The Second Book of Kings, starting at chapter 22
{22:1} Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was
Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. {22:2} He did that which
was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in all the way of David
his father, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
{22:3} It happened in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the
king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the
scribe, to the house of Yahweh, saying, {22:4} "Go up to Hilkiah the
high priest, that he may sum the money which is brought into the house
of Yahweh, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered of the
people. {22:5} Let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen who
have the oversight of the house of Yahweh; and let them give it to the
workmen who are in the house of Yahweh, to repair the breaches of the
house, {22:6} to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the
masons, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the house.
{22:7} However there was no accounting made with them of the money
that was delivered into their hand; for they dealt faithfully."
{22:8} Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have
found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh." Hilkiah delivered
the book to Shaphan, and he read it. {22:9} Shaphan the scribe came to
the king, and brought the king word again, and said, "Your servants
have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have
delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of
the house of Yahweh." {22:10} Shaphan the scribe told the king,
saying, "Hilkiah the priest has delivered a book to me." Shaphan read
it before the king. {22:11} It happened, when the king had heard the
words of the book of the law, that he tore his clothes. {22:12} The
king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and
Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the
king's servant, saying, {22:13} "Go inquire of Yahweh for me, and for
the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that
is found; for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us,
because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do
according to all that which is written concerning us."
{22:14} So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan,
and Asaiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son
of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in
Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they talked with her. {22:15}
She said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Tell the man
who sent you to me, {22:16} "Thus says Yahweh, 'Behold, I will bring
evil on this place, and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the
book which the king of Judah has read. {22:17} Because they have
forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might
provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my
wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it shall not be
quenched.'" {22:18} But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire
of Yahweh, thus you shall tell him, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of
Israel: 'Concerning the words which you have heard, {22:19} because
your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh, when
you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its
inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and
have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you,'
says Yahweh. {22:20} 'Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your
fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither
shall your eyes see all the evil which I will bring on this place.'"'"
They brought back this message to the king.
{23:1} The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of
Judah and of Jerusalem. {23:2} The king went up to the house of
Yahweh, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both
small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book
of the covenant which was found in the house of Yahweh. {23:3} The
king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk
after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and
his statutes, with all [his] heart, and all [his] soul, to confirm the
words of this covenant that were written in this book: and all the
people stood to the covenant. {23:4} The king commanded Hilkiah the
high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of
the threshold, to bring forth out of the temple of Yahweh all the
vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the
army of the sky, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields
of the Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel. {23:5} He put
down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to
burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the
places around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the
sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the army of the
sky. {23:6} He brought out the Asherah from the house of Yahweh,
outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook
Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust on the graves of the
common people. {23:7} He broke down the houses of the sodomites, that
were in the house of Yahweh, where the women wove hangings for the
Asherah. {23:8} He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah,
and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from
Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates that
were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city,
which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. {23:9}
Nevertheless the priests of the high places didn't come up to the
altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among
their brothers. {23:10} He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of
the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter
to pass through the fire to Molech. {23:11} He took away the horses
that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the
house of Yahweh, by the chamber of Nathan Melech the officer, who was
in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. {23:12}
The altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which
the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in
the two courts of the house of Yahweh, did the king break down, and
beat [them] down from there, and cast the dust of them into the brook
Kidron. {23:13} The high places that were before Jerusalem, which were
on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon the
king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the
Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the
abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. {23:14} He
broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled
their places with the bones of men. {23:15} Moreover the altar that
was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who
made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he
broke down; and he burned the high place and beat it to dust, and
burned the Asherah. {23:16} As Josiah turned himself, he spied the
tombs that were there in the mountain; and he sent, and took the bones
out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it,
according to the word of Yahweh which the man of God proclaimed, who
proclaimed these things. {23:17} Then he said, "What monument is that
which I see?"
The men of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God, who
came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done
against the altar of Bethel."
{23:18} He said, "Let him be! Let no man move his bones." So they
let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of
Samaria. {23:19} All the houses also of the high places that were in
the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke
[Yahweh] to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all
the acts that he had done in Bethel. {23:20} He killed all the priests
of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned men's
bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem. {23:21} The king
commanded all the people, saying, "Keep the Passover to Yahweh your
God, as it is written in this book of the covenant." {23:22} Surely
there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who
judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the
kings of Judah; {23:23} but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was
this Passover kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem. {23:24} Moreover those who
had familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the
idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah
and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might confirm the words
of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest
found in the house of Yahweh. {23:25} Like him was there no king
before him, who turned to Yahweh with all his heart, and with all his
soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses;
neither after him arose there any like him. {23:26} Notwithstanding,
Yahweh didn't turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which
his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocation
with which Manasseh had provoked him. {23:27} Yahweh said, "I will
remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I
will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the
house of which I said, 'My name shall be there.'"
{23:28} Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did,
aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of
Judah? {23:29} In his days Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt went up against
the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went
against him; and [Pharaoh Necoh] killed him at Megiddo, when he had
seen him. {23:30} His servants carried him in a chariot dead from
Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb.
The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed
him, and made him king in his father's place. {23:31} Jehoahaz was
twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three
months in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of
Jeremiah of Libnah. {23:32} He did that which was evil in the sight of
Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done. {23:33} Pharaoh
Necoh put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might
not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of one hundred
talents of silver, and a talent of gold. {23:34} Pharaoh Necoh made
Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and
changed his name to Jehoiakim: but he took Jehoahaz away; and he came
to Egypt, and died there. {23:35} Jehoiakim gave the silver and the
gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to
the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the
people of the land, of everyone according to his taxation, to give it
to Pharaoh Necoh. {23:36} Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he
began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his
mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. {23:37} He
did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that
his fathers had done.
{24:1} In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and
Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled
against him. {24:2} Yahweh sent against him bands of the Chaldeans,
and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the
children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it,
according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servants the
prophets. {24:3} Surely at the commandment of Yahweh came this on
Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh,
according to all that he did, {24:4} and also for the innocent blood
that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood: and Yahweh
would not pardon. {24:5} Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and
all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of
the kings of Judah? {24:6} So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers; and
Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place. {24:7} The king of Egypt
didn't come again out of his land any more; for the king of Babylon
had taken, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that
pertained to the king of Egypt. {24:8} Jehoiachin was eighteen years
old when he began to reign; and he reigned in Jerusalem three months:
and his mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of
Jerusalem. {24:9} He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh,
according to all that his father had done. {24:10} At that time the
servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and
the city was besieged. {24:11} Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to
the city, while his servants were besieging it; {24:12} and Jehoiachin
the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother,
and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of
Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. {24:13} He carried
out there all the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures
of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which
Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of Yahweh, as Yahweh had
said. {24:14} He carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and
all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the
craftsmen and the smiths; none remained, save the poorest sort of the
people of the land. {24:15} He carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon; and
the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the
chief men of the land, carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to
Babylon. {24:16} All the men of might, even seven thousand, and the
craftsmen and the smiths one thousand, all of them strong and apt for
war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon. {24:17}
The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, [Jehoiachin's] father's brother,
king is his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah. {24:18} Zedekiah
was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven
years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of
Jeremiah of Libnah. {24:19} He did that which was evil in the sight of
Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. {24:20} For through
the anger of Yahweh did it happen in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had
cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of
Babylon.
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