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13 Jehoahaz (the son of Jehu) began a seventeen-year reign over Israel during the twenty-third year of the reign of King Joash of Judah. 2 But he was an evil king, and he followed the wicked paths of Jeroboam, who had caused Israel to sin. 3 So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and he continually allowed King Hazael of Syria and his son Ben-hadad to conquer them.
4 But Jehoahaz prayed for the Lord’s help, and the Lord listened to him; for the Lord saw how terribly the king of Syria was oppressing Israel. 5 So the Lord raised up leaders among the Israelis to rescue them from the tyranny of the Syrians; and then Israel lived in safety again as they had in former days. 6 But they continued to sin, following the evil ways of Jeroboam; and they continued to worship the goddess Asherah at Samaria. 7 Finally the Lord reduced Jehoahaz’s army to fifty mounted troops, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry; for the king of Syria had destroyed the others as though they were dust beneath his feet.
8 The rest of the history of Jehoahaz is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
9-10 Jehoahaz died and was buried in Samaria, and his son Joash reigned in Samaria for sixteen years. He came to the throne in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of King Joash of Judah. 11 But he was an evil man, for, like Jeroboam, he encouraged the people to worship idols and led them into sin. 12 The rest of the history of the reign of Joash, including his wars against King Amaziah of Judah, are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. 13 Joash died and was buried in Samaria with the other kings of Israel; and Jeroboam II became the new king.
14 When Elisha was in his last illness, King Joash visited him and wept over him.
“My father! My father! You are the strength of Israel!”[a] he cried.
15 Elisha told him, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did.
16-17 “Open that eastern window,” he instructed. Then he told the king to put his hand upon the bow, and Elisha laid his own hands upon the king’s hands.
“Shoot!” Elisha commanded, and he did.
Then Elisha proclaimed, “This is the Lord’s arrow, full of victory over Syria; for you will completely conquer the Syrians at Aphek. 18 Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the floor.”
So the king picked them up and struck the floor three times. 19 But the prophet was angry with him. “You should have struck the floor five or six times,” he exclaimed, “for then you would have beaten Syria until they were entirely destroyed; now you will be victorious only three times.”
20-21 So Elisha died and was buried.
In those days bandit gangs of Moabites used to invade the land each spring. Once some men who were burying a friend spied these marauders so they hastily threw his body into the tomb of Elisha. And as soon as the body touched Elisha’s bones, the dead man revived and jumped to his feet!
22 King Hazael of Syria had oppressed Israel during the entire reign of King Jehoahaz. 23 But the Lord was gracious to the people of Israel, and they were not totally destroyed. For God pitied them, and also he was honoring his contract with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this is still true. 24 Then King Hazael of Syria died, and his son Ben-hadad reigned in his place.
25 King Joash of Israel[b] (the son of Jehoahaz) was successful on three occasions in reconquering the cities that his father had lost to Ben-hadad.
14 During the second year of the reign of King Joash of Israel, King Amaziah began his reign over Judah. 2 Amaziah was twenty-five years old at the time, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. (His mother was Jehoaddin, a native of Jerusalem.) 3 He was a good king in the Lord’s sight, though not quite like his ancestor David; but he was as good a king as his father Joash. 4 However, he didn’t destroy the shrines on the hills, so the people still sacrificed and burned incense there.
5 As soon as he had a firm grip on the kingdom, he killed the men who had assassinated his father; 6 but he didn’t kill their children, for the Lord had commanded through the law of Moses that fathers shall not be killed for their children, nor children for the sins of their fathers: everyone must pay the penalty for his own sins. 7 Once Amaziah killed ten thousand Edomites in Salt Valley; he also conquered Sela and changed its name to Joktheel, as it is called to this day.
8 One day he sent a message to King Joash of Israel (the son of Jehoahaz and the grandson of Jehu), daring him to mobilize his army and come out and fight.
9 But King Joash replied, “The thistle of Lebanon demanded of the mighty cedar tree, ‘Give your daughter to be a wife for my son.’ But just then a wild animal passed by and stepped on the thistle and trod it into the ground! 10 You have destroyed Edom and are very proud about it; but my advice to you is, be content with your glory and stay home! Why provoke disaster for both yourself and Judah?”
11 But Amaziah refused to listen, so King Joash of Israel mustered his army. The battle began at Beth-shemesh, one of the cities of Judah, 12 and Judah was defeated and the army fled home. 13 King Amaziah was captured, and the army of Israel marched on Jerusalem and broke down its wall from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, a distance of about six hundred feet. 14 King Joash took many hostages and all the gold and silver from the Temple and palace treasury, also the gold cups. Then he returned to Samaria.
15 The rest of the history of Joash and his war with King Amaziah of Judah are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. 16 When Joash died, he was buried in Samaria with the other kings of Israel. And his son Jeroboam became the new king.
17 Amaziah lived fifteen years longer than Joash, 18 and the rest of his biography is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. 19 There was a plot against his life in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; but his enemies sent assassins and killed him there. 20 His body was returned on horses, and he was buried in the royal cemetery, in the City of David section of Jerusalem.
21 Then his son Azariah became the new king at the age of sixteen. 22 After his father’s death, he built Elath and restored it to Judah.
23 Meanwhile, over in Israel, Jeroboam II had become king during the fifteenth year of the reign of King Amaziah of Judah. Jeroboam’s reign lasted forty-one years. 24 But he was as evil as Jeroboam I (the son of Nebat), who had led Israel into the sin of worshiping idols. 25 Jeroboam II recovered the lost territories of Israel between Hamath and the Dead Sea, just as the Lord God of Israel had predicted through Jonah (son of Amittai) the prophet from Gathhepher. 26 For the Lord saw the bitter plight of Israel—she had no one to help her. 27 And he had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel, so he used King Jeroboam II to save her.
28 The rest of Jeroboam’s biography—all that he did, and his great power, and his wars, and how he recovered Damascus and Hamath (which had been captured by Judah)—is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. 29 When Jeroboam II died, he was buried with the other kings of Israel, and his son Zechariah became the new king of Israel.
23 After spending some time there, he left for Turkey again, going through Galatia and Phrygia visiting all the believers, encouraging them and helping them grow in the Lord.
24 As it happened, a Jew named Apollos, a wonderful Bible teacher and preacher, had just arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. 25-26 While he was in Egypt, someone had told him about John the Baptist and what John had said about Jesus, but that is all he knew. He had never heard the rest of the story! So he was preaching boldly and enthusiastically in the synagogue, “The Messiah is coming! Get ready to receive him!” Priscilla and Aquila were there and heard him—and it was a powerful sermon. Afterwards they met with him and explained what had happened to Jesus since the time of John, and all that it meant![a]
27 Apollos had been thinking about going to Greece, and the believers encouraged him in this. They wrote to their fellow-believers there, telling them to welcome him. And upon his arrival in Greece, he was greatly used of God to strengthen the church, 28 for he powerfully refuted all the Jewish arguments in public debate, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.
19 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through Turkey and arrived in Ephesus, where he found several disciples. 2 “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” he asked them.
“No,” they replied, “we don’t know what you mean. What is the Holy Spirit?”
3 “Then what beliefs did you acknowledge at your baptism?” he asked.
And they replied, “What John the Baptist taught.”
4 Then Paul pointed out to them that John’s baptism was to demonstrate a desire to turn from sin to God and that those receiving his baptism must then go on to believe in Jesus, the one John said would come later.
5 As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in[b] the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 Then, when Paul laid his hands upon their heads, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other languages and prophesied. 7 The men involved were about twelve in number.
8 Then Paul went to the synagogue and preached boldly each Sabbath day[c] for three months, telling what he believed and why, and persuading many to believe in Jesus. 9 But some rejected his message and publicly spoke against Christ, so he left, refusing to preach to them again. Pulling out the believers, he began a separate meeting at the lecture hall of Tyrannus and preached there daily. 10 This went on for the next two years, so that everyone in the Turkish province of Asia Minor—both Jews and Greeks—heard the Lord’s message.
11 And God gave Paul the power to do unusual miracles, 12 so that even when his handkerchiefs or parts of his clothing were placed upon sick people, they were healed, and any demons within them came out.
146 Praise the Lord! Yes, really praise him! 2 I will praise him as long as I live, yes, even with my dying breath.
3 Don’t look to men for help; their greatest leaders fail; 4 for every man must die. His breathing stops, life ends, and in a moment all he planned for himself is ended. 5 But happy is the man who has the God of Jacob as his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God— 6 the God who made both earth and heaven, the seas and everything in them. He is the God who keeps every promise, 7 who gives justice to the poor and oppressed and food to the hungry. He frees the prisoners 8 and opens the eyes of the blind; he lifts the burdens from those bent down beneath their loads. For the Lord loves good men. 9 He protects the immigrants and cares for the orphans and widows. But he turns topsy-turvy the plans of the wicked.
10 The Lord will reign forever. O Jerusalem,[a] your God is King in every generation! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
2 A rebel doesn’t care about the facts. All he wants to do is yell.[a]
3 Sin brings disgrace.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.