June 29th

So now, summon to me all the prophets of Baal, all his slaves and all his priests; let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice for Baal; whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu did it in cunning, so that he might cause the slaves of Baal to perish.

And Jehu said, “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal.” And they summoned them.

Then Jehu sent throughout Israel, and all the slaves of Baal came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. So they came into the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other.

Then he said to the one who was in charge of the wardrobe, “Bring out garments for all the slaves of Baal.” So he brought out garments for them.

And Jehu came into the house of Baal with Jehonadab the son of Rechab; and he said to the slaves of Baal, “Search and see lest there be here with you any of the slaves of Yahweh, but only the slaves of Baal.”

Then they came in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings.

Now Jehu had placed for himself eighty men outside, and he had said, “The one who permits any of the men whom I cause to come into your hands to escape, shall give up his life in exchange.”

Now it happened that as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the royal officers, “Come in, strike them down; let none come out.” And they struck them down with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the royal officers threw them out and went to the inner room of the house of Baal.

And they brought out the sacred pillars of the house of Baal and burned them.

They also broke down the sacred pillar of Baal and broke down the house of Baal and made it a latrine to this day.

Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.

However, as for the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin, from these Jehu did not depart, even the golden calves that were at Bethel and that were at Dan.

And Yahweh said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in doing what is right in My eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in My heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.”

But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with all his heart; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, which he made Israel sin.

In those days Yahweh began to cut off portions from Israel; and Hazael struck them throughout the territory of Israel:

from the Jordan to the east toward the sunrise, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites and the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.

Now the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son became king in his place.

Now the time which Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

Now Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son had died. So she rose and caused all the royal seed to perish.

But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him from among the king’s sons who were being put to death, and put him and his nurse in the bedroom. So they hid him from Athaliah, and he was not put to death.

So he was hidden away with her in the house of Yahweh six years, while Athaliah was reigning over the land.

Now in the seventh year Jehoiada sent for and took the commanders of hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him in the house of Yahweh. Then he cut a covenant with them and had them swear in the house of Yahweh, and showed them the king’s son.

And he commanded them, saying, “This is the thing that you shall do: one-third of you, who come in on the sabbath and keep watch over the king’s house

(one-third also shall be at the gate Sur, and one-third at the gate behind the guards), shall keep watch over the house for defense.

And two parts of you, even all who go out on the sabbath, shall also keep watch over the house of Yahweh for the king.

And you shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand; and whoever comes within the ranks shall be put to death. And be with the king when he goes out and when he comes in.”

So the commanders of hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. And each one of them took his men who were to come in on the sabbath, with those who were to go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.

Then the priest gave to the commanders of hundreds the spears and small shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of Yahweh.

And the guards stood each with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, by the altar and by the house, around the king.

Then he brought the king’s son out and put the crown on him and gave him the testimony; and they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, “Long live the king!”

Then Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, and she came to the people in the house of Yahweh.

And she looked, and behold, the king was standing by the pillar, according to the custom, with the commanders and the trumpeters beside the king; and all the people of the land were glad and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!”

And Jehoiada the priest commanded the commanders of hundreds who were appointed over the military force and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks, and whoever follows her put to death with the sword.” For the priest said, “Let her not be put to death in the house of Yahweh.”

So they laid hands on her, and she arrived at the horses’ entrance of the king’s house and was put to death there.

Then Jehoiada cut a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that they would be the people of Yahweh, also between the king and the people.

And all the people of the land came to the house of Baal and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces thoroughly, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed overseers over the house of Yahweh.

And he took the commanders of hundreds and the Carites and the guards and all the people of the land; and they brought the king down from the house of Yahweh, and came by the way of the gate of the guards to the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings.

So all the people of the land were glad, and the city was quiet. For they had put Athaliah to death with the sword at the king’s house.

Jehoash was seven years old when he became king.

In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

And Jehoash did what was right in the sight of Yahweh all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

Only the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

Then Jehoash said to the priests, “All the money of the sacred things which is brought into the house of Yahweh, both the money for each numbered man—the money from each person’s assessment in the census—and all the money which any man’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of Yahweh,

let the priests take it for themselves, each from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the damages of the house wherever any damage may be found.”

Now it happened that in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash the priests had not repaired the damages of the house.

Then King Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests and said to them, “Why do you not repair the damages of the house? So now, take no more money from your acquaintances, but give it over to pay for the damages of the house.”

So the priests agreed that they would take no more money from the people, nor repair the damages of the house.

But Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid and put it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of Yahweh; and the priests who kept watch over the threshold put in it all the money which was brought into the house of Yahweh.

Now it happened that when they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s scribe and the high priest came up and tied it in bags and counted the money which was found in the house of Yahweh.

And they gave the money, which was weighed out, into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of Yahweh; and they paid it out to the craftsmen of wood and the builders who worked on the house of Yahweh;

and to the masons and the hewers of stone, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the damages to the house of Yahweh, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.

But there were not made for the house of Yahweh silver cups, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver from the money which was brought into the house of Yahweh;

for they gave that to those who did the work, and with it they repaired the house of Yahweh.

Moreover, they did not require an accounting from the men into whose hand they paid the money in order to pay those who did the work, for they were doing it faithfully.

The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of Yahweh; it was for the priests.

Then Hazael king of Aram went up and fought against Gath and captured it, and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

And Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had set apart as holy, and his own holy things and all the gold that was found among the treasuries of the house of Yahweh and of the king’s house, and sent them to Hazael king of Aram. Then he went away from Jerusalem.

Now the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

And his servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Joash at the house of Millo as he was going down to Silla.

Now Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amaziah his son became king in his place.

Now in those days, while the disciples were multiplying in number, there was grumbling from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.

So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not pleasing to God for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.

Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this need.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the service of the word.”

And this word pleased the whole congregation, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.

And these they stood before the apostles, and after praying, they laid their hands on them.

And the word of God kept on spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to multiply greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.

But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and were arguing with Stephen.

But they were unable to oppose the wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.

Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they came up to him, dragged him away, and brought him to the Sanhedrin.

And they put forward false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases speaking words against this holy place and the Law;

for we have heard him say that this Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.”

And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin saw his face like the face of an angel.

And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

And he said, “Hear me, brothers and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’

Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.

But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his seed after him, even when he had no child.

But God spoke in this way, that his seed would be sojourners in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

‘And I Myself will judge the nation to which they will be enslaved,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve Me in this place.’

And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.