Chronicles: Amaziah · Jonah

2 Chronicles 25 WEB

¹Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan, of Jerusalem. ²He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, but not with a perfect heart. ³Now when the kingdom was established to him, he killed his servants who had killed his father the king. ⁴But he didn’t put their children to death, but did according to that which is written in the law in the book of Moses, as the LORD commanded, saying, “The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers; but every man shall die for his own sin.” ⁵Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together and ordered them according to their fathers’ houses, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, even all Judah and Benjamin. He counted them from twenty years old and upward, and found that there were three hundred thousand chosen men, able to go out to war, who could handle spear and shield. ⁶He also hired one hundred thousand mighty men of valor out of Israel for one hundred talents of silver. ⁷A man of God came to him, saying, “O king, don’t let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel, with all the children of Ephraim. ⁸But if you will go, take action, and be strong for the battle. God will overthrow you before the enemy; for God has power to help, and to overthrow.” ⁹Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?” The man of God answered, “The LORD is able to give you much more than this.” ¹⁰Then Amaziah separated them, the army that had come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again. Therefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger. ¹¹Amaziah took courage, and led his people out and went to the Valley of Salt, and struck ten thousand of the children of Seir. ¹²The children of Judah carried away ten thousand alive, and brought them to the top of the rock, and threw them down from the top of the rock, so that they all were broken in pieces. ¹³But the men of the army whom Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell on the cities of Judah from Samaria even to Beth Horon, and struck of them three thousand, and took much plunder. ¹⁴Now after Amaziah had come from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them and burned incense to them. ¹⁵Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet who said to him, “Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which have not delivered their own people out of your hand?” ¹⁶As he talked with him, the king said to him, “Have we made you one of the king’s counselors? Stop! Why should you be struck down?” Then the prophet stopped, and said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.” ¹⁷Then Amaziah king of Judah consulted his advisers, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, “Come! Let’s look one another in the face.” ¹⁸Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, “The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as his wife. Then a wild animal that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle. ¹⁹You say to yourself that you have struck Edom; and your heart lifts you up to boast. Now stay at home. Why should you meddle with trouble, that you should fall, even you and Judah with you?’” ²⁰But Amaziah would not listen; for it was of God, that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought after the gods of Edom. ²¹So Joash king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth Shemesh, which belongs to Judah. ²²Judah was defeated by Israel; so every man fled to his tent. ²³Joash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth Shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits. ²⁴He took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in God’s house with Obed-Edom, and the treasures of the king’s house, and the hostages, and returned to Samaria. ²⁵Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel. ²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, behold, aren’t they written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? ²⁷Now from the time that Amaziah turned away from following the LORD, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem. He fled to Lachish, but they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there. ²⁸They brought him on horses and buried him with his fathers in the City of Judah.

Jonah 1–4 WEB

^1:1Now the LORD’s word came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ²“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach against it, for their wickedness has come up before me.” ³But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid its fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. ⁴But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was likely to break up. ⁵Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship and he was laying down, and was fast asleep. ⁶So the ship master came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God! Maybe your God will notice us, so that we won’t perish.” ⁷They all said to each other, “Come! Let’s cast lots, that we may know who is responsible for this evil that is on us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸Then they asked him, “Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?” ⁹He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. ¹¹Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may be calm to us?” For the sea grew more and more stormy. ¹²He said to them, “Take me up, and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will be calm for you; for I know that because of me this great storm is on you.” ¹³Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not, for the sea grew more and more stormy against them. ¹⁴Therefore they cried to the LORD, and said, “We beg you, LORD, we beg you, don’t let us die for this man’s life, and don’t lay on us innocent blood; for you, LORD, have done as it pleased you.” ¹⁵So they took up Jonah and threw him into the sea; and the sea ceased its raging. ¹⁶Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. ¹⁷The LORD prepared a huge fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

^2:1Then Jonah prayed to the LORD, his God, out of the fish’s belly. ²He said, “I called because of my affliction to the LORD. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice. ³For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me. ⁴I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.’ ⁵The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head. ⁶I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever; yet you have brought my life up from the pit, LORD my God. ⁷“When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD. My prayer came in to you, into your holy temple. ⁸Those who regard vain idols forsake their own mercy. ⁹But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the LORD.” ¹⁰Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.

^3:1The LORD’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying, ²“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.” ³So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. ⁴Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!” ⁵The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. ⁶The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; ⁸but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. ⁹Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?” ¹⁰God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.

^4:1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. ²He prayed to the LORD, and said, “Please, LORD, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and you relent of doing harm. ³Therefore now, LORD, take, I beg you, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴The LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” ⁵Then Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would become of the city. ⁶The LORD God prepared a vine and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the vine. ⁷But God prepared a worm at dawn the next day, and it chewed on the vine so that it withered. ⁸When the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat on Jonah’s head, so that he was faint and requested for himself that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” ⁹God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?” He said, “I am right to be angry, even to death.” ¹⁰The LORD said, “You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many animals?”