¹At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. ²And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please arise, and disguise yourself, that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Indeed, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that I would be king over this people. ³Also take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will become of the child.” ⁴And Jeroboam’s wife did so; she arose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were glazed by reason of his age. ⁵Now the Lᴏʀᴅ had said to Ahijah, “Here is the wife of Jeroboam, coming to ask you something about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman.” ⁶And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person? For I have been sent to you with bad news. ⁷Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, ⁸and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; ⁹but you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back— ¹⁰therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. ¹¹The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the Lᴏʀᴅ has spoken!” ‘ ¹²Arise therefore, go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward the Lᴏʀᴅ God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. ¹⁴Moreover the Lᴏʀᴅ will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam; this is the day. What? Even now! ¹⁵For the Lᴏʀᴅ will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their wooden images, provoking the Lᴏʀᴅ to anger. ¹⁶And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and who made Israel sin.” ¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah. When she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lᴏʀᴅ which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet. ¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ²⁰The period that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. So he rested with his fathers. Then Nadab his son reigned in his place. ²¹And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. He reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lᴏʀᴅ had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. ²²Now Judah did evil in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴And there were also perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lᴏʀᴅ had cast out before the children of Israel. ²⁵It happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. ²⁶And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lᴏʀᴅ and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made. ²⁷Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. ²⁸And whenever the king entered the house of the Lᴏʀᴅ, the guards carried them, then brought them back into the guardroom. ²⁹Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ³⁰And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. ³¹So Rehoboam rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Then Abijam his son reigned in his place.

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, ²To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, ⁴since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; ⁵because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, ⁶which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; ⁷as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, ⁸who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. ⁹For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; ¹²giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. ¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. ¹⁸And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. ¹⁹For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, ²⁰and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. ²¹And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled ²²in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— ²³if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. ²⁴I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, ²⁵of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, ²⁶the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. ²⁷To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. ²⁹To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

¹Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east, but it was shut. ²And the Lᴏʀᴅ said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lᴏʀᴅ God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. ³As for the prince, because he is the prince, he may sit in it to eat bread before the Lᴏʀᴅ; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gateway, and go out the same way.” ⁴Also He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple; so I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lᴏʀᴅ filled the house of the Lᴏʀᴅ; and I fell on my face. ⁵And the Lᴏʀᴅ said to me, “Son of man, mark well, see with your eyes and hear with your ears, all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the Lᴏʀᴅ and all its laws. Mark well who may enter the house and all who go out from the sanctuary. ⁶Now say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ God: “O house of Israel, let us have no more of all your abominations. ⁷When you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to defile it—My house—and when you offered My food, the fat and the blood, then they broke My covenant because of all your abominations. ⁸And you have not kept charge of My holy things, but you have set others to keep charge of My sanctuary for you.” ⁹Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ God: “No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of Israel. ¹⁰“And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity. ¹¹Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, as gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house; they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. ¹²Because they ministered to them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have raised My hand in an oath against them,” says the Lᴏʀᴅ God, “that they shall bear their iniquity. ¹³And they shall not come near Me to minister to Me as priest, nor come near any of My holy things, nor into the Most Holy Place; but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. ¹⁴Nevertheless I will make them keep charge of the temple, for all its work, and for all that has to be done in it. ¹⁵“But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,” says the Lᴏʀᴅ God. ¹⁶They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge. ¹⁷And it shall be, whenever they enter the gates of the inner court, that they shall put on linen garments; no wool shall come upon them while they minister within the gates of the inner court or within the house. ¹⁸They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies; they shall not clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat. ¹⁹When they go out to the outer court, to the outer court to the people, they shall take off their garments in which they have ministered, leave them in the holy chambers, and put on other garments; and in their holy garments they shall not sanctify the people. ²⁰They shall neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow long; but they shall keep their hair well trimmed. ²¹No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court. ²²They shall not take as wife a widow or a divorced woman, but take virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel, or widows of priests. ²³And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. ²⁴In controversy they shall stand as judges, and judge it according to My judgments. They shall keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed meetings, and they shall hallow My Sabbaths. ²⁵They shall not defile themselves by coming near a dead person. Only for father or mother, for son or daughter, for brother or unmarried sister may they defile themselves. ²⁶After he is cleansed, they shall count seven days for him. ²⁷And on the day that he goes to the sanctuary to minister in the sanctuary, he must offer his sin offering in the inner court,” says the Lᴏʀᴅ God. ²⁸“It shall be, in regard to their inheritance, that I am their inheritance. You shall give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession. ²⁹They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering; every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. ³⁰The best of all firstfruits of any kind, and every sacrifice of any kind from all your sacrifices, shall be the priest’s; also you shall give to the priest the first of your ground meal, to cause a blessing to rest on your house. ³¹The priests shall not eat anything, bird or beast, that died naturally or was torn by wild beasts.

¹The Lᴏʀᴅ reigns; Let the earth rejoice; Let the multitude of isles be glad! ²Clouds and darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. ³A fire goes before Him, And burns up His enemies round about. ⁴His lightnings light the world; The earth sees and trembles. ⁵The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lᴏʀᴅ, At the presence of the Lᴏʀᴅ of the whole earth. ⁶The heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples see His glory. ⁷Let all be put to shame who serve carved images, Who boast of idols. Worship Him, all you gods. ⁸Zion hears and is glad, And the daughters of Judah rejoice Because of Your judgments, O Lᴏʀᴅ. ⁹For You, Lord, are most high above all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods. ¹⁰You who love the Lᴏʀᴅ, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. ¹¹Light is sown for the righteous, And gladness for the upright in heart. ¹²Rejoice in the Lᴏʀᴅ, you righteous, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

¹A Psalm. Oh, sing to the Lᴏʀᴅ a new song! For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. ²The Lᴏʀᴅ has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations. ³He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. ⁴Shout joyfully to the Lᴏʀᴅ, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. ⁵Sing to the Lᴏʀᴅ with the harp, With the harp and the sound of a psalm, ⁶With trumpets and the sound of a horn; Shout joyfully before the Lᴏʀᴅ, the King. ⁷Let the sea roar, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell in it; ⁸Let the rivers clap their hands; Let the hills be joyful together before the Lᴏʀᴅ, ⁹For He is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness He shall judge the world, And the peoples with equity.