Paul's Second Letter to the
CORINTHIANS

2 Corinthians 1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and from our brother Timothy--
To the church of God in Corinth, and to all God's people throughout Achaia:
²May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Paul Gives Thanks to God

³Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help comes! ⁴He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God. ⁵Just as we have a share in Christ's many sufferings, so also through Christ we share in God's great help. ⁶If we suffer, it is for your help and salvation; if we are helped, then you too are helped and given the strength to endure with patience the same sufferings that we also endure. ⁷So our hope in you is never shaken; we know that just as you share in our sufferings, you also share in the help we receive.
⁸We want to remind you, friends, of the trouble we had in the province of Asia. The burdens laid upon us were so great and so heavy that we gave up all hope of staying alive. ⁹We felt that the death sentence had been passed on us. But this happened so that we should rely, not on ourselves, but only on God, who raises the dead. ¹⁰From such terrible dangers of death he saved us, and will save us; and we have placed our hope in him that he will save us again, ¹¹as you help us by means of your prayers for us. So it will be that the many prayers for us will be answered, and God will bless us; and many will raise their voices to him in thanksgiving for us.

The Change in Paul's Plans

¹²We are proud that our conscience assures us that our lives in this world, and especially our relations with you, have been ruled by God-given frankness and sincerity, by the power of God's grace and not by human wisdom. ^13-14We write to you only what you can read and understand. But even though you now understand us only in part, I hope that you will come to understand us completely, so that in the Day of our Lord Jesus you can be as proud of us as we shall be of you.
¹⁵I was so sure of all this that I made plans at first to visit you, in order that you might be blessed twice. ¹⁶For I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia and again on my way back, in order to get help from you for my trip to Judea. ¹⁷In planning this, did I appear fickle? When I make my plans, do I make them from selfish motives, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time? ¹⁸As surely as God speaks the truth, my promise to you was not a "Yes" and a "No." ¹⁹For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was preached among you by Silas, Timothy, and myself, is not one who is "Yes" and "No." On the contrary, he is God's "Yes"; ²⁰for it is he who is the "Yes" to all of God's promises. This is why through Jesus Christ our "Amen" is said to the glory of God. ²¹It is God himself who makes us, together with you, sure of our life in union with Christ; it is God himself who has set us apart, ²²who has placed his mark of ownership upon us, and who has given us the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.
²³I call God as my witness--he knows my heart! It was in order to spare you that I decided not to go to Corinth. ²⁴We are not trying to dictate to you what you must believe; we know that you stand firm in the faith. Instead, we are working with you for your own happiness.
2 Corinthians 2 So I made up my mind not to come to you again to make you sad. ²For if I were to make you sad, who would be left to cheer me up? Only the very persons I had made sad. ³That is why I wrote that letter to you--I did not want to come to you and be made sad by the very people who should make me glad. For I am convinced that when I am happy, then all of you are happy too. ⁴I wrote you with a greatly troubled and distressed heart and with many tears; my purpose was not to make you sad, but to make you realize how much I love you all.

King Amaziah of Judah
(2 Chronicles 25.1-24)

2 Kings 14 In the second year of the reign of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz as king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash became king of Judah ²at the age of twenty-five, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Jehoaddin from Jerusalem. ³He did what was pleasing to the LORD, but he was not like his ancestor King David; instead, he did what his father Joash had done. ⁴He did not tear down the pagan places of worship, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.
⁵As soon as Amaziah was firmly in power, he executed the officials who had killed his father, the king. ⁶However, he did not kill their children but followed what the LORD had commanded in the Law of Moses: "Parents are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their children, and children are not to be put to death for crimes committed by their parents; people are to be put to death only for a crime they themselves have committed."
⁷Amaziah killed ten thousand Edomite soldiers in Salt Valley; he captured the city of Sela in battle and called it Joktheel, the name it still has.
⁸Then Amaziah sent messengers to King Jehoash of Israel, challenging him to fight. ⁹But King Jehoash sent back the following reply: "Once a thorn bush on the Lebanon Mountains sent a message to a cedar: 'Give your daughter in marriage to my son.' A wild animal passed by and trampled the bush down. ¹⁰Now Amaziah, you have defeated the Edomites, and you are filled with pride. Be satisfied with your fame and stay at home. Why stir up trouble that will only bring disaster on you and your people?"
¹¹But Amaziah refused to listen, so King Jehoash marched out with his men and fought against him at Beth Shemesh in Judah. ¹²Amaziah's army was defeated, and all his soldiers fled to their homes. ¹³Jehoash took Amaziah prisoner, advanced on Jerusalem, and tore down the city wall from Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, a distance of two hundred yards. ¹⁴He took all the silver and gold he could find, all the Temple equipment and all the palace treasures, and carried them back to Samaria. He also took hostages with him.
¹⁵Everything else that Jehoash did, including his bravery in the war against King Amaziah of Judah, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁶Jehoash died and was buried in the royal tombs in Samaria, and his son Jeroboam II succeeded him as king.

The Death of King Amaziah of Judah
(2 Chronicles 25.25 -28)

¹⁷King Amaziah of Judah lived fifteen years after the death of King Jehoash of Israel. ¹⁸Everything else that Amaziah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.
¹⁹There was a plot in Jerusalem to assassinate Amaziah, so he fled to the city of Lachish, but his enemies followed him there and killed him. ²⁰His body was carried back to Jerusalem on a horse and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City. ²¹The people of Judah then crowned his sixteen-year-old son Uzziah as king. ²²Uzziah reconquered and rebuilt Elath after his father's death.

King Jeroboam II of Israel

²³In the fifteenth year of the reign of Amaziah son of Joash as king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for forty-one years. ²⁴He sinned against the LORD, following the wicked example of his predecessor King Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into sin. ²⁵He reconquered all the territory that had belonged to Israel, from Hamath Pass in the north to the Dead Sea in the south. This was what the LORD, the God of Israel, had promised through his servant the prophet Jonah son of Amittai from Gath Hepher.
²⁶The LORD saw the terrible suffering of the Israelites; there was no one at all to help them. ²⁷But it was not the LORD's purpose to destroy Israel completely and forever, so he rescued them through King Jeroboam II.
²⁸Everything else that Jeroboam II did, his brave battles, and how he restored Damascus and Hamath to Israel, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel. ²⁹Jeroboam died and was buried in the royal tombs, and his son Zechariah succeeded him as king.

The LORD's Universal Reign of Peace
(Isaiah 2.2-4)

Micah 4 In days to come
the mountain where the Temple stands
will be the highest one of all,
towering above all the hills.
Many nations will come streaming to it,
² and their people will say,
"Let us go up the hill of the LORD,
to the Temple of Israel's God.
He will teach us what he wants us to do;
we will walk in the paths he has chosen.
For the LORD's teaching comes from Jerusalem;
from Zion he speaks to his people."

³He will settle disputes among the nations,
among the great powers near and far.
They will hammer their swords into plows
and their spears into pruning knives.
Nations will never again go to war,
never prepare for battle again.
⁴Everyone will live in peace
among their own vineyards and fig trees,
and no one will make them afraid.
The LORD Almighty has promised this.

⁵Each nation worships and obeys its own god, but we will worship and obey the LORD our God forever and ever.

Israel Will Return from Exile

⁶"The time is coming," says the LORD, "when I will gather together the people I punished, those who have suffered in exile. ⁷They are crippled and far from home, but I will make a new beginning with those who are left, and they will become a great nation. I will rule over them on Mount Zion from that time on and forever."
⁸And you, Jerusalem, where God, like a shepherd from his lookout tower, watches over his people, will once again be the capital of the kingdom that was yours. ⁹Why do you cry out so loudly? Why are you suffering like a woman in labor? Is it because you have no king, and your counselors are dead? ¹⁰Twist and groan, people of Jerusalem, like a woman giving birth, for now you will have to leave the city and live in the open country. You will have to go to Babylon, but there the LORD will save you from your enemies. ¹¹Many nations have gathered to attack you. They say, "Jerusalem must be destroyed! We will see this city in ruins!" ¹²But these nations do not know what is in the LORD's mind. They do not realize that they have been gathered together to be punished in the same way that grain is brought in to be threshed.
¹³The LORD says, "People of Jerusalem, go and punish your enemies! I will make you as strong as a bull with iron horns and bronze hoofs. You will crush many nations, and the wealth they got by violence you will present to me, the Lord of the whole world."