The Second Book of Chronicles, starting at chapter 34
{34:1} Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. {34:2} He did that which was
right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in the ways of David his
father, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left. {34:3}
For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began
to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he
began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the
Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images. {34:4} They
broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the incense
altars that were on high above them he cut down; and the Asherim, and
the engraved images, and the molten images, he broke in pieces, and
made dust of them, and strewed it on the graves [of those] who had
sacrificed to them. {34:5} He burnt the bones of the priests on their
altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem. {34:6} [So did he] in the
cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even to Naphtali, around in
their ruins. {34:7} He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and
the engraved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars
throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem. {34:8}
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land
and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the
governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to
repair the house of Yahweh his God. {34:9} They came to Hilkiah the
high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house
of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered
of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel,
and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
{34:10} They delivered it into the hand of the workmen who had the
oversight of the house of Yahweh; and the workmen who labored in the
house of Yahweh gave it to mend and repair the house; {34:11} even to
the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy cut stone, and
timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings
of Judah had destroyed. {34:12} The men did the work faithfully: and
the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the
sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the
Kohathites, to set it forward; and [others of] the Levites, all who
were skillful with instruments of music. {34:13} Also they were over
the bearers of burdens, and set forward all who did the work in every
manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and
officers, and porters. {34:14} When they brought out the money that
was brought into the house of Yahweh, Hilkiah the priest found the
book of the law of Yahweh [given] by Moses. {34:15} Hilkiah answered
Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of
Yahweh. Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. {34:16} Shaphan carried
the book to the king, and moreover brought back word to the king,
saying, All that was committed to your servants, they are doing.
{34:17} They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of
Yahweh, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into
the hand of the workmen. {34:18} Shaphan the scribe told the king,
saying, Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book. Shaphan read
therein before the king. {34:19} It happened, when the king had heard
the words of the law, that he tore his clothes. {34:20} The king
commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of
Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,
{34:21} Go inquire of Yahweh for me, and for those who are left in
Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found;
for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is poured out on us, because our
fathers have not kept the word of Yahweh, to do according to all that
is written in this book. {34:22} So Hilkiah, and they whom the king
[had commanded], went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum
the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now
she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter;) and they spoke to her
to that effect. {34:23} She said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of
Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me, {34:24} Thus says Yahweh,
Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on its inhabitants, even
all the curses that are written in the book which they have read
before the king of Judah. {34:25} Because they have forsaken me, and
have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger
with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out on
this place, and it shall not be quenched. {34:26} 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: As touching the words which you
have heard, {34:27} because your heart was tender, and you humbled
yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and
against its inhabitants, and have humbled yourself before me, and have
torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you, says
Yahweh. {34:28} 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 that I will bring on this place, and on its inhabitants.
They brought back word to the king. {34:29} Then the king sent and
gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. {34:30} The
king went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the men of Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all
the people, both great and small: and he read in their ears all the
words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of
Yahweh. {34:31} The king stood in his place, 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 with all
his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in
this book. {34:32} He caused all who were found in Jerusalem and
Benjamin to stand [to it]. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did according
to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. {34:33} Josiah took
away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to
the children of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to
serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they didn't depart
from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.
{35:1} Josiah kept a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem: and they
killed the Passover on the fourteenth [day] of the first month. {35:2}
He set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the
service of the house of Yahweh. {35:3} He said to the Levites who
taught all Israel, who were holy to Yahweh, Put the holy ark in the
house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; there
shall no more be a burden on your shoulders: now serve Yahweh your
God, and his people Israel. {35:4} Prepare yourselves after your
fathers' houses by your divisions, according to the writing of David
king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.
{35:5} Stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the
fathers' houses of your brothers the children of the people, and [let
there be for each] a portion of a fathers' house of the Levites.
{35:6} Kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for
your brothers, to do according to the word of Yahweh by Moses. {35:7}
Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and
young goats, all of them for the Passover offerings, to all who were
present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls:
these were of the king's substance. {35:8} His princes gave for a
freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites.
Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave
to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand and six hundred
[small livestock], and three hundred head of cattle. {35:9} Conaniah
also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel
and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the
Passover offerings five thousand [small livestock], and five hundred
head of cattle. {35:10} So the service was prepared, and the priests
stood in their place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to
the king's commandment. {35:11} They killed the Passover, and the
priests sprinkled [the blood which they received] of their hand, and
the Levites flayed them. {35:12} They removed the burnt offerings,
that they might give them according to the divisions of the fathers'
houses of the children of the people, to offer to Yahweh, as it is
written in the book of Moses. So did they with the cattle. {35:13}
They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance: and
the holy offerings boiled they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans,
and carried them quickly to all the children of the people. {35:14}
Afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests, because
the priests the sons of Aaron [were busied] in offering the burnt
offerings and the fat until night: therefore the Levites prepared for
themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron. {35:15} The singers
the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of
David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the
porters were at every gate: they didn't need to depart from their
service; for their brothers the Levites prepared for them. {35:16} So
all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to keep the
Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of Yahweh,
according to the commandment of king Josiah. {35:17} The children of
Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the feast
of unleavened bread seven days. {35:18} There was no Passover like
that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did
any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and
the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were
present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. {35:19} In the eighteenth
year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept. {35:20} After all
this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up
to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out
against him. {35:21} But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have
I to do with you, you king of Judah? [I come] not against you this
day, but against the house with which I have war; and God has
commanded me to make haste: beware that it is God who is with me, that
he not destroy you. {35:22} Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his
face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him,
and didn't listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came
to fight in the valley of Megiddo. {35:23} The archers shot at king
Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore
wounded. {35:24} So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put
him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem;
and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and
Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. {35:25} Jeremiah lamented for Josiah:
and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their
lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel:
and behold, they are written in the lamentations. {35:26} Now the rest
of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is
written in the law of Yahweh, {35:27} and his acts, first and last,
behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
{36:1} Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah,
and made him king in his father's place in Jerusalem. {36:2} Joahaz
was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned
three months in Jerusalem. {36:3} The king of Egypt deposed him at
Jerusalem, and fined the land one hundred talents of silver and a
talent of gold. {36:4} The king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king
over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took
Joahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt. {36:5} Jehoiakim was
Twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven
years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of
Yahweh his God. {36:6} Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon. {36:7}
Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of Yahweh to
Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon. {36:8} Now the rest of
the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that
which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the
kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his
place. {36:9} Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign;
and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that
which was evil in the sight of Yahweh. {36:10} At the return of the
year king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the
goodly vessels of the house of Yahweh, and made Zedekiah his brother
king over Judah and Jerusalem. {36:11} Zedekiah was twenty-one years
old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem:
{36:12} and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God;
he didn't humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet [speaking] from
the mouth of Yahweh. {36:13} He also rebelled against king
Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his
neck, and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of
Israel. {36:14} Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the
people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the
nations; and they polluted the house of Yahweh which he had made holy
in Jerusalem. {36:15} Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them
by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had
compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: {36:16} but they
mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at
his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people,
until there was no remedy. {36:17} Therefore he brought on them the
king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in
the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or
virgin, old man or gray-headed: he gave them all into his hand.
{36:18} All the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the
treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king, and
of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. {36:19} They burnt
the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all
its palaces with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels of it.
{36:20} He carried those who had escaped from the sword away to
Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of
the kingdom of Persia: {36:21} to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the
mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths: [for] as
long as it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
{36:22} Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word
of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Yahweh
stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a
proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and [put it] also in writing,
saying, {36:23} Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of
the earth has Yahweh, the God of heaven, given me; and he has
commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever there is among you of all his people, Yahweh his God be with
him, and let him go up.
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