Help
for Needy Believers
2 Corinthians 9 There
is really no need for me to write you about the help
being sent to God's people in Judea. 2I know
that you are willing to help, and I have boasted of you
to the people in Macedonia. "The believers in
Achaia," I said, "have been ready to help since
last year." Your eagerness has stirred up most of
them. 3Now I am sending these believers, so
that our boasting about you in this matter may not turn
out to be empty words. But, just as I said, you will be
ready with your help. 4However, if the people
from Macedonia should come with me and find out that you
are not ready, how ashamed we would be--not to speak of
your shame--for feeling so sure of you! 5So I
thought it was necessary to urge these believers to go to
you ahead of me and get ready in advance the gift you
promised to make. Then it will be ready when I arrive,
and it will show that you give because you want to, not
because you have to.
6Remember
that the person who plants few seeds will have a small
crop; the one who plants many seeds will have a large
crop. 7You should each give, then, as you have
decided, not with regret or out of a sense of duty; for
God loves the one who gives gladly. 8And God
is able to give you more than you need, so that you will
always have all you need for yourselves and more than
enough for every good cause. 9As the scripture
says,
"He
gives generously to the needy;
his
kindness lasts forever."
10And God, who supplies seed for the sower and
bread to eat, will also supply you with all the seed you
need and will make it grow and produce a rich harvest
from your generosity. 11He will always make
you rich enough to be generous at all times, so that many
will thank God for your gifts which they receive from us.
12For this service you perform not only meets
the needs of God's people, but also produces an
outpouring of gratitude to God. 13And because
of the proof which this service of yours brings, many
will give glory to God for your loyalty to the gospel of
Christ, which you profess, and for your generosity in
sharing with them and everyone else. 14And so
with deep affection they will pray for you because of the
extraordinary grace God has shown you. 15Let
us thank God for his priceless gift!
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 in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. His
mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah from the town
of Bozkath. 2Josiah did what was pleasing to
the LORD; he followed the example
of his ancestor King David, strictly obeying all the laws
of God.
The Book of the Law Is
Discovered
(2 Chronicles 34.8-28)
3In
the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the
court secretary Shaphan, the son of Azaliah and grandson
of Meshullam, to the Temple with the order: 4"Go
to the High Priest Hilkiah and get a report on the amount
of money that the priests on duty at the entrance to the
Temple have collected from the people. 5Tell
him to give the money to the men who are in charge of the
repairs in the Temple. They are to pay 6the
carpenters, the builders, and the masons, and buy the
timber and the stones used in the repairs. 7The
men in charge of the work are thoroughly honest, so there
is no need to require them to account for the
funds."
8Shaphan
delivered the king's order to Hilkiah, and Hilkiah told
him that he had found the book of the Law in the Temple.
Hilkiah gave him the book, and Shaphan read it. 9Then
he went back to the king and reported: "Your
servants have taken the money that was in the Temple and
have handed it over to the men in charge of the
repairs." 10And then he said, "I
have here a book that Hilkiah gave me." And he read
it aloud to the king.
11When
the king heard the book being read, he tore his clothes
in dismay, 12and gave the following order to
Hilkiah the priest, to Ahikam son of Shaphan, to Achbor
son of Micaiah, to Shaphan, the court secretary, and to
Asaiah, the king's attendant: 13"Go and
consult the LORD for me and for all
the people of Judah about the teachings of this book. The
LORD is angry with us because our
ancestors have not done what this book says must be
done."
14Hilkiah,
Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to consult a
woman named Huldah, a prophet who lived in the newer part
of Jerusalem. (Her husband Shallum, the son of Tikvah and
grandson of Harhas, was in charge of the Temple robes.)
They described to her what had happened, 15and
she told them to go back to the king and give him 16the
following message from the LORD:
"I am going to punish Jerusalem and all its people,
as written in the book that the king has read. 17They
have rejected me and have offered sacrifices to other
gods, and so have stirred up my anger by all they have
done. My anger is aroused against Jerusalem, and it will
not die down. 18As for the king himself, this
is what I, the LORD God of Israel,
say: You listened to what is written in the book, 19and
you repented and humbled yourself before me, tearing your
clothes and weeping, when you heard how I threatened to
punish Jerusalem and its people. I will make it a
terrifying sight, a place whose name people will use as a
curse. But I have heard your prayer, 20and the
punishment which I am going to bring on Jerusalem will
not come until after your death. I will let you die in
peace."
The
men returned to King Josiah with this message.
Josiah Does Away
with Pagan Worship
(2 Chronicles 34.3-7, 29-33)
2 Kings 23 King
Josiah summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, 2and
together they went to the Temple, accompanied by the
priests and the prophets and all the rest of the people,
rich and poor alike. Before them all the king read aloud
the whole book of the covenant which had been found in
the Temple. 3He stood by the royal column and
made a covenant with the LORD to
obey him, to keep his laws and commands with all his
heart and soul, and to put into practice the demands
attached to the covenant, as written in the book. And all
the people promised to keep the covenant.
4Then
Josiah ordered the High Priest Hilkiah, his assistant
priests, and the guards on duty at the entrance to the
Temple to bring out of the Temple all the objects used in
the worship of Baal, of the goddess Asherah, and of the
stars. The king burned all these objects outside the city
near Kidron Valley and then had the ashes taken to
Bethel. 5He removed from office the priests
that the kings of Judah had ordained to offer sacrifices
on the pagan altars in the cities of Judah and in places
near Jerusalem--all the priests who offered sacrifices to
Baal, to the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars. 6He
removed from the Temple the symbol of the goddess
Asherah, took it out of the city to Kidron Valley, burned
it, pounded its ashes to dust, and scattered it over the
public burying ground. 7He destroyed the
living quarters in the Temple occupied by the temple
prostitutes. (It was there that women wove robes used in
the worship of Asherah.) 8He brought to
Jerusalem the priests who were in the cities of Judah,
and throughout the whole country he desecrated the altars
where they had offered sacrifices. He also tore down the
altars dedicated to the goat demons near the gate built
by Joshua, the city governor, which was to the left of
the main gate as one enters the city. 9Those
priests were not allowed to serve in the Temple, but they
could eat the unleavened bread provided for their fellow
priests.
10King
Josiah also desecrated Topheth, the pagan place of
worship in Hinnom Valley, so that no one could sacrifice
his son or daughter as a burnt offering to the god
Molech. 11He also removed the horses that the
kings of Judah had dedicated to the worship of the sun,
and he burned the chariots used in this worship. (These
were kept in the temple courtyard, near the gate and not
far from the living quarters of Nathan Melech, a high
official.) 12The altars which the kings of
Judah had built on the palace roof above King Ahaz'
quarters, King Josiah tore down, along with the altars
put up by King Manasseh in the two courtyards of the
Temple; he smashed the altars to bits and threw them into
Kidron Valley. 13Josiah desecrated the altars
that King Solomon had built east of Jerusalem, south of
the Mount of Olives, for the worship of disgusting
idols--Astarte the goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the god of
Moab, and Molech the god of Ammon. 14King
Josiah broke the stone pillars to pieces, cut down the
symbols of the goddess Asherah, and the ground where they
had stood he covered with human bones.
15Josiah
also tore down the place of worship in Bethel, which had
been built by King Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel
into sin. Josiah pulled down the altar, broke its stones
into pieces, and pounded them to dust; he also burned the
image of Asherah. 16Then Josiah looked around
and saw some tombs there on the hill; he had the bones
taken out of them and burned on the altar. In this way he
desecrated the altar, doing what the prophet had
predicted long before during the festival as King
Jeroboam was standing by the altar. King Josiah looked
around and saw the tomb of the prophet who had made this
prediction. 17"Whose tomb is that?"
he asked.
The
people of Bethel answered, "It is the tomb of the
prophet who came from Judah and predicted these things
that you have done to this altar."
18"Leave
it as it is," Josiah ordered. "His bones are
not to be moved."
So
his bones were not moved, neither were those of the
prophet who had come from Samaria.
19In
every city of Israel King Josiah tore down all the pagan
places of worship which had been built by the kings of
Israel, who thereby aroused the LORD's
anger. He did to all those altars what he had done in
Bethel. 20He killed all the pagan priests on
the altars where they served, and he burned human bones
on every altar. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
Josiah Celebrates
the Passover
(2 Chronicles 35.1-19)
21King
Josiah ordered the people to celebrate the Passover in
honor of the LORD their God, as
written in the book of the covenant. 22No
Passover like this one had ever been celebrated by any of
the kings of Israel or of Judah, since the time when
judges ruled the nation. 23Now at last, in the
eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, the Passover was
celebrated in Jerusalem.
Other Changes Made by Josiah
24In
order to enforce the laws written in the book that the
High Priest Hilkiah had found in the Temple, King Josiah
removed from Jerusalem and the rest of Judah all the
mediums and fortunetellers, and all the household gods,
idols, and all other pagan objects of worship. 25There
had never been a king like him before, who served the LORD with all his heart, mind, and
strength, obeying all the Law of Moses; nor has there
been a king like him since.
26But
the LORD's fierce anger had been
aroused against Judah by what King Manasseh had done, and
even now it did not die down. 27The LORD said, "I will do to Judah what I
have done to Israel: I will banish the people of Judah
from my sight, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I
chose, and the Temple, the place I said was where I
should be worshiped."
The End of Josiah's
Reign
(2 Chronicles 35.20 --36.1)
28Everything
else that King Josiah did is recorded in The History
of the Kings of Judah. 29While Josiah was
king, King Neco of Egypt led an army to the Euphrates
River to help the emperor of Assyria. King Josiah tried
to stop the Egyptian army at Megiddo and was killed in
battle. 30His officials placed his body in a
chariot and took it back to Jerusalem, where he was
buried in the royal tombs.
The
people of Judah chose Josiah's son Joahaz and anointed
him king.
King Joahaz of Judah
(2 Chronicles 36.2 -4)
31Joahaz
was twenty-three years old when he became king of Judah,
and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother
was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from the city of
Libnah. 32Following the example of his
ancestors, he sinned against the LORD.
33His reign ended when King Neco of Egypt took
him prisoner in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, and made
Judah pay 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold as
tribute. 34King Neco made Josiah's son Eliakim
king of Judah as successor to Josiah, and changed his
name to Jehoiakim. Joahaz was taken to Egypt by King
Neco, and there he died.
Nahum 3 Doomed
is the lying, murderous city,
full
of wealth to be looted and plundered!
2Listen!
The crack of the whip,
the
rattle of wheels,
the
gallop of horses,
the
jolting of chariots!
3Cavalry
troops charge,
swords
flash, spears gleam!
Corpses
are piled high,
dead
bodies without number--
men
stumble over them!
4Nineveh
the whore is being punished.
Attractive
and full of deadly charms,
she
enchanted nations and enslaved them.
5The
LORD Almighty says,
"I
will punish you, Nineveh!
I
will strip you naked
and
let the nations see you,
see
you in all your shame.
6I will
treat you with contempt
and
cover you with filth.
People
will stare at you in horror.
7All
who see you will shrink back.
They
will say, 'Nineveh lies in ruins!
Who
has any sympathy for her?
Who
will want to comfort her?'"
8Nineveh,
are you any better than Thebes, the capital of Egypt? She
too had a river to protect her like a wall--the Nile was
her defense. 9She ruled Ethiopia and Egypt,
there was no limit to her power; Libya was her ally. 10Yet
the people of Thebes were carried off into exile. At
every street corner their children were beaten to death.
Their leading men were carried off in chains and divided
among their captors.
11Nineveh,
you too will fall into a drunken stupor! You too will try
to escape from your enemies. 12All your
fortresses will be like fig trees with ripe figs: shake
the trees, and the fruit falls right into your mouth! 13Your
soldiers are helpless, and your country stands
defenseless before your enemies. Fire will destroy the
bars across your gates. 14Draw water to
prepare for a siege, and strengthen your fortresses!
Trample the clay to make bricks, and get the brick molds
ready! 15No matter what you do, you will still
be burned to death or killed in battle. You will be wiped
out like crops eaten up by locusts.
You
multiplied like locusts! 16You produced more
merchants than there are stars in the sky! But now they
are gone, like locusts that spread their wings and fly
away. 17Your officials are like a swarm of
locusts that stay in the walls on a cold day. But when
the sun comes out, they fly away, and no one knows where
they have gone!
18Emperor
of Assyria, your governors are dead, and your noblemen
are asleep forever! Your people are scattered on the
mountains, and there is no one to bring them home again. 19There
is no remedy for your injuries, and your wounds cannot be
healed. All those who hear the news of your destruction
clap their hands for joy. Did anyone escape your endless
cruelty?
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