The Daily Audio Bible

14 In that time Abijah, (the) son of Jeroboam, was sick.

² And Jeroboam said to his wife, Rise thou up, and change clothing, that thou be not known, that thou art the wife of Jeroboam; and go thou into Shiloh, where Ahijah, the prophet, is, which spake to me, that I should reign upon this people. (And Jeroboam said to his wife, Rise thou up, and change your clothes, so that thou shalt not be known, that thou art Jeroboam’s wife; and go thou to Shiloh, where the prophet Ahijah is, who spoke to me, and said that I would reign upon this people.)

³ Also take thou in thine hand ten loaves, and a cake, and a vessel of honey, and go thou to him; for he shall show to thee, what shall befall to this child.

⁴ The wife of Jeroboam did as he said, and she rose up, and went into Shiloh, and came into the house of Ahijah; and Ahijah might not see, for his eyes dimmed for eld (age). (And Jeroboam’s wife did as he said, and she rose up, and went to Shiloh, and came to Ahijah’s house; and Ahijah could not see, for his eyes had dimmed because of old age.)

⁵ Forsooth the Lord said to Ahijah, Lo! the wife of Jeroboam entereth, that she counsel (with) thee on her son, which is sick (who is sick); thou shalt speak these and these things to her. Therefore when she had entered, and had feigned herself to be that (which) she was not,

⁶ Ahijah heard the sound of the feet of her entering by the door, and he said, Enter thou, the wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thee to be another? Forsooth I am sent (to be) an hard messenger, that is, (one) telling hard things, to thee (For I am sent with a hard message for thee).

⁷ Go thou, and say to Jeroboam, The Lord God of Israel saith these things, For I enhanced thee from the midst of the people, and I gave thee (to be) duke on my people Israel (and I made thee the leader of my people Israel),

⁸ and I cutted the realm of the house of David, and I gave it to thee, and (yet) thou were not as my servant David, that kept my behests, and followed me in all his heart, and did that that was pleasant in my sight; (and I cut away the kingdom from the house of David, and I gave it to thee, and yet thou were not like my servant David, who obeyed my commands, and followed me with all his heart, and did what was pleasing in my sight;)

⁹ but thou hast wrought evil, over all men that were before thee, and madest to thee alien gods, and welled those together, that thou shouldest excite me/thou shouldest stir me to wrathfulness, soothly thou hast cast forth me behind thy back. (but thou hast brought forth evil, more than all the men who were before thee, and madest other gods for thyself, and welded those together, so that thou shouldest stir me to anger, truly thou hast thrown me behind thy back.)

¹⁰ Therefore lo! I shall bring in evils upon the house of Jeroboam, and I shall smite the house of Jeroboam unto a pisser to the wall, and unto him that is imprisoned, and the last in Israel (and I shall strike down the house of Jeroboam unto a pisser on the wall, and unto him who is imprisoned, and the last in Israel); and I shall cleanse the relics, or remnants, of the house of Jeroboam, as dung is wont to be cleansed unto purity, either cleanness^[a];

¹¹ soothly dogs shall eat them, that shall die of the house of Jeroboam in the city; and birds of the air shall devour them, that shall die in the field; for the Lord spake. (truly the dogs shall eat those of the house of Jeroboam who shall die in the city; and the birds of the air shall devour those who shall die in the field; for the Lord hath spoken.)

¹² Therefore rise thou, and go into thine house; and in that entering of thy feet into the city, the child shall die. (And so rise thou up, and go to thy house; and with the entry of thy feet into the city, the child shall die.)

¹³ And all Israel shall bewail him, and shall bury him; for this child alone of Jeroboam shall be borne into the sepulchre, for a good word is found on him of the Lord God of Israel, in (all) the house of Jeroboam. (And all Israel shall bewail, or mourn, him, and shall bury him; for only this child of Jeroboam shall have a proper burial, because only in him is there found any good toward the Lord God of Israel, in all the house of Jeroboam.)

¹⁴ Forsooth the Lord shall ordain to him(self) a king upon Israel, that shall smite the house of Jeroboam, in this day, and in this time, that is, of nigh; (And the Lord shall ordain for himself a king upon Israel, who shall strike the house of Jeroboam, on this day, and at this time, that is, very soon;)

¹⁵ and the Lord God of Israel shall smite, as a reed in the water is wont to be moved; and he shall draw out Israel from this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and he shall winnow them over the flood, for they made to them maumet woods, that they should stir the Lord to ire. (and the Lord God shall strike Israel, like a reed in the water is wont to be shaken; and he shall pull Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their forefathers, and he shall scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they made for themselves sacred groves, and poles, and stirred the Lord to anger.)

¹⁶ And the Lord God shall betake Israel to his enemies, for the sins of Jeroboam, that sinned, and made Israel to do sin. (And the Lord God shall abandon Israel, for the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned, and made Israel to do sin.)

¹⁷ Therefore the wife of Jeroboam rose (up), and went (away), and came into Tirzah; and when she entered into the threshold of the house, the child was dead (the child died).

¹⁸ And they buried him; and all Israel bewailed him, by the word of the Lord, which he spake in the hand of his servant, Ahijah the prophet (which he spoke by his servant, the prophet Ahijah).

¹⁹ Forsooth, lo! the residue of the words of Jeroboam, how he fought, and how he reigned, be written in the book of [the] words of the days of [the] kings of Israel.

²⁰ Forsooth the days, in which Jeroboam reigned, be two and twenty years; and Jeroboam slept with his fathers, and Nadab, his son, reigned for him.

²¹ Forsooth Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah; Rehoboam was of one and forty years, when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord chose of all the lineages of Israel (the city which the Lord chose out of all the tribes of Israel), that he should set his name there. And the name of his mother was Naamah (the) Ammonite.

²² And Judah did evil before the Lord, and they stirred him to ire on all things, which their fathers did in their sins, by which they sinned. (And the people of Judah did evil before the Lord, and they stirred him to anger with their sins which they sinned, more than all the things that their forefathers had done.)

²³ For also they builded to themselves altars, and images, and woods (For they also built altars for themselves, and poles, and sacred groves), on each high hill, and under each tree full of boughs.

²⁴ But also men of women’s conditions/womanish men were in the land, and they did all the abominations of heathen men, which the Lord all-brake before the face of the sons of Israel. (And also male and female whores were in the land, serving at the hill shrines, and they did all the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the Israelites.)

²⁵ Forsooth in the fifth year of the realm of Rehoboam (Now in the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign), Shishak, the king of Egypt, went up into Jerusalem;

²⁶ and he took the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the king’s treasures, and he ravished all things; also he ravished the golden shields which Solomon made. (and he took away the treasures of the House of the Lord, and the king’s treasures, and he took everything that he could get his hands on; and he also took away the gold shields which Solomon had made.)

²⁷ For which king Rehoboam made brazen shields, and gave those in(to) the hands of [the] dukes of (the) shield-makers, and of them that watched before the door of the house of the king. (And King Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields, and gave them to the officers who guarded the door of the house of the king.)

²⁸ And when the king entered into the house of the Lord, they that had office to go before (they who had the duty to go before him), bare those, and (then) they bare those again to the place of armour of [the] shield-makers.

²⁹ Forsooth, lo! the residue of the words of Rehoboam, and all things which he did, be written in the book of [the] words of [the] days of [the] kings of Judah.

³⁰ And battle was betwixt Rehoboam and Jeroboam, in all (their) days.

³¹ And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with them in the city of David. And the name of his mother was Naamah (the) Ammonite; and Abijam, his son, reigned for him.

15 Therefore in the eighteenth year of the realm of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam reigned upon Judah. (And so in the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign upon Judah.)

² Three years he reigned in Jerusalem (He reigned for three years in Jerusalem); the name of his mother was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.

³ And he went in all the sins of his father, which he did before him; and his heart was not perfect with his Lord God, as the heart of David, his father, was perfect.

⁴ But for David, his Lord God gave to him a lantern in Jerusalem, that he should raise (up) his son after him, and that he should stand in Jerusalem; (But for David’s sake, the Lord his God gave him a light, or a flame, in Jerusalem, so that he would raise up his son after him, and keep Jerusalem secure;)

⁵ for David had done rightfulness in the eyes of the Lord, and had not bowed [away] from all things that the Lord had commanded to him, in all the days of his life, except the word of Uriah (the) Hittite^[b]. (for David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned away from all the things that the Lord had commanded to him, in all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.)

⁶ Nevertheless battle was betwixt Abijam and Jeroboam, in all the time of his life. (And there was always battle between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, in all the time of Abijam’s life.)

⁷ Soothly the residue of the words of Abijam, and all things that he did, whether these be not written in the book of [the] words of [the] days of the kings of Judah? And battle was betwixt Abijam and Jeroboam (And there was always battle between Abijam and Jeroboam).

⁸ And Abijam slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa, his son, reigned for him.

⁹ And Asa, king of Judah, reigned in the twentieth year of Jeroboam, king of Israel; (And Asa, the king of Judah, began to reign in the twentieth year of Jeroboam, the king of Israel;)

¹⁰ and Asa reigned one and forty years in Jerusalem. The name of his (grand)mother was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹ And Asa did rightfulness in the sight of the Lord, as David, his father, did;

¹² and he took away from the land men of women’s conditions, and he purged all the filths of idols, which his fathers (had) made.

¹³ Furthermore and he removed Maachah, his (grand)mother, that she should not be princess in the solemn things of the idol Priapus, and in his maumet wood that she had hallowed; and he destroyed the den of him, and he brake the foulest simulacrum, and burnt it in the strand of Kidron; (And furthermore he removed Maachah, his grandmother, so that she would no longer be the queen mother, for she had erected an idol of Priapus in a grove, and worshipped it/for she had made an obscene idol for the worship of Asherah; and he broke up, and destroyed, that most foul idol, and burned it by the Kidron Stream/and burned it in the Kidron Gorge;)

¹⁴ soothly he did not (do) away the high things^[c] (but he did not do away the hill shrines); nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with his Lord God, in all his days.

¹⁵ And he brought into the house of the Lord those things, which his father had hallowed, and avowed, (the) silver, and gold, and vessels.

¹⁶ Forsooth battle was betwixt Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, in all the days of them.

¹⁷ And Baasha, king of Israel, went up into Judah, and builded Ramah, that no man of the part of Asa, king of Judah, might go out, either go in. (And Baasha, the king of Israel, went up to Judah, and fortified Ramah, so that no man of Asa, the king of Judah, could come in, or go out.)

¹⁸ Therefore Asa took all the silver and gold, that (were) left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and gave it into the hands of his servants; and he sent it to Benhadad, the son of Tabrimon, son of Hezion, the king of Syria, that dwelled in Damascus (who lived in Damascus), and said,

¹⁹ A bond of peace is betwixt me and thee, and betwixt my father and thy father, and therefore I sent to thee gifts, gold, and silver; and I ask, that thou come, and make void the bond of peace, that thou hast with Baasha, king of Israel, and that he go away from me. (There is a covenant between me and thee, and between my father and thy father, and so I sent gifts of gold and silver to thee; and I ask that thou come, and dissolve the covenant, that thou hast with Baasha, the king of Israel, so that then he shall go away from me.)

²⁰ Benhadad assented to king Asa, and sent the princes of his host into the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel, the house of Maachah (and Abelbethmaachah), and all Cinneroth, that is, all the land of Naphtali.

²¹ And when Baasha had heard this thing, he left (off) to build Ramah, and turned again into Tirzah. (And when Baasha had heard of this thing, he stopped fortifying Ramah, and returned to Tirzah.)

²² Forsooth king Asa sent [a] message into all Judah, and said, No man be excused. And (so) they (all came, and) took (away) the stones of Ramah, and the trees thereof, by which Baasha had builded (it); and king Asa builded of the same stones and trees Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah. (And King Asa sent a message to all Judah, and said, No man shall be excused. And so they all came, and took away the stones, and the timber, from Ramah, with which Baasha had fortified it; and King Asa used these same stones and timber to fortify Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.)

²³ Soothly the residue of all the words of Asa, and of all his strength, and all things that he did, and the cities which he builded, whether these be not written in the book of [the] words of [the] days of [the] kings of Judah? Nevertheless Asa had (an) ache in his feet, in the time of his eld (age).

²⁴ And Asa slept with his fathers, and he was buried with them in the city of David, his father; and Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned for him.

10 A man was in Caesarea [Forsooth some man was in Caesarea], Cornelius by name, a centurion of the company of knights, that is said of Italy;

² a religious man, and dreading the Lord, with all his household; doing many alms to the people, and praying the Lord evermore.

³ This saw in a vision openly, as in the ninth hour of the day [or noon], an angel of God entering in to him, and saying to him, Cornelius.

⁴ And he beheld him, and was adread, and said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said to him, Thy prayers and thine almsdeeds have ascended up into mind, in the sight of the Lord.

⁵ And now send thou men into Joppa [And now send men into Joppa], and call one Simon, that is named Peter.

⁶ This is harboured at a man, Simon, currier [currier, or tanner], whose house is beside the sea. This shall say to thee, what it behooveth thee to do.

⁷ And when the angel that spake to him, was gone away, he called two men of his house, and a knight that dreaded the Lord, which were at his bidding.^[a]

⁸ And when he had told to them all these things, he sent them into Joppa.

⁹ And on the day following, while they made journey, and approached to the city [and nighed to the city], Peter went up into the highest place of the house to pray, about the sixth hour.

¹⁰ And when he was hungered [And when he hungered], he would have eaten. But while they made ready, a ravishing of the Spirit felled on him [an excess of soul, or ravishing of Spirit, fell on him];

¹¹ and he saw heaven opened, and a vessel coming down, as a great sheet with four corners, to be let down from heaven into earth, [and he saw heaven opened, and some vessel coming down, as a great sheet with four cords, for to be sent down from heaven to earth,]

¹² in which were all four-footed beasts, and creeping [things] of the earth, and volatiles of heaven [and volatiles of heaven, either of the air].

¹³ And a voice was made to him, Rise thou, Peter, and slay, and eat.^[b]

¹⁴ And Peter said, Lord, forbid [Lord, far be it from me], for I never eat any common thing and unclean.

¹⁵ And again the second time the voice was made to him, That thing that God hath cleansed, say thou not unclean [That thing that God hath cleansed, thou shalt not say unclean].

¹⁶ And this thing was done by thrice; and at once [and anon] the vessel was received again into heaven.

¹⁷ And while that Peter doubted within himself, what the vision was that he saw, lo! the men, that were sent from Cornelius, sought the house of Simon, and stood at the gate. [And the while Peter within himself doubted, what the vision was which he saw, lo! the men, that were sent from Cornelius, seeking the house of Simon, stood nigh at the gate.]

¹⁸ And when they had called, they asked if Simon, that is named Peter [that was named Peter], had there harbour.

¹⁹ And while Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said to him, Lo! three men seek thee.

²⁰ Therefore rise thou, and go down, and go with them, and doubt thou nothing [and go with them, nothing doubting], for I sent them.

²¹ And Peter came down to the men, and said, Lo! I am, whom ye seek; what is the cause, for which ye be come [for which ye have come]?

²² And they said, Cornelius, the centurion, a just man, and dreading God, and having good witnessing of all the folk of Jews, took answer of an holy angel, to call thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.

²³ Therefore he led them in, and received in harbour; and that night they dwelled with him. And in the day following he rose, and went forth with them; and some of the brethren followed him from Joppa [and some of brethren from Joppa followed him], that they be witnesses to Peter.

133 The song of degrees. Lo! how good and how merry it is; that brethren dwell together. (Lo! how good and how pleasant it is; for brothers, or God’s people, to live together in unity, or in harmony.)

² As ointment in the head; that goeth down into the beard, into the beard of Aaron. That goeth down into the collar of his cloth; (Like ointment on the head, that goeth down onto the beard, onto Aaron’s beard; yea, that goeth down onto the collar of his cloak.)

³ as the dew of Hermon, that goeth down into the hill of Zion. For there the Lord sent blessing; and life till into the world, that is, without end. (Like the dew of Mount Hermon, that goeth down onto the hills of Zion. For there the Lord sent blessing; and life forevermore.)

⁷ Words well-set together beseem not a fool; and a lying lip becometh not a prince. (Words put together well become not a fool; and lies become not a leader.)

⁸ A precious stone most acceptable is the abiding of him that seeketh; whither ever he turneth himself, he understandeth prudently. (A gift, or a bribe, is like a most acceptable precious stone in the eyes of him who receiveth it; wherever it goeth, it bringeth prosperity to he who giveth it.)