The Money for God's People

2 Corinthians 9 I don't need to write you about the money you plan to give for God's people. ²I know how eager you are to give. And I have proudly told the Lord's followers in Macedonia that you people in Achaia have been ready for a whole year. Now your desire to give has made them want to give. ³That's why I am sending Titus and the two others to you. I want you to be ready, just as I promised. This will prove that we were not wrong to brag about you.
⁴Some followers from Macedonia may come with me, and I want them to find that you have the money ready. If you don't, I would be embarrassed for trusting you to do this. But you would be embarrassed even more. ⁵So I have decided to ask Titus and the others to spend some time with you before I arrive. This way they can arrange to collect the money you have promised. Then you will have the chance to give because you want to, and not because you feel forced to.
⁶Remember this saying,
"A few seeds make a small harvest,
but a lot of seeds make a big harvest."
⁷Each of you must make up your own mind about how much to give. But don't feel sorry that you must give and don't feel that you are forced to give. God loves people who love to give. ⁸God can bless you with everything you need, and you will always have more than enough to do all kinds of good things for others. ⁹The Scriptures say,
"God freely gives his gifts to the poor,
and always does right."
¹⁰God gives seed to farmers and provides everyone with food. He will increase what you have, so that you can give even more to those in need. ¹¹You will be blessed in every way, and you will be able to keep on being generous. Then many people will thank God when we deliver your gift.
¹²What you are doing is much more than a service that supplies God's people with what they need. It is something that will make many others thank God. ¹³The way in which you have proved yourselves by this service will bring honor and praise to God. You believed the message about Christ, and you obeyed it by sharing generously with God's people and with everyone else. ¹⁴Now they are praying for you and want to see you, because God used you to bless them so very much. ¹⁵Thank God for his gift that is too wonderful for words!

King Josiah of Judah
(2 Chronicles 34.1, 2)

2 Kings 22 Josiah was eight years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled thirty-one years from Jerusalem. His mother Jedidah was the daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath. ²Josiah always obeyed the LORD, just as his ancestor David had done.

Hilkiah Finds
The Book of God's Law
(2 Chronicles 34.8-28)

³After Josiah had been king for eighteen years, he told Shaphan, one of his highest officials:

Go to the LORD's temple ⁴and ask Hilkiah the high priest to collect from the guards all the money that the people have donated. ⁵Have Hilkiah give it to the men supervising the repairs to the temple. They can use some of the money to pay ⁶the workers, and with the rest of it they can buy wood and stone for the repair work. ⁷They are honest, so we won't ask them to keep track of the money.

⁸While Shaphan was at the temple, Hilkiah handed him a book and said, "Look what I found here in the temple--The Book of God's Law."
Shaphan read it, ⁹then went back to Josiah and reported, "Your officials collected the money in the temple and gave it to the men supervising the repairs. ¹⁰But there's something else, Your Majesty. The priest Hilkiah gave me this book." Then Shaphan read it out loud.
¹¹When Josiah heard what was in The Book of God's Law, he tore his clothes in sorrow. ¹²At once he called together Hilkiah, Shaphan, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, and his own servant Asaiah. He said, ¹³"The LORD must be furious with me and everyone else in Judah, because our ancestors did not obey the laws written in this book. Go find out what the LORD wants us to do."
¹⁴The five men left right away and went to talk with Huldah the prophet. Her husband was Shallum, who was in charge of the king's clothes. Huldah lived in the northern part of Jerusalem, and when they met in her home, ¹⁵she said:

You were sent here by King Josiah, and this is what the LORD God of Israel says to him: ¹⁶"Josiah, I am the LORD! And I will see to it that this country and everyone living in it will be destroyed. It will happen just as this book says. ¹⁷The people of Judah have rejected me. They have offered sacrifices to foreign gods and have worshiped their own idols. I cannot stand it any longer. I am furious.

¹⁸"Josiah, listen to what I am going to do. ¹⁹I noticed how sad you were when you read that this country and its people would be completely wiped out. You even tore your clothes in sorrow, and I heard you cry. ²⁰So I will let you die in peace, before I destroy this place."

The men left and took Huldah's answer back to Josiah.

Josiah Reads
The Book of God's Law
(2 Chronicles 34.29-33)

2 Kings 23 King Josiah called together the older leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. ²Then he went to the LORD's temple, together with the people of Judah and Jerusalem, the priests, and the prophets. Finally, when everybody was there, he read aloud The Book of God's Law that had been found in the temple.
³After Josiah had finished reading, he stood by one of the columns. He asked the people to promise in the LORD's name to faithfully obey the LORD and to follow his commands. The people agreed to do everything written in the book.

Josiah Follows the Teachings of God's Law
(2 Chronicles 34.3-7)

⁴Josiah told Hilkiah the priest, the assistant priests, and the guards at the temple door to go into the temple and bring out the things used to worship Baal, Asherah, and the stars. Josiah had these things burned in Kidron Valley just outside Jerusalem, and he had the ashes carried away to the town of Bethel.
⁵Josiah also got rid of the pagan priests at the local shrines in Judah and around Jerusalem. These were the men that the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices to Baal and to the sun, moon, and stars. ⁶Josiah had the sacred pole for Asherah brought out of the temple and taken to Kidron Valley, where it was burned. He then had its ashes ground into dust and scattered over the public cemetery there. ⁷He had the buildings torn down where the male prostitutes lived next to the temple, and where the women wove sacred robes for the idol of Asherah.
⁸In almost every town in Judah, priests had been offering sacrifices to the LORD at local shrines. Josiah brought these priests to Jerusalem and had their shrines made unfit for worship--every shrine from Geba just north of Jerusalem to Beersheba in the south. He even tore down the shrine at Beersheba that was just to the left of Joshua Gate, which was named after the highest official of the city. ⁹Those local priests could not serve at the LORD's altar in Jerusalem, but they were allowed to eat sacred bread, just like the priests from Jerusalem.
¹⁰Josiah sent some men to Hinnom Valley just outside Jerusalem with orders to make the altar there unfit for worship. That way, people could no longer use it for sacrificing their children to the god Molech. ¹¹He also got rid of the horses that the kings of Judah used in their ceremonies to worship the sun, and he destroyed the chariots along with them. The horses had been kept near the entrance to the LORD's temple, in a courtyard close to where an official named Nathan-Melech lived.
¹²Some of the kings of Judah, especially Manasseh, had built altars in the two courts of the temple and in the room that Ahaz had built on the palace roof. Josiah had these altars torn down and smashed to pieces, and he had the pieces thrown into Kidron Valley, just outside Jerusalem. ¹³After that, he closed down the shrines that Solomon had built east of Jerusalem and south of Spoil Hill to honor Astarte the disgusting goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the disgusting god of Moab, and Milcom the disgusting god of Ammon. ¹⁴He tore down the stone images of foreign gods and cut down the sacred pole used in the worship of Asherah. Then he had the whole area covered with human bones.
¹⁵But Josiah was not finished yet. At Bethel he destroyed the shrine and the altar that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built and that had caused the Israelites to sin. Josiah had the shrine and the Asherah pole burned and ground into dust. ¹⁶As he looked around, he saw graves on the hillside. He had the bones in them dug up and burned on the altar, so that it could no longer be used. This happened just as God's prophet had said when Jeroboam was standing at the altar, celebrating a festival.
Then Josiah saw the grave of the prophet who had said this would happen ¹⁷and he asked, "Whose grave is that?"
Some people who lived nearby answered, "It belongs to the prophet from Judah who told what would happen to this altar."
¹⁸Josiah replied, "Then leave it alone. Don't dig up his bones." So they did not disturb his bones or the bones of the old prophet from Israel who had also been buried there.
¹⁹Some of the Israelite kings had made the LORD angry by building pagan shrines all over Israel. So Josiah sent troops to destroy these shrines just as he had done to the one in Bethel. ²⁰He killed the priests who served at them and burned their bones on the altars.
After all that, Josiah went back to Jerusalem.

Josiah and the People of Judah Celebrate Passover
(2 Chronicles 35.1-19)

²¹Josiah told the people of Judah, "Celebrate Passover in honor of the LORD your God, just as it says in The Book of God's Law."
²²This festival had not been celebrated in this way since kings ruled Israel and Judah. ²³But in Josiah's eighteenth year as king of Judah, everyone came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover.

The LORD Is Still Angry at the People of Judah

²⁴Josiah got rid of every disgusting person and thing in Judah and Jerusalem--including magicians, fortunetellers, and idols. He did his best to obey every law written in the book that the priest Hilkiah found in the LORD's temple. ²⁵No other king before or after Josiah tried as hard as he did to obey the Law of Moses.
²⁶But the LORD was still furious with the people of Judah because Manasseh had done so many things to make him angry. ²⁷The LORD said, "I will desert the people of Judah, just as I deserted the people of Israel. I will reject Jerusalem, even though I chose it to be mine. And I will abandon this temple built to honor me."

Josiah Dies in Battle
(2 Chronicles 35.20--36.1)

²⁸Everything else Josiah did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah. ²⁹During Josiah's rule, King Neco of Egypt led his army north to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. Josiah led his troops north to fight Neco, but when they met in battle at Megiddo, Josiah was killed. ³⁰A few of Josiah's servants put his body in a chariot and took it back to Jerusalem, where they buried it in his own tomb. Then the people of Judah found his son Jehoahaz and poured olive oil on his head to show that he was their new king.

King Jehoahaz of Judah
(2 Chronicles 36.2-4)

³¹Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem only three months. His mother Hamutal was the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. ³²Jehoahaz disobeyed the LORD, just as some of his ancestors had done.
³³King Neco of Egypt had Jehoahaz arrested and put in prison at Riblah near Hamath. Then he forced the people of Judah to pay him almost four tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold as taxes. ³⁴Neco appointed Josiah's son Eliakim king of Judah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz as a prisoner to Egypt, where he died.
³⁵Jehoiakim forced the people of Judah to pay higher taxes, so he could give Neco the silver and gold he demanded.

Punishment for Nineveh

The LORD said:
Nahum 3 Doom to the crime capital!
Nineveh, city of murder and treachery, ²here is your fate--
cracking whips, churning wheels;
galloping horses, roaring chariots;
³cavalry attacking, swords and spears flashing;
soldiers stumbling over piles of dead bodies.
⁴You were nothing more than a prostitute
using your magical charms and witchcraft
to attract and trap nations.

⁵But I, the LORD All-Powerful, am now your enemy.
I will pull up your skirt
and let nations and kingdoms stare at your nakedness.
⁶I will cover you with garbage, treat you like trash,
and rub you in the dirt.
⁷Everyone who sees you will turn away and shout,
"Nineveh is done for!
Is anyone willing to mourn or to give her comfort?"

Nineveh's Fate Is Sealed

⁸Nineveh, do you feel safer than the city of Thebes?
The Nile River was its wall of defense.
⁹Thebes trusted the mighty power of Ethiopia and Egypt;
the nations of Put and Libya were her allies.
¹⁰But she was captured and taken to a foreign country.
Her children were murdered at every street corner.
The members of her royal family were auctioned off,
and her high officials were bound in chains.

¹¹Nineveh, now it's your turn!
You will get drunk and try to hide from your enemy.
¹²Your fortresses are fig trees with ripe figs.
Merely shake the trees, and fruit will fall
into every open mouth.
¹³Your army is weak.
Fire has destroyed the crossbars on your city gates;
now they stand wide open to your enemy.

¹⁴Your city is under attack.
Haul in extra water! Strengthen your defenses!
Start making bricks! Stir the mortar!
¹⁵You will still go up in flames
and be cut down by swords that will wipe you out
like wheat attacked by grasshoppers.
So, go ahead and increase like a swarm of locusts!

¹⁶More merchants are in your city
than there are stars in the sky--
but they are like locusts that eat everything,
then fly away.
¹⁷Your guards and your officials are swarms of locusts.
On a chilly day they settle on a fence,
but when the sun comes out,
they take off to who-knows-where.

¹⁸King of Assyria, your officials and leaders
sleep the eternal sleep,
while your people are scattered in the mountains.
Yes, your people are sheep without a shepherd.
¹⁹You're fatally wounded. There's no hope for you.
But everyone claps when they hear this news,
because your constant cruelty has caused them pain.