Elijah and King Ahaziah

¹After the death of King Ahab of Israel the country of Moab rebelled against Israel.

²King Ahaziah of Israel fell off the balcony on the roof of his palace in Samaria and was seriously injured. So he sent some messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of the Philistine city of Ekron, in order to find out whether or not he would recover.

³But an angel of the Lord commanded Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe, to go and meet the messengers of King Ahaziah and ask them, “Why are you going to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? Is it because you think there is no god in Israel?

⁴Tell the king that the Lord says, ‘You will not recover from your injuries; you will die!’” Elijah did as the Lord commanded,

⁵and the messengers returned to the king. “Why have you come back?” he asked.

⁶They answered, “We were met by a man who told us to come back and tell you that the Lord says to you, ‘Why are you sending messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? Is it because you think there is no god in Israel? You will not recover from your injuries; you will die!’”

⁷“What did the man look like?” the king asked.

⁸“He was wearing a cloak made of animal skins, tied with a leather belt,” they answered. “It's Elijah!” the king exclaimed.

⁹Then he sent an officer with fifty men to get Elijah. The officer found him sitting on a hill and said to him, “Man of God, the king orders you to come down.”

¹⁰“If I am a man of God,” Elijah answered, “may fire come down from heaven and kill you and your men!” At once fire came down and killed the officer and his men.

¹¹The king sent another officer with fifty men, who went up and said to Elijah, “Man of God, the king orders you to come down at once!”

¹²“If I am a man of God,” Elijah answered, “may fire come down from heaven and kill you and your men!” At once the fire of God came down and killed the officer and his men.

¹³Once more the king sent an officer with fifty men. He went up the hill, fell on his knees in front of Elijah, and pleaded, “Man of God, be merciful to me and my men. Spare our lives!

¹⁴The two other officers and their men were killed by fire from heaven; but please be merciful to me!”

¹⁵The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him, and don't be afraid.” So Elijah went with the officer to the king

¹⁶and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you sent messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron—as if there were no god in Israel to consult—you will not get well; you will die!’”

¹⁷Ahaziah died, as the Lord had said through Elijah. Ahaziah had no sons, so his brother Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of the reign of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

¹⁸Everything else that King Ahaziah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.

King Joash of Judah

¹Joash became king of Judah at the age of seven, and he ruled in Jerusalem for forty years. His mother was Zibiah from the city of Beersheba.

²He did what was pleasing to the Lord as long as Jehoiada the priest was alive.

³Jehoiada chose two wives for King Joash, and they bore him sons and daughters.

⁴After he had been king for a while, Joash decided to have the Temple repaired.

⁵He ordered the priests and the Levites to go to the cities of Judah and collect from all the people enough money to make the annual repairs on the Temple. He told them to act promptly, but the Levites delayed,

⁶so he called in Jehoiada, their leader, and demanded, “Why haven't you seen to it that the Levites collect from Judah and Jerusalem the tax which Moses, the servant of the Lord, required the people to pay for support of the Tent of the Lord's presence?”

⁷(The followers of Athaliah, that corrupt woman, had damaged the Temple and had used many of the sacred objects in the worship of Baal.)

⁸The king ordered the Levites to make a box for contributions and to place it at the Temple gate.

⁹They sent word throughout Jerusalem and Judah for everyone to bring to the Lord the tax which Moses, God's servant, had first collected in the wilderness.

¹⁰This pleased the people and their leaders, and they brought their tax money and filled the box with it.

¹¹Every day the Levites would take the box to the royal official who was in charge of it. Whenever it was full, the royal secretary and the High Priest's representative would take the money out and return the box to its place. And so they collected a large sum of money.

¹²The king and Jehoiada would give the money to those who were in charge of repairing the Temple, and they hired stonemasons, carpenters, and metalworkers to make the repairs.

¹³All of them worked hard, and they restored the Temple to its original condition, as solid as ever.

Jehoiada's Policies Are Reversed

¹⁴When the repairs were finished, the remaining gold and silver was given to the king and Jehoiada, who used it to have bowls and other utensils made for the Temple. As long as Jehoiada was alive, sacrifices were offered regularly at the Temple.

¹⁵After reaching the very old age of a hundred and thirty, he died.

¹⁶They buried him in the royal tombs in David's City in recognition of the service he had done for the people of Israel, for God, and for the Temple.

¹⁷But once Jehoiada was dead, the leaders of Judah persuaded King Joash to listen to them instead.

¹⁸And so the people stopped worshiping in the Temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and began to worship idols and the images of the goddess Asherah. Their guilt for these sins brought the Lord's anger on Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁹The Lord sent prophets to warn them to return to him, but the people refused to listen.

²⁰Then the spirit of God took control of Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood where the people could see him and called out, “The Lord God asks why you have disobeyed his commands and are bringing disaster on yourselves! You abandoned him, so he has abandoned you!”

²¹King Joash joined in a conspiracy against Zechariah, and on the king's orders the people stoned Zechariah in the Temple courtyard.

²²The king forgot about the loyal service that Zechariah's father Jehoiada had given him, and he had Zechariah killed. As Zechariah was dying, he called out, “May the Lord see what you are doing and punish you!”

The End of Joash's Reign

²³When autumn came that year, the Syrian army attacked Judah and Jerusalem, killed all the leaders, and took large amounts of loot back to Damascus.

²⁴The Syrian army was small, but the Lord let them defeat a much larger Judean army because the people had abandoned him, the Lord God of their ancestors. In this way King Joash was punished.

²⁵He was severely wounded, and when the enemy withdrew, two of his officials plotted against him and killed him in his bed to avenge the murder of the son of Jehoiada the priest. He was buried in David's City, but not in the royal tombs.

²⁶(Those who plotted against him were Zabad, the son of an Ammonite woman named Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of a Moabite woman named Shimrith.)

²⁷The Commentary on the Book of Kings contains the stories of the sons of Joash, the prophecies spoken against him, and the record of how he rebuilt the Temple. His son Amaziah succeeded him as king.

A Cry for Help

¹Save me, O God! The water is up to my neck;

²I am sinking in deep mud, and there is no solid ground; I am out in deep water, and the waves are about to drown me.

³I am worn out from calling for help, and my throat is aching. I have strained my eyes, looking for your help.

⁴Those who hate me for no reason are more numerous than the hairs of my head. My enemies tell lies against me; they are strong and want to kill me. They made me give back things I did not steal.

⁵My sins, O God, are not hidden from you; you know how foolish I have been.

⁶Don't let me bring shame on those who trust in you, Sovereign Lord Almighty! Don't let me bring disgrace to those who worship you, O God of Israel!

⁷It is for your sake that I have been insulted and that I am covered with shame.

⁸I am like a stranger to my relatives, like a foreigner to my family.

⁹My devotion to your Temple burns in me like a fire; the insults which are hurled at you fall on me.

¹⁰I humble myself by fasting, and people insult me;

¹¹I dress myself in clothes of mourning, and they laugh at me.

¹²They talk about me in the streets, and drunkards make up songs about me.

¹³But as for me, I will pray to you, Lord; answer me, God, at a time you choose. Answer me because of your great love, because you keep your promise to save.

¹⁴Save me from sinking in the mud; keep me safe from my enemies, safe from the deep water.

¹⁵Don't let the flood come over me; don't let me drown in the depths or sink into the grave.

¹⁶Answer me, Lord, in the goodness of your constant love; in your great compassion turn to me!

¹⁷Don't hide yourself from your servant; I am in great trouble—answer me now!

¹⁸Come to me and save me; rescue me from my enemies.

¹⁹You know how I am insulted, how I am disgraced and dishonored; you see all my enemies.

²⁰Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I had hoped for sympathy, but there was none; for comfort, but I found none.

²¹When I was hungry, they gave me poison; when I was thirsty, they offered me vinegar.

²²May their banquets cause their ruin; may their sacred feasts cause their downfall.

²³Strike them with blindness! Make their backs always weak!

²⁴Pour out your anger on them; let your indignation overtake them.

²⁵May their camps be left deserted; may no one be left alive in their tents.

²⁶They persecute those whom you have punished; they talk about the sufferings of those you have wounded.

²⁷Keep a record of all their sins; don't let them have any part in your salvation.

²⁸May their names be erased from the book of the living; may they not be included in the list of your people.

²⁹But I am in pain and despair; lift me up, O God, and save me!

³⁰I will praise God with a song; I will proclaim his greatness by giving him thanks.

³¹This will please the Lord more than offering him cattle, more than sacrificing a full-grown bull.

³²When the oppressed see this, they will be glad; those who worship God will be encouraged.

³³The Lord listens to those in need and does not forget his people in prison.

³⁴Praise God, O heaven and earth, seas and all creatures in them.

³⁵He will save Jerusalem and rebuild the towns of Judah. His people will live there and possess the land;

³⁶the descendants of his servants will inherit it, and those who love him will live there.