2 Kings 16, 2 Chronicles 28, Luke 21, Psalm 58

Ahaz Reigns over Judah

16In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, ^aAhaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. ²^aAhaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of Yahweh his God, as David his father had done. ³But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, ^aand even made his son pass through the fire, ^baccording to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed from before the sons of Israel. ⁴He also ^asacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

⁵Then ^aRezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, ^bbut could not ¹overcome him. ⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram restored ^aElath for Aram and cleared the Judeans out of ¹Elath entirely; and the ²Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day.

Ahaz Sends for Help from Assyria

⁷^aSo Ahaz sent messengers to ^bTiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son; come up and save me from the ¹hand of the king of Aram and from the ²hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.” ⁸^aAhaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of Yahweh and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent a gift to the king of Assyria. ⁹^aSo the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and ^bseized it and took the people of it away into exile to ^cKir, and put Rezin to death.

Ahaz Has Urijah Build an Altar

¹⁰Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet ^aTiglath-pileser king of Assyria and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to ^bUrijah the priest the likeness of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship. ¹¹So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, thus Urijah the priest made it, ¹before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus. ¹²So the king came from Damascus, and the king saw the altar; then ^athe king drew near the altar and ¹made offerings on it, ¹³and offered his burnt offering and his meal offering up in smoke, and poured his drink offering and splashed the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. ¹⁴^aNow as for the bronze altar, which was before Yahweh, ¹he drew it away from the front of the house, from between ^bhis altar and the house of Yahweh, and he put it on the north side of his altar. ¹⁵Then King Ahaz ¹commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “Upon the great altar offer up in smoke ^athe morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offering and their drink offerings; and splash on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But ^bthe bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” ¹⁶So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷Then King Ahaz ^acut off the borders of the stands and removed the laver from them; he also ^btook down the sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone. ¹⁸And the covered way for the sabbath which they had built in the house, and the outer entry of the king, he removed from the house of Yahweh because of the king of Assyria.

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written ^ain the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰So ^aAhaz slept with his fathers and ^bwas buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah his son became king in his place.

Ahaz Reigns over Judah

28^aAhaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and ^bhe did not do what was right in the sight of Yahweh, as David his father had done. ²^aBut he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel; he also ^bmade molten images for the Baals. ³Moreover, ^ahe offered offerings in smoke in the valley of Ben-hinnom and ^bburned his sons in the fire, ^caccording to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed from before the sons of Israel. ⁴He also sacrificed and ^aoffered offerings in smoke on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

Judah Carried Away by Aram

⁵So, ^aYahweh his God gave him into the hand of the king of Aram; and they struck him and carried away from him a great number of captives and brought them to Damascus. And he was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter. ⁶Indeed, ^aPekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah 120,000 in one day, all men of valor, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. ⁷And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king’s son and Azrikam the ruler of the house and Elkanah the second to the king.

⁸^aThen the sons of Israel carried away captive of ^btheir brothers 200,000 women, sons, and daughters; and they plundered also a great deal of spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria. ⁹But a prophet of Yahweh was there, whose name was Oded; and ^ahe went out before the army which came to Samaria and said to them, “Behold, because of the ^bwrath of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, against Judah, He has given them into your hand, and you have killed them in a rage ^cwhich has even reached heaven. ¹⁰“So now you are ¹intending to ^asubdue for yourselves the people of Judah and Jerusalem for male and female slaves. Surely, do you not have your own matters of guilt against Yahweh your God? ¹¹“So now, listen to me and return the captives ^awhom you carried away from your brothers, ^bfor the burning anger of Yahweh is against you.” ¹²Then some of the heads of the sons of Ephraim—Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai—arose against those who were coming from the engagement of the army, ¹³and said to them, “You must not bring the captives in here, for you are ¹intending to bring upon us guilt against Yahweh adding to our sins and our guilt; for our guilt is great so that His burning anger is against Israel.” ¹⁴So the armed men left the captives and the plunder before the commanders and all the assembly. ¹⁵Then ^athe men who were designated by name arose, took hold of the captives, and they clothed all their naked ones from the spoil; and they gave them clothes and sandals, fed them and ^bgave them drink, anointed them with oil, led all their feeble ones on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, ^cthe city of palm trees, to their brothers; then they returned to Samaria.

Ahaz Sends to Assyria for Help

¹⁶^aAt that time King Ahaz sent to the ¹kings of Assyria for help. ¹⁷^aIndeed, again the Edomites had come and struck Judah and carried away captives. ¹⁸^aAnd the Philistines also had raided the cities of the ¹Shephelah and of the ²Negev of Judah, and had captured Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, and Soco with its towns, Timnah with its towns, and Gimzo with its towns, and they settled there. ¹⁹For Yahweh humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of ^aIsrael, for he had caused it to be out of control in Judah and was very unfaithful to Yahweh. ²⁰So ^aTilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came against him and distressed him instead of strengthening him. ²¹^aAlthough Ahaz took a portion out of the house of Yahweh and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria, it did not help him.

²²Now in the time of his distress this same King Ahaz ^abecame yet more unfaithful to Yahweh. ²³^aIndeed, he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had struck him, and said, “^bBecause the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they became the stumbling of him and all Israel. ²⁴Ahaz gathered together the utensils of the house of God. Then he ^acut the utensils of the house of God in pieces; and he ^bclosed the doors of the house of Yahweh and ^cmade altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵Now in each and every city of Judah he made high places to offer offerings in smoke to other gods, and provoked Yahweh, the God of his fathers, to anger. ²⁶^aNow the rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷^aSo Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of ^bIsrael; and Hezekiah his son became king in his place.

The Widow’s Offering

21^aAnd He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. ²And He saw a poor widow putting ¹in ^atwo ²lepta. ³And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them. ⁴“For they all put in their gifts out of their abundance; but she, out of what she lacked, put in all ¹that she had ^afor living.”

⁵^aAnd while some were talking about the temple, that it had been adorned with beautiful stones and dedicated gifts, He said, ⁶“As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which ^athere will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.”

⁷So they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, when therefore will these things happen? And what will be the ¹sign when these things are about to take place?” ⁸And He said, “See to it that you are not deceived; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘^aI am He,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ ^bDo not go after them. ⁹“And when you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.”

Signs of Christ’s Return

¹⁰Then He continued saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, ¹¹and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be terrors and great ¹signs from heaven.

¹²“But before all these things, ^athey will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, ¹bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. ¹³“^aIt will result in ¹an opportunity for your testimony. ¹⁴“^aSo set in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; ¹⁵for ^aI will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. ¹⁶“But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, ¹⁷and you will be hated by all because of My name. ¹⁸“Yet ^anot a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹“^aBy your perseverance you will gain your ¹lives.

²⁰“But when you see Jerusalem ^asurrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. ²¹“Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of ¹the city must leave, and ^athose who are in the countryside must not enter ²the city; ²²because these are ^adays of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. ²³“Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for ^athere will be great distress upon the ¹land and wrath against this people, ²⁴and they will fall by ^athe edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations, and ^bJerusalem will be ^ctrampled under foot by the Gentiles until ^dthe times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

When Christ Returns

²⁵“And there will be ¹signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth anguish among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the ¹world; for the powers of ²the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷“^aAnd then they will see ^bthe Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸“But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because ^ayour redemption is drawing near.”

The Parable of the Fig Tree

²⁹Then He told them a parable: “Behold the fig tree and all the trees; ³⁰as soon as they put forth leaves and you see it for yourselves, ^aknow that summer is now near. ³¹“So you also, when you see these things happening, know that ^athe kingdom of God is near. ³²“Truly I say to you, this ¹generation will not pass away until all things take place. ³³“^aHeaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

³⁴“^aBut be on guard, so that your hearts will not be overcome with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; ³⁵for it will come upon all those who inhabit the face of all the earth. ³⁶“But ^akeep on the alert at all times, praying earnestly that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to ^bstand before the Son of Man.”

³⁷Now ¹during the day He was ^ateaching in the temple, but ²^,^bduring the night He would go out and spend it on ³^,^cthe mount called “of ⁴Olives.” ³⁸And all the people would get up ^aearly in the morning to come to Him in the temple to listen to Him.

There Is a God Who Judges on Earth

For the choir director. ¹Al-tashheth. Of David. A ²Mikhtam.

Do you indeed ³speak righteousness, O ⁴gods?Do you ^ajudge ⁵with equity, O sons of men?²No, in heart you ^awork unrighteousness;On earth you ¹^,^bprepare a path for the violence of your hands.³The wicked are estranged ^afrom the womb;These who speak falsehood ^bwander in error from ¹birth.⁴They have venom like the ^avenom of a serpent;Like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear,⁵So that it ^adoes not hear the voice of ¹^,^bcharmers,Or a skillful caster of spells.⁶O God, ^ashatter their teeth in their mouth;Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Yahweh.⁷Let them ^aflow away like water that runs off;When he ¹^,^baims his arrows, let them be as ²headless shafts.⁸Let them be as a snail which ¹melts away as it goes along,Like the ^amiscarriages of a woman which never behold the sun.⁹Before your ^apots can feel the fire of thornsHe will ^bsweep them away with a whirlwind, the living and the burning alike.¹⁰The ^arighteous will be glad when he ^bbeholds the vengeance;He will ^cwash his feet in the blood of the wicked.¹¹And men will say, “Surely there is a ¹^,^areward for the righteous;Surely there is a God who ^bjudges ²on earth!”