April 30

2 Kings 10:18 — 13:13
 

18 Further, Jehu collected all the people together and said to them: “Ahab, on the one hand, worshiped Baal a little. Jehu, on the other hand, will worship him a great deal. 19 So now call all the prophets of Baal, all his worshipers and all his priests to me. Do not let a single one be missing, because I have a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone that is missing will not keep living.” As for Jehu, he acted slyly, for the purpose of destroying the worshipers of Baal.

20 And Jehu went on to say: “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal.” Accordingly they proclaimed it. 21 After that Jehu sent through all Israel, so that all the worshipers of Baal came in. And not a single one was left over that did not come in. And they kept coming into the house of Baal, and the house of Baal came to be full from end to end. 22 He now said to the one who was over the wardrobe: “Bring out garments for all the worshipers of Baal.” So he brought the attire out for them. 23 Then Jehu entered with Jehonadab the son of Rechab into the house of Baal. He now said to the worshipers of Baal: “Search carefully and see that there may be here with YOU none of the worshipers of Jehovah, but only the worshipers of Baal.” 24 Finally they came in to render up sacrifices and burnt offerings, and Jehu himself stationed eighty men outside at his disposal and went on to say: “As for the man that escapes from the men whom I am bringing into YOUR hands, the one’s soul will go for the other’s soul.”

25 And it came about that as soon as he finished rendering up the burnt offering, Jehu immediately said to the runners and the adjutants: “Come in, strike them down! Do not let a single one go out.” And the runners and the adjutants began to strike them down with the edge of the sword and to throw them out, and they kept going as far as the city of the house of Baal. 26 Then they brought out the sacred pillars of the house of Baal and burned each one. 27 Further, they pulled down the sacred pillar of Baal and pulled down the house of Baal, and they kept it set aside for privies down to this day.

28 Thus Jehu annihilated Baal out of Israel. 29 It was only the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he caused Israel to sin, that Jehu did not turn aside from following them, [that is,] the golden calves of which one was in Bethel and one in Dan. 30 Consequently Jehovah said to Jehu: “For the reason that you have acted well in doing what is right in my eyes, [and] according to all that was in my heart you have done to the house of Ahab, sons themselves to the fourth generation will sit for you upon the throne of Israel.” 31 And Jehu himself did not take care to walk in the law of Jehovah the God of Israel with all his heart. He did not turn aside from the sins of Jeroboam with which he caused Israel to sin.

32 In those days Jehovah started to cut off Israel piece by piece; and Hazael kept striking them in all the territory of Israel, 33 from the Jordan toward the rising of the sun, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites and the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the torrent valley of Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.

34 And the rest of the affairs of Jehu and all that he did and all his mightiness, are they not written in the book of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel? 35 Finally Jehu lay down with his forefathers, and they buried him in Samaria; and Jehoahaz his son began to reign in place of him. 36 And the days that Jehu had reigned over Israel were twenty-eight years in Samaria.

11 Now as regards Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah, she saw that her son had died. So she rose up and destroyed all the offspring of the kingdom. 2 However, Jehosheba the daughter of King Jehoram, the sister of Ahaziah, took Jehoash the son of Ahaziah and stole him from among the sons of the king that were to be put to death, even him and his nursing woman, into the inner room for the couches, and they kept him concealed from the face of Athaliah, and he was not put to death. 3 And he continued with her at the house of Jehovah in hiding for six years, while Athaliah was reigning over the land.

4 And in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and then took the chiefs of hundreds of the Carian bodyguard and of the runners and brought them to himself at the house of Jehovah and concluded a covenant with them and made them swear at the house of Jehovah, after which he showed them the son of the king. 5 And he went on to command them, saying: “This is the thing that YOU will do: One third of YOU are coming in on the sabbath and keeping strict watch over the king’s house; 6 and one third will be at the Gate of the Foundation, and one third will be at the gate behind the runners; and YOU must keep strict watch over the house by turns. 7 And there are two divisions among YOU that are all going out on the sabbath, and they must keep strict watch over the house of Jehovah in behalf of the king. 8 And YOU must encircle the king all around, each one with his weapons in his hand; and anyone entering within the rows will be put to death. And continue with the king when he goes out and when he comes in.”

9 And the chiefs of hundreds proceeded to do according to all that Jehoiada the priest had commanded. So they took each one his men that were coming in on the sabbath, together with those that were going out on the sabbath, and then came in to Jehoiada the priest. 10 The priest now gave the chiefs of hundreds the spears and the circular shields that had belonged to King David, which were in the house of Jehovah. 11 And the runners kept standing each one with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house clear to the left side of the house, by the altar and by the house, all around near the king. 12 Then he brought the son of the king out and put upon him the diadem and the Testimony; and so they made him king and anointed him. And they began to clap their hands and say: “Let the king live!”

13 When Athaliah heard the sound of the people running, she at once came to the people at the house of Jehovah. 14 Then she saw, and there the king was standing by the pillar according to the custom, and the chiefs and the trumpets by the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing the trumpets. Immediately Athaliah ripped her garments apart and began crying: “Conspiracy! Conspiracy!” 15 But Jehoiada the priest commanded the chiefs of hundreds, the appointed ones of the military force, and said to them: “Take her out from inside the rows, and, as for anyone coming after her, let there be an execution of death with the sword!” For the priest had said: “Do not let her be put to death in the house of Jehovah.” 16 So they laid their hands upon her and she came by the way of the horse entry of the king’s house, and she got put to death there.

17 Then Jehoiada concluded the covenant between Jehovah and the king and the people, that they should prove themselves the people of Jehovah; and also between the king and the people. 18 After that all the people of the land came to the house of Baal and pulled down his altars; and his images they broke up thoroughly, and Mattan the priest of Baal they killed before the altars.

And the priest proceeded to put overseers over the house of Jehovah. 19 Further, he took the chiefs of hundreds and the Carian bodyguard and the runners and all the people of the land, that they might bring the king down from the house of Jehovah; and they came gradually by the way of the gate of the runners to the king’s house; and he began to sit upon the throne of the kings. 20 And all the people of the land continued to rejoice; and the city, for its part, had no disturbance, and Athaliah herself they had put to death with the sword at the king’s house.

21 Seven years old Jehoash was when he began to reign.


12 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and for forty years he reigned in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zibiah from Beer-sheba. 2 And Jehoash continued doing what was right in Jehovah’s eyes all the days of his that Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 It was only the high places that did not disappear. The people were still sacrificing and making sacrificial smoke on the high places.

4 And Jehoash proceeded to say to the priests: “All the money for the holy offerings that is brought to the house of Jehovah, the money at which each one is assessed, the money for the souls according to individual valuation, all the money that it comes up on the heart of each one to bring to the house of Jehovah, 5 let the priests take for themselves, each one from his acquaintance; and let them, for their part, repair the cracks of the house wherever any crack is found.”

6 And it came about that by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not yet repaired the cracks of the house. 7 So King Jehoash called Jehoiada the priest and the priests and said to them: “Why is it that YOU are not repairing the cracks of the house? Now, then, do not take any more money from YOUR acquaintances, but for the cracks of the house YOU should give it.” 8 At that the priests consented not to take any more money from the people and not to repair the cracks of the house.

9 Jehoiada the priest now took a chest and bored a hole in its lid and put it beside the altar on the right as a person comes into the house of Jehovah, and there the priests, the doorkeepers, put all the money that was being brought into the house of Jehovah. 10 And it came about that as soon as they saw that there was a great deal of money in the chest, the secretary of the king and the high priest would come up, and they would bind it up and count the money that was being found at the house of Jehovah. 11 And they gave the money that had been counted off over to the hands of doers of the work that were appointed [to] the house of Jehovah. In turn they paid it out to the workers in wood and to the builders that were working at the house of Jehovah, 12 and to the masons and to the hewers of stone, and to buy timbers and hewn stones for repairing the cracks of the house of Jehovah and for all that was expended upon the house to repair it.

13 Only as respects the house of Jehovah there were not made basins of silver, extinguishers, bowls, trumpets, any sort of gold article and article of silver from the money that was being brought to the house of Jehovah; 14 for it was to the doers of the work that they would give it, and with it they repaired the house of Jehovah. 15 And they would not call for an accounting with the men into whose hand they would give the money to give to the doers of the work, because it was with faithfulness that they were working. 16 As for the money for guilt offerings and the money for sin offerings, it was not being brought to the house of Jehovah. So it came to belong to the priests.

17 Then it was that Hazael the king of Syria proceeded to go up and fight against Gath and capture it, after which Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem. 18 At that Jehoash the king of Judah took all the holy offerings that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his forefathers, the kings of Judah, had sanctified and his own holy offerings and all the gold to be found in the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the house of the king and sent them to Hazael the king of Syria. So he withdrew from against Jerusalem.

19 As for the rest of the affairs of Jehoash and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the affairs of the days of the kings of Judah? 20 However, his servants rose up and leagued together in a conspiracy and struck Jehoash down at the house of the Mound, [on the way] that goes down to Silla. 21 And Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, were the ones that struck him down, so that he died. Accordingly they buried him with his forefathers in the City of David; and Amaziah his son began to reign in place of him.

13 In the twenty-third year of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah the king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu became king over Israel in Samaria for seventeen years. 2 And he continued to do what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes and went walking in pursuit of the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he caused Israel to sin. He did not turn aside from it. 3 And Jehovah’s anger became hot against Israel, so that he gave them into the hand of Hazael the king of Syria and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael all their days.

4 In time Jehoahaz softened the face of Jehovah, so that Jehovah listened to him; for he had seen the oppression upon Israel, because the king of Syria had oppressed them. 5 Consequently Jehovah gave Israel a savior, so that they came out from under the hand of Syria, and the sons of Israel continued to dwell in their homes as formerly. 6 (Only they did not depart from the sin of the house of Jeroboam, with which he caused Israel to sin. In it he walked; and even the sacred pole itself stood in Samaria.) 7 For he had not left to Jehoahaz any people but fifty horsemen and ten chariots and ten thousand men on foot, because the king of Syria had destroyed them, that he might make them like the dust at threshing.

8 As for the rest of the affairs of Jehoahaz and all that he did and his mightiness, are they not written in the book of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel? 9 Finally Jehoahaz lay down with his forefathers, and they buried him in Samaria; and Jehoash his son began to reign in place of him.

10 In the thirty-seventh year of Jehoash the king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz became king over Israel in Samaria for sixteen years. 11 And he continued to do what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel sin. In them he walked.

12 As for the rest of the affairs of Jehoash and all that he did and his mightiness [and] how he fought against Amaziah the king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel? 13 Finally Jehoash lay down with his forefathers, and Jeroboam himself sat upon his throne. In turn Jehoash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

End of April