2 Chronicles 24

• 1. Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother's name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba.
• 2. Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years of Jehoiada the priest.
• 3. Jehoiada chose two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.
• 4. Some time later Joash decided to restore the temple of the LORD.
• 5. He called together the priests and Levites and said to them, "Go to the towns of Judah and collect the money due annually from all Israel, to repair the temple of your God. Do it now." But the Levites did not act at once.
• 6. Therefore the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, "Why haven't you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by Moses the servant of the LORD and by the assembly of Israel for the Tent of the Testimony?"
• 7. Now the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah had broken into the temple of God and had used even its sacred objects for the Baals.
• 8. At the king's command, a chest was made and placed outside, at the gate of the temple of the LORD.
• 9. A proclamation was then issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they should bring to the LORD the tax that Moses the servant of God had required of Israel in the desert.
• 10. All the officials and all the people brought their contributions gladly, dropping them into the chest until it was full.
• 11. Whenever the chest was brought in by the Levites to the king's officials and they saw that there was a large amount of money, the royal secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and carry it back to its place. They did this regularly and collected a great amount of money.
• 12. The king and Jehoiada gave it to the men who carried out the work required for the temple of the LORD. They hired masons and carpenters to restore the LORD's temple, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the temple.
• 13. The men in charge of the work were diligent, and the repairs progressed under them. They rebuilt the temple of God according to its original design and reinforced it.
• 14. When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made articles for the LORD's temple: articles for the service and for the burnt offerings, and also dishes and other objects of gold and silver. As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the LORD.
• 15. Now Jehoiada was old and full of years, and he died at the age of a hundred and thirty.
• 16. He was buried with the kings in the City of David, because of the good he had done in Israel for God and his temple.
• 17. After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and paid homage to the king, and he listened to them.
• 18. They abandoned the temple of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God's anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem.
• 19. Although the LORD sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.
• 20. Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, "This is what God says: 'Why do you disobey the LORD's commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has forsaken you.'"
• 21. But they plotted against him, and by order of the king they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD's temple.
• 22. King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah's father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, "May the LORD see this and call you to account."
• 23. At the turn of the year, the army of Aram marched against Joash; it invaded Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people. They sent all the plunder to their king in Damascus.
• 24. Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the LORD delivered into their hands a much larger army. Because Judah had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers, judgment was executed on Joash.
• 25. When the Arameans withdrew, they left Joash severely wounded. His officials conspired against him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
• 26. Those who conspired against him were Zabad, son of Shimeath an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith a Moabite woman.
• 27. The account of his sons, the many prophecies about him, and the record of the restoration of the temple of God are written in the annotations on the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king.

Revelation 11

• 1. I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there.
• 2. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.
• 3. And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth."
• 4. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
• 5. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die.
• 6. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.
• 7. Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.
• 8. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
• 9. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial.
• 10. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.
• 11. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them.
• 12. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.
• 13. At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
• 14. The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.
• 15. The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."
• 16. And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God,
• 17. saying: "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.
• 18. The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great--and for destroying those who destroy the earth."
• 19. Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Zechariah 7

• 1. In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev.
• 2. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, together with their men, to entreat the LORD
• 3. by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, "Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"
• 4. Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me:
• 5. "Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?
• 6. And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?
• 7. Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?'"
• 8. And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah:
• 9. "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.
• 10. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.'
• 11. "But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears.
• 12. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.
• 13. "'When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,' says the LORD Almighty.
• 14. 'I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.'"

New International Version

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