Old/New Testament

23 In the seventh year, Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds—Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Azariah the son of Obed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri—into a covenant with him. ² They went around in Judah and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers’ households of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. ³ All the assembly made a covenant with the king in God’s house. Jehoiada^[a] said to them, “Behold, the king’s son must reign, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the sons of David. ⁴ This is the thing that you must do: a third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be gatekeepers of the thresholds. ⁵ A third part shall be at the king’s house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation. All the people will be in the courts of Yahweh’s house. ⁶ But let no one come into Yahweh’s house except the priests and those who minister of the Levites. They shall come in, for they are holy, but all the people shall follow Yahweh’s instructions. ⁷ The Levites shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand. Whoever comes into the house, let him be slain. Be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out.”

⁸ So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. They each took his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest didn’t dismiss the shift. ⁹ Jehoiada the priest delivered to the captains of hundreds the spears, bucklers, and shields that had been king David’s, which were in God’s house. ¹⁰ He set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, near the altar and the house, around the king. ¹¹ Then they brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, gave him the covenant, and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, “Long live the king!”

¹² When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into Yahweh’s house. ¹³ Then she looked, and behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, with the captains and the trumpeters by the king. All the people of the land rejoiced and blew trumpets. The singers also played musical instruments, and led the singing of praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and said, “Treason! treason!”

¹⁴ Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks; and whoever follows her, let him be slain with the sword.” For the priest said, “Don’t kill her in Yahweh’s house.” ¹⁵ So they made way for her. She went to the entrance of the horse gate to the king’s house; and they killed her there.

¹⁶ Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, all the people, and the king, that they should be Yahweh’s people. ¹⁷ All the people went to the house of Baal, broke it down, broke his altars and his images in pieces, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. ¹⁸ Jehoiada appointed the officers of Yahweh’s house under the hand of the Levitical priests, whom David had distributed in Yahweh’s house, to offer the burnt offerings of Yahweh, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as David had ordered. ¹⁹ He set the gatekeepers at the gates of Yahweh’s house, that no one who was unclean in anything should enter in. ²⁰ He took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from Yahweh’s house. They came through the upper gate to the king’s house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom. ²¹ So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. They had slain Athaliah with the sword.

24 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, of Beersheba. ² Joash did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes all the days of Jehoiada the priest. ³ Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

⁴ After this, Joash intended to restore Yahweh’s house. ⁵ He gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money to repair the house of your God from all Israel from year to year. See that you expedite this matter.” However the Levites didn’t do it right away. ⁶ The king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, “Why haven’t you required of the Levites to bring in the tax of Moses the servant of Yahweh, and of the assembly of Israel, out of Judah and out of Jerusalem, for the Tent of the Testimony?” ⁷ For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up God’s house; and they also gave all the dedicated things of Yahweh’s house to the Baals.

⁸ So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of Yahweh’s house. ⁹ They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for Yahweh the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰ All the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had filled it. ¹¹ Whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. ¹² The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of Yahweh’s house. They hired masons and carpenters to restore Yahweh’s house, and also those who worked iron and bronze to repair Yahweh’s house. ¹³ So the workmen worked, and the work of repairing went forward in their hands. They set up God’s house as it was designed, and strengthened it. ¹⁴ When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, from which were made vessels for Yahweh’s house, even vessels with which to minister and to offer, including spoons and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in Yahweh’s house continually all the days of Jehoiada.

¹⁵ But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died. He was one hundred thirty years old when he died. ¹⁶ They buried him in David’s city among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house.

¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them. ¹⁸ They abandoned the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols, so wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness. ¹⁹ Yet he sent prophets to them to bring them again to Yahweh, and they testified against them; but they would not listen.

²⁰ The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “God says, ‘Why do you disobey Yahweh’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.’”

²¹ They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of Yahweh’s house. ²² Thus Joash the king didn’t remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. When he died, he said, “May Yahweh look at it, and repay it.”

²³ At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against him. They came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus. ²⁴ For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and Yahweh delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash.

²⁵ When they had departed from him (for they left him seriously wounded), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died. They buried him in David’s city, but they didn’t bury him in the tombs of the kings. ²⁶ These are those who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess. ²⁷ Now concerning his sons, the greatness of the burdens laid on him, and the rebuilding of God’s house, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the kings. Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. ² Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. ⁵ I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.

⁸ “In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples. ⁹ Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.

¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

¹⁷ “I command these things to you, that you may love one another. ¹⁸ If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’^(A) If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. ²¹ But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ He who hates me, hates my Father also. ²⁴ If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’^(B)

²⁶ “When the Counselor^[a] has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. ²⁷ You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.