One Year Bible.

Uzziah Reigns in Judah

¹All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. ²Uzziah was the one who rebuilt Eloth and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah rested with his fathers.

³Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. ⁴And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁵He sought God throughout the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. And as long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.

⁶Uzziah went out to wage war against the Philistines, and he tore down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. Then he built cities near Ashdod and among the Philistines. ⁷God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs living in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites. ⁸The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the border of Egypt, for he had become exceedingly powerful.

⁹Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and the angle in the wall, and he fortified them. ¹⁰Since he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hill country and in the fertile fields.

¹¹Uzziah had an army ready for battle that went out to war by assigned divisions, as recorded by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer under the direction of Hananiah, one of the royal officers. ¹²The total number of family leaders of the mighty men of valor was 2,600. ¹³Under their authority was an army of 307,500 trained for war, a powerful force to support the king against his enemies.

¹⁴Uzziah supplied the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and slingstones. ¹⁵And in Jerusalem he made skillfully designed devices to shoot arrows and catapult large stones from the towers and corners. So his fame spread far and wide, for he was helped tremendously until he became powerful.

¹⁶But when Uzziah became powerful, his arrogance led to his own destruction. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.

¹⁷Then Azariah the priest, along with eighty brave priests of the LORD, went in after him. ¹⁸They took their stand against King Uzziah and said, “Uzziah, you have no right to offer incense to the LORD. Only the priests, the descendants of Aaron, are consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully; you will not receive honor from the LORD God.”

¹⁹Uzziah, with a censer in his hand to offer incense, was enraged. But while he raged against the priests in their presence in the house of the LORD before the altar of incense, leprosy broke out on his forehead. ²⁰When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him and saw his leprous forehead, they rushed him out. Indeed, he himself hurried to get out, because the LORD had afflicted him.

²¹So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in isolation, leprous and cut off from the house of the LORD, while his son Jotham had charge of the royal palace and governed the people of the land.

²²As for the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from beginning to end, they are recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. ²³And Uzziah rested with his fathers and was buried near them in a field of burial that belonged to the kings, for the people said, “He was a leper.” And his son Jotham reigned in his place.

Jotham Reigns in Judah

¹Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. His mother’s name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok. ²And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done. In addition, he did not enter the temple of the LORD. But the people still behaved corruptly.

³Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the house of the LORD, and he worked extensively on the wall at the hill of Ophel. ⁴He also built cities in the hill country of Judah and fortresses and towers in the forests.

⁵Jotham waged war against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them, and that year they gave him a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand cors of wheat, and ten thousand cors of barley. They paid him the same in the second and third years. ⁶So Jotham grew powerful because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God.

⁷As for the rest of the acts of Jotham, along with all his wars and his ways, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. ⁸He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. ⁹And Jotham rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And his son Ahaz reigned in his place.

Greetings from Paul and Timothy

¹Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our beloved fellow worker, ²to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets at your house:

³Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philemon’s Faith and Love

⁴I always thank my God, remembering you in my prayers, ⁵because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. ⁶I pray that your partnership in the faith may become effective as you fully acknowledge every good thing that is ours in Christ. ⁷I take great joy and encouragement in your love, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

Paul’s Appeal for Onesimus

⁸So although in Christ I am bold enough to order you to do what is proper, ⁹I prefer to appeal on the basis of love. For I, Paul, am now aged, and a prisoner of Christ Jesus as well.

¹⁰I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I became while I was in chains. ¹¹Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. ¹²I am sending back to you him who is my very heart.

¹³I would have liked to keep him with me, so that on your behalf he could minister to me in my chains for the gospel. ¹⁴But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness will not be out of compulsion, but by your own free will. ¹⁵For perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back for good — ¹⁶no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a beloved brother. He is especially beloved to me, but even more so to you, both in person and in the Lord.

¹⁷So if you consider me a partner, receive him as you would receive me. ¹⁸But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to my account. ¹⁹I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it— not to mention that you owe me your very self.

²⁰Yes, brother, let me have some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

²¹Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.

²²In the meantime, prepare a guest room for me, because I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you.

Additional Greetings

²³Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings, ²⁴as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

²⁵The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

A New Heaven and a New Earth

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying:

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man,

and He will dwell with them.

They will be His people,

and God Himself will be with them as their God.

⁴‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’

and there will be no more death

or mourning or crying or pain,

for the former things have passed away.”

⁵And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.” ⁶And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life. ⁷The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.

⁸But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

The New Jerusalem

⁹Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹shining with the glory of God. Its radiance was like a most precious jewel, like a jasper, as clear as crystal. ¹²The city had a great and high wall with twelve gates inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve angels at the gates. ¹³There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west. ¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations bearing the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵The angel who spoke with me had a golden measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and walls. ¹⁶The city lies foursquare, with its width the same as its length. And he measured the city with the rod, and all its dimensions were equal — 12,000 stadia in length and width and height. ¹⁷And he measured its wall to be 144 cubits, by the human measure the angel was using.

¹⁸The wall was made of jasper, and the city itself of pure gold, as pure as glass. ¹⁹The foundations of the city walls were adorned with every kind of precious stone:

The first foundation was jasper,

the second sapphire,

the third chalcedony,

the fourth emerald,

²⁰the fifth sardonyx,

the sixth carnelian,

the seventh chrysolite,

the eighth beryl,

the ninth topaz,

the tenth chrysoprase,

the eleventh jacinth,

and the twelfth amethyst.

²¹And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate consisting of a single pearl. The main street of the city was pure gold, as clear as glass.

²²But I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory. ²⁵Its gates will never be shut at the end of the day, because there will be no night there.

²⁶And into the city will be brought the glory and honor of the nations. ²⁷But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.