The Bible

The text of the Christian Standard Bible may be quoted in any form (written, visual, electronic, or audio) up to and inclusive of one-thousand (1,000) verses without the written permission of the publisher.

The Bible is God’s revelation to humanity. It is our only source for completely reliable information about God, what happens when we die, and where history is headed.

A biblical author may have intended multiple meanings, but these may be lost with the elimination of normal structures.

A standing committee was also formed to maintain the HCSB translation and look for ways to improve readability without compromising accuracy.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.

Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

For you are dust, and you will return to dust.

But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.

Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him.

The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.

Those that entered, male and female of every creature, entered just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.

When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in its beak.

Then Shem and Japheth took a cloak and placed it over both their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness.

“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.

They will kill me but let you live. Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.

Now the Siddim Valley contained many asphalt pits, and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, but the rest fled to the mountains.

As the sun was setting, a deep sleep came over Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him.

So she named the Lord who spoke to her: 'You are El-roi,' for she said, 'In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?'

Abraham fell face down. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a hundred-year-old man? Can Sarah, a ninety-year-old woman, give birth?”

“Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just?”

They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door. But the angels reached out, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”

She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beer-sheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes and went and sat at a distance, about a bowshot away, for she said, 'I can’t bear to watch the boy die!'

Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.

“I am an alien residing among you. Give me burial property among you so that I can bury my dead.”

Let the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your water jug so that I may drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also’ — let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac.

I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.

Isaac loved her, and he was comforted after his mother’s death.

The first one came out red-looking, covered with hair like a fur coat, and they named him Esau.

Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

Then I will be revealed to him as a deceiver and bring a curse rather than a blessing on myself.

The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, 'Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.'

So Jacob worked seven years for Rachel, and they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Wasn’t it for Rachel that I worked for you? Why have you deceived me?”

“Isn’t it enough that you have taken my husband? Now you also want to take my son’s mandrakes?”

Jacob then took branches of fresh poplar, almond, and plane wood, and peeled the bark, exposing white stripes on the branches.

You have deceived me and taken my daughters away like prisoners of war!

May the Lord watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight.

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing God’s face, since you have accepted me.

On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and killed every male.

With her last breath — for she was dying — she named him Ben-oni, but his father called him Benjamin.

For their possessions were too many for them to live together, and because of their herds, the land where they stayed could not support them.

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not bring themselves to speak peaceably to him.

They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, 'We found this. Examine it. Is it your son’s robe or not?'

Judah recognized them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.”

She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.

In just three days Pharaoh will lift up your head — from off you — and hang you on a tree.

When they had devoured them, you could not tell that they had devoured them; their appearance was as bad as it had been before.

Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, clothed him with fine linen garments, and placed a gold chain around his neck.

His brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.

Their hearts sank. Trembling, they turned to one another and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”

As for me, if I am deprived of my sons, then I am deprived.

The men looked at each other in astonishment. Portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, and Benjamin’s portion was five times larger than any of theirs.

But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and also Pharaoh’s household heard it.

Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin wept on his shoulder.

Joseph presented himself to him, threw his arms around him, and wept for a long time.

My years have been few and hard, and they have not reached the years of my fathers during their pilgrimages.

I never expected to see your face again, but now God has even let me see your offspring.

But his father refused and said, 'I know, my son, I know! He too will become a tribe, and he too will be great; nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he.'

Dan will be a snake by the road, a viper beside the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider falls backward.

You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result — the survival of many people.

The midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed.

God replied to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.'

Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “Isn’t Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well.”

“You are a bridegroom of blood to me!”

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor.

Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs.

The Nile will swarm with frogs; they will come up and go into your palace, into your bedroom and on your bed, into the houses of your officials and your people, and into your ovens and kneading bowls.

“This is the finger of God,” the magicians said to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh’s heart was hard, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

The hail, with lightning flashing through it, was so severe that nothing like it had occurred in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

Pharaoh’s officials asked him, “How long must this man be a snare to us? Don’t you realize yet that Egypt is devastated?”

Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there will be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt.

But against all the Israelites, whether people or animals, not even a dog will snarl, so that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two door posts, he will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you.

In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night never left its place in front of the people.

Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?

The water heaped up at the blast from your nostrils; the currents stood firm like a dam.

If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted.

But they didn’t listen to Moses; some people left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank.

In a little while they will stone me!

You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you.

Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently.

When the people saw it they trembled and stood at a distance. 'You speak to us, and we will listen,' they said to Moses, 'but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.'

His master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve his master for life.

If a thief is caught in the act of breaking in, and he is beaten to death, no one is guilty of bloodshed. But if this happens after sunrise, the householder is guilty of bloodshed.

If you ever take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him before sunset. For it is his only covering; it is the clothing for his body. What will he sleep in?

You must not oppress a resident alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be a resident alien because you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.

Beneath his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself.

The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop.

Be careful to make them ac cord ing to the pat tern you have been shown on the mountain.

The curtain will make a separation for you between the holy place and the most holy place.

Make horns for it on its four corners; the horns are to be of one piece.

Make holy garments for your brother Aaron, for glory and beauty.

The robe will be worn by Aaron whenever he ministers, and its sound will be heard when he enters the sanctuary before the Lord and when he exits, so that he does not die.

Take some of its blood, and put it on Aaron’s right earlobe, on his sons’ right earlobes, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet.

The altar will be especially holy. Whatever touches the altar will be consecrated.

The wealthy may not give more and the poor may not give less than half a shekel when giving the contribution to the Lord to atone for your lives.

Any one who makes some thing like it to smell its fragrance must be cut off from his people.

When he finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.

So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off,’ and they gave it to me. When I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!

The Lord would speak with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend, then Moses would return to the camp.

I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone! They were afraid to come near him.

Every one whose heart was moved and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting.

The people are bringing more than is needed for the construction of the work the Lord commanded to be done.

He made the curtain with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. He made it with a design of cherubim worked into it.

The faces of the cherubim were looking toward the mercy seat.

He made the bronze basin and its stand from the bronze mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

They hammered out thin sheets of gold, and he cut threads from them to interweave with the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and the fine linen in a skillful design.

Each stone was engraved like a seal with one of the names of the twelve tribes.

Moses inspected all the work they had accomplished. They had done just as the Lord commanded. Then Moses blessed them.

The cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Then the priest is to bring it to the altar, and will twist off its head and burn it on the altar; its blood should be drained at the side of the altar.

All fat be longs to the Lord. 17 This is a per - ma nent stat ute through out your gen er a tions, wher ev er you live: you must not eat any fat or any blood.

The priest is to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the Lord in front of the curtain of the sanctuary.

The priest is to burn it on the altar as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

He is to twist its head at the back of the neck without severing it.

Fire must be kept burning on the altar continually; it must not go out.

If any of the meat of his fellowship sacrifice is eaten on the third day, it will not be accepted. It will not be credited to the one who presents it; it is repulsive.

Whoever eats any blood is to be cut off from his people.

Moses slaughtered it, took some of its blood, and put it on Aaron’s right earlobe, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

You must remain at the entrance to the tent of meeting day and night for seven days and keep the Lord’s charge so that you will not die, for this is what I was commanded.

Then fire came from the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

Since these things have happened to me, if I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been acceptable in the Lord’s sight?

If any of them falls into any clay pot, every thing in it will be come un clean; you are to break it.

For I am the Lord your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy.

Since he has turned totally white, he is clean. But whenever raw flesh appears on him, he will be unclean.

The person who has a case of serious skin disease is to have his clothes torn and his hair hanging loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’

He is to take the live bird together with the cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop, and dip them all into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water.

The priest is to take some of the blood from the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

If the contamination in the walls of the house consists of green or red indentations that appear to be beneath the surface of the wall, the priest is to go outside the house to its doorway and quarantine the house for seven days.

Then he is to release the live bird into the open countryside outside the city. In this way he will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean.

You must keep the Israelites from their uncleanness, so that they do not die by defiling my tabernacle that is among them.

The goat will carry all their in iq ui ties into a des o late land, and the man will re lease it there.

They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat-demons that they have prostituted themselves with.

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the life blood that makes atonement.

The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its iniquity, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants.

Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

You are to keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.

You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be mine.

But because he has a defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar.

But you are not to slaughter an animal from the herd or flock on the same day as its young.

When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap all the way to the edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

If any person does not practice self-denial on this particular day, he is to be cut off from his people.

Whatever injury he inflicted on the person, the same is to be inflicted on him.

The land is not to be permanently sold because it is mine, and you are only aliens and temporary residents on my land.

They are not to be sold as slaves, because they are my servants that I brought out of the land of Egypt.

I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live in freedom.

The sound of a wind-driven leaf will put them to flight, and they will flee as one flees from a sword, and fall though no one is pursuing them.

He may not replace it or make a substitution for it, either good for bad, or bad for good.

Every tenth animal from the herd or flock, which passes under the shepherd’s rod, will be holy to the Lord.

He reg is tered them in the Wilderness of Sinai: The descendants of Reuben, the first born of Israel: according to their family records by their clans and their ancestral families, counting one by one the names of every male twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in the army.

Any unauthorized person who comes near it is to be put to death.

But Nadab and Abihu died in the Lord’s presence when they presented unauthorized fire before the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai, and they had no sons.

Any unauthorized person who came near it was to be put to death.

The Kohathites will come and carry them, but they are not to touch the holy objects or they will die.

They are not to go in and look at the holy objects as they are covered or they will die.

Send away both male or female; send them outside the camp, so that they will not defile their camps where I dwell among them.

Then the priest is to write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water.

The Nazirite is to shave his consecrated head at the entrance to the tent of meeting, take the hair from his head, and put it on the fire under the fellowship sacrifice.

But he did not give any to the Kohathites, since their responsibility was service related to the holy objects carried on their shoulders.

His ofering was one silver dish weighing 3 1/4 pounds and one silver basin weighing 1 3/4 pounds, measured by the standard sanctuary shekel, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain ofering.

When Moses entered the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim.

In this way you are to separate the Levites from the rest of the Israelites so that the Levites will belong to me.

Wait here until I hear what the Lord commands for you.

When you enter into battle in your land against an adversary who is attacking you, sound short blasts on the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God and be saved from your enemies.

If you are going to treat me like this, please kill me right now if I have found favor with you, and don’t let me see my misery.

You will eat, not for one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but for a whole month — until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you.

I speak with him directly, openly, and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord.

To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.

While the whole community threatened to stone them, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent of meeting.

As surely as I live — this is the Lord’s declaration — I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. Your corpses will fall in this wilderness.

The assembly is to have the same statute for both you and the resident alien as a permanent statute throughout your generations.

“You have gone too far! Every one in the entire community is holy, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”

But if the Lord brings about something unprecedented, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them along with all that belongs to them so that they go down alive into Sheol, then you will know that these men have despised the Lord.

He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was halted.

I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but an unauthorized person who comes near the sanctuary will be put to death.

I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.

Any person who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person will be cut off from the assembly because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord.

“Listen, you rebels! Must we bring water out of this rock for you?”

The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you led us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!”

This horde will devour everything around us like an ox eats up the green plants in the field.

Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and she asked Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?”

How can I curse someone God has not cursed? How can I denounce someone the Lord has not denounced?

A people rise up like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion. They will not lie down until they devour the prey and drink the blood of the slain.

A star will come from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel.

The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them with Korah, when his followers died and the fire consumed 250 men.

But among them there was not one of those who had been registered by Moses and the priest Aaron when they registered the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai.

May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all, appoint a man over the community who will go out before them and come back in before them, and who will bring them out and bring them in, so that the Lord’s community won’t be like sheep without a shepherd.

Pour out the offering of beer to the Lord in the sanctuary area.

This will be a day of trumpet blasts for you.

When a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to put himself under an obligation, he must not break his word; he must do whatever he has promised.

But if her husband cancels them on the day he hears about it, nothing that came from her lips, whether her vows or her obligation, is binding.

“Have you let every female live?” he asked them.

And here you, a brood of sinners, stand in your fathers’ place adding even more to the Lord’s burning anger against Israel.

But if you don’t do this, you will certainly sin against the Lord; be sure your sin will catch up with you.

On the day after the Passover the Israelites went out defiantly in the sight of all the Egyptians.

But if you don’t drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become barbs for your eyes and thorns for your sides; they will harass you in the land where you will live.

You will have the cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the one who kills someone will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.

The avenger of blood himself is to kill the murderer; when he finds him, he is to kill him.

The Lord your God has so multiplied you that today you are as numerous as the stars of the sky.

And you saw in the wilderness how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son all along the way you traveled until you reached this place.

Then the Amorites who lived there came out against you and chased you like a swarm of bees.

Today I will begin to put the fear and dread of you on the peoples everywhere under heaven.

Only King Og of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed was made of iron. It is 13 1/2 feet long and 6 feet wide by a standard measure.

The Lord said to me, ‘That’s enough! Do not speak to me again about this matter.’

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

He let you hear his voice from heaven to instruct you. He showed you his great fire on earth, and you heard his words from the fire.

To day we have seen that God speaks with a per son, yet he still lives.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

The Lord had his heart set on you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then he gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands, shattering them before your eyes.

Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer.

Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

You are not to do as we are doing here today; every one is doing whatever seems right in his own sight.

But don’t eat the blood, since the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.

The city is to remain a mound of ruins forever; it is not to be rebuilt.

In stead, you are to open your hand to him and freely loan him enough for what ever need he has.

Take an awl and pierce through his ear into the door, and he will become your slave for life.

Do not accept a bribe, for it blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

The witnesses’ hands are to be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people.

If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live.

Do not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Are trees of the field human, to come under siege by you?

Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. You must purge the evil from you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid.

This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him.

For the Lord your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you; so your encampments must be holy.

He is free to stay at home for one year, so that he can bring joy to the wife he has married.

Otherwise, if he is flogged with more lashes than these, your brother will be degraded in your sight.

My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with a few people and resided there as an alien.

Be silent, Israel, and listen! This day you have become the people of the Lord your God.

The sky above you will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.

You will grope as a blind person gropes in the dark. You will not be successful in anything you do.

In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’ — because of the dread you will have in your heart and because of what you will see.

Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.

The Lord uprooted them from their land in his anger, rage, and intense wrath, and threw them into another land where they are today.

I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.

For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are rebelling against the Lord now, while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after I am dead!

He found him in a desolate land, in a barren, howling wilderness; he surrounded him, cared for him, and protected him as the pupil of his eye.

I will make my arrows drunk with blood while my sword devours flesh — the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.

He lies down like a lion and tears off an arm or even a head.

The God of old is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

When we heard this, we lost heart, and every one’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.

The water flowing downstream will stand up in a mass.

When the priests carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant came up from the middle of the Jordan, and their feet stepped out on solid ground, the water of the Jordan resumed its course, flowing over all the banks as before.

Joshua approached him and asked, 'Are you for us or for our enemies?' 'Neither,' he replied. 'I have now come as commander of the Lord’s army.'

Do not shout or let your voice be heard. Don’t let one word come out of your mouth until the time I say, ‘Shout!’

As a result, the people lost heart. Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening.

When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Babylon, five pounds of silver, and a bar of gold weighing a pound and a quarter, I coveted them and took them.

The men of Ai turned and looked back, and smoke from the city was rising to the sky!

Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but did not seek the Lord’s decision.

Now we are in your hands. Do to us whatever you think is right.

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”

He completely destroyed every living being, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded.

For it was the Lord’s intention to harden their hearts, so that they would engage Israel in battle, be completely destroyed without mercy, and be annihilated, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Joshua was now old, advanced in age, and the Lord said to him, “You have become old, advanced in age, but a great deal of the land remains to be possessed.

But Moses did not give a portion to the tribe of Levi. The Lord, the God of Israel, was their inheritance, just as he had promised them.

I am still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. My strength for battle and for daily tasks is now as it was then.

As she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What can I do for you?” She replied, “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me the springs also.”

How ever, they did not drive out the Canaan ites who lived in Ge zer. So the Canaan ites still live in Ephraim to day , but they are forced la borers.

The descendants of Manasseh could not possess these cities, because the Canaanites were determined to stay in this land.

The inheritance of Simeon’s descendants was within the territory of Judah’s descendants, because the share for Judah’s descendants was too large.

When the territory of the descendants of Dan slipped out of their control, they went up and fought against Leshem, captured it, and struck it down with the sword.

And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not hand the one who committed manslaughter over to him, for he killed his neighbor accidentally and did not hate him beforehand.

Hebron, the city of refuge for the one who commits manslaughter, with its pasturelands, Libnah with its pasturelands,

None of the good promises the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed. Everything was fulfilled.

The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows, and may Israel also know.

They will become a snare and a trap for you, a sharp stick for your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you disappear from this good land the Lord your God has given you.

I gave you a land you did not labor for, and cities you did not build, though you live in them; you are eating from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.

You see this stone — it will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the Lord said to us, and it will be a witness against you, so that you will not deny your God.

The Lord was with Judah and enabled them to take possession of the hill country, but they could not drive out the people who were living in the valley because those people had iron chariots.

They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you.

They did not turn from their evil practices or their obstinate ways.

Even the handle went in after the blade, and Eglon’s fat closed in over it, so that Ehud did not withdraw the sword from his belly.

While he was sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera.

The stars fought from the heavens; the stars fought with Sisera from their paths.

His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.

Fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread.

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many troops for me to hand the Midianites over to them, or else Israel might elevate themselves over me and say, ‘My own strength saved me.’ ”

They blew their trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands.

Then all Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

The bramble said to the trees, 'If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and find refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out from the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon.'

But Zebul said to him, “The shadows of the mountains look like men to you.”

But a woman threw the upper portion of a millstone on Abimelech’s head and fractured his skull.

Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you whenever you are oppressed.

“If you in fact hand over the Ammonites to me, whoever comes out the doors of my house to greet me when I return safely from the Ammonites will belong to the Lord, and I will offer that person as a burnt offering.”

If he said, “Sib bo leth,” be cause he could not pronounce it correctly, they seized him and ex e cut ed him at the fords of the Jordan.

Why do you ask my name, since it is beyond understanding.

Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.

He took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

Then he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate along with the two gate posts, and pulled them out, bar and all.

But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him.

He said, “You took the gods I had made and the priest, and went away. What do I have left? How can you say to me, ‘What’s the matter with you?’ ”

Then her husband got up and followed her to speak kindly to her and bring her back.

When he entered his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and then sent her throughout the territory of Israel.

There were seven hundred fit young men who were left-handed among all these troops; all could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

But when the column of smoke began to go up from the city, Benjamin looked behind them, and the whole city was going up in smoke.

They wept loudly and bitterly, and cried out, 'Why, Lord God of Israel, has it occurred that one tribe is missing in Israel today?'

But Ruth replied: Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.

At midnight, Boaz was startled, turned over, and there lying at his feet was a woman!

At an earlier period in Israel, a man removed his sandal and gave it to the other party in order to make any matter legally binding concerning the right of redemption or the exchange of property.

Indeed, your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.

I am a woman with a broken heart. I haven’t had any wine or beer; I’ve been pouring out my heart before the Lord.

If a person sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?

For those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disgraced.

I am about to do some thing in Is ra el that every one who hears about it will shudder.

This time, Dagon’s head and both of his hands were broken off and lying on the threshold.

The cows went straight up the road to Beth-shemesh. They stayed on that one highway, lowing as they went; they never strayed to the right or to the left.

The people of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who is able to stand in the presence of the Lord this holy God? To whom should the ark go from here?”

The Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines that day and threw them into such confusion that they were defeated by Israel.

When that day comes, you will cry out because of the king you’ve chosen for yourselves, but the Lord won’t answer you on that day.

Am I not a Benjaminite from the smallest of Israel’s tribes and isn’t my clan the least important of all the clans of the Benjaminite tribe?

The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully on you, you will prophesy with them, and you will be transformed.

Na hash the Am mon ite re plied, “ I’ll make one with you on this con di tion: that I gouge out every one’s right eye and hu mil i ate all Is ra el.”

Bring charges against me before the Lord and his anointed: Whose ox or donkey have I taken?

As a result, all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.

So on the day of battle not a sword or spear could be found in the hand of any of the troops who were with Saul and Jonathan; only Saul and his son Jonathan had weapons.

Nothing can keep the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.

My father has brought trouble to the land. Just look at how I have renewed energy because I tasted a little of this honey.

I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned away from following me and has not carried out my instructions.

Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.

Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.

His spear shaft was like a weaver’s beam, and the iron point of his spear weighed fifteen pounds.

Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?

Saul was holding a spear, and he threw it, thinking, 'I’ll pin David to the wall.' But David got away from him twice.

Then Michal took the household idol and put it on the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.

As surely as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.

Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, so he knew that his father was determined to kill David.

He acted like a madman around them, scribbling on the doors of the city gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

His spear was in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him.

He also struck down Nob, the city of the priests, with the sword — both men and women, infants and nursing babies, oxen, donkeys, and sheep.

Saul went along one side of the mountain and David and his men went along the other side.

Who has the king of Israel come after? What are you chasing after? A dead dog? A single flea?

He is such a worthless fool nobody can talk to him!

His heart died and he became a stone.

Let me thrust the spear through him into the ground just once. I won’t have to strike him twice!

David did not let a man or woman live to be brought to Gath, for he said, 'Or they will inform on us and say, "This is what David did."'

“Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Samuel asked Saul.

David and the troops with him wept loudly until they had no strength left to weep.

The share of the one who goes into battle is to be the same as the share of the one who remains with the supplies.

Then Saul took his sword and fell on it.

How the mighty have fallen in the thick of battle! Jonathan lies slain on your heights.

Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his sword into his opponent’s side so that they all died together.

“Am I a dog’s head who belongs to Judah?” he asked. “All this time I’ve been loyal to the family of your father Saul, to his brothers, and to his friends and haven’t betrayed you to David, but now you accuse me of wrongdoing with this woman!”

When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside to the middle of the city gate, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach.

How much more when wicked men kill a righteous man in his own house on his own bed!

When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, act decisively, for then the Lord will have gone out ahead of you to strike down the army of the Philistines.

Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.

I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, to be ruler over my people Israel.

He measured every two cord lengths of those to be put to death and one full length of those to be kept alive.

What is your servant that you take an interest in a dead dog like me?

Be strong! Let’s prove ourselves strong for our people and for the cities of our God. May the Lord’s will be done.

Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest fighting, then withdraw from him so that he is struck down and dies.

Nathan replied to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from Saul.’

Now therefore, assemble the rest of the troops, lay siege to the city, and capture it. Otherwise I will be the one to capture the city, and it will be named after me.

Get this away from me, throw her out, and bolt the door behind her!

We will certainly die and be like water poured out on the ground, which can’t be recovered.

When he shaved his head — he shaved it at the end of every year because his hair got so heavy for him that he had to shave it off — he would weigh the hair from his head and it would be five pounds according to the royal standard.

When a person approached to pay homage to him, Absalom reached out his hand, took hold of him, and kissed him.

David was climbing the slope of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he ascended. His head was covered, and he was walking barefoot.

Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and remove his head!

They are warriors and are desperate like a wild bear robbed of her cubs.

He set his house in order and hanged himself. So he died and was buried in his father’s tomb.

When the mule went under the tangled branches of a large oak tree, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree.

My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!

Should any man be killed in Israel today? Am I not aware that today I’m king over Israel?

Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of male and female singers?

Then with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him.

She kept the birds of the sky from them by day and the wild animals by night.

He rode on a cherub and flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.

With you I can attack a barricade, and with my God I can leap over a wall.

Eleazar stood his ground and attacked the Philistines until his hand was tired and stuck to his sword.

Please, let us fall into the Lord’s hands because his mercies are great, but don’t let me fall into human hands.

No, I insist on buying it from you for a price, for I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.

Save your life and the life of your son Solomon.

All the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing with such a great joy that the earth split open from the sound.

Act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head descend to Sheol in peace.

May God punish me and do so severely if Adonijah has not made this request at the cost of his life.

On the day you do leave and cross the Kidron Valley, know for sure that you will certainly die. Your blood will be on your own head.

The king continued, 'Bring me a sword.' So they brought the sword to the king. And the king said, 'Cut the living boy in two and give half to one and half to the other.'

Throughout Solomon’s reign, Judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan to Beer-sheba, each person under his own vine and his own fig tree.

He spoke about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall.

The temple’s construction used finished stones cut at the quarry so that no hammer, chisel, or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

Since their wings were spread out, the first one’s wing touched one wall while the second cherub’s wing touched the other wall, and in the middle of the temple their wings were touching wing to wing.

He set up the right pillar and named it Jachin; then he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz.

Solomon left all the utensils unweighed because there were so many; the weight of the bronze was not determined.

When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the Lord’s temple, and because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

But will God indeed live on earth? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.

When they sin against you — for there is no one who does not sin — and you are angry with them and hand them over to the enemy.

I have consecrated this temple you have built, to put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

So he said, “What are these towns you’ve given me, my brother?” So he called them the Land of Cabul, as they are still called today.

But I didn’t believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, I was not even told half.

The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as abundant as sycamore in the Judean foothills.

Then Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he had on, tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam, 'Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord God of Israel says: I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand.'

My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! Although my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.

Israel, return to your tents; David, now look after your own house!

But the hand he stretched out against him withered, and he could not pull it back to himself.

His corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it; the lion was standing beside the corpse too.

I will sweep away the house of Jeroboam as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone!

He also removed his grandmother Maacah from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah.

Then King Asa gave a command to everyone without exception in Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with.

His servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him while Elah was in Tirzah getting drunk in the house of Arza.

At the cost of Abiram his firstborn, he laid its foundation, and at the cost of Segub his youngest, he finished its gates.

Just now, I am gathering a couple of sticks in order to go prepare it for myself and my son so we can eat it and die.

At noon Elijah mocked them. He said, 'Shout loudly, for he’s a god! Maybe he’s thinking it over; maybe he has wandered away; or maybe he’s on the road.'

Then the Lord’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.

And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper.

Don’t let the one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it off.

The Israelites camped in front of them like two little flocks of goats, while the Arameans filled the landscape.

He lay down on his bed, turned his face away, and didn’t eat any food.

Ahab said to Elijah, “So, my enemy, you’ve found me, have you?”

I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd.

But a man drew his bow without taking special aim and struck the king of Israel through the joints of his armor.

Elijah responded to the captain, 'If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.'

As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire with horses of fire suddenly appeared and separated the two of them.

Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the children.

When they got up early in the morning, the sun was shining on the water, and the Moabites saw that the water across from them was red like blood.

Then she said, 'No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your servant.'

Then he went up and lay on the boy: he put mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand.

But Naaman got angry and left, saying, 'I was telling myself: He will surely come out, stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the skin disease.'

So the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he saw that the mountain was covered with horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

So we boiled my son and ate him, and I said to her the next day, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him,’ but she has hidden her son.

“Why just sit here until we die? If we say, ‘Let’s go into the city,’ we will die there because the famine is in the city, but if we sit here, we will also die.”

Then he stared steadily at him until he was ashamed. The man of God wept, and Hazael asked, 'Why is my lord weeping?'

The next day Hazael took a heavy cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over the king’s face.

Also, the driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi — he drives like a madman.

So they threw her down, and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, and Jehu rode over her.

Pile them in two heaps at the entrance of the city gate until morning.

Then they tore down the temple of Baal and made it a latrine — which it still is today.

Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed 'Treason! Treason!'

Then the priest Jehoiada took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one enters the Lord’s temple.

The man of God was angry with him and said, 'You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have struck down Aram until you had put an end to it.'

When he touched Elisha’s bones, the man revived and stood up!

For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter for both slaves and free people. There was no one to help Israel.

He attacked Tiphsah, all who were in it, and its territory because they wouldn’t surrender. He ripped open all the pregnant women.

He even sacrificed his son in the fire, imitating the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.

When the king came back from Damascus, he saw the altar. Then he approached the altar and ascended it.

They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves, following the surrounding nations the Lord had commanded them not to imitate.

Therefore he has sent lions among them that are killing them because the people don’t know the requirements of the god of the land.

At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the Lord’s sanctuary and from the doorposts he had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Hasn’t he also sent me to the men who sit on the wall, destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?

Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and scorns you; Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head behind your back.

I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth; I will make you go back the way you came.

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,” for he thought: Why not, if there will be peace and security during my lifetime?

I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl — wiping it and turning it upside down.

When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.

He burned it at the Kidron Valley, beat it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.

He broke the sacred pillars into pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, then filled their places with human bones.

He had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.

They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. Finally, the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him in bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.

Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars of the Lord’s temple, the water carts, and the bronze basin, and carried the bronze to Babylon.

Cush fathered Nimrod, who was the first to become a great warrior on earth.

Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the Lord’s sight, so he put him to death.

Six sons were born to David in Hebron, where he reigned seven years and six months, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-three years.

Jabez called out to the God of Israel: 'If only you would bless me, extend my border, let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm, so that I will not experience pain.'

They found rich, good pasture, and the land was broad, peaceful, and quiet, for some Hamites had lived there previously.

But they were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors. They prostituted themselves with the gods of the nations God had destroyed before them.

But Aaron and his sons did all the work of the most holy place.

The men of Gath, born in the land, killed them because they went down to raid their cattle.

So he named him Beriah, because there had been misfortune in his home.

But Judah was exiled to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.

Then Saul took his sword and fell on it.

The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, “You will never get in here.” Yet David did capture the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David.

He also killed an Egyptian who was seven and a half feet tall. Even though the Egyptian had a spear in his hand like a weaver’s beam, Benaiah went down to him with a club, snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and then killed him with his own spear.

Their faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as gazelles on the mountains.

David and all Israel were dancing with all their might before God with songs and with lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.

When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then go out to battle, for God will have gone out ahead of you.

As the ark of the covenant of the Lord was entering the city of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from the window and saw King David leaping and dancing, and she despised him in her heart.

Let the sea and all that fills it resound; let the fields and everything in them exult.

I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, to be ruler over my people Israel.

The Lord made David victorious wherever he went.

So Hanun took David’s emissaries, shaved them, cut their clothes in half at the hips, and sent them away.

There was still another battle at Gath where there was a man of extraordinary stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot — twenty-four in all.

No, I insist on paying the full price, for I will not take for the Lord what belongs to you or offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.

You have shed much blood and waged great wars. You are not to build a house for my name because you have shed so much blood on the ground before me.

Also, the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the equipment for its service.

They were assigned by lot, for there were officers of the sanctuary and officers of God among both Eleazar’s and Ithamar’s descendants.

They cast lots for their duties, young and old alike, teacher as well as pupil.

They cast lots for each temple gate according to their ancestral families, young and old alike.

There was wrath against Israel because of this census, and the number was not entered in the Historical Record of King David.

You are not to build a house for my name because you are a man of war and have shed blood.

Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you.

For we are aliens and temporary residents in your presence as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.

He died at a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor, and his son Solomon became king in his place.

But who is able to build a temple for him, since even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain him?

He adorned the temple with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was the gold of Parvaim.

Sol o mon made all these utensils in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not deter mined.

The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the Lord with one voice.

But will God indeed live on earth with humans? Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you, much less this temple I have built.

When Solomon finished praying, fire descended from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people, 14 and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

When the queen of Sheba observed Solomon’s wisdom, the palace he had built, the food at his table, his servants’ residence, his attendants’ service and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and the burnt offerings he offered at the Lord’s temple, it took her breath away.

There was no silver, since it was con sid ered as nothing in Sol o mon’s time, for the king’s ships kept go ing to Tar shish with Hi ram’s servants, and once every three years the ships of Tar shish would arrive bear ing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

My father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.

David, look after your own house now! So all Israel went to their tents.

‘You have abandoned me; therefore, I have abandoned you to Shishak.’

Whoever comes to ordain himself with a young bull and seven rams may become a priest of what are not gods.

Lord, there is no one besides you to help the mighty and those without strength. Help us, Lord our God, for we depend on you, and in your name we have come against this large army.

King Asa also removed Maacah, his grandmother, from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah.

Asa was enraged with the seer and put him in prison because of his anger over this.

There is still one man who can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies good about me, but only disaster.

But a man drew his bow without taking special aim and struck the king of Israel through the joints of his armor.

We do not know what to do, but we look to you.

Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast number, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

When Jehoram had established himself over his father’s kingdom, he strengthened his position by killing with the sword all his brothers as well as some of the princes of Israel.

He died to no one’s regret and was buried in the city of David but not in the tombs of the kings.

Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason! Treason!”

All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet, for they had put Athaliah to death by the sword.

King Joash didn’t remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him, but killed his son.

They took them to the top of a cliff where they threw them off, and all of them were dashed to pieces.

The thistle in Lebanon sent a message to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ Then a wild animal in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle.

But when he became strong, he grew arrogant, and it led to his own destruction.

He burned incense in Ben Hinnom Valley and burned his children in the fire, imitating the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.

He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him; he said, 'Since the gods of the kings of Aram are helping them, I will sacrifice to them so that they will help me.'

They took all the unclean things they found in the Lord’s sanctuary to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.

For the Levites were more conscientious to consecrate themselves than the priests were.

But the inhabitants laughed at them and mocked them.

When all this was completed, all Israel who had attended went out to the cities of Judah and broke up the sacred pillars, chopped down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, to the last one.

Don’t be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria or before the large army that is with him, for there are more with us than with him.

He went to the temple of his god, and there some of his own children struck him down with the sword.

They captured Ma nas seh with hooks, bound him with bronze shack les, and took him to Bab ylon.

He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved images, and the cast images, crushed them to dust, and scattered them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes.