2 Chronicles 21

JEHORAM BECOMES KING OVER JUDAH
Jehoshaphat rested with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His son Jehoram became king in his place.
2 He had brothers, sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of King Jehoshaphat of Judah. 3 Their father had given them many gifts of silver, gold, and valuable things, along with fortified cities in Judah, but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn. 4 When Jehoram had established himself over his father’s kingdom, he strengthened his position by killing with the sword all his brothers as well as some of the princes of Israel.

JUDAH’S KING JEHORAM
5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 6 He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, 7 but for the sake of the covenant the Lord had made with David, he was unwilling to destroy the house of David since the Lord had promised to give a lamp to David and to his sons forever.

8 During Jehoram’s reign, Edom rebelled against Judah’s control and appointed their own king. 9 So Jehoram crossed into Edom with his commanders and all his chariots. Then at night he set out to attack the Edomites who had surrounded him and the chariot commanders. 10 And now Edom is still in rebellion against Judah’s control today. Libnah also rebelled at that time against his control because he had abandoned the Lord, the God of his ancestors. 11 Jehoram also built high places in the hills of Judah, and he caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, and he led Judah astray.

ELIJAH’S LETTER TO JEHORAM
12 Then a letter came to Jehoram from the prophet Elijah, saying:

This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David says: “Because you have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or in the ways of King Asa of Judah 13 but have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves like the house of Ahab prostituted itself, and also have killed your brothers, your father’s family, who were better than you, 14 the Lord is now about to strike your people, your sons, your wives, and all your possessions with a horrible affliction. 15 You yourself will be struck with many illnesses, including a disease of the intestines, until your intestines come out day after day because of the disease.”

JEHORAM’S LAST DAYS
16 The Lord roused the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs who lived near the Cushites to attack Jehoram. 17 So they went to war against Judah and invaded it. They carried off all the possessions found in the king’s palace and also his sons and wives; not a son was left to him except Jehoahaz, his youngest son.

18 After all these things, the Lord afflicted him in his intestines with an incurable disease. 19 This continued day after day until two full years passed. Then his intestines came out because of his disease, and he died from severe illnesses. But his people did not hold a fire in his honor like the fire in honor of his predecessors.

20 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king; he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He died to no one’s regret and was buried in the city of David but not in the tombs of the kings.

Revelation 9

THE FIFTH TRUMPET
The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. The key for the shaft to the abyss was given to him.
2 He opened the shaft to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great furnace so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then locusts came out of the smoke on to the earth, and power was given to them like the power that scorpions have on the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only those people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads. 5 They were not permitted to kill them but were to torment them for five months; their torment is like the torment caused by a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

7 The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. Something like golden crowns was on their heads; their faces were like human faces; 8 they had hair like women’s hair; their teeth were like lions’ teeth; 9 they had chests like iron breastplates; the sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariots with horses rushing into battle; 10 and they had tails with stingers like scorpions, so that with their tails they had the power to harm people for five months. 11 They had as their king the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

12 The first woe has passed. There are still two more woes to come after this.

THE SIXTH TRUMPET
13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet. From the four horns of the golden altar that is before God, I heard a voice 14 say to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels who were prepared for the hour, day, month, and year were released to kill a third of the human race. 16 The number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number. 17 This is how I saw the horses and their riders in the vision: They had breastplates that were fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and from their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur. 18 A third of the human race was killed by these three plagues ​— ​by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur that came from their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails, which resemble snakes, have heads that inflict injury.

20 The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

Zechariah 5

SIXTH VISION: FLYING SCROLL
Ilooked up again and saw a flying scroll.
2 “What do you see? ” he asked me.

“I see a flying scroll,” I replied, “thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.”

3 Then he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the whole land, for everyone who is a thief, contrary to what is written on one side, has gone unpunished, and everyone who swears falsely, contrary to what is written on the other side, has gone unpunished. 4 I will send it out,” ​— ​this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies ​— ​“and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by my name. It will stay inside his house and destroy it along with its timbers and stones.”

SEVENTH VISION: WOMAN IN THE BASKET
5 Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and told me, “Look up and see what this is that is approaching.”

6 So I asked, “What is it? ”

He responded, “It’s a measuring basket that is approaching.” And he continued, “This is their iniquity in all the land.” 7 Then a lead cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting inside the basket. 8 “This is Wickedness,” he said. He shoved her down into the basket and pushed the lead weight over its opening. 9 Then I looked up and saw two women approaching with the wind in their wings. Their wings were like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and sky.

10 So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the basket? ”

11 “To build a shrine for it in the land of Shinar,” he told me. “When that is ready, the basket will be placed there on its pedestal.”

Psalm 129

PROTECTION OF THE OPPRESSED
A song of ascents.

Since my youth they have often attacked me —
let Israel say —
2 since my youth they have often attacked me,
but they have not prevailed against me.
3 Plowmen plowed over my back;
they made their furrows long.
4 The Lord is righteous;
he has cut the ropes of the wicked.
5 Let all who hate Zion
be driven back in disgrace.
6 Let them be like grass on the rooftops,
which withers before it grows up
7 and can’t even fill the hands of the reaper
or the arms of the one who binds sheaves.
8 Then none who pass by will say,
“May the Lord’s blessing be on you.
We bless you in the name of the Lord.”

Psalm 130

AWAITING REDEMPTION
A song of ascents.

Out of the depths I call to you, Lord!
2 Lord, listen to my voice;
let your ears be attentive
to my cry for help.
3 Lord, if you kept an account of iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you may be revered.
5 I wait for the Lord; I wait
and put my hope in his word.
6 I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning —
more than watchmen for the morning.
7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord.
For there is faithful love with the Lord,
and with him is redemption in abundance.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.

Psalm 131

A CHILDLIKE SPIRIT
A song of ascents. Of David.

Lord, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I do not get involved with things
too great or too wondrous for me.
2 Instead, I have calmed and quieted my soul
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like a weaned child.
3 Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
both now and forever.

— 2 Chronicles 21, Revelation 9, Zechariah 5, Psalm 129-131 (CSB)