2 CORINTHIANS

2 Corinthians 1 From Paul, chosen by God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and from Timothy, who is also a follower.
To God's church in Corinth and to all of God's people in Achaia.
²I pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace!

Paul Gives Thanks

³Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father is a merciful God, who always gives us comfort. ⁴He comforts us when we are in trouble, so that we can share that same comfort with others in trouble. ⁵We share in the terrible sufferings of Christ, but also in the wonderful comfort he gives. ⁶We suffer in the hope that you will be comforted and saved. And because we are comforted, you will also be comforted, as you patiently endure suffering like ours. ⁷You never disappoint us. You suffered as much as we did, and we know that you will be comforted as we were.
⁸My friends, I want you to know what a hard time we had in Asia. Our sufferings were so horrible and so unbearable that death seemed certain. ⁹In fact, we felt sure that we were going to die. But this made us stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting God, who raises the dead to life. ¹⁰God saved us from the threat of death, and we are sure that he will do it again and again. ¹¹Please help us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks for the blessings we receive in answer to all these prayers.

Paul's Change of Plans

¹²We can be proud of our clear conscience. We have always lived honestly and sincerely, especially when we were with you. And we were guided by God's wonderful kindness instead of by the wisdom of this world. ¹³I am not writing anything you cannot read and understand. I hope you will understand it completely, ¹⁴just as you already partly understand us. Then when our Lord Jesus returns, you can be as proud of us as we are of you.
¹⁵I was so sure of your pride in us that I had planned to visit you first of all. In this way you would have the blessing of two visits from me. ¹⁶Once on my way to Macedonia and again on my return from there. Then you could send me on to Judea. ¹⁷Do you think I couldn't make up my mind about what to do? Or do I seem like someone who says "Yes" or "No" simply to please others? ¹⁸God can be trusted, and so can I, when I say that our answer to you has always been "Yes" and never "No." ¹⁹This is because Jesus Christ the Son of God is always "Yes" and never "No." And he is the one that Silas, Timothy, and I told you about.
²⁰Christ says "Yes" to all of God's promises. That's why we have Christ to say "Amen" for us to the glory of God. ²¹And so God makes it possible for you and us to stand firmly together with Christ. God is also the one who chose us ²²and put his Spirit in our hearts to show that we belong only to him.
²³God is my witness that I stayed away from Corinth, just to keep from being hard on you. ²⁴We are not bosses who tell you what to believe. We are working with you to make you glad, because your faith is strong.
2 Corinthians 2 I have decided not to make my next visit with you so painful. ²If I make you feel bad, who would be left to cheer me up, except the people I had made to feel bad? ³The reason I want to be happy is to make you happy. I wrote as I did because I didn't want to visit you and be made to feel bad, when you should make me feel happy. ⁴At the time I wrote, I was suffering terribly. My eyes were full of tears, and my heart was broken. But I didn't want to make you feel bad. I only wanted to let you know how much I cared for you.

King Amaziah of Judah
(2 Chronicles 25.1-24)

2 Kings 14 Amaziah son of Joash became king of Judah in the second year of Jehoash's rule in Israel. ²Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled twenty-nine years from Jerusalem, which was also the hometown of his mother Jehoaddin.
³Amaziah followed the example of his father Joash by obeying the LORD and doing right. But he was not as faithful as his ancestor David. ⁴Amaziah did not destroy the local shrines, and they were still used as places for offering sacrifices.
⁵As soon as Amaziah had control of Israel, he arrested and killed the officers who had murdered his father. ⁶But the children of those officers were not killed. The LORD had commanded in the Law of Moses that only the people who sinned were to be punished, not their parents or children.
⁷While Amaziah was king, he killed ten thousand Edomite soldiers in Salt Valley. He captured the town of Sela and renamed it Joktheel, which is still its name.
⁸One day, Amaziah sent a message to King Jehoash of Israel: "Come out and face me in battle!"
⁹Jehoash sent back this reply:

Once upon a time, a small thornbush in Lebanon announced that his son was going to marry the daughter of a large cedar tree. But a wild animal came along and trampled the small bush.

¹⁰Amaziah, you think you're so powerful because you defeated Edom. Go ahead and celebrate--but stay at home. If you cause any trouble, both you and your kingdom of Judah will be destroyed.

¹¹But Amaziah refused to listen. So Jehoash and his troops marched to the town of Beth-Shemesh in Judah to attack Amaziah and his troops. ¹²During the battle, Judah's army was crushed. Every soldier from Judah ran back home, ¹³and Jehoash captured Amaziah.
Jehoash then marched to Jerusalem and broke down the city wall from Ephraim Gate to Corner Gate, a section about six hundred feet long. ¹⁴He took the gold and silver, as well as everything of value from the LORD's temple and the king's treasury. He took hostages, then returned to Samaria.
¹⁵Everything else Jehoash did while he was king, including his brave deeds and how he defeated King Amaziah of Judah, is written in The History of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁶Jehoash died and was buried in Samaria beside the other Israelite kings. His son Jeroboam then became king.
¹⁷Fifteen years after Jehoash died, ^18-20some people in Jerusalem plotted against Amaziah. He was able to escape to the town of Lachish, but another group of people caught him and killed him there. His body was taken back to Jerusalem on horseback and buried beside his ancestors.
Everything else Amaziah did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah. ²¹After his death the people of Judah made his son Azariah king, even though he was only sixteen at the time. ²²Azariah was the one who later recaptured and rebuilt the town of Elath.

King Jeroboam the Second of Israel

²³Jeroboam son of Jehoash became king of Israel in the fifteenth year of Amaziah's rule in Judah. Jeroboam ruled forty-one years from Samaria. ²⁴He disobeyed the LORD by following the evil example of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused the Israelites to sin.
²⁵Jeroboam extended the boundaries of Israel from Lebo-Hamath in the north to the Dead Sea in the south, just as the LORD had promised his servant Jonah son of Amittai, who was a prophet from Gath-Hepher. ²⁶The LORD helped Jeroboam do this because he had seen how terribly the Israelites were suffering, whether slave or free, and no one was left to help them. ²⁷And since the LORD had promised that he would not let Israel be completely destroyed, he helped Jeroboam rescue them.
²⁸Everything else Jeroboam did while he was king, including his brave deeds and how he recaptured the towns of Damascus and Hamath, is written in The History of the Kings of Israel. ²⁹Jeroboam died and was buried, and his son Zechariah became king.

Peace and Prosperity

Micah 4 In the future, the mountain with the LORD's temple
will be the highest of all.
It will reach above the hills,
and every nation will rush to it.
²People of many nations will come and say,
"Let's go up to the mountain of the LORD God of Jacob
and worship in his temple."

The LORD will teach us his Law from Jerusalem,
and we will obey him.
³He will settle arguments
between distant and powerful nations.
They will pound their swords and their spears
into rakes and shovels;
they will never again make war or attack one another.
⁴Everyone will find rest
beneath their own fig trees or grape vines,
and they will live in peace.
This is a solemn promise of the LORD All-Powerful.

⁵Others may follow their gods,
but we will always follow the LORD our God.

The LORD Will Lead His People Home

⁶The LORD said:
At that time I will gather my people--
the lame and the outcasts,
and all into whose lives I have brought sorrow.
⁷Then the lame and the outcasts will belong to my people
and become a strong nation.
I, the LORD, will rule them from Mount Zion forever.
⁸Mount Zion in Jerusalem, guardian of my people,
you will rule again.

⁹Jerusalem, why are you crying?
Don't you have a king? Have your advisors gone?
Are you suffering like a woman in childbirth?
¹⁰Keep on groaning with pain, you people of Jerusalem!
If you escape from your city to the countryside,
you will still be taken as prisoners to Babylonia.
But later I will rescue you from your enemies.

¹¹Zion, because of your sins
you are surrounded by many nations who say,
"We can hardly wait to see you disgraced."
¹²But they don't know that I, the LORD,
have gathered them here to grind them like grain.
¹³Smash them to pieces, Zion! I'll let you be like a bull
with iron horns and bronze hoofs.
Crush those nations and bring their wealth to me,
the LORD of the earth.