The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the NIV. Switch to the NIV to read along with the audio.
Uzziah rules Judah as king
26 All the people of Judah chose Uzziah to be their king instead of his father, King Amaziah. Uzziah was 16 years old.[a] 2 He built Elath again after King Amaziah had died. He made it a part of Judah again.
3 Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king. And he ruled in Jerusalem for 52 years. His mother's name was Jecoliah. She came from Jerusalem. 4 Uzziah did things that the Lord said were good, as his father Amaziah had done. 5 He served God faithfully all the time that Zechariah was alive. Zechariah taught him to respect and obey God. As long as Uzziah served the Lord faithfully, God gave him success.
God helps Uzziah
6 Uzziah took his army to attack the Philistines. He destroyed the walls of their cities, Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod. Then he made the towns near Ashdod strong, as well as other towns where the Philistines lived. 7 God helped him to win battles against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur-Baal, and against the Meunites. 8 The people from Ammon paid taxes to Uzziah. He became very powerful. So everyone as far as the border of Egypt knew that he was a great king.
9 Uzziah built strong towers on Jerusalem's walls to make the city safe. He built them at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the place where the wall turned. 10 He also built towers in the desert. He dug holes in the ground to contain water. He needed water for his animals on the low hills and in the valleys, because he had many of them. He also enjoyed growing crops. He had men who worked in the fields and in the vineyards. These were on the hills and in places where crops would grow well.
Uzziah's army
11 Uzziah had an army of soldiers who were ready to fight battles. The king's secretary, Jeiel, and his officer, Maaseiah, put the soldiers into groups. They counted the soldiers in each group. Hananiah was the army captain who had authority over them. 12 There were 2,600 family leaders who led the groups of soldiers. 13 Together they led 307,500 soldiers who knew how to fight well. They were a powerful army that could keep the king safe against his enemies. 14 Uzziah gave shields, spears, helmets and armour to the whole army. He also gave them bows and arrows, and stones to put in their slings.
15 Men in Jerusalem who had special skills built machines that could shoot arrows and big stones. Uzziah put them on the towers and at the corners of the walls around Jerusalem. God helped him in many ways, so that he became very famous and powerful.
Uzziah becomes proud and God punishes him
16 Uzziah was so powerful that he became proud. That caused him to lose his power. He began to turn away from the Lord his God. He went into the Lord's temple to burn incense on the special altar there. 17 Azariah and 80 other brave priests of the Lord went into the temple after him. 18 They warned King Uzziah. They said to him, ‘It is not right for you, Uzziah, to offer incense to the Lord. Only the priests, Aaron's descendants, may do that. They are the people that God has chosen to offer incense to him. So you must leave this Holy Place because you have done something that is wrong. As a result, the Lord God will not give you any honour.’
19 Then Uzziah became angry. In his hand, he was holding a pot with hot coals and incense in it. He was standing in the Lord's temple, near the special altar for incense. The priests were there with him. When he started to shout at the priests, a bad disease suddenly appeared on the skin of his face. 20 Azariah, the leader of the priests, and all the other priests turned towards Uzziah. They saw the terrible disease on the skin at the front of his head. So they quickly took him out of the temple. Uzziah himself was also in a hurry to leave, because the Lord had punished him with this disease.[b]
King Uzziah dies
21 King Uzziah had the terrible disease on his skin until the day that he died. He lived in his own house, away from other people. He could not go into the Lord's temple because of his disease. His son Jotham had authority in the palace and he ruled the people of Judah.
22 All the other things that happened while Uzziah was king are written in a book. The prophet Isaiah, Amoz's son, wrote down those things. 23 Uzziah died and they buried him near his ancestors. Because he had the terrible disease on his skin, they did not bury him beside the other kings that had died. Instead they buried him in a field for graves that belonged to the kings of Judah.
His son Jotham became king after him.
Jotham rules Judah as king
27 Jotham was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled Judah as king in Jerusalem for 16 years. His mother's name was Jerusha. She was Zadok's daughter. 2 Jotham did things that the Lord said were good, as his father Uzziah had done. But he did not try to go into the Lord's temple and offer incense, as his father had done. But the people continued to do bad things.
3 Jotham built the Higher Gate of the Lord's temple. He also did a lot of work to repair the city wall near Ophel hill. 4 He built towns in the hill country of Judah. He also built strong buildings and towers in the forests.[c]
5 Jotham took his army to attack the king of Ammon. He won the battle against them. That year, the Ammonites gave to him 3,400 kilograms of silver. They also gave him 2,200 kilolitres of wheat and 2,200 kilolitres of barley. The Ammonites paid Jotham the same amount for each of the next two years.
6 Jotham became a powerful king because he faithfully obeyed the Lord his God.
Jotham dies
7 The other things that happened while Jotham was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of the kings of Israel and Judah’. It tells about the wars that Jotham fought and the other things that he did. 8 He was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled Judah as king in Jerusalem for 16 years. 9 Jotham died and his people buried him in the City of David.
His son Ahaz became king after him.
Ahaz rules Judah as king
28 Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king. He ruled Judah as king in Jerusalem for 16 years. He did not do the things that the Lord said were good. So he was not like his ancestor, King David.[d]
2 He lived in the same bad way that the kings of Israel did. He also used metal to make images of the god Baal. 3 He offered sacrifices in Ben-Hinnom Valley. He even caused his sons to walk through fire.[e] In this way he copied the terrible sins of the other nations in Canaan. Those were the nations that the Lord had chased out so that the Israelites could live there. 4 Ahaz offered sacrifices and he burned incense on altars on the hills, as well as under all the big trees.
God punishes King Ahaz
5 Because of this, the Lord his God put Ahaz under the power of the king of Syria. Syria's army won a battle against Ahaz's men. The king of Syria took many of Ahaz's people to Damascus as his prisoners.[f]
The Lord also allowed the king of Israel to attack Ahaz. Israel's soldiers completely won the battle against Ahaz. 6 In one day, King Pekah of Israel, Remaliah's son, killed 120,000 of Judah's best soldiers. God punished the people of Judah because they had turned away from the Lord, the God of their ancestors.
7 Zikri, a brave soldier from Ephraim's tribe, killed Maaseiah, King Ahaz's son. He also killed Azrikam, the officer with authority over the king's palace, and Elkanah, the king's most important officer. 8 The Israelites took hold of 200,000 wives, sons and daughters of Judah's soldiers. They took them as their prisoners, even though they were their relatives. They also carried away to Samaria a lot of valuable things.
9 Oded, a prophet of the Lord, lived there. He went to meet Israel's soldiers when they arrived back in Samaria. He said to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah's people. So he let you have power over them to punish them. But you have killed them in a very cruel way. God in heaven has seen what you have done. 10 Now you want to use the men and women from Judah and Jerusalem as your slaves. So you yourselves are guilty of sins against the Lord your God. 11 Now listen to me! The Lord is very angry with you. So you must send back the prisoners that you have brought here from Judah. Remember that they are your relatives.’
12 Then some family leaders of Ephraim warned the soldiers who were returning from the battle against Judah. The leaders' names were: Jehohanan's son Azariah, Meshillemoth's son Berekiah, Shallum's son Jehizkiah and Hadlai's son Amasa. 13 They said to the soldiers, ‘You must not bring your prisoners here! If you do, we will be guilty of even more sins against the Lord. The Lord is already angry with us people of Israel because we are guilty. Do not make it worse.’
14 So the soldiers let their prisoners go free. They gave the people and the things that they had brought from Judah to the leaders and the other people. 15 The leaders found clothes for each of the prisoners who had no clothes. They gave the prisoners clothes, shoes, food and drink, as well as oil to put on their skin. They took all these things from the things that the soldiers had brought from Judah. They put the prisoners who were too weak to walk on donkeys. Then they took them back to their relatives in Jericho, the city with many palm trees. After that, the Israelite leaders returned to Samaria.
Ahaz asks the king of Assyria for help
16 At that time, King Ahaz asked the king of Assyria for help. 17 Soldiers from Edom had attacked Judah again. They had taken people away as their prisoners. 18 Philistine soldiers had also attacked towns in the low hills in the west of Judah and in the Negev in the south. They took these towns for themselves and they lived in them:
Beth-Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth;
Soco, Timnah and Gimzo with the villages around them.
19 The Lord caused a lot of trouble for Judah's people because of their king, Ahaz. He turned away from the Lord and he allowed his people to do wicked things.
20 King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria came to Ahaz. But he did not help Ahaz. Instead, he caused trouble. 21 Ahaz took valuable things from the Lord's temple, from the king's palace and from his officers. He gave those things to the king of Assyria. But the king of Assyria still did not help him.
King Ahaz's sins
22 During this time of trouble, King Ahaz did even more bad things against the Lord. 23 He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus. He thought that those gods had helped the kings of Syria to win the wars against him. He thought, ‘If I offer sacrifices to them, perhaps they will help me too.’ But that sin caused a lot of trouble for King Ahaz and for his nation.
24 Ahaz took away all the things that were in God's temple. He broke them into pieces. He shut the doors of the temple so that nobody could go in. He built altars for himself at the corner of every street in Jerusalem. 25 He built altars in every town in Judah to offer sacrifices to other gods. In that way he made the Lord, the God of his ancestors, very angry.
Ahaz dies
26 All the other things that happened while Ahaz was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of the kings of Judah and Israel’. It tells about all the things that Ahaz did. 27 Ahaz died and his people buried him in the City of David. But they did not bury him near the graves of Israel's kings.
His son Hezekiah became king after him.
Obey the government
13 Everyone must obey the government officers. It is God who gives the authority to rule. The people who rule have received their authority from God. 2 So anyone who refuses to obey that authority is refusing to obey God. That person will receive the proper punishment.
3 People who do good things do not need to be afraid of the rulers. Only people who do bad things should be afraid of the rulers. Do you want to live and not be afraid of the rulers? Then you must do good things and they will respect you. 4 Rulers are God's servants. They help you to do good things. But if you do bad things, then you should be afraid of them. They really do have authority to punish people. On God's behalf they punish people who do bad things. 5 So you must obey the people who have authority to rule. You must obey them not only so that they do not punish you. You must obey them because it is right to obey them. And you yourselves know that this is right.
6 This is also the reason why you pay taxes to the government. You should pay them, because the officers are God's servants. They are doing the work that God has given to them. 7 So you must give to each person what you ought to give them. Pay taxes to the people who receive taxes. Do that for every kind of tax. Respect those people that you should respect. Praise people that you should praise.
Love other people
8 Always pay your debts to people. The only debt that you should have is to love each other. Anyone who loves other people has obeyed God's Law completely.
9 The rules in God's Law say this: ‘Do not have sex with anyone who is not your own wife or your own husband. Do not kill anyone. Do not rob anyone. Do not want things that belong to other people.’ All these rules, and all the other rules in God's Law, are all included in one rule. That one rule is: ‘Love other people as much as you love yourself.’ 10 If you love other people, you will never do anything bad to them. So anyone who loves other people has obeyed God's Law completely.
11 Live in that way, because you know what is happening in this time now. It is time that you should stop sleeping. It is now time to wake up. The time when God will save us completely is near. That time is nearer now than when we first believed in him. 12 The night has nearly finished and the day is almost here. So we must stop doing the bad things that belong to the dark. Instead, we must take weapons like soldiers who are ready to fight in the light.[a]
13 We should live in a good way, because we live in the light of day. We should not go to wild parties. We must not be drunks. We must not have sex with anyone who is not our own wife or husband. We must not do wrong things with our bodies. We must not quarrel. We must not be jealous of other people. 14 Instead, you must live with the Lord Jesus Christ as your guide. Do not even think about the bad things that you may want to do to make yourself happy.
This is a song that David wrote.
God takes care of his people[a]
23 The Lord takes care of me,
like a shepherd with his sheep.
I have everything that I need.
2 He takes me to green fields where I can rest.
He leads me to streams of water where I can drink.
3 He gives me new strength in my life.
He is my guide to the right paths.
He does this to give honour to his name.
4 I may walk through a valley that is as dark as death.
But I will not be afraid of any danger.
This is because you are with me, Lord.
Your stick and your shepherd's pole protect me from danger.
5 You prepare a big meal for me while my enemies watch.
You put olive oil on my head.
You bless me so much that my cup is completely full.
6 I am sure that you will always be good to me.
You will love me all the days of my life.
That will never change.
I will live in the Lord's house for as long as I live.
11 Even children show what they are like by the things that they do.
You can see if they are honest and good.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.