2 Kings, chapter
1
1: After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel.
2: Now Ahazi'ah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in
Sama'ria, and lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, "Go,
inquire of ba'al-ze'bub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from
this sickness."
3: But the angel of the Lord said to Eli'jah the Tishbite,
"Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Sama'ria, and
say to them, `Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going
to inquire of ba'al-ze'bub, the god of Ekron?'
4: Now therefore thus says the Lord, `You shall not come down
from the bed to which you have gone, but you shall surely die.'" So
Eli'jah went.
5: The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them,
"Why have you returned?"
6: And they said to him, "There came a man to meet us, and
said to us, `Go back to the king who sent you, and say to him, Thus says
the Lord, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending
to inquire of ba'al-ze'bub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not
come down from the bed to which you have gone, but shall surely
die.'"
7: He said to them, "What kind of man was he who came to
meet you and told you these things?"
8: They answered him, "He wore a garment of haircloth, with
a girdle of leather about his loins." And he said, "It is
Eli'jah the Tishbite."
9: Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his
fifty. He went up to Eli'jah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and
said to him, "O man of God, the king says, `Come down.'"
10: But Eli'jah answered the captain of fifty, "If I am a
man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your
fifty." Then fire came down from heaven, and consumed him and his
fifty.
11: Again the king sent to him another captain of fifty men with
his fifty. And he went up and said to him, "O man of God, this is
the king's order, `Come down quickly!'"
12: But Eli'jah answered them, "If I am a man of God, let
fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty." Then
the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
13: Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with his
fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his
knees before Eli'jah, and entreated him, "O man of God, I pray you,
let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious
in your sight.
14: Lo, fire came down from heaven, and consumed the two former
captains of fifty men with their fifties; but now let my life be
precious in your sight."
15: Then the angel of the Lord said to Eli'jah, "Go down
with him; do not be afraid of him." So he arose and went down with
him to the king,
16: and said to him, "Thus says the Lord, `Because you have
sent messengers to inquire of ba'al-ze'bub, the god of Ekron, -- is it
because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? -- therefore
you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone, but you
shall surely die.'"
17: So he died according to the word of the Lord which Eli'jah
had spoken. Jeho'ram, his brother, became king in his stead in the
second year of Jeho'ram the son of Jehosh'aphat, king of Judah, because
Ahazi'ah had no son.
18: Now the rest of the acts of Ahazi'ah which he did, are they
not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
2 Kings, chapter
2
1: Now when the Lord was about to take Eli'jah up to heaven by a
whirlwind, Eli'jah and Eli'sha were on their way from Gilgal.
2: And Eli'jah said to Eli'sha, "Tarry here, I pray you; for
the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel." But Eli'sha said, "As
the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So
they went down to Bethel.
3: And the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to
Eli'sha, and said to him, "Do you know that today the Lord will
take away your master from over you?" And he said, "Yes, I
know it; hold your peace."
4: Eli'jah said to him, "Eli'sha, tarry here, I pray you;
for the Lord has sent me to Jericho." But he said, "As the
Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So
they came to Jericho.
5: The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho drew near to
Eli'sha, and said to him, "Do you know that today the Lord will
take away your master from over you?" And he answered, "Yes, I
know it; hold your peace."
6: Then Eli'jah said to him, "Tarry here, I pray you; for
the Lord has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As the Lord
lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two
of them went on.
7: Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went, and stood at
some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan.
8:
Then Eli'jah took his mantle, and rolled it up, and struck the water,
and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two
of them could go over on dry ground.
9: When they had crossed, Eli'jah said to Eli'sha, "Ask what
I shall do for you, before I am taken from you." And Eli'sha said,
"I pray you, let me inherit a double share of your spirit."
10: And he said, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if
you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you;
but if you do not see me, it shall not be so."
11: And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of
fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Eli'jah went up
by a whirlwind into heaven.
12:
And Eli'sha saw it and he cried, "My father, my father! the
chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" And he saw him no more. Then
he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces.
13: And he took up the mantle of Eli'jah that had fallen from
him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
14: Then he took the mantle of Eli'jah that had fallen from him,
and struck the water, saying, "Where is the Lord, the God of
Eli'jah?" And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to
the one side and to the other; and Eli'sha went over.
15: Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him
over against them, they said, "The spirit of Eli'jah rests on
Eli'sha." And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground before
him.
16: And they said to him, "Behold now, there are with your
servants fifty strong men; pray, let them go, and seek your master; it
may be that the Spirit of the Lord has caught him up and cast him upon
some mountain or into some valley." And he said, "You shall
not send."
17: But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said,
"Send." They sent therefore fifty men; and for three days they
sought him but did not find him.
18: And they came back to him, while he tarried at Jericho, and
he said to them, "Did I not say to you, Do not go?"
19: Now the men of the city said to Eli'sha, "Behold, the
situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is
bad, and the land is unfruitful."
20: He said, "Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it."
So they brought it to him.
21: Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it, and
said, "Thus says the Lord, I have made this water wholesome;
henceforth neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it."
22: So the water has been wholesome to this day, according to the
word which Eli'sha spoke.
23: He went up from there to Bethel; and while he was going up on
the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying,
"Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!"
24: And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in
the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore
forty-two of the boys.
25: From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and thence he returned
to Sama'ria.
2 Kings, chapter
3
1: In the eighteenth year of Jehosh'aphat king of Judah, Jeho'ram
the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Sama'ria, and he reigned
twelve years.
2: He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like
his father and mother, for he put away the pillar of Ba'al which his
father had made.
3: Nevertheless he clung to the sin of Jerobo'am the son of Nebat,
which he made Israel to sin; he did not depart from it.
4: Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he had to
deliver annually to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs, and the
wool of a hundred thousand rams.
5: But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king
of Israel.
6: So King Jeho'ram marched out of Sama'ria at that time and
mustered all Israel.
7: And he went and sent word to Jehosh'aphat king of Judah,
"The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you go with me to
battle against Moab?" And he said, "I will go; I am as you
are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses."
8: Then he said, "By which way shall we march?"
Jeho'ram answered, "By the way of the wilderness of Edom."
9: So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king
of Edom. And when they had made a circuitous march of seven days, there
was no water for the army or for the beasts which followed them.
10: Then the king of Israel said, "Alas! The Lord has called
these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab."
11: And Jehosh'aphat said, "Is there no prophet of the Lord
here, through whom we may inquire of the Lord?" Then one of the
king of Israel's servants answered, "Eli'sha the son of Shaphat is
here, who poured water on the hands of Eli'jah."
12: And Jehosh'aphat said, "The word of the Lord is with
him." So the king of Israel and Jehosh'aphat and the king of Edom
went down to him.
13: And Eli'sha said to the king of Israel, "What have I to
do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your
mother." But the king of Israel said to him, "No; it is the
Lord who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of
Moab."
14: And Eli'sha said, "As the Lord of hosts lives, whom I
serve, were it not that I have regard for Jehosh'aphat the king of
Judah, I would neither look at you, nor see you.
15: But now bring me a minstrel." And when the minstrel
played, the power of the Lord came upon him.
16: And he said, "Thus says the Lord, `I will make this dry
stream-bed full of pools.'
17: For thus says the Lord, `You shall not see wind or rain, but
that stream-bed shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink,
you, your cattle, and your beasts.'
18: This is a light thing in the sight of the Lord; he will also
give the Moabites into your hand,
19: and you shall conquer every fortified city, and every choice
city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop up all springs of water,
and ruin every good piece of land with stones."
20: The next morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice,
behold, water came from the direction of Edom, till the country was
filled with water.
21: When all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to
fight against them, all who were able to put on armor, from the youngest
to the oldest, were called out, and were drawn up at the frontier.
22: And when they rose early in the morning, and the sun shone
upon the water, the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as
blood.
23: And they said, "This is blood; the kings have surely
fought together, and slain one another. Now then, Moab, to the
spoil!"
24: But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose
and attacked the Moabites, till they fled before them; and they went
forward, slaughtering the Moabites as they went.
25: And they overthrew the cities, and on every good piece of
land every man threw a stone, until it was covered; they stopped every
spring of water, and felled all the good trees; till only its stones
were left in Kir-har'eseth, and the slingers surrounded and conquered
it.
26: When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against
him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through, opposite
the king of Edom; but they could not.
27: Then he took his eldest son who was to reign in his stead,
and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there came great
wrath upon Israel; and they withdrew from him and returned to their own
land.
2 Kings, chapter
4
1: Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to
Eli'sha, "Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your
servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two
children to be his slaves."
2: And Eli'sha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell
me; what have you in the house?" And she said, "Your
maidservant has nothing in the house, except a jar of oil."
3: Then he said, "Go outside, borrow vessels of all your
neighbors, empty vessels and not too few.
4: Then go in, and shut the door upon yourself and your sons, and
pour into all these vessels; and when one is full, set it aside."
5: So she went from him and shut the door upon herself and her
sons; and as she poured they brought the vessels to her.
6: When the vessels were full, she said to her son, "Bring
me another vessel." And he said to her, "There is not
another." Then the oil stopped flowing.
7: She came and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell
the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the
rest."
8: One day Eli'sha went on to Shunem, where a wealthy woman
lived, who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way,
he would turn in there to eat food.
9: And she said to her husband, "Behold now, I perceive that
this is a holy man of God, who is continually passing our way.
10: Let us make a small roof chamber with walls, and put there
for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes
to us, he can go in there."
11: One day he came there, and he turned into the chamber and
rested there.
12: And he said to Geha'zi his servant, "Call this
Shu'nammite." When he had called her, she stood before him.
13: And he said to him, "Say now to her, See, you have taken
all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? Would you have a
word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the
army?" She answered, "I dwell among my own people."
14: And he said, "What then is to be done for her?"
Geha'zi answered, "Well, she has no son, and her husband is
old."
15: He said, "Call her." And when he had called her,
she stood in the doorway.
16: And he said, "At this season, when the time comes round,
you shall embrace a son." And she said, "No, my lord, O man of
God; do not lie to your maidservant."
17: But the woman conceived, and she bore a son about that time
the following spring, as Eli'sha had said to her.
18: When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father
among the reapers.
19: And he said to his father, "Oh, my head, my head!"
The father said to his servant, "Carry him to his mother."
20: And when he had lifted him, and brought him to his mother,
the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died.
21: And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God,
and shut the door upon him, and went out.
22: Then she called to her husband, and said, "Send me one
of the servants and one of the asses, that I may quickly go to the man
of God, and come back again."
23: And he said, "Why will you go to him today? It is
neither new moon nor sabbath." She said, "It will be
well."
24: Then she saddled the ass, and she said to her servant,
"Urge the beast on; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell
you."
25: So she set out, and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Geha'zi his servant,
"Look, yonder is the Shu'nammite;
26: run at once to meet her, and say to her, Is it well with you?
Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?" And she
answered, "It is well."
27: And when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she
caught hold of his feet. And Geha'zi came to thrust her away. But the
man of God said, "Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress; and
the Lord has hidden it from me, and has not told me."
28: Then she said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not
say, Do not deceive me?"
29: He said to Geha'zi, "Gird up your loins, and take my
staff in your hand, and go. If you meet any one, do not salute him; and
if any one salutes you, do not reply; and lay my staff upon the face of
the child."
30: Then the mother of the child said, "As the Lord lives,
and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So he arose and
followed her.
31: Geha'zi went on ahead and laid the staff upon the face of the
child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore he returned to
meet him, and told him, "The child has not awaked."
32: When Eli'sha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead
on his bed.
33: So he went in and shut the door upon the two of them, and
prayed to the Lord.
34: Then he went up and lay upon the child, putting his mouth
upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands;
and as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became
warm.
35: Then he got up again, and walked once to and fro in the
house, and went up, and stretched himself upon him; the child sneezed
seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
36: Then he summoned Geha'zi and said, "Call this
Shu'nammite." So he called her. And when she came to him, he said,
"Take up your son."
37: She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground; then she
took up her son and went out.
38: And Eli'sha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in
the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he
said to his servant, "Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for
the sons of the prophets."
39: One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and
found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and
came and cut them up into the pot of pottage, not knowing what they
were.
40: And they poured out for the men to eat. But while they were
eating of the pottage, they cried out, "O man of God, there is
death in the pot!" And they could not eat it.
41: He said, "Then bring meal." And he threw it into
the pot, and said, "Pour out for the men, that they may eat."
And there was no harm in the pot.
42: A man came from Ba'al-shal'ishah, bringing the man of God
bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of
grain in his sack. And Eli'sha said, "Give to the men, that they
may eat."
43: But his servant said, "How am I to set this before a
hundred men?" So he repeated, "Give them to the men, that they
may eat, for thus says the Lord, `They shall eat and have some
left.'"
44: So he set it before them. And they ate, and had some left,
according to the word of the Lord.
2 Kings, chapter
5
1: Na'aman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a
great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had
given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a
leper.
2: Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little
maid from the land of Israel, and she waited on Na'aman's wife.
3: She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with
the prophet who is in Sama'ria! He would cure him of his leprosy."
4: So Na'aman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke
the maiden from the land of Israel."
5: And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a
letter to the king of Israel." So he went, taking with him ten
talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten festal
garments.
6: And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read,
"When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Na'aman
my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy."
7: And when the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his
clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this
man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and
see how he is seeking a quarrel with me."
8: But when Eli'sha the man of God heard that the king of Israel
had rent his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you
rent your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there
is a prophet in Israel."
9: So Na'aman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at
the door of Eli'sha's house.
10: And Eli'sha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and
wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and
you shall be clean."
11: But Na'aman was angry, and went away, saying, "Behold, I
thought that he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the
name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the
leper.
12: Are not Aba'na and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better
than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be
clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.
13: But his servants came near and said to him, "My father,
if the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not
have done it? How much rather, then, when he says to you, `Wash, and be
clean'?"
14: So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan,
according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like
the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15: Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company,
and he came and stood before him; and he said, "Behold, I know that
there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present
from your servant."
16: But he said, "As the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will
receive none." And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
17: Then Na'aman said, "If not, I pray you, let there be
given to your servant two mules' burden of earth; for henceforth your
servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the
Lord.
18: In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my
master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my
arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the
house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter."
19: He said to him, "Go in peace." But when Na'aman had
gone from him a short distance,
20: Geha'zi, the servant of Eli'sha the man of God, said,
"See, my master has spared this Na'aman the Syrian, in not
accepting from his hand what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run
after him, and get something from him."
21: So Geha'zi followed Na'aman. And when Na'aman saw some one
running after him, he alighted from the chariot to meet him, and said,
"Is all well?"
22: And he said, "All is well. My master has sent me to say,
`There have just now come to me from the hill country of E'phraim two
young men of the sons of the prophets; pray, give them a talent of
silver and two festal garments.'"
23: And Na'aman said, "Be pleased to accept two
talents." And he urged him, and tied up two talents of silver in
two bags, with two festal garments, and laid them upon two of his
servants; and they carried them before Geha'zi.
24: And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand,
and put them in the house; and he sent the men away, and they departed.
25: He went in, and stood before his master, and Eli'sha said to
him, "Where have you been, Geha'zi?" And he said, "Your
servant went nowhere."
26: But he said to him, "Did I not go with you in spirit
when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to
accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen,
menservants and maidservants?
27: Therefore the leprosy of Na'aman shall cleave to you, and to
your descendants for ever." So he went out from his presence a
leper, as white as snow.
2 Kings, chapter
6
1: Now the sons of the prophets said to Eli'sha, "See, the
place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us.
2: Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and
let us make a place for us to dwell there." And he answered,
"Go."
3: Then one of them said, "Be pleased to go with your
servants." And he answered, "I will go."
4: So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they
cut down trees.
5: But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the
water; and he cried out, "Alas, my master! It was borrowed."
6: Then the man of God said, "Where did it fall?" When
he showed him the place, he cut off a stick, and threw it in there, and
made the iron float.
7: And he said, "Take it up." So he reached out his
hand and took it.
8: Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he
took counsel with his servants, saying, "At such and such a place
shall be my camp."
9: But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel,
"Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going
down there."
10: And the king of Israel sent to the place of which the man of
God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there
more than once or twice.
11: And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled
because of this thing; and he called his servants and said to them,
"Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?"
12: And one of his servants said, "None, my lord, O king;
but Eli'sha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the
words that you speak in your bedchamber."
13: And he said, "Go and see where he is, that I may send
and seize him." It was told him, "Behold, he is in
Dothan."
14: So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army; and
they came by night, and surrounded the city.
15: When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning
and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was round about
the city. And the servant said, "Alas, my master! What shall we
do?"
16: He said, "Fear not, for those who are with us are more
than those who are with them."
17: Then Eli'sha prayed, and said, "O Lord, I pray thee,
open his eyes that he may see." So the Lord opened the eyes of the
young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and
chariots of fire round about Eli'sha.
18: And when the Syrians came down against him, Eli'sha prayed to
the Lord, and said, "Strike this people, I pray thee, with
blindness." So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the
prayer of Eli'sha.
19: And Eli'sha said to them, "This is not the way, and this
is not the city; follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you
seek." And he led them to Sama'ria.
20: As soon as they entered Sama'ria, Eli'sha said, "O Lord,
open the eyes of these men, that they may see." So the Lord opened
their eyes, and they saw; and lo, they were in the midst of Sama'ria.
21: When the king of Israel saw them he said to Eli'sha, "My
father, shall I slay them? Shall I slay them?"
22: He answered, "You shall not slay them. Would you slay
those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set
bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their
master."
23: So he prepared for them a great feast; and when they had
eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And
the Syrians came no more on raids into the land of Israel.
24: Afterward Ben-ha'dad king of Syria mustered his entire army,
and went up, and besieged Sama'ria.
25: And there was a great famine in Sama'ria, as they besieged
it, until an ass's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the
fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five shekels of silver.
26: Now as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, a
woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!"
27: And he said, "If the Lord will not help you, whence
shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine
press?"
28: And the king asked her, "What is your trouble?" She
answered, "This woman said to me, `Give your son, that we may eat
him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.'
29: So we boiled my son, and ate him. And on the next day I said
to her, `Give your son, that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her
son."
30: When the king heard the words of the woman he rent his
clothes -- now he was passing by upon the wall -- and the people looked,
and behold, he had sackcloth beneath upon his body --
31: and he said, "May God do so to me, and more also, if the
head of Eli'sha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today."
32: Eli'sha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting
with him. Now the king had dispatched a man from his presence; but
before the messenger arrived Eli'sha said to the elders, "Do you
see how this murderer has sent to take off my head? Look, when the
messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door fast against him. Is
not the sound of his master's feet behind him?"
33: And while he was still speaking with them, the king came down
to him and said, "This trouble is from the Lord! Why should I wait
for the Lord any longer?"
2 Kings, chapter
7
1: But Eli'sha said, "Hear the word of the Lord: thus says
the Lord, Tomorrow about this time a measure of fine meal shall be sold
for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, at the gate of
Sama'ria."
2: Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man
of God, "If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could
this thing be?" But he said, "You shall see it with your own
eyes, but you shall not eat of it."
3: Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the
gate; and they said to one another, "Why do we sit here till we
die?
4: If we say, `Let us enter the city,' the famine is in the city,
and we shall die there; and if we sit here, we die also. So now come,
let us go over to the camp of the Syrians; if they spare our lives we
shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die."
5: So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians;
but when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there
was no one there.
6: For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound
of chariots, and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said
to one another, "Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us
the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come upon us."
7: So they fled away in the twilight and forsook their tents,
their horses, and their asses, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for
their lives.
8: And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went
into a tent, and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and
clothing, and went and hid them; then they came back, and entered
another tent, and carried off things from it, and went and hid them.
9: Then they said to one another, "We are not doing right.
This day is a day of good news; if we are silent and wait until the
morning light, punishment will overtake us; now therefore come, let us
go and tell the king's household."
10: So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city, and
told them, "We came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there
was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied, and
the asses tied, and the tents as they were."
11: Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within the
king's household.
12: And the king rose in the night, and said to his servants,
"I will tell you what the Syrians have prepared against us. They
know that we are hungry; therefore they have gone out of the camp to
hide themselves in the open country, thinking, `When they come out of
the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city.'"
13: And one of his servants said, "Let some men take five of
the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like
the whole multitude of Israel that have already perished; let us send
and see."
14: So they took two mounted men, and the king sent them after
the army of the Syrians, saying, "Go and see."
15: So they went after them as far as the Jordan; and, lo, all
the way was littered with garments and equipment which the Syrians had
thrown away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the
king.
16: Then the people went out, and plundered the camp of the
Syrians. So a measure of fine meal was sold for a shekel, and two
measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord.
17: Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he
leaned to have charge of the gate; and the people trod upon him in the
gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came
down to him.
18: For when the man of God had said to the king, "Two
measures of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a measure of fine
meal for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of
Sama'ria,"
19: the captain had answered the man of God, "If the Lord
himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?" And
he had said, "You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall
not eat of it."
20: And so it happened to him, for the people trod upon him in
the gate and he died.
2 Kings, chapter
8
1: Now Eli'sha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to
life, "Arise, and depart with your household, and sojourn wherever
you can; for the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come upon the
land for seven years."
2: So the woman arose, and did according to the word of the man
of God; she went with her household and sojourned in the land of the
Philistines seven years.
3: And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned
from the land of the Philistines, she went forth to appeal to the king
for her house and her land.
4: Now the king was talking with Geha'zi the servant of the man
of God, saying, "Tell me all the great things that Eli'sha has
done."
5: And while he was telling the king how Eli'sha had restored the
dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life
appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Geha'zi said,
"My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom
Eli'sha restored to life."
6: And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king
appointed an official for her, saying, "Restore all that was hers,
together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left
the land until now."
7: Now Eli'sha came to Damascus. Ben-ha'dad the king of Syria was
sick; and when it was told him, "The man of God has come
here,"
8: the king said to Haz'ael, "Take a present with you and go
to meet the man of God, and inquire of the Lord through him, saying,
`Shall I recover from this sickness?'"
9: So Haz'ael went to meet him, and took a present with him, all
kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camel loads. When he came and stood
before him, he said, "Your son Ben-ha'dad king of Syria has sent me
to you, saying, `Shall I recover from this sickness?'"
10: And Eli'sha said to him, "Go, say to him, `You shall
certainly recover'; but the Lord has shown me that he shall certainly
die."
11: And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was
ashamed. And the man of God wept.
12: And Haz'ael said, "Why does my lord weep?" He
answered, "Because I know the evil that you will do to the people
of Israel; you will set on fire their fortresses, and you will slay
their young men with the sword, and dash in pieces their little ones,
and rip up their women with child."
13: And Haz'ael said, "What is your servant, who is but a
dog, that he should do this great thing?" Eli'sha answered,
"The Lord has shown me that you are to be king over Syria."
14: Then he departed from Eli'sha, and came to his master, who
said to him, "What did Eli'sha say to you?" And he answered,
"He told me that you would certainly recover."
15: But on the morrow he took the coverlet and dipped it in water
and spread it over his face, till he died. And Haz'ael became king in
his stead.
16: In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel,
Jeho'ram the son of Jehosh'aphat, king of Judah, began to reign.
17: He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he
reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
18: And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house
of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what
was evil in the sight of the Lord.
19: Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah, for the sake of David
his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons for
ever.
20: In his days Edom revolted from the rule of Judah, and set up
a king of their own.
21: Then Joram passed over to Za'ir with all his chariots, and
rose by night, and he and his chariot commanders smote the E'domites who
had surrounded him; but his army fled home.
22: So Edom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. Then
Libnah revolted at the same time.
23: Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are
they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
24: So Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his
fathers in the city of David; and Ahazi'ah his son reigned in his stead.
25: In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel,
Ahazi'ah the son of Jeho'ram, king of Judah, began to reign.
26: Ahazi'ah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and
he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athali'ah; she
was a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.
27: He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did what
was evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for he
was son-in-law to the house of Ahab.
28: He went with Joram the son of Ahab to make war against
Haz'ael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead, where the Syrians wounded Joram.
29: And King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds
which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Haz'ael
king of Syria. And Ahazi'ah the son of Jeho'ram king of Judah went down
to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.
2 Kings, chapter
9
1: Then Eli'sha the prophet called one of the sons of the
prophets and said to him, "Gird up your loins, and take this flask
of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.
2: And when you arrive, look there for Jehu the son of
Jehosh'aphat, son of Nimshi; and go in and bid him rise from among his
fellows, and lead him to an inner chamber.
3: Then take the flask of oil, and pour it on his head, and say,
`Thus says the Lord, I anoint you king over Israel.' Then open the door
and flee; do not tarry."
4: So the young man, the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead.
5: And when he came, behold, the commanders of the army were in
council; and he said, "I have an errand to you, O commander."
And Jehu said, "To which of us all?" And he said, "To
you, O commander."
6: So he arose, and went into the house; and the young man poured
the oil on his head, saying to him, "Thus says the Lord the God of
Israel, I anoint you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel.
7: And you shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, that
I may avenge on Jez'ebel the blood of My servants the prophets, and the
blood of all the servants of the Lord.
8: For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off
from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel.
9: And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jerobo'am
the son of Nebat, and like the house of Ba'asha the son of Ahi'jah.
10: And the dogs shall eat Jez'ebel in the territory of Jezreel,
and none shall bury her." Then he opened the door, and fled.
11: When Jehu came out to the servants of his master, they said
to him, "Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?"
And he said to them, "You know the fellow and his talk."
12: And they said, "That is not true; tell us now." And
he said, "Thus and so he spoke to me, saying, `Thus says the Lord,
I anoint you king over Israel.'"
13: Then in haste every man of them took his garment, and put it
under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed,
"Jehu is king."
14: Thus Jehu the son of Jehosh'aphat the son of Nimshi conspired
against Joram. (Now Joram with all Israel had been on guard at Ramoth-gilead
against Haz'ael king of Syria;
15: but King Joram had returned to be healed in Jezreel of the
wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Haz'ael king
of Syria.) So Jehu said, "If this is your mind, then let no one
slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel."
16: Then Jehu mounted his chariot, and went to Jezreel, for Joram
lay there. And Ahazi'ah king of Judah had come down to visit Joram.
17: Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he
spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, "I see a
company." And Joram said, "Take a horseman, and send to meet
them, and let him say, `Is it peace?'"
18: So a man on horseback went to meet him, and said, "Thus
says the king, `Is it peace?'" And Jehu said, "What have you
to do with peace? Turn round and ride behind me." And the watchman
reported, saying, "The messenger reached them, but he is not coming
back."
19: Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them, and
said, "Thus the king has said, `Is it peace?'" And Jehu
answered, "What have you to do with peace? Turn round and ride
behind me."
20: Again the watchman reported, "He reached them, but he is
not coming back. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of
Nimshi; for he drives furiously."
21: Joram said, "Make ready." And they made ready his
chariot. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahazi'ah king of Judah set out,
each in his chariot, and went to meet Jehu, and met him at the property
of Naboth the Jezreelite.
22: And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace,
Jehu?" He answered, "What peace can there be, so long as the
harlotries and the sorceries of your mother Jez'ebel are so many?"
23: Then Joram reined about and fled, saying to Ahazi'ah,
"Treachery, O Ahazi'ah!"
24: And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and shot Joram
between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank
in his chariot.
25: Jehu said to Bidkar his aide, "Take him up, and cast him
on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember,
when you and I rode side by side behind Ahab his father, how the Lord
uttered this oracle against him:
26: `As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the
blood of his sons -- says the Lord -- I will requite you on this plot of
ground.' Now therefore take him up and cast him on the plot of ground,
in accordance with the word of the Lord."
27: When Ahazi'ah the king of Judah saw this, he fled in the
direction of Beth-haggan. And Jehu pursued him, and said, "Shoot
him also"; and they shot him in the chariot at the ascent of Gur,
which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megid'do, and died there.
28: His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and
buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.
29: In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahazi'ah began
to reign over Judah.
30: When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jez'ebel heard of it; and she
painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out of the window.
31: And as Jehu entered the gate, she said, "Is it peace,
you Zimri, murderer of your master?"
32: And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, "Who
is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.
33: He said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down;
and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they
trampled on her.
34: Then he went in and ate and drank; and he said, "See now
to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter."
35: But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her
than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
36: When they came back and told him, he said, "This is the
word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Eli'jah the Tishbite, `In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jez'ebel;
37: and the corpse of Jez'ebel shall be as dung upon the face of
the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is
Jez'ebel.'"
2 Kings, chapter
10
1: Now Ahab had seventy sons in Sama'ria. So Jehu wrote letters,
and sent them to Sama'ria, to the rulers of the city, to the elders, and
to the guardians of the sons of Ahab, saying,
2: "Now then, as soon as this letter comes to you, seeing
your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and
horses, fortified cities also, and weapons,
3: select the best and fittest of your master's sons and set him
on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house."
4: But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, "Behold, the
two kings could not stand before him; how then can we stand?"
5: So he who was over the palace, and he who was over the city,
together with the elders and the guardians, sent to Jehu, saying,
"We are your servants, and we will do all that you bid us. We will
not make any one king; do whatever is good in your eyes."
6: Then he wrote to them a second letter, saying, "If you
are on my side, and if you are ready to obey me, take the heads of your
master's sons, and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time."
Now the king's sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the
city, who were bringing them up.
7: And when the letter came to them, they took the king's sons,
and slew them, seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent
them to him at Jezreel.
8: When the 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."
9: Then in the morning, when he went out, he stood, and said to
all the people, "You are innocent. It was I who conspired against
my master, and slew him; but who struck down all these?
10: Know then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the
word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab; for
the Lord has done what he said by his servant Eli'jah."
11: So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in
Jezreel, all his great men, and his familiar friends, and his priests,
until he left him none remaining.
12: Then he set out and went to Sama'ria. On the way, when he was
at Beth-eked of the Shepherds,
13: Jehu met the kinsmen of Ahazi'ah king of Judah, and he said,
"Who are you?" And they answered, "We are the kinsmen of
Ahazi'ah, and we came down to visit the royal princes and the sons of
the queen mother."
14: He said, "Take them alive." And they took them
alive, and slew them at the pit of Beth-eked, forty-two persons, and he
spared none of them.
15: And when he departed from there, he met Jehon'adab the son of
Rechab coming to meet him; and he greeted him, and said to him, "Is
your heart true to my heart as mine is to yours?" And Jehon'adab
answered, "It is." Jehu said, "If it is, give me your
hand." So he gave him his hand. And Jehu took him up with him into
the chariot.
16: And he said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the
Lord." So he had him ride in his chariot.
17: And when he came to Sama'ria, he slew all that remained to
Ahab in Sama'ria, till he had wiped them out, according to the word of
the Lord which he spoke to Eli'jah.
18: Then Jehu assembled all the people, and said to them,
"Ahab served ba'al a little; but Jehu will serve him much.
19: Now therefore call to me all the prophets of ba'al, all his
worshipers and all his priests; let none be missing, for I have a great
sacrifice to offer to ba'al; whoever is missing shall not live."
But Jehu did it with cunning in order to destroy the worshipers of
ba'al.
20: And Jehu ordered, "Sanctify a solemn assembly for ba'al." So they proclaimed it.
21: And Jehu sent throughout all Israel; and all the worshipers
of ba'al came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. And
they entered the house of ba'al, and the house of ba'al was filled from
one end to the other.
22: He said to him who was in charge of the wardrobe, "Bring
out the vestments for all the worshipers of ba'al." So he brought
out the vestments for them.
23: Then Jehu went into the house of ba'al with Jehon'adab the
son of Rechab; and he said to the worshipers of ba'al, "Search, and
see that there is no servant of the Lord here among you, but only the
worshipers of ba'al."
24: Then he went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now
Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, and said, "The man who
allows any of those whom I give into your hands to escape shall forfeit
his life."
25: So as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt
offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the officers, "Go in and
slay them; let not a man escape." So when they put them to the
sword, the guard and the officers cast them out and went into the inner
room of the house of ba'al
26: and they brought out the pillar that was in the house of
ba'al, and burned it.
27: And they demolished the pillar of ba'al, and demolished the
house of ba'al, and made it a latrine to this day.
28: Thus Jehu wiped out ba'al from Israel.
29: But Jehu did not turn aside from the sins of Jerobo'am the
son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin, the golden calves that were
in Bethel, and in Dan.
30: And the Lord said to Jehu, "Because you have done well
in carrying out what 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."
31: But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord the
God of Israel with all his heart; he did not turn from the sins of
Jerobo'am, which he made Israel to sin.
32: In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel.
Haz'ael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel:
33: from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites,
and the Reubenites, and the Manas'sites, from Aro'er, which is by the
valley of the Arnon, that is, Gilead and Bashan.
34: Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and
all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the
Kings of Israel?
35: So Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in
Sama'ria. And Jeho'ahaz his son reigned in his stead.
36: The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Sama'ria was
twenty-eight years.
2 Kings, chapter
11
1: Now when Athali'ah the mother of Ahazi'ah saw that her son was
dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family.
2: But Jehosh'eba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahazi'ah,
took Jo'ash the son of Ahazi'ah, and stole him away from among the
king's sons who were about to be slain, and she put him and his nurse in
a bedchamber. Thus she hid him from Athali'ah, so that he was not slain;
3: and he remained with her six years, hid in the house of the
Lord, while Athali'ah reigned over the land.
4: But in the seventh year Jehoi'ada sent and brought the
captains of the Carites and of the guards, and had them come to him in
the house of the Lord; and he made a covenant with them and put them
under oath in the house of the Lord, and he showed them the king's son.
5: And he commanded them, "This is the thing that you shall
do: one third of you, those who come off duty on the sabbath and guard
the king's house
6: (another third being at the gate Sur and a third at the gate
behind the guards), shall guard the palace;
7: and the two divisions of you, which come on duty in force on
the sabbath and guard the house of the Lord,
8: shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand;
and whoever approaches the ranks is to be slain. Be with the king when
he goes out and when he comes in."
9: The captains did according to all that Jehoi'ada the priest
commanded, and each brought his men who were to go off duty on the
sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the sabbath, and came to
Jehoi'ada the priest.
10: And the priest delivered to the captains the spears and
shields that had been King David's, which were in the house of the Lord;
11: and the guards stood, every man with his weapons in his hand,
from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around
the altar and the house.
12: Then he brought out the king's son, and put the crown upon
him, and gave him the testimony; and they proclaimed him king, and
anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, "Long live
the king!"
13: When Athali'ah heard the noise of the guard and of the
people, she went into the house of the Lord to the people;
14: and when she looked, there was the king standing by the
pillar, according to the custom, and the captains and the trumpeters
beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing
trumpets. And Athali'ah rent her clothes, and cried, "Treason!
Treason!"
15: Then Jehoi'ada the priest commanded the captains who were set
over the army, "Bring her out between the ranks; and slay with the
sword any one who follows her." For the priest said, "Let her
not be slain in the house of the Lord."
16: So they laid hands on her; and she went through the horses'
entrance to the king's house, and there she was slain.
17: And Jehoi'ada made a covenant between the Lord and the king
and people, that they should be the Lord's people; and also between the
king and the people.
18: Then all the people of the land went to the house of ba'al,
and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and
they slew Mattan the priest of ba'al before the altars. And the priest
posted watchmen over the house of the Lord.
19: And he took the captains, the Carites, the guards, and all
the people of the land; and they brought the king down from the house of
the Lord, marching through the gate of the guards to the king's house.
And he took his seat on the throne of the kings.
20: So all the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was
quiet after Athali'ah had been slain with the sword at the king's house.
21: Jeho'ash was seven years old when he began to reign.
2 Kings, chapter
12
1: In the seventh year of Jehu Jeho'ash began to reign, and he
reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zib'iah of
Beer-sheba.
2: And Jeho'ash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all
his days, because Jehoi'ada the priest instructed him.
3: Nevertheless the high places were not taken away; the people
continued to sacrifice and burn incense on the high places.
4: Jeho'ash said to the priests, "All the money of the holy
things which is brought into the house of the Lord, the money for which
each man is assessed -- the money from the assessment of persons -- and
the money which a man's heart prompts him to bring into the house of the
Lord,
5: let the priests take, each from his acquaintance; and let them
repair the house wherever any need of repairs is discovered."
6: But by the twenty-third year of King Jeho'ash the priests had
made no repairs on the house.
7: Therefore King Jeho'ash summoned Jehoi'ada the priest and the
other priests and said to them, "Why are you not repairing the
house? Now therefore take no more money from your acquaintances, but
hand it over for the repair of the house."
8: So the priests agreed that they should take no more money from
the people, and that they should not repair the house.
9: Then Jehoi'ada 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
entered the house of the Lord; and the priests who guarded the threshold
put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the Lord.
10: And whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest,
the king's secretary and the high priest came up and they counted and
tied up in bags the money that was found in the house of the Lord.
11: Then they would give the money that was weighed out into the
hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and
they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked upon the
house of the Lord,
12: and to the masons and the stonecutters, as well as to buy
timber and quarried stone for making repairs on the house of the Lord,
and for any outlay upon the repairs of the house.
13:
But there were not made for the house of the Lord basins of silver,
snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold, or of silver, from
the money that was brought into the house of the Lord,
14: for that was given to the workmen who were repairing the
house of the Lord with it.
15: And they did not ask an accounting from the men into whose
hand they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt
honestly.
16: The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin
offerings was not brought into the house of the Lord; it belonged to the
priests.
17: At that time Haz'ael king of Syria went up and fought against
Gath, and took it. But when Haz'ael set his face to go up against
Jerusalem,
18: Jeho'ash king of Judah took all the votive gifts that
Jehosh'aphat and Jeho'ram and Ahazi'ah, his fathers, the kings of Judah,
had dedicated, and his own votive gifts, and all the gold that was found
in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and
sent these to Haz'ael king of Syria. Then Haz'ael went away from
Jerusalem.
19: Now the rest of the acts of Jo'ash, and all that he did, are
they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
20: His servants arose and made a conspiracy, and slew Jo'ash in
the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla.
21: It was Jo'zacar the son of Shim'e-ath and Jeho'zabad the son
of Shomer, his servants, who struck him down, so that he died. And they
buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amazi'ah his son
reigned in his stead.
2 Kings, chapter
13
1: In the twenty-third year of Jo'ash the son of Ahazi'ah, king
of Judah, Jeho'ahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in
Sama'ria, and he reigned seventeen years.
2: He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and followed
the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin; he
did not depart from them.
3: And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he
gave them continually into the hand of Haz'ael king of Syria and into
the hand of Ben-ha'dad the son of Haz'ael.
4: Then Jeho'ahaz besought the Lord, and the Lord hearkened to
him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria
oppressed them.
5: Therefore the Lord gave Israel a savior, so that they escaped
from the hand of the Syrians; and the people of Israel dwelt in their
homes as formerly.
6: Nevertheless they did not depart from the sins of the house of
Jerobo'am, which he made Israel to sin, but walked in them; and the
Ashe'rah also remained in Sama'ria.
7: For there was not left to Jeho'ahaz an army of more than fifty
horsemen and ten chariots and ten thousand footmen; for the king of
Syria had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.
8: Now the rest of the acts of Jeho'ahaz and all that he did, and
his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the
Kings of Israel?
9: So Jeho'ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in
Sama'ria; and Jo'ash his son reigned in his stead.
10: In the thirty-seventh year of Jo'ash king of Judah Jeho'ash
the son of Jeho'ahaz began to reign over Israel in Sama'ria, and he
reigned sixteen years.
11: He also did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did
not depart from all the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Nebat, which he
made Israel to sin, but he walked in them.
12: Now the rest of the acts of Jo'ash, and all that he did, and
the might with which he fought against Amazi'ah king of Judah, are they
not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
13: So Jo'ash slept with his fathers, and Jerobo'am sat upon his
throne; and Jo'ash was buried in Sama'ria with the kings of Israel.
14: Now when Eli'sha had fallen sick with the illness of which he
was to die, Jo'ash king of Israel went down to him, and wept before him,
crying, "My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its
horsemen!"
15: And Eli'sha said to him, "Take a bow and arrows";
so he took a bow and arrows.
16: Then he said to the king of Israel, "Draw the bow";
and he drew it. And Eli'sha laid his hands upon the king's hands.
17: And he said, "Open the window eastward"; and he
opened it. Then Eli'sha said, "Shoot"; and he shot. And he
said, "The Lord's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over
Syria! For you shall fight the Syrians in Aphek until you have made an
end of them."
18: And he said, "Take the arrows"; and he took them.
And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground with
them"; and he struck three times, and stopped.
19: Then the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You
should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down
Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down
Syria only three times."
20:
So Eli'sha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to
invade the land in the spring of the year.
21: And as a man was being buried, lo, a marauding band was seen
and the man was cast into the grave of Eli'sha; and as soon as the man
touched the bones of Eli'sha, he revived, and stood on his feet.
22: Now Haz'ael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of
Jeho'ahaz.
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23: But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them,
and he turned toward them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and would not destroy them; nor has he cast them from his
presence until now.
24: When Haz'ael king of Syria died, Ben-ha'dad his son became
king in his stead.
25: Then Jeho'ash the son of Jeho'ahaz took again from Ben-ha'dad
the son of Haz'ael the cities which he had taken from Jeho'ahaz his
father in war. Three times Jo'ash defeated him and recovered the cities
of Israel.
2 Kings, chapter
14
1: In the second year of Jo'ash the son of Jo'ahaz, king of
Israel, Amazi'ah the son of Jo'ash, king of Judah, began to reign.
2: He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was
Jeho-ad'din of Jerusalem.
3: And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not
like David his father; he did in all things as Jo'ash his father had
done.
4: But the high places were not removed; the people still
sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
5: And as soon as the royal power was firmly in his hand he
killed his servants who had slain the king his father.
6: But he did not put to death the children of the murderers;
according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses, where the
Lord commanded, "The fathers shall not be put to death for the
children, or the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man
shall die for his own sin."
7: He killed ten thousand E'domites in the Valley of Salt and
took Sela by storm, and called it Jok'the-el, which is its name to this
day.
8: Then Amazi'ah sent messengers to Jeho'ash the son of Jeho'ahaz,
son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us look one another
in the face."
9: And Jeho'ash king of Israel sent word to Amazi'ah king of
Judah, "A thistle on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying,
`Give your daughter to my son for a wife'; and a wild beast of Lebanon
passed by and trampled down the thistle.
10: You have indeed smitten Edom, and your heart has lifted you
up. Be content with your glory, and stay at home; for why should you
provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?"
11: But Amazi'ah would not listen. So Jeho'ash king of Israel
went up, and he and Amazi'ah king of Judah faced one another in battle
at Beth-she'mesh, which belongs to Judah.
12: And Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to his
home.
13: And Jeho'ash king of Israel captured Amazi'ah king of Judah,
the son of Jeho'ash, son of Ahazi'ah, at Beth-she'mesh, and came to
Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem for four hundred cubits,
from the E'phraim Gate to the Corner Gate.
14: And he seized all the gold and silver, and all the vessels
that were found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the
king's house, also hostages, and he returned to Sama'ria.
15: Now the rest of the acts of Jeho'ash which he did, and his
might, and how he fought with Amazi'ah king of Judah, are they not
written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
16: And Jeho'ash slept with his fathers, and was buried in
Sama'ria with the kings of Israel; and Jerobo'am his son reigned in his
stead.
17: Amazi'ah the son of Jo'ash, king of Judah, lived fifteen
years after the death of Jeho'ash son of Jeho'ahaz, king of Israel.
18: Now the rest of the deeds of Amazi'ah, are they not written
in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
19: And they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he
fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there.
20: And they brought him upon horses; and he was buried in
Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David.
21: And all the people of Judah took Azari'ah, who was sixteen
years old, and made him king instead of his father Amazi'ah.
22: He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king slept
with his fathers.
23: In the fifteenth year of Amazi'ah the son of Jo'ash, king of
Judah, Jerobo'am the son of Jo'ash, king of Israel, began to reign in
Sama'ria, and he reigned forty-one years.
24: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not
depart from all the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Nebat, which he made
Israel to sin.
25: He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath
as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the
God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amit'tai,
the prophet, who was from Gath-he'pher.
26: For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very
bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to
help Israel.
27: But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of
Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jerobo'am the
son of Jo'ash.
28: Now the rest of the acts of Jerobo'am, and all that he did,
and his might, how he fought, and how he recovered for Israel Damascus
and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the
Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
29: And Jerobo'am slept with his fathers, the kings of Israel,
and Zechariah his son reigned in his stead.
2 Kings, chapter
15
1: In the twenty-seventh year of Jerobo'am king of Israel
Azari'ah the son of Amazi'ah, king of Judah, began to reign.
2: He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoli'ah of
Jerusalem.
3: And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according
to all that his father Amazi'ah had done.
4: Nevertheless the high places were not taken away; the people
still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
5: And the Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper to the day
of his death, and he dwelt in a separate house. And Jotham the king's
son was over the household, governing the people of the land.
6: Now the rest of the acts of Azari'ah, and all that he did, are
they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
7: And Azari'ah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with
his fathers in the city of David, and Jotham his son reigned in his
stead.
8: In the thirty-eighth year of Azari'ah king of Judah Zechariah the son of Jerobo'am reigned over Israel in Sama'ria six months.
9: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his
fathers had done. He did not depart from the sins of Jerobo'am the son
of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin.
10: Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and struck
him down at Ibleam, and killed him, and reigned in his stead.
11: Now the rest of the deeds of Zechariah, behold, they are
written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
12: (This was the promise of the Lord which he gave to Jehu,
"Your sons shall sit upon the throne of Israel to the fourth
generation." And so it came to pass.)
13: Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth
year of Uzzi'ah king of Judah, and he reigned one month in Sama'ria.
14: Then Men'ahem the son of Gadi came up from Tirzah and came to
Sama'ria, and he struck down Shallum the son of Jabesh in Sama'ria and
slew him, and reigned in his stead.
15: Now the rest of the deeds of Shallum, and the conspiracy
which he made, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of
the Kings of Israel.
16: At that time Men'ahem sacked Tappuah and all who were in it
and its territory from Tirzah on; because they did not open it to him,
therefore he sacked it, and he ripped up all the women in it who were
with child.
17: In the thirty-ninth year of Azari'ah king of Judah Men'ahem
the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel, and he reigned ten years in
Sama'ria.
18: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not
depart all his days from all the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Nebat,
which he made Israel to sin.
19: Pul the king of Assyria came against the land; and Men'ahem
gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that he might help him to confirm
his hold of the royal power.
20: Men'ahem exacted the money from Israel, that is, from all the
wealthy men, fifty shekels of silver from every man, to give to the king
of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and did not stay there
in the land.
21: Now the rest of the deeds of Men'ahem, and all that he did,
are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of
Israel?
22: And Men'ahem slept with his fathers, and Pekahi'ah his son
reigned in his stead.
23: In the fiftieth year of Azari'ah king of Judah Pekahi'ah the
son of Men'ahem began to reign over Israel in Sama'ria, and he reigned
two years.
24: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not
turn away from the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Nebat, which he made
Israel to sin.
25: And Pekah the son of Remali'ah, his captain, conspired
against him with fifty men of the Gileadites, and slew him in Sama'ria,
in the citadel of the king's house; he slew him, and reigned in his
stead.
26: Now the rest of the deeds of Pekahi'ah, and all that he did,
behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of
Israel.
27: In the fifty-second year of Azari'ah king of Judah Pekah the
son of Remali'ah began to reign over Israel in Sama'ria, and reigned
twenty years.
28: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not
depart from the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Nebat, which he made Israel
to sin.
29: In the days of Pekah king of Israel Tig'lath-pile'ser king of
Assyria came and captured I'jon, A'bel-beth-ma'acah, Jan-o'ah, Kedesh,
Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naph'tali; and he carried
the people captive to Assyria.
30: Then Hoshe'a the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah
the son of Remali'ah, and struck him down, and slew him, and reigned in
his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzzi'ah.
31: Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did,
behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of
Israel.
32: In the second year of Pekah the son of Remali'ah, king of
Israel, Jotham the son of Uzzi'ah, king of Judah, began to reign.
33: He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jeru'sha the
daughter of Zadok.
34: And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according
to all that his father Uzzi'ah had done.
35: Nevertheless the high places were not removed; the people
still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the
upper gate of the house of the Lord.
36: Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are
they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
37: In those days the Lord began to send Rezin the king of Syria
and Pekah the son of Remali'ah against Judah.
38: Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his
fathers in the city of David his father; and Ahaz his son reigned in his
stead.
2 Kings, chapter
16
1: In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remali'ah, Ahaz
the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign.
2: Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in
the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done,
3: but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even
burned his son as an offering, according to the abominable practices of
the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.
4: And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, and
on the hills, and under every green tree.
5: Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remali'ah, king
of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but
could not conquer him.
6: At that time the king of Edom recovered Elath for Edom, and
drove the men of Judah from Elath; and the E'domites came to Elath,
where they dwell to this day.
7: So Ahaz sent messengers to Tig'lath-pile'ser king of Assyria,
saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up, and rescue me
from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of
Israel, who are attacking me."
8: Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house
of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent a present
to the king of Assyria.
9: And the king of Assyria hearkened to him; the king of Assyria
marched up against Damascus, and took it, carrying its people captive to
Kir, and he killed Rezin.
10: When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tig'lath-pile'ser
king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz
sent to Uri'ah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact
in all its details.
11: And Uri'ah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all
that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uri'ah the priest made it,
before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus.
12: And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the
altar. Then the king drew near to the altar, and went up on it,
13: and burned his burnt offering and his cereal offering, and
poured his drink offering, and threw the blood of his peace offerings
upon the altar.
14: And the bronze altar which was before the Lord he removed
from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the
house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar.
15: And King Ahaz commanded Uri'ah the priest, saying, "Upon
the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening cereal
offering, and the king's burnt offering, and his cereal offering, with
the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their cereal
offering, and their drink offering; and throw upon it all the blood of
the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the bronze
altar shall be for me to inquire by."
16: Uri'ah the priest did all this, as King Ahaz commanded.
17: And King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands, and removed
the laver from them, and he took down the sea from off the bronze oxen
that were under it, and put it upon a pediment of stone.
18: And the covered way for the sabbath which had been built
inside the palace, and the outer entrance for the king he removed from
the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria.
19: Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not
written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
20: And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his
fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his
stead.
2 Kings, chapter
17
1: In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah Hoshe'a the son of
Elah began to reign in Sama'ria over Israel, and he reigned nine years.
2: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as
the kings of Israel who were before him.
3: Against him came up Shalmane'ser king of Assyria; and Hoshe'a
became his vassal, and paid him tribute.
4: But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshe'a; for he had
sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king
of Assyria, as he had done year by year; therefore the king of Assyria
shut him up, and bound him in prison.
5: Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to
Sama'ria, and for three years he besieged it.
6: In the ninth year of Hoshe'a the king of Assyria captured
Sama'ria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria, and placed them
in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the
Medes.
7: And this was so, because the people of Israel had sinned
against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of
Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other
gods
8: and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove
out before the people of Israel, and in the customs which the kings of
Israel had introduced.
9: And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their
God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places at
all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city;
10: they set up for themselves pillars and Ashe'rim on every high
hill and under every green tree;
11: and there they burned incense on all the high places, as the
nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked
things, provoking the Lord to anger,
12: and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them,
"You shall not do this."
13: Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and
every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My
commandments and My statutes, in accordance with all the law which I
commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the
prophets."
14: But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their
fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.
15: They despised his statutes, and his covenant that he made
with their fathers, and the warnings which he gave them. They went after
false idols, and became false, and they followed the nations that were
round about them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they
should not do like them.
16: And they forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God,
and made for themselves molten images of two calves; and they made an
Ashe'rah, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Ba'al.
17: And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings,
and used divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the
sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
18: Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed
them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah only.
19: Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their
God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced.
20: And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, and
afflicted them, and gave them into the hand of spoilers, until he had
cast them out of his sight.
21: When he had torn Israel from the house of David they made
Jerobo'am the son of Nebat king. And Jerobo'am drove Israel from
following the Lord and made them commit great sin.
22: The people of Israel walked in all the sins which Jerobo'am
did; they did not depart from them,
23: until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had
spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their
own land to Assyria until this day.
24: And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah,
Avva, Hamath, and Sephar-va'im, and placed them in the cities of
Sama'ria instead of the people of Israel; and they took possession of
Sama'ria, and dwelt in its cities.
25: And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not
fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed
some of them.
26: So the king of Assyria was told, "The nations which you
have carried away and placed in the cities of Sama'ria do not know the
law of the god of the land; therefore he has sent lions among them, and
behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the
god of the land."
27: Then the king of Assyria commanded, "Send there one of
the priests whom you carried away thence; and let him go and dwell
there, and teach them the law of the god of the land."
28: So one of the priests whom they had carried away from
Sama'ria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear
the Lord.
29: But every nation still made gods of its own, and put them in
the shrines of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every
nation in the cities in which they dwelt;
30: the men of Babylon made Suc'coth-be'noth, the men of Cuth
made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashi'ma,
31: and the Av'vites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sephar'vites
burned their children in the fire to Adram'melech and Anam'melech, the
gods of Sephar-va'im.
32: They also feared the Lord, and appointed from among
themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who
sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places.
33: So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after
the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
34: To this day they do according to the former manner. They do
not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the ordinances
or the law or the commandment which the Lord commanded the children of
Jacob, whom he named Israel.
35: The Lord made a covenant with them, and commanded them,
"You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve
them or sacrifice to them;
36: but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you out of the land
of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm; you shall bow
yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice.
37: And the statutes and the ordinances and the law and the
commandment which he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do.
You shall not fear other gods,
38: and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with
you. You shall not fear other gods,
39: but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you
out of the hand of all your enemies."
40: However they would not listen, but they did according to
their former manner.
41: So these nations feared the Lord, and also served their
graven images; their children likewise, and their children's children --
as their fathers did, so they do to this day.
2 Kings, chapter
18
1: In the third year of Hoshe'a son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.
2: He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the
daughter of Zechariah.
3: And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according
to all that David his father had done.
4: He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut
down the Ashe'rah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses
had made, for until those days the people of Israel had burned incense
to it; it was called Nehush'tan.
5: He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel; so that there was
none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those
who were before him.
6: For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following
him, but kept the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses.
7: And the Lord was with him; wherever he went forth, he
prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria, and would not serve
him.
8: He smote the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory,
from watchtower to fortified city.
9: In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh
year of Hoshe'a son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmane'ser king of
Assyria came up against Sama'ria and besieged it
10: and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year
of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshe'a king of Israel,
Sama'ria was taken.
11: The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria,
and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the
cities of the Medes,
12: because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but
transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord
commanded; they neither listened nor obeyed.
13: In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah Sennach'erib king of
Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
14: And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at
Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong; withdraw from me; whatever you
impose on me I will bear." And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah
king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty
talents of gold.
15: And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the
house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king's house.
16: At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of
the temple of the Lord, and from the doorposts which Hezekiah king of
Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria.
17: And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab'saris, and
the Rab'shakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at
Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived,
they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the
highway to the Fuller's Field.
18: And when they called for the king, there came out to them
Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah, who was over the household, and Shebnah
the secretary, and Jo'ah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
19: And the Rab'shakeh said to them, "Say to Hezekiah,
`Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this
confidence of yours?
20: Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war?
On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me?
21: Behold, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a
staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is
Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.
22: But if you say to me, "We rely on the Lord our
God," is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has
removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You shall worship
before this altar in Jerusalem"?
23: Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I
will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set
riders upon them.
24: How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of
my master's servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for
horsemen?
25: Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against
this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, Go up against this land,
and destroy it.'"
26: Then Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah, and Shebnah, and Jo'ah,
said to the Rab'shakeh, "Pray, speak to your servants in the
Aramaic language, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the
language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the
wall."
27: But the Rab'shakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me
to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men
sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and
to drink their own urine?"
28: Then the Rab'shakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in
the language of Judah: "Hear the word of the great king, the king
of Assyria!
29: Thus says the king: `Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he
will not be able to deliver you out of my hand.
30: Do not let Hezekiah make you to rely on the Lord by saying,
The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into
the hand of the king of Assyria.'
31: Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of
Assyria: `Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of
you will eat of his own vine, and every one of his own fig tree, and
every one of you will drink the water of his own cistern;
32: until I come and take you away to a land like your own land,
a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive
trees and honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah
when he misleads you by saying, The Lord will deliver us.
33: Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land
out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
34: Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of
Sepharva'im, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Sama'ria out of my
hand?
35: Who among all the gods of the countries have delivered their
countries out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of
my hand?'"
36: But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for
the king's command was, "Do not answer him."
37: Then Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah, who was over the
household, and Shebna the secretary, and Jo'ah the son of Asaph, the
recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the
words of the Rab'shakeh.
2 Kings, chapter
19
1: When King Hezekiah heard it, he rent his clothes, and covered
himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
2: And he sent Eli'akim, who was over the household, and Shebna
the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the
prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.
3: They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day
of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the
birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.
4: It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of the
Rab'shakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the
living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard;
therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left."
5: When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah,
6: Isaiah said to them, "Say to your master, `Thus says the
Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with
which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me.
7: Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a
rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the
sword in his own land.'"
8: The Rab'shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria
fighting against Libnah; for he heard that the king had left Lachish.
9: And when the king heard concerning Tirha'kah king of Ethiopia,
"Behold, he has set out to fight against you," he sent
messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
10: "Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: `Do
not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that
Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
11: Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to
all lands, destroying them utterly. And shall you be delivered?
12: Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations
which my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden
who were in Tel-assar?
13: Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of
the city of Sepharva'im, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?'"
14: Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the
messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord,
and spread it before the Lord.
15: And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: "O Lord
the God of Israel, who art enthroned above the cherubim, thou art the
God, thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven
and earth.
16: Incline thy ear, O Lord, and hear; open thy eyes, O Lord, and
see; and hear the words of Sennach'erib, which he has sent to mock the
living God.
17: Of a truth, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the
nations and their lands,
18: and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no
gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they were
destroyed.
19: So now, O Lord our God, save us, I beseech thee, from his
hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou, O Lord, art
God alone."
20: Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying,
"Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about
Sennach'erib king of Assyria I have heard.
21: This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:
"She despises you, she scorns you -- the virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you -- the daughter of Jerusalem.
22: "Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you
raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? Against the Holy One
of Israel!
23: By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and you have
said, `With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the
mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon; I felled its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses; I entered its farthest retreat, its densest
forest.
24: I dug wells and drank foreign waters, and I dried up with the
sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.'
25: "Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I
planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should turn
fortified cities into heaps of ruins,
26: while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and
confounded, and have become like plants of the field, and like tender
grass, like grass on the housetops; blighted before it is grown?
27: "But I know your sitting down and your going out and
coming in, and your raging against me.
28: Because you have raged against me and your arrogance has come
into My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.
29: "And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall
eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the
same; then in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat
their fruit.
30: And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again
take root downward, and bear fruit upward;
31: for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of
Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord will do this.
32: "Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of
Assyria, He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or
come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it.
33: By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he
shall not come into this city, says the Lord.
34: For I will defend this city to save it, for My own sake and
for the sake of My servant David."
35: And that night the angel of the Lord went forth, and slew a
hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; and when
men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
36: Then Sennach'erib king of Assyria departed, and went home,
and dwelt at Nin'eveh.
37: And as he was worshiping in the house of nisroch his god,
Adram'melech and Share'zer, his sons, slew him with the sword, and
escaped into the land of Ar'arat. And Esarhad'don his son reigned in his
stead.
2 Kings, chapter
20
1: In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of
death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to
him, "Thus says the Lord, `Set your house in order; for you shall
die, you shall not recover.'"
2: Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the
Lord, saying,
3: "Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked
before thee in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what
is good in thy sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
4: And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word
of the Lord came to him:
5: "Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the prince of My people,
Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your
prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you; on the third
day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.
6: And I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you
and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend
this city for My own sake and for My servant David's sake."
7: And Isaiah said, "Bring a cake of figs. And let them take
and lay it on the boil, that he may recover."
8: And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What shall be the sign
that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the
Lord on the third day?"
9: And Isaiah said, "This is the sign to you from the Lord,
that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow
go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?"
10: And Hezekiah answered, "It is an easy thing for the
shadow to lengthen ten steps; rather let the shadow go back ten
steps."
11: And Isaiah the prophet cried to the Lord; and he brought the
shadow back ten steps, by which the sun had declined on the dial of
Ahaz.
12: At that time Mero'dach-bal'adan the son of Bal'adan, king of
Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he
heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
13: And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them all his
treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his
armory, all that was found in his storehouses; there was nothing in his
house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
14: Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to
him, "What did these men say? And whence did they come to
you?" And Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country,
from Babylon."
15: He said, "What have they seen in your house?" And Hezekiah
answered, "They have seen all that is in My house; there
is nothing in My storehouses that I did not show them."
16: Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the
Lord:
17: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house,
and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be
carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord.
18: And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be
taken away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of
Babylon."
19: Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, "The word of the Lord
which you have spoken is good." For he thought, "Why not, if
there will be peace and security in my days?"
20: The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah, and all his might, and
how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city,
are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of
Judah?
21: And Hezekiah slept with his fathers; and Manas'seh his son
reigned in his stead.
2 Kings, chapter
21
1: Manas'seh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Heph'zibah.
2: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according
to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out
before the people of Israel.
3: For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had
destroyed; and he erected altars for Ba'al, and made an Ashe'rah, as
Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and
served them.
4: And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the
Lord had said, "In Jerusalem will I put My name."
5: And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two
courts of the house of the Lord.
6: And he burned his son as an offering, and practiced
soothsaying and augury, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did
much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
7: And the graven image of Ashe'rah that he had made he set in
the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son,
"In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all
the tribes of Israel, I will put My name for ever;
8: and I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out
of the land which I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful
to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all
the law that My servant Moses commanded them."
9: But they did not listen, and Manas'seh seduced them to do more
evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people
of Israel.
10: And the Lord said by his servants the prophets,
11: "Because Manas'seh king of Judah has committed these
abominations, and has done things more wicked than all that the Amorites
did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols;
12: therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I am
bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such evil that the ears of every one
who hears of it will tingle.
13: And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of
Sama'ria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe
Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
14: And I will cast off the remnant of My heritage, and give them
into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil
to all their enemies,
15: because they have done what is evil in My sight and have
provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt,
even to this day."
16: Moreover Manas'seh shed very much innocent blood, till he had
filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin which he made
Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
17: Now the rest of the acts of Manas'seh, and all that he did,
and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the
Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
18: And Manas'seh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the
garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in
his stead.
19: Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshul'lemeth the
daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
20: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as
Manas'seh his father had done.
21: He walked in all the way in which his father walked, and
served the idols that his father served, and worshiped them;
22: he forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk
in the way of the Lord.
23: And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed
the king in his house.
24: But the people of the land slew all those who had conspired
against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josi'ah his son king
in his stead.
25: Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not
written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
26: And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza; and
Josi'ah his son reigned in his stead.
2 Kings, chapter
22
1: Josi'ah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedi'dah
the daughter of Adai'ah of Bozkath.
2: And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked
in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the
right hand or to the left.
3: In the eighteenth year of King Josi'ah, the king sent Shaphan
the son of Azali'ah, son of Meshul'lam, the secretary, to the house of
the Lord, saying,
4: "Go up to Hilki'ah the high priest, that he may reckon
the amount of the money which has been brought into the house of the
Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people;
5: and let it be given 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 at the house of the Lord, repairing the house,
6: that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the
masons, as well as for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the
house.
7: But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money which
is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly."
8: And Hilki'ah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary,
"I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord."
And Hilki'ah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
9: And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to
the king, "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."
10: Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, "Hilki'ah the
priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king.
11: And when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he
rent his clothes.
12: And the king commanded Hilki'ah the priest, and Ahi'kam the
son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micai'ah, and Shaphan the
secretary, and Asai'ah the king's servant, saying,
13: "Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and
for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found;
for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because
our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to
all that is written concerning us."
14: So Hilki'ah the priest, and Ahi'kam, and Achbor, and Shaphan,
and Asai'ah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son
of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in
Jerusalem in the Second Quarter); and they talked with her.
15: And she said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of
Israel: `Tell the man who sent you to me,
16: Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place
and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book which the king of
Judah has read.
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 will be kindled against this place, and
it will not be quenched.
18: But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the
Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:
Regarding the words which you have heard,
19: because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself
before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and
against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a
curse, and you have rent your clothes and wept before me, I also have
heard you, says the Lord.
20: Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you
shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see
all the evil which I will bring upon this place.'" And they brought
back word to the king.
2 Kings, chapter
23
1: Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem
were gathered to him.
2: And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him
all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the
priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great; and he
read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which
had been found in the house of the Lord.
3: And 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
perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and
all the people joined in the covenant.
4: And the king commanded Hilki'ah, the high priest, and the
priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring
out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Ba'al, for
Ashe'rah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside
Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to
Bethel.
5: And he deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah
had ordained to burn incense in the high places at the cities of Judah
and round about Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Ba'al, to
the sun, and the moon, and the constellations, and all the host of the
heavens.
6: And he brought out the Ashe'rah from the house of the Lord,
outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook
Kidron, and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of
the common people.
7: And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes
which were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for
the ashe'rah.
8: And 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 Beer-sheba; 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 one's left at the gate of the city.
9: However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the
altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among
their brethren.
10: And he defiled To'pheth, which is in the valley of the sons
of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering
to Molech.
11: And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had
dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the
chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts;
and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12: And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz,
which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manas'seh had
made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and
broke in pieces, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
13: And the king defiled the high places that were east of
Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the
king of Israel had built for ash'toreth the abomination of the
Sido'nians, and for chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for milcom the
abomination of the Ammonites.
14: And he broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the
ashe'rim, and filled their places with the bones of men.
15: Moreover the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by
Jerobo'am the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the
high place he pulled down and he broke in pieces its stones, crushing
them to dust; also he burned the ashe'rah.
16: And as Josi'ah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount;
and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them upon
the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of the Lord which the
man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things.
17: Then he said, "What is yonder monument that I see?"
And the men of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God
who came from Judah and predicted these things which you have done
against the altar at Bethel."
18: And 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 Sama'ria.
19: And all the shrines also of the high places that were in the
cities of Sama'ria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord
to anger, Josi'ah removed; he did to them according to all that he had
done at Bethel.
20: And he slew all the priests of the high places who were
there, upon the altars, and burned the bones of men upon them. Then he
returned to Jerusalem.
21: And the king commanded all the people, "Keep the
passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this book of the
covenant."
22: For no such passover had been kept since the days of the
judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel
or of the kings of Judah;
23: but in the eighteenth year of King Josi'ah this passover was
kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.
24: Moreover Josi'ah put away the mediums 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 establish the words of the
law which were written in the book that Hilki'ah the priest found in the
house of the Lord.
25: Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord
with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might,
according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.
26: Still the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great
wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the
provocations with which Manas'seh had provoked him.
27: And 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, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be
there."
28: Now the rest of the acts of Josi'ah, and all that he did, are
they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
29: In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of
Assyria to the river Euphra'tes. King Josi'ah went to meet him; and
Pharaoh Neco slew him at Megid'do, when he saw him.
30: And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megid'do,
and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the
people of the land took Jeho'ahaz the son of Josi'ah, and anointed him,
and made him king in his father's stead.
31: Jeho'ahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign,
and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamu'tal
the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according
to all that his fathers had done.
33: And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of
Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid upon the land a
tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
34: And Pharaoh Neco made Eli'akim the son of Josi'ah king in the
place of Josi'ah his father, and changed his name to Jehoi'akim. But he
took Jeho'ahaz away; and he came to Egypt, and died there.
35: And Jehoi'akim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but
he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh.
He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from every
one according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.
36: Jehoi'akim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign,
and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebi'dah
the daughter of Pedai'ah of Rumah.
37: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according
to all that his fathers had done.
2 Kings, chapter
24
1: In his days Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon came up, and
Jehoi'akim became his servant three years; then he turned and rebelled
against him.
2: And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chalde'ans, and
bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the
Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the
word of the Lord which he spoke by his servants the prophets.
3: Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to
remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manas'seh, according to
all that he had done,
4: and also for the innocent blood that he had shed; for he
filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon.
5: Now the rest of the deeds of Jehoi'akim, and all that he did,
are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of
Judah?
6: So Jehoi'akim slept with his fathers, and Jehoi'achin his son
reigned in his stead.
7: And the king of Egypt did not come again out of his land, for
the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt
from the Brook of Egypt to the river Euphra'tes.
8: Jehoi'achin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he
reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehush'ta the
daughter of Elna'than of Jerusalem.
9: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according
to all that his father had done.
10: At that time the servants of Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon
came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
11: And Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon came to the city, while
his servants were besieging it;
12: and Jehoi'achin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king
of Babylon, himself, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes,
and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the
eighth year of his reign,
13: and carried off 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 in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had
made, as the Lord had foretold.
14: He carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all
the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen
and the smiths; none remained, except the poorest people of the land.
15: And he carried away Jehoi'achin to Babylon; the king's
mother, the king's wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land,
he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
16: And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the
men of valor, seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths, one
thousand, all of them strong and fit for war.
17: And the king of Babylon made Mattani'ah, Jehoi'achin's uncle,
king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedeki'ah.
18: Zedeki'ah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and
he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamu'tal the
daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
19: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according
to all that Jehoi'akim had done.
20: For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in
Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. And
Zedeki'ah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
2 Kings, chapter
25
1: And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the
tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon came with all
his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it; and they built
siegeworks against it round about.
2: So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King
Zedeki'ah.
3: On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe
in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.
4: Then a breach was made in the city; the king with all the men
of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by
the king's garden, though the Chalde'ans were around the city. And they
went in the direction of the Arabah.
5: But the army of the Chalde'ans pursued the king, and overtook
him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
6: Then they captured the king, and brought him up to the king of
Babylon at Riblah, who passed sentence upon him.
7: They slew the sons of Zedeki'ah before his eyes, and put out
the eyes of Zedeki'ah, and bound him in fetters, and took him to
Babylon.
8: In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month -- which
was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnez'zar, king of Babylon --
Nebu'zarad'an, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of
Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
9: And he burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house and
all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.
10: And all the army of the Chalde'ans, who were with the captain
of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
11: And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the
deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the
rest of the multitude, Nebu'zarad'an the captain of the guard carried
into exile.
12: But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the
land to be vinedressers and plowmen.
13: And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord,
and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord,
the Chalde'ans broke in pieces, and carried the bronze to Babylon.
14: And they took away the pots, and the shovels, and the
snuffers, and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used
in the temple service,
15: the fire pans also, and the bowls. What was of gold the
captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as
silver.
16: As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands, which
Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these
vessels was beyond weight.
17: The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and upon it
was a capital of bronze; the height of the capital was three cubits; a
network and pomegranates, all of bronze, were upon the capital round
about. And the second pillar had the like, with the network.
18: And the captain of the guard took Serai'ah the chief priest,
and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the
threshold;
19: and from the city he took an officer who had been in command
of the men of war, and five men of the king's council who were found in
the city; and the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered
the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land who were
found in the city.
20: And Nebu'zarad'an the captain of the guard took them, and
brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
21: And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death at
Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its
land.
22: And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom
Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedali'ah the son
of Ahi'kam, son of Shaphan, governor.
23: Now when all the captains of the forces in the open country
and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedali'ah
governor, they came with their men to Gedali'ah at Mizpah, namely,
Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah, and Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah, and
Serai'ah the son of Tanhu'meth the Netoph'athite, and Ja-azani'ah the
son of the Ma-ac'athite.
24: And Gedali'ah swore to them and their men, saying, "Do
not be afraid because of the Chalde'an officials; dwell in the land, and
serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you."
25: But in the seventh month, Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah, son
of Eli'shama, of the royal family, came with ten men, and attacked and
killed Gedali'ah and the Jews and the Chalde'ans who were with him at
Mizpah.
26: Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains
of the forces arose, and went to Egypt; for they were afraid of the
Chalde'ans.
27: And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoi'achin
king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the
month, Evil-mero'dach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to
reign, graciously freed Jehoi'achin king of Judah from prison;
28: and he spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seat above the
seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
29: So Jehoi'achin put off his prison garments. And every day of
his life he dined regularly at the king's table;
30: and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by
the king, every day a portion, as long as he lived.
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