<t /><p class="bodytext">In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month,<n id="1" /> the word of the <sc>Lordsc> came to me:

<t /><p class="bodytext">In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month,<n id="1" /> a refugee came to me from Jerusalem<n id="2" /> saying, &#8220;The city has been defeated!&#8221;<n id="3" />

But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it will be his until the year of liberty;<n id="1" /> then it will revert to the prince. His inheritance will only remain with his sons.

<t /><p class="bodytext">In the third<n id="1" /> year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar<n id="2" /> of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem<n id="3" /> and laid it under siege.<n id="4" />

So the king assigned them a daily ration<n id="1" /> from his royal delicacies<n id="2" /> and from the wine he himself drank. They were to be trained<n id="3" /> for the next three years. At the end of that time they were to enter the king&#8217;s service.<n id="4" />

<t /><n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">In the third year<n id="2" /> of King Belshazzar&#8217;s reign, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me previously.<n id="3" />

He will also take their gods into captivity to Egypt, along with their cast images and prized utensils of silver and gold. Then he will withdraw for some years from<n id="1" /> the king of the north.

For the king of the north will again muster an army, one larger than before. At the end of some years he will advance with a huge army and enormous supplies.p>

<p class="poetry">I will make up for the years<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">that the <i>&#8216;arbehi>-locust<n id="2" /> consumed your crops<n id="3" /> &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">the <i>yeleqi>-locust, the <i>hasili>-locust, and the <i>gazami>-locust &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">my great army<n id="4" /> that I sent against you.p>

<p class="poetry">I brought you up from the land of Egypt;p> <p class="poetry">I led you through the wilderness for forty yearsp> <p class="poetry">so you could take the Amorites&#8217; land as your own.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of Darius&#8217; second year,<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> spoke again to the prophet Haggai:<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">In the eighth month of Darius&#8217;<n id="1" /> second year,<n id="2" /> the word of the <sc>Lordsc> came to the prophet Zechariah,<n id="3" /> son of Berechiah son of Iddo, as follows:p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">In King Darius&#8217; fourth year, on the fourth day of <i>Kislevi>, the ninth month,<n id="1" /> the word of the <sc>Lordsc> came to Zechariah.

So now, look, the <sc>Lordsc> has preserved my life, just as he promised, these past forty-five years since the <sc>Lordsc> spoke these words to Moses, during which Israel traveled through the wilderness. Now look, I am today eighty-five years old.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now Rehoboam son of Solomon ruled in Judah. He<n id="1" /> was forty-one years old when he became king and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> the city the <sc>Lordsc> chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home.<n id="3" /> His mother was an Ammonite woman<n id="4" /> named Naamah.p>

King Rehoboam solidified his rule in Jerusalem;<n id="1" /> he<n id="2" /> was forty-one years old when he became king and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the <sc>Lordsc> chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home.<n id="3" /> Rehoboam&#8217;s<n id="4" /> mother was an Ammonite named Naamah.

<p class="bodytext">He launched a military campaign<n id="1" /> against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them. That year the Ammonites paid him 100 talents<n id="2" /> of silver, 10,000 kors<n id="3" /> of wheat, and 10,000 kors<n id="4" /> of barley. The Ammonites also paid this same amount of annual tribute the next two years.<n id="5" />p>

In the second year after they had come to the temple of God in Jerusalem,<n id="1" /> in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak initiated the work,<n id="2" /> along with the rest of their associates,<n id="3" /> the priests and the Levites, and all those who were coming to Jerusalem from the exile. They appointed<n id="4" /> the Levites who were at least twenty years old<n id="5" /> to take charge of the work on the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple.

<p class="bodytext">In Noah&#8217;s six hundred and first year,<n id="1" /> in the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that<n id="2" /> the surface of the ground was dry.

In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings who were his allies came and defeated<n id="1" /> the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim,