The Daily Audio Bible
Josiah Repairs the Temple
3 In King Josiah’s eighteenth year, the king sent the secretary, Shaphan son of Azaliah son of Meshullam, to the House of the Lord, saying, 4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him weigh out the entire amount of silver which has been brought to the House of the Lord, which the gatekeepers have received from the people. 5 It is to be given to those who are appointed to supervise the work on the House of the Lord. They are to give it to those who are working in the House of the Lord to repair the damage to the temple. 6 Give it to the craftsmen, builders, and stonemasons so they can buy wood and quarried stone to repair the damage. 7 But no accounting is to be demanded for the silver which is given to them, because they are acting honestly.”
The Book of the Law Found
8 Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the House of the Lord.” Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported: “Your servants have paid out the silver which was found in the temple, and they have given it to those who are appointed to supervise the work on the Lord’s house.”
10 Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” Then Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.
11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. 12 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the servant of the king:[a] 13 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all of Judah concerning the words of this book, which has been found. For the Lord’s wrath which is burning against us is great, because our fathers did not listen to the words of this book and do everything which was recorded for us.”
14 Then Hilkiah the priest, with Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah, went and spoke to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, who was the son of Tikvah, who was the son of Harhas,[b] the keeper of the vestments.[c] She was living in Jerusalem in the Second District.
15 She gave them this message:
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. Tell the man who sent you to me that 16 this is what the Lord says.
Look! I am bringing disaster on this place and on its inhabitants, everything written in the book which they read before the king of Judah, 17 because they have forsaken me and have burned incense and offerings to other gods, so that they provoked me to anger with all the works of their hands. My anger will be poured out on this place. It will not be quenched.
18 This is what you will say to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord:
The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken the words which you have heard. 19 But because your heart was repentant and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants—that it would be desolate and cursed—and you have torn your clothes and have wept before me, I, even I, have heard you, says the Lord.
20 Therefore, be aware of this! I will gather you to your fathers. You will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.
They brought this message back to the king.
Josiah Renews the Covenant
23 Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 The king went up to the House of the Lord, and every man of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets and all the people from the least to the greatest, went with him. In their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the House of the Lord.
3 Then the king stood before the pillar and made a covenant in the presence of the Lord to follow the Lord, to keep his commandments, his testimony, and his statutes with all his heart, and with all his soul to uphold the words of this covenant, which were written in this book.
Then all the people affirmed this covenant.
Josiah Cleanses the Land
4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the lower-ranking priests, and the gatekeepers that they should remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles which had been made for Baal, for Asherah, and for the whole army of the heavens.[d] He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley, and he took the ashes to Bethel. 5 He removed the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places[e] in the cities of Judah and in the area around Jerusalem, those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to the whole army of the heavens. 6 He took the Asherah pole from the House of the Lord to the Kidron Valley, outside of Jerusalem. He burned it there. He crushed it to dust and scattered the dust on the graves of the common people. 7 He tore down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the House of the Lord, where women were weaving hangings for Asherah.
8 Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had been burning incense, from Gibeah to Beersheba. He tore down the high places by the gates, which were at the entrance to the Gate of Joshua, who was the official over the city. This gate was to the left of the main gate to the city. 9 The priests from the high places could not go up to the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem, but they were allowed to eat unleavened bread in the midst of their brothers.
10 He defiled Tophet, which was in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or daughter pass through the fire for Molek. 11 He removed the horses, which the kings of Judah had set up for the sun, from the entrance to the Lord’s house. They were near the office of Nathan Melek, the high official, which was in the temple courtyard. Then he burned the chariots of the sun.
12 The king tore down the altars that were on the roof of the chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the House of the Lord. He smashed them and threw the dust into the Kidron Valley. 13 The king defiled the high places which were east of Jerusalem on the south end of the Mount of Corruption,[f] which Solomon king of Israel had made for Ashtarte, the detestable goddess of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. 14 He smashed the sacred memorial stones to bits, and he cut down the Asherah poles. Then he filled their sites with human bones.
15 Even the altar which was in Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam son of Nebat had made, which caused Israel to sin—he pulled down even that altar and its high place. Then he burned the high place. He ground the Asherah pole to powder and burned it.
16 Then Josiah turned and saw the graves that were there on the hill. He sent men and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar. So he defiled it in fulfillment of the word of the Lord, which the man of God ⎣proclaimed, when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the feast.
Then he turned and raised his eyes to the tomb of the man of God⎦ who proclaimed these things,[g] 17 and he asked, “What is that gravestone which I see over there?”
The men of the city told him, “It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you are doing against the altar of Bethel.”
18 Then he said, “Leave him alone. Let no one disturb his bones.” So they spared his bones along with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. 19 Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places which the kings of Israel had made in the cities of Samaria, which provoked the Lord[h] to anger. He did to them just as he did in Bethel. 20 On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places who were present there, and he burned human bones on the altars. Then he went back to Jerusalem.
Josiah Celebrates the Passover
21 Then the king commanded all the people, “Observe the Passover to the Lord your God just as it is written in the Book of the Covenant.” 22 For they had not observed a Passover like this during the days of the judges who led Israel or during the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. 23 But in King Josiah’s eighteenth year, this Passover to the Lord was observed in Jerusalem. 24 Josiah destroyed[i] the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the filthy idols, and all the detestable idols which were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, in order to comply with the words of the law, which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the House of the Lord.
Summary
25 Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses, and after him no one like him arose. 26 But even so, the Lord did not turn from his great wrath which burned against Judah because of all the offenses with which Manasseh had provoked him. 27 So the Lord said, “I will also remove Judah from my presence just as I removed Israel. I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and the house about which I said, ‘My Name will be there.’”
Josiah’s Death
28 As for the rest of Josiah’s acts and everything he did, are they not written in the annals of the kings of Judah?
29 In his days, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went to join the king of Assyria for war at the Euphrates River.[j] King Josiah went to meet Neco in battle, but Neco killed King Josiah at Megiddo when he faced him. 30 His servants transported his body from Megiddo to Jerusalem in a chariot, and they buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him. They made him king in his father’s place.
Paul Makes His Defense
37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”
He replied, “Do you know Greek? 38 Are you not the Egyptian who started a revolt some time ago and led four thousand men of the Assassins[a] into the wilderness?”
39 Paul said, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.”
40 When the commander had given him permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people. When they were all silent, Paul addressed them in the Hebrew dialect.[b]
22 “Gentlemen, brothers, and fathers, listen to my defense, which I am now going to make to you.”
2 When they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect,[c] they became even more quiet.
Then he said, 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city and trained at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict ways of the law of our fathers. I am just as zealous for God as all of you are today. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, tying up and throwing both men and women into prisons, 5 as also the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me. I even received letters from them to the brothers, and I was going to Damascus to bring back those who were there as prisoners to Jerusalem so that they could be punished.
6 “While I was on the way and approaching Damascus, about noon a very bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
8 “I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
“He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’
9 “Those who were with me saw the light,[d] but they did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
10 “I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’
“The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus. There you will be told about everything you have been assigned to do.’ 11 Since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, those who were with me took me by the hand and led me into Damascus.
12 “A man named Ananias lived there. He was a devout observer of the law and highly recommended by all the Jews living there. 13 He came to me, and as he stood beside me, he said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ At that very moment I was able to see him.
14 “Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear the sound of his voice. 15 For you will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 Now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’
Book I
Psalms 1–41
Psalm 1
Two Responses to God’s Word
The Way of the Godly Leads to Blessing
1 How blessed is the man
who does not walk in the advice of the wicked,
who does not stand on the path with sinners,
and who does not sit in a meeting with mockers.
2 But his delight is in the teaching[a] of the Lord,
and on his teaching he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted beside streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season,
and its leaves do not wither.
Everything he does prospers.
The Way of the Ungodly Leads to Destruction
4 Not so the wicked!
No, they are like the chaff which the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
Conclusion
6 Yes, the Lord approves[b] of the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
11 A rich person’s wealth is his strong city.
In his imagination it is like a high wall.
12 Before destruction a man’s heart is proud,
but humility comes before honor.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.