1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. 2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Now arise and disguise yourself so that they will not know that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who said regarding me that I would be king over this people. 3 Take ten loaves with you, some pastries, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”
4 And Jeroboam’s wife did so, and set out and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see because his eyes were glossy from his old age. 5 Now the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to inquire of you about her son, because he is sick. You shall say such and such to her, for it will be when she arrives, that she is going to make herself unrecognizable.”
6 So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet coming in the doorway, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam; why do you make yourself unrecognizable? Nevertheless, I am sent to you with a harsh message. 7 Go, say to Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: “Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over My people Israel, 8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you—yet you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, to do only that which was right in My sight; 9 you also have done more evil than all who were before you, and you have gone and made for yourself other gods and cast metal images to provoke Me to anger, and have thrown Me behind your back— 10 therefore behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and I will eliminate from Jeroboam every male person, both bond and free in Israel, and I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, just as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone. 11 Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs will eat. And anyone who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will eat; for the Lord has spoken it.”’ 12 Now you, arise, go to your house. When your feet enter the city the child will die. 13 Then all Israel will mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam’s family will come to the grave, because in him something good was found toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. 14 Moreover, the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will eliminate the house of Jeroboam this day and from now on.
15 “For the Lord will strike Israel, just as a reed sways in the water; and He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the Lord to anger. 16 He will give up Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he committed and with which he misled Israel into sin.”
17 Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she was entering the threshold of the house, the child died. 18 Then all Israel buried him and mourned for him, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He had spoken through His servant Ahijah the prophet.
19 Now as for the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 20 And the time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years; and he lay down with his fathers, and his son Nadab reigned in his place.
21 Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put His name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. 22 And the people of Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. 23 For they, too, built for themselves high places, memorial stones, and Asherim on every high hill and under every luxuriant tree. 24 There were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They committed all the same abominations of the nations which the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.
25 Now it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak the king of Egypt marched against Jerusalem. 26 And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and he took everything; he even took all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. 27 So King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and entrusted them to the care of the commanders of the guard who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. 28 And it happened as often as the king entered the house of the Lord, that the guards would carry them and would bring them back into the guards’ room.
29 Now as for the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 30 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. 31 And Rehoboam lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And his son Abijam became king in his place.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
3 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel 6 which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth; 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, 8 and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard about it, have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all perseverance and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: 16 for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And although you were previously alienated and hostile in attitude, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His body of flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am supplementing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions in behalf of His body, which is the church. 25 I was made a minister of this church according to the commission from God granted to me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which had been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles is, the mystery that is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every person and teaching every person with all wisdom, so that we may present every person complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His power which works mightily within me.
1 Then He brought me back by way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. 2 And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. 3 As for the prince, he shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the porch of the gate and shall go out by the same way.”
4 Then He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and I fell on my face. 5 And the Lord said to me, “Son of man, pay attention, see with your eyes and hear with your ears everything that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the house of the Lord and all its laws; and pay attention to the entrance of the house, with all the exits of the sanctuary. 6 You shall say to the rebellious ones, to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Enough of all your abominations, house of Israel, 7 when you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, My house, when you offered My food, the fat, and the blood and they broke My covenant—this in addition to all your abominations. 8 And you have not taken responsibility for My holy things yourselves, but you have appointed foreigners to take responsibility for My sanctuary.”
9 ‘This is what the Lord God says: “No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary. 10 But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me following their idols, shall suffer the punishment for their wrongdoing. 11 Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house; they shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. 12 Since they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of wrongdoing to the house of Israel, for that reason I have sworn against them,” declares the Lord God, “that they shall suffer the punishment for their wrongdoing. 13 And they shall not approach Me to serve as priests for Me, nor approach any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. 14 Nevertheless I will appoint them to take responsibility for the house, of all its service and of everything that shall be done in it.
15 “But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who took responsibility for My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to serve Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood,” declares the Lord God. 16 “They shall enter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My table to serve Me and assume the responsibility I give them. 17 And it shall be that when they enter at the gates of the inner courtyard, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and wool shall not be worn by them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner courtyard or in the house. 18 Linen turbans shall be on their heads and linen undergarments shall be around their waists; they shall not put on anything that makes them sweat. 19 And when they go out into the outer courtyard, into the outer courtyard to the people, they shall take off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other garments, so that they will not transfer holiness to the people with their garments. 20 Also they shall not shave their heads, yet they shall not let their locks grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads. 21 Nor shall any of the priests drink wine when they enter the inner courtyard. 22 And they shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but shall take virgins from the descendants of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. 23 Moreover, they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the common, and teach them to distinguish between the unclean and the clean. 24 In a dispute they shall take their stand to judge; they shall judge it according to My ordinances. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed feasts, and sanctify My Sabbaths. 25 They shall not go to a dead person to defile themselves; however, for father, for mother, for son, for daughter, for brother, or for a sister who has not had a husband, they may defile themselves. 26 And after he is cleansed, seven days shall elapse for him. 27 On the day that he goes into the sanctuary, to the inner courtyard to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering,” declares the Lord God.
28 “And it shall be regarding an inheritance for them, that I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no property in Israel—I am their property. 29 They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering; and everything banned from secular use in Israel shall be theirs. 30 And the first of all the first fruits of every kind and every contribution of every kind, from all your contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the first of your dough, to make a blessing rest on your house. 31 The priests shall not eat any bird or animal that has died a natural death or has been torn to pieces by animals.
1 The Lord reigns, may the earth rejoice;
May the many islands be joyful.
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround Him;
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
3 Fire goes before Him
And burns up His enemies all around.
4 His lightning lit up the world;
The earth saw it and trembled.
5 The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare His righteousness,
And all the peoples have seen His glory.
7 May all those be ashamed who serve carved images,
Who boast in idols;
Worship Him, all you gods.
8 Zion heard this and was joyful,
And the daughters of Judah have rejoiced
Because of Your judgments, Lord.
9 For You are the Lord Most High over all the earth;
You are exalted far above all gods.
10 Hate evil, you who love the Lord,
Who watches over the souls of His godly ones;
He saves them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light is sown like seed for the righteous,
And gladness for the upright in heart.
12 Be joyful in the Lord, you righteous ones,
And praise the mention of His holy name.
1 Sing a new song to the Lord,
For He has done wonderful things,
His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him.
2 The Lord has made His salvation known;
He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered His graciousness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Be cheerful and sing for joy and sing praises.
5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
With the lyre and the sound of melody.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
Shout joyfully before the King, the Lord.
7 May the sea roar and all it contains,
The world and those who dwell in it.
8 May the rivers clap their hands,
May the mountains sing together for joy
9 Before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth;
He will judge the world with righteousness
And the peoples with fairness.