Old/New Testament

Jehoahaz becomes the king of Israel

13 Jehu's son Jehoahaz became king of Israel when Ahaziah's son Joash had been king of Judah for 23 years. Jehoahaz ruled as king in Samaria for 17 years. ² But he did things that the Lord said were evil. He did the same bad things that Nebat's son Jeroboam had done. Jeroboam had caused many people in Israel to do those sins, and Jehoahaz did not stop doing them himself. ³ So the Lord was very angry with Israel. For many years the Lord put the Israelites under the power of King Hazael of Syria and his son Ben-Hadad.

⁴ Then King Jehoahaz asked the Lord for help. The Lord saw that the king of Syria was being very cruel to Israel, so he answered the prayer of Jehoahaz. ⁵ The Lord sent a leader to rescue Israel from Syria's power. So the Israelites lived safely in their own homes, as they had done before this time. ⁶ But the Israelites still did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam and his family had done. Jeroboam had caused the Israelites to do bad things, and they still continued to do them. There were still Asherah poles that people worshipped in Samaria.

⁷ The king of Syria had destroyed most of Jehoahaz's army. All that remained were:

The king of Syria completely destroyed all the rest of the army. Only dust remained!

⁸ The other things that happened while Jehoahaz was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about all the things that Jehoahaz used his power to do. ⁹ Jehoahaz died and they buried him beside his ancestors in Samaria. His son Jehoash became king after him.

Jehoash becomes the king of Israel

¹⁰ Jehoahaz's son Jehoash became the king of Israel when Joash had been king of Judah for 37 years. He ruled as king in Samaria for 16 years. ¹¹ But he did things that the Lord said were evil. He did not turn away from the bad things that Nebat's son Jeroboam had done. Jeroboam had caused many people in Israel to do those sins, and Jehoahaz did not stop doing them himself.

¹² The other things that happened while Jehoash was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about all the great things that Jehoash did. It tells about the war that he fought against Amaziah, king of Judah ¹³ Jehoash died and they buried him in Samaria beside the other kings of Israel. Jeroboam became king of Israel after him.

Elisha dies

¹⁴ When Jehoash was still king of Israel, Elisha became very ill. It was the illness from which he would soon die. Jehoash went to visit him. Jehoash stood beside Elisha and he wept. Jehoash said, ‘My father! My father! You are riding in Israel's chariot! Israel's men are riding on the horses!’^[a]

¹⁵ Elisha said to King Jehoash, ‘Fetch a bow and some arrows.’ The king did that. ¹⁶ Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, ‘Prepare to shoot an arrow.’ When he had done that, Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. ¹⁷ Elisha said, ‘Open the window towards the east.’ When the king opened it, Elisha said, ‘Shoot the arrow!’ The king shot the arrow and Elisha said, ‘That is the Lord's arrow which shows that you will win the battle against Syria. You will completely destroy Syria's army at Aphek.’

¹⁸ Then Elisha said, ‘Pick up the other arrows.’ When the king of Israel took them, Elisha said to him, ‘Hit the ground with them.’ The king hit the ground three times and then he stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God then became angry with King Jehoash. He said, ‘You should have hit the ground five times or six times. Then you would have completely destroyed Syria's army. But now you will only win three battles against Syria.’

²⁰ After that, Elisha died and they buried him.

Every year in spring, groups of fighters from Moab came to attack places in Israel. ²¹ One day some Israelites were burying a man who had died. While they were doing that, they saw a group of fighters from Moab. So they quickly threw the dead body into Elisha's grave. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the dead man became alive again! He jumped up and he stood there!

²² All the time that Jehoahaz was king of Israel, King Hazael of Syria was cruel to the Israelites. ²³ But the Lord was kind to them and he helped them. He loved them because of his covenant with their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So he has never wanted to destroy them or to send them away from him, even until now.

²⁴ Hazael, the king of Syria, died. His son Ben-Hadad became king after him. ²⁵ Then Jehoahaz's son, King Jehoash, took back some Israelite cities from Ben-Hadad. They were cities that Hazael had taken from Jehoahaz in war. King Jehoash won three battles against Ben-Hadad and he took back those cities for Israel.

Amaziah becomes the king of Judah

14 Joash's son Amaziah became the king of Judah when Jehoahaz's son Jehoash had been the king of Israel for two years. ² Amaziah was 25 years old when he began to rule as king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother's name was Jehoaddin. She was from Jerusalem. ³ Amaziah did things that the Lord said were good. He lived in the way that his father Joash had done. But he did not do as well as his ancestor King David had done. ⁴ He did not remove the altars on the hills. The people continued to offer sacrifices and to burn incense on those altars.

⁵ Amaziah made himself strong to rule his kingdom with authority. Then he killed the officers who had murdered his father, King Joash. ⁶ But he did not punish their sons with death. He obeyed the Lord's command that was written in the Book of the Law of Moses. The command says, ‘Do not punish fathers with death when their sons do bad things. Do not punish children with death when their fathers do bad things. Each person must die only because of his own sins.’^[b]

⁷ Amaziah killed 10,000 soldiers from Edom in Salt valley.^[c] He attacked Sela city and he took it for himself. He gave it a new name, ‘Joktheel’. That is still its name.

⁸ Then Amaziah sent men with a message to King Jehoash of Israel. He was the son of Jehoahaz and the grandson of Jehu. Amaziah's message said, ‘Come here and meet me.’ ⁹ But King Jehoash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah: ‘In Lebanon, a thorn bush sent this message to a cedar tree: “Please give your daughter to my son, to be his wife.” Then a wild animal of Lebanon came and knocked down the thorn bush. It walked all over it! ¹⁰ Yes! You have won the fight against Edom. But do not boast about your power! You may be very happy, but stay at home! Do not try to fight against us. If you do that, you will cause trouble that destroys both you and your kingdom, Judah.’

¹¹ But Amaziah did not accept Jehoash's message. So King Jehoash of Israel prepared to attack Amaziah's army. Jehoash and Amaziah met together in battle at Beth Shemesh, a town in Judah. ¹² Israel's army won the battle against Judah's army. All the soldiers from Judah ran back home. ¹³ At Beth Shemesh, King Jehoash of Israel caught the king of Judah, Amaziah, the son of Joash and the grandson of Ahaziah. Then King Jehoash went to attack Jerusalem. He destroyed the wall of Jerusalem, between the Ephraim Gate and the Corner Gate. That part of the wall was 180 metres long. ¹⁴ He took all the gold and silver and all the valuable things from the Lord's temple and the palace. He also took some of the people away with him as prisoners. Then he returned to Samaria.

King Jehoash of Israel dies

¹⁵ The other things that happened while Jehoash was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about all the great things that Jehoash did. It tells about the war that he fought against King Amaziah of Judah. ¹⁶ Jehoash died and they buried him beside the other kings of Israel in Samaria. His son Jeroboam became king after him.

King Amaziah of Judah dies

¹⁷ Joash's son Amaziah, the king of Judah, lived for 15 years after Jehoahaz's son Jehoash, the king of Israel, died. ¹⁸ The other things that happened while Amaziah was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. ¹⁹ Some people in Jerusalem made a plan to kill Amaziah. So he ran away to Lachish. But the people in Jerusalem sent men to catch him in Lachish. They killed Amaziah there. ²⁰ They carried his dead body back to Jerusalem on a horse. They buried him there beside his ancestors in the City of David. ²¹ All the people in Judah made Amaziah's son Azariah king instead of his father. Azariah was 16 years old. ²² He was the king who built Elath into a strong city again. He put it back under Judah's power. He did that after his father Amaziah had died.

Jeroboam II becomes the king of Israel

²³ Jehoash's son Jeroboam became the king of Israel when Joash's son Amaziah had been king of Judah for 15 years. Jeroboam ruled Israel for 41 years in Samaria.^{[d] 24} He did things that the Lord said were evil. He did not turn away from the bad things that Nebat's son Jeroboam had done. He had caused many people in Israel to do those sins.

²⁵ Jeroboam was the king who made Israel's border strong between Lebo-Hamath and the Salt Sea.^[e] The Lord, Israel's God, had already told his prophet Jonah that this would happen. Jonah was the son of Amittai and he came from Gath Hepher.

²⁶ Everyone in Israel had a lot of trouble and pain, whoever they were. There was no leader who could rescue them. The Lord had seen this, so he helped Jeroboam. ²⁷ The Lord had never said that he would completely remove Israel from the earth. So he gave Jehoash's son Jeroboam the power to rescue them.

²⁸ The other things that happened while Jeroboam was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about all the great things that Jeroboam did. It tells how he fought battles to get back power for Israel over Damascus and Hamath. ²⁹ Jeroboam died and they buried him beside the other kings of Israel in Samaria. His son Zechariah became king after him.^[f]

The marriage at Cana

2 Two days after that, there was a marriage party. It was in the town of Cana, in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there. ² People had asked Jesus and his disciples to come to the party too. ³ When people had drunk all the wine, Jesus' mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’ ⁴ Jesus replied, ‘Woman, why do you tell me this? It is not my time yet.’ ⁵ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you to do.’

⁶ There were six big pots there. People had used stone to make them. Each pot could contain about 100 litres of water. The water was there so that the Jews could wash themselves in the way that their special rules taught. ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the pots with water.’ So they filled the pots to the top. ⁸ Then he said, ‘Now take some of the water from the pots and give it to the master of the party.’ So they did that. ⁹ The master of the party tasted the water. The water had now become wine! The master did not know where the wine had come from. But the servants who had given it to him knew about it. Then the master asked the new husband to come to him. ¹⁰ The master said to him, ‘Everyone else brings out the best wine first. When people have had plenty to drink, then they give people cheaper wine. But you are different. You have kept the best wine until now.’

¹¹ Jesus did this first miracle at Cana, in Galilee. In this way, Jesus showed how great and powerful he was. And his disciples believed in him.

Jesus goes to the temple

¹² After this, Jesus went to a town called Capernaum. His mother, his brothers and his disciples went with him. They stayed there for a few days.^[a]

¹³ It was almost time for the Jewish Passover festival. So Jesus went to Jerusalem.^{[b] 14} He went into the yard of the temple. There he found people who were selling cows, sheep and doves. Other people were sitting at tables to change coins for people. ¹⁵ So Jesus made a whip from some pieces of rope. Then he made all the people leave the temple quickly, with the sheep and the cows. He threw onto the ground all the coins of the men who changed money. He turned their tables over. ¹⁶ He said to the people who sold birds, ‘Take them out of here! Do not make my Father's house into a market!’ ¹⁷ His disciples remembered what it says in the Bible: ‘My love for your house burns inside me like a fire.’^[c]

¹⁸ Then the Jews asked Jesus, ‘What is your authority to do this? Do a miracle to show us that you really do have authority.’ ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, ‘If you destroy this house of God, I will build it up again in three days.’ ²⁰ The Jews replied, ‘People have worked for 46 years to build this house. But you say that you will build it again in three days!’ ²¹ But the house that Jesus was speaking about was his own body. ²² The disciples remembered this when Jesus had become alive again after his death. They remembered that he had said this. Then they believed what the Bible taught. They also believed the words that Jesus had spoken.

²³ While Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover festival, he did many miracles.^[d] Many people saw these miracles that showed he was from God. As a result, they believed in Jesus. ²⁴ But Jesus himself did not trust the people. He knew what all people are really like. ²⁵ He did not need anyone to tell him what people are like. He knew already what was really in each person.