Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

2 Kings 12-13; 2 Chronicles 24

2 Kings 12-13

12In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba.

²Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

³The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

⁴Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the Lord -the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple.

⁵Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, and let it be used to repair whatever damage is found in the temple.”

⁶But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple.

⁷Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple.”

⁸The priests agreed that they would not collect any more money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves.

⁹Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid. He placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the temple of the Lord . The priests who guarded the entrance put into the chest all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord .

¹⁰Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal secretary and the high priest came, counted the money that had been brought into the temple of the Lord and put it into bags.

¹¹When the amount had been determined, they gave the money to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. With it they paid those who worked on the temple of the Lord -the carpenters and builders,

¹²the masons and stonecutters. They purchased timber and dressed stone for the repair of the temple of the Lord , and met all the other expenses of restoring the temple.

¹³The money brought into the temple was not spent for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or any other articles of gold or silver for the temple of the Lord ;

¹⁴it was paid to the workmen, who used it to repair the temple.

¹⁵They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty.

¹⁶The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the temple of the Lord ; it belonged to the priests.

¹⁷About this time Hazael king of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem.

¹⁸But Joash king of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his fathers-Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah-and the gifts he himself had dedicated and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and of the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, who then withdrew from Jerusalem.

¹⁹As for the other events of the reign of Joash, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

²⁰His officials conspired against him and assassinated him at Beth Millo, on the road down to Silla.

²¹The officials who murdered him were Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer. He died and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king.

13In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years.

²He did evil in the eyes of the Lord by following the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, and he did not turn away from them.

³So the Lord ‘s anger burned against Israel, and for a long time he kept them under the power of Hazael king of Aram and Ben-Hadad his son.

⁴Then Jehoahaz sought the Lord ‘s favor, and the Lord listened to him, for he saw how severely the king of Aram was oppressing Israel.

⁵The Lord provided a deliverer for Israel, and they escaped from the power of Aram. So the Israelites lived in their own homes as they had before.

⁶But they did not turn away from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit; they continued in them. Also, the Asherah pole remained standing in Samaria.

⁷Nothing had been left of the army of Jehoahaz except fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers, for the king of Aram had destroyed the rest and made them like the dust at threshing time.

⁸As for the other events of the reign of Jehoahaz, all he did and his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

⁹Jehoahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoash his son succeeded him as king.

¹⁰In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned sixteen years.

¹¹He did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he continued in them.

¹²As for the other events of the reign of Jehoash, all he did and his achievements, including his war against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

¹³Jehoash rested with his fathers, and Jeroboam succeeded him on the throne. Jehoash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

¹⁴Now Elisha was suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”

¹⁵Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so.

¹⁶“Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.

¹⁷“Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. “The Lord ‘s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”

¹⁸Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped.

¹⁹The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”

²⁰Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring.

²¹Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.

²²Hazael king of Aram oppressed Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz.

²³But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion and showed concern for them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. To this day he has been unwilling to destroy them or banish them from his presence.

²⁴Hazael king of Aram died, and Ben-Hadad his son succeeded him as king.

²⁵Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured from Ben-Hadad son of Hazael the towns he had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz. Three times Jehoash defeated him, and so he recovered the Israelite towns.

2 Chronicles 24

24Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba.

²Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest.

³Jehoiada chose two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.

⁴Some time later Joash decided to restore the temple of the Lord .

⁵He called together the priests and Levites and said to them, “Go to the towns of Judah and collect the money due annually from all Israel, to repair the temple of your God. Do it now.” But the Levites did not act at once.

⁶Therefore the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the Lord and by the assembly of Israel for the Tent of the Testimony?”

⁷Now the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah had broken into the temple of God and had used even its sacred objects for the Baals.

⁸At the king’s command, a chest was made and placed outside, at the gate of the temple of the Lord .

⁹A proclamation was then issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they should bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had required of Israel in the desert.

¹⁰All the officials and all the people brought their contributions gladly, dropping them into the chest until it was full.

¹¹Whenever the chest was brought in by the Levites to the king’s officials and they saw that there was a large amount of money, the royal secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and carry it back to its place. They did this regularly and collected a great amount of money.

¹²The king and Jehoiada gave it to the men who carried out the work required for the temple of the Lord . They hired masons and carpenters to restore the Lord ‘s temple, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the temple.

¹³The men in charge of the work were diligent, and the repairs progressed under them. They rebuilt the temple of God according to its original design and reinforced it.

¹⁴When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made articles for the Lord ‘s temple: articles for the service and for the burnt offerings, and also dishes and other objects of gold and silver. As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the Lord .

¹⁵Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty.

¹⁶He was buried with the kings in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his temple.

¹⁷After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them.

¹⁸They abandoned the temple of the Lord , the God of their fathers, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁹Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.

²⁰Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you disobey the Lord ‘s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord , he has forsaken you.’ “

²¹But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord ‘s temple.

²²King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, “May the Lord see this and call you to account.”

²³At the turn of the year, the army of Aram marched against Joash; it invaded Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people. They sent all the plunder to their king in Damascus.

²⁴Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the Lord delivered into their hands a much larger army. Because Judah had forsaken the Lord , the God of their fathers, judgment was executed on Joash.

²⁵When the Arameans withdrew, they left Joash severely wounded. His officials conspired against him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

²⁶Those who conspired against him were Zabad, son of Shimeath an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith a Moabite woman.

²⁷The account of his sons, the many prophecies about him, and the record of the restoration of the temple of God are written in the annotations on the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

2 Kings 9-11

9The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead.

²When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room.

³Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and run; don’t delay!”

⁴So the young man, the prophet, went to Ramoth Gilead.

⁵When he arrived, he found the army officers sitting together. “I have a message for you, commander,” he said. “For which of us?” asked Jehu. “For you, commander,” he replied.

⁶Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the prophet poured the oil on Jehu’s head and declared, “This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the Lord ‘s people Israel.

⁷You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the Lord ‘s servants shed by Jezebel.

⁸The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel-slave or free.

⁹I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah.

¹⁰As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her.’ ” Then he opened the door and ran.

¹¹When Jehu went out to his fellow officers, one of them asked him, “Is everything all right? Why did this madman come to you?” “You know the man and the sort of things he says,” Jehu replied.

¹²“That’s not true!” they said. “Tell us.” Jehu said, “Here is what he told me: ‘This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.’ “

¹³They hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, “Jehu is king!”

¹⁴So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead against Hazael king of Aram,

¹⁵but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.) Jehu said, “If this is the way you feel, don’t let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.”

¹⁶Then he got into his chariot and rode to Jezreel, because Joram was resting there and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to see him.

¹⁷When the lookout standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troops approaching, he called out, “I see some troops coming.” “Get a horseman,” Joram ordered. “Send him to meet them and ask, ‘Do you come in peace?’ “

¹⁸The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, “This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?’ ” “What do you have to do with peace?” Jehu replied. “Fall in behind me.” The lookout reported, “The messenger has reached them, but he isn’t coming back.”

¹⁹So the king sent out a second horseman. When he came to them he said, “This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?’ ” Jehu replied, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me.”

²⁰The lookout reported, “He has reached them, but he isn’t coming back either. The driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi-he drives like a madman.”

²¹“Hitch up my chariot,” Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite.

²²When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”

²³Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, “Treachery, Ahaziah!”

²⁴Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot.

²⁵Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, “Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord made this prophecy about him:

²⁶‘Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord , and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord .’ Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord .”

²⁷When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him, shouting, “Kill him too!” They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam, but he escaped to Megiddo and died there.

²⁸His servants took him by chariot to Jerusalem and buried him with his fathers in his tomb in the City of David.

²⁹(In the eleventh year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king of Judah.)

³⁰Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window.

³¹As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, “Have you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?”

³²He looked up at the window and called out, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked down at him.

³³“Throw her down!” Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.

³⁴Jehu went in and ate and drank. “Take care of that cursed woman,” he said, “and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter.”

³⁵But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands.

³⁶They went back and told Jehu, who said, “This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel’s flesh.

³⁷Jezebel’s body will be like refuse on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’ “

10Now there were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel, to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab’s children. He said,

²“As soon as this letter reaches you, since your master’s sons are with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons,

³choose the best and most worthy of your master’s sons and set him on his father’s throne. Then fight for your master’s house.”

⁴But they were terrified and said, “If two kings could not resist him, how can we?”

⁵So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: “We are your servants and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best.”

⁶Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, “If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master’s sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow.” Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them.

⁷When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel.

⁸When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, “They have brought the heads of the princes.” Then Jehu ordered, “Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning.”

⁹The next morning Jehu went out. He stood before all the people and said, “You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these?

¹⁰Know then, that not a word the Lord has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The Lord has done what he promised through his servant Elijah.”

¹¹So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.

¹²Jehu then set out and went toward Samaria. At Beth Eked of the Shepherds,

¹³he met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, “Who are you?” They said, “We are relatives of Ahaziah, and we have come down to greet the families of the king and of the queen mother.”

¹⁴“Take them alive!” he ordered. So they took them alive and slaughtered them by the well of Beth Eked-forty-two men. He left no survivor.

¹⁵After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab son of Recab, who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, “Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?” “I am,” Jehonadab answered. “If so,” said Jehu, “give me your hand.” So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot.

¹⁶Jehu said, “Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord .” Then he had him ride along in his chariot.

¹⁷When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed all who were left there of Ahab’s family; he destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord spoken to Elijah.

¹⁸Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much.

¹⁹Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his ministers and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.” But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the ministers of Baal.

²⁰Jehu said, “Call an assembly in honor of Baal.” So they proclaimed it.

²¹Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the ministers of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other.

²²And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, “Bring robes for all the ministers of Baal.” So he brought out robes for them.

²³Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Recab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the ministers of Baal, “Look around and see that no servants of the Lord are here with you-only ministers of Baal.”

²⁴So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: “If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life.”

²⁵As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: “Go in and kill them; let no one escape.” So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal.

²⁶They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it.

²⁷They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.

²⁸So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel.

²⁹However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit-the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.

³⁰The Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”

³¹Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord , the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.

³²In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory

³³east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.

³⁴As for the other events of Jehu’s reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

³⁵Jehu rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king.

³⁶The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

11When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.

²But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so he was not killed.

³He remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the Lord for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

⁴In the seventh year Jehoiada sent for the commanders of units of a hundred, the Carites and the guards and had them brought to him at the temple of the Lord . He made a covenant with them and put them under oath at the temple of the Lord . Then he showed them the king’s son.

⁵He commanded them, saying, “This is what you are to do: You who are in the three companies that are going on duty on the Sabbath-a third of you guarding the royal palace,

⁶a third at the Sur Gate, and a third at the gate behind the guard, who take turns guarding the temple-

⁷and you who are in the other two companies that normally go off Sabbath duty are all to guard the temple for the king.

⁸Station yourselves around the king, each man with his weapon in his hand. Anyone who approaches your ranks must be put to death. Stay close to the king wherever he goes.”

⁹The commanders of units of a hundred did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each one took his men-those who were going on duty on the Sabbath and those who were going off duty-and came to Jehoiada the priest.

¹⁰Then he gave the commanders the spears and shields that had belonged to King David and that were in the temple of the Lord .

¹¹The guards, each with his weapon in his hand, stationed themselves around the king-near the altar and the temple, from the south side to the north side of the temple.

¹²Jehoiada brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; he presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him, and the people clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live the king!”

¹³When Athaliah heard the noise made by the guards and the people, she went to the people at the temple of the Lord .

¹⁴She looked and there was the king, standing by the pillar, as the custom was. The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her robes and called out, “Treason! Treason!”

¹⁵Jehoiada the priest ordered the commanders of units of a hundred, who were in charge of the troops: “Bring her out between the ranks and put to the sword anyone who follows her.” For the priest had said, “She must not be put to death in the temple of the Lord .”

¹⁶So they seized her as she reached the place where the horses enter the palace grounds, and there she was put to death.

¹⁷Jehoiada then made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people that they would be the Lord ‘s people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people.

¹⁸All the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols to pieces and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. Then Jehoiada the priest posted guards at the temple of the Lord .

¹⁹He took with him the commanders of hundreds, the Carites, the guards and all the people of the land, and together they brought the king down from the temple of the Lord and went into the palace, entering by way of the gate of the guards. The king then took his place on the royal throne,

²⁰and all the people of the land rejoiced. And the city was quiet, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword at the palace.

²¹Joash was seven years old when he began to reign.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

2 Kings 5-8

5Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

²Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.

³She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

⁴Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said.

⁵“By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing.

⁶The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

⁷As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”

⁸When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

⁹So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house.

¹⁰Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

¹¹But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.

¹²Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.

¹³Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!”

¹⁴So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

¹⁵Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. Please accept now a gift from your servant.”

¹⁶The prophet answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.

¹⁷“If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord .

¹⁸But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I bow there also-when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.”

¹⁹“Go in peace,” Elisha said. After Naaman had traveled some distance,

²⁰Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said to himself, “My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.”

²¹So Gehazi hurried after Naaman. When Naaman saw him running toward him, he got down from the chariot to meet him. “Is everything all right?” he asked.

²²“Everything is all right,” Gehazi answered. “My master sent me to say, ‘Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.’ “

²³“By all means, take two talents,” said Naaman. He urged Gehazi to accept them, and then tied up the two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing. He gave them to two of his servants, and they carried them ahead of Gehazi.

²⁴When Gehazi came to the hill, he took the things from the servants and put them away in the house. He sent the men away and they left.

²⁵Then he went in and stood before his master Elisha. “Where have you been, Gehazi?” Elisha asked. “Your servant didn’t go anywhere,” Gehazi answered.

²⁶But Elisha said to him, “Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants and maidservants?

²⁷Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever.” Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and he was leprous, as white as snow.

6The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us.

²Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to live.” And he said, “Go.”

³Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?” “I will,” Elisha replied.

⁴And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees.

⁵As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh, my lord,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!”

⁶The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.

⁷“Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.

⁸Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”

⁹The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans are going down there.”

¹⁰So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.

¹¹This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Will you not tell me which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”

¹²“None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”

¹³“Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.”

¹⁴Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.

¹⁵When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.

¹⁶“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

¹⁷And Elisha prayed, “O Lord , open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

¹⁸As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord , “Strike these people with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.

¹⁹Elisha told them, “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to Samaria.

²⁰After they entered the city, Elisha said, “Lord , open the eyes of these men so they can see.” Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.

²¹When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?”

²²“Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill men you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.”

²³So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.

²⁴Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria.

²⁵There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.

²⁶As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”

²⁷The king replied, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?”

²⁸Then he asked her, “What’s the matter?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’

²⁹So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,’ but she had hidden him.”

³⁰When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and there, underneath, he had sackcloth on his body.

³¹He said, “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!”

³²Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Don’t you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”

³³While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, “This disaster is from the Lord . Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”

7Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord . This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”

²The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”

³Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die?

⁴If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’-the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”

⁵At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, not a man was there,

⁶for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!”

⁷So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

⁸The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp and entered one of the tents. They ate and drank, and carried away silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

⁹Then they said to each other, “We’re not doing right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”

¹⁰So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and not a man was there-not a sound of anyone-only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.”

¹¹The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.

¹²The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’ “

¹³One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here-yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”

¹⁴So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.”

¹⁵They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king.

¹⁶Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.

¹⁷Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.

¹⁸It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”

¹⁹The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!”

²⁰And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.

8Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.”

²The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

³At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king to beg for her house and land.

⁴The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.”

⁵Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to beg the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”

⁶The king asked the woman about it, and she told him. Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

⁷Elisha went to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill. When the king was told, “The man of God has come all the way up here,”

⁸he said to Hazael, “Take a gift with you and go to meet the man of God. Consult the Lord through him; ask him, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ “

⁹Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a gift forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus. He went in and stood before him, and said, “Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask, ‘Will I recover from this illness?’ “

¹⁰Elisha answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover’; but the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die.”

¹¹He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael felt ashamed. Then the man of God began to weep.

¹²“Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women.”

¹³Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog, accomplish such a feat?” “The Lord has shown me that you will become king of Aram,” answered Elisha.

¹⁴Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, “What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael replied, “He told me that you would certainly recover.”

¹⁵But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died. Then Hazael succeeded him as king.

¹⁶In the fifth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, when Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat began his reign as king of Judah.

¹⁷He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.

¹⁸He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord .

¹⁹Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever.

²⁰In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king.

²¹So Jehoram went to Zair with all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night; his army, however, fled back home.

²²To this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah. Libnah revolted at the same time.

²³As for the other events of Jehoram’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

²⁴Jehoram rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.

²⁵In the twelfth year of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.

²⁶Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.

²⁷He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the Lord , as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.

²⁸Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram;

²⁹so King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramoth in his battle with Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab, because he had been wounded.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

2 Kings 1-4

1After Ahab’s death, Moab rebelled against Israel.

²Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, “Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury.”

³But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’

⁴Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!’ ” So Elijah went.

⁵When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you come back?”

⁶“A man came to meet us,” they replied. “And he said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, “This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending men to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!” ‘ “

⁷The king asked them, “What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?”

⁸They replied, “He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist.” The king said, “That was Elijah the Tishbite.”

⁹Then he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “Man of God, the king says, ‘Come down!’ “

¹⁰Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.

¹¹At this the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. The captain said to him, “Man of God, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’ “

¹²“If I am a man of God,” Elijah replied, “may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.

¹³So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. “Man of God,” he begged, “please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants!

¹⁴See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have respect for my life!”

¹⁵The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

¹⁶He told the king, “This is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”

¹⁷So he died, according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram succeeded him as king in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah.

¹⁸As for all the other events of Ahaziah’s reign, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

2When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.

²Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

³The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?” “Yes, I know,” Elisha replied, “but do not speak of it.”

⁴Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, Elisha; the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” And he replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho.

⁵The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, “Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today?” “Yes, I know,” he replied, “but do not speak of it.”

⁶Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to the Jordan.” And he replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them walked on.

⁷Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan.

⁸Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

⁹When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.

¹⁰“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours-otherwise not.”

¹¹As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.

¹²Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.

¹³He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

¹⁴Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord , the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.

¹⁵The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

¹⁶“Look,” they said, “we your servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.” “No,” Elisha replied, “do not send them.”

¹⁷But they persisted until he was too ashamed to refuse. So he said, “Send them.” And they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him.

¹⁸When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”

¹⁹The men of the city said to Elisha, “Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive.”

²⁰“Bring me a new bowl,” he said, “and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him.

²¹Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.’ “

²²And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.

²³From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. “Go on up, you baldhead!” they said. “Go on up, you baldhead!”

²⁴He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord . Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

²⁵And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

3Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years.

²He did evil in the eyes of the Lord , but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made.

³Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.

⁴Now Mesha king of Moab raised sheep, and he had to supply the king of Israel with a hundred thousand lambs and with the wool of a hundred thousand rams.

⁵But after Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

⁶So at that time King Joram set out from Samaria and mobilized all Israel.

⁷He also sent this message to Jehoshaphat king of Judah: “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?” “I will go with you,” he replied. “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

⁸“By what route shall we attack?” he asked. “Through the Desert of Edom,” he answered.

⁹So the king of Israel set out with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. After a roundabout march of seven days, the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them.

¹⁰“What!” exclaimed the king of Israel. “Has the Lord called us three kings together only to hand us over to Moab?”

¹¹But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord through him?” An officer of the king of Israel answered, “Elisha son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water on the hands of Elijah. “

¹²Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the Lord is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

¹³Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What do we have to do with each other? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.” “No,” the king of Israel answered, “because it was the Lord who called us three kings together to hand us over to Moab.”

¹⁴Elisha said, “As surely as the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, if I did not have respect for the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you or even notice you.

¹⁵But now bring me a harpist.” While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha

¹⁶and he said, “This is what the Lord says: Make this valley full of ditches.

¹⁷For this is what the Lord says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink.

¹⁸This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord ; he will also hand Moab over to you.

¹⁹You will overthrow every fortified city and every major town. You will cut down every good tree, stop up all the springs, and ruin every good field with stones.”

²⁰The next morning, about the time for offering the sacrifice, there it was-water flowing from the direction of Edom! And the land was filled with water.

²¹Now all the Moabites had heard that the kings had come to fight against them; so every man, young and old, who could bear arms was called up and stationed on the border.

²²When they got up early in the morning, the sun was shining on the water. To the Moabites across the way, the water looked red-like blood.

²³“That’s blood!” they said. “Those kings must have fought and slaughtered each other. Now to the plunder, Moab!”

²⁴But when the Moabites came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and fought them until they fled. And the Israelites invaded the land and slaughtered the Moabites.

²⁵They destroyed the towns, and each man threw a stone on every good field until it was covered. They stopped up all the springs and cut down every good tree. Only Kir Hareseth was left with its stones in place, but men armed with slings surrounded it and attacked it as well.

²⁶When the king of Moab saw that the battle had gone against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they failed.

²⁷Then he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. The fury against Israel was great; they withdrew and returned to their own land.

4The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord . But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

²Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.”

³Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.

⁴Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

⁵She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.

⁶When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

⁸One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat.

⁹She said to her husband, “I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God.

¹⁰Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.”

¹¹One day when Elisha came, he went up to his room and lay down there.

¹²He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call the Shunammite.” So he called her, and she stood before him.

¹³Elisha said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. Now what can be done for you? Can we speak on your behalf to the king or the commander of the army?’ ” She replied, “I have a home among my own people.”

¹⁴“What can be done for her?” Elisha asked. Gehazi said, “Well, she has no son and her husband is old.”

¹⁵Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway.

¹⁶“About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord,” she objected. “Don’t mislead your servant, O man of God!”

¹⁷But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

¹⁸The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers.

¹⁹“My head! My head!” he said to his father. His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

²⁰After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

²¹She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.

²²She called her husband and said, “Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of God quickly and return.”

²³“Why go to him today?” he asked. “It’s not the New Moon or the Sabbath.” “It’s all right,” she said.

²⁴She saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Lead on; don’t slow down for me unless I tell you.”

²⁵So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite!

²⁶Run to meet her and ask her, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’ ” “Everything is all right,” she said.

²⁷When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.”

²⁸“Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”

²⁹Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.”

³⁰But the child’s mother said, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So he got up and followed her.

³¹Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.”

³²When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch.

³³He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord .

³⁴Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy’s body grew warm.

³⁵Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

³⁶Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.” And he did. When she came, he said, “Take your son.”

³⁷She came in, fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.

³⁸Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these men.”

³⁹One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine. He gathered some of its gourds and filled the fold of his cloak. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.

⁴⁰The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it.

⁴¹Elisha said, “Get some flour.” He put it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

⁴²A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe grain, along with some heads of new grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said.

⁴³“How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked. But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’ “

⁴⁴Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord .

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

Obadiah; Psalm 82-83

Obadiah

1The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom- We have heard a message from the Lord : An envoy was sent to the nations to say, “Rise, and let us go against her for battle”-

²“See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised.

³The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

⁴Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.

⁵“If thieves came to you, if robbers in the night- Oh, what a disaster awaits you- would they not steal only as much as they wanted? If grape pickers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes?

⁶But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged!

⁷All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it.

⁸“In that day,” declares the Lord , “will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, men of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

⁹Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau’s mountains will be cut down in the slaughter.

¹⁰Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever.

¹¹On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.

¹²You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.

¹³You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor look down on them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.

¹⁴You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble.

¹⁵“The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.

¹⁶Just as you drank on my holy hill, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and drink and be as if they had never been.

¹⁷But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will possess its inheritance.

¹⁸The house of Jacob will be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame; the house of Esau will be stubble, and they will set it on fire and consume it. There will be no survivors from the house of Esau.” The Lord has spoken.

¹⁹People from the Negev will occupy the mountains of Esau, and people from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead.

²⁰This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan will possess the land as far as Zarephath; the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the towns of the Negev.

²¹Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.

PSALM 82

¹God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the “gods”:

²“How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

³Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

⁴Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

⁵“They know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

⁶“I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.’

⁷But you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler.”

⁸Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are your inheritance.

PSALM 83

¹O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still.

²See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads.

³With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.

⁴“Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.”

⁵With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you-

⁶the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites,

⁷Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre.

⁸Even Assyria has joined them to lend strength to the descendants of Lot. Selah

⁹Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,

¹⁰who perished at Endor and became like refuse on the ground.

¹¹Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

¹²who said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.”

¹³Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind.

¹⁴As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,

¹⁵so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm.

¹⁶Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek your name, O Lord .

¹⁷May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace.

¹⁸Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord – that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

2 Chronicles 19-23

19When Jehoshaphat king of Judah returned safely to his palace in Jerusalem,

²Jehu the seer, the son of Hanani, went out to meet him and said to the king, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord ? Because of this, the wrath of the Lord is upon you.

³There is, however, some good in you, for you have rid the land of the Asherah poles and have set your heart on seeking God.”

⁴Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem, and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim and turned them back to the Lord , the God of their fathers.

⁵He appointed judges in the land, in each of the fortified cities of Judah.

⁶He told them, “Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for man but for the Lord , who is with you whenever you give a verdict.

⁷Now let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Judge carefully, for with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.”

⁸In Jerusalem also, Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites, priests and heads of Israelite families to administer the law of the Lord and to settle disputes. And they lived in Jerusalem.

⁹He gave them these orders: “You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the Lord .

¹⁰In every case that comes before you from your fellow countrymen who live in the cities-whether bloodshed or other concerns of the law, commands, decrees or ordinances-you are to warn them not to sin against the Lord ; otherwise his wrath will come on you and your brothers. Do this, and you will not sin.

¹¹“Amariah the chief priest will be over you in any matter concerning the Lord , and Zebadiah son of Ishmael, the leader of the tribe of Judah, will be over you in any matter concerning the king, and the Levites will serve as officials before you. Act with courage, and may the Lord be with those who do well.”

20After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites came to make war on Jehoshaphat.

²Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Sea. It is already in Hazazon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi).

³Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord , and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah.

⁴The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord ; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.

⁵Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the Lord in the front of the new courtyard

⁶and said: “O Lord , God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.

⁷O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?

⁸They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying,

⁹‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’

¹⁰“But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them.

¹¹See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance.

¹²O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.”

¹³All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord .

¹⁴Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph, as he stood in the assembly.

¹⁵He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.

¹⁶Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel.

¹⁷You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’ “

¹⁸Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord .

¹⁹Then some Levites from the Kohathites and Korahites stood up and praised the Lord , the God of Israel, with very loud voice.

²⁰Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.”

²¹After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord , for his love endures forever.”

²²As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.

²³The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another.

²⁴When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped.

²⁵So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value-more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it.

²⁶On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Beracah, where they praised the Lord . This is why it is called the Valley of Beracah to this day.

²⁷Then, led by Jehoshaphat, all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the Lord had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies.

²⁸They entered Jerusalem and went to the temple of the Lord with harps and lutes and trumpets.

²⁹The fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel.

³⁰And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side.

³¹So Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.

³²He walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord .

³³The high places, however, were not removed, and the people still had not set their hearts on the God of their fathers.

³⁴The other events of Jehoshaphat’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the annals of Jehu son of Hanani, which are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel.

³⁵Later, Jehoshaphat king of Judah made an alliance with Ahaziah king of Israel, who was guilty of wickedness.

³⁶He agreed with him to construct a fleet of trading ships. After these were built at Ezion Geber,

³⁷Eliezer son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have made an alliance with Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy what you have made.” The ships were wrecked and were not able to set sail to trade.

21Then Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David. And Jehoram his son succeeded him as king.

²Jehoram’s brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat, were Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariahu, Michael and Shephatiah. All these were sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel.

³Their father had given them many gifts of silver and gold and articles of value, as well as fortified cities in Judah, but he had given the kingdom to Jehoram because he was his firstborn son.

⁴When Jehoram established himself firmly over his father’s kingdom, he put all his brothers to the sword along with some of the princes of Israel.

⁵Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years.

⁶He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for he married a daughter of Ahab. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord .

⁷Nevertheless, because of the covenant the Lord had made with David, the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David. He had promised to maintain a lamp for him and his descendants forever.

⁸In the time of Jehoram, Edom rebelled against Judah and set up its own king.

⁹So Jehoram went there with his officers and all his chariots. The Edomites surrounded him and his chariot commanders, but he rose up and broke through by night.

¹⁰To this day Edom has been in rebellion against Judah. Libnah revolted at the same time, because Jehoram had forsaken the Lord , the God of his fathers.

¹¹He had also built high places on the hills of Judah and had caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray.

¹²Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet, which said: “This is what the Lord , the God of your father David, says: ‘You have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah.

¹³But you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your father’s house, men who were better than you.

¹⁴So now the Lord is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow.

¹⁵You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.’ “

¹⁶The Lord aroused against Jehoram the hostility of the Philistines and of the Arabs who lived near the Cushites.

¹⁷They attacked Judah, invaded it and carried off all the goods found in the king’s palace, together with his sons and wives. Not a son was left to him except Ahaziah, the youngest.

¹⁸After all this, the Lord afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels.

¹⁹In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain. His people made no fire in his honor, as they had for his fathers.

²⁰Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

22The people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, Jehoram’s youngest son, king in his place, since the raiders, who came with the Arabs into the camp, had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.

²Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.

³He too walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him in doing wrong.

⁴He did evil in the eyes of the Lord , as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father’s death they became his advisers, to his undoing.

⁵He also followed their counsel when he went with Joram son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram;

⁶so he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds they had inflicted on him at Ramoth in his battle with Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to see Joram son of Ahab because he had been wounded.

⁷Through Ahaziah’s visit to Joram, God brought about Ahaziah’s downfall. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab.

⁸While Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s relatives, who had been attending Ahaziah, and he killed them.

⁹He then went in search of Ahaziah, and his men captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. He was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, “He was a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart.” So there was no one in the house of Ahaziah powerful enough to retain the kingdom.

¹⁰When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family of the house of Judah.

¹¹But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Because Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and wife of the priest Jehoiada, was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid the child from Athaliah so she could not kill him.

¹²He remained hidden with them at the temple of God for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

23In the seventh year Jehoiada showed his strength. He made a covenant with the commanders of units of a hundred: Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zicri.

²They went throughout Judah and gathered the Levites and the heads of Israelite families from all the towns. When they came to Jerusalem,

³the whole assembly made a covenant with the king at the temple of God. Jehoiada said to them, “The king’s son shall reign, as the Lord promised concerning the descendants of David.

⁴Now this is what you are to do: A third of you priests and Levites who are going on duty on the Sabbath are to keep watch at the doors,

⁵a third of you at the royal palace and a third at the Foundation Gate, and all the other men are to be in the courtyards of the temple of the Lord .

⁶No one is to enter the temple of the Lord except the priests and Levites on duty; they may enter because they are consecrated, but all the other men are to guard what the Lord has assigned to them.

⁷The Levites are to station themselves around the king, each man with his weapons in his hand. Anyone who enters the temple must be put to death. Stay close to the king wherever he goes.”

⁸The Levites and all the men of Judah did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each one took his men-those who were going on duty on the Sabbath and those who were going off duty-for Jehoiada the priest had not released any of the divisions.

⁹Then he gave the commanders of units of a hundred the spears and the large and small shields that had belonged to King David and that were in the temple of God.

¹⁰He stationed all the men, each with his weapon in his hand, around the king-near the altar and the temple, from the south side to the north side of the temple.

¹¹Jehoiada and his sons brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; they presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him and shouted, “Long live the king!”

¹²When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and cheering the king, she went to them at the temple of the Lord .

¹³She looked, and there was the king, standing by his pillar at the entrance. The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and singers with musical instruments were leading the praises. Then Athaliah tore her robes and shouted, “Treason! Treason!”

¹⁴Jehoiada the priest sent out the commanders of units of a hundred, who were in charge of the troops, and said to them: “Bring her out between the ranks and put to the sword anyone who follows her.” For the priest had said, “Do not put her to death at the temple of the Lord .”

¹⁵So they seized her as she reached the entrance of the Horse Gate on the palace grounds, and there they put her to death.

¹⁶Jehoiada then made a covenant that he and the people and the king would be the Lord ‘s people.

¹⁷All the people went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.

¹⁸Then Jehoiada placed the oversight of the temple of the Lord in the hands of the priests, who were Levites, to whom David had made assignments in the temple, to present the burnt offerings of the Lord as written in the Law of Moses, with rejoicing and singing, as David had ordered.

¹⁹He also stationed doorkeepers at the gates of the Lord ‘s temple so that no one who was in any way unclean might enter.

²⁰He took with him the commanders of hundreds, the nobles, the rulers of the people and all the people of the land and brought the king down from the temple of the Lord . They went into the palace through the Upper Gate and seated the king on the royal throne,

²¹and all the people of the land rejoiced. And the city was quiet, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

1 Kings 22; 2 Chronicles 18

1 Kings 22

22For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel.

²But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel.

³The king of Israel had said to his officials, “Don’t you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?”

⁴So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?” Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

⁵But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the Lord .”

⁶So the king of Israel brought together the prophets-about four hundred men-and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?” “Go,” they answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”

⁷But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?”

⁸The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the Lord , but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that,” Jehoshaphat replied.

⁹So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”

¹⁰Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them.

¹¹Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, “This is what the Lord says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’ “

¹²All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”

¹³The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”

¹⁴But Micaiah said, “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what the Lord tells me.”

¹⁵When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?” “Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”

¹⁶The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord ?”

¹⁷Then Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the Lord said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’ “

¹⁸The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?”

¹⁹Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord : I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left.

²⁰And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’ “One suggested this, and another that.

²¹Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’

²²” ‘By what means?’ the Lord asked. ” ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. ” ‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the Lord . ‘Go and do it.’

²³“So now the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.”

²⁴Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from the Lord go when he went from me to speak to you?” he asked.

²⁵Micaiah replied, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room.”

²⁶The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son

²⁷and say, ‘This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.’ “

²⁸Micaiah declared, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!”

²⁹So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead.

³⁰The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.

³¹Now the king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.”

³²When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “Surely this is the king of Israel.” So they turned to attack him, but when Jehoshaphat cried out,

³³the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel and stopped pursuing him.

³⁴But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told his chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.”

³⁵All day long the battle raged, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. The blood from his wound ran onto the floor of the chariot, and that evening he died.

³⁶As the sun was setting, a cry spread through the army: “Every man to his town; everyone to his land!”

³⁷So the king died and was brought to Samaria, and they buried him there.

³⁸They washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria (where the prostitutes bathed), and the dogs licked up his blood, as the word of the Lord had declared.

³⁹As for the other events of Ahab’s reign, including all he did, the palace he built and inlaid with ivory, and the cities he fortified, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

⁴⁰Ahab rested with his fathers. And Ahaziah his son succeeded him as king.

⁴¹Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.

⁴²Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.

⁴³In everything he walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not stray from them; he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord . The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.

⁴⁴Jehoshaphat was also at peace with the king of Israel.

⁴⁵As for the other events of Jehoshaphat’s reign, the things he achieved and his military exploits, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

⁴⁶He rid the land of the rest of the male shrine prostitutes who remained there even after the reign of his father Asa.

⁴⁷There was then no king in Edom; a deputy ruled.

⁴⁸Now Jehoshaphat built a fleet of trading ships to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail-they were wrecked at Ezion Geber.

⁴⁹At that time Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my men sail with your men,” but Jehoshaphat refused.

⁵⁰Then Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of David his father. And Jehoram his son succeeded him.

⁵¹Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years.

⁵²He did evil in the eyes of the Lord , because he walked in the ways of his father and mother and in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.

⁵³He served and worshiped Baal and provoked the Lord , the God of Israel, to anger, just as his father had done.

2 Chronicles 18

18Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honor, and he allied himself with Ahab by marriage.

²Some years later he went down to visit Ahab in Samaria. Ahab slaughtered many sheep and cattle for him and the people with him and urged him to attack Ramoth Gilead.

³Ahab king of Israel asked Jehoshaphat king of Judah, “Will you go with me against Ramoth Gilead?” Jehoshaphat replied, “I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will join you in the war.”

⁴But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the Lord .”

⁵So the king of Israel brought together the prophets-four hundred men-and asked them, “Shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?” “Go,” they answered, “for God will give it into the king’s hand.”

⁶But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?”

⁷The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the Lord , but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that,” Jehoshaphat replied.

⁸So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”

⁹Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance to the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them.

¹⁰Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns, and he declared, “This is what the Lord says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’ “

¹¹All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,” they said, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”

¹²The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”

¹³But Micaiah said, “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what my God says.”

¹⁴When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?” “Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for they will be given into your hand.”

¹⁵The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord ?”

¹⁶Then Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the Lord said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’ “

¹⁷The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?”

¹⁸Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord : I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing on his right and on his left.

¹⁹And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab king of Israel into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’ “One suggested this, and another that.

²⁰Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ” ‘By what means?’ the Lord asked.

²¹” ‘I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. ” ‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the Lord . ‘Go and do it.’

²²“So now the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.”

²³Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from the Lord go when he went from me to speak to you?” he asked.

²⁴Micaiah replied, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room.”

²⁵The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son,

²⁶and say, ‘This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.’ “

²⁷Micaiah declared, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!”

²⁸So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead.

²⁹The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.

³⁰Now the king of Aram had ordered his chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.”

³¹When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, “This is the king of Israel.” So they turned to attack him, but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him. God drew them away from him,

³²for when the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they stopped pursuing him.

³³But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor. The king told the chariot driver, “Wheel around and get me out of the fighting. I’ve been wounded.”

³⁴All day long the battle raged, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot facing the Arameans until evening. Then at sunset he died.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

1 Kings 20-21

20Now Ben-Hadad king of Aram mustered his entire army. Accompanied by thirty-two kings with their horses and chariots, he went up and besieged Samaria and attacked it.

²He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, saying, “This is what Ben-Hadad says:

³‘Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine.’ “

⁴The king of Israel answered, “Just as you say, my lord the king. I and all I have are yours.”

⁵The messengers came again and said, “This is what Ben-Hadad says: ‘I sent to demand your silver and gold, your wives and your children.

⁶But about this time tomorrow I am going to send my officials to search your palace and the houses of your officials. They will seize everything you value and carry it away.’ “

⁷The king of Israel summoned all the elders of the land and said to them, “See how this man is looking for trouble! When he sent for my wives and my children, my silver and my gold, I did not refuse him.”

⁸The elders and the people all answered, “Don’t listen to him or agree to his demands.”

⁹So he replied to Ben-Hadad’s messengers, “Tell my lord the king, ‘Your servant will do all you demanded the first time, but this demand I cannot meet.’ ” They left and took the answer back to Ben-Hadad.

¹⁰Then Ben-Hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful.”

¹¹The king of Israel answered, “Tell him: ‘One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off.’ “

¹²Ben-Hadad heard this message while he and the kings were drinking in their tents, and he ordered his men: “Prepare to attack.” So they prepared to attack the city.

¹³Meanwhile a prophet came to Ahab king of Israel and announced, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Do you see this vast army? I will give it into your hand today, and then you will know that I am the Lord .’ “

¹⁴“But who will do this?” asked Ahab. The prophet replied, “This is what the Lord says: ‘The young officers of the provincial commanders will do it.’ ” “And who will start the battle?” he asked. The prophet answered, “You will.”

¹⁵So Ahab summoned the young officers of the provincial commanders, 232 men. Then he assembled the rest of the Israelites, 7,000 in all.

¹⁶They set out at noon while Ben-Hadad and the 32 kings allied with him were in their tents getting drunk.

¹⁷The young officers of the provincial commanders went out first. Now Ben-Hadad had dispatched scouts, who reported, “Men are advancing from Samaria.”

¹⁸He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; if they have come out for war, take them alive.”

¹⁹The young officers of the provincial commanders marched out of the city with the army behind them

²⁰and each one struck down his opponent. At that, the Arameans fled, with the Israelites in pursuit. But Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on horseback with some of his horsemen.

²¹The king of Israel advanced and overpowered the horses and chariots and inflicted heavy losses on the Arameans.

²²Afterward, the prophet came to the king of Israel and said, “Strengthen your position and see what must be done, because next spring the king of Aram will attack you again.”

²³Meanwhile, the officials of the king of Aram advised him, “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they.

²⁴Do this: Remove all the kings from their commands and replace them with other officers.

²⁵You must also raise an army like the one you lost-horse for horse and chariot for chariot-so we can fight Israel on the plains. Then surely we will be stronger than they.” He agreed with them and acted accordingly.

²⁶The next spring Ben-Hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.

²⁷When the Israelites were also mustered and given provisions, they marched out to meet them. The Israelites camped opposite them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.

²⁸The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because the Arameans think the Lord is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and you will know that I am the Lord .’ “

²⁹For seven days they camped opposite each other, and on the seventh day the battle was joined. The Israelites inflicted a hundred thousand casualties on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day.

³⁰The rest of them escaped to the city of Aphek, where the wall collapsed on twenty-seven thousand of them. And Ben-Hadad fled to the city and hid in an inner room.

³¹His officials said to him, “Look, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful. Let us go to the king of Israel with sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads. Perhaps he will spare your life.”

³²Wearing sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their heads, they went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says: ‘Please let me live.’ ” The king answered, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”

³³The men took this as a good sign and were quick to pick up his word. “Yes, your brother Ben-Hadad!” they said. “Go and get him,” the king said. When Ben-Hadad came out, Ahab had him come up into his chariot.

³⁴“I will return the cities my father took from your father,” Ben-Hadad offered. “You may set up your own market areas in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.” Ahab said, “On the basis of a treaty I will set you free.” So he made a treaty with him, and let him go.

³⁵By the word of the Lord one of the sons of the prophets said to his companion, “Strike me with your weapon,” but the man refused.

³⁶So the prophet said, “Because you have not obeyed the Lord , as soon as you leave me a lion will kill you.” And after the man went away, a lion found him and killed him.

³⁷The prophet found another man and said, “Strike me, please.” So the man struck him and wounded him.

³⁸Then the prophet went and stood by the road waiting for the king. He disguised himself with his headband down over his eyes.

³⁹As the king passed by, the prophet called out to him, “Your servant went into the thick of the battle, and someone came to me with a captive and said, ‘Guard this man. If he is missing, it will be your life for his life, or you must pay a talent of silver.’

⁴⁰While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared.” “That is your sentence,” the king of Israel said. “You have pronounced it yourself.”

⁴¹Then the prophet quickly removed the headband from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.

⁴²He said to the king, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have set free a man I had determined should die. Therefore it is your life for his life, your people for his people.’ “

⁴³Sullen and angry, the king of Israel went to his palace in Samaria.

21Some time later there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.

²Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.”

³But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”

⁴So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.

⁵His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, “Why are you so sullen? Why won’t you eat?”

⁶He answered her, “Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, ‘Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’ “

⁷Jezebel his wife said, “Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I’ll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

⁸So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city with him.

⁹In those letters she wrote: “Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people.

¹⁰But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.”

¹¹So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them.

¹²They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people.

¹³Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.

¹⁴Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned and is dead.”

¹⁵As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, “Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead.”

¹⁶When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard.

¹⁷Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite:

¹⁸“Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth’s vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it.

¹⁹Say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?’ Then say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs will lick up your blood-yes, yours!’ “

²⁰Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy!” “I have found you,” he answered, “because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord .

²¹‘I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel-slave or free.

²²I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin.’

²³“And also concerning Jezebel the Lord says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’

²⁴“Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country.”

²⁵(There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord , urged on by Jezebel his wife.

²⁶He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the Lord drove out before Israel.)

²⁷When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly.

²⁸Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite:

²⁹“Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.”

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

1 Kings 17-19

17Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord , the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

²Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah:

³“Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.

⁴You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”

⁵So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there.

⁶The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

⁷Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to him:

⁹“Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food.”

¹⁰So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?”

¹¹As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

¹²“As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread-only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it-and die.”

¹³Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.

¹⁴For this is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land.’ “

¹⁵She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.

¹⁶For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

¹⁷Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.

¹⁸She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

¹⁹“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.

²⁰Then he cried out to the Lord , “O Lord my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?”

²¹Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the Lord , “O Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

²²The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.

²³Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”

²⁴Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”

18After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

²So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria,

³and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of his palace. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord .

⁴While Jezebel was killing off the Lord ‘s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.)

⁵Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals.”

⁶So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another.

⁷As Obadiah was walking along, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him, bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?”

⁸“Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’ “

⁹“What have I done wrong,” asked Obadiah, “that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death?

¹⁰As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed you were not there, he made them swear they could not find you.

¹¹But now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’

¹²I don’t know where the Spirit of the Lord may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the Lord since my youth.

¹³Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord ? I hid a hundred of the Lord ‘s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water.

¹⁴And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!”

¹⁵Elijah said, “As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.”

¹⁶So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

¹⁷When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

¹⁸“I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord ‘s commands and have followed the Baals.

¹⁹Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

²⁰So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.

²¹Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.

²²Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord ‘s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets.

²³Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it.

²⁴Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord . The god who answers by fire-he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”

²⁵Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.”

²⁶So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “O Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

²⁷At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”

²⁸So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed.

²⁹Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

³⁰Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord , which was in ruins.

³¹Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.”

³²With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord , and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed.

³³He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”

³⁴“Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time.

³⁵The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

³⁶At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “O Lord , God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.

³⁷Answer me, O Lord , answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord , are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

³⁸Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

³⁹When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord -he is God! The Lord -he is God!”

⁴⁰Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don’t let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.

⁴¹And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.”

⁴²So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.

⁴³“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”

⁴⁴The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ “

⁴⁵Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.

⁴⁶The power of the Lord came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

19Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

²So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

³Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,

⁴while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord ,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”

⁵Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

⁶He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

⁷The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”

⁸So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

⁹There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁰He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

¹¹The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord , for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord , but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

¹²After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

¹³When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁴He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

¹⁵The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram.

¹⁶Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet.

¹⁷Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu.

¹⁸Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel-all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.”

¹⁹So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.

²⁰Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

²¹So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.

Welcome to the 2023 King Street Church Bible Reading Plan.  This year we will be following a chronological plan.

In your personal journal, consider answering these questions as part of your devotional time:

 

In this passage…

1 Kings 15:25-34; 1 Kings 16; 2 Chronicles 17

I Kings 15:25-34;  1 Kings 16

²⁵Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years.

²⁶He did evil in the eyes of the Lord , walking in the ways of his father and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit.

²⁷Baasha son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar plotted against him, and he struck him down at Gibbethon, a Philistine town, while Nadab and all Israel were besieging it.

²⁸Baasha killed Nadab in the third year of Asa king of Judah and succeeded him as king.

²⁹As soon as he began to reign, he killed Jeroboam’s whole family. He did not leave Jeroboam anyone that breathed, but destroyed them all, according to the word of the Lord given through his servant Ahijah the Shilonite-

³⁰because of the sins Jeroboam had committed and had caused Israel to commit, and because he provoked the Lord , the God of Israel, to anger.

³¹As for the other events of Nadab’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

³²There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their reigns.

³³In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of all Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned twenty-four years.

³⁴He did evil in the eyes of the Lord , walking in the ways of Jeroboam and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit.

16Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha:

²“I lifted you up from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel, but you walked in the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin and to provoke me to anger by their sins.

³So I am about to consume Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat.

⁴Dogs will eat those belonging to Baasha who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country.”

⁵As for the other events of Baasha’s reign, what he did and his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

⁶Baasha rested with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah. And Elah his son succeeded him as king.

⁷Moreover, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani to Baasha and his house, because of all the evil he had done in the eyes of the Lord , provoking him to anger by the things he did, and becoming like the house of Jeroboam-and also because he destroyed it.

⁸In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah two years.

⁹Zimri, one of his officials, who had command of half his chariots, plotted against him. Elah was in Tirzah at the time, getting drunk in the home of Arza, the man in charge of the palace at Tirzah.

¹⁰Zimri came in, struck him down and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah. Then he succeeded him as king.

¹¹As soon as he began to reign and was seated on the throne, he killed off Baasha’s whole family. He did not spare a single male, whether relative or friend.

¹²So Zimri destroyed the whole family of Baasha, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken against Baasha through the prophet Jehu-

¹³because of all the sins Baasha and his son Elah had committed and had caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the Lord , the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols.

¹⁴As for the other events of Elah’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

¹⁵In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned in Tirzah seven days. The army was encamped near Gibbethon, a Philistine town.

¹⁶When the Israelites in the camp heard that Zimri had plotted against the king and murdered him, they proclaimed Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that very day there in the camp.

¹⁷Then Omri and all the Israelites with him withdrew from Gibbethon and laid siege to Tirzah.

¹⁸When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace and set the palace on fire around him. So he died,

¹⁹because of the sins he had committed, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and walking in the ways of Jeroboam and in the sin he had committed and had caused Israel to commit.

²⁰As for the other events of Zimri’s reign, and the rebellion he carried out, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

²¹Then the people of Israel were split into two factions; half supported Tibni son of Ginath for king, and the other half supported Omri.

²²But Omri’s followers proved stronger than those of Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri became king.

²³In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.

²⁴He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill.

²⁵But Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord and sinned more than all those before him.

²⁶He walked in all the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the Lord , the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols.

²⁷As for the other events of Omri’s reign, what he did and the things he achieved, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

²⁸Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. And Ahab his son succeeded him as king.

²⁹In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years.

³⁰Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him.

³¹He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.

³²He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria.

³³Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord , the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.

³⁴In Ahab’s time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua son of Nun.

2 Chronicles 17

17Jehoshaphat his son succeeded him as king and strengthened himself against Israel.

²He stationed troops in all the fortified cities of Judah and put garrisons in Judah and in the towns of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured.

³The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because in his early years he walked in the ways his father David had followed. He did not consult the Baals

⁴but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel.

⁵The Lord established the kingdom under his control; and all Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat, so that he had great wealth and honor.

⁶His heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord ; furthermore, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah.

⁷In the third year of his reign he sent his officials Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel and Micaiah to teach in the towns of Judah.

⁸With them were certain Levites-Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah and Tob-Adonijah-and the priests Elishama and Jehoram.

⁹They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the Lord ; they went around to all the towns of Judah and taught the people.

¹⁰The fear of the Lord fell on all the kingdoms of the lands surrounding Judah, so that they did not make war with Jehoshaphat.

¹¹Some Philistines brought Jehoshaphat gifts and silver as tribute, and the Arabs brought him flocks: seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred goats.

¹²Jehoshaphat became more and more powerful; he built forts and store cities in Judah

¹³and had large supplies in the towns of Judah. He also kept experienced fighting men in Jerusalem.

¹⁴Their enrollment by families was as follows: From Judah, commanders of units of 1,000: Adnah the commander, with 300,000 fighting men;

¹⁵next, Jehohanan the commander, with 280,000;

¹⁶next, Amasiah son of Zicri, who volunteered himself for the service of the Lord , with 200,000.

¹⁷From Benjamin: Eliada, a valiant soldier, with 200,000 men armed with bows and shields;

¹⁸next, Jehozabad, with 180,000 men armed for battle.

¹⁹These were the men who served the king, besides those he stationed in the fortified cities throughout Judah.