2 Chronicles 24

• 1. Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother was Zibiah, from Beersheba.
• 2. Joash did what was pleasing in the LORD's sight throughout the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest.
• 3. Jehoiada chose two wives for Joash, and he had sons and daughters.
• 4. Some time later, Joash decided to repair and restore the Temple of the LORD.
• 5. He summoned the priests and Levites and gave them these instructions: "Go at once to all the towns of Judah and collect the required annual offerings, so that we can repair the Temple of your God. Do not delay!" But the Levites did not act right away.
• 6. So the king called for Jehoiada the high priest and asked him, "Why haven't you demanded that the Levites go out and collect the Temple taxes from the towns of Judah and from Jerusalem? Moses, the servant of the LORD, levied this tax on the community of Israel in order to maintain the Tabernacle of the Covenant. "
• 7. Over the years, the followers of wicked Athaliah had broken into the Temple of God, and they had used all the dedicated things from the Temple of the LORD to worship the images of Baal.
• 8. So now Joash gave instructions for a chest to be made and set outside the gate leading to the Temple of the LORD.
• 9. Then a proclamation was sent throughout Judah and Jerusalem, telling the people to bring to the LORD the tax that Moses, the servant of God, had required of the Israelites in the wilderness.
• 10. This pleased all the leaders and the people, and they gladly brought their money and filled the chest with it.
• 11. Whenever the chest became full, the Levites carried it to the king's officials. Then the court secretary and an officer of the high priest counted the money and took the chest back to the Temple again. This went on day after day, and a large amount of money was collected.
• 12. The king and Jehoiada gave the money to the construction supervisors, who hired masons and carpenters to restore the Temple of the LORD. They also hired metalworkers, who made articles of iron and bronze for the LORD's Temple.
• 13. So the men in charge of the renovation worked hard, and they made steady progress. They restored the Temple of God according to its original design and strengthened it.
• 14. When all the repairs were finished, they brought the remaining money to the king and Jehoiada. It was used to make utensils for the Temple of the LORD--utensils for worship services and for burnt offerings, including ladles and other vessels made of gold and silver. And the burnt offerings were sacrificed continually in the Temple of the LORD during the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest.
• 15. Jehoiada lived to a very old age, finally dying at 130.
• 16. He was buried among the kings in the City of David, because he had done so much good in Israel for God and his Temple.
• 17. But after Jehoiada's death, the leaders of Judah came and bowed before King Joash and persuaded the king to listen to their advice.
• 18. They decided to abandon the Temple of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and they worshiped Asherah poles and idols instead! Then the anger of God burned against Judah and Jerusalem because of their sin.
• 19. The LORD sent prophets to bring them back to him, but the people 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 so that you cannot prosper? You have abandoned the LORD, and now he has abandoned you!"
• 21. Then the leaders plotted to kill Zechariah, and by order of King Joash himself, they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the LORD's Temple.
• 22. That was how King Joash repaid Jehoiada for his love and loyalty--by killing his son. Zechariah's last words as he died were, "May the LORD see what they are doing and hold them accountable!"
• 23. At the beginning of the year, the Aramean army marched against Joash. They invaded Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the nation. Then they sent all the plunder back to their king in Damascus.
• 24. Although the Arameans attacked with only a small army, the LORD helped them conquer the much larger army of Judah. The people of Judah had abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors, so judgment was executed against Joash.
• 25. The Arameans withdrew, leaving Joash severely wounded. But his own officials decided to kill him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest. They assassinated him as he lay in bed. Then he was buried in the City of David, but not in the royal cemetery.
• 26. The assassins were Jozabad, the son of an Ammonite woman named Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of a Moabite woman named Shomer.
• 27. The complete story about the sons of Joash, the prophecies about him, and the record of his restoration of the Temple of God are written in The Commentary on the Book of the Kings. When Joash died, his son Amaziah became the next king.

Revelation 11

• 1. Then I was given a measuring stick, and I was told, "Go and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers.
• 2. But do not measure the outer courtyard, for it has been turned over to the nations. They will trample the holy city for 42 months.
• 3. And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will be clothed in sackcloth and will prophesy during those 1,260 days."
• 4. These two prophets are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of all the earth.
• 5. If anyone tries to harm them, fire flashes from the mouths of the prophets and consumes their enemies. This is how anyone who tries to harm them must die.
• 6. They have power to shut the skies so that no rain will fall for as long as they prophesy. And they have the power to turn the rivers and oceans into blood, and to send every kind of plague upon the earth as often as they wish.
• 7. When they complete their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit will declare war against them. He will conquer them and kill them.
• 8. And their bodies will lie in the main street of Jerusalem, the city which is called "Sodom" and "Egypt," the city where their Lord was crucified.
• 9. And for three and a half days, all peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will come to stare at their bodies. No one will be allowed to bury them.
• 10. All the people who belong to this world will give presents to each other to celebrate the death of the two prophets who had tormented them.
• 11. But after three and a half days, the spirit of life from God entered them, and they stood up! And terror struck all who were staring at them.
• 12. Then a loud voice shouted from heaven, "Come up here!" And they rose to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched.
• 13. And in the same hour there was a terrible earthquake that destroyed a tenth of the city. Seven thousand people died in that earthquake. And everyone who did not die was terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
• 14. The second terror is past, but look, now the third terror is coming quickly.
• 15. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven: "The whole world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever."
• 16. And the twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped him.
• 17. And they said, "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who always was, for now you have assumed your great power and have begun to reign.
• 18. The nations were angry with you, but now the time of your wrath has come. It is time to judge the dead and reward your servants. You will reward your prophets and your holy people, all who fear your name, from the least to the greatest. And you will destroy all who have caused destruction on the earth."
• 19. Then, in heaven, the Temple of God was opened and the Ark of his covenant could be seen inside the Temple. Lightning flashed, thunder crashed and roared; there was a great hailstorm, and the world was shaken by a mighty earthquake.

Zechariah 7

• 1. On December 7 of the fourth year of King Darius's reign, another message came to Zechariah from the LORD.
• 2. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech, along with their men, to seek the LORD's favor.
• 3. They were to ask this question of the prophets and of the priests at the Temple of the LORD Almighty: "Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple's destruction, as we have done for so many years?"
• 4. The LORD Almighty sent me this message:
• 5. "Say to all your people and your priests, `During those seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and at the festival in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting?
• 6. And even now in your holy festivals, you don't think about me but only of pleasing yourselves.
• 7. Isn't this the same message the LORD proclaimed through the prophets years ago when Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were bustling with people, and the Negev and the foothills of Judah were populated areas?'"
• 8. Then this message came to Zechariah from the LORD:
• 9. "This is what the LORD Almighty says: Judge fairly and honestly, and show mercy and kindness to one another.
• 10. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and poor people. And do not make evil plans to harm each other.
• 11. "Your ancestors would not listen to this message. They turned stubbornly away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing.
• 12. They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the law or the messages that the LORD Almighty had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the LORD Almighty was so angry with them.
• 13. "Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the LORD Almighty.
• 14. I scattered them as with a whirlwind among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. The land that had been so pleasant became a desert."

New Living Translation: 354 of 365 days.