Bible In A Year

¹> Hear my law, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

³Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, His strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

⁵For he established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which he commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children;

⁶That the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; Who should arise and tell their children,

⁷That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments,

⁸And might not be as their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, Whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰They didn't keep God's covenant, And refused to walk in his law.

¹¹They forgot his doings, His wondrous works that he had shown them.

¹²He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea, and caused them to pass through; He made the waters stand as a heap.

¹⁴In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, And all night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet they still went on to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They tempted God in their heart By asking food according to their desire.

¹⁹Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, Streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"

²¹Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, Anger also went up against Israel,

²²Because they didn't believe in God, And didn't trust in his salvation.

²³Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴He rained down manna on them to eat, And gave them food from the sky.

²⁵Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷He rained also flesh on them as the dust; Winged birds as the sand of the seas.

²⁸He let them fall in the midst of their camp, Around their habitations.

²⁹So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

³⁰They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

³¹When the anger of God went up against them, Killed some of the fattest of them, And struck down the young men of Israel.

³²For all this they still sinned, And didn't believe in his wondrous works.

³³Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, And their years in terror.

³⁴When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, The Most High God their redeemer.

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied to him with their tongue.

³⁷For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, And didn't stir up all his wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, And grieved him in the desert!

⁴¹They turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They didn't remember his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

⁴³How he set his signs in Egypt, His wonders in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴Turned their rivers into blood, And their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; And frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, And their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, Their sycamore-fig trees with frost.

⁴⁸He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, indignation, and trouble, And a band of angels of evil.

⁵⁰He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence,

⁵¹And struck all the firstborn in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵He also drove out the nations before them, Allotted them for an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And didn't keep his testimonies;

⁵⁷But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

⁵⁹When God heard this, he was angry, And greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹And delivered his strength into captivity, His glory into the adversary's hand.

⁶²He also gave his people over to the sword, And was angry with his inheritance.

⁶³Fire devoured their young men; Their virgins had no wedding song.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword, And their widows couldn't weep.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

⁶⁶He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, And didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he has established forever.

⁷⁰He also chose David his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹From following the ewes that have their young, He brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, And Israel, his inheritance.

⁷²So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

¹Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he didn't do that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, like David his father; ²but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for the Baals. ³Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel. ⁴He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. ⁵Therefore Yahweh his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they struck him, and carried away of his a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter. ⁶For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah one hundred twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men; because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. ⁷Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king's son, and Azrikam the ruler of the house, and Elkanah who was next to the king. ⁸The children of Israel carried away captive of their brothers two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria. ⁹But a prophet of Yahweh was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the host that came to Samaria, and said to them, Behold, because Yahweh, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to heaven. ¹⁰Now you purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondservants and bondmaids to you: [but] aren't there even with you trespasses of your own against Yahweh your God? ¹¹Now hear me therefore, and send back the captives, that you have taken captive of your brothers; for the fierce wrath of Yahweh is on you. ¹²Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who came from the war, ¹³and said to them, You shall not bring in the captives here: for you purpose that which will bring on us a trespass against Yahweh, to add to our sins and to our trespass; for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel. ¹⁴So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly. ¹⁵The men who have been mentioned by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all who were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers: then they returned to Samaria. ¹⁶At that time did king Ahaz send to the kings of Assyria to help him. ¹⁷For again the Edomites had come and struck Judah, and carried away captives. ¹⁸The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Aijalon, and Gederoth, and Soco with the towns of it, and Timnah with the towns of it, Gimzo also and the towns of it: and they lived there. ¹⁹For Yahweh brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he had dealt wantonly in Judah, and trespassed severely against Yahweh. ²⁰Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and distressed him, but didn't strengthen him. ²¹For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of Yahweh, and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria: but it didn't help him. ²²In the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against Yahweh, this same king Ahaz. ²³For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which struck him; and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, [therefore] will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel. ²⁴Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of Yahweh; and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger Yahweh, the God of his fathers. ²⁶Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem; for they didn't bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

¹Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ²He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that David his father had done. ³He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of Yahweh, and repaired them. ⁴He brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the broad place on the east, ⁵and said to them, Hear me, you Levites; now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. ⁶For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of Yahweh, and turned their backs. ⁷Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. ⁸Therefore the wrath of Yahweh was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment, and a hissing, as you see with your eyes. ⁹For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. ¹⁰Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us. ¹¹My sons, don't be negligent now; for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and that you should be his ministers, and burn incense. ¹²Then the Levites arose, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; ¹³and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; ¹⁴and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵They gathered their brothers, and sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the words of Yahweh, to cleanse the house of Yahweh. ¹⁶The priests went in to the inner part of the house of Yahweh, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of Yahweh into the court of the house of Yahweh. The Levites took it, to carry it out abroad to the brook Kidron. ¹⁷Now they began on the first [day] of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of Yahweh; and they sanctified the house of Yahweh in eight days: and on the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end. ¹⁸Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within [the palace], and said, We have cleansed all the house of Yahweh, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels of it, and the table of show bread, with all the vessels of it. ¹⁹Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away when he trespassed, have we prepared and sanctified; and, behold, they are before the altar of Yahweh. ²⁰Then Hezekiah the king arose early, and gathered the princes of the city, and went up to the house of Yahweh. ²¹They brought seven bulls, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven male goats, for a sin-offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. He commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of Yahweh. ²²So they killed the bulls, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: and they killed the rams, and sprinkled the blood on the altar: they killed also the lambs, and sprinkled the blood on the altar. ²³They brought near the male goats for the sin-offering before the king and the assembly; and they laid their hands on them: ²⁴and the priests killed them, and they made a sin-offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king commanded [that] the burnt offering and the sin-offering [should be made] for all Israel. ²⁵He set the Levites in the house of Yahweh with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was of Yahweh by his prophets. ²⁶The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. ²⁷Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of Yahweh began also, and the trumpets, together with the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸All the assembly worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this [continued] until the burnt offering was finished. ²⁹When they had made an end of offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped. ³⁰Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises to Yahweh with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. They sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped. ³¹Then Hezekiah answered, Now you have consecrated yourselves to Yahweh; come near and bring sacrifices and thank-offerings into the house of Yahweh. The assembly brought in sacrifices and thank-offerings; and as many as were of a willing heart [brought] burnt offerings. ³²The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs: all these were for a burnt offering to Yahweh. ³³The consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep. ³⁴But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings: therefore their brothers the Levites helped them, until the work was ended, and until the priests had sanctified themselves; for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests. ³⁵Also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace-offerings, and with the drink-offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of Yahweh was set in order. ³⁶Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, because of that which God had prepared for the people: for the thing was done suddenly.

¹Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the God of Israel. ²For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the assembly in Jerusalem, to keep the Passover in the second month. ³For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. ⁴The thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all the assembly. ⁵So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: for they had not kept it in great numbers in such sort as it is written. ⁶So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, You children of Israel, turn again to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant that have escaped of you out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. ⁷Don't be you like your fathers, and like your brothers, who trespassed against Yahweh, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see. ⁸Now don't you be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; but yield yourselves to Yahweh, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve Yahweh your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. ⁹For if you turn again to Yahweh, your brothers and your children shall find compassion before those who led them captive, and shall come again into this land: for Yahweh your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him. ¹⁰So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun: but they ridiculed them, and mocked them. ¹¹Nevertheless certain men of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. ¹²Also on Judah came the hand of God to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of Yahweh. ¹³There assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly. ¹⁴They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away, and cast them into the brook Kidron. ¹⁵Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth [day] of the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into the house of Yahweh. ¹⁶They stood in their place after their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkled the blood [which they received] of the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves: therefore the Levites had the charge of killing the Passovers for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to Yahweh. ¹⁸For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the Passover otherwise than it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, The good Yahweh pardon everyone ¹⁹who sets his heart to seek God, Yahweh, the God of his fathers, though not [cleansed] according to the purification of the sanctuary. ²⁰Yahweh listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people. ²¹The children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised Yahweh day by day, [singing] with loud instruments to Yahweh. ²²Hezekiah spoke comfortably to all the Levites who had good understanding [in the service] of Yahweh. So they ate throughout the feast for the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace-offerings, and making confession to Yahweh, the God of their fathers. ²³The whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days; and they kept [other] seven days with gladness. ²⁴For Hezekiah king of Judah did give to the assembly for offerings one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep: and a great number of priests sanctified themselves. ²⁵All the assembly of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly who came out of Israel, and the foreigners who came out of the land of Israel, and who lived in Judah, rejoiced. ²⁶So there was great joy in Jerusalem; for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem. ²⁷Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.

¹Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke in pieces the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities. ²Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites after their divisions, every man according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace-offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of Yahweh. ³[He appointed] also the king's portion of his substance for the burnt-offerings, [to wit], for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of Yahweh. ⁴Moreover he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the law of Yahweh. ⁵As soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, new wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly. ⁶The children of Israel and Judah, who lived in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of dedicated things which were consecrated to Yahweh their God, and laid them by heaps. ⁷In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. ⁸When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed Yahweh, and his people Israel. ⁹Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. ¹⁰Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, Since [the people] began to bring the offerings into the house of Yahweh, we have eaten and had enough, and have left plenty: for Yahweh has blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store. ¹¹Then Hezekiah commanded to prepare chambers in the house of Yahweh; and they prepared them. ¹²They brought in the offerings and the tithes and the dedicated things faithfully: and over them Conaniah the Levite was ruler, and Shimei his brother was second. ¹³Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God. ¹⁴Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the porter at the east [gate], was over the freewill-offerings of God, to distribute the offerings of Yahweh, and the most holy things. ¹⁵Under him were Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their office of trust, to give to their brothers by divisions, as well to the great as to the small: ¹⁶besides those who were reckoned by genealogy of males, from three years old and upward, even everyone who entered into the house of Yahweh, as the duty of every day required, for their service in their offices according to their divisions; ¹⁷and those who were reckoned by genealogy of the priests by their fathers' houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their offices by their divisions; ¹⁸and those who were reckoned by genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, through all the congregation: for in their office of trust they sanctified themselves in holiness. ¹⁹Also for the sons of Aaron the priests, who were in the fields of the suburbs of their cities, in every city, there were men who were mentioned by name, to give portions to all the males among the priests, and to all who were reckoned by genealogy among the Levites. ²⁰Thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah; and he worked that which was good and right and faithful before Yahweh his God. ²¹In every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.