Jehoram Reigns in Judah

¹dJehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, and Jehoram his son reigned in his place. ²He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of eIsrael.1 ³Their father gave them great gifts of silver, gold, and valuable possessions, together with ffortified cities in Judah, but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn. ⁴When Jehoram had ascended the throne of his father and was established, he killed all his brothers with the sword, and also some of the princes of eIsrael. ⁵gJehoram was hthirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. ⁶iAnd he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for jthe daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. ⁷Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he had promised to give ka lamp to him and to his sons forever.

⁸In his days Edom revolted from the lrule of Judah and set up a king of their own. ⁹Then Jehoram passed over with his commanders and all his chariots, and he rose by night and struck the Edomites who had surrounded him and his chariot commanders. ¹⁰So Edom revolted from mthe rule of Judah to this day. At that time Libnah also revolted from his rule, because he had forsaken the Lord, the God of his fathers.

¹¹Moreover, he made high places in the hill country of Judah and led the inhabitants of Jerusalem ninto whoredom and made Judah go astray. ¹²And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father, o‘Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or pin the ways of Asa king of Judah, ¹³ibut have walked in the way of the kings of Israel and have enticed Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem ninto whoredom, qas the house of Ahab led Israel into whoredom, and also you rhave killed your brothers, of your father's house, who were better than you, ¹⁴behold, the Lord will bring a great plague on your people, your children, your wives, and all your possessions, ¹⁵and you yourself will have a severe sickness swith a disease of your bowels, until your bowels come out because of the disease, day by day.’”

¹⁶tAnd the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the anger2 of the Philistines and of uthe Arabians who are near the Ethiopians. ¹⁷And they came up against Judah and invaded it and carried away all the possessions they found that belonged to the king's house, and also his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except vJehoahaz, his youngest son.

¹⁸And after all this the Lord struck him win his bowels with an incurable disease. ¹⁹In the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great agony. His people made no fire in his honor, xlike the fires made for his fathers. ²⁰yHe was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he departed zwith no one's regret. aThey buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

¹And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and qI saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given rthe key to the shaft of sthe bottomless pit.1 ²He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft trose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and uthe sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. ³Then from the smoke came vlocusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. ⁴They were told wnot to harm xthe grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have ythe seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵They were allowed to torment them zfor five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. ⁶And in those days apeople will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

⁷bIn appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: con their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were dlike human faces, ⁸their hair like women's hair, and etheir teeth like lions' teeth; ⁹they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was flike the noise of many chariots with ghorses rushing into battle. ¹⁰They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people hfor five months is in their tails. ¹¹They have ias king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is jAbaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.2

¹²kThe first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.

¹³Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from lthe four horns of the golden altar before God, ¹⁴saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release mthe four angels who are bound at nthe great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released oto kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶The number of pmounted troops was qtwice ten thousand times ten thousand; rI heard their number. ¹⁷And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire3 and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were slike lions' heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. ¹⁸By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. ¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.

²⁰The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, tdid not repent of uthe works of their hands nor give up worshiping vdemons wand idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, ²¹nor did they repent of their murders or their xsorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

A Vision of a Flying Scroll

¹Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying ascroll! ²And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying ascroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.”1 ³Then he said to me, “This is bthe curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who csteals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who dswears falsely2 shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. ⁴I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of ehim who swears falsely by my name. And fit shall remain in his house and gconsume it, both timber and stones.”

A Vision of a Woman in a Basket

⁵hThen the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, i“Lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out.” ⁶And I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is jthe basket3 that is going out.” And he said, “This is their iniquity4 in all the land.” ⁷And behold, the leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket! ⁸And he said, “This is Wickedness.” And he thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down jthe leaden weight on its opening.

⁹Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! kThe wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. ¹⁰Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they taking the basket?” ¹¹He said to me, “To the lland of Shinar, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base.”

I Am the Light of the World

¹²lAgain Jesus spoke to them, saying, m“I am the light of the world. Whoever nfollows me will not owalk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” ¹³So the Pharisees said to him, p“You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” ¹⁴Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, qmy testimony is true, for I know rwhere I came from and swhere I am going, but tyou do not know where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵uYou judge according to the flesh; vI judge no one. ¹⁶Yet even if I do judge, wmy judgment is true, for xit is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father1 who sent me. ¹⁷yIn your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. ¹⁸I am the one who bears witness about myself, and zthe Father who sent me bears witness about me.” ¹⁹They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, a“You know neither me nor my Father. bIf you knew me, you would know my Father also.” ²⁰These words he spoke in cthe treasury, as he taught in the temple; but dno one arrested him, because ehis hour had not yet come.

²¹So he said to them again, f“I am going away, and gyou will seek me, and hyou will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” ²²So the Jews said, i“Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” ²³He said to them, j“You are from below; I am from above. kYou are of this world; lI am not of this world. ²⁴I told you that you mwould die in your sins, for nunless you believe that oI am he you will die in your sins.” ²⁵So they said to him, p“Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. ²⁶I have much to say about you and much to judge, but qhe who sent me is true, and I declare rto the world swhat I have heard from him.” ²⁷They did not understand that the had been speaking to them about the Father. ²⁸So Jesus said to them, “When you have ulifted up the Son of Man, vthen you will know that wI am he, and that xI do nothing on my own authority, but yspeak just as the Father taught me. ²⁹And zhe who sent me is with me. zHe has not left me alone, for aI always do the things that are pleasing to him.” ³⁰As he was saying these things, bmany believed in him.

The Truth Will Set You Free

³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, c“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will dknow the truth, and the truth ewill set you free.” ³³They answered him, f“We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, geveryone who practices sin is a slave2 to sin. ³⁵hThe slave does not remain in the house forever; ithe son remains forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet jyou seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. ³⁸kI speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard lfrom your father.”

You Are of Your Father the Devil

³⁹They answered him, m“Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, n“If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, ⁴⁰but now oyou seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth pthat I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, q“We were not born of sexual immorality. We have rone Father—even God.” ⁴²Jesus said to them, s“If God were your Father, you would love me, for tI came from God and uI am here. vI came not of my own accord, but whe sent me. ⁴³xWhy do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot ybear to hear my word. ⁴⁴zYou are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. aHe was a murderer from the beginning, and bdoes not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. cWhen he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷dWhoever is of God hears the words of God. eThe reason why you do not hear them is that fyou are not of God.”

Before Abraham Was, I Am

⁴⁸The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and ghave a demon?” ⁴⁹Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but hI honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰Yet iI do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹Truly, truly, jI say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never ksee death.” ⁵²The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! lAbraham died, as did the prophets, yet myou say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never ntaste death.’ ⁵³oAre you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” ⁵⁴Jesus answered, p“If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. qIt is my Father who glorifies me, rof whom you say, ‘He is our God.’3 ⁵⁵But syou have not known him. tI know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be ua liar vlike you, but I do know him and I keep his word. ⁵⁶wYour father Abraham xrejoiced ythat he would see my day. zHe saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”4 ⁵⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, aI am.” ⁵⁹So bthey picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.