Bible Reading
August 3
The World English Bible
Aug.
3
2
Chronicles 34-36
2Ch
34:1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
2Ch
34:2 He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked
in the ways of David his father, and didn't turn aside to the right
hand or to the left.
2Ch
34:3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he
began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth
year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and
the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images.
2Ch
34:4 They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and
the incense altars that were on high above them he cut down; and the
Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images, he broke in
pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it on the graves of
those who had sacrificed to them.
2Ch
34:5 He burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged
Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ch
34:6 So did he
in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even to Naphtali,
around in their ruins.
2Ch
34:7 He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved
images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout
all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.
2Ch
34:8 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the
land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah
the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to
repair the house of Yahweh his God.
2Ch
34:9 They came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money
that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the
keepers of the threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and
Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and
Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
2Ch
34:10 They delivered it into the hand of the workmen who had the
oversight of the house of Yahweh; and the workmen who labored in the
house of Yahweh gave it to mend and repair the house;
2Ch
34:11 even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to
buy cut stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the
houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.
2Ch
34:12 The men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them
were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and
Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it
forward; and others of
the Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music.
2Ch
34:13 Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward
all who did the work in every manner of service: and of the Levites
there were scribes, and officers, and porters.
2Ch
34:14 When they brought out the money that was brought into the
house of Yahweh, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of
Yahweh given
by Moses.
2Ch
34:15 Hilkiah answered Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of
the law in the house of Yahweh. Hilkiah delivered the book to
Shaphan.
2Ch
34:16 Shaphan carried the book to the king, and moreover brought
back word to the king, saying, All that was committed to your
servants, they are doing.
2Ch
34:17 They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of
Yahweh, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and
into the hand of the workmen.
2Ch
34:18 Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest
has delivered me a book. Shaphan read therein before the king.
2Ch
34:19 It happened, when the king had heard the words of the law,
that he tore his clothes.
2Ch
34:20 The king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and
Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's
servant, saying,
2Ch
34:21 Go inquire of Yahweh for me, and for those who are left in
Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found;
for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is poured out on us, because
our fathers have not kept the word of Yahweh, to do according to all
that is written in this book.
2Ch
34:22 So Hilkiah, and they whom the king had
commanded, went to Huldah the
prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of
Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she lived in Jerusalem in the
second quarter;) and they spoke to her to that effect.
2Ch
34:23 She said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Tell
the man who sent you to me,
2Ch
34:24 Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and
on its inhabitants, even all the curses that are written in the book
which they have read before the king of Judah.
2Ch
34:25 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to
other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of
their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out on this place, and it
shall not be quenched.
2Ch
34:26 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh,
thus you shall tell him, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: As
touching the words which you have heard,
2Ch
34:27 because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before
God, when you heard his words against this place, and against its
inhabitants, and have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your
clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you, says Yahweh.
2Ch
34:28 Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be
gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the
evil that I will bring on this place, and on its inhabitants. They
brought back word to the king.
2Ch
34:29 Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of
Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ch
34:30 The king went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the men of
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the
Levites, and all the people, both great and small: and he read in
their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found
in the house of Yahweh.
2Ch
34:31 The king stood in his place, and made a covenant before
Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his
testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his
soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this
book.
2Ch
34:32 He caused all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to
stand to it.
The inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God,
the God of their fathers.
2Ch
34:33 Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries
that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all who were found
in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they
didn't depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.
2Ch
35:1 Josiah kept a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem: and they killed
the Passover on the fourteenth day
of the first month.
2Ch
35:2 He set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the
service of the house of Yahweh.
2Ch
35:3 He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to
Yahweh, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David
king of Israel did build; there shall no more be a burden on your
shoulders: now serve Yahweh your God, and his people Israel.
2Ch
35:4 Prepare yourselves after your fathers' houses by your
divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and
according to the writing of Solomon his son.
2Ch
35:5 Stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the
fathers' houses of your brothers the children of the people, and let
there be for each a portion of a
fathers' house of the Levites.
2Ch
35:6 Kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for
your brothers, to do according to the word of Yahweh by Moses.
2Ch
35:7 Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs
and kids, all of them for the Passover offerings, to all who were
present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls:
these were of the king's substance.
2Ch
35:8 His princes gave for a freewill offering to the people, to the
priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the
rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover
offerings two thousand and six hundred small
livestock, and three hundred head of
cattle.
2Ch
35:9 Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and
Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to
the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small
livestock, and five hundred head of
cattle.
2Ch
35:10 So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their
place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to the king's
commandment.
2Ch
35:11 They killed the Passover, and the priests sprinkled the
blood which they received of their hand,
and the Levites flayed them.
2Ch
35:12 They removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them
according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of the children of
the people, to offer to Yahweh, as it is written in the book of
Moses. So did they with the cattle.
2Ch
35:13 They roasted the Passover with fire according to the
ordinance: and the holy offerings boiled they in pots, and in
caldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children
of the people.
2Ch
35:14 Afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests,
because the priests the sons of Aaron were
busied in offering the burnt offerings
and the fat until night: therefore the Levites prepared for
themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron.
2Ch
35:15 The singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according
to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the
king's seer; and the porters were at every gate: they didn't need to
depart from their service; for their brothers the Levites prepared
for them.
2Ch
35:16 So all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to
keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of
Yahweh, according to the commandment of king Josiah.
2Ch
35:17 The children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at
that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.
2Ch
35:18 There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days
of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep
such a Passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and
all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem.
2Ch
35:19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this
Passover kept.
2Ch
35:20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king
of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and
Josiah went out against him.
2Ch
35:21 But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with
you, you king of Judah? I come
not against you this day, but against the house with which I have
war; and God has commanded me to make haste: beware that it is God
who is with me, that he not destroy you.
2Ch
35:22 Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but
disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and didn't listen to
the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the
valley of Megiddo.
2Ch
35:23 The archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his
servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.
2Ch
35:24 So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in
the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he
died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and
Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
2Ch
35:25 Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and
singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and
they made them an ordinance in Israel: and behold, they are written
in the lamentations.
2Ch
35:26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds,
according to that which is written in the law of Yahweh,
2Ch
35:27 and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the
book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
2Ch
36:1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah,
and made him king in his father's place in Jerusalem.
2Ch
36:2 Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and
he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
2Ch
36:3 The king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem, and fined the land
one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
2Ch
36:4 The king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and
Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took Joahaz his
brother, and carried him to Egypt.
2Ch
36:5 Jehoiakim was Twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and
he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil
in the sight of Yahweh his God.
2Ch
36:6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound
him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.
2Ch
36:7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of
Yahweh to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.
2Ch
36:8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations
which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are
written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin
his son reigned in his place.
2Ch
36:9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which
was evil in the sight of Yahweh.
2Ch
36:10 At the return of the year king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and
brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of
Yahweh, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ch
36:11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and
he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem:
2Ch
36:12 and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God;
he didn't humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking
from the mouth of Yahweh.
2Ch
36:13 He also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him
swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart
against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
2Ch
36:14 Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people,
trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations;
and they polluted the house of Yahweh which he had made holy in
Jerusalem.
2Ch
36:15 Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his
messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on
his people, and on his dwelling place:
2Ch
36:16 but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words,
and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against
his people, until there was no remedy.
2Ch
36:17 Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who
killed their young men with the sword in the house of their
sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or
gray-headed: he gave them all into his hand.
2Ch
36:18 All the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the
treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king, and
of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
2Ch
36:19 They burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of
Jerusalem, and burnt all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all the
goodly vessels of it.
2Ch
36:20 He carried those who had escaped from the sword away to
Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign
of the kingdom of Persia:
2Ch
36:21 to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until
the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths: for
as long as it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
2Ch
36:22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word
of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Yahweh
stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a
proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put
it also in writing, saying,
2Ch
36:23 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth
has Yahweh, the God of heaven, given me; and he has commanded me to
build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is
among you of all his people, Yahweh his God be with him, and let him
go up.
Aug.
3, 4
Acts
20
Act
20:1 After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, took
leave of them, and departed to go into Macedonia.
Act
20:2 When he had gone through those parts, and had encouraged them
with many words, he came into Greece.
Act
20:3 When he had spent three months there, and a plot was made
against him by Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he
determined to return through Macedonia.
Act
20:4 These accompanied him as far as Asia: Sopater of Beroea;
Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians; Gaius of Derbe;
Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.
Act
20:5 But these had gone ahead, and were waiting for us at Troas.
Act
20:6 We sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened
Bread, and came to them at Troas in five days, where we stayed seven
days.
Act
20:7 On the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered
together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart
on the next day, and continued his speech until midnight.
Act
20:8 There were many lights in the upper chamber where we were
gathered together.
Act
20:9 A certain young man named Eutychus sat in the window, weighed
down with deep sleep. As Paul spoke still longer, being weighed down
by his sleep, he fell down from the third story, and was taken up
dead.
Act
20:10 Paul went down, and fell upon him, and embracing him said,
"Don't be troubled, for his life is in him."
Act
20:11 When he had gone up, and had broken bread, and eaten, and had
talked with them a long while, even until break of day, he departed.
Act
20:12 They brought the boy in alive, and were greatly comforted.
Act
20:13 But we who went ahead to the ship set sail for Assos,
intending to take Paul aboard there, for he had so arranged,
intending himself to go by land.
Act
20:14 When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard, and came to
Mitylene.
Act
20:15 Sailing from there, we came the following day opposite Chios.
The next day we touched at Samos and stayed at Trogyllium, and the
day after we came to Miletus.
Act
20:16 For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, that he might
not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening, if it were
possible for him, to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
Act
20:17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to himself the
elders of the assembly.
Act
20:18 When they had come to him, he said to them, "You
yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I
was with you all the time,
Act
20:19 serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears, and with
trials which happened to me by the plots of the Jews;
Act
20:20 how I didn't shrink from declaring to you anything that was
profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house,
Act
20:21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God,
and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
Act
20:22 Now, behold, I go bound by the Spirit to Jerusalem, not
knowing what will happen to me there;
Act
20:23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying
that bonds and afflictions wait for me.
Act
20:24 But these things don't count; nor do I hold my life dear to
myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which
I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the Good News of
the grace of God.
Act
20:25 "Now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I went
about preaching the Kingdom of God, will see my face no more.
Act
20:26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am clean from the
blood of all men,
Act
20:27 for I didn't shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of
God.
Act
20:28 Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the
assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.
Act
20:29 For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter
in among you, not sparing the flock.
Act
20:30 Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse
things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Act
20:31 Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years
I didn't cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.
Act
20:32 Now, brothers, I entrust you to God, and to the word of his
grace, which is able to build up, and to give you the inheritance
among all those who are sanctified.
Act
20:33 I coveted no one's silver, or gold, or clothing.
Act
20:34 You yourselves know that these hands served my necessities,
and those who were with me.
Act
20:35 In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you
ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus,
that he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "
Act
20:36 When he had spoken these things, he knelt down and prayed with
them all.
Act
20:37 They all wept a lot, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him,
Act
20:38 sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken,
that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to
the ship.
It
is virtually impossible these days to watch the news, surf the Net, or
get on Facebook and Twitter without hearing something about
homosexuality. Presently, in Alabama, there is major row about same-sex
marriage, and the Supreme Court is slated to rule on the subject in the
coming months. It is often the case that those who call themselves
Christians say mean-spirited, hateful things about homosexuals. And it
is often the case that homosexuals falsely accuse all Christians who oppose homosexuality of being homophobes.