God Never Gives Up on You

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Hope After Adultery

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The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk2KI">
 <div class="chapter ch10" data-usfm="2KI.10">
 <div class="label">10</div><div class="s1">Ahab&#8217;s Family Killed</div><div class="p"> 1Now there were in Samaria seventy sons of the house of Ahab. So Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria: to the officials of Jezreel,#10:1 Hebrew; some Septuagint manuscripts and Vulgate of the city to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab&#8217;s children. He said, 2&#8220;You have your master&#8217;s sons with you and you have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons. Now as soon as this letter reaches you, 3choose the best and most worthy of your master&#8217;s sons and set him on his father&#8217;s throne. Then fight for your master&#8217;s house.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4But they were terrified and said, &#8220;If two kings could not resist him, how can we?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 5So the palace administrator, the city governor, the elders and the guardians sent this message to Jehu: &#8220;We are your servants and we will do anything you say. We will not appoint anyone as king; you do whatever you think best.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6Then Jehu wrote them a second letter, saying, &#8220;If you are on my side and will obey me, take the heads of your master&#8217;s sons and come to me in Jezreel by this time tomorrow.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Now the royal princes, seventy of them, were with the leading men of the city, who were rearing them. 7When the letter arrived, these men took the princes and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. 8When the messenger arrived, he told Jehu, &#8220;They have brought the heads of the princes.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Then Jehu ordered, &#8220;Put them in two piles at the entrance of the city gate until morning.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9The next morning Jehu went out. He stood before all the people and said, &#8220;You are innocent. It was I who conspired against my master and killed him, but who killed all these? 10Know, then, that not a word the Lord has spoken against the house of Ahab will fail. The Lord has done what he announced through his servant Elijah.&#8221; 11So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.</div><div class="p"> 12Jehu then set out and went toward Samaria. At Beth Eked of the Shepherds, 13he met some relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and asked, &#8220;Who are you?&#8221;</div><div class="p">They said, &#8220;We are relatives of Ahaziah, and we have come down to greet the families of the king and of the queen mother.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14&#8220;Take them alive!&#8221; he ordered. So they took them alive and slaughtered them by the well of Beth Eked&#8212;forty-two of them. He left no survivor.</div><div class="p"> 15After he left there, he came upon Jehonadab son of Rekab, who was on his way to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, &#8220;Are you in accord with me, as I am with you?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;I am,&#8221; Jehonadab answered.</div><div class="p">&#8220;If so,&#8221; said Jehu, &#8220;give me your hand.&#8221; So he did, and Jehu helped him up into the chariot. 16Jehu said, &#8220;Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.&#8221; Then he had him ride along in his chariot.</div><div class="p"> 17When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed all who were left there of Ahab&#8217;s family; he destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord spoken to Elijah.</div><div class="s1">Servants of Baal Killed</div><div class="p"> 18Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, &#8220;Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much. 19Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.&#8221; But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.</div><div class="p"> 20Jehu said, &#8220;Call an assembly in honor of Baal.&#8221; So they proclaimed it. 21Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other. 22And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, &#8220;Bring robes for all the servants of Baal.&#8221; So he brought out robes for them.</div><div class="p"> 23Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, &#8220;Look around and see that no one who serves the Lord is here with you&#8212;only servants of Baal.&#8221; 24So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: &#8220;If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 25As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: &#8220;Go in and kill them; let no one escape.&#8221; So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal. 26They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it. 27They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.</div><div class="p"> 28So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. 29However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit&#8212;the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.</div><div class="p"> 30The Lord said to Jehu, &#8220;Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.&#8221; 31Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.</div><div class="p"> 32In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory 33east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.</div><div class="p"> 34As for the other events of Jehu&#8217;s reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?</div><div class="p"> 35Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king. 36The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="chapter ch17" data-usfm="2KI.17">
 <div class="label">17</div><div class="s1">Hoshea Last King of Israel</div><div class="p"> 1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. 2He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.</div><div class="p"> 3Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser&#8217;s vassal and had paid him tribute. 4But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So#17:4 So is probably an abbreviation for Osorkon. king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison. 5The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. 6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.</div><div class="s1">Israel Exiled Because of Sin</div><div class="p"> 7All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods 8and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. 9The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. 10They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 11At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord&#8217;s anger. 12They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, &#8220;You shall not do this.&#8221;#17:12 Exodus 20:4,5 13The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: &#8220;Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. 15They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, &#8220;Do not do as they do.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. 17They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.</div><div class="p"> 18So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, 19and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. 20Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence.</div><div class="p"> 21When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the Lord and caused them to commit a great sin. 22The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them 23until the Lord removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.</div><div class="s1">Samaria Resettled</div><div class="p"> 24The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns. 25When they first lived there, they did not worship the Lord; so he sent lions among them and they killed some of the people. 26It was reported to the king of Assyria: &#8220;The people you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of that country requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them off, because the people do not know what he requires.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 27Then the king of Assyria gave this order: &#8220;Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.&#8221; 28So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship the Lord.</div><div class="p"> 29Nevertheless, each national group made its own gods in the several towns where they settled, and set them up in the shrines the people of Samaria had made at the high places. 30The people from Babylon made Sukkoth Benoth, those from Kuthah made Nergal, and those from Hamath made Ashima; 31the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as sacrifices to Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32They worshiped the Lord, but they also appointed all sorts of their own people to officiate for them as priests in the shrines at the high places. 33They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.</div><div class="p"> 34To this day they persist in their former practices. They neither worship the Lord nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that the Lord gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 35When the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites, he commanded them: &#8220;Do not worship any other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them. 36But the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt with mighty power and outstretched arm, is the one you must worship. To him you shall bow down and to him offer sacrifices. 37You must always be careful to keep the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands he wrote for you. Do not worship other gods. 38Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not worship other gods. 39Rather, worship the Lord your God; it is he who will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 40They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. 41Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.</div>
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New International Version

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 <div class="chapter ch20" data-usfm="EXO.20.2+EXO.20.3">
 <div class="pi3">2&#8220;I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.</div><div class="li1"> 3&#8220;You shall have no other gods before#20:3 Or besides me.</div><div class="li1"> </div>
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 <div class="chapter ch8" data-usfm="1KI.8.61">
 <div class="pm">61And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> </div>
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