Ahab's Wars with Syria

¹qBen-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his army together. rThirty-two kings were with him, and horses and chariots. And he went up and closed in on sSamaria and fought against it. ²And he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel and said to him, “Thus says Ben-hadad: ³‘Your silver and your gold are mine; your best wives and children also are mine.’” ⁴And the king of Israel answered, “As you say, my lord, O king, I am yours, and all that I have.” ⁵The messengers came again and said, “Thus says Ben-hadad: ‘I sent to you, saying, “Deliver to me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children.” ⁶Nevertheless I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your house and the houses of your servants and lay hands on whatever pleases you and take it away.’”

⁷Then the king of Israel called all the telders of the land and said, u“Mark, now, and see how this man is seeking trouble, for he sent to me for my wives and my children, and for my silver and my gold, and I did not refuse him.” ⁸And all the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not listen or consent.” ⁹So he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘All that you first demanded of your servant I will do, but this thing I cannot do.’” And the messengers departed and brought him word again. ¹⁰Ben-hadad sent to him and said, v“The gods do so to me and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people wwho follow me.” ¹¹And the king of Israel answered, “Tell him, ‘Let not him who straps on his armor boast himself as he who takes it off.’” ¹²When Ben-hadad heard this message as xhe was drinking with the kings in the booths, he said to his men, “Take your positions.” And they took their positions against the city.

Ahab Defeats Ben-hadad

¹³And behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, yI will give it into your hand this day, zand you shall know that I am the Lord.” ¹⁴And Ahab said, “By whom?” He said, “Thus says the Lord, By the servants of the governors of the districts.” Then he said, “Who shall begin the battle?” He answered, “You.” ¹⁵Then he mustered the servants of the governors of the districts, and they were 232. And after them he mustered all the people of Israel, seven thousand.

¹⁶And they went out at noon, while Ben-hadad xwas drinking himself drunk in the booths, he and the thirty-two kings who helped him. ¹⁷The servants of the governors of the districts went out first. And Ben-hadad sent out scouts, and they reported to him, “Men are coming out from Samaria.” ¹⁸He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive. Or if they have come out for war, take them alive.”

¹⁹So these went out of the city, the servants of the governors of the districts and the army that followed them. ²⁰And each struck down his man. The Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them, but Ben-hadad king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen. ²¹And the king of Israel went out and struck the horses and chariots, and struck the Syrians with a great blow.

²²Then athe prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him, “Come, strengthen yourself, and consider well what you have to do, for bin the spring the king of Syria will come up against you.”

²³And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills, and so they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. ²⁴And do this: remove the kings, each from his post, and put commanders in their places, ²⁵and muster an army like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot. Then we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.” And he listened to their voice and did so.

Ahab Defeats Ben-hadad Again

²⁶bIn the spring, Ben-hadad mustered the Syrians and went up to cAphek to fight against Israel. ²⁷And the people of Israel were mustered and were provisioned and went against them. The people of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Syrians filled the country. ²⁸And a dman of God came near and said to the king of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Syrians have said, e“The Lord is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys,” therefore fI will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’” ²⁹And they encamped opposite one another seven days. Then on the seventh day the battle was joined. And the people of Israel struck down of the Syrians 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. ³⁰And the rest fled into the city of cAphek, and the wall fell upon 27,000 men who were left.

Ben-hadad also fled and entered gan inner chamber in the city. ³¹And his servants said to him, “Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Let us hput sackcloth around our waists and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life.” ³²So they htied sackcloth around their waists and put ropes on their heads and went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-hadad says, ‘Please, let me live.’” And he said, “Does he still live? He is my brother.” ³³Now the men were watching for a sign, and they quickly took it up from him and said, “Yes, your brother Ben-hadad.” Then he said, “Go and bring him.” Then Ben-hadad came out to him, and he caused him to come up into the chariot. ³⁴And Ben-hadad said to him, i“The cities that my father took from your father I will restore, and you may establish bazaars for yourself in jDamascus, as my father did in Samaria.” And Ahab said, “I will let you go on these terms.” So he made a covenant with him and let him go.

A Prophet Condemns Ben-hadad's Release

³⁵And a certain man of kthe sons of the prophets said to his fellow lat the command of the Lord, “Strike me, please.” But the man refused to strike him. ³⁶Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as you have gone from me, a lion shall strike you down.” And as soon as he had departed from him, ma lion met him and struck him down. ³⁷Then he found another man and said, “Strike me, please.” And the man struck him—struck him and wounded him. ³⁸So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, ndisguising himself with a bandage over his eyes. ³⁹And as the king passed, he cried to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle, and behold, a soldier turned and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if by any means he is missing, oyour life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent1 of silver.’ ⁴⁰And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.” ⁴¹Then he hurried to take the bandage away from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. ⁴²And he said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction,2 therefore oyour life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.’” ⁴³And the king of Israel pwent to his house vexed and sullen and came to Samaria.

¹Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing dto be left behind at Athens alone, ²and we esent Timothy, four brother and God's coworker1 in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith, ³that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that gwe are destined for this. ⁴For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, hjust as it has come to pass, and just as you know. ⁵For this reason, iwhen I could bear it no longer, iI sent to learn about your faith, jfor fear that somehow kthe tempter had tempted you and lour labor would be in vain.

Timothy's Encouraging Report

⁶But mnow that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of nyour faith and love and reported othat you always remember us kindly and plong to see us, as we long to see you— ⁷for this reason, brothers,2 in all our distress and affliction qwe have been comforted about you through your faith. ⁸For now we live, if you rare standing fast in the Lord. ⁹For swhat thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, ¹⁰as we pray most earnestly tnight and day uthat we may see you face to face and vsupply what is lacking in your faith?

¹¹Now may wour God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, xdirect our way to you, ¹²and may the Lord ymake you increase and abound in love zfor one another and for all, as we do for you, ¹³so that he may aestablish your hearts blameless in holiness before wour God and Father, at bthe coming of our Lord Jesus cwith all his saints.

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

¹In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; hhis spirit was troubled, and ihis sleep left him. ²Then the king commanded that dthe magicians, ethe enchanters, the jsorcerers, and kthe Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and lstood before the king. ³And the king said to them, “I had a dream, and hmy spirit is troubled to know the dream.” ⁴Then kthe Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic,1 m“O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” ⁵The king answered and said to kthe Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be ntorn limb from limb, nand your ohouses shall be laid in ruins. ⁶But if you show the dream and its interpretation, pyou shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. qTherefore show me the dream and its interpretation.” ⁷They answered a second time and said, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show its interpretation.” ⁸The king answered and said, “I know with certainty that you are trying to rgain time, because you see that the word from me is firm— ⁹if you do not make the dream known to me, sthere is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till tthe times change. uTherefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation.” ¹⁰vThe Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or vChaldean. ¹¹The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except wthe gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

¹²Because of this the king was angry and xvery furious, and ycommanded that all zthe wise men of Babylon be destroyed. ¹³So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed; and they sought aDaniel and his companions, to kill them. ¹⁴Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to bArioch, the ccaptain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. ¹⁵He declared2 to Arioch, the king's captain, “Why is the decree of the king dso urgent?” Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. ¹⁶And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king.

God Reveals Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

¹⁷Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to eHananiah, eMishael, and eAzariah, his companions, ¹⁸fand told them to seek mercy from the gGod of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not hbe destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. ¹⁹Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in ia vision of the night. Then Daniel jblessed the gGod of heaven. ²⁰Daniel answered and said:

k“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,

lto whom belong wisdom and might.

²¹mHe changes times and seasons;

nhe removes kings and sets up kings;

ohe gives wisdom to the wise

oand knowledge to those who have understanding;

²²phe reveals deep and hidden things;

phe knows what is in the darkness,

qand the light dwells with him.

²³To you, O rGod of my fathers,

sI give thanks and praise,

for tyou have given me wisdom and might,

and have now made known to me what uwe asked of you,

for you have made known to us the king's matter.”

²⁴Therefore Daniel went in to vArioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him: “Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the interpretation.”

²⁵Then vArioch brought in Daniel before the king win haste and said thus to him: “I have found xamong the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation.” ²⁶The king declared to Daniel, ywhose name was Belteshazzar, z“Are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation?” ²⁷Daniel answered the king and said, “No wise men, aenchanters, amagicians, or bastrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, ²⁸but cthere is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar dwhat will be in the latter days. Your dream and ethe visions of your head as you lay in bed are these: ²⁹To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this, fand he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. ³⁰But gas for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that hyou may know the thoughts of your mind.

Daniel Interprets the Dream

³¹“You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. ³²iThe head of this image was of fine gold, jits chest and arms of silver, its middle and jthighs of bronze, ³³kits legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴As you looked, a stone was cut out lby no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and mbroke them in pieces. ³⁵Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became nlike the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that onot a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became pa great mountain qand filled the whole earth.

³⁶“This was the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. ³⁷You, O king, rthe king of kings, to whom sthe God of heaven thas given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, ³⁸and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, uthe beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all—you are vthe head of gold. ³⁹wAnother kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom vof bronze, xwhich shall rule over all the earth. ⁴⁰And ythere shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron zbreaks to pieces and shatters all things. And like iron that crushes, it shall zbreak and crush all these. ⁴¹And as you saw athe feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom, but some of the yfirmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. ⁴²And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. ⁴³As you saw the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage,3 but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. ⁴⁴And in the days of those kings bthe God of heaven will set up ca kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. dIt shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and cit shall stand forever, ⁴⁵just as eyou saw that fa stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that dit broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A ggreat God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”

Daniel Is Promoted

⁴⁶Then King Nebuchadnezzar hfell upon his face and ipaid homage to Daniel, and commanded that jan offering and kincense be offered up to him. ⁴⁷The king answered and said to Daniel, “Truly, your lGod is God of gods and mLord of kings, and na revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” ⁴⁸Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great ogifts, and made him ruler over the whole pprovince of Babylon and qchief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. ⁴⁹Daniel made a request of the king, and he rappointed sShadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of pthe province of Babylon. But Daniel tremained at the king's court.

Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good

¹iPraise the Lord!

jOh give thanks to the Lord, kfor he is good,

lfor his steadfast love endures forever!

²Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord,

or declare all his praise?

³Blessed are they who observe justice,

who mdo righteousness at all times!

⁴nRemember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people;

help me when you save them,1

⁵that I may look upon the prosperity of your ochosen ones,

that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,

that I may glory with your inheritance.

⁶pBoth we and qour fathers have sinned;

we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.

⁷Our fathers, when they were in Egypt,

did not consider your wondrous works;

they rdid not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,

but srebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.

⁸Yet he saved them tfor his name's sake,

uthat he might make known his mighty power.

⁹He vrebuked the Red Sea, and it wbecame dry,

and he xled them through the deep as through a desert.

¹⁰So he ysaved them from the hand of the foe

and zredeemed them from the power of the enemy.

¹¹And athe waters covered their adversaries;

not one of them was left.

¹²Then bthey believed his words;

they csang his praise.

¹³But they soon dforgot his works;

they did not wait for ehis counsel.

¹⁴But they had fa wanton craving in the wilderness,

and gput God to the test in the desert;

¹⁵he hgave them what they asked,

but sent ia wasting disease among them.

¹⁶When men in the camp jwere jealous of Moses

and Aaron, kthe holy one of the Lord,

¹⁷lthe earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,

and covered the company of Abiram.

¹⁸mFire also broke out in their company;

the flame burned up the wicked.

¹⁹They nmade a calf in Horeb

and worshiped a metal image.

²⁰They oexchanged the glory of God2

for the image of an ox that eats grass.

²¹They pforgot God, their Savior,

who had done great things in Egypt,

²²wondrous works in qthe land of Ham,

and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

²³Therefore rhe said he would destroy them—

had not Moses, his schosen one,

tstood in the breach before him,

to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

²⁴Then they udespised vthe pleasant land,

having wno faith in his promise.

²⁵They xmurmured in their tents,

and did not obey the voice of the Lord.

²⁶Therefore he yraised his hand and swore to them

that he would make them fall in the wilderness,

²⁷and would make their offspring fall among the nations,

zscattering them among the lands.

²⁸Then they ayoked themselves to the aBaal of Peor,

and ate sacrifices offered to bthe dead;

²⁹they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds,

and a plague broke out among them.

³⁰Then cPhinehas stood up and intervened,

and the plague was stayed.

³¹And that was dcounted to him as righteousness

from generation to generation forever.

³²They eangered him at the waters of Meribah,

and it went ill with Moses on their account,

³³for they fmade his spirit bitter,3

and he gspoke rashly with his lips.

³⁴They did not hdestroy the peoples,

ias the Lord commanded them,

³⁵but they jmixed with the nations

and learned to do as they did.

³⁶They served their idols,

which became ka snare to them.

³⁷They lsacrificed their sons

and their daughters to mthe demons;

³⁸they poured out innocent blood,

the blood of their sons and daughters,

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,

and the land was npolluted with blood.

³⁹Thus they obecame unclean by their acts,

and pplayed the whore in their deeds.

⁴⁰Then qthe anger of the Lord was kindled against rhis people,

and he abhorred his rheritage;

⁴¹he sgave them into the hand of the nations,

so that those who hated them ruled over them.

⁴²Their enemies toppressed them,

and they were brought into subjection under their power.

⁴³uMany times he delivered them,

but they were rebellious in their vpurposes

and were wbrought low through their iniquity.

⁴⁴Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress,

when he xheard their cry.

⁴⁵For their sake he yremembered his covenant,

and zrelented according to athe abundance of his steadfast love.

⁴⁶He caused them to be bpitied

by all those who held them captive.

⁴⁷cSave us, O Lord our God,

and dgather us from among the nations,

that we may give thanks to your holy name

and glory in your praise.

⁴⁸eBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting!

eAnd let all the people say, “Amen!”

fPraise the Lord!