2 Chronicles 332 Chronicles 34Luke 19.1-272 Chronicles 33
1
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was ruling for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the disgusting ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before the children of Israel.
3
For he put up again the high places which had been pulled down by his father Hezekiah and he made altars for the Baals, and pillars of wood, and was a worshipper and servant of all the stars of heaven
4
And he made altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem will my name be for ever.
5
And he made altars for all the stars of heaven in the two outer squares of the house of the Lord.
6
More than this, he made his children go through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom and he made use of secret arts, and signs for reading the future, and unnatural powers, and gave positions to those who had control of spirits and to wonder-workers: he did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath.
7
And he put the image he had made in the house of God, the house of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, the town which I have made mine out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
8
And never again will I let the feet of Israel be moved out of the land which I have given to their fathers if only they will take care to do all my orders, even all the law and the orders and the rules given to them by Moses.
9
And Manasseh made Judah and the people of Jerusalem go out of the true way, so that they did more evil than those nations whom the Lord gave up to destruction before the children of Israel.
10
And the word of the Lord came to Manasseh and his people, but they gave no attention.
11
So the Lord sent against them the captains of the army of Assyria, who made Manasseh a prisoner and took him away in chains to Babylon.
12
And crying out to the Lord his God in his trouble, he made himself low before the God of his fathers,
13
And made prayer to him and in answer to his prayer God let him come back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh was certain that the Lord was God.
14
After this he made an outer wall for the town of David, on the west side of Gihon in the valley, as far as the way into the town by the fish doorway and he put a very high wall round the Ophel and he put captains of the army in all the walled towns of Judah.
15
He took away the strange gods and the image out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars he had put up on the hill of the Lord's house and in Jerusalem, and put them out of the town.
16
And he put the altar of the Lord in order, offering peace-offerings and praise-offerings on it, and said that all Judah were to be servants of the Lord, the God of Israel.
17
However, the people still made offerings in the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
18
Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words which the seers said to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are recorded among the acts of the kings of Israel.
19
And the prayer which he made to God, and how God gave him an answer, and all his sin and his wrongdoing, and the places where he made high places and put up pillars of wood and images, before he put away his pride, are recorded in the history of the seers.
20
So Manasseh went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body to rest in his house, and Amon his son became king in his place.
21
Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king and he was ruling for two years in Jerusalem.
22
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done and Amon made offerings to all the images which his father Manasseh had made, and was their servant.
23
He did not make himself low before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done, but went on sinning more and more.
24
And his servants made a secret design against him, and put him to death in his house.
25
But the people of the land put to death all those who had taken part in the design against King Amon, and made his son Josiah king in his place.
2 Chronicles 34
1
Josiah was eight years old when he became king he was ruling in Jerusalem for thirty-one years.
2
And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, walking in the ways of his father David, without turning to the right hand or to the left.
3
In the eighth year of his rule, while he was still young, his heart was first turned to the God of his father David and in the twelfth year he undertook the clearing away of all the high places and the pillars and the images of wood and metal from Judah and Jerusalem.
4
He had the altars of the Baals broken down, while he himself was present and the sun-images which were placed on high over them he had cut down and the pillars of wood and the metal images he had broken up and crushed to dust, dropping the dust over the resting-places of the dead who had made offerings to them.
5
And he had the bones of the priests burned on their altars, and so he made Judah and Jerusalem clean.
6
And in all the towns of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon as far as Naphtali, he made waste their houses round about.
7
He had the altars and the pillars of wood pulled down and the images crushed to dust, and all the sun-images cut down, through all the land of Israel, and then he went back to Jerusalem.
8
Now in the eighteenth year of his rule, when the land and the house had been made clean, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah, the ruler of the town, and Joah, the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to make good what was damaged in the house of the Lord his God.
9
And they came to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and gave him all the money which had been taken into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the door, had got from Manasseh and Ephraim and those of Israel who had not been taken away as prisoners, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the people of Jerusalem.
10
And they gave it to the overseers of the work of the Lord's house, and the overseers gave it to the workmen working in the house, for building it up and making good what was damaged
11
Even to the woodworkers and builders to get cut stone and wood for joining the structure together and for making boards for the houses which the kings of Judah had given up to destruction.
12
And the men did the work well and those who had authority over them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, who were to be responsible for seeing that the work was done and others of the Levites, who were expert with instruments of music,
13
Had authority over the transport workers, giving directions to all who were doing any sort of work and among the Levites there were scribes and overseers and door-keepers.
14
Now when they were taking out the money which had come into the Lord's house, Hilkiah the priest came across the book of the law of the Lord, which he had given by the mouth of Moses.
15
Then Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, I have made discovery of the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.
16
And Shaphan took the book to the king and he gave him an account of what had been done, saying, Your servants are doing all they have been given to do
17
They have taken out all the money which was in the Lord's house and have given it to the overseers and to the workmen.
18
Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book and he made a start at reading some of it to the king.
19
And the king, hearing the words of the law, took his robe in his hands, violently parting it as a sign of his grief.
20
And he gave orders to Hilkiah and to Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah, the king's servant, saying,
21
Go and get directions from the Lord for me and for those who are still in Israel and for Judah, about the words of this book which has come to light for great is the wrath of the Lord which has been let loose on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord or done what is recorded in this book.
22
So Hilkiah, and those whom the king sent, went to Huldah the woman prophet, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the robes (now she was living in Jerusalem, in the second part of the town) and they had talk with her about this thing.
23
And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Say to the man who sent you to me,
24
These are the words of the Lord: See, I will send evil on this place and on its people, even all the curses in the book which they have been reading before the king of Judah
25
Because they have given me up, burning offerings to other gods and moving me to wrath by all the works of their hands so my wrath is let loose on this place and will not be put out.
26
But to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions from the Lord, say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said: Because you have given ear to my words,
27
And your heart was soft, and you made yourself low before God, on hearing his words about this place and its people, and with weeping and signs of grief have made yourself low before me, I have given ear to you, says the Lord God.
28
See, I will let you go to your fathers, and be put in your last resting-place in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will send on this place and on its people. So they took this news back to the king.
29
Then the king sent and got together all the responsible men of Judah and of Jerusalem.
30
And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites and all the people, small and great and they were present at his reading of the book of the law which had come to light in the house of the Lord.
31
Then the king, taking his place by the pillar, made an agreement before the Lord, to go in the way of the Lord, and to keep his orders and his decisions and his rules with all his heart and with all his soul, and to keep the words of the agreement recorded in this book.
32
And he made all the people in Jerusalem and Benjamin give their word to keep it. And the people of Jerusalem kept the agreement of God, the God of their fathers.
33
Josiah took away all the disgusting things out of all the lands of the children of Israel, and made all who were in Israel servants of the Lord their God. And as long as he was living they were true to the Lord, the God of their fathers.
Luke 19
1-27
1
And he went into Jericho, and when he was going through it,
2
A man, named Zacchaeus, who was the chief tax-farmer, and a man of wealth,
3
Made an attempt to get a view of Jesus, and was not able to do so, because of the people, for he was a small man.
4
And he went quickly in front of them and got up into a tree to see him, for he was going that way.
5
And when Jesus came to the place, looking up, he said to him, Zacchaeus, be quick and come down, for I am coming to your house today.
6
And he came down quickly, and took him into his house with joy.
7
And when they saw it, they were all angry, saying, He has gone into the house of a sinner.
8
And Zacchaeus, waiting before him, said to the Lord, See, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone wrongly, I give him back four times as much.
9
And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, for even he is a son of Abraham.
10
For the Son of man came to make search for those who are wandering from the way, and to be their Saviour.
11
And while they were giving ear to these words, he made another story for them, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they were of the opinion that the kingdom of God was coming straight away.
12
So he said, A certain man of high birth went into a far-away country to get a kingdom for himself, and to come back.
13
And he sent for ten of his servants and gave them ten pounds and said to them, Do business with this till I come.
14
But his people had no love for him, and sent representatives after him, saying, We will not have this man for our ruler.
15
And when he came back again, having got his kingdom, he gave orders for those servants to whom he had given the money to come to him, so that he might have an account of what business they had done.
16
And the first came before him, saying, Lord, your pound has made ten pounds.
17
And he said to him, You have done well, O good servant: because you have done well in a small thing you will have authority over ten towns.
18
And another came, saying, Your pound has made five pounds.
19
And he said, You will be ruler over five towns.
20
And another came, saying, Lord, here is your pound, which I put away in a cloth
21
Because I was in fear of you, for you are a hard man: you take up what you have not put down, and get in grain where you have not put seed.
22
He said to him, By the words of your mouth you will be judged, you bad servant. You had knowledge that I am a hard man, taking up what I have not put down and getting in grain where I have not put seed
23
Why then did you not put my money in a bank, so that when I came I would get it back with interest?
24
And he said to the others who were near, Take the pound away from him, and give it to the man who has ten.
25
And they say to him, Lord, he has ten pounds.
26
And I say to you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
27
And as for those who were against me, who would not have me for their ruler, let them come here, and be put to death before me.
