Old/New Testament

Abijah, King of Judah

13 Abijah became the new king of Judah. This was during the 18th year that Jeroboam son of Nebat ruled Israel. ² Abijah ruled in Jerusalem for three years. His mother’s name was Maacah. She was the daughter of Uriel, from the town of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³ Abijah’s army had 400,000 brave soldiers. Abijah led that army into battle. Jeroboam’s army had 800,000 brave soldiers. Jeroboam got ready to have a war with Abijah.

⁴ Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and said, “Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me! ⁵ You should know that the Lord, the God of Israel, gave David and his sons the right to be king over Israel forever. God gave this right to David with an agreement of salt.^{[a] 6} But Jeroboam turned against his master. Jeroboam son of Nebat was one of the servants of David’s son Solomon. ⁷ Then worthless, evil men became friends with Jeroboam. Then Jeroboam and the bad men turned against Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. Rehoboam was young and did not have experience. So he could not stop Jeroboam and his bad friends.

⁸ “Now, you people have decided to defeat the Lord’s kingdom—the kingdom that is ruled by David’s sons. You have so many people with you and you have the golden calves—the ‘gods’ that Jeroboam made for you. ⁹ You threw out the Lord’s priests, the descendants of Aaron. And you threw out the Levites. Then you chose your own priests, as every other nation on earth does. And now, anyone who will bring a young bull and seven rams can become a priest to serve these ‘no-gods.’

¹⁰ “But as for us, the Lord is our God. We people of Judah have not refused to obey God. We have not left him. The priests who serve the Lord are Aaron’s sons, and the Levites help the priests in their work. ¹¹ They offer burnt offerings and burn incense of spices to the Lord every morning and every evening. They put the bread in rows on the special table in the Temple. And they take care of the lamps on the golden lampstand so that it shines bright each and every evening. We very carefully serve the Lord our God, but you people have abandoned him. ¹² God himself is with us. He is our ruler, and his priests are with us. God’s priests blow his trumpets to wake you up and make you excited about coming to him. Men of Israel, don’t fight against the Lord, God of your ancestors, because you will not succeed!”

¹³ But Jeroboam sent a group of soldiers to sneak behind Abijah’s army. Jeroboam’s army was in front of Abijah’s army. The hidden soldiers from Jeroboam’s army were behind Abijah’s army. ¹⁴ When the soldiers in Abijah’s army from Judah looked around, they saw Jeroboam’s army attacking both in front and in back.^[b] The men of Judah shouted out to the Lord and the priests blew the trumpets. ¹⁵ Then the men in Abijah’s army shouted. When the men of Judah shouted, God defeated Jeroboam’s army. Jeroboam’s whole army from Israel was defeated by Abijah’s army from Judah. ¹⁶ The men of Israel ran away from the men of Judah. God let the army from Judah defeat the army from Israel. ¹⁷ Abijah’s army greatly defeated the army of Israel, and 500,000 of the best men of Israel were killed. ¹⁸ So at that time the Israelites were defeated, and the people of Judah won. The army from Judah won because they depended on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁹ Abijah’s army chased Jeroboam’s army, and they captured the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron from Jeroboam. They captured the towns and the small villages near them.

²⁰ Jeroboam never became strong again while Abijah lived. The Lord killed Jeroboam, ²¹ but Abijah became strong. He married 14 women and was the father of 22 sons and 16 daughters. ²² Everything else Abijah did is written in the books of the prophet Iddo.

14 When Abijah died, they buried him in the City of David. Abijah’s son Asa became the new king after him. There was peace in the country for ten years in Asa’s time.

Asa, King of Judah

² Asa did what the Lord his God said was good and right. ³ He took away the altars of the foreigners and the high places. He also smashed the memorial stones and cut down the Asherah poles. ⁴ He commanded the people of Judah to follow the Lord, the God their ancestors had worshiped, and to obey his laws and commands. ⁵ He also removed all the high places and incense altars from all the towns in Judah. So the kingdom had peace when Asa was king. ⁶ Asa built strong cities in Judah while there was peace in Judah. He had no war in these years because the Lord gave him peace.

⁷ Asa said to the people of Judah, “Let’s build these towns and make walls around them. Let’s make towers, gates, and bars in the gates. Let’s do this while we still live in this country. This country is ours because we have followed the Lord our God. He has given us peace all around us.” So they built and had success.

⁸ Asa had an army of 300,000 men from the tribe of Judah and 280,000 men from the tribe of Benjamin. The men from Judah carried large shields and spears. The men from Benjamin carried small shields and shot arrows from bows. All of them were strong and brave soldiers.

⁹ Then Zerah from Ethiopia^[c] came out against Asa’s army. He had 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots in his army. His army went as far as the town of Mareshah. ¹⁰ Asa went out to fight against Zerah. Asa’s army got ready for battle in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.

¹¹ Asa called out to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, only you can help weak people against those who are strong! Help us, Lord our God! We depend on you. We fight against this large army in your name. Lord, you are our God! Don’t let anyone defeat you!”

¹² Then the Lord used Asa’s army from Judah to defeat the Ethiopian army. And the army ran away. ¹³ Asa’s army chased the Ethiopian army all the way to the town of Gerar. So many Ethiopians were killed that they could not get together as an army to fight again. They were crushed by the Lord and his army. Asa and his army carried many valuable things away from the enemy. ¹⁴ Asa and his army defeated all the towns near Gerar. The people living in those towns were afraid of the Lord. Those towns had very many valuable things. Asa’s army took those valuable things away from those towns. ¹⁵ His army also attacked the camps where the shepherds lived and took many sheep and camels. Then they went back to Jerusalem.

Jesus in Bethany With His Friends^(A)

12 Six days before the Passover festival, Jesus went to Bethany. That is where Lazarus lived, the man Jesus raised from death. ² There they had a dinner for Jesus. Martha served the food, and Lazarus was one of the people eating with Jesus. ³ Mary brought in a pint^[a] of expensive perfume made of pure nard. She poured the perfume on Jesus’ feet. Then she wiped his feet with her hair. And the sweet smell from the perfume filled the whole house.

⁴ Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ followers, was there—the one who would later hand Jesus over to his enemies. Judas said, ⁵ “That perfume was worth a full year’s pay.^[b] It should have been sold, and the money should have been given to the poor people.” ⁶ But Judas did not really care about the poor. He said this because he was a thief. He was the one who kept the moneybag for the group of followers. And he often stole money from the bag.

⁷ Jesus answered, “Don’t stop her. It was right for her to save this perfume for today—the day for me to be prepared for burial. ⁸ You will always have those who are poor with you.^[c] But you will not always have me.”

The Plot Against Lazarus

⁹ Many of the Jews heard that Jesus was in Bethany, so they went there to see him. They also went there to see Lazarus, the one Jesus raised from death. ¹⁰ So the leading priests made plans to kill Lazarus too. ¹¹ Because of him, many Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus. That is why they wanted to kill Lazarus too.

Jesus Enters Jerusalem Like a King^(B)

¹² The next day the people in Jerusalem heard that Jesus was coming there. These were the crowds of people who had come to the Passover festival. ¹³ They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Jesus. They shouted,

¹⁴ Jesus found a donkey and rode on it, as the Scriptures say,

¹⁶ The followers of Jesus did not understand at that time what was happening. But after he was raised to glory, they understood that this was written about him. Then they remembered that they had done these things for him.

¹⁷ There were many people with Jesus when he raised Lazarus from death and told him to come out of the tomb. Now they were telling others about what Jesus did. ¹⁸ That’s why so many people went out to meet him—because they had heard about this miraculous sign he did. ¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to each other, “Look! Our plan is not working. The people are all following him!”

Jesus Talks About Life and Death

²⁰ There were some Greeks there too. These were some of the people who went to Jerusalem to worship at the Passover festival. ²¹ They went to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. They said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.” ²² Philip went and told Andrew. Then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

²³ Jesus said to them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to receive his glory. ²⁴ It is a fact that a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die before it can grow and produce much more wheat. If it never dies, it will never be more than a single seed. ²⁵ Whoever loves the life they have now will lose it. But whoever is willing to give up their life in this world will keep it. They will have eternal life. ²⁶ Whoever serves me must follow me. My servants must be with me everywhere I am. My Father will give honor to anyone who serves me.