The Daily Audio Bible

³² In those days, the Lord began to make Israel's land smaller. King Hazael of Syria could attack the Israelites anywhere in their land ³³ east of the Jordan River. He took from them all the land of Gilead. That included the land that belonged to the tribes of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh. Hazael took the land all the way from Aroer, along the Arnon Valley to Gilead and Bashan.

³⁴ The other things that happened while Jehu was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about all the great things that Jehu did. ³⁵ Jehu died and they buried him with his ancestors in Samaria. His son Jehoahaz became king after him. ³⁶ Jehu ruled over Israel as king in Samaria for 28 years.

Queen Athaliah and King Joash

11 Ahaziah's mother, Athaliah, heard the news that her son was dead. So she started to kill all the royal family. ² Jehosheba was the daughter of King Jehoram of Judah and the sister of Ahaziah. When Athaliah's servants had come to murder the royal sons, Jehosheba took Ahaziah's son Joash away and she hid him. She put him in a bedroom in the temple to hide him from Athaliah. So Joash stayed alive. ³ Joash and his nurse stayed safely in a room in the Lord's temple while Queen Athaliah ruled Judah for six years.

⁴ In the seventh year that Athaliah ruled Judah, the priest Jehoiada asked some of the king's officers to come to him.^[a] They were officers of army groups, the king's special guards and the palace guards.

They came to meet with Jehoiada in the Lord's temple. There, he made them promise to agree with his idea. Then he showed the king's son Joash to them.

⁵ Jehoiada said to the officers, ‘This is what you must do: The men who come to work on the Sabbath day must make three groups. One group will keep the palace safe. ⁶ Another group must stand at the Sur Gate. The third group must stand at the gate behind the special guards. ⁷ The two groups of soldiers who would not come to work on the Sabbath day must do this: They must be guards at the Lord's temple. They must keep the new king safe. ⁸ You must stand around the king. Each man must hold his weapon in his hand. If anyone comes near to you, you must kill them. You must stay near to the king everywhere that he goes.’

⁹ The officers of the army groups did what Jehoiada the priest told them to do. Each officer brought his group of men to Jehoiada. That included the men who worked on the Sabbath and those who did not. ¹⁰ Then Jehoiada gave some weapons that were in the Lord's temple to the officers. He gave them the spears and the shields that had belonged to King David. ¹¹ The guards held their weapons in their hands. They stood around the king to keep him safe. They stood in a line from the south side of the temple to the north side. They were around the altar at the front of the temple.

¹² Then Jehoiada brought the king's son out of the temple room. He put the crown onto Joash's head. He gave him a copy of the royal covenant. They poured olive oil on his head to show that he was now the king. They clapped their hands and they shouted, ‘May the king have a long life!’

¹³ Queen Athaliah heard the soldiers and the people as they were shouting. So she went to the Lord's temple where all the people were. ¹⁴ Then she saw the king! He was standing in the king's place beside the pillar in the temple.^[b] The army officers and the men with trumpets were standing beside the king. All the people of Judah were shouting with joy. Many of them made music with trumpets.

When Athaliah saw this, she was very upset. She tore her clothes. She shouted, ‘Treason! Treason!’^[c]

¹⁵ Jehoiada the priest gave a command to the army officers who had authority over groups of soldiers. He told them, ‘Bring her out of the temple to the line of guards outside. Use your swords to kill anyone who follows her.’ That was because Jehoiada had said, ‘You must not kill her inside the Lord's temple.’ ¹⁶ So they took hold of Athaliah. They took her through the gate for the king's horses into the yard of the palace. They killed her there.

¹⁷ Jehoiada prepared a covenant with the Lord. All the people and the king agreed to serve the Lord as his people. The people also agreed to serve the king faithfully.

¹⁸ Then people everywhere in the country went to the temple of Baal. They destroyed it. They completely knocked down its altars and idols. They killed Baal's priest, Mattan, in front of Baal's altars.

Then Jehoiada the priest put guards to keep the Lord's temple safe. ¹⁹ Jehoiada took with him the officers of army groups, the king's special guards, the palace guards and all the people. They went together to bring the king down from the Lord's temple into the palace. They went into the palace through the gate of the king's royal guards. Then Joash sat on his throne as king.

²⁰ All the people were very happy. There was no longer any trouble in Jerusalem now that Athaliah was dead. They had punished her with death at the palace.

²¹ And Joash was seven years old when he began to rule Judah as king.

Joash makes repairs to God's house

12 Joash became king of Judah in the seventh year that Jehu was king of Israel. Joash ruled in Jerusalem for 40 years. His mother's name was Zibiah. She came from Beersheba. ² Jehoiada the priest taught Joash to do what was right. So Joash pleased the Lord all through his life.^{[d] 3} But Joash did not remove the altars on the hills. The people continued to offer sacrifices and to burn incense on those altars.

⁴ Joash said to all the priests, ‘Bring together all the money that people have offered to the Lord in his temple. This includes:

⁵ Each priest should receive the money that he needs to make repairs to the temple. When he sees that something is broken, he can use some of the people's money to mend it.’

⁶ When Joash had been king for 23 years, the priests had still not made any repairs to the temple. ⁷ So King Joash called Jehoiada and the other priests to come to him. He said to them, ‘You have made no repairs to the temple yet! Why not? Do not take any more of your people's money! It must only be used to make repairs to the temple.’ ⁸ The priests agreed that they would not take any more money from the people. They agreed that they would not make repairs to the temple themselves.^[e]

⁹ Jehoiada the priest took a large box and he made a hole in the top of it. He put it outside the entrance of the temple, on the right side of the altar. The priests who were guards at the temple door took care of the box. When people brought gifts of money to the Lord's temple, the priests put the money in the box. ¹⁰ Whenever there was a lot of money in the box, the king's secretary and the leader of the priests counted the money. Then they put those gifts for the temple into bags. ¹¹ When they knew how much money was there, they gave it to the men who had authority over the work. Then those men paid the carpenters and the builders who were working on the Lord's temple. ¹² They also paid the men that cut the stones and the men who used the stones to build with. They bought wood and they bought stones that people had cut to use for the repairs to the Lord's temple. They used the money to pay for any work on the repairs.

¹³ But they did not use any of this money to buy things that they used in the temple. This included:

¹⁴ Instead, they used all the money to give to the men who had authority over the repairs to the Lord's temple. ¹⁵ Those men did not have to give a report on how they used the money. People knew that they were honest men. ¹⁶ But the money that people gave when they made a guilt offering or a sin offering belonged to the priests. It did not pay for the repairs on the temple.

¹⁷ At that time, Hazael, the king of Syria, attacked Gath.^[f] His army took the city for him. Then King Hazael decided to attack Jerusalem.

¹⁸ Joash, the king of Judah, took all the valuable things that he and his ancestors had given to God. Those ancestors were the kings of Judah: Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah. He also took gold that was in the palace and in the temple. He sent all those valuable things to Hazael, king of Syria.^[g] When Hazael received the gifts from Joash, he took his army away from Jerusalem.

¹⁹ The other things that happened while Joash was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about all the things that Joash did. ²⁰ Joash's officers decided to kill him. Two of them murdered him at Beth Millo, on the road that goes down to Silla. ²¹ The officers that killed him were Shimeath's son Jozabad and Shomer's son Jehozabad. People buried Joash beside his ancestors in the City of David. His son Amaziah became king after him.

Paul visits Corinth

18 After Paul had spoken to the important officers of Athens, he left the city. He went from there to the city of Corinth.^[a]

² In Corinth, he met a man called Aquila. Aquila was a Jew. He had been born in the region of Pontus. At that time, Caesar Claudius had said that all Jews must leave Rome. So Aquila had left Italy and he had just arrived in Corinth with his wife Priscilla. Paul went to visit them. ³ They knew how to make tents which they could sell to people. Paul also made tents, so he stayed with them and he worked with them.

⁴ Every Jewish day of rest, Paul taught both Jews and Greek people in the Jewish meeting place. He wanted them all to believe the good news about Jesus.

⁵ Then Silas and Timothy arrived there from the country called Macedonia. After that, the only work that Paul did was to teach people God's message. He told the Jews clearly that Jesus is God's Messiah. ⁶ The Jews did not agree with Paul and they insulted him. So he shook the dirt off his clothes at them.^[b] He said to them, ‘If God punishes you, then you have caused it to happen. It will not be because of me. Now I will go to the Gentiles and I will teach them God's message.’

⁷ So Paul did not speak in the Jewish meeting place any more.^[c] Instead, he went to the house of Titius Justus, which was next to the meeting place. Justus was a Gentile who now worshipped God. ⁸ A man called Crispus was the leader of the Jewish meeting place there. He, and everyone else who lived in his house, believed in the Lord Jesus. Many other people in Corinth heard Paul's message and they believed in Jesus. When they became believers, someone baptized them.

⁹ But one night, the Lord appeared to Paul in a vision. He said, ‘Do not be afraid of those people who are against you. Continue to speak my message to the people here. Do not stop speaking to them. ¹⁰ I am here with you. Nobody will hurt you. There are many people in this city who will believe in me.’

¹¹ So Paul stayed in Corinth for 18 months and he taught the people God's message about Jesus.

¹² Gallio then became the Roman ruler of the region called Achaia.^[d] At this time the Jewish leaders in Corinth decided together to speak against Paul. So they took hold of him and they brought him to Gallio. They wanted Gallio to judge Paul.

¹³ The Jewish leaders said to Gallio, ‘This man is teaching people to worship God in a wrong way. The things that he teaches are against our Jewish law.’

¹⁴ Paul was ready to speak, but Gallio spoke first to the Jews. He said, ‘If this man had done a very bad thing, then I would judge him. It would be right for me to listen to you. ¹⁵ But you are arguing about words and names and your own Jewish law. So you yourselves must decide what to do about it. I will not be a judge to decide about these things.’ ¹⁶ Then Gallio told his soldiers to take the Jewish leaders away. ¹⁷ Then the whole crowd of people took hold of a man called Sosthenes. He was the leader of the Jewish meeting place there. The crowd hit him with sticks in front of Gallio. But Gallio did nothing to stop them. He did not think it was important.

Paul travels from Corinth to Antioch

¹⁸ Paul remained in Corinth with the believers for many days. Then he left them. Priscilla and Aquila also went with him. They went to the port called Cenchrea. They got on a ship there to sail to Syria. Before they left, someone cut off all the hair on Paul's head. This showed that he had made a promise to God.^[e]

¹⁹ They all arrived in the city of Ephesus. Paul left Priscilla and Aquila, and he went into the Jewish meeting room. There he talked about God's message with the Jews. ²⁰ Some of them asked Paul to remain in Ephesus with them for a longer time. But he did not agree to stay. ²¹ Before he left, he said to them, ‘If God wants me to come back, I will return to you.’ Then Paul got in a ship and he sailed from Ephesus to Caesarea. ²² After Paul arrived in Caesarea, he went to Jerusalem. He said, ‘hello’ to the group of believers there. Then he travelled to Antioch in Syria.

This is a song that David wrote to praise God.

An alphabet of praise^[a]