Old/New Testament
Chapter 14
The Lord Condemns Jeroboam.[a]1 It was at that time that Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, fell ill. 2 Jeroboam said to his wife, “Get up and disguise yourself so that they cannot tell that you are Jeroboam’s wife, and then go to Shiloh. Ahijah, the prophet, is there, the one who told me that I would be king over this people. 3 Take ten loaves of bread with you along with some cakes and a jar of honey and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the child.”
4 Jeroboam’s wife did this. She got up and went to Shiloh and entered the house of Ahijah. Ahijah could no longer see, for his eyes had grown dim because of his age. 5 But the Lord said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask something from you concerning her son who is sick. This is what you are to say to her.”
When she arrived, she pretended she was someone else. 6 When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came through the door, he said, “Enter, O wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be someone else? I have been sent to you with heavy tidings. 7 Go tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have exalted you from among the people, and I have made you the leader over my people Israel. 8 I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. Yet, you have not been like my servant David who observed my commandments and who followed me with all of his heart, doing what is right in my sight. 9 You have done more evil than those who preceded you. You have gone after and made other gods, molten images, enraging me and casting me behind your back. 10 Behold, I will bring evil down upon the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who pees against the wall, every bondsman and everyone who is free in Israel. I will wipe out the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is completely consumed. 11 Those who belong to Jeroboam and who die in the city will be eaten by the dogs; those who die in the fields will be eaten by the birds of the air. The Lord has spoken.’
12 “As for you, get up and go home. The moment that your feet enter the city, your child will die. 13 All of Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one who comes from Jeroboam who will be placed in a grave because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord, the God of Israel, has found anything good.
14 “The Lord will raise up a king over Israel for himself who on that day will cut off the house of Jeroboam. What? Even now! 15 The Lord will strike down Israel, just as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from out of this good land that he gave to their fathers. He will scatter them beyond the river because they have made their wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger. 16 He will give up Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam, for he sinned and he caused Israel to sin.”
17 Jeroboam’s wife then got up and left and came to Tirzah. When she arrived at the threshold of the house, the child died. 18 They buried him, and all of Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken through Ahijah the prophet, his servant.
19 The rest of the deeds of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 20 Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years, and then he slept with his fathers, and his son Nadab reigned in his stead.
Kings of Israel and Judah
21 Rehoboam’s Reign. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen from out of all of the tribes of Israel to place his name. His mother’s name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite.
22 Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.[b] With the sins that they committed which were worse than what their fathers had done, they provoked the Lord to jealousy. 23 They also set up high places for themselves as well as sacred pillars and Asherah everywhere and under every green tree. 24 There were even male prostitutes in the land. They did every abomination that the nations had done which the Lord had cast out before the Israelites.
25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, the king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. 26 He took away the treasures from the temple of the Lord and the treasures out of the royal palace. He took everything away, including the gold shields that Solomon had made.
27 King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them. He entrusted them into the hands of the commanders of the guard who watched over the entrance to the king’s palace. 28 The guards would carry them whenever the king went into the temple of the Lord. Afterwards, they would return them to the guardroom.
29 As for the rest of the deeds of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?[c] 30 There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam during their entire reigns. 31 Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite. Abijah, his son, then reigned in his stead.
Chapter 15
Abijam’s Reign. 1 In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam became the king of Judah. 2 He reigned in Jerusalem for three years. His mother’s name was Maacah, and she was the daughter of Abishalom.
3 He committed all of the sins that his father had committed before him. His heart was not at peace with the Lord, his God, as the heart of David, his father, had been. 4 In spite of this, the Lord, his God, gave him a lamp in Jerusalem for the sake of David, raising up his son to succeed him and making Jerusalem strong.[d] 5 He did this because of David who had done what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he had not turned away from anything that he had been commanded throughout his entire life with the exception of what happened with Uriah the Hittite. 6 There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam during their entire reign.
7 The rest of the deeds of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
8 Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David, and Asa, his son then reigned in his stead.
Asa’s Reign. 9 In the twentieth year of the reign of Jeroboam as the king of Israel, Asa became the king of Judah. 10 He reigned for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.
11 Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, as his father David had. 12 He expelled the male prostitutes from the land, and he removed all of the idols that his father had made. 13 He also deposed his mother Maacah as queen mother because she had made an image of an Asherah. Asa cut down her idol and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 14 But he did not do away with the high places. Nevertheless, Asa’s heart was at peace with the Lord all of his life. 15 He brought those things that his father had dedicated and those things that he had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels, into the temple of the Lord.
16 There was war between Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, during their entire reigns. 17 Baasha, the king of Israel, attacked Judah, and he fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to the king of Judah.
18 Asa took all of the silver and all of the gold that remained in the treasury of the Lord’s temple and the treasury of the royal palace. He gave them to his servants and King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, 19 “Let there be a covenant between me and you, between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha, the king of Israel, so that he might pull back from attacking me.”
20 Ben-hadad agreed with King Asa, and he sent the commanders of his army to attack the cities of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, as well as all of the Chinnereth and the land of Naphtali. 21 When Baasha heard about this, he stopped building Ramah and he dwelt in Tirzah.
22 King Asa then issued a proclamation to all of Judah from which no one was exempt that they should carry away the stones and the timber that Baasha was using for the construction of Ramah. King Asa used them to build up Geba in Benjamin and Mizpah.
23 As for the rest of the deeds of Asa, all of his achievements, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his old age, he suffered from difficulties with his feet.
24 King Asa slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David, his father, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned in his stead.
25 Nadab’s Reign. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, became the king of Israel in the second year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years. 26 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the way of his father, in his sin, which he also caused Israel to commit.
27 Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, plotted against him, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, a Philistine city, while Nadab and all of Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. 28 Baasha killed him in the third year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned in his stead.
29 As soon as he began to reign, he struck down all of Jeroboam’s household. He did not leave Jeroboam a single person who was still breathing; he wiped them out. This fulfilled what the Lord had said when he spoke through Ahijah, the Shilonite 30 because of the sins that Jeroboam committed and because he caused Israel to sin, provoking the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel.[e]
31 As for the other deeds of Nadab and all the other things that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
32 There was war between Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, during their entire reigns.[f]
33 Baasha’s Reign. In the third year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, Baasha, the son of Ahijah, became the king over all of Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned for twenty-four years. 34 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the ways of Jeroboam, in his sin, which he also caused Israel to commit.
31 Peter’s Denial Foretold.[a]“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to sift all of you like wheat. 32 But I have prayed that your own faith may not fail. And once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brethren.” 33 Simon said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.” 34 Jesus replied, “I tell you, Peter, before the cock crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”
35 Instructions for the Time of Crisis.[b] Then Jesus said to them, “When I sent you forth without a money bag or sack or sandals, were you ever in need of anything?” They answered, “No, not a thing.” 36 He then remarked, “But now, the one who has a money bag should take it with him, as well as a sack. And if you do not have a sword, sell your cloak and purchase one.
37 “For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘He was numbered with the wicked.’ Indeed, everything written about me is being fulfilled.” 38 They said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.” He said to them, “That is enough.”
The Passion
39 The Agony in the Garden.[c] Jesus then went forth and made his way, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 After withdrawing from them about a stone’s throw, he knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me. Yet not my will but yours be done.”
43 [d]Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 44 In his anguish, he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like great drops of blood falling on the ground.
45 When he rose from prayer and returned to the disciples, he found them sleeping, exhausted by grief. 46 He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
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