1 Kings 13

• 1. At the LORD's command, a man of God from Judah went to Bethel, and he arrived there just as Jeroboam was approaching the altar to offer a sacrifice.
• 2. Then at the LORD's command, he shouted, "O altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: A child named Josiah will be born into the dynasty of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests from the pagan shrines who come here to burn incense, and human bones will be burned on you."
• 3. That same day the man of God gave a sign to prove his message, and he said, "The LORD has promised to give this sign: This altar will split apart, and its ashes will be poured out on the ground."
• 4. King Jeroboam was very angry with the man of God for speaking against the altar. So he pointed at the man and shouted, "Seize that man!" But instantly the king's hand became paralyzed in that position, and he couldn't pull it back.
• 5. At the same time a wide crack appeared in the altar, and the ashes poured out, just as the man of God had predicted in his message from the LORD.
• 6. The king cried out to the man of God, "Please ask the LORD your God to restore my hand again!" So the man of God prayed to the LORD, and the king's hand became normal again.
• 7. Then the king said to the man of God, "Come to the palace with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift."
• 8. But the man of God said to the king, "Even if you gave me half of everything you own, I would not go with you. I would not eat any food or drink any water in this place.
• 9. For the LORD gave me this command: `You must not eat any food or drink any water while you are there, and do not return to Judah by the same way you came.'"
• 10. So he left Bethel and went home another way.
• 11. As it happened, there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons came home and told him what the man of God had done in Bethel that day. They also told him what he had said to the king.
• 12. The old prophet asked them, "Which way did he go?" So they told their father which road the man of God had taken.
• 13. "Quick, saddle the donkey," the old man said. And when they had saddled the donkey for him,
• 14. he rode after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. The old prophet asked him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?Yes," he replied, "I am."
• 15. Then he said to the man of God, "Come home with me and eat some food."
• 16. "No, I cannot," he replied. "I am not allowed to eat any food or drink any water here in this place.
• 17. For the LORD gave me this command: `You must not eat any food or drink any water while you are there, and do not return to Judah by the same way you came.'"
• 18. But the old prophet answered, "I am a prophet, too, just as you are. And an angel gave me this message from the LORD: `Bring him home with you, and give him food to eat and water to drink.'" But the old man was lying to him.
• 19. So they went back together, and the man of God ate some food and drank some water at the prophet's home.
• 20. Then while they were sitting at the table, a message from the LORD came to the old prophet.
• 21. He cried out to the man of God from Judah, "This is what the LORD says: You have defied the LORD's message and have disobeyed the command the LORD your God gave you.
• 22. You came back to this place and ate food and drank water where he told you not to eat or drink. Because of this, your body will not be buried in the grave of your ancestors."
• 23. Now after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet saddled his own donkey for him,
• 24. and the man of God started off again. But as he was traveling along, a lion came out and killed him. His body lay there on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.
• 25. People came by and saw the body lying in the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported it in Bethel, where the old prophet lived.
• 26. When the old prophet heard the report, he said, "It is the man of God who disobeyed the LORD's command. The LORD has fulfilled his word by causing the lion to attack and kill him."
• 27. Then the prophet said to his sons, "Saddle a donkey for me." So they saddled a donkey,
• 28. and he went out and found the body lying in the road. The donkey and lion were still standing there beside it, for the lion had not eaten the body nor attacked the donkey.
• 29. So the prophet laid the body of the man of God on the donkey and took it back to the city to mourn over him and bury him.
• 30. He laid the body in his own grave, crying out in grief, "Oh, my brother!"
• 31. Afterward the prophet said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.
• 32. For the message the LORD told him to proclaim against the altar in Bethel and against the pagan shrines in the towns of Samaria will surely come true."
• 33. But even after this, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil ways. He continued to choose priests from the rank and file of the people. Anyone who wanted to could become a priest for the pagan shrines.
• 34. This became a great sin and resulted in the destruction of Jeroboam's kingdom and the death of all his family.

1 Kings 14

• 1. At that time Jeroboam's son Abijah became very sick.
• 2. So Jeroboam told his wife, "Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you as the queen. Then go to the prophet Ahijah at Shiloh--the man who told me I would become king.
• 3. Take him a gift of ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and ask him what will happen to the boy."
• 4. So Jeroboam's wife went to Ahijah's home at Shiloh. He was an old man now and could no longer see.
• 5. But the LORD had told Ahijah, "Jeroboam's wife will come here, pretending to be someone else. She will ask you about her son, for he is very sick. You must give her the answer that I give you."
• 6. So when Ahijah heard her footsteps at the door, he called out, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else?" Then he told her, "I have bad news for you.
• 7. Give your husband, Jeroboam, this message from the LORD, the God of Israel: `I promoted you from the ranks of the common people and made you ruler over my people Israel.
• 8. I ripped the kingdom away from the family of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart and always did whatever I wanted him to do.
• 9. You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made other gods and have made me furious with your gold calves. And since you have turned your back on me,
• 10. I will bring disaster on your dynasty and kill all your sons, slave or free alike. I will burn up your royal dynasty as one burns up trash until it is all gone.
• 11. I, the LORD, vow that the members of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by vultures.'"
• 12. Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam's wife, "Go on home, and when you enter the city, the child will die.
• 13. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only member of your family who will have a proper burial, for this child is the only good thing that the LORD, the God of Israel, sees in the entire family of Jeroboam.
• 14. And the LORD will raise up a king over Israel who will destroy the family of Jeroboam. This will happen today, even now!
• 15. Then the LORD will shake Israel like a reed whipped about in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land that he gave their ancestors and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the LORD by worshiping Asherah poles.
• 16. He will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and made all of Israel sin along with him."
• 17. So Jeroboam's wife returned to Tirzah, and the child died just as she walked through the door of her home.
• 18. When the people of Israel buried him, they mourned for him, as the LORD had promised through the prophet Ahijah.
• 19. The rest of the events of Jeroboam's reign, all his wars and how he ruled, are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel.
• 20. Jeroboam reigned in Israel twenty-two years. When Jeroboam died, his son Nadab became the next king.
• 21. Meanwhile, Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen from among all the tribes of Israel as the place to honor his name. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.
• 22. During Rehoboam's reign, the people of Judah did what was evil in the LORD's sight, arousing his anger with their sin, for it was even worse than that of their ancestors.
• 23. They built pagan shrines and set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
• 24. There were even shrine prostitutes throughout the land. The people imitated the detestable practices of the pagan nations the LORD had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites.
• 25. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam's reign, King Shishak of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem.
• 26. He ransacked the Temple of the LORD and the royal palace and stole everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made.
• 27. Afterward Rehoboam made bronze shields as substitutes, and he entrusted them to the care of the palace guard officers.
• 28. Whenever the king went to the Temple of the LORD, the guards would carry them along and then return them to the guardroom.
• 29. The rest of the events in Rehoboam's reign and all his deeds are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah.
• 30. There was constant war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
• 31. When Rehoboam died, he was buried among his ancestors in the City of David. His mother was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. Then his son Abijam became the next king.

1 Kings 15

• 1. Abijam began to rule over Judah in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign in Israel.
• 2. He reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom.
• 3. He committed the same sins as his father before him, and his heart was not right with the LORD his God, as the heart of his ancestor David had been.
• 4. But for David's sake, the LORD his God allowed his dynasty to continue, and he gave Abijam a son to rule after him in Jerusalem.
• 5. For David had done what was pleasing in the LORD's sight and had obeyed the LORD's commands throughout his life, except in the affair concerning Uriah the Hittite.
• 6. There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam throughout Abijam's reign.
• 7. The rest of the events in Abijam's reign and all his deeds are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. There was constant war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
• 8. When Abijam died, he was buried in the City of David. Then his son Asa became the next king.
• 9. Asa began to rule over Judah in the twentieth year of Jeroboam's reign in Israel.
• 10. He reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom.
• 11. Asa did what was pleasing in the LORD's sight, as his ancestor David had done.
• 12. He banished the shrine prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols his ancestors had made.
• 13. He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made an obscene Asherah pole. He cut down the pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley.
• 14. Although the pagan shrines were not completely removed, Asa remained faithful to the LORD throughout his life.
• 15. He brought into the Temple of the LORD the silver and gold and the utensils that he and his father had dedicated.
• 16. There was constant war between King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel.
• 17. King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from entering or leaving King Asa's territory in Judah.
• 18. Asa responded by taking all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the LORD's Temple and the royal palace. He sent it with some of his officials to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion, the king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus, along with this message:
• 19. "Let us renew the treaty that existed between your father and my father. See, I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone."
• 20. Ben-hadad agreed to King Asa's request and sent his armies to attack Israel. They conquered the towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all Kinnereth, with all the land of Naphtali.
• 21. As soon as Baasha of Israel heard what was happening, he abandoned his project of fortifying Ramah and withdrew to Tirzah.
• 22. Then King Asa sent an order throughout Judah, requiring that everyone, without exception, help to carry away the building stones and timbers that Baasha had been using to fortify Ramah. Asa used these materials to fortify the town of Geba in Benjamin and the town of Mizpah.
• 23. The rest of the events in Asa's reign, the extent of his power, and the names of the cities he built are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. In his old age his feet became diseased.
• 24. When Asa died, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. Then his son Jehoshaphat became the next king.
• 25. Nadab son of Jeroboam began to rule over Israel in the second year of King Asa's reign in Judah. He reigned in Israel two years.
• 26. But he did what was evil in the LORD's sight and followed the example of his father, continuing the sins of idolatry that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit.
• 27. Then Baasha son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar, plotted against Nadab and assassinated him while he and the Israelite army were laying siege to the Philistine town of Gibbethon.
• 28. Baasha killed Nadab in the third year of King Asa's reign in Judah, and he became the next king of Israel.
• 29. He immediately killed all the descendants of King Jeroboam, so that not one of the royal family was left, just as the LORD had promised concerning Jeroboam by the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh.
• 30. This was done because Jeroboam had aroused the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, by the sins he had committed and the sins he had led Israel to commit.
• 31. The rest of the events in Nadab's reign and all his deeds are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel. Baasha Rules in Israel
• 32. There was constant war between Asa and King Baasha of Israel.
• 33. Baasha began to rule over Israel in the third year of King Asa's reign in Judah. Baasha reigned in Tirzah twenty-four years.
• 34. But he did what was evil in the LORD's sight and followed the example of Jeroboam, continuing the sins of idolatry that Jeroboam had led Israel to commit.

New Living Translation: 105 of 324 days.