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15 1-2 New king of Judah: Azariah
Father’s name: Amaziah, the former king
His age at the beginning of his reign: 16 years old
Length of reign: 52 years, in Jerusalem
Mother’s name: Jecoliah of Jerusalem
Reigning in Israel at that time: King Jeroboam, who had been the king there for 27 years
3 Azariah was a good king, and he pleased the Lord just as his father Amaziah had. 4 But like his predecessors, he didn’t destroy the shrines on the hills where the people sacrificed and burned incense. 5 Because of this[a] the Lord struck him with leprosy, which lasted until the day of his death; so he lived in a house by himself. And his son Jotham was the acting king. 6 The rest of the history of Azariah is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. 7 When Azariah died, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David, and his son Jotham became king.
8 New king of Israel: Zechariah
Father’s name: Jeroboam
Length of reign: 6 months, in Samaria
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 38 years
9 But Zechariah was an evil king in the Lord’s sight, just like his ancestors. Like Jeroboam I (the son of Nebat), he encouraged Israel in the sin of worshiping idols. 10 Then Shallum (the son of Jabesh) conspired against him and assassinated him at Ibleam and took the crown himself. 11 The rest of the history of Zechariah’s reign is found in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. 12 (So the Lord’s statement to Jehu came true, that Jehu’s son, grandson, and great-grandson would be kings of Israel.[b])
13 New king of Israel: Shallum
Father’s name: Jabesh
Length of reign: 1 month, in Samaria
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Uzziah, who had been the king there for 39 years
14 One month after Shallum became king, Menahem (the son of Gadi) came to Samaria from Tirzah and assassinated him and took the throne. 15 Additional details about King Shallum and his conspiracy[c] are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
16 Menahem destroyed the city of Tappuah and the surrounding countryside, for its citizens refused to accept him as their king; he killed the entire population and ripped open the pregnant women.
17 New king of Israel: Menahem
Length of reign: 10 years, in Samaria
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 39 years
18 But Menahem was an evil king. He worshiped idols, as King Jeroboam I had done so long before, and he led the people of Israel into grievous sin. 19-20 Then King Pul of Assyria invaded the land; but King Menahem bought him off with a gift of $2,000,000, so he turned around and returned home. Menahem extorted the money from the rich, assessing each one $2,000 in the form of a special tax. 21 The rest of the history of King Menahem is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. 22 When he died, his son Pekahiah became the new king.
23 New king of Israel: Pekahiah
Father’s name: King Menahem
Length of reign: 2 years, in Samaria
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 50 years
24 But Pekahiah was an evil king, and he continued the idol worship begun by Jeroboam I (son of Nebat) who led Israel down that evil trail.
25 Then Pekah (son of Remaliah), the commanding general of his army, conspired against him with fifty men from Gilead and assassinated him in the palace at Samaria (Argob and Arieh were also slain in the revolt). So Pekah became the new king. 26 The rest of the history of King Pekahiah is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
27 New king of Israel: Pekah
Father’s name: Remaliah
Length of reign: 20 years, in Samaria
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Azariah, who had been the king there for 52 years
28 Pekah, too, was an evil king, and he continued in the example of Jeroboam I (son of Nebat), who led all of Israel into the sin of worshiping idols. 29 It was during his reign that King Tiglath-pileser[d] led an attack against Israel. He captured the cities of Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali; and he took the people away to Assyria as captives. 30 Then Hoshea (the son of Elah) plotted against Pekah and assassinated him; and he took the throne for himself.
New king of Israel: Hoshea
Reigning in Judah at that time: King Jotham (son of Uzziah), who had been the king there for 20 years
31 The rest of the history of Pekah’s reign is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Israel.
32-33 New king of Judah: Jotham
Father’s name: King Uzziah
His age at the beginning of his reign: 25 years old
Length of reign: 16 years, in Jerusalem
Mother’s name: Jerusha (daughter of Zadok)
Reigning in Israel at that time: King Pekah (son of Remaliah), who had been the king there for 2 years
34-35 Generally speaking, Jotham was a good king. Like his father Uzziah, he followed the Lord. But he didn’t destroy the shrines on the hills where the people sacrificed and burned incense. It was during King Jotham’s reign that the upper gate of the Temple of the Lord was built. 36 The rest of Jotham’s history is written in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. 37 In those days the Lord caused King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel to attack Judah. 38 When Jotham died he was buried with the other kings of Judah in the royal cemetery, in the City of David section of Jerusalem. Then his son Ahaz became the new king.
16 New king of Judah: Ahaz
Father’s name: Jotham
His age at the beginning of his reign: 20 years old
Length of reign: 16 years, in Jerusalem
Character of his reign: evil
Reigning in Israel at that time: King Pekah (son of Remaliah), who had been the king there for 17 years
2 But he did not follow the Lord as his ancestor David had; 3 he was as wicked as the kings of Israel. He even killed his own son by offering him as a burnt sacrifice to the gods, following the heathen customs of the nations around Judah—nations that the Lord destroyed when the people of Israel entered the land. 4 He also sacrificed and burned incense at the shrines on the hills and at the numerous altars in the groves of trees.
5 Then King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah (son of Remaliah) of Israel declared war on Ahaz and besieged Jerusalem; but they did not conquer it. 6 However, at that time King Rezin of Syria recovered the city of Elath for Syria; he drove out the Jews and sent Syrians to live there, as they do to this day. 7 King Ahaz sent a messenger to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, begging him to help him fight the attacking armies of Syria and Israel.[e] 8 Ahaz took the silver and gold from the Temple and from the royal vaults and sent it as a payment to the Assyrian king. 9 So the Assyrians attacked Damascus, the capital of Syria. They took away the population of the city as captives, resettling them in Kir, and King Rezin of Syria was killed.
10 King Ahaz now went to Damascus to meet with King Tiglath-pileser, and while he was there he noticed an unusual altar in a heathen temple.[f] He jotted down its dimensions and made a sketch and sent it back to Uriah the priest with a detailed description. 11-12 Uriah built one just like it by following these directions and had it ready for the king, who, upon his return from Damascus, inaugurated it with an offering. 13 The king presented a burnt offering and a grain offering, poured a drink offering over it, and sprinkled the blood of peace offerings upon it. 14 Then he removed the old bronze altar from the front of the Temple (it had stood between the Temple entrance and the new altar), and placed it on the north side of the new altar. 15 He instructed Uriah the priest to use the new altar for the sacrifices of burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and grain offering, and the offerings of the people, including their drink offerings. The blood from the burnt offerings and sacrifices was also to be sprinkled over the new altar. So the old altar was used only for purposes of divination.
“The old bronze altar,” he said, “will be only for my personal use.”
16 Uriah the priest did as King Ahaz instructed him. 17 Then the king dismantled the wheeled stands in the Temple, removed their crosspieces and the water vats they supported, and removed the great tank from the backs of the bronze oxen and placed it upon the stone pavement. 18 In deference to the king of Assyria he also removed the festive passageway he had constructed between the palace and the Temple.[g]
19 The rest of the history of the reign of King Ahaz is recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Judah. 20 When Ahaz died he was buried in the royal cemetery, in the City of David sector of Jerusalem, and his son Hezekiah became the new king.
13 A team of itinerant Jews who were traveling from town to town casting out demons planned to experiment by using the name of the Lord Jesus. The incantation they decided on was this: “I adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest, were doing this. 15 But when they tried it on a man possessed by a demon, the demon replied, “I know Jesus and I know Paul, but who are you?” 16 And he leaped on two of them and beat them up, so that they fled out of his house naked and badly injured.
17 The story of what happened spread quickly all through Ephesus, to Jews and Greeks alike; and a solemn fear descended on the city, and the name of the Lord Jesus was greatly honored. 18-19 Many of the believers who had been practicing black magic confessed their deeds and brought their incantation books and charms and burned them at a public bonfire. (Someone estimated the value of the books at $10,000.
21 Afterwards Paul felt impelled by the Holy Spirit[b] to go across to Greece before returning to Jerusalem. “And after that,” he said, “I must go on to Rome!” 22 He sent his two assistants, Timothy and Erastus, on ahead to Greece while he stayed awhile longer in Asia Minor.
23 But about that time, a big blowup developed in Ephesus concerning the Christians. 24 It began with Demetrius, a silversmith who employed many craftsmen to manufacture silver shrines of the Greek goddess Diana. 25 He called a meeting of his men, together with others employed in related trades, and addressed them as follows:
“Gentlemen, this business is our income. 26 As you know so well from what you’ve seen and heard, this man Paul has persuaded many, many people that handmade gods aren’t gods at all. As a result, our sales volume is going down! And this trend is evident not only here in Ephesus, but throughout the entire province! 27 Of course, I am not only talking about the business aspects of this situation and our loss of income, but also of the possibility that the temple of the great goddess Diana will lose its influence, and that Diana—this magnificent goddess worshiped not only throughout this part of Turkey but all around the world—will be forgotten!”
28 At this their anger boiled and they began shouting, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”
29 A crowd began to gather, and soon the city was filled with confusion. Everyone rushed to the amphitheater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions, for trial. 30 Paul wanted to go in, but the disciples wouldn’t let him. 31 Some of the Roman officers of the province, friends of Paul, also sent a message to him, begging him not to risk his life by entering.
32 Inside the people were all shouting, some one thing and some another—everything was in confusion. In fact, most of them didn’t even know why they were there.
33 Alexander was spotted among the crowd by some of the Jews and dragged forward. He motioned for silence and tried to speak. 34 But when the crowd realized he was a Jew, they started shouting again and kept it up for two hours: “Great is Diana of the Ephesians! Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”
35 At last the mayor was able to quiet them down enough to speak. “Men of Ephesus,” he said, “everyone knows that Ephesus is the center[c] of the religion of the great Diana, whose image fell down to us from heaven. 36 Since this is an indisputable fact, you shouldn’t be disturbed no matter what is said, and should do nothing rash. 37 Yet you have brought these men here who have stolen nothing from her temple and have not defamed her. 38 If Demetrius and the craftsmen have a case against them, the courts are currently in session and the judges can take the case at once. Let them go through legal channels. 39 And if there are complaints about other matters, they can be settled at the regular City Council meetings; 40 for we are in danger of being called to account by the Roman government for today’s riot, since there is no cause for it. And if Rome demands an explanation, I won’t know what to say.”
41 Then he dismissed them, and they dispersed.
147 Hallelujah! Yes, praise the Lord! How good it is to sing his praises! How delightful, and how right!
2 He is rebuilding Jerusalem and bringing back the exiles. 3 He heals the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds. 4 He counts the stars and calls them all by name. 5 How great he is! His power is absolute! His understanding is unlimited. 6 The Lord supports the humble, but brings the wicked into the dust.
7 Sing out your thanks to him; sing praises to our God, accompanied by harps. 8 He covers the heavens with clouds, sends down the showers, and makes the green grass grow in mountain pastures. 9 He feeds the wild animals, and the young ravens cry to him for food. 10 The speed of a horse is nothing to him. How puny in his sight is the strength of a man. 11 But his joy is in those who reverence him, those who expect him to be loving and kind.
12 Praise him, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! 13 For he has fortified your gates against all enemies and blessed your children. 14 He sends peace across your nation and fills your barns with plenty of the finest wheat. 15 He sends his orders to the world. How swiftly his word flies. 16 He sends the snow in all its lovely whiteness, scatters the frost upon the ground, 17 and hurls the hail upon the earth. Who can stand before his freezing cold? 18 But then he calls for warmer weather, and the spring winds blow and all the river ice is broken. 19 He has made known his laws and ceremonies of worship to Israel— 20 something he has not done with any other nation; they have not known his commands.
Hallelujah! Yes, praise the Lord!
4 A wise man’s words express deep streams of thought.
5 It is wrong for a judge to favor the wicked and condemn the innocent.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.