M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The Descendants of Ahab Are Killed

10 There were seventy descendants of King Ahab living in the city of Samaria. Jehu wrote a letter and sent copies to the rulers of the city,^[a] to the leading citizens, and to the guardians of Ahab's descendants. The letter read: ² “You are in charge of the king's descendants, and you have at your disposal chariots, horses, weapons, and fortified cities. So then, as soon as you receive this letter, ³ you are to choose the best qualified of the king's descendants, make him king, and fight to defend him.”

⁴ The rulers of Samaria were terrified. “How can we oppose Jehu,” they said, “when neither King Joram nor King Ahaziah could?” ⁵ So the officer in charge of the palace and the official in charge of the city, together with the leading citizens and the guardians, sent this message to Jehu: “We are your servants, and we are ready to do anything you say. But we will not make anyone king; do whatever you think best.”

⁶ Jehu wrote them another letter: “If you are with me and are ready to follow my orders, bring the heads of King Ahab's descendants to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.”

The seventy descendants of King Ahab were under the care of the leading citizens of Samaria, who were bringing them up. ⁷ When Jehu's letter was received, the leaders of Samaria killed all seventy of Ahab's descendants, put their heads in baskets, and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.

⁸ When Jehu was told that the heads of Ahab's descendants had been brought, he ordered them to be piled up in two heaps at the city gate and to be left there until the following morning. ⁹ In the morning he went out to the gate and said to the people who were there, “I was the one who plotted against King Joram and killed him; you are not responsible for that. But who killed all these? ¹⁰ This proves that everything that the Lord said about the descendants of Ahab will come true. The Lord has done what he promised through his prophet Elijah.” ^11 (A)Then Jehu put to death all the other relatives of Ahab living in Jezreel, and all his officers, close friends, and priests; not one of them was left alive.

The Relatives of King Ahaziah Are Killed

¹² Jehu left Jezreel to go to Samaria. On the way, at a place called “Shepherds' Camp,” ¹³ he met some relatives of the late King Ahaziah of Judah and asked them, “Who are you?”

“Ahaziah's relatives,” they answered. “We are going to Jezreel to pay our respects to the children of Queen Jezebel and to the rest of the royal family.” ¹⁴ Jehu ordered his men, “Take them alive!” They seized them, and he put them to death near a pit there. There were forty-two people in all, and not one of them was left alive.

All Remaining Relatives of Ahab Are Killed

¹⁵ Jehu started out again, and on his way he was met by Jonadab son of Rechab. Jehu greeted him and said, “You and I think alike. Will you support me?”

“I will,” Jonadab answered.

“Give me your hand, then,” Jehu replied. They clasped hands, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot, ¹⁶ saying, “Come with me and see for yourself how devoted I am to the Lord.” And they rode on together to Samaria. ¹⁷ When they arrived there, Jehu killed all of Ahab's relatives, not sparing even one. This is what the Lord had told Elijah would happen.

The Worshipers of Baal Are Killed

¹⁸ Jehu called the people of Samaria together and said, “King Ahab served the god Baal a little, but I will serve him much more. ¹⁹ Call together all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers, and all his priests. No one is excused; I am going to offer a great sacrifice to Baal, and whoever is not present will be put to death.” (This was a trick on the part of Jehu by which he meant to kill all the worshipers of Baal.) ²⁰ Then Jehu ordered, “Proclaim a day of worship in honor of Baal!” The proclamation was made, ²¹ and Jehu sent word throughout all the land of Israel. All who worshiped Baal came; not one of them failed to come. They all went into the temple of Baal, filling it from one end to the other. ²² Then Jehu ordered the priest in charge of the sacred robes to bring the robes out and give them to the worshipers. ²³ After that, Jehu himself went into the temple with Jonadab son of Rechab and said to the people there, “Make sure that only worshipers of Baal are present and that no worshiper of the Lord has come in.” ²⁴ Then he and Jonadab went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings to Baal. He had stationed eighty men outside the temple and had instructed them: “You are to kill all these people; anyone who lets one of them escape will pay for it with his life!”

²⁵ As soon as Jehu had presented the offerings, he said to the guards and officers, “Go in and kill them all; don't let anyone escape!” They went in with drawn swords, killed them all, and dragged the bodies outside. Then they went on into the inner sanctuary of the temple, ²⁶ brought out the sacred pillar that was there, and burned it. ²⁷ So they destroyed the sacred pillar and the temple, and turned the temple into a latrine—which it still is today.

²⁸ That was how Jehu wiped out the worship of Baal in Israel. ^29 (B)But he imitated the sin of King Jeroboam, who led Israel into the sin of worshiping the gold bull-calves he set up in Bethel and in Dan. ³⁰ The Lord said to Jehu, “You have done to Ahab's descendants everything I wanted you to do. So I promise you that your descendants, down to the fourth generation, will be kings of Israel.” ³¹ But Jehu did not obey with all his heart the Law of the Lord, the God of Israel; instead, he followed the example of Jeroboam, who led Israel into sin.

The Death of Jehu

³² At that time the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel's territory. King Hazael of Syria conquered all the Israelite territory ³³ east of the Jordan, as far south as the town of Aroer on the Arnon River—this included the territories of Gilead and Bashan, where the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and East Manasseh lived.

³⁴ Everything else that Jehu did, including his brave deeds, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.

³⁵ He died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Jehoahaz succeeded him as king. ³⁶ Jehu had ruled in Samaria as king of Israel for twenty-eight years.

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, sent to proclaim the promised life which we have in union with Christ Jesus—

^2 (A)To Timothy, my dear son:

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

Thanksgiving and Encouragement

³ I give thanks to God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did. I thank him as I remember you always in my prayers night and day. ⁴ I remember your tears, and I want to see you very much, so that I may be filled with joy. ^5 (B)I remember the sincere faith you have, the kind of faith that your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice also had. I am sure that you have it also. ⁶ For this reason I remind you to keep alive the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. ⁷ For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us timid; instead, his Spirit fills us with power, love, and self-control.

⁸ Do not be ashamed, then, of witnessing for our Lord; neither be ashamed of me, a prisoner for Christ's sake. Instead, take your part in suffering for the Good News, as God gives you the strength for it. ⁹ He saved us and called us to be his own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace. He gave us this grace by means of Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, ¹⁰ but now it has been revealed to us through the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus. He has ended the power of death and through the gospel has revealed immortal life.

^11 (C)God has appointed me as an apostle and teacher to proclaim the Good News, ¹² and it is for this reason that I suffer these things. But I am still full of confidence, because I know whom I have trusted, and I am sure that he is able to keep safe until that Day what he has entrusted to me.^{[a] 13} Hold firmly to the true words that I taught you, as the example for you to follow, and remain in the faith and love that are ours in union with Christ Jesus. ¹⁴ Through the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, keep the good things that have been entrusted to you.

¹⁵ You know that everyone in the province of Asia, including Phygelus and Hermogenes, has deserted me. ¹⁶ May the Lord show mercy to the family of Onesiphorus, because he cheered me up many times. He was not ashamed that I am in prison, ¹⁷ but as soon as he arrived in Rome, he started looking for me until he found me. ¹⁸ May the Lord grant him his mercy on that Day! And you know very well how much he did for me in Ephesus.

2 So call your fellow Israelites “God's People” and “Loved-by-the-Lord.”

Unfaithful Gomer—Unfaithful Israel

² My children, plead with your mother—though she is no longer a wife to me, and I am no longer her husband. Plead with her to stop her adultery and prostitution. ³ If she does not, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will make her like a dry and barren land, and she will die of thirst. ^4-5 I will not show mercy to her children; they are the children of a shameless prostitute.^[a] She herself said, “I will go to my lovers—they give me food and water, wool and linen, olive oil and wine.”

⁶ So I am going to fence her in with thorn bushes and build a wall to block her way. ⁷ She will run after her lovers but will not catch them. She will look for them but will not find them. Then she will say, “I am going back to my first husband—I was better off then than I am now.”

⁸ She would never acknowledge that I am the one who gave her the grain, the wine, the olive oil, and all the silver and gold that she used in the worship of Baal. ⁹ So at harvest time I will take back my gifts of grain and wine, and will take away the wool and the linen I gave her for clothing. ¹⁰ I will strip her naked in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to save her from my power. ¹¹ I will put an end to all her festivities—her annual and monthly festivals and her Sabbath celebrations—all her religious meetings. ¹² I will destroy her grapevines and her fig trees, which she said her lovers gave her for serving them. I will turn her vineyards and orchards into a wilderness; wild animals will destroy them. ¹³ I will punish her for the times that she forgot me, when she burned incense to Baal and put on her jewelry to go chasing after her lovers. The Lord has spoken.

The Lord's Love for His People

¹⁴ So I am going to take her into the desert again; there I will win her back with words of love. ^15 (A)I will give back to her the vineyards she had and make Trouble Valley a door of hope. She will respond to me there as she did when she was young, when she came from Egypt. ¹⁶ Then once again she will call me her husband—she will no longer call me her Baal.^{[b] 17} I will never let her speak the name of Baal again.

¹⁸ At that time I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and birds, so that they will not harm my people. I will also remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, and will let my people live in peace and safety.

Love for the Law of the Lord

Light from the Law of the Lord

Safety in the Law of the Lord