But now I have chosen Jerusalem as a place to live, and I have chosen David to lead my people Israel.’

When the chariot commanders realized he was not the king of Israel, they turned away from him.

Joash was determined to repair the Lord’s temple.

The Lord told my father David, ‘It is right for you to have a strong desire to build a temple to honor me.

Now I have chosen and consecrated this temple by making it my permanent home; I will be constantly present there.

They said to him, “If you are fair to these people, grant their request, and are cordial to them, they will be your servants from this time forward.”

The messengers journeyed from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but people mocked and ridiculed them.

But the Lord told Shemaiah the prophet,

God’s Spirit came upon Azariah son of Oded.

Jehoshaphat was very wealthy and greatly respected. He made an alliance by marriage with Ahab,

“The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight, and disease, or a locust invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land, or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs.

Now my father David had a strong desire to build a temple to honor the Lord God of Israel.

“Now, my God, may you be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place.

Now I will be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place.

After twenty years, during which Solomon built the Lord’s temple and his royal palace,

He ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines as far as the border of Egypt.

In each city there were shields and spears; he strongly fortified them. Judah and Benjamin belonged to him.

After Rehoboam’s rule was established and solidified, he and all Israel rejected the law of the Lord.

Yet they will become his subjects, so they can experience how serving me differs from serving the surrounding nations.”

Now Jeroboam had sent some men to ambush the Judahite army from behind. The main army was in front of the Judahite army; the ambushers were behind it.