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, since your master's sons are with you,
and there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and
armor. {10:3} Select the best and fittest of your master's sons, 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 raised the children, sent to Jehu, saying, "We are your
servants, and will do all that you ask 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 are 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} A messenger came, and told him, "They have brought
the heads of the king's sons."
He said, "Lay 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 nothing shall fall to the earth 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, with all his great men, 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 on 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. We are going 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 forty-two men. He didn't leave any of them. {10:15} When
he had departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming
to meet him. He greeted him, and said to him, "Is your heart right, as
my heart is with your heart?"
Jehonadab answered, "It is."
"If it is, 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
of his worshippers, and all of his priests. Let none be absent; for I
have a great sacrifice to Baal. Whoever is absent, he shall not live."
But Jehu did it in subtlety, intending 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 out robes for all the worshippers of Baal!"
He brought robes out to them. {10:23} Jehu went with Jehonadab the
son of Rechab into the house of Baal. Then he said to the worshippers
of Baal, "Search, and look that there are 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 escape." 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 out 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 showed
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 you shall keep the watch of the house, and be a
barrier. {11:7} The two companies of you, even all who go out on the
Sabbath, shall keep the watch of the house of Yahweh around the king.
{11:8} You shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his
hand; and he who comes within the ranks, let him be slain. be 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, around the king. {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, "Bring her out between the
ranks. Kill him who follows her 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. She was slain there. {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 treasurers, 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 its lid, 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 cut 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.
________________________________________________________________________
The World English Bible is dedicated to the Public Domain by the
translators and editors. It is not copyrighted. "World English Bible"
and the World English Bible logo are a trademarks of Rainbow Missions,
Inc. They may only be used to identify this translation of the Holy
Bible as published by Rainbow Missions, Inc., and faithful copies and
quotations. "Faithful copies" include copies converted to other formats
(i. e. HTML, PDF, etc.) or typeset differently, without altering the
text of the Scriptures. Use of the markings of direct quotes of Jesus
Christ for different rendition (i. e. red text) is optional. Comments
and typo reports are welcome at http://eBible.org/cgi-bin/comment.cgi.
Please see http://WEBible.org/ for updates, revision status, free
downloads, and printed edition purchase information.
___
To cancel this free email subscription, please send
email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
unsubscribe bible
in the body of the message OR use the form at http://ebible.org/subscribe.htm
