah and King Ahaziah

1 After the death of King Ahab of Israel the country of Moab rebelled against Israel.

² King Ahaziah of Israel fell off the balcony on the roof of his palace in Samaria and was seriously injured. So he sent some messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of the Philistine city of Ekron, in order to find out whether or not he would recover. ³ But an angel of the Lord commanded Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe, to go and meet the messengers of King Ahaziah and ask them, “Why are you going to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? Is it because you think there is no god in Israel? ⁴ Tell the king that the Lord says, ‘You will not recover from your injuries; you will die!’”

Elijah did as the Lord commanded, ⁵ and the messengers returned to the king. “Why have you come back?” he asked.

⁶ They answered, “We were met by a man who told us to come back and tell you that the Lord says to you, ‘Why are you sending messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? Is it because you think there is no god in Israel? You will not recover from your injuries; you will die!’”

⁷ “What did the man look like?” the king asked.

^8 (A)“He was wearing a cloak made of animal skins, tied with^[a] a leather belt,” they answered.

“It's Elijah!” the king exclaimed.

⁹ Then he sent an officer with fifty men to get Elijah. The officer found him sitting on a hill and said to him, “Man of God, the king orders you to come down.”

^10 (B)“If I am a man of God,” Elijah answered, “may fire come down from heaven and kill you and your men!” At once fire came down and killed the officer and his men.

¹¹ The king sent another officer with fifty men, who went up^[b] and said to Elijah, “Man of God, the king orders you to come down at once!”

¹² “If I am a man of God,” Elijah answered, “may fire come down from heaven and kill you and your men!” At once the fire of God came down and killed the officer and his men.

¹³ Once more the king sent an officer with fifty men. He went up the hill, fell on his knees in front of Elijah, and pleaded, “Man of God, be merciful to me and my men. Spare our lives! ¹⁴ The two other officers and their men were killed by fire from heaven; but please be merciful to me!”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him, and don't be afraid.” So Elijah went with the officer to the king ¹⁶ and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you sent messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron—as if there were no god in Israel to consult—you will not get well; you will die!’”

¹⁷ Ahaziah died, as the Lord had said through Elijah. Ahaziah had no sons, so his brother^[c] Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of the reign of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

¹⁸ Everything else that King Ahaziah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.

1 ^(A)From Paul, Silas, and Timothy—

To the people of the church in Thessalonica, who belong to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

² May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

The Judgment at Christ's Coming

³ Our friends, we must thank God at all times for you. It is right for us to do so, because your faith is growing so much and the love each of you has for the others is becoming greater. ⁴ That is why we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God. We boast about the way you continue to endure and believe through all the persecutions and sufferings you are experiencing.

⁵ All of this proves that God's judgment is just and as a result you will become worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering. ⁶ God will do what is right: he will bring suffering on those who make you suffer, ⁷ and he will give relief to you who suffer and to us as well. He will do this when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with his mighty angels, ⁸ with a flaming fire, to punish those who reject God and who do not obey the Good News about our Lord Jesus. ^9 (B)They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious might, ¹⁰ when he comes on that Day to receive glory from all his people and honor from all who believe. You too will be among them, because you have believed the message that we told you.

¹¹ That is why we always pray for you. We ask our God to make you worthy of the life he has called you to live. May he fulfill by his power all your desire for goodness and complete your work of faith. ¹² In this way the name of our Lord Jesus will receive glory from you, and you from him, by the grace of our God and of the Lord^[a] Jesus Christ.

Belshazzar's Banquet

5 One night King Belshazzar invited a thousand noblemen to a great banquet, and they drank wine together. ² While they were drinking, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups and bowls which his father^[a] Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from the Temple in Jerusalem. The king sent for them so that he, his noblemen, his wives, and his concubines could drink out of them. ³ At once the gold cups and bowls were brought in, and they all drank wine out of them ⁴ and praised gods made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

⁵ Suddenly a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster wall of the palace, where the light from the lamps was shining most brightly. And the king saw the hand as it was writing. ⁶ He turned pale and was so frightened that his knees began to shake. ⁷ He shouted for someone to bring in the magicians, wizards, and astrologers. When they came in, the king said to them, “Anyone who can read this writing and tell me what it means will be dressed in robes of royal purple, wear a gold chain of honor around his neck, and be the third in power in the kingdom.” ⁸ The royal advisers came forward, but none of them could read the writing or tell the king what it meant. ⁹ In his distress King Belshazzar grew even paler, and his noblemen had no idea what to do.

¹⁰ The queen mother heard the noise made by the king and his noblemen and entered the banquet hall. She said, “May Your Majesty live forever! Please do not be so disturbed and look so pale. ¹¹ There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods^[b] in him. When your father was king, this man showed good sense, knowledge, and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father,^[c] made him chief of the fortunetellers, magicians, wizards, and astrologers. ¹² He has unusual ability and is wise and skillful in interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining mysteries; so send for this man Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, and he will tell you what all this means.”

Daniel Explains the Writing

¹³ Daniel was brought at once into the king's presence, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, that Jewish exile whom my father the king brought here from Judah? ¹⁴ I have heard that the spirit of the holy gods^[d] is in you and that you are skillful and have knowledge and wisdom. ¹⁵ The advisers and magicians were brought in to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not discover the meaning. ¹⁶ Now I have heard that you can find hidden meanings and explain mysteries. If you can read this writing and tell me what it means, you will be dressed in robes of royal purple, wear a gold chain of honor around your neck, and be the third in power in the kingdom.”

¹⁷ Daniel replied, “Keep your gifts for yourself or give them to someone else. I will read for Your Majesty what has been written and tell you what it means.

¹⁸ “The Supreme God made your father Nebuchadnezzar a great king and gave him dignity and majesty. ¹⁹ He was so great that people of all nations, races, and languages were afraid of him and trembled. If he wanted to kill someone, he did; if he wanted to keep someone alive, he did. He honored or disgraced anyone he wanted to. ²⁰ But because he became proud, stubborn, and cruel, he was removed from his royal throne and lost his place of honor. ²¹ He was driven away from human society, and his mind became like that of an animal. He lived with wild donkeys, ate grass like an ox, and slept in the open air with nothing to protect him from the dew. Finally he admitted that the Supreme God controls all human kingdoms and can give them to anyone he chooses.

²² “But you, his son, have not humbled yourself, even though you knew all this. ²³ You acted against the Lord of heaven and brought in the cups and bowls taken from his Temple. You, your noblemen, your wives, and your concubines drank wine out of them and praised gods made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that cannot see or hear and that do not know anything. But you did not honor the God who determines whether you live or die and who controls everything you do. ²⁴ That is why God has sent the hand to write these words.

²⁵ “This is what was written: ‘Number, number, weight, divisions.’ ²⁶ And this is what it means: number, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; ²⁷ weight, you have been weighed on the scales and found to be too light; ²⁸ divisions, your kingdom is divided up and given to the Medes and Persians.”^[e]

²⁹ Immediately Belshazzar ordered his servants to dress Daniel in a robe of royal purple and to hang a gold chain of honor around his neck. And he made him the third in power in the kingdom. ³⁰ That same night Belshazzar, the king of Babylonia, was killed; ³¹ and Darius the Mede, who was then sixty-two years old, seized the royal power.

The Lord and His Chosen King^[a]

In Praise of the Lord