Then Hadadezer sent for Arameans from beyond the Euphrates River, and they came to Helam. Shobach, the general in command of Hadadezer’s army, led them.

Nonetheless, because you have treated the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son who has been born to you will certainly die.”

He also made ten bronze basins, each of which could hold about 240 gallons. Each basin was six feet in diameter; there was one basin for each stand.

Just then a prophet from Judah, sent by the Lord, arrived in Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing near the altar ready to offer a sacrifice.

Jehoshaphat built a fleet of large merchant ships to travel to Ophir for gold, but they never made the voyage because they were shipwrecked in Ezion Geber.

(The silver collected in conjunction with reparation offerings and sin offerings was not brought to the Lord’s temple; it belonged to the priests.)

When they first moved in, they did not worship the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them and the lions were killing them.

Meonothai was the father of Ophrah. Seraiah was the father of Joab, the father of those who live in Ge Harashim, who were craftsmen.

The rest of Kohath’s descendants were allotted ten cities in the territory of the half-tribe of Manasseh.

Each day there were six Levites posted on the east, four on the north, and four on the south. At the storehouses they were posted in pairs.

So we rebuilt the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height. The people were enthusiastic in their work.

From the most remote place on earth I call out to you in my despair. Lead me up to an inaccessible rocky summit!

He sent his anger in full force; he did not spare them from death; he handed their lives over to destruction.

I desperately want to be in the courts of the Lord’s temple. My heart and my entire being shout for joy to the living God.

They will no longer trust in the altars their hands made, or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made.

Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! Truly I am God, I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me,

Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. The sovereign Lord will kill you, but he will give his servants another name.

Do not go out into the countryside. Do not travel on the roads. For the enemy is there with sword in hand. They are spreading terror everywhere.”

For the religion of these people is worthless. They cut down a tree in the forest, and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools.

As your words came to me I drank them in, and they filled my heart with joy and happiness because I belong to you.