The Daily Audio Bible

35 Then Josiah announced that the Passover would be celebrated on the first day of April in Jerusalem. The Passover lambs were slain that evening. ² He also reestablished the priests in their duties and encouraged them to begin their work at the Temple again. ³ He issued this order to the sanctified Levites, the religious teachers in Israel:

“Since the Ark is now in Solomon’s Temple and you don’t need to carry it back and forth upon your shoulders, spend your time ministering to the Lord and to his people. ^4-5 Form yourselves into the traditional service corps of your ancestors, as first organized by King David of Israel and by his son Solomon. Each corps will assist particular clans of the people who bring in their offerings to the Temple. ⁶ Kill the Passover lambs and sanctify yourselves and prepare to assist the people who come. Follow all of the instructions of the Lord through Moses.”

⁷ Then the king contributed 30,000 lambs and young goats for the people’s Passover offerings and 3,000 young bulls. ⁸ The king’s officials made willing contributions to the priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the overseers of the Temple, gave the priests 2,600 sheep and goats and 300 oxen as Passover offerings. ⁹ The Levite leaders—Conaniah, Shemaiah, and Nethanel, and his brothers Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad—gave 5,000 sheep and goats and 500 oxen to the Levites for their Passover offerings.

¹⁰ When everything was organized and the priests were standing in their places, and the Levites were formed into service corps as the king had instructed, ¹¹ then the Levites killed the Passover lambs and presented the blood to the priests, who sprinkled it upon the altar as the Levites removed the skins. ¹² They piled up the carcasses for each tribe to present its own burnt sacrifices to the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses. They did the same with the oxen. ¹³ Then, as directed by the laws of Moses, they roasted the Passover lambs and boiled the holy offerings in pots, kettles, and pans, and hurried them out to the people to eat. ¹⁴ Afterwards the Levites prepared a meal for themselves and for the priests, for they had been busy from morning till night offering the fat of the burnt offerings.

¹⁵ The singers (the sons of Asaph) were in their places, following directions issued centuries earlier by King David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s prophet. The gatekeepers guarded the gates and didn’t need to leave their posts of duty, for their meals were brought to them by their Levite brothers. ¹⁶ The entire Passover ceremony was completed in that one day. All the burnt offerings were sacrificed upon the altar of the Lord, as Josiah had instructed.

¹⁷ Everyone present in Jerusalem took part in the Passover observance, and this was followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread for the next seven days. ¹⁸ Never since the time of Samuel the prophet had there been such a Passover—not one of the kings of Israel could vie with King Josiah in this respect, involving so many of the priests, Levites, and people from Jerusalem and from all parts of Judah, and from Israel. ¹⁹ This all happened in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.

²⁰ Afterwards King Neco of Egypt led his army to Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and Josiah declared war on him.

²¹ But King Neco sent ambassadors to Josiah with this message: “I don’t want a fight with you, O king of Judah! I have come only to fight the power with which I am at war. Leave me alone! God has told me to hurry! Don’t meddle with God or he will destroy you, for he is with me.”

²² But Josiah refused to turn back. Instead he led his army into the battle at the valley of Megiddo. (He laid aside his royal robes so that the enemy wouldn’t recognize him.) Josiah refused to believe that Neco’s message was from God. ²³ The enemy archers struck King Josiah with their arrows and fatally wounded him.

“Take me out of the battle,” he exclaimed to his aides.

^24-25 So they lifted him out of his chariot and placed him in his second chariot and brought him back to Jerusalem where he died. He was buried there in the royal cemetery. And all Judah and Jerusalem, including even Jeremiah the prophet, mourned for him, as did the Temple choirs. To this day they still sing sad songs about his death, for these songs of sorrow were recorded among the official lamentations.

²⁶ The other activities of Josiah, and his good deeds, and how he followed the laws of the Lord, ²⁷ all are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

36 Josiah’s son Jehoahaz was selected as the new king. ² He was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, but lasted only three months. ³ Then he was deposed by the king of Egypt, who demanded an annual tribute from Judah of $230,000.

⁴ The king of Egypt now appointed Eliakim, the brother of Jehoahaz, as the new king of Judah. (Eliakim’s name was changed to Jehoiakim.) Jehoahaz was taken to Egypt as a prisoner. ⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; but his reign was an evil one. ⁶ Finally Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon conquered Jerusalem and took away the king in chains to Babylon. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the gold bowls and other items from the Temple, placing them in his own temple in Babylon. ⁸ The rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all the evil he did are written in The Annals of the Kings of Judah; and his son Jehoiachin became the new king.

⁹ Jehoiachin was eighteen^[a] years old when he ascended the throne. But he lasted only three months and ten days, and it was an evil reign as far as the Lord was concerned. ¹⁰ The following spring he was summoned to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. Many treasures from the Temple were taken away to Babylon at that time, and King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin’s brother Zedekiah as the new king of Judah and Jerusalem.

¹¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹² His reign, too, was evil so far as the Lord was concerned, for he refused to take the counsel of Jeremiah the prophet, who gave him messages from the Lord. ¹³ He rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, even though he had taken an oath of loyalty. Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man so far as obeying the Lord God of Israel was concerned, for he refused to follow him.

¹⁴ All the important people of the nation, including the High Priests, worshiped the heathen idols of the surrounding nations, thus polluting the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Jehovah the God of their fathers sent his prophets again and again to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and on his Temple. ¹⁶ But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words, scoffing at the prophets until the anger of the Lord could no longer be restrained, and there was no longer any remedy.

¹⁷ Then the Lord brought the king of Babylon against them and killed their young men, even going after them right into the Temple, and had no pity upon them, killing even young girls and old men. The Lord used the king of Babylon to destroy them completely. ¹⁸ He also took home with him all the items, great and small, used in the Temple, and treasures from both the Temple and the palace, and took with him all the royal princes. ¹⁹ Then his army burned the Temple and broke down the walls of Jerusalem and burned all the palaces and destroyed all the valuable Temple utensils. ²⁰ Those who survived were taken away to Babylon as slaves to the king and his sons until the kingdom of Persia conquered Babylon.

²¹ Thus the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah came true, that the land must rest for seventy years to make up for the years when the people refused to observe the Sabbath.

^22-23 But in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to make this proclamation throughout his kingdom, putting it into writing:

“All the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord God of heaven, and he has instructed me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in the land of Judah. All among you who are the Lord’s people return to Israel for this task, and the Lord be with you.”

This also fulfilled the prediction of Jeremiah the prophet.

1 From: Paul, chosen by God to be Jesus Christ’s missionary, and from brother Sosthenes.

² To: The Christians in Corinth, invited by God to be his people and made acceptable to him by Christ Jesus.^[a] And to: All Christians everywhere—whoever calls upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and theirs.

³ May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you all of his blessings, and great peace of heart and mind.

⁴ I can never stop thanking God for all the wonderful gifts he has given you, now that you are Christ’s: ⁵ he has enriched your whole life. He has helped you speak out for him and has given you a full understanding of the truth; ⁶ what I told you Christ could do for you has happened! ⁷ Now you have every grace and blessing; every spiritual gift and power for doing his will are yours during this time of waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁸ And he guarantees right up to the end that you will be counted free from all sin and guilt on that day when he returns. ⁹ God will surely do this for you, for he always does just what he says, and he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, even Christ our Lord.

¹⁰ But, dear brothers, I beg you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so that there won’t be splits in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. ¹¹ For some of those who live at Chloe’s house have told me of your arguments and quarrels, dear brothers. ¹² Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul”; and others say that they are for Apollos or for Peter; and some that they alone are the true followers of Christ. ¹³ And so, in effect, you have broken Christ into many pieces.

But did I, Paul, die for your sins? Were any of you baptized in my name? ¹⁴ I am so thankful now that I didn’t baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. ¹⁵ For now no one can think that I have been trying to start something new, beginning a “Church of Paul.” ¹⁶ Oh, yes, and I baptized the family of Stephanas. I don’t remember ever baptizing anyone else. ¹⁷ For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel; and even my preaching sounds poor, for I do not fill my sermons with profound words and high-sounding ideas, for fear of diluting the mighty power there is in the simple message of the cross of Christ.

27 The Lord is my light and my salvation; he protects me from danger—whom shall I fear? ² When evil men come to destroy me, they will stumble and fall! ³ Yes, though a mighty army marches against me, my heart shall know no fear! I am confident that God will save me.

⁴ The one thing I want from God, the thing I seek most of all, is the privilege of meditating in his Temple, living in his presence every day of my life, delighting in his incomparable perfections and glory. ⁵ There I’ll be when troubles come. He will hide me. He will set me on a high rock ⁶ out of reach of all my enemies. Then I will bring him sacrifices and sing his praises with much joy.

²⁰ God puts out the light of the man who curses his father or mother.

²¹ Quick wealth is not a blessing in the end.