2 Chronicles 22

Ahaziah Reigns in Judah

¹bAnd the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, for the band of men that came with cthe Arabians to the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned. ²Ahaziah was twenty-two1 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah, dthe granddaughter of Omri. ³He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in doing wickedly. ⁴He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done. For after the death of his father they were his counselors, to his undoing. ⁵He even followed their counsel and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to make war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead. And the Syrians wounded Joram, ⁶and he returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds that he had received at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was wounded.

⁷But it was ordained by2 God that the downfall of Ahaziah should come about through his going to visit Joram. For when he came there, ehe went out with Jehoram to meet Jehu the son of Nimshi, fwhom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab. ⁸gAnd when Jehu was hexecuting judgment on the house of Ahab, he met the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers, who attended Ahaziah, and he killed them. ⁹iHe searched for Ahaziah, and he was captured while hiding in Samaria, and he was brought to Jehu and put to death. jThey buried him, for they said, “He is the grandson of Jehoshaphat, kwho sought the Lord with all his heart.” And the house of Ahaziah had no one able to rule the kingdom.

Athaliah Reigns in Judah

¹⁰lNow when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family of the house of Judah. ¹¹But Jehoshabeath,3 the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king's sons who were about to be put to death, and she put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of Jehoiada the priest, because she was a sister of Ahaziah, hid him4 from Athaliah, so that she did not put him to death. ¹²And he remained with them six years, hidden in the house of God, while Athaliah reigned over the land.

2 Chronicles 23

Joash Made King

¹mBut in the seventh year Jehoiada took courage and entered into a covenant with the commanders of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, Azariah the son of Obed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri. ²And they went about through nJudah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers' houses of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. ³And all the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And Jehoiada1 said to them, “Behold, the king's son! Let him reign, oas the Lord spoke concerning the sons of David. ⁴This is the thing that you shall do: pof you priests and Levites who come off duty on the Sabbath, one third shall be gatekeepers, ⁵and one third shall be at the king's house and one third at the Gate of the Foundation. And all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord. ⁶Let no one enter the house of the Lord except the priests qand ministering Levites. They may enter, for they are holy, but all the people shall keep the charge of the Lord. ⁷The Levites shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand. And whoever enters the house shall be put to death. Be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out.”

⁸The Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded, and they each brought his men, who were to go off duty on the Sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest did not dismiss rthe divisions. ⁹And Jehoiada the priest gave to the captains the spears and the large and small shields that had been King David's, which were in the house of God. ¹⁰And he set all the people as a guard for the king, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house. ¹¹Then they brought out the king's son and put the crown on him and gave him sthe testimony. And they proclaimed him king, and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, t“Long live the king.”

Athaliah Executed

¹²When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she went into the house of the Lord to the people. ¹³And when she looked, there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and the singers with their musical instruments leading in the celebration. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!” ¹⁴Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains who were set over the army, saying to them, “Bring her out between the ranks, and anyone who follows her is to be put to death with the sword.” For the priest said, “Do not put her to death in the house of the Lord.” ¹⁵So they laid hands on her,2 and she went into the entrance of uthe horse gate of the king's house, and they put her to death there.

Jehoiada's Reforms

¹⁶And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they should be the Lord's people. ¹⁷Then all the people went to the house of Baal and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, vand they killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. ¹⁸And Jehoiada posted watchmen for the house of the Lord under the direction of wthe Levitical priests and the Levites xwhom David had organized to be in charge of the house of the Lord, to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, yas it is written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, zaccording to the order of David. ¹⁹He stationed athe gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the Lord so that no one should enter who was in any way unclean. ²⁰And he took the captains, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the house of the Lord, marching bthrough the upper gate to the king's house. And they set the king on the royal throne. ²¹So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been put to death with the sword.

The Angel and the Little Scroll

¹Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with ya rainbow over his head, and zhis face was like the sun, and ahis legs like pillars of fire. ²bHe had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, ³and called out with a loud voice, clike a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. ⁴And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, d“Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” ⁵And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land eraised his right hand to heaven ⁶and swore by fhim who lives forever and ever, gwho created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, ⁷but that hin the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, ijust as he announced to his servants the prophets.

⁸Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” ⁹So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, j“Take and keat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” ¹⁰And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. ¹¹And I was told, l“You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

A Vision of Four Chariots

¹Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of mbronze. ²The first chariot had nred horses, the second oblack horses, ³the third pwhite horses, and the fourth chariot dappled horses—all of them strong.1 ⁴Then I answered and said to qthe angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” ⁵And the angel answered and said to me, r“These are going out to the four winds of heaven,2 after spresenting themselves before tthe Lord of all the earth. ⁶The chariot with the black horses goes toward uthe north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward vthe south country.” ⁷When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and wpatrol the earth. And he said, “Go, wpatrol the earth.” wSo they patrolled the earth. ⁸Then he cried to me, “Behold, those who go toward uthe north country have set my Spirit at rest in uthe north country.”

The Crown and the Temple

⁹And the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁰“Take from the exiles xHeldai, Tobijah, and yJedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of zZephaniah. ¹¹Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, aand set it on the head of bJoshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. ¹²And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is cthe Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and dhe shall build the temple of the Lord. ¹³dIt is he who shall build the temple of the Lord eand shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there3 shall be a fpriest on his throne, gand the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’ ¹⁴And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as ha reminder to iHelem,4 jTobijah, jJedaiah, and Hen jthe son of Zephaniah.

¹⁵k“And those who are far off shall come and lhelp to build the temple of the Lord. mAnd you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. nAnd this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

¹As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. ²And his disciples asked him, c“Rabbi, dwho sinned, ethis man or fhis parents, that he was born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but gthat the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴We must hwork the works of him who sent me iwhile it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, jI am the light of the world.” ⁶Having said these things, khe spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. lThen he anointed the man's eyes with the mud ⁷and said to him, “Go, wash in mthe pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and ncame back seeing.

⁸The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, o“Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” ¹⁰So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” ¹¹He answered, p“The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” ¹²They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

¹³They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. ¹⁴qNow it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ¹⁵rSo the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” ¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not sfrom God, tfor he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, u“How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And vthere was a division among them. ¹⁷So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, w“He is a prophet.”

¹⁸xThe Jews1 did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight ¹⁹and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” ²⁰His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. ²¹But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” ²²(His parents said these things ybecause they feared the Jews, for zthe Jews had already agreed that if anyone should aconfess Jesus2 to be Christ, bhe was to be put out of the synagogue. ²³Therefore his parents said, c“He is of age; ask him.”)

²⁴So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, d“Give glory to God. We know that ethis man is a sinner.” ²⁵He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I fwas blind, now I see.” ²⁶They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” ²⁷He answered them, g“I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” ²⁸And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but hwe are disciples of Moses. ²⁹We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, iwe do not know where he comes from.” ³⁰The man answered, “Why, this is jan amazing thing! kYou do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹We know that lGod does not listen to sinners, but mif anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. ³²Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. ³³nIf this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” ³⁴They answered him, o“You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they pcast him out.

³⁵Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in qthe Son of Man?”3 ³⁶He answered, r“And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” ³⁷Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and sit is he who is speaking to you.” ³⁸He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. ³⁹Jesus said, t“For judgment I came into this world, uthat those who do not see may see, and vthose who see may become blind.” ⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, w“Are we also blind?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, xyou would have no guilt;4 but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.