2 Chron. 24:20–27

24:20 God’s Spirit energized Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why are you violating the commands of the Lord? You will not be prosperous. Because you have rejected the Lord, he has rejected you!’” 21They plotted against him and by royal decree stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. 22King Joash disregarded the loyalty Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him and killed Jehoiada’s son. As Zechariah was dying, he said, “May the Lord take notice and seek vengeance!”

23At the beginning of the year the Syrian army attacked Joash and invaded Judah and Jerusalem. They wiped out all the leaders of the people and sent all the plunder they gathered to the king of Damascus. 24Even though the invading Syrian army was relatively weak, the Lord handed over to them Judah’s very large army, for the people of Judah had abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors. The Syrians gave Joash what he deserved. 25When they withdrew, they left Joash badly wounded. His servants plotted against him because of what he had done to the son of Jehoiada the priest. They murdered him on his bed. Thus he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. 26The conspirators were Zabad son of Shimeath (an Ammonite woman) and Jehozabad son of Shimrith (a Moabite woman).

27The list of Joash’s sons, the many prophetic oracles about him, and the account of his building project on God’s temple are included in the record of the Scroll of the Kings. His son Amaziah replaced him as king.

Ps. 94

94:1 O Lord, the God who avenges!

O God who avenges, reveal your splendor.

2Rise up, O judge of the earth.

Pay back the proud.

3O Lord, how long will the wicked,

how long will the wicked celebrate?

4They spew out threats and speak defiantly;

all the evildoers boast.

5O Lord, they crush your people;

they oppress the nation that belongs to you.

6They kill the widow and the resident foreigner,

and they murder the fatherless.

7Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;

the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.”

8Take notice of this, you ignorant people.

You fools, when will you ever understand?

9Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see?

10Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?

He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!

11The Lord knows that peoples’ thoughts

are morally bankrupt.

12How blessed is the one whom you instruct, O Lord,

the one whom you teach from your law

13in order to protect him from times of trouble,

until the wicked are destroyed.

14Certainly the Lord does not forsake his people;

he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him.

15For justice will prevail,

and all the morally upright will be vindicated.

16Who will rise up to defend me against the wicked?

Who will stand up for me against the evildoers?

17If the Lord had not helped me,

I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.

18If I say, “My foot is slipping,”

your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.

19When worries threaten to overwhelm me,

your soothing touch makes me happy.

20Cruel rulers are not your allies,

those who make oppressive laws.

21They conspire against the blameless

and condemn to death the innocent.

22But the Lord will protect me,

and my God will shelter me.

23He will pay them back for their sin.

He will destroy them because of their evil;

the Lord our God will destroy them.

Luke 11:27–36

11:27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd spoke out to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28But he replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”

29As the crowds were increasing, Jesus began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it looks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. 30For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation. 31The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon—and now, something greater than Solomon is here! 32The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented when Jonah preached to them—and now, something greater than Jonah is here!

33“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a hidden place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who come in can see the light. 34Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is diseased, your body is full of darkness. 35Therefore see to it that the light in you is not darkness. 36If then your whole body is full of light, with no part in the dark, it will be as full of light as when the light of a lamp shines on you.”