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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 the LORD, 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 the LORD, saying, {22:4} "Go up to Hilkiah the
high priest, that he may sum the money which is brought into the house
of the LORD, 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 the LORD; and let them give it to
the workmen who are in the house of the LORD, 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 scroll of the Torah in the house of the LORD." 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 the LORD." {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 scroll of the Torah, 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 the LORD
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 the LORD 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 the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Tell the
man who sent you to me, {22:16} "Thus says the LORD, '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 the LORD, thus you shall tell him, "Thus says the LORD, the God of
Israel: 'Concerning the words which you have heard, {22:19} because
your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, 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 the LORD. {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 the
LORD, 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 the LORD. {23:3} The
king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk
after the LORD, 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 LORD's temple 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 their ashes 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 the LORD, 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 the LORD, 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 the LORD 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 the LORD, by the room of Nathan Melech the officer, who was
in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. {23:12}
The king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper room
of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which
Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, and beat
them down from there, and cast their dust into the brook Kidron.
{23:13} The the king defiled 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. {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 the LORD 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
the LORD 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 the LORD 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 the LORD in Jerusalem. {23:24} Moreover Josiah
removed 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, that he might confirm the words of
the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found
in the house of the LORD. {23:25} Like him was there no king before
him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul,
and with all his might, according to all the Torah of Moses; neither
after him arose there any like him. {23:26} Notwithstanding, the LORD
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} The LORD 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
the LORD, 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 place 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 the LORD, 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} The LORD sent against him bands of the Kasdim, 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 the LORD, which he spoke by his servants the
prophets. {24:3} Surely at the commandment of the LORD 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 the
LORD 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 the LORD,
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 the LORD, 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 LORD's temple, as
the LORD 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, except 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 the LORD, according
to all that Jehoiakim had done. {24:20} For through the anger of the
LORD, it happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out
from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
________________________________________________________________________
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