Day 162 of 730

¹Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up the sons of Ahab, saying,

²"Now as soon as this letter comes to you, since your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and armor.

³Select the best and fittest of your master's sons, set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house."

⁴But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, "Behold, the two kings did not stand before him! How then shall we stand?"

⁵He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who raised the children, sent to Jehu, saying, "We are your servants, and will do all that you ask us. We will not make any man king. You do that which is good in your eyes."

⁶Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, "If you are on my side, and if you will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time." Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who brought them up.

⁷It happened, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and killed them, even seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezreel.

⁸A messenger came, and told him, "They have brought the heads of the king's sons." He said, "Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning."

⁹It happened in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, "You are righteous. Behold, I conspired against my master, and killed him; but who struck all these?

¹⁰Know now that nothing shall fall to the earth of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab. For the Lord has done that which he spoke by his servant Elijah."

¹¹So Jehu struck all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, with all his great men, his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.

¹²He arose and departed, and went to Samaria. As he was at the shearing house of the shepherds on the way,

¹³Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, "Who are you?" They answered, "We are the brothers of Ahaziah. We are going down to greet the children of the king and the children of the queen."

¹⁴He said, "Take them alive!" They took them alive, and killed them at the pit of the shearing house, even forty-two men. He did not leave any of them.

¹⁵When he had departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. He greeted him, and said to him, "Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart?" Jehonadab answered, "It is." "If it is, give me your hand." He gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot.

¹⁶He said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord." So they made him ride in his chariot.

¹⁷When he came to Samaria, he struck all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke to Elijah.

¹⁸Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much.

¹⁹Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all of his worshippers, and all of his priests. Let none be absent; for I have a great sacrifice to Baal. Whoever is absent, he shall not live." But Jehu did it in subtlety, intending that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.

²⁰Jehu said, "Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal!" They proclaimed it.

²¹Jehu sent through all Israel; and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that did not come. They came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one end to another.

²²He said to him who was over the vestry, "Bring out robes for all the worshippers of Baal!" He brought robes out to them.

²³Jehu went with Jehonadab the son of Rechab into the house of Baal. Then he said to the worshippers of Baal, "Search, and look that there are here with you none of the servants of the Lord, but the worshippers of Baal only."

²⁴They went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed him eighty men outside, and said, "If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, he who lets him go, his life shall be for the life of him."

²⁵It happened, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, "Go in, and kill them! Let none escape." They struck them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal.

²⁶They brought out the pillars that were in the house of Baal, and burned them.

²⁷They broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine, to this day.

²⁸Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.

²⁹However from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin, Jehu did not depart from after them, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.

³⁰The Lord said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in executing that which is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel."

³¹But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin.

³²In those days the Lord began to cut off from Israel; and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel;

³³from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.

³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

³⁵Jehu slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria. Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place.

³⁶The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

¹Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family.

²But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedroom; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain;

³He was with her hidden in the house of the Lord six years. Athaliah reigned over the land.

⁴In the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the Lord; and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the Lord, and showed them the king's son.

⁵He commanded them, saying, "This is the thing that you shall do: a third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath, shall be keepers of the watch of the king's house;

⁶A third part shall be at the gate Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard. So you shall keep the watch of the house, and be a barrier.

⁷The two companies of you, even all who go out on the Sabbath, shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord around the king.

⁸You shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand; and he who comes within the ranks, let him be slain. Be with the king when he goes out, and when he comes in."

⁹The captains over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded; and they took every man his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.

¹⁰The priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David's, which were in the house of the Lord.

¹¹The guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, around the king.

¹²Then he brought out the king's son, and put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, "Long live the king!"

¹³When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the house of the Lord:

¹⁴and she looked, and behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the tradition was, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, "Treason! Treason!"

¹⁵Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, "Bring her out between the ranks. Kill him who follows her with the sword." For the priest said, "Do not let her be slain in the house of the Lord."

¹⁶So they made way for her; and she went by the way of the horses' entry to the king's house. She was slain there.

¹⁷Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord's people; between the king also and the people.

¹⁸All the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down; his altars and his images broke they in pieces thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. The priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord.

¹⁹He took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of the Lord, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king's house. He sat on the throne of the kings.

²⁰So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. Athaliah they had slain with the sword at the king's house.

²¹Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.

¹Help, Lord; for the godly man ceases. For the faithful fail from among the children of men.

²Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.

³May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that boasts,

⁴who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?"

⁵"Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says the Lord; "I will set him in safety from those who malign him."

⁶The words of the Lord are flawless words, as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.

⁷You will keep them, Lord. You will preserve them from this generation forever.

⁸The wicked walk on every side, when what is vile is exalted among the sons of men.

¹My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

³Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,

⁵that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

⁸passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

⁹in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

¹¹She is loud and defiant. Her feet do not stay in her house.

¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.

¹³So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

¹⁴"Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving.

¹⁹For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon."

²¹With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

²²He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.

²³Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life.

²⁴Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn to her ways. Do not go astray in her paths,

²⁶for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.