24

Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned.

He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.

For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.

The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face.

The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.

Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.

They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;

They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.

They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.

They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.

They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.

Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.

They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.

They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow"s ox for a pledge.

Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.

Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him, and the repairing of the house of God, behold, they are written in the story of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

And these are they that conspired against him; Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabitess.

And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases,) his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings.

For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and the LORD delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. So they executed judgment against Joash.

And it came to pass at the end of the year, that the host of Syria came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus.

Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it.

And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.

And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you.

Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.

And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.

Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.