2 Chronicles 25; 2 Chronicles 26; 2 Chronicles 27; John 16

2 Chronicles 25

1 Amaziah was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem.

2 He did what was right in the LORD's eyes but not with all his heart.

3 Once he had secured control over his kingdom, he executed the officials who had assassinated his father the king.

4 However, he didn't kill their children because of what is written in the Instruction scroll from Moses, where the LORD commanded, Parents shouldn't be executed because of what their children have done; neither should children be executed because of what their parents have done. Each person should be executed for their own guilty acts.

5 Amaziah gathered the people of Judah, organizing them into family units under captains of thousands and hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He summoned everyone 20 years old and older and found that there were three hundred thousand select troops, ready for service and able to handle spears and body-sized shields.

6 He also hired one hundred thousand warriors from Israel for one hundred kikkars of silver.

7 But a man of God confronted him. "King," he said, "the troops from Israel must not go with you, because the LORD isn't on the side of Israel or any Ephraimite.

8 Should you go with them anyway, even if you fight fiercely, God will make you stumble before the enemy, because God has the ability to either help or make someone stumble."

9 Amaziah asked the man of God, "What about the hundred kikkars I paid for the Israelite troops?" "God can give you much more than that," the man of God replied.

10 Amaziah released the Ephraimite troops who had joined him so they could go home, but this only infuriated them against Judah, and they left in a rage.

11 Amaziah courageously led his people to the Salt Valley, where they killed ten thousand people from Seir.

12 The Judean forces captured another ten thousand alive, brought them to the top of a cliff, and threw them off so that all were dashed to pieces.

13 Meanwhile, the troops Amaziah had released from fighting alongside him raided cities in Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, killing three thousand people and carrying off a large amount of loot.

14 When Amaziah returned after defeating the Edomites, he brought the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down before them, and burned incense to them.

15 As a result, the LORD was angry with Amaziah and sent a prophet to him. "Why do you seek the gods of this people?" the prophet asked. "They couldn't even deliver their own people from you!"

16 "Since when do you give me advice?" Amaziah interrupted. "You better quit before you end up dead!" So the prophet stopped, but not until he said, "I know God plans to destroy you because you've done this and because you've refused to listen to my advice."

17 After Judah's King Amaziah consulted with his advisors, he sent a challenge to Israel's King Joash, Jehoahaz's son and Jehu's grandson. "Come on," he said, "let's go head-to-head!"

18 Israel's King Joash sent the following reply to Judah's King Amaziah: "Once upon a time, a thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar: ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.' But then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle.

19 Do you think that because you've defeated Edom, you can arrogantly seek even more? Stay home! Why invite disaster when both you and Judah will fall?"

20 But Amaziah wouldn't listen, because God intended to use this to destroy them since they had sought Edom's gods.

21 So Israel's King Joash moved against Judah's King Amaziah and went head-to-head in battle at Beth-shemesh in Judah.

22 Judah was defeated by Israel, and everyone ran home.

23 At Beth-shemesh, Israel's King Joash captured Judah's King Amaziah, Jehoash's son and Ahaziah's grandson. Joash brought him to Jerusalem and broke down six hundred feet of the Jerusalem wall from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate.

24 Joash took all the gold and silver, and all the objects he could find in God's temple in the care of Obed-edom, and in the treasuries of the palace, along with some hostages. Then he returned to Samaria.

25 Judah's King Amaziah, Jehoash's son, lived fifteen years after the death of Israel's King Joash, Jehoahaz's son.

26 The rest of Amaziah's deeds, from beginning to end, aren't they written in the official records of Israel's and Judah's kings?

27 From the time Amaziah turned away from the LORD, some people conspired against him in Jerusalem. When Amaziah fled to Lachish, they sent men after him, and they murdered him in Lachish.

28 They carried him back on horses and he was buried with his ancestors in David's City.

2 Chronicles 26

1 Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king after his father Amaziah.

2 He rebuilt Eloth, restoring it to Judah after King Amaziah had lain down with his ancestors.

3 Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king, and he ruled for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem.

4 He did what was right in the LORD's eyes, just as his father Amaziah had done.

5 He sought God as long as Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, was alive. And as long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.

6 He marched against the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. Then he rebuilt towns near Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines.

7 God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabs who inhabited Gur, and the Meunites.

8 The Meunites paid taxes to Uzziah, whose fame spread even to Egypt because he had grown so powerful.

9 He built towers in Jerusalem, at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and reinforced them.

10 He also built towers in the wilderness and dug many wells for his large herds in the lowlands and the plain. He had many workers who tended his farms and vineyards, because he loved the soil.

11 Uzziah had a standing army equipped for combat whose units went to war according to the number determined by the scribe Jeiel and Maaseiah, an officer under the authority of Hananiah, one of the king's officials.

12 The grand total of family heads in charge of these courageous warriors was twenty-six hundred.

13 They commanded an army of three hundred seven thousand five hundred. They formed a powerful force that could support the king against the enemy.

14 Uzziah supplied the entire force with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and sling stones.

15 He set up clever devices in Jerusalem on the towers and corners of the wall designed to shoot arrows and large stones. And so Uzziah's fame spread far and wide, because he had received wonderful help until he became powerful.

16 But as soon as he became powerful, he grew so arrogant that he acted corruptly. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God by entering the LORD's sanctuary to burn incense upon the incense altar.

17 The priest Azariah, accompanied by eighty other of the LORD's courageous priests, went in after him

18 and confronted King Uzziah. "You have no right, Uzziah," he said, "to burn incense to the LORD! That privilege belongs to the priests, Aaron's descendants, who have been ordained to burn incense. Get out of this holy place because you have been unfaithful! The LORD God won't honor you for this."

19 Then Uzziah, who already had a censer in his hand ready to burn the incense, became angry. While he was fuming at the priests, skin disease erupted on his forehead in the presence of the priests before the incense altar in the LORD's temple.

20 When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests turned and saw the skin disease on his forehead, they rushed him out of there. Uzziah also was anxious to leave because the LORD had afflicted him.

21 King Uzziah had skin disease until the day he died. He lived in a separate house, diseased in his skin, because he was barred from the LORD's temple. His son Jotham supervised the palace administration and governed the people of the land.

22 The rest of Uzziah's deeds, from beginning to end, were written down by the prophet Isaiah, Amoz's son.

23 Uzziah died and was buried with his ancestors in a field belonging to the kings, because people said, "He had skin disease." His son Jotham succeeded him as king.

2 Chronicles 27

1 Jotham was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerushah; she was Zadok's daughter.

2 Jotham did what was right in the LORD's eyes, just as his father Uzziah had done. Unlike Uzziah, Jotham didn't enter the LORD's temple. But the people continued their crooked practices.

3 Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the LORD's temple and did extensive work on the wall of the elevated fortress.

4 He built towns in Judah's highlands and fortresses and towers in the wooded areas.

5 He fought against the king of the Ammonites and defeated the Ammonites. They paid him one hundred kikkars of silver, ten thousand kors of wheat, and ten thousand kors of barley that year and for the next two years.

6 Jotham was securely established because he maintained a faithful life before the LORD his God.

7 The rest of Jotham's deeds, including all his wars and accomplishments, are written in the official records of Israel's and Judah's kings.

8 He was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem.

9 Jotham lay down with his ancestors and was buried in David's City. His son Ahaz succeeded him as king.

John 16

1 I have said these things to you so that you won't fall away.

2 They will expel you from the synagogue. The time is coming when those who kill you will think that they are doing a service to God.

3 They will do these things because they don't know the Father or me.

4 But I have said these things to you so that when their time comes, you will remember that I told you about them.

5 “I didn't say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go away to the one who sent me. None of you ask me, ‘Where are you going?'

6 Yet because I have said these things to you, you are filled with sorrow.

7 I assure you that it is better for you that I go away. If I don't go away, the CompanionOr Advocate won't come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

8 When he comes, he will show the world it was wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment.

9 He will show the world it was wrong about sin because they don't believe in me.

10 He will show the world it was wrong about righteousness because I'm going to the Father and you won't see me anymore.

11 He will show the world it was wrong about judgment because this world's ruler stands condemned.

12 "I have much more to say to you, but you can't handle it now.

13 However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you in all truth. He won't speak on his own, but will say whatever he hears and will proclaim to you what is to come.

14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and proclaim it to you.

15 Everything that the Father has is mine. That's why I said that the Spirit takes what is mine and will proclaim it to you.

16 Soon you won't be able to see me; soon after that, you will see me."

17 Some of Jesus' disciples said to each other, "What does he mean: ‘Soon you won't see me, and soon after that you will see me' and ‘Because I'm going to the Father'?

18 What does he mean by ‘soon'? We don't understand what he's talking about."

19 Jesus knew they wanted to ask him, so he said, “Are you trying to find out from each other what I meant when I said, ‘Soon you won't see me, and soon after that you will see me'?

20 I assure you that you will cry and lament, and the world will be happy. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

21 When a woman gives birth, she has pain because her time has come. But when the child is born, she no longer remembers her distress because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

22 In the same way, you have sorrow now; but I will see you again, and you will be overjoyed. No one takes away your joy.

23 In that day, you won't ask me anything. I assure you that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

24 Up to now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive so that your joy will be complete.

25 "I've been using figures of speech with you. The time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in such analogies. Instead, I will tell you plainly about the Father.

26 In that day you will ask in my name. I'm not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.

27 The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and believed that I came from God.

28 I left the Father and came into the world. I tell you again: I am leaving the world and returning to the Father."

29 His disciples said, "See! Now you speak plainly; you aren't using figures of speech.

30 Now we know that you know everything and you don't need anyone to ask you. Because of this we believe you have come from God."

31 Jesus replied, "Now you believe?

32 Look! A time is coming—and is here!—when each of you will be scattered to your own homes and you will leave me alone. I'm not really alone, for the Father is with me.

33 I've said these things to you so that you will have peace in me. In the world you have distress. But be encouraged! I have conquered the world."