One Year Bible.

Hear Us, O Shepherd of Israel

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm of Asaph.

Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel,

who leads Joseph like a flock;

You who sit enthroned between the cherubim,

shine forth ²before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.

Rally Your mighty power

and come to save us.

³Restore us, O God,

and cause Your face to shine upon us,

that we may be saved.

⁴O LORD God of Hosts,

how long will Your anger smolder

against the prayers of Your people?

⁵You fed them with the bread of tears

and made them drink the full measure of their tears.

⁶You make us contend with our neighbors;

our enemies mock us.

⁷Restore us, O God of Hosts,

and cause Your face to shine upon us,

that we may be saved.

⁸You uprooted a vine from Egypt;

You drove out the nations and transplanted it.

⁹You cleared the ground for it,

and it took root and filled the land.

¹⁰The mountains were covered by its shade,

and the mighty cedars with its branches.

¹¹It sent out its branches to the Sea,

and its shoots toward the River.

¹²Why have You broken down its walls,

so that all who pass by pick its fruit?

¹³The boar from the forest ravages it,

and the creatures of the field feed upon it.

¹⁴Return, O God of Hosts, we pray!

Look down from heaven and see!

Attend to this vine—

¹⁵the root Your right hand has planted,

the son You have raised up for Yourself.

¹⁶Your vine has been cut down and burned;

they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.

¹⁷Let Your hand be upon the man at Your right hand,

on the son of man You have raised up for Yourself.

¹⁸Then we will not turn away from You;

revive us, and we will call on Your name.

¹⁹Restore us, O LORD God of Hosts;

cause Your face to shine upon us,

that we may be saved.

Amaziah Reigns in Judah

¹Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. ²And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not wholeheartedly.

³As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, Amaziah executed the servants who had murdered his father the king. ⁴Yet he did not put their sons to death, but acted according to what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded: “Fathers must not be put to death for their children, and children must not be put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.”

Amaziah’s Victories

⁵Then Amaziah gathered the people of Judah and assigned them according to their families to commanders of thousands and of hundreds. And he numbered those twenty years of age or older throughout Judah and Benjamin and found 300,000 chosen men able to serve in the army, bearing the spear and shield.

⁶He also hired 100,000 mighty men of valor from Israel for a hundred talents of silver. ⁷But a man of God came to him and said, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel — not with any of the Ephraimites. ⁸Even if you go and fight bravely in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has power to help and power to overthrow.”

⁹Amaziah asked the man of God, “What should I do about the hundred talents I have given to the troops of Israel?”

And the man of God replied, “The LORD is able to give you much more than this.”

¹⁰So Amaziah dismissed the troops who had come to him from Ephraim and sent them home. And they were furious with Judah and returned home in great anger.

¹¹Amaziah, however, summoned his strength and led his troops to the Valley of Salt, where he struck down 10,000 men of Seir, ¹²and the army of Judah also captured 10,000 men alive. They took them to the top of a cliff and threw them down so that all were dashed to pieces.

¹³Meanwhile the troops that Amaziah had dismissed from battle raided the cities of Judah, from Samaria to Beth-horon. They struck down 3,000 people and carried off a great deal of plunder.

Amaziah Rebuked for Idolatry

¹⁴When Amaziah returned from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the Seirites, set them up as his own gods, bowed before them, and burned sacrifices to them. ¹⁵Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet, who said, “Why have you sought this people’s gods, which could not deliver them from your hand?”

¹⁶While he was still speaking, the king asked, “Have we made you the counselor to the king? Stop! Why be struck down?”

So the prophet stopped, but he said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not heeded my advice.”

Jehoash Defeats Amaziah

¹⁷Then Amaziah king of Judah took counsel and sent word to the king of Israel Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu. “Come, let us meet face to face,” he said.

¹⁸But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle. ¹⁹You have said, ‘Look, I have defeated Edom,’ and your heart has become proud and boastful. Now stay at home. Why should you stir up trouble so that you fall — you and Judah with you?”

²⁰But Amaziah would not listen, for this had come from God in order to deliver them into the hand of Jehoash, because they had sought the gods of Edom. ²¹So Jehoash king of Israel advanced, and he and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other at Beth-shemesh in Judah. ²²And Judah was routed before Israel, and every man fled to his own home.

²³There at Beth-shemesh, Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz.

Then Jehoash brought him to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate — a section of four hundred cubits. ²⁴He took all the gold and silver and all the articles found in the house of God with Obed-edom and in the treasuries of the royal palace, as well as some hostages. Then he returned to Samaria.

The Death of Amaziah

²⁵Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel. ²⁶As for the rest of the acts of Amaziah, from beginning to end, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel?

²⁷From the time that Amaziah turned from following the LORD, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But men were sent after him to Lachish, and they killed him there. ²⁸They carried him back on horses and buried him with his fathers in the City of Judah.

The Two Witnesses

¹Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers there. ²But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months. ³And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

⁴These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. ⁵If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed. ⁶These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.

The Witnesses Killed and Raised

⁷When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them. ⁸Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city — figuratively called Sodom and Egypt — where their Lord was also crucified. ⁹For three and a half days all peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will view their bodies and will not permit them to be laid in a tomb. ¹⁰And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.

¹¹But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered the two witnesses, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell upon those who saw them. ¹²And the witnesses heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched them.

¹³And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

¹⁴The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is coming shortly.

The Seventh Trumpet

¹⁵Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven:

“The kingdom of the world

has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of His Christ,

and He will reign forever and ever.”

¹⁶And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, ¹⁷saying:

“We give thanks to You, O Lord God Almighty,

the One who is and who was,

because You have taken Your great power

and have begun to reign.

¹⁸The nations were enraged,

and Your wrath has come.

The time has come to judge the dead

and to reward Your servants the prophets,

as well as the saints and those who fear Your name,

both small and great—

and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

¹⁹Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.