The Daily Audio Bible

Jehoahaz becomes the king of Israel

13 Jehu's son Jehoahaz became king of Israel when Ahaziah's son Joash had been king of Judah for 23 years. Jehoahaz ruled as king in Samaria for 17 years. ² But he did things that the Lord said were evil. He did the same bad things that Nebat's son Jeroboam had done. Jeroboam had caused many people in Israel to do those sins, and Jehoahaz did not stop doing them himself. ³ So the Lord was very angry with Israel. For many years the Lord put the Israelites under the power of King Hazael of Syria and his son Ben-Hadad.

⁴ Then King Jehoahaz asked the Lord for help. The Lord saw that the king of Syria was being very cruel to Israel, so he answered the prayer of Jehoahaz. ⁵ The Lord sent a leader to rescue Israel from Syria's power. So the Israelites lived safely in their own homes, as they had done before this time. ⁶ But the Israelites still did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam and his family had done. Jeroboam had caused the Israelites to do bad things, and they still continued to do them. There were still Asherah poles that people worshipped in Samaria.

⁷ The king of Syria had destroyed most of Jehoahaz's army. All that remained were:

The king of Syria completely destroyed all the rest of the army. Only dust remained!

⁸ The other things that happened while Jehoahaz was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about all the things that Jehoahaz used his power to do. ⁹ Jehoahaz died and they buried him beside his ancestors in Samaria. His son Jehoash became king after him.

Jehoash becomes the king of Israel

¹⁰ Jehoahaz's son Jehoash became the king of Israel when Joash had been king of Judah for 37 years. He ruled as king in Samaria for 16 years. ¹¹ But he did things that the Lord said were evil. He did not turn away from the bad things that Nebat's son Jeroboam had done. Jeroboam had caused many people in Israel to do those sins, and Jehoahaz did not stop doing them himself.

¹² The other things that happened while Jehoash 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 Jehoash did. It tells about the war that he fought against Amaziah, king of Judah ¹³ Jehoash died and they buried him in Samaria beside the other kings of Israel. Jeroboam became king of Israel after him.

Elisha dies

¹⁴ When Jehoash was still king of Israel, Elisha became very ill. It was the illness from which he would soon die. Jehoash went to visit him. Jehoash stood beside Elisha and he wept. Jehoash said, ‘My father! My father! You are riding in Israel's chariot! Israel's men are riding on the horses!’^[a]

¹⁵ Elisha said to King Jehoash, ‘Fetch a bow and some arrows.’ The king did that. ¹⁶ Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, ‘Prepare to shoot an arrow.’ When he had done that, Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. ¹⁷ Elisha said, ‘Open the window towards the east.’ When the king opened it, Elisha said, ‘Shoot the arrow!’ The king shot the arrow and Elisha said, ‘That is the Lord's arrow which shows that you will win the battle against Syria. You will completely destroy Syria's army at Aphek.’

¹⁸ Then Elisha said, ‘Pick up the other arrows.’ When the king of Israel took them, Elisha said to him, ‘Hit the ground with them.’ The king hit the ground three times and then he stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God then became angry with King Jehoash. He said, ‘You should have hit the ground five times or six times. Then you would have completely destroyed Syria's army. But now you will only win three battles against Syria.’

²⁰ After that, Elisha died and they buried him.

Every year in spring, groups of fighters from Moab came to attack places in Israel. ²¹ One day some Israelites were burying a man who had died. While they were doing that, they saw a group of fighters from Moab. So they quickly threw the dead body into Elisha's grave. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the dead man became alive again! He jumped up and he stood there!

²² All the time that Jehoahaz was king of Israel, King Hazael of Syria was cruel to the Israelites. ²³ But the Lord was kind to them and he helped them. He loved them because of his covenant with their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So he has never wanted to destroy them or to send them away from him, even until now.

²⁴ Hazael, the king of Syria, died. His son Ben-Hadad became king after him. ²⁵ Then Jehoahaz's son, King Jehoash, took back some Israelite cities from Ben-Hadad. They were cities that Hazael had taken from Jehoahaz in war. King Jehoash won three battles against Ben-Hadad and he took back those cities for Israel.

Amaziah becomes the king of Judah

14 Joash's son Amaziah became the king of Judah when Jehoahaz's son Jehoash had been the king of Israel for two years. ² Amaziah was 25 years old when he began to rule as king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother's name was Jehoaddin. She was from Jerusalem. ³ Amaziah did things that the Lord said were good. He lived in the way that his father Joash had done. But he did not do as well as his ancestor King David had done. ⁴ He did not remove the altars on the hills. The people continued to offer sacrifices and to burn incense on those altars.

⁵ Amaziah made himself strong to rule his kingdom with authority. Then he killed the officers who had murdered his father, King Joash. ⁶ But he did not punish their sons with death. He obeyed the Lord's command that was written in the Book of the Law of Moses. The command says, ‘Do not punish fathers with death when their sons do bad things. Do not punish children with death when their fathers do bad things. Each person must die only because of his own sins.’^[b]

⁷ Amaziah killed 10,000 soldiers from Edom in Salt valley.^[c] He attacked Sela city and he took it for himself. He gave it a new name, ‘Joktheel’. That is still its name.

⁸ Then Amaziah sent men with a message to King Jehoash of Israel. He was the son of Jehoahaz and the grandson of Jehu. Amaziah's message said, ‘Come here and meet me.’ ⁹ But King Jehoash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah: ‘In Lebanon, a thorn bush sent this message to a cedar tree: “Please give your daughter to my son, to be his wife.” Then a wild animal of Lebanon came and knocked down the thorn bush. It walked all over it! ¹⁰ Yes! You have won the fight against Edom. But do not boast about your power! You may be very happy, but stay at home! Do not try to fight against us. If you do that, you will cause trouble that destroys both you and your kingdom, Judah.’

¹¹ But Amaziah did not accept Jehoash's message. So King Jehoash of Israel prepared to attack Amaziah's army. Jehoash and Amaziah met together in battle at Beth Shemesh, a town in Judah. ¹² Israel's army won the battle against Judah's army. All the soldiers from Judah ran back home. ¹³ At Beth Shemesh, King Jehoash of Israel caught the king of Judah, Amaziah, the son of Joash and the grandson of Ahaziah. Then King Jehoash went to attack Jerusalem. He destroyed the wall of Jerusalem, between the Ephraim Gate and the Corner Gate. That part of the wall was 180 metres long. ¹⁴ He took all the gold and silver and all the valuable things from the Lord's temple and the palace. He also took some of the people away with him as prisoners. Then he returned to Samaria.

King Jehoash of Israel dies

¹⁵ The other things that happened while Jehoash 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 Jehoash did. It tells about the war that he fought against King Amaziah of Judah. ¹⁶ Jehoash died and they buried him beside the other kings of Israel in Samaria. His son Jeroboam became king after him.

King Amaziah of Judah dies

¹⁷ Joash's son Amaziah, the king of Judah, lived for 15 years after Jehoahaz's son Jehoash, the king of Israel, died. ¹⁸ The other things that happened while Amaziah was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. ¹⁹ Some people in Jerusalem made a plan to kill Amaziah. So he ran away to Lachish. But the people in Jerusalem sent men to catch him in Lachish. They killed Amaziah there. ²⁰ They carried his dead body back to Jerusalem on a horse. They buried him there beside his ancestors in the City of David. ²¹ All the people in Judah made Amaziah's son Azariah king instead of his father. Azariah was 16 years old. ²² He was the king who built Elath into a strong city again. He put it back under Judah's power. He did that after his father Amaziah had died.

Jeroboam II becomes the king of Israel

²³ Jehoash's son Jeroboam became the king of Israel when Joash's son Amaziah had been king of Judah for 15 years. Jeroboam ruled Israel for 41 years in Samaria.^{[d] 24} He did things that the Lord said were evil. He did not turn away from the bad things that Nebat's son Jeroboam had done. He had caused many people in Israel to do those sins.

²⁵ Jeroboam was the king who made Israel's border strong between Lebo-Hamath and the Salt Sea.^[e] The Lord, Israel's God, had already told his prophet Jonah that this would happen. Jonah was the son of Amittai and he came from Gath Hepher.

²⁶ Everyone in Israel had a lot of trouble and pain, whoever they were. There was no leader who could rescue them. The Lord had seen this, so he helped Jeroboam. ²⁷ The Lord had never said that he would completely remove Israel from the earth. So he gave Jehoash's son Jeroboam the power to rescue them.

²⁸ The other things that happened while Jeroboam 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 Jeroboam did. It tells how he fought battles to get back power for Israel over Damascus and Hamath. ²⁹ Jeroboam died and they buried him beside the other kings of Israel in Samaria. His son Zechariah became king after him.^[f]

²³ He stayed in Antioch for some time. Then he left there and he travelled through the regions called Galatia and Phrygia. He spoke to all the believers in these places. He helped them to trust God and to be strong.

These are some of the things that Apollos did

²⁴ A certain Jewish man called Apollos arrived in Ephesus. He had been born in Alexandria, and he could teach people very well.^[a] He knew a lot about God's message in the Bible. ²⁵ Someone had taught him the good news about the Lord Jesus. He liked to speak a lot to people about Jesus. The things that he taught were true. But he only knew part of God's message. He only knew the things that John taught about baptism. ²⁶ Apollos went to the Jewish meeting place and he taught the people there. He was not afraid to speak God's message to them. Priscilla and Aquila heard what Apollos was teaching the people. So they said to him, ‘Please come with us to our home.’ Then they explained to Apollos the whole of God's message about Jesus. Then he could understand better.

²⁷ Later, Apollos decided to go to the region called Achaia. The believers in Ephesus agreed that he should do that. They wrote a letter for him to give to the believers in Achaia. They wrote, ‘When Apollos arrives, please accept him.’ God had been very kind to the believers in Achaia, so that they believed in Jesus. When Apollos came to them, he helped them very much. ²⁸ Some of the Jews there spoke against Apollos's message. But he argued strongly against them so that everyone could hear. He explained to them what God had said in the Bible. He showed them clearly that Jesus is God's Messiah.

Paul speaks in Ephesus about Jesus

19 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul travelled through the region of Asia. He arrived in Ephesus and he found some believers there. ² Paul asked them, ‘When you believed the message about Jesus, did you receive God's Holy Spirit?’

The believers answered, ‘We did not even know that there is a Holy Spirit.’

³ So Paul asked them, ‘When someone baptized you, what kind of baptism was that?’

‘We received the baptism that John spoke about,’ they answered.

⁴ Then Paul said, ‘John baptized people who knew that they had done wrong things. They wanted to stop doing these things. But John also said to the people, “You must believe in the man who will come soon.” This person is Jesus.’ ⁵ When the believers in Ephesus understood this, Paul baptized them. This showed that they now believed in the Lord Jesus. ⁶ Then Paul put his hands on each believer's head. When he did this, the Holy Spirit came down on them. They spoke in different languages and they spoke messages from God. ⁷ There were about 12 men there.

⁸ For three months, Paul went to the Jewish meeting place in Ephesus on their day of rest. He was not afraid to speak to the people there. He talked strongly with them about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But some of them did not accept what Paul said. They refused to believe the message about Jesus. Some of them said bad things against the Way of the Lord Jesus and many people in the group heard this. So Paul stopped speaking to people in that meeting place. He left there and he took with him the other believers. Every day he talked with people in another place. It was a large room, where a man called Tyrannus usually taught people. ¹⁰ Paul taught the people there for two years. During that time, all the people who lived in Asia region heard the message about the Lord Jesus. This included Jews and Gentiles.

The sons of Sceva tell bad spirits to leave people

¹¹ God was helping Paul to do special miracles. ¹² Because of this, people were taking pieces of cloth and clothes that Paul gave to them. Paul had used these things, and people took them to those who were ill. After they touched these cloths, the sick people would become well again. Bad spirits also left them.

The 1st Hallelujah Psalm^[a]