The Daily Audio Bible

14 At this time, Aviyah the son of Yarov‘am fell ill. ² Yarov‘am said to his wife, “Please come, and disguise yourself, so that you won’t be recognized as Yarov‘am’s wife, and go to Shiloh. Achiyah the prophet is there, the one who said that I would be king over these people. ³ Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes and a jug of honey; and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

⁴ Yarov‘am’s wife did this; she set out, went to Shiloh and arrived at the house of Achiyah. Now Achiyah could not see, because his eyes were dim with age. ⁵ Adonai had told Achiyah, “Yarov‘am’s wife is on her way to you to ask about her son, who is ill. You are to tell her thus and thus; moreover, when she comes, she will be pretending she is another woman.”

⁶ When Achiyah heard the sound of her feet as she came in the door, he said, “Enter, wife of Yarov‘am! Why pretend you are someone else? I’ve been given bad news for you. ⁷ Go, tell Yarov‘am that this is what Adonai says: ‘I raised you up from among the people, made you prince over my people Isra’el, ⁸ tore the kingdom away from the dynasty of David and gave it to you. In spite of this, you have not been like my servant David, who obeyed my mitzvot and followed me with all his heart, so that he could do only what I regarded as right. ⁹ Rather, you have committed more evil than anyone before you! You went and made other gods for yourself and images of cast metal to make me angry, but me you shoved behind your back! ¹⁰ Therefore, I will now bring disaster on the house of Yarov‘am. I will cut off every male of Yarov‘am’s line, whether a slave or free in Isra’el; I will sweep away the house of Yarov‘am as completely as when someone sweeps away dung until it’s all gone. ¹¹ If someone from the line of Yarov‘am dies in the city, the dogs will eat him; if he dies in the countryside, the vultures will eat him. For Adonai has said it.’ ¹² So get up and go home; when your feet enter the city, the boy will die. ¹³ All Isra’el will mourn him, and they will bury him; he is the only one of Yarov‘am’s line who will lie in a grave, because he alone in the house of Yarov‘am has in him an element of good toward Adonai the God of Isra’el. ¹⁴ Moreover, Adonai will raise up for himself a king over Isra’el who at that time will cut off the house of Yarov‘am. And what will God do now? ¹⁵ Adonai will strike Isra’el until it shakes like a reed in the water; he will uproot Isra’el from this good land, which he gave to their ancestors, and scatter them beyond the [Euphrates] River; because they made sacred poles for themselves, thus making Adonai angry. ¹⁶ He will give up on Isra’el because of the sins of Yarov‘am, which he committed himself, and with which he made Isra’el sin as well.”

¹⁷ Yarov‘am’s wife got up, left and went to Tirtzah. The moment she reached the threshold of the house, the boy died. ¹⁸ All Isra’el buried him and mourned him, in keeping with the word of Adonai spoken through his servant Achiyah the prophet.

¹⁹ Other activities of Yarov‘am, how he fought and how he ruled are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Isra’el. ²⁰ Yarov‘am’s reign lasted twenty-two years; then he slept with his ancestors, and Nadav his son became king in his place.

²¹ Rechav‘am the son of Shlomo was reigning in Y’hudah. Rechav‘am was forty-one years old when he began to rule; and he ruled seventeen years in Yerushalayim, the city Adonai had chosen from all the tribes of Isra’el to bear his name; his mother’s name was Na‘amah the ‘Amonit.

²² Y’hudah did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective; they made him angry because of their sins, which were worse than any their ancestors had committed. ²³ For they erected high places, standing-stones and sacred poles on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ Also there were male and female cult-prostitutes in the land attached to these shrines, doing all the disgusting things which the nations did that Adonai had expelled ahead of the people of Isra’el.

²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rechav‘am, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Yerushalayim. ²⁶ He took the treasures in the house of Adonai and the treasures in the royal palace — he took everything, including all the gold shields Shlomo had made. ²⁷ To replace them, King Rechav‘am made shields of bronze, which he entrusted to the commanders of the contingent guarding the gate to the royal palace. ²⁸ Whenever the king went to the house of Adonai, the guard would get the shields; later they would return them to the guardroom.

²⁹ Other activities of Rechav‘am and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah. ³⁰ But there was continual war between Rechav‘am and Yarov‘am. ³¹ Rechav‘am slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David; his mother’s name was Na‘amah the ‘Amonit. Then Aviyam his son became king in his place.

15 It was in the eighteenth year of King Yarov‘am the son of N’vat that Aviyam began his reign over Y’hudah. ² He ruled three years in Yerushalayim; his mother’s name was Ma‘akhah the daughter of Avishalom. ³ He committed all the sins his father had committed before him; he was not wholehearted with Adonai his God, as David his forefather had been. ⁴ Nevertheless, for David’s sake Adonai his God gave him a lamp burning in Yerushalayim by establishing his son after him and making Yerushalayim secure. ⁵ For David had done what was right from Adonai’s perspective; he had not turned away from anything he had ordered him to do, as long as he lived, except in the matter of Uriyah the Hitti.

⁶ There was war between Rechav‘am and Yarov‘am as long as he lived.

⁷ Other activities of Aviyam and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah. But there was war between Aviyam and Yarov‘am. ⁸ Aviyam slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son became king in his place.

⁹ It was in the twentieth year of Yarov‘am king of Isra’el that Asa began his reign over Y’hudah. ¹⁰ He ruled forty-one years in Yerushalayim; his [grand]mother’s name was Ma‘akhah the daughter of Avishalom. ¹¹ Asa did what was right from the perspective of Adonai, as David his ancestor had done. ¹² He rid the land of cult-prostitutes and removed all the idols his ancestors had made. ¹³ He also deposed Ma‘akhah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a disgusting image as an asherah. Asa cut down this image of hers and burned it in Vadi Kidron. ¹⁴ But the high places were not removed. Nevertheless, Asa was wholehearted with Adonai throughout his life. ¹⁵ He brought into the house of Adonai all the articles his father had consecrated, also the things he himself had consecrated — silver, gold and utensils.

¹⁶ There was war between Asa and Ba‘sha king of Isra’el as long as they both lived. ¹⁷ Ba‘sha attacked Y’hudah, and he fortified Ramah to prevent anyone’s leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Y’hudah. ¹⁸ Then Asa took all the silver and gold left among the treasures of the house of Adonai and among the treasures of the royal palace; and, entrusting them to his servants, King Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad the son of Tavrimmon, the son of Hezyon, king of Aram, who lived in Dammesek, with this message: ¹⁹ “There is a covenant between me and you, which existed already between my father and your father. Here, I am sending you a present of silver and gold; go, and break your covenant with Ba‘sha king of Isra’el, so that he will leave me alone.” ²⁰ Ben-Hadad did as King Asa asked — he sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Isra’el, attacking ‘Iyon, Dan, Avel-Beit-Ma‘akhah, all of Kinn’rot and all the land of Naftali. ²¹ As soon as Ba‘sha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah and stayed in Tirtzah. ²² King Asa then issued a proclamation requiring every man in Y’hudah, with no exception, to come and carry off the stones and timber Ba‘sha had used to fortify Ramah. With them King Asa fortified Geva of Binyamin and Mitzpah.

²³ The other activities of Asa, all his power, all his accomplishments and the cities he fortified are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah. But in his old age he suffered from a disease in his legs. ²⁴ Asa slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David his ancestor. Then Y’hoshafat his son became king in his place.

10 There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a Roman army officer in what was called the Italian Regiment. ² He was a devout man, a “God-fearer,” as was his whole household; he gave generously to help the Jewish poor and prayed regularly to God. ³ One afternoon around three o’clock he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!” ⁴ Cornelius stared at the angel, terrified. “What is it, sir?” he asked. “Your prayers,” replied the angel, “and your acts of charity have gone up into God’s presence, so that he has you on his mind. ⁵ Now send some men to Yafo to bring back a man named Shim‘on, also called Kefa. ⁶ He’s staying with Shim‘on the leather-tanner, who has a house by the sea.” ⁷ As the angel that had spoken to him went away, Cornelius called two of his household slaves and one of his military aides, who was a godly man; ⁸ he explained everything to them and sent them to Yafo.

⁹ The next day about noon, while they were still on their way and approaching the city, Kefa went up onto the roof of the house to pray. ¹⁰ He began to feel hungry and wanted something to eat; but while they were preparing the meal, he fell into a trance ¹¹ in which he saw heaven opened, and something that looked like a large sheet being lowered to the ground by its four corners. ¹² In it were all kinds of four-footed animals, crawling creatures and wild birds. ¹³ Then a voice came to him, “Get up, Kefa, slaughter and eat!” ¹⁴ But Kefa said, “No, sir! Absolutely not! I have never eaten food that was unclean or treif.” ¹⁵ The voice spoke to him a second time: “Stop treating as unclean what God has made clean.” ¹⁶ This happened three times, and then the sheet was immediately taken back up into heaven.

¹⁷ Kefa was still puzzling over the meaning of the vision he had seen, when the men Cornelius had sent, having inquired for Shim‘on’s house, stood at the gate ¹⁸ and called out to ask if the Shim‘on known as Kefa was staying there. ¹⁹ While Kefa’s mind was still on the vision, the Spirit said, “Three men are looking for you. ²⁰ Get up, go downstairs, and have no misgivings about going with them, because I myself have sent them.”

²¹ So Kefa went down and said to the men, “You were looking for me? Here I am. What brings you here?” ²² They answered, “Cornelius. He’s a Roman army officer, an upright man and a God-fearer, a man highly regarded by the whole Jewish nation; and he was told by a holy angel to have you come to his house and listen to what you have to say.” ²³ So Kefa invited them to be his guests.

The next day, he got up and went with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Yafo;