(13:23) ¹  Abijah passed away ²  and was buried in the City of David. ³  His son Asa replaced him as king. During his reign ⁴  the land had rest for ten years.

¹ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who so moved in the heart of the king to so honor the temple of the Lord which is in Jerusalem!

I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors ¹  have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords ²  until I have destroyed them.’” ³ 

“Are you willing to pronounce judgment? ¹  Are you willing to pronounce judgment, son of man? Then confront them with the abominable practices of their fathers,

I did this ¹  because they did not observe my regulations, they rejected my statutes, they desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on ²  their fathers’ idols.

“Therefore, speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: In this way too your fathers blasphemed me when they were unfaithful to me.

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers ¹  and engage in prostitution with detestable idols?

Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the sovereign Lord.

Then you will know that I am the Lord when I bring you to the land of Israel, to the land I swore ¹  to give to your fathers.

Listen to this, you elders; ¹  pay attention, ²  all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your whole life ³  or in the lifetime ⁴  of your ancestors? ⁵ 

“Woe to you, experts in the law ¹  and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You ²  build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves ³  of the righteous.

He ¹  will be great, ²  and will be called the Son of the Most High, ³  and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father ⁴  David.

Your father Abraham was overjoyed ¹  to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.” ² 

“Brothers, ¹  I can speak confidently ²  to you about our forefather ³  David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

who said by the Holy Spirit through ¹  your servant David our forefather, ²  ‘Why do the nations ³  rage, ⁴  and the peoples plot foolish ⁵  things?

So he replied, ¹  “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our forefather ²  Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

This was the one who exploited ¹  our people ²  and was cruel to our ancestors, ³  forcing them to abandon ⁴  their infants so they would die. ⁵ 

‘I am the God of your forefathers, ¹  the God of Abraham, Isaac, ²  and Jacob.’ ³  Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look more closely. ⁴ 

This is the man who was in the congregation ¹  in the wilderness ²  with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, ³  and he ⁴  received living oracles ⁵  to give to you. ⁶ 

For David, after he had served ¹  God’s purpose in his own generation, died, ²  was buried with his ancestors, ³  and experienced ⁴  decay,