They crossed the Jordan River ¹  in the first month, ²  when it was overflowing its banks, and routed those living in all the valleys to the east and west. ³ 

Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. ¹  He did not do what pleased the Lord, in contrast to his ancestor David. ² 

This took place to fulfill the Lord’s message delivered through Jeremiah. ¹  The land experienced ²  its sabbatical years; ³  it remained desolate for seventy years, ⁴  as prophesied. ⁵ 

Now his sons used to go ¹  and hold ²  a feast in the house of each one in turn, ³  and they would send and invite ⁴  their three ⁵  sisters to eat and to drink with them.

They do not say to themselves, ¹  “Let us revere the Lord our God. It is he who gives us the autumn rains and the spring rains at the proper time. It is he who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.” ² 

Even the stork knows when it is time to move on. ¹  The turtledove, swallow, and crane ²  recognize ³  the normal times for their migration. But my people pay no attention to ⁴  what I, the Lord, require of them. ⁵ 

I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days ¹  for you – 390 days. ²  So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ³ 

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you must take an unblemished young bull and purify the sanctuary.

In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, ¹  he will make the same provisions for the sin offering, burnt offering, and grain offering, and for the olive oil, for the seven days.

“I am the Lord your God ¹  who brought you ²  out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again as in the days of old. ³ 

O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do ¹  with idols anymore! I will answer him and care for him. I am like ²  a luxuriant cypress tree; ³  your fruitfulness comes from me! ⁴ 

Moreover, on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, ¹  half of them to the eastern sea ²  and half of them to the western sea; ³  it will happen both in summer and in winter.

Without being weak in faith, he considered ¹  his own body as dead ²  (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, ¹  but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing.

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, ¹  was taking care of ²  the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster ³  working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. ⁴  Joseph brought back a bad report about them ⁵  to their father.

That night the Lord said to him, “Take the bull from your father’s herd, as well as a second bull, one that is seven years old. ¹  Pull down your father’s Baal altar and cut down the nearby Asherah pole.

Is this not the time of the wheat harvest? I will call on the Lord so that he makes it thunder and rain. Realize and see what a great sin you have committed before the Lord by asking for a king for yourselves.”

Jeroboam inaugurated a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, ¹  like the festival celebrated in Judah. ²  On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the calves he had made. ³  In Bethel he also appointed priests for the high places he had made.

But in the seventh month ¹  Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, ²  came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah, ³  as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.