The Second Book of Kings, starting at chapter 10
{10:1} Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters,
and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to
those who brought up [the sons of] Ahab, saying, {10:2} Now as soon as
this letter comes to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and
there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and
armor; {10:3} look you out the best and meet of your master's sons,
and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house.
{10:4} But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, the two
kings didn't stand before him: how then shall we stand? {10:5} He who
was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also,
and those who brought up [the children], sent to Jehu, saying, We are
your servants, and will do all that you shall bid us; we will not make
any man king: you do that which is good in your eyes. {10:6} Then he
wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If you be on my side,
and if you will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men your
master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time. Now
the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the
city, who brought them up. {10:7} It happened, when the letter came to
them, that they took the king's sons, and killed them, even seventy
persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to
Jezreel. {10:8} There came a messenger, and told him, saying, They
have brought the heads of the king's sons. He said, Lay you them in
two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning. {10:9} It
happened in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all
the people, You are righteous: behold, I conspired against my master,
and killed him; but who struck all these? {10:10} Know now that there
shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of Yahweh, which Yahweh
spoke concerning the house of Ahab: for Yahweh has done that which he
spoke by his servant Elijah. {10:11} So Jehu struck all that remained
of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his
familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.
{10:12} He arose and departed, and went to Samaria. As he was at the
shearing house of the shepherds in the way, {10:13} Jehu met with the
brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are you? They
answered, We are the brothers of Ahaziah: and we go down to Greet the
children of the king and the children of the queen. {10:14} He said,
Take them alive. They took them alive, and killed them at the pit of
the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any of
them. {10:15} When he was departed there, he lighted on Jehonadab the
son of Rechab coming to meet him; and he greeted him, and said to him,
Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart? Jehonadab
answered, It is. If it be, give me your hand. He gave him his hand;
and he took him up to him into the chariot. {10:16} He said, Come with
me, and see my zeal for Yahweh. So they made him ride in his chariot.
{10:17} When he came to Samaria, he struck all who remained to Ahab in
Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of Yahweh,
which he spoke to Elijah. {10:18} Jehu gathered all the people
together, and said to them, Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will
serve him much. {10:19} Now therefore call to me all the prophets of
Baal, all his worshippers, and all his priests; let none be wanting:
for I have a great sacrifice [to do] to Baal; whoever shall be
wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtlety, to the intent
that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal. {10:20} Jehu said,
Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal. They proclaimed it. {10:21} Jehu
sent through all Israel: and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that
there was not a man left that didn't come. They came into the house of
Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one end to another.
{10:22} He said to him who was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments
for all the worshippers of Baal. He brought them forth vestments.
{10:23} Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of
Baal; and he said to the worshippers of Baal, Search, and look that
there be here with you none of the servants of Yahweh, but the
worshippers of Baal only. {10:24} They went in to offer sacrifices and
burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed him eighty men outside, and
said, If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, [he who
lets him go], his life shall be for the life of him. {10:25} It
happened, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt
offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and
kill them; let none come forth. They struck them with the edge of the
sword; and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went to the
city of the house of Baal. {10:26} They brought forth the pillars that
were in the house of Baal, and burned them. {10:27} They broke down
the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a
latrine, to this day. {10:28} Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.
{10:29} However from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which
he made Israel to sin, Jehu didn't depart from after them, [to wit],
the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan. {10:30}
Yahweh said to Jehu, Because you have done well in executing that
which is right in my eyes, [and] have done to the house of Ahab
according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth
generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. {10:31} But Jehu took no
heed to walk in the law of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with all his
heart: he didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam, with which he made
Israel to sin. {10:32} In those days Yahweh began to cut off from
Israel: and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel; {10:33}
from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the
Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of
the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. {10:34} Now the rest of the acts of
Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, aren't they written in
the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? {10:35} Jehu slept
with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria. Jehoahaz his son
reigned in his place. {10:36} The time that Jehu reigned over Israel
in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
{11:1} Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was
dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. {11:2} But
Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash
the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who
were slain, even him and his nurse, [and put them] in the bedchamber;
and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain; {11:3} He
was with her hid in the house of Yahweh six years. Athaliah reigned
over the land. {11:4} In the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched
the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and
brought them to him into the house of Yahweh; and he made a covenant
with them, and took an oath of them in the house of Yahweh, and shown
them the king's son. {11:5} He commanded them, saying, This is the
thing that you shall do: a third part of you, who come in on the
Sabbath, shall be keepers of the watch of the king's house; {11:6} A
third part shall be at the gate Sur; and a third part at the gate
behind the guard: so shall you keep the watch of the house, and be a
barrier. {11:7} The two companies of you, even all who go forth on the
Sabbath, shall keep the watch of the house of Yahweh about the king.
{11:8} You shall compass the king round about, every man with his
weapons in his hand; and he who comes within the ranks, let him be
slain: and be you with the king when he goes out, and when he comes
in. {11:9} The captains over hundreds did according to all that
Jehoiada the priest commanded; and they took every man his men, those
who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on
the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. {11:10} The priest
delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that
had been king David's, which were in the house of Yahweh. {11:11} The
guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right
side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar
and the house, by the king round about. {11:12} Then he brought out
the king's son, and put the crown on him, and [gave him] the
testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped
their hands, and said, [Long] live the king. {11:13} When Athaliah
heard the noise of the guard [and of] the people, she came to the
people into the house of Yahweh: {11:14} and she looked, and behold,
the king stood by the pillar, as the manner was, and the captains and
the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and
blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, Treason!
treason! {11:15} Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of
hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, Have her forth
between the ranks; and him who follows her kill with the sword. For
the priest said, Don't let her be slain in the house of Yahweh.
{11:16} So they made way for her; and she went by the way of the
horses' entry to the king's house: and there was she slain. {11:17}
Jehoiada made a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people,
that they should be Yahweh's people; between the king also and the
people. {11:18} All the people of the land went to the house of Baal,
and broke it down; his altars and his images broke they in pieces
thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.
The priest appointed officers over the house of Yahweh. {11:19} He
took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and
all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the
house of Yahweh, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the
king's house. He sat on the throne of the kings. {11:20} So all the
people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. Athaliah they had
slain with the sword at the king's house. {11:21} Jehoash was seven
years old when he began to reign.
{12:1} In the seventh year of Jehu began Jehoash to reign; and he
reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah of
Beersheba. {12:2} Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of
Yahweh all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
{12:3} However the high places were not taken away; the people still
sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. {12:4} Jehoash said
to the priests, All the money of the holy things that is brought into
the house of Yahweh, in current money, the money of the persons for
whom each man is rated, and all the money that it comes into any man's
heart to bring into the house of Yahweh, {12:5} let the priests take
it to them, every man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the
breaches of the house, wherever any breach shall be found. {12:6} But
it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the
priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. {12:7} Then king
Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the [other] priests,
and said to them, Why don't you repair the breaches of the house? now
therefore take no [more] money from your acquaintance, but deliver it
for the breaches of the house. {12:8} The priests consented that they
should take no [more] money from the people, neither repair the
breaches of the house. {12:9} But Jehoiada the priest took a chest,
and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the
right side as one comes into the house of Yahweh: and the priests who
kept the threshold put therein all the money that was brought into the
house of Yahweh. {12:10} It was so, when they saw that there was much
money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came
up, and they put up in bags and counted the money that was found in
the house of Yahweh. {12:11} They gave the money that was weighed out
into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the
house of Yahweh: and they paid it out to the carpenters and the
builders, who worked on the house of Yahweh, {12:12} and to the masons
and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair
the breaches of the house of Yahweh, and for all that was laid out for
the house to repair it. {12:13} But there were not made for the house
of Yahweh cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of
gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the
house of Yahweh; {12:14} for they gave that to those who did the work,
and repaired therewith the house of Yahweh. {12:15} Moreover they
didn't demand an accounting from the men into whose hand they
delivered the money to give to those who did the work; for they dealt
faithfully. {12:16} The money for the trespass offerings, and the
money for the sin offerings, was not brought into the house of Yahweh:
it was the priests'. {12:17} Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and
fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to
Jerusalem. {12:18} Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy things that
Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had
dedicated, and his own holy things, and all the gold that was found in
the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and of the king's house, and
sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem.
{12:19} Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, aren't
they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
{12:20} His servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and struck Joash at
the house of Millo, [on the way] that goes down to Silla. {12:21} For
Jozacar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his
servants, struck him, and he died; and they buried him with his
fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his place.
___
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