Old/New Testament
Amaziah of Judah
25 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled as king in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.
2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord but not with a completely committed heart.
3 As soon as the royal power was firmly in his possession, he put to death the officials who had assassinated his father the king. 4 But he did not put their children to death, because of what is written in the law in the Book of Moses, in which the Lord commanded, “Fathers are not to be put to death on account of their sons, and sons are not to be put to death on account of their fathers, but each person will die for his own sin.”[a]
War Against Edom
5 Amaziah then assembled Judah. He organized the troops on the basis of their fathers’ houses, under commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds for all of Judah and Benjamin. He took a count of all of those who were twenty years old and older. He found three hundred thousand men capable of going to war, able to handle spear and shield.
6 He also hired from Israel one hundred thousand powerful warriors for one hundred talents of silver.
7 A man of God came to him, saying, “O King, the army of Israel must not go along with you because the Lord is not with Israel. He is not with any of these descendants of Ephraim. 8 Even if you go and you take action, and you are strong for battle, God will defeat you in the face of the enemy, because God has power both to help and to defeat.”
9 Amaziah said to the man of God, “What am I to do about the hundred talents I gave to the army of Israel?”
The man of God answered, “The Lord is able to give to you much more than that.”
10 So Amaziah dismissed the troops who had come to him from Ephraim. They were told to return home, but they were very angry against Judah. They returned to their homes, burning with anger.
11 But Amaziah took courage. He led his troops out to the Valley of Salt, where he struck down ten thousand men of Seir. 12 The men of Judah captured ten thousand of them alive. They took them to the top of a cliff and threw them down from the top of the cliff. All of them were dashed to pieces.
13 But the men from the army, whom Amaziah had not allowed to go with him to battle, attacked the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon. They killed three thousand people from those cities. They also carried off a lot of plunder.
14 After Amaziah came back from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought with him the gods of the men of Seir and set them up as his own gods. He worshipped them and made offerings to them.
15 The Lord was angry with Amaziah, so he sent a prophet to him, who said to him, “Why are you seeking the gods of another people, gods who did not deliver their own people from your hand?”
16 But while he was speaking to him, the king said to him, “Have we made you an advisor to the king? Stop! Why should you be struck down?”
So the prophet stopped, but he said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have done this, and you have not listened to my advice.”
Israel Defeats Judah
17 After consulting with his advisors, Amaziah king of Judah sent a challenge to Joash son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel: “Come. We will confront each other face-to-face.”
18 Joash king of Israel sent a response to Amaziah king of Judah:
A thorn bush in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon: “Give your daughter to my son as his wife.” But a wild animal in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thorn bush.
19 You have congratulated yourself for striking down Edom, and your heart has given you confidence to boast. But now stay home. Why should you stir up trouble? You will fall, and Judah will fall with you.
20 But Amaziah did not listen, because this was from God, in order that he might hand them over to Israel, because they had sought the gods of Edom.
21 Joash king of Israel attacked, so he and Amaziah king of Judah confronted each other face-to-face at Beth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah. 22 Judah was defeated by Israel, and each man fled to his tent.
23 At Beth Shemesh Joash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and brought him to Jerusalem. Joash broke down six hundred feet of the wall of Jerusalem, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. 24 Joash took all the gold and silver, all the articles that he found with Obed Edom in the House of God and in the treasuries of the king’s palace. He also took Amaziah’s sons as hostages and returned to Samaria.
Amaziah’s Death
25 Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived for fifteen years after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel.
26 The rest of the deeds of Amaziah, from the first to the last, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel?
27 After Amaziah had turned away from the Lord, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, so he fled to Lachish. But they sent men after him to Lachish, and they killed him there. 28 They brought him back on horses and buried him with his fathers in the City of Judah.
Uzziah (Azariah) King of Judah
26 All the people of Judah took Uzziah,[b] who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
2 He was the one who built Elat and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah rested with his fathers.
3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jekoliah[c] from Jerusalem.
4 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like everything that his father Amaziah had done. 5 He continued to seek God throughout the days of Zechariah, who trained him in the fear[d] of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.
6 He went out and waged war against the Philistines. He broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Javneh, and the wall of Ashdod. He built cities in the territory of Ashdod and among the Philistines. 7 God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur Baal, and against the Meunites.
8 The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah. His reputation spread as far as the border of Egypt because he had become very strong. 9 Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and he fortified them.
10 He built towers in the wilderness. He dug many cisterns because he had large herds both in the Shephelah and on the plains. He also had farmers and vineyard workers in the highlands and in the fertile lands,[e] because he loved the soil.
11 Uzziah had an army, well trained and ready for war, organized in divisions based on the numbers from the census taken by Jeiel the secretary and Ma’aseiah the officer, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king’s officials.
12 The total number of the leading fathers[f] who led the powerful warriors was 2,600. 13 Under their command there was a strong army of 307,500 men, able to wage war as a very powerful force, to help the king against the enemy. 14 Uzziah supplied the whole army with shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slingshots. 15 In Jerusalem he made war machines produced by clever inventors to be mounted on the towers and at the corners, to shoot arrows and hurl large stones. His reputation spread far and wide because he received marvelous help until he was strong.
Uzziah’s Sinful Pride and Death
16 But when he had grown powerful, the pride in his heart led to his destruction. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God. He entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
17 Azariah the priest went in after him. He was followed by eighty priests of the Lord, brave men. 18 They confronted King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, because you have been unfaithful. This action will not result in any praise for you from the Lord God.”
19 Uzziah became angry. He had a censer for burning incense in his hand. When he became angry with the priests, leprosy[g] broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests, beside the altar of incense in the House of the Lord. 20 When Azariah, the head priest, and all the other priests looked at him, they immediately realized he had leprosy on his forehead. They rushed him out of there. He himself also was in a hurry to leave because the Lord had struck him.
21 King Uzziah remained a leper until the day of his death. He lived in a quarantined house because he was a leper. He was excluded from the House of the Lord. Jotham his son was in charge of the palace of the king and administered justice for the people of the land.
22 The rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, were recorded by Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet.
23 Uzziah rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, because they said, “He is a leper.” His son Jotham ruled as king in his place.
Jotham King of Judah
27 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for sixteen years. His mother’s name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok.
2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord in everything, as his father Uzziah had done, but he did not go into the temple of the Lord as Uzziah had done. The people, however, still followed corrupt practices.
3 He built the upper gate of the House of the Lord. He also carried out extensive construction work on the wall of Ophel. 4 He also built cities in the hill country of Judah. On the wooded hills he built forts and towers.
5 He waged war against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them. That year the Ammonites gave him one hundred talents of silver, sixty thousand bushels[h] of wheat, and sixty thousand bushels of barley. The Ammonites paid him this amount also in the second and third years.
6 Jotham became powerful because he aligned his ways with the ways of the Lord his God.
7 You can find the rest of the acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
8 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for sixteen years.
9 Jotham rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. His son Ahaz ruled as king in his place.
No Greater Love—in Joy
16 “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who murders you will think he is offering a service to God. 3 They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 But I have told you these things so that when their[a] time comes, you may remember that I told them to you. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.
5 “But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Yet because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment: 9 about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; 11 about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
12 “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into[b] all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak. He will also declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I said that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.
16 “In a little while you are not going to see me anymore, and again in a little while you will see me, because I am going away to the Father.”[c]
17 Therefore some of his disciples asked one another, “What does he mean when he tells us, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going away to the Father’?” 18 So they kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he’s saying.”
19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you trying to determine with one another what I meant by saying, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me’? 20 Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth has pain, because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of her joy that a person has been born into the world.
22 “So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. 23 In that day you will not ask me anything. Amen, Amen, I tell you: Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be made complete.
25 “I have told you these things using figurative language. A time is coming when I will no longer speak to you using figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I am not telling you that I will make requests of the Father on your behalf. 27 For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am going to leave the world and go to the Father.”
29 “Yes!” his disciples said. “Now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative language. 30 Now we know that you know everything and do not need to have anyone ask you anything. For this reason we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus answered them, “Now do you believe? 32 Listen, a time is coming, in fact it is here, when you will be scattered, everyone to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not going to be alone, because the Father is with me. 33 I have told you these things, so that you may have peace in me. In this world you are going to have trouble. But be courageous! I have overcome the world.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.