Bible in a Year.

On day 164, 1 Kings 14 shows how the kings' choices affect the nation and their spiritual consequences. 2 Chronicles 14-15 highlights Asa's reforms and his trust in God, offering lessons of faithfulness and leadership. Song of Solomon 3 continues to explore human love as a reflection of the divine, encouraging joy, desire, and the contemplation of beauty in relationships.

1. At that time Abia the son of Jeroboam fell sick.

2. And Jeroboam said to his wife: Arise, and change thy dress, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Silo, where Ahias the prophet is, who told me, that I should reign over this people.

3. Take also with thee ten leaves, and cracknels, and a pot of honey, and go to him: for he will tell thee what shall become of this child.

4. Jeroboam's wife did as he told her: and rising up went to Silo, and came to the house of Ahias: but he could not see, for his eyes were dim by reason of his age.

5. And the Lord said to Ahias: Behold the wife of Jeroboam cometh in, to consult thee concerning her son that is sick: thus and thus shalt thou speak to her. So when she was coming in, and made as if she were another woman,

6. Ahias heard the sound of her feet coming in at the door, and said: Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam: why dost thou feign thyself to be another? But I am sent to thee with heavy tidings.

7. Go, and tell Jeroboam: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel:

8. And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to thee, and thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and followed me with all his heart, doing that which was well pleasing in my sight:

9. But hast done evil above all that were before thee, and hast made thee strange gods and molten gods, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back:

10. Therefore behold I will bring evils upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut of from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up, and the last in Israel: and I will sweep away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as dung is swept away till all be clean.

11. Them that shall die of Jeroboam in the city, the dogs shall eat: and them that shall die in the field, the birds of the air shall devour: for the Lord hath spoken it.

12. Arise thou therefore, and go to thy house: and when thy feet shall be entering into the city, the child shall die,

13. And all Israel shall mourn for him, and shall bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall be laid in a sepulchre, be- cause in his regard there is found a good word from the Lord the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.

14. And the Lord hath appointed himself a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam in this day, and in this time:

15. And the Lord God shall strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water: and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river: because they have made to themselves groves, to provoke the Lord.

16. And the Lord shall give up Israel for the sins of Jeroboam, who hath sinned, and made Israel to sin.

17. And the wife of Jeroboam arose, and departed, and came to Thersa: and when she was coming in to the threshold of the house, the child died;

18. And they buried him. And all Israel mourned for him according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by the hand of his servant Ahias the prophet.

19. And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he fought, and how he reigned, behold they are written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Israel.

20. And the days that Jeroboam reigned, were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers: and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.

21. And Roboam the son of Solomon reigned in Juda: Roboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem the city, which the Lord chose out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. And his mother's name wee Naama an Ammonitess.

22. And Juda did evil in the sight of the Lord, and provoked him above all that their fathers had done, in their sins which they committed.

23. For they also built them altars, and statues, and groves upon every high hill and under every green tree:

24. There were also the effeminate in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the people whom the Lord had destroyed before the face of the children of Israel.

25. And in the fifth year of the reign of Roboam, Sesac king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.

26. And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the king's treasures, and carried all off: as also the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

27. And Roboam made shields of brass instead of them, and delivered them into the. hand of the captains of the shieldbearers, and of them that kept watch before the gate of the king's house.

28. And when the king went into the house of the Lord, they whose office it was to go before him, carried them: and afterwards they brought them back to the armoury of the shieldbearers.

29. Now the rest of the sets of Roboam, end all that he did, behold they are written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda.

30. And there was war between Roboam and Jeroboam always.

31. And Roboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with them in the city of David: and his mother's name was Naama an Ammonitess: and Abiam his son reigned in his stead.

Chapter 14

1. And Abia slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead: in his days the land was quiet ten years.

2. And Asa did that which was good and pleasing in the sight of his God, and he destroyed the altars of foreign worship, and the high places.

3. And broke the statues, and cut down the groves.

4. And he commanded Juda to seek the Lord the God of their fathers, and to do the law, and all the commandments.

5. And he took away out of all the cities of Juda the altars, and temples, and reigned in peace.

6. He built also strong cities in Juda, for he was quiet, and there had no wars risen in his time, the Lord giving peace.

7. And he said to Juda: Let us build these cities, and compass them with walls, and fortify them with towers, and gates, and bars, while all is quiet from wars, because we have sought the Lord the God of our fathers, and he hath given us peace round about. So they built, and there was no hinderance in building.

8. And Asa had in his army of men that bore shields and spears of Juda three hundred thousand, and of Benjamin that bore shields and drew bows, two hundred and eighty thousand, all these were most valiant men.

9. And Zara the Ethiopian came out against them with his army of ten hundred thousand men, and with three hundred chariots: and he came as far as Maresa.

10. And Asa went out to meet him, and set his army in array for battle in the vale of Sephata, which is near Maresa:

11. And he called upon the Lord God, and said: O Lord, there is no difference with thee, whether thou help with few, or with many: help us, O Lord our God: for with confidence in thee, and in thy name, we are come against this multitude. O Lord thou art our God, let not man prevail against thee.

12. And the Lord terrified the Ethiopians before Asa and Juda: and the Ethiopians fled.

13. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them to Gerara: and the Ethiopians fell even to utter destruction, for the Lord slew them, and his army fought against them, and they were destroyed. And they took abundance of spoils,

14. And they took all the cities round about Gerara: for a great fear was come upon all men: and they pillaged the cities, and carried off much booty.

15. And they destroyed the sheepcotes, and took an infinite number of cattle, and of camels: and returned to Jerusalem.

Chapter 15

1. And the spirit of God came upon Azarias the son of Oded,

2. And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: Hear ye me, Asa, and all Juda and Benjamin: The Lord is with you, because you have been with him. If you seek him, you shall find: but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

3. And many days shall pass in Israel without the true God, and without a priest a teacher, and without the law.

4. And when in their distress they shall return to the Lord the God of Israel, and shall seek him, they shall find him.

5. At that time there shall be no peace to him that goeth out and cometh in, but terrors on every side among all the inhabitants of the earth.

6. For nation shall fight against nation, and city against city, for the Lord will trouble them with all distress.

7. Do you therefore take courage, and let not your hands he weakened: for there shall be a reward for your work.

8. And when Asa had heard the words, and the prophecy of Azarias the son of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and took away the idols out of all the land of Juda, and out of Benjamin, and out of the cities of mount Ephraim, which he had taken, and he dedicated the altar of the Lord, which was before the porch of the Lord.

9. And he gathered together all Juda and Benjamin, and the strangers with them of Ephraim, and Manasses, and Simeon: for many were come over to him out of Israel, seeing that the Lord his God was with him.

10. And when they were come to Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa,

11. They sacrificed to the Lord in that day of the spoils, and of the prey, that they had brought, seven hundred oxen, and seven thousand rams.

12. And he went in to confirm as usual the covenant, that they should seek the Lord the God of their fathers with all their heart, and with all their soul.

13. And if any one, said he, seek not the Lord the God of Israel, let him die, whether little or great, man or woman.

14. And they swore to the Lord with a loud voice with joyful shouting, and with sound of trumpet, and sound of comets,

15. All that mere in Juda with a curse: for with all their heart they swore, and with all their will they sought him, and they found him, and the Lord gave them rest round about.

16. Moreover Maacha the mother of king Asa he deposed from the royal authority, because she had made in a grove an idol of Priapus: and he entirely destroyed it, and breaking it into pieces, burnt it at the torrent Cedron.

17. But high places were left in Israel: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.

18. And the things which his father had vowed, and he himself had vowed, he brought into the house of the Lord, gold and silver, and vessels of divers uses.

19. And there was no war unto the five and thirtieth year of the kingdom of Asa.

1. In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and found him not.

2. I will rise, and will go about the city: in the streets and the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, and I found him not.

3. The watchmen who keep the city, found me: Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?

4. When I had a little passed by them, I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that bore me.

5. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up, nor awake my beloved, till she please.

6. Who is she that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?

7. Behold threescore valiant ones of the most valiant of Israel, surrounded the bed of Solomon?

8. All holding swords, and most expert in war : every man's sword upon his thigh, because of fears in the night.

9. King Solomon hath made him a litter of the wood of Libanus:

10. The pillars thereof he made of silver, the seat of gold, the going up of purple : the midst he covered with charity for the daughters of Jerusalem.

11. Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon in the diadem, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the joy of his heart.