11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb
crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and
saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and
the other at the foot.
13 They
asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They
have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but
she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He
asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking
he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me
where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus
said to her, “Mary.”
She
turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus
said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go
instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your
Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary
Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she
told them that he had said these things to her.
Early
on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to
the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So
she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved,
and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where
they have put him!”
3 So
Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were
running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He
bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then
Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the
strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had
been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place,
separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had
reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They
still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then
the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Ahaz
was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen
years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the
Lord. 2 He
followed the ways of the kings of Israel and also made idols for worshiping the
Baals. 3 He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and
sacrificed his children in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of
the nations the Lord had driven
out before the Israelites. 4 He offered sacrifices and burned
incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.
5 Therefore
the Lord his God delivered him
into the hands of the king of Aram. The Arameans defeated him and took many of
his people as prisoners and brought them to Damascus.
He
was also given into the hands of the king of Israel, who inflicted heavy
casualties on him. 6 In one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed a
hundred and twenty thousand soldiers in Judah—because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors. 7 Zikri,
an Ephraimite warrior, killed Maaseiah the king’s son, Azrikam the officer in
charge of the palace, and Elkanah, second to the king. 8 The
men of Israel took captive from their fellow Israelites who were from Judah two
hundred thousand wives, sons and daughters. They also took a great deal of
plunder, which they carried back to Samaria.
9 But
a prophet of the Lord named Oded
was there, and he went out to meet the army when it returned to Samaria. He
said to them, “Because the Lord,
the God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand.
But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches to heaven. 10 And
now you intend to make the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves.
But aren’t you also guilty of sins against the Lord
your God? 11 Now listen to me! Send back your fellow Israelites
you have taken as prisoners, for the Lord’s
fierce anger rests on you.”
12 Then
some of the leaders in Ephraim—Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berekiah son of
Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai—confronted
those who were arriving from the war. 13 “You must not bring
those prisoners here,” they said, “or we will be guilty before the Lord. Do you intend to add to our sin
and guilt? For our guilt is already great, and his fierce anger rests on
Israel.”
14 So
the soldiers gave up the prisoners and plunder in the presence of the officials
and all the assembly. 15 The men designated by name took the
prisoners, and from the plunder they clothed all who were naked. They provided
them with clothes and sandals, food and drink, and healing balm. All those who
were weak they put on donkeys. So they took them back to their fellow
Israelites at Jericho, the City of Palms, and returned to Samaria.
16 At
that time King Ahaz sent to the kings[a] of Assyria
for help. 17 The Edomites had again come and attacked Judah and
carried away prisoners, 18 while the Philistines had raided
towns in the foothills and in the Negev of Judah. They captured and occupied
Beth Shemesh, Aijalon and Gederoth, as well as Soko, Timnah and Gimzo, with
their surrounding villages. 19 The Lord had humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel,[b] for he had
promoted wickedness in Judah and had been most unfaithful to the Lord. 20 Tiglath-Pileser[c] king of
Assyria came to him, but he gave him trouble instead of help. 21 Ahaz
took some of the things from the temple of the Lord
and from the royal palace and from the officials and presented them to the king
of Assyria, but that did not help him.
22 In
his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord. 23 He offered
sacrifices to the gods of Damascus, who had defeated him; for he thought,
“Since the gods of the kings of Aram have helped them, I will sacrifice to them
so they will help me.” But they were his downfall and the downfall of all
Israel.
24 Ahaz
gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and cut them in
pieces. He shut the doors of the Lord’s
temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. 25 In
every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and
aroused the anger of the Lord, the
God of his ancestors.
26 The
other events of his reign and all his ways, from beginning to end, are written
in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27 Ahaz rested
with his ancestors and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not
placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son succeeded him
as king.
