1:1 After the death of Ahab, Moab made itself free from the

authority of Israel.

1:2 Now Ahaziah had a fall from the window of his room in

Samaria, and was ill. And he sent men, and said to them, Put a

question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, about the outcome of

my disease, to see if I will get well or not.

1:3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Go

now, and, meeting the men sent by the king of Samaria, say to

them, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you are

going to get directions from Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?

1:4 Give ear then to the words of the Lord: You will never again

get down from the bed on to which you have gone up, but death

will certainly come to you. Then Elijah went away.

1:5 And the men he had sent came back to the king; and he said

to them, Why have you come back?

1:6 And they said to him, On our way we had a meeting with a man

who said, Go back to the king who sent you and say to him, The

Lord says, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you

send to put a question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? For

this reason, you will not come down from the bed on to which

you have gone up, but death will certainly come to you.

1:7 And he said to them, What sort of a man was it who came and

said these words to you?

1:8 And they said in answer, He was a man clothed in a coat of

hair, with a leather band about his body. Then he said, It is

Elijah the Tishbite.

1:9 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty

men; and he went up to him where he was seated on the top of a

hill, and said to him, O man of God, the king has said, Come

down.

1:10 And Elijah in answer said to the captain of fifty, If I am

a man of God, may fire come down from heaven on you and on your

fifty men, and put an end to you. Then fire came down from

heaven and put an end to him and his fifty men.

1:11 Then the king sent another captain of fifty with his fifty

men; and he said to Elijah, O man of God, the king says, Come

down quickly.

1:12 And Elijah in answer said, If I am a man of God, may fire

come down from heaven on you and on your fifty men, and put an

end to you. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and put

an end to him and his fifty men.

1:13 Then he sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men;

and the third captain of fifty went up, and falling on his

knees before Elijah, requesting mercy of him, said, O man of

God, let my life and the life of these your fifty servants be

of value to you.

1:14 For fire came down from heaven and put an end to the first

two captains of fifty and their fifties; but now let my life be

of value in your eyes.

1:15 Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, Go down with

him; have no fear of him. So he got up and went down with him

to the king.

1:16 And he said to him, This is the word of the Lord: Because

you sent men to put a question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron,

for this reason you will never again get down from the bed on

to which you have gone up, but death will certainly come to

you.

1:17 So death came to him, as the Lord had said by the mouth of

Elijah. And Jehoram became king in his place in the second year

of the rule of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah;

because he had no son.

1:18 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah, are they not recorded

in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

2:1 Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a

great wind, Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

2:2 And Elijah said to Elisha, Come no farther for the Lord has

sent me to Beth-el. But Elisha said, As the Lord is living and

as your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they

went down to Beth-el.

2:3 And at Beth-el the sons of the prophets came out to Elisha

and said, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord is going

to take away your master from over you today? And he said, Yes,

I have knowledge of it: say no more.

2:4 Then Elijah said to him, Come no farther, for the Lord has

sent me to Jericho. But he said, As the Lord is living and as

your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they

went on to Jericho.

2:5 And at Jericho the sons of the prophets came up to Elisha

and said to him, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord is

going to take away your master from over you today? And he said

in answer, Yes, I have knowledge of it: say no more.

2:6 Then Elijah said to him, Come no farther, for the Lord has

sent me to Jordan. But he said, As the Lord is living and as

your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they

went on together.

2:7 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went out and took

their places facing them a long way off, while the two of them

were by the edge of Jordan.

2:8 Then Elijah took off his robe, and, rolling it up, gave the

water a blow with it, and the waters were parted, flowing back

this way and that, so that they went over on dry land.

2:9 And when they had come to the other side, Elijah said to

Elisha, Say what you would have me do for you before I am taken

from you. And Elisha said, Be pleased to let a special measure

of your spirit be on me.

2:10 And he said, You have made a hard request: still, if you

see me when I am taken from you, you will get your desire; but

if not, it will not be so.

2:11 And while they went on their way, going on talking

together, suddenly there were carriages and horses of fire

separating them from one another and Elijah went up to heaven

in a great wind.

2:12 And when Elisha saw it he gave a cry, My father, my father,

the carriages of Israel and its horsemen! And he saw him no

longer; and he was full of grief.

2:13 Then he took up Elijah's robe, which had been dropped from

him, and went back till he came to the edge of Jordan.

2:14 And he took Elijah's robe, which had been dropped from him,

and giving the water a blow with it, said, Where is the Lord,

the God of Elijah? and at his blow the waters were parted this

way and that; and Elisha went over.

2:15 And when the sons of the prophets who were facing him at

Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah is resting on

Elisha. And they came out to him, and went down on the earth

before him.

2:16 And they said, Your servants have with us here fifty strong

men; be pleased to let them go in search of Elijah; for it may

be that the spirit of the Lord has taken him up and put him

down on some mountain or in some valley. But he said, Do not

send them.

2:17 But when they kept on requesting him, he was shamed and

said, Send, then. So they sent fifty men; but after searching

for three days, they came back without having seen him.

2:18 And they came back to him, while he was still at Jericho;

and he said to them, Did I not say to you, Go not?

2:19 Now the men of the town said to Elisha, You see that the

position of this town is good; but the water is bad, causing

the young of the cattle to come to birth dead.

2:20 So he said, Get me a new vessel, and put salt in it; and

they took it to him.

2:21 Then he went out to the spring from which the water came,

and put salt in it, and said, The Lord says, Now I have made

this water sweet; no longer will it be death-giving or

unfertile.

2:22 And the water was made sweet again to this day, as Elisha

said.

2:23 Then from there he went up to Beth-el; and on his way, some

little boys came out from the town and made sport of him,

crying, Go up, old no-hair! go up, old no-hair!

2:24 And turning back, he saw them, and put a curse on them in

the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the wood

and put forty-two of the children to death.

2:25 From there he went to Mount Carmel, and came back from

there to Samaria.

3:1 And Jehoram, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in

Samaria in the eighteenth year of the rule of Jehoshaphat, king

of Judah; and he was king for twelve years.

3:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord; but not like his father

and his mother, for he put away the stone pillar of Baal which

his father had made.

3:3 But still he did the same sins which Jeroboam, the son of

Nebat, did and made Israel do; he went on in them.

3:4 Now Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheep-farmer; and he gave

regularly to the king of Israel the wool from a hundred

thousand lambs and a hundred thousand sheep.

3:5 But when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab got free from the

authority of the king of Israel.

3:6 At that time, King Jehoram went out from Samaria and got all

Israel together in fighting order.

3:7 And he sent to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, saying, The king

of Moab has got free from my authority: will you go with me to

make war on Moab? And he said, I will go with you: I am as you

are, my people as your people, and my horses as your horses.

3:8 And he said, Which way are we to go? And he said in answer,

By the waste land of Edom.

3:9 So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the

king of Edom by a roundabout way for seven days: and there was

no water for the army or for the beasts they had with them.

3:10 And the king of Israel said, Here is trouble: for the Lord

has got these three kings together to give them into the hands

of Moab.

3:11 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no prophet of the Lord here,

through whom we may get directions from the Lord? And one of

the king of Israel's men said in answer, Elisha, the son of

Shaphat, is here, who was servant to Elijah.

3:12 And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him. So

the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went

down to him.

3:13 But Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do

with you? go to the prophets of your father and your mother.

And the king of Israel said, No; for the Lord has got these

three kings together to give them up into the hands of Moab.

3:14 Then Elisha said, By the life of the Lord of armies whose

servant I am, if it was not for the respect I have for

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not give a look at you, or

see you.

3:15 But now, get me a player of music, and it will come about

that while the man is playing, the hand of the Lord will come

on me and I will give you the word of the Lord: and they got a

player of music, and while the man was playing, the hand of the

Lord was on him.

3:16 And he said, The Lord says, I will make this valley full of

water-holes.

3:17 For the Lord says, Though you see no wind or rain, the

valley will be full of water, and you and your armies and your

beasts will have drink.

3:18 And this will be only a small thing to the Lord: in

addition he will give the Moabites into your hands.

3:19 And you are to put every walled town to destruction,

cutting down every good tree, and stopping up every

water-spring, and making all the good land rough with stones.

3:20 Now in the morning, about the time when the offering was

made, they saw water flowing from the direction of Edom till

the country was full of water.

3:21 Now all Moab, hearing that the kings had come to make war

against them, got together all who were able to take up arms

and went forward to the edge of the country.

3:22 And early in the morning they got up, when the sun was

shining on the water, and they saw the water facing them as red

as blood.

3:23 Then they said, This is blood: it is clear that destruction

has come on the kings; they have been fighting one another: now

come, Moab, let us take their goods.

3:24 But when they came to the tents of Israel, the Israelites

came out and made a violent attack on the Moabites, so that

they went in flight before them; and they went forward still

attacking them;

3:25 Pulling down the towns, covering every good field with

stones, stopping up all the water-springs, and cutting down all

the good trees; they went on driving Moab before them till only

in Kir-hareseth were there any Moabites; and the fighting-men

went round the town raining stones on it.

3:26 And when the king of Moab saw that the fight was going

against him, he took with him seven hundred men armed with

swords, with the idea of forcing a way through to the king of

Aram, but they were not able to do so.

3:27 Then he took his oldest son, who would have been king after

him, offering him as a burned offering on the wall. So there

was great wrath against Israel; and they went away from him,

back to their country.

4:1 Now a certain woman, the wife of one of the sons of the

prophets, came crying to Elisha and said, Your servant my

husband is dead; and to your knowledge he was a worshipper of

the Lord; but now, the creditor has come to take my two

children as servants in payment of his debt.

4:2 Then Elisha said to her, What am I to do for you? say now,

what have you in the house? And she said, Your servant has

nothing in the house but a pot of oil.

4:3 Then he said, Go out to all your neighbours and get vessels,

a very great number of them.

4:4 Then go in, and, shutting the door on yourself and your

sons, put oil into all these vessels, putting on one side the

full ones.

4:5 So she went away, and when the door was shut on her and her

sons, they took the vessels to her and she put oil into them.

4:6 And when all the vessels were full, she said to her son, Get

me another vessel. And he said, There are no more. And the flow

of oil was stopped.

4:7 So she came to the man of God and gave him word of what she

had done. And he said, Go and get money for the oil and make

payment of your debt, and let the rest be for the needs of

yourself and your sons.

4:8 Now there came a day when Elisha went to Shunem, and there

was a woman of high position living there, who made him come in

and have a meal with her. And after that, every time he went

by, he went into her house for a meal.

4:9 And she said to her husband, Now I see that this is a holy

man of God, who comes by day after day.

4:10 So let us make a little room on the wall; and put a bed

there for him, and a table and a seat and a light; so that when

he comes to us, he will be able to go in there.

4:11 Now one day, when he had gone there, he went into the

little room and took his rest there.

4:12 And he said to Gehazi, his servant, Send for this

Shunammite. So in answer to his voice she came before him.

4:13 And he said to him, Now say to her, See, you have taken all

this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? will you have

any request made for you to the king or the captain of the

army? But she said, I am living among my people.

4:14 So he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi

made answer, Still there is this, she has no son and her

husband is old.

4:15 Then he said, Send for her. And in answer to his voice she

took her place at the door.

4:16 And Elisha said, At this time in the coming year you will

have a son in your arms. And she said, No, my lord, O man of

God, do not say what is false to your servant.

4:17 Then the woman became with child and gave birth to a son at

the time named, in the year after, as Elisha had said to her.

4:18 Now one day, when the child was older, he went out to his

father to where the grain was being cut.

4:19 And he said to his father, My head, my head! And the father

said to a servant, Take him in to his mother.

4:20 And he took him in to his mother, and she took him on her

knees and kept him there till the middle of the day, when his

life went from him.

4:21 Then she went up and put him on the bed of the man of God,

shutting the door on him, and went out.

4:22 And she said to her husband, Send me one of the servants

and one of the asses so that I may go quickly to the man of God

and come back again.

4:23 And he said, Why are you going to him today? it is not a

new moon or a Sabbath. But she said, It is well.

4:24 Then she made the ass ready and said to her servant, Keep

driving on; do not make a stop without orders from me.

4:25 So she went, and came to Mount Carmel, to the man of God.

And when the man of God saw her coming in his direction, he

said to Gehazi, his servant, See, there is the Shunammite;

4:26 Go quickly to her, and on meeting her say to her, Are you

well? and your husband and the child, are they well? And she

said in answer, All is well.

4:27 And when she came to where the man of God was on the hill,

she put her hands round his feet; and Gehazi came near with the

purpose of pushing her away; but the man of God said, Let her

be, for her soul is bitter in her; and the Lord has kept it

secret from me, and has not given me word of it.

4:28 Then she said, Did I make a request to my lord for a son?

did I not say, Do not give me false words?

4:29 Then he said to Gehazi, Make yourself ready, and take my

stick in your hand, and go: if you come across anyone on the

way, give him no blessing, and if anyone gives you a blessing,

give him no answer. And put my stick on the child's face.

4:30 But the mother of the child said, As the Lord is living and

as your soul is living, I will not go back without you. So he

got up and went with her.

4:31 And Gehazi went on before them and put the stick on the

child's face; but there was no voice, and no one gave

attention. So he went back, and meeting him gave him the news,

saying, The child is not awake.

4:32 And when Elisha came into the house he saw the child dead,

stretched on his bed.

4:33 So he went in, and shutting the door on the two of them,

made prayer to the Lord.

4:34 Then he got up on the bed, stretching himself out on the

child, and put his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on his

eyes and his hands on his hands; and the child's body became

warm.

4:35 Then he came back, and after walking once through the house

and back, he went up, stretching himself out on the child seven

times; and the child's eyes became open.

4:36 And he gave orders to Gehazi, and said, Send for the

Shunammite. And she came in answer to his voice. And he said,

Take up your son.

4:37 And she came in, and went down on her face to the earth at

his feet; then she took her son in her arms and went out.

4:38 And Elisha went back to Gilgal, now there was very little

food in the land; and the sons of the prophets were seated

before him. And he said to his servant, Put the great pot on

the fire, and make soup for the sons of the prophets.

4:39 And one went out into the field to get green plants and saw

a vine of the field, and pulling off the fruit of it till the

fold of his robe was full, he came back and put the fruit, cut

up small, into the pot of soup, having no idea what it was.

4:40 Then they gave the men soup from the pot. And while they

were drinking the soup, they gave a cry, and said, O man of

God, there is death in the pot; and they were not able to take

any more food.

4:41 But he said, Get some meal. And he put it into the pot, and

said, Now give it to the people so that they may have food. And

there was nothing bad in the pot.

4:42 Now a man came from Baal-shalishah with an offering of

first-fruits for the man of God, twenty barley cakes and garden

fruit in his bag. And he said, Give these to the people for

food.

4:43 But his servant said, How am I to put this before a hundred

men? But he said, Give it to the people for food; for the Lord

says, There will be food for them and some over.

4:44 So he put it before them, and they had a meal and there was

more than enough, as the Lord had said.

5:1 Now Naaman, chief of the army of the king of Aram, was a man

of high position with his master, and greatly respected,

because by him the Lord had given salvation to Aram; but he was

a leper.

5:2 Now the Aramaeans had gone out in bands, and taken prisoner

from Israel a little girl, who became servant to Naaman's wife.

5:3 And she said to her master's wife, If only my lord would go

to the prophet in Samaria, he would make him well.

5:4 And someone went and said to his lord, This is what the girl

from the land of Israel says.

5:5 So the king of Aram said, Go then; and I will send a letter

to the king of Israel. And he went, taking with him ten talents

of silver and six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of

clothing.

5:6 And he took the letter to the king of Israel, in which the

king of Aram had said, See, I have sent my servant Naaman to

you to be made well, for he is a leper.

5:7 But the king of Israel, after reading the letter, was

greatly troubled and said, Am I God, to give death and life?

why does this man send a leper to me to be made well? is it not

clear that he is looking for a cause of war?

5:8 Now Elisha, the man of God, hearing that the king of Israel

had done this, sent to the king, saying, Why are you troubled?

send the man to me, so that he may see that there is a prophet

in Israel.

5:9 So Naaman, with all his horses and his carriages, came to

the door of Elisha's house.

5:10 And Elisha sent a servant to him, saying, Go to Jordan, and

after washing seven times in its waters your flesh will be well

again and you will be clean.

5:11 But Naaman was angry and went away and said, I had the idea

that he would come out to see such an important person as I am,

and make prayer to the Lord his God, and with a wave of his

hand over the place make the leper well.

5:12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than

all the waters of Israel? may I not be washed in them and

become clean? So turning, he went away in wrath.

5:13 Then his servants came to him and said, If the prophet had

given you orders to do some great thing, would you not have

done it? how much more then, when he says to you, Be washed and

become clean?

5:14 Then he went down seven times into the waters of Jordan, as

the man of God had said; and his flesh became like the flesh of

a little child again, and he was clean.

5:15 Then he went back to the man of God, with all his train,

and, taking his place before him, said, Now I am certain that

there is no God in all the earth, but only in Israel: now then,

take an offering from me.

5:16 But he said, By the life of the Lord whose servant I am, I

will take nothing from you. And he did his best to make him

take it but he would not.

5:17 Then Naaman said, If you will not, then let there be given

to your servant as much earth as two beasts are able to take on

their backs; because from now on, your servant will make no

offering or burned offering to other gods, but only to the

Lord.

5:18 But may your servant have the Lord's forgiveness for this

one thing: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon for

worship there, supported on my arm, and my head is bent in the

house of Rimmon; when his head is bent in the house of Rimmon,

may your servant have the Lord's forgiveness for this thing.

5:19 And he said to him, Go in peace. And he went from him some

distance.

5:20 But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said,

Now my master has taken nothing from Naaman, this Aramaean, of

what he would have given him: by the living Lord, I will go

after him and get something from him.

5:21 So Gehazi went after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him

running after him, he got down from his carriage and went back

to him and said, Is all well?

5:22 And he said, All is well: but my master has sent me,

saying, Even now, two young men of the sons of the prophets

have come to me from the hill-country of Ephraim; will you give

me a talent of silver and two changes of clothing for them?

5:23 And Naaman said, Be good enough to take two talents. And

forcing him to take them, he put two talents of silver in two

bags, with two changes of clothing, and gave them to his two

servants to take before him.

5:24 When he came to the hill, he took them from their hands,

and put them away in the house; and he sent the men away, and

they went.

5:25 Then he came in and took his place before his master. And

Elisha said to him, Where have you come from, Gehazi? And he

said, Your servant went nowhere.

5:26 And he said to him, Did not my heart go with you, when the

man got down from his carriage and went back to you? Is this a

time for getting money, and clothing, and olive-gardens and

vine-gardens, and sheep and oxen, and men-servants and

women-servants?

5:27 Because of what you have done, the disease of Naaman the

leper will take you in its grip, and your seed after you, for

ever. And he went out from before him a leper as white as snow.

6:1 Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, There is not

room enough for us in the place where we are living under your

care;

6:2 So let us go to Jordan, and let everyone get to work cutting

boards, and we will make a living-place for ourselves there.

And he said to them, Go, then.

6:3 And one of them said, Be pleased to go with your servants.

And he said, I will go.

6:4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they got

to work cutting down trees.

6:5 But one of them, while cutting a board, let the head of his

axe go into the water; and he gave a cry, and said, This is a

bad business, my master, for it is another's.

6:6 And the man of God said, Where did it go in? and when he saw

the place where it had gone into the water, cutting a stick, he

put it into the water, and the iron came up to the top of the

water.

6:7 Then he said, Take it up. So he put out his hand and took

it.

6:8 At that time the king of Aram was making war against Israel;

and he had a meeting with the chiefs of his army and said, I

will be waiting in secret in some named place.

6:9 And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Take

care to keep away from that place, for the Aramaeans are

waiting there in secret.

6:10 So the king of Israel sent to the place where the man of

God had said there was danger, and kept clear of it more than

once.

6:11 And at this, the mind of the king of Aram was greatly

troubled, and he sent for his servants and said to them, Will

you not make clear to me which of us is helping the king of

Israel?

6:12 And one of them said, Not one of us, my lord king; but

Elisha, the prophet in Israel, gives the king of Israel news of

the words you say even in your bedroom.

6:13 Then he said, Go and see where he is, so that I may send

and get him. And news came to him that he was in Dothan.

6:14 So he sent there horses and carriages and a great army; and

they came by night, circling the town.

6:15 Now the servant of the man of God, having got up early and

gone out, saw an army with horses and carriages of war all

round the town. And the servant said to him, O my master, what

are we to do?

6:16 And he said in answer, Have no fear; those who are with us

are more than those who are with them.

6:17 Then Elisha made a prayer to the Lord, saying, Lord, let

his eyes be open so that he may see. And the Lord made the

young man's eyes open; and he saw that all the mountain was

full of horses and carriages of fire round Elisha.

6:18 Now when the Aramaeans came down to Elisha, he made a

prayer to the Lord saying, Lord, make this people blind. And he

made them blind at Elisha's request.

6:19 And Elisha said to them, This is not the way, and this is

not the town: come after me so that I may take you to the man

you are searching for. And he took them to Samaria.

6:20 And when they had come into Samaria, Elisha said, Lord, let

the eyes of these men be open so that they may see. And the

Lord made their eyes open, and they saw that they were in the

middle of Samaria.

6:21 And the king of Israel, when he saw them, said to Elisha,

My father, am I to put them to the sword?

6:22 But he said in answer, You are not to put them to death;

have you any right to put to death those whom you have not

taken prisoner with your sword and your bow? put bread and

water before them, so that they may have food and drink and go

to their master.

6:23 So he made ready a great feast for them, and when they had

had food and drink, he sent them away and they went back to

their master. And no more bands of Aramaeans came into the land

of Israel.

6:24 Now after this, Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got together all

his army and went up to make an attack on Samaria, shutting the

town in on all sides with his forces.

6:25 And they became very short of food in Samaria; for they

kept it shut in till the price of an ass's head was eighty

shekels of silver, and a small measure of doves' droppings was

five shekels of silver.

6:26 And when the king of Israel was going by on the wall, a

woman came crying out to him, and said, Help! my lord king.

6:27 And he said, If the Lord does not give you help, where am I

to get help for you? from the grain-floor or the grape-crusher?

6:28 And the king said to her, What is troubling you? And she

said in answer, This woman said to me, Give your son to be our

food today, and we will have my son tomorrow.

6:29 So, boiling my son, we had a meal of him; and on the day

after I said to her, Now give your son for our food; but she

has put her son in a secret place.

6:30 Then the king, hearing what the woman said, took his robes

in his hands, violently parting them; and, while he was walking

on the wall, the people, looking, saw that under his robe he

had haircloth on his flesh.

6:31 Then he said, May God's punishment come on me if Elisha,

the son of Shaphat, keeps his head on his body after this day.

6:32 But Elisha was in his house, and the responsible men were

seated there with him; and before the king got there, Elisha

said to those who were with him, Do you see how this cruel and

violent man has sent to take away my life?

6:33 While he was still talking to them, the king came down and

said, This evil is from the Lord; why am I to go on waiting any

longer for the Lord?

7:1 Then Elisha said, Give ear to the word of the Lord: the Lord

says, Tomorrow, about this time, a measure of good meal will be

offered for the price of a shekel and two measures of barley

for a shekel, in the market-place of Samaria.

7:2 Then the captain whose arm was supporting the king said to

the man of God, Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, would

such a thing be possible? And he said, Your eyes will see it,

but you will not have a taste of the food.

7:3 Now there were four lepers seated at the doorway into the

town: and they said to one another, Why are we waiting here for

death?

7:4 If we say, We will go into the town, there is no food in the

town, and we will come to our end there; and if we go on

waiting here, death will come to us. Come then, let us give

ourselves up to the army of Aram: if they let us go on living,

then life will be ours; and if they put us to death, then death

will be ours.

7:5 So in the half light they got up to go to the tents of Aram;

but when they came to the outer line of tents, there was no one

there.

7:6 For the Lord had made the sound of carriages and horses, and

the noise of a great army, come to the ears of the Aramaeans,

so that they said to one another, Truly, the king of Israel has

got the kings of the Hittites and of the Egyptians for a price

to make an attack on us.

7:7 So they got up and went in flight, in the half light,

without their tents or their horses or their asses or any of

their goods; they went in flight, fearing for their lives.

7:8 And when those lepers came to the outer line of tents, they

went into one tent, and had food and drink, and took from it

silver and gold and clothing, which they put in a secret place;

then they came back and went into another tent from which they

took more goods, which they put away in a secret place.

7:9 Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. Today

is a day of good news, and we say nothing: if we go on waiting

here till the morning, punishment will come to us. So let us go

and give the news to those of the king's house.

7:10 So they came in, and, crying out to the door-keepers of the

town, they gave them the news, saying, We came to the tents of

the Aramaeans, and there was no one there and no voice of man,

only the horses and the asses in their places, and the tents as

they were.

7:11 Then the door-keepers, crying out, gave the news to those

inside the king's house.

7:12 Then the king got up in the night and said to his servants,

This is my idea of what the Aramaeans have done to us. They

have knowledge that we are without food; and so they have gone

out of their tents, and are waiting secretly in the open

country, saying, When they come out of the town, we will take

them living and get into the town.

7:13 And one of his servants said in answer, Send men and let

them take five of the horses which we still have in the town;

if they keep their lives they will be the same as those of

Israel who are still living here; if they come to their death

they will be the same as all those of Israel who have gone to

destruction: let us send and see.

7:14 So they took two horsemen; and the king sent them after the

army of the Aramaeans, saying, Go and see.

7:15 And they went after them as far as Jordan; and all the road

was covered with clothing and vessels dropped by the Aramaeans

in their flight. So those who were sent went back and gave the

news to the king.

7:16 Then the people went out and took the goods from the tents

of the Aramaeans. So a measure of good meal was to be had for

the price of a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel,

as the Lord had said.

7:17 And the king gave authority to that captain, on whose arm

he was supported, to have control over the doorway into the

town; but he was crushed to death there under the feet of the

people, as the man of God had said when the king went down to

him.

7:18 So the words of the man of God came true, which he said to

the king: Two measures of barley will be offered for the price

of a shekel and a measure of good meal for a shekel, tomorrow

about this time in the market-place of Samaria.

7:19 And that captain said to the man of God, Even if the Lord

made windows in heaven, would such a thing be possible? And he

said to him, Your eyes will see it, but you will not have a

taste of the food.

7:20 And such was his fate; for he was crushed to death under

the feet of the people, in the doorway into the town.

8:1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had given back

to life, Go now, with all the people of your house, and get a

living-place for yourselves wherever you are able; for by the

word of the Lord, there will be great need of food in the land;

and this will go on for seven years.

8:2 So the woman got up and did as the man of God said; and she

and the people of her house were living in the land of the

Philistines for seven years.

8:3 And when the seven years were ended, the woman came back

from the land of the Philistines and went to the king with a

request for her house and her land.

8:4 Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man

of God, saying, Now, give me an account of all the great things

Elisha has done.

8:5 And while he was giving the king the story of how Elisha had

given life to the dead, the woman whose son had come back to

life came to the king with a request for her house and her

land. And Gehazi said, My lord king, this is the woman and this

is her son, whose life Elisha gave back to him.

8:6 And in answer to the king's questions, the woman gave him

all the story. So the king gave orders to one of his unsexed

servants, saying, Give her back all her property, and all the

produce of her fields from the day when she went away from the

land up till now.

8:7 And Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-hadad, king of Aram,

was ill; and they said to him, The man of God has come.

8:8 Then the king said to Hazael, Take an offering with you, and

go to see the man of God and get directions from the Lord by

him, saying, Am I going to get better from my disease?

8:9 So Hazael went to see him, taking with him forty camels with

offerings on their backs of every sort of good thing from

Damascus; and when he came before him, he said, Your son

Ben-hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to you, saying, Will I get

better from this disease?

8:10 And Elisha said to him, Go, say to him, You will certainly

get better; but the Lord has made it clear to me that only

death is before him.

8:11 And he kept his eyes fixed on him till he was shamed, and

the man of God was overcome with weeping.

8:12 And Hazael said, Why is my lord weeping? Then he said in

answer, Because I see the evil which you will do to the

children of Israel: burning down their strong towns, putting

their young men to death with the sword, smashing their little

ones against the stones, and cutting open the women who are

with child.

8:13 And Hazael said, How is it possible that your servant, who

is only a dog, will do this great thing? And Elisha said, The

Lord has made it clear to me that you will be king over Aram.

8:14 Then he went away from Elisha and came in to his master,

who said to him, What did Elisha say to you? And his answer

was, He said that you would certainly get well.

8:15 Now on the day after, Hazael took the bed-cover, and making

it wet with water, put it over Ben-hadad's face, causing his

death: and Hazael became king in his place.

8:16 In the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of

Israel, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, became

king.

8:17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king; and he was

ruling in Jerusalem for eight years.

8:18 He went in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the family

of Ahab did: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife; and he did

evil in the eyes of the Lord.

8:19 But it was not the Lord's purpose to send destruction on

Judah, because of David his servant, to whom he had given his

word that he would have a light for ever.

8:20 In his time, Edom made themselves free from the rule of

Judah, and took a king for themselves.

8:21 Then Joram went over to Zair, with all his war-carriages;

... made an attack by night on the Edomites, whose forces were

all round him, ... the captains of the war-carriages; and the

people went in flight to their tents.

8:22 So Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah to this

day. And at the same time, Libnah made itself free.

8:23 Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all he did, are they

not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

8:24 And Joram went to rest with his fathers and was put into

the earth with his fathers in the town of David: and Ahaziah

his son became king in his place.

8:25 In the twelfth year that Joram, the son of Ahab, was king

of Israel, Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, became

king;

8:26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and

he was ruling in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's name was

Athaliah, the daughter of Omri, king of Israel.

8:27 He went in the ways of the family of Ahab, and did evil in

the eyes of the Lord as the family of Ahab did, for he was a

son-in-law of the family of Ahab.

8:28 He went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to make war on Hazael,

king of Aram, at Ramoth-gilead: and Joram was wounded by the

Aramaeans.

8:29 So King Joram went back to Jezreel to get well from the

wounds which the bowmen had given him at Ramah, when he was

fighting against Hazael, king of Aram. And Ahaziah, the son of

Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram, the son of

Ahab, in Jezreel, because he was ill.

9:1 And Elisha the prophet sent for one of the sons of the

prophets, and said to him, Make yourself ready for a journey,

and take this bottle of oil in your hand, and go to

Ramoth-gilead.

9:2 And when you get there, go in search of Jehu, the son of

Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi; and go in and make him get up

from among his brothers, and take him to an inner room.

9:3 Then take the bottle and put the oil on his head, and say,

The Lord says, I have put the holy oil on you to make you king

over Israel. Then, opening the door, go in flight, without

waiting.

9:4 So the young prophet went to Ramoth-gilead.

9:5 And when he came, he saw the captains of the army seated

together; and he said, I have something to say to you, O

captain. And Jehu said, To which of us? And he said, To you, O

captain.

9:6 And he got up and went into the house; then he put the holy

oil on his head and said to him, The Lord, the God of Israel,

says, I have made you king over the people of the Lord, over

Israel.

9:7 You are to see that the family of Ahab your master is cut

off, so that I may take from Jezebel payment for the blood of

my servants the prophets, and for the blood of all the servants

of the Lord.

9:8 For the family of Ahab will come to an end; every male of

Ahab's family will be cut off, he who is shut up and he who

goes free in Israel.

9:9 I will make the family of Ahab like that of Jeroboam, the

son of Nebat, and Baasha, the son of Ahijah.

9:10 And Jezebel will become food for the dogs in the heritage

of Jezreel, and there will be no one to put her body into the

earth. Then, opening the door, he went in flight.

9:11 Then Jehu came out again to the servants of his lord, and

one said to him, Is all well? why did this man, who is off his

head, come to you? And he said to them, You have knowledge of

the man and of his talk.

9:12 And they said, That is not true; now give us his story.

Then he said, This is what he said to me: The Lord says, I have

made you king over Israel.

9:13 Then straight away everyone took his robe and put it under

him on the top of the steps, and, sounding the horn, they said,

Jehu is king.

9:14 So Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, made

designs against Joram. (Now Joram and all the army of Israel

were keeping watch on Ramoth-gilead because of Hazael, king of

Aram:

9:15 But King Joram had gone back to Jezreel to get well from

the wounds which the Aramaeans had given him when he was

fighting against Hazael, king of Aram.) And Jehu said, If this

is your purpose, then let no one get away and go out of the

town to give news of it in Jezreel.

9:16 So Jehu got into his carriage and went to Jezreel, for

Joram was ill in bed there; and Ahaziah, king of Judah, had

come down to see Joram.

9:17 And the watchman on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu and his

band coming, and said, I see a band of people. And Joram said,

Send out a horseman to them, and let him say, Is it peace?

9:18 So a horseman went out to them and said, The king says, Is

it peace? And Jehu said, What have you to do with peace? come

after me. And the watchman gave them word, saying, The horseman

went up to them, but has not come back.

9:19 Then he sent out a second horseman, who came up to them and

said, The king says, Is it peace? And Jehu said in answer, What

have you to do with peace? come after me.

9:20 And the watchman gave them word, saying, He went up to them

and has not come back again; and the driving is like the

driving of Jehu, son of Nimshi, for he is driving violently.

9:21 Then Joram said, Make ready. So they made his carriage

ready; and Joram, king of Israel, with Ahaziah, king of Judah,

went out in their carriages for the purpose of meeting Jehu;

and they came face to face with him at the field of Naboth the

Jezreelite.

9:22 Now when Joram saw Jehu he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he

said in answer, What peace is possible while all the land is

full of the disgusting sins of your mother Jezebel, and her

secret arts?

9:23 Then Joram, turning his horses in flight, said to Ahaziah,

Broken faith, O Ahaziah!

9:24 Then Jehu took his bow in his hand, and with all his

strength sent an arrow, wounding Joram between the arms; and

the arrow came out at his heart, and he went down on his face

in his carriage.

9:25 Then Jehu said to Bidkar, his captain, Take him up, and put

him in the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for is not that day

in your memory when you and I together on our horses were going

after Ahab, his father, and the Lord put this fate on him,

saying:

9:26 I saw the blood of Naboth and of his sons yesterday; and I

will give you full payment in this field, says the Lord? So

now, take him and put him in this field, as the Lord said.

9:27 Now when Ahaziah, king of Judah, saw this, he went in

flight by the way of the garden house. And Jehu came after him

and said, Put him to death in the same way; and they gave him a

death-wound in his carriage, on the slope up to Gur, by Ibleam;

and he went in flight to Megiddo, where death came to him.

9:28 And his servants took him in a carriage to Jerusalem, and

put him into the earth with his fathers in the town of David.

9:29 (In the eleventh year of the rule of Joram, the son of

Ahab, Ahaziah became king over Judah.)

9:30 And when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel had news of it; and,

painting her eyes and dressing her hair with ornaments, she put

her head out of the window.

9:31 And when Jehu was coming into the town, she said, Is all

well, O Zimri, taker of your master's life?

9:32 Then, looking up to the window, he said, Who is on my side,

who? and two or three unsexed servants put out their heads.

9:33 And he said, Take her and put her out of the window. So

they sent her down with force, and her blood went in a shower

on the wall and on the horses; and she was crushed under their

feet.

9:34 And he came in, and took food and drink; then he said, Now

see to this cursed woman, and put her body into the earth, for

she is a king's daughter.

9:35 And they went out to put her body into the earth, but

nothing of her was to be seen, only the bones of her head, and

her feet, and parts of her hands.

9:36 So they came back and gave him word of it. And he said,

This is what the Lord said by his servant Elijah the Tishbite,

saying, In the heritage of Jezreel the flesh of Jezebel will

become food for dogs;

9:37 And the dead body of Jezebel will be like waste dropped on

the face of the earth in the heritage of Jezreel; so that they

will not be able to say, This is Jezebel.

10:1 Now there were in Samaria seventy of Ahab's sons. And Jehu

sent letters to Samaria, to the rulers of the town, and to the

responsible men, and to those who had the care of the sons of

Ahab, saying,

10:2 Straight away, when you get this letter, seeing that your

master's sons are with you, and that you have carriages and

horses and a walled town and arms;

10:3 Take the best and most upright of your master's sons, and

make him king in his father's place, and put up a fight for

your master's family.

10:4 But they were full of fear, and said, The two kings have

gone down before him: how may we keep our place?

10:5 So the controller of the king's house, with the ruler of

the town, and the responsible men, and those who had the care

of Ahab's sons, sent to Jehu, saying, We are your servants and

will do all your orders; we will not make any man king; do

whatever seems best to you.

10:6 Then he sent them a second letter, saying, If you are on my

side, and if you will do my orders, come to me at Jezreel by

this time tomorrow, with the heads of your master's sons. Now

the king's seventy sons were with the great men of the town,

who had the care of them.

10:7 And when the letter came to them, they took the king's sons

and put them to death, all the seventy, and put their heads in

baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.

10:8 And a man came and said to him, They have come with the

heads of the king's sons. And he said, Put them down in two

masses at the doorway of the town till the morning.

10:9 And in the morning he went out and, stopping, said to all

the people there, You are upright men: it is true that I made

designs against my master, and put him to death; but who is

responsible for the death of all these?

10:10 You may be certain that nothing which the Lord has said

about the family of Ahab will be without effect; for the Lord

has done what he said by his servant Elijah.

10:11 So Jehu put to death all the rest of the seed of Ahab in

Jezreel, and all his relations and his near friends and his

priests, till there were no more of them.

10:12 Then he got up and came to Samaria. And he was at the

meeting-place of the keepers of sheep, by the way,

10:13 When he came across the brothers of Ahaziah, king of

Judah, and said, Who are you? And they said, We are the

brothers of Ahaziah, king of Judah; we are going down to see

the children of the king and of the queen.

10:14 And he said, Take them living. So they took them living,

and put them to death in the water-hole of Beth-eked; of the

forty-two men he put every one to death;

10:15 And when he had gone away from there, he came across

Jehonadab, the son of Rechab: and he said good-day to him, and

said to him, Is your heart true to mine, as mine is to yours?

And Jehonadab in answer said, It is; and Jehu said, If it is,

give me your hand. And he gave him his hand, and he made him

come up into his carriage.

10:16 And he said, Come with me and see how I am on fire for the

Lord's cause. So he made him go with him in his carriage.

10:17 And when he came to Samaria, he put to death all those of

Ahab's family who were still in Samaria, till there were no

more of them, as the Lord had said to Elijah.

10:18 Then Jehu got all the people together and said to them,

Ahab was Baal's servant in a small way, but Jehu will be his

servant on a great scale.

10:19 Now send for all the prophets of Baal and all his servants

and all his priests, to come to me; let no one keep away: for I

have a great offering to make to Baal; anyone who is not

present, will be put to death. This Jehu did with deceit, his

purpose being the destruction of the servants of Baal.

10:20 And Jehu said, Let there be a special holy meeting for the

worship of Baal. So a public statement was made.

10:21 And Jehu sent out through all Israel; and all the servants

of Baal came, not one kept away. And they came into the house

of Baal, so that it was full from end to end.

10:22 And Jehu said to him who kept the robes, Get out robes for

all the servants of Baal. So he got out robes for them.

10:23 And Jehu, with Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, went into the

house of Baal; and he said to the servants of Baal, Make a

search with care, to see that no servant of the Lord is with

you, but only servants of Baal.

10:24 Then they went in to make offerings and burned offerings.

Now Jehu had put eighty men outside, and said to them, If any

man whom I give into your hands gets away, the life of him who

lets him go will be the price of his life.

10:25 Then when the burned offering was ended, straight away

Jehu said to the armed men and the captains, Go in and put them

to death; let not one come out. So they put them to the sword;

and, pulling the images to the earth, they went into the holy

place of the house of Baal.

10:26 And they took out the image of Asherah from the house of

Baal, and had it burned.

10:27 The altar of Baal was pulled down and the house of Baal

was broken up and made an unclean place, as it is to this day.

10:28 So Jehu put an end to the worship of Baal in Israel.

10:29 But Jehu did not keep himself from all the sins of

Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and the evil he made Israel do; the

gold oxen were still in Beth-el and in Dan.

10:30 And the Lord said to Jehu, Because you have done well in

doing what is right in my eyes and effecting all my purpose for

the family of Ahab, your sons will be kings of Israel to the

fourth generation.

10:31 But Jehu did not take care to keep the law of the Lord

with all his heart: he did not keep himself from the sin which

Jeroboam did and made Israel do.

10:32 In those days the Lord was angry first with Israel; and

Hazael made attacks on all the land of Israel,

10:33 East of Jordan, in all the land of Gilead, the Gadites and

the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer by the valley of

the Arnon, all Gilead and Bashan.

10:34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all he did, and his

great power, are they not recorded in the book of the history

of the kings of Israel?

10:35 And Jehu went to rest with his fathers, and was put into

the earth in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son became king in his

place.

10:36 And the time of Jehu's rule over Israel in Samaria was

twenty-eight years.

11:1 Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son

was dead, she had all the rest of the seed of the kingdom put

to death.

11:2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of

Ahaziah, secretly took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, with the

woman who took care of him, away from among the king's sons who

were put to death, and put him in the bedroom; and they kept

him safe from Athaliah, so that he was not put to death.

11:3 And for six years she kept him safe in the house of the

Lord, while Athaliah was ruling over the land.

11:4 Then in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the captains of

hundreds of the Carians, and the armed men, and taking them

into the house of the Lord, made an agreement with them, and

made them take an oath in the house of the Lord, and let them

see the king's son.

11:5 And he gave them orders, saying, This is what you are to

do: the third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath and keep

the watch of the king's house,

11:6 ...

11:7 And the two divisions of you, who go out on the Sabbath and

keep the watch of the house of the Lord,

11:8 Will make a circle round the king, every man being armed;

and whoever comes inside your lines is to be put to death; keep

with the king, when he goes out and when he comes in.

11:9 And the captains of hundreds did as Jehoiada the priest

gave them orders; every one took with him his men, those who

came in and those who went out on the Sabbath, and they came in

to Jehoiada the priest.

11:10 And the priest gave to the captains of hundreds the spears

and body-covers which had been King David's, and which were

kept in the house of the Lord.

11:11 Then the armed men took up their positions, every man with

his instruments of war in his hand, from the right side of the

house to the left, round about the altar and the house.

11:12 Then he made the king's son come out, and put the crown on

him and the arm-bands, and made him king, and put the holy oil

on him; and they all, making sounds of joy with their hands,

said, Long life to the king.

11:13 Now Athaliah, hearing the noise made by the people, came

to the people in the house of the Lord;

11:14 And looking, she saw the king in his regular place by the

pillar, and the captains and the horns near him; and all the

people of the land giving signs of joy and sounding the horns.

Then Athaliah, violently parting her robes, gave a cry, saying,

Broken faith, broken faith!

11:15 Then Jehoiada the priest gave orders to those who were

placed in authority over the army, saying, Take her outside the

lines, and let anyone who goes after her be put to death with

the sword, for he said, Let her not be put to death in the

house of the Lord.

11:16 So they put their hands on her, and she went to the king's

house by the doorway of the horses, and there she was put to

death.

11:17 And Jehoiada made an agreement between the Lord and the

king and the people, that they would be the Lord's people; and

in the same way between the king and the people.

11:18 Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal

and had it pulled down: its altars and images were all broken

to bits, and Mattan, the priest of Baal, they put to death

before the altars. And the priest put overseers over the Lord's

house.

11:19 Then he took the captains of hundreds, and the Carians,

and the armed men, and all the people of the land; and they

came down with the king from the house of the Lord, through the

doorway of the armed men, to the king's house. And he took his

place on the seat of the kings.

11:20 So all the people of the land were glad, and the town was

quiet; and they had put Athaliah to death with the sword at the

king's house.

11:21 And Jehoash was seven years old when he became king.

12:1 In the seventh year of Jehu's rule, Jehoash became king;

and he was ruling for forty years in Jerusalem; his mother's

name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.

12:2 Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his

days, because he was guided by the teaching of Jehoiada the

priest.

12:3 But the high places were not taken away; the people went on

making offerings and burning them in the high places.

12:4 And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the holy

things, which comes into the house of the Lord, (the amount

fixed for every man's payment,) and all the money given by any

man freely from the impulse of his heart,

12:5 Let the priests take, every man from his friends and

neighbours, to make good what is damaged in the house, wherever

it is to be seen.

12:6 But in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests

had not made good the damaged parts of the house.

12:7 Then King Jehoash sent for Jehoiada the priest, and the

other priests, and said to them, Why have you not made good

what is damaged in the house? now take no more money from your

neighbours, but give it for the building up of the house.

12:8 So the priests made an agreement to take no more money from

the people, and not to make good what was damaged in the house.

12:9 But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and making a hole in

the cover of it, put it by the altar, on the right side when

one comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who kept

the door put in it regularly all the money which was taken into

the house of the Lord.

12:10 And when they saw that there was much money in the chest,

the king's scribe and the high priest came and put it in bags,

noting the amount of all the money there was in the house of

the Lord.

12:11 And the money which was measured out they gave regularly

to those who were responsible for overseeing the work, and

these gave it in payment to the woodworkers and the builders

who were working on the house of the Lord,

12:12 And to the wall-builders and the stone-cutters, and to get

wood and cut stone for building up the broken parts of the

house of the Lord, and for everything needed to put the house

in good order.

12:13 But the money was not used for making silver cups or

scissors or basins or wind-instruments or any vessels of gold

or silver for the house of the Lord;

12:14 But it was all given to the workmen who were building up

the house.

12:15 And they did not get any statement of accounts from the

men to whom the money was given for the workmen, for they made

use of it with good faith.

12:16 The money of the offerings for error and the sin-offerings

was not taken into the house of the Lord; it was the priests'.

12:17 Then Hazael, king of Aram, went up against Gath and took

it; and his purpose was to go up to Jerusalem.

12:18 Then Jehoash, king of Judah, took all the holy things

which Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the

kings of Judah, had given to the Lord, together with the things

he himself had given, and all the gold in the Temple store and

in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael, king of Aram; and

he went away from Jerusalem.

12:19 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all he did, are

they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of

Israel?

12:20 And his servants made a secret design and put Joash to

death at the house of Millo on the way down to Silla.

12:21 And Jozacar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son

of Shomer, his servants, came to him and put him to death; and

they put him into the earth with his fathers in the town of

David; and Amaziah his son became king in his place.

13:1 In the twenty-third year of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, king

of Judah, Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, became king over Israel in

Samaria, ruling for seventeen years.

13:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the sins of

Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he did and made Israel do; he

did not keep himself from them.

13:3 So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he

gave them up into the power of Hazael, king of Aram, and into

the power of Ben-hadad, the son of Hazael, again and again.

13:4 Then Jehoahaz made prayer to the Lord, and the Lord gave

ear to him, for he saw how cruelly Israel was crushed by the

king of Aram.

13:5 (And the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they became

free from the hands of the Aramaeans; and the children of

Israel were living in their tents as in the past.

13:6 But still they did not give up the sin of Jeroboam, which

he made Israel do, but went on with it; and there was an image

of Asherah in Samaria.)

13:7 For out of all his army, Jehoahaz had only fifty horsemen

and ten carriages and ten thousand footmen; the king of Aram

had given them up to destruction, crushing them like dust.

13:8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all he did, and

his great power, are they not recorded in the book of the

history of the kings of Israel?

13:9 And Jehoahaz went to rest with his fathers, and was put

into the earth in Samaria; and Joash his son became king in his

place.

13:10 In the thirty-seventh year of the rule of Joash, king of

Judah, Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, became king over Israel in

Samaria, ruling for sixteen years.

13:11 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning away from

the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he did and made

Israel do, but he went on with it.

13:12 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all he did, and the

force with which he went to war against Amaziah, king of Judah,

are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings

of Israel?

13:13 And Joash went to rest with his fathers and Jeroboam took

his place as king; and Joash was put into the earth in Samaria

with the kings of Israel.

13:14 Now Elisha became ill with the disease which was the cause

of his death: and Joash, king of Israel, came down to him, and

weeping over him said, My father, my father, the war-carriages

of Israel and its horsemen!

13:15 Then Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows: and he took

bow and arrows.

13:16 And he said to the king of Israel, Put your hand on the

bow: and he put his hand on it; and Elisha put his hands on the

king's hands.

13:17 Then he said; Let the window be open to the east: and he

got it open. Then Elisha said, Let the arrow go; and he let it

go. And he said, The Lord's arrow of salvation, of salvation

over Aram; for you will overcome the Aramaeans in Aphek and put

an end to them.

13:18 And he said, Take the arrows: and he took them. And he

said to the king of Israel, Send them down into the earth; and

he did so three times and no more.

13:19 Then the man of God was angry with him and said, If you

had done it five or six times, then you would have overcome

Aram completely; but now you will only overcome them three

times.

13:20 And death came to Elisha and they put his body into the

earth. Now in the spring of the year, armed bands of Moabites

frequently came, overrunning the land.

13:21 And while they were putting a dead man into the earth,

they saw a band coming; and they put the man quickly into the

place where Elisha's body was; and the dead man, on touching

Elisha's bones, came to life again, and got up on his feet.

13:22 And Israel was crushed under the power of Hazael, king of

Aram, all the days of Jehoahaz.

13:23 But the Lord was kind to them and had pity on them, caring

for them, because of his agreement with Abraham, Isaac, and

Jacob; he would not put them to destruction or send them away

from before his face till now.

13:24 Then Hazael, king of Aram, came to his end; and Ben-hadad

his son became king in his place.

13:25 And Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, took again from

Ben-hadad, the son of Hazael, the towns which he had taken from

Jehoahaz his father in war. Three times Jehoash overcame him

and got back the towns of Israel.

14:1 In the second year of Joash, son of Joahaz, king of Israel,

Amaziah, the son of Joash, became king of Judah.

14:2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king; and he

was ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's

name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem.

14:3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, though not

like David his father; he did as Joash his father had done.

14:4 But still the high places were not taken away; the people

went on making offerings and burning them in the high places.

14:5 Now when he became strong in the kingdom, straight away he

put to death those servants who had taken the life of the king

his father;

14:6 But he did not put their children to death; for the orders

of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses say, The

fathers are not to be put to death for the children, or the

children for their fathers; but a man is to be put to death for

the sin which he himself has done.

14:7 He put to the sword twelve thousand men of Edom in the

Valley of Salt, and took Sela in war, naming it Joktheel, as it

is to this day.

14:8 Then Amaziah sent representatives to Jehoash, the son of

Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us

have a meeting face to face.

14:9 And Jehoash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of

Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in

Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife: and a

beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing the thorn

under his feet.

14:10 It is true that you have overcome Edom and your heart is

uplifted; let that glory be enough for you, and keep in your

country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself,

and Judah with you, in danger of downfall?

14:11 But Amaziah gave no attention. So Jehoash, king of Israel,

went up, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, came face to face

at Beth-shemesh, which is in Judah.

14:12 And Judah was overcome before Israel, so that they went in

flight, every man to his tent.

14:13 And Jehoash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah,

the son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, prisoner at Beth-shemesh,

and came to Jerusalem, and had the wall of Jerusalem pulled

down from the doorway of Ephraim to the door in the angle, four

hundred cubits.

14:14 And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels

which were in the house of the Lord and in the store-house of

the king, together with those whose lives would be the price of

broken faith, and went back to Samaria.

14:15 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash, and his power, and

how he went to war with Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not

recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

14:16 And Jehoash went to rest with his fathers, and was put

into the earth in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and

Jeroboam his son became king in his place.

14:17 Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, went on living

for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz,

king of Israel.

14:18 And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not recorded

in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

14:19 Now they made a secret design against him in Jerusalem;

and he went in flight to Lachish, but they sent after him to

Lachish and put him to death there.

14:20 And they took his body on horseback and put it into the

earth with his fathers in Jerusalem, the town of David.

14:21 Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen

years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

14:22 He was the builder of Elath, which he got back for Judah

after the death of the king.

14:23 In the fifteenth year of the rule of Amaziah, son of

Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of

Israel, became king in Samaria, ruling for forty-one years.

14:24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning away from

the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel

do.

14:25 He got back the old limits of Israel from the way into

Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, as the Lord had said by his

servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet of Gath-hepher.

14:26 For the Lord saw how bitter was the trouble of Israel, and

that everyone was cut off, he who was shut up and he who went

free, and that Israel had no helper.

14:27 And the Lord had not said that the name of Israel was to

be taken away from the earth; but he gave them a saviour in

Jeroboam, the son of Joash.

14:28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all he did, and

his power, and how he went to war with Damascus, causing the

wrath of the Lord to be turned away from Israel, are they not

recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

14:29 And Jeroboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put

into the earth with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son

became king in his place.

15:1 In the twenty-seventh year of the rule of Jeroboam, king of

Israel, Azariah, son of Amaziah, became king of Judah.

15:2 He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he was

ruling in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother's name was

Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

15:3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his

father Amaziah had done.

15:4 But he did not take away the high places, and the people

still went on making offerings and burning them in the high

places.

15:5 And the Lord sent disease on the king and he became a

leper, and to the day of his death he was living separately in

his private house. And Jotham his son was over his house,

judging the people of the land.

15:6 Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all he did, are

they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of

Judah?

15:7 And Azariah went to rest with his fathers and was put into

the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and Jotham his

son became king in his place.

15:8 In the thirty-eighth year of Azaliah, king of Judah,

Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, was king over Israel for six

months.

15:9 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had

done, not turning away from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of

Nebat, did and made Israel do.

15:10 And Shallum, the son of Jabesh, made a secret design

against him, and, attacking him in Ibleam, put him to death and

became king in his place.

15:11 Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah are recorded in the

book of the history of the kings of Israel.

15:12 This was what the Lord had said to Jehu, Your sons to the

fourth generation will be kings of Israel. And so it came

about.

15:13 Shallum, the son of Jabesh, became king in the

thirty-ninth year of Uzziah, king of Judah; and he was ruling

in Samaria for the space of one month.

15:14 Then Menahem, the son of Gadi, went up from Tirzah and

came to Samaria, and attacking Shallum, son of Jabesh, in

Samaria, put him to death and made himself king in his place.

15:15 Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and the secret design

which he made, are recorded in the book of the history of the

kings of Israel.

15:16 Then Menahem sent destruction on Tappuah and all the

people in it, and its limits, from Tirzah, because they would

not let him come in; and he had all the women who were with

child cut open.

15:17 In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, king of Judah,

Menahem, the son of Gadi, became king over Israel, and was

ruling in Samaria for ten years.

15:18 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not keep

himself from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and

made Israel do.

15:19 In his day, Pul, the king of Assyria, came up against the

land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that

he might let him keep the kingdom.

15:20 And Menahem got the money from Israel, from all the men of

wealth, fifty silver shekels from every man, to give to the

king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria went back without

stopping in the land.

15:21 Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all he did, are

they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of

Israel?

15:22 And Menahem went to rest with his fathers; and Pekahiah

his son became king in his place.

15:23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah,

the son of Menahem, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling

for two years.

15:24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning from the

sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.

15:25 And Pekah, the son of Remaliah, his captain, made a secret

design against him, attacking him in the king's great house in

Samaria; and with him were fifty men of Gilead; and he put him

to death and became king in his place.

15:26 Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all he did, are

recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

15:27 In the fifty-second year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah,

the son of Remaliah, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling

for twenty years.

15:28 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning from the

sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.

15:29 In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser,

king of Assyria, came and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and

Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee and all the

land of Naphtali; and he took the people away to Assyria.

15:30 And Hoshea, the son of Elah, made a secret design against

Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and, attacking him, put him to

death and became king in his place, in the twentieth year of

Jotham, the son of Uzziah.

15:31 Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all he did, are

recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

15:32 In the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of

Israel, Jotham, the son of Uzziah, became king of Judah.

15:33 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he

was ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother's

name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.

15:34 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his

father Uzziah had done.

15:35 But he did not take away the high places, and the people

still went on making offerings and burning them in the high

places. He was the builder of the higher doorway of the house

of the Lord.

15:36 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all he did, are

they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of

Judah?

15:37 In those days the Lord first sent against Judah, Rezin,

the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah.

15:38 And Jotham went to rest with his fathers, and was put into

the earth in the town of David his father; and Ahaz his son

became king in his place.

16:1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah,

Ahaz, the son of Jotham, became king of Judah.

16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king; he was

ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was

right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as David his father did.

16:3 But he went in the ways of the kings of Israel, and even

made his son go through the fire, copying the disgusting ways

of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before

the children of Israel.

16:4 And he made offerings, burning them in the high places and

on the hills and under every green tree.

16:5 Then Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king

of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they made an

attack on Ahaz, shutting him in, but were not able to overcome

him.

16:6 At that time the king of Edom got Elath back for Edom, and

sent the Jews out of Elath; and the Edomites came back to Elath

where they are living to this day.

16:7 So Ahaz sent representatives to Tiglath-pileser, king of

Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son; come to my

help against the kings of Aram and Israel who have taken up

arms against me.

16:8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold which were in the house

of the Lord and in the king's store-house, and sent them as an

offering to the king of Assyria.

16:9 And the king of Assyria, in answer to his request, went up

against Damascus and took it, and took its people away as

prisoners to Kir, and put Rezin to death.

16:10 Then King Ahaz went to Damascus for a meeting with

Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria; and there he saw the altar

which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest

a copy of the altar, giving the design of it and all the

details of its structure.

16:11 And from the copy King Ahaz sent from Damascus, Urijah

made an altar and had it ready by the time King Ahaz came back

from Damascus.

16:12 And when the king came from Damascus, he saw the altar;

and he went up on it and made an offering on it.

16:13 He made his burned offering and his meal offering and his

drink offering there, draining out the blood of his

peace-offerings on the altar.

16:14 And the brass altar, which was before the Lord, he took

from the front of the house, from between his altar and the

house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar.

16:15 And King Ahaz gave orders to Urijah the priest, saying,

Make the morning burned offering and the evening meal offering

and the king's burned offering and meal offering, with the

burned offerings of all the people and their meal offerings and

drink offerings, on the great altar, and put on it all the

blood of the burned offerings and of the beasts which are

offered; but the brass altar will be for my use to get

directions from the Lord.

16:16 So Urijah the priest did everything as the king said

16:17 And King Ahaz took off the sides of the wheeled bases, and

took down the great water-vessel from off the brass oxen which

were under it and put it on a floor of stone.

16:18 *** the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria.

16:19 Now the rest of the things which Ahaz did, are they not

recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

16:20 And Ahaz went to rest with his fathers, and was put into

the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and Hezekiah

his son became king in his place.

17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hoshea, the son

of Elah, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for nine

years.

17:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, though not like the

kings of Israel before him.

17:3 Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and

Hoshea became his servant and sent him offerings.

17:4 But Hoshea's broken faith became clear to the king of

Assyria because he had sent representatives to So, king of

Egypt, and did not send his offering to the king of Assyria, as

he had done year by year: so the king of Assyria had him shut

up in prison and put in chains.

17:5 Then the king of Assyria went through all the land and came

up to Samaria, shutting it in with his forces for three years.

17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took

Samaria, and took Israel away to Assyria, placing them in Halah

and in Habor on the river Gozan, and in the towns of the Medes.

17:7 And the wrath of the Lord came on Israel because they had

done evil against the Lord their God, who took them out of the

land of Egypt from under the yoke of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,

and had become worshippers of other gods,

17:8 Living by the rules of the nations whom the Lord had sent

out from before the children of Israel.

17:9 And the children of Israel did secretly against the Lord

their God things which were not right, building high places for

themselves in all their towns, from the tower of the watchmen

to the walled town.

17:10 They put up pillars of stone and wood on every high hill

and under every green tree:

17:11 Burning their offerings in all the high places, as those

nations did whom the Lord sent away from before them; they did

evil things, moving the Lord to wrath;

17:12 And they made themselves servants of disgusting things,

though the Lord had said, You are not to do this.

17:13 And he gave witness to Israel and Judah, by every prophet

and seer, saying, Come back from your evil ways, and do my

orders and keep my rules, and be guided by the law which I gave

to your fathers and sent to you by my servants the prophets.

17:14 And they did not give ear, but became stiff-necked, like

their fathers who had no faith in the Lord their God.

17:15 And they went against his rules, and the agreement which

he made with their fathers, and his laws which he gave them;

they gave themselves up to things without sense or value, and

became foolish like the nations round them, of whom the Lord

had said, Do not as they do.

17:16 And turning their backs on all the orders which the Lord

had given them, they made for themselves images of metal, and

the image of Asherah, worshipping all the stars of heaven and

becoming servants to Baal.

17:17 And they made their sons and their daughters go through

the fire, and they made use of secret arts and unnatural

powers, and gave themselves up to doing evil in the eyes of the

Lord, till he was moved to wrath.

17:18 So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and his face was

turned away from them: only the tribe of Judah kept its place.

17:19 (But even Judah did not keep the orders of the Lord their

God, but were guided by the rules which Israel had made.

17:20 So the Lord would have nothing to do with all the

offspring of Israel, and sent trouble on them, and gave them up

into the hands of their attackers, till he had sent them away

from before his face.)

17:21 For Israel was broken off from the family of David, and

they made Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, king, who, driving them

away from the laws of the Lord, made them do a great sin.

17:22 And the children of Israel went on with all the sins which

Jeroboam did; they did not keep themselves from them;

17:23 Till the Lord put Israel away from before his face, as he

had said by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was taken

away from their land to Assyria, to this day.

17:24 Then the king of Assyria took men from Babylon and from

Cuthah and Avva and Hamath and Sepharvaim, and put them in the

towns of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; so they

got Samaria for their heritage, living in its towns.

17:25 Now when first they were living there they did not give

worship to the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them, causing

the death of some of them.

17:26 So they said to the king of Assyria, The nations whom you

have taken as prisoners and put in the towns of Samaria, have

no knowledge of the way of the god of the land: so he has sent

lions among them, causing their death, because they have no

knowledge of his way.

17:27 Then the king of Assyria gave orders, saying, Send there

one of the priests whom you took away, and let him be living

there and teaching the people the way of the god of the land.

17:28 So one of the priests whom they had taken away as a

prisoner from Samaria came back, and, living in Beth-el, became

their teacher in the worship of the Lord.

17:29 And every nation made gods for themselves, and put them in

the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made,

every nation in the towns where they were living.

17:30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of

Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

17:31 The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites

gave their children to be burned in the fire to Adrammelech and

Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

17:32 So they went on worshipping the Lord, and made for

themselves, from among all the people, priests for the high

places, to make offerings for them in the houses of the high

places.

17:33 They gave worship to the Lord, but they gave honour to

their gods like the nations did from whom they had been taken

as prisoners.

17:34 So to this day they go on in their old ways, not

worshipping the Lord or keeping his orders or his ways or the

law and the rule which the Lord gave to the children of Jacob,

to whom he gave the name Israel;

17:35 And the Lord made an agreement with them and gave them

orders, saying, You are to have no other gods; you are not to

give worship to them or be their servants or make them

offerings:

17:36 But the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt with

his great power and his outstretched arm, he is your God, to

whom you are to give worship and make offerings:

17:37 And the rules and the orders and the law which he put in

writing for you, you are to keep and do for ever; you are to

have no other gods.

17:38 And you are to keep in memory the agreement which I have

made with you; and you are to have no other gods.

17:39 And you are to give worship to the Lord your God; for it

is he who will give you salvation from the hands of all who are

against you.

17:40 But they gave no attention, but went on in their old way.

17:41 So these nations, worshipping the Lord, still were

servants to the images they had made; their children and their

children's children did the same; as their fathers did, so do

they, to this day.

18:1 Now in the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of

Israel, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, became king of Judah.

18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, ruling in

Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Abi, the

daughter of Zechariah.

18:3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as David his

father had done.

18:4 He had the high places taken away, and the stone pillars

broken to bits, and the Asherah cut down; and the brass snake

which Moses had made was crushed to powder at his order,

because in those days the children of Israel had offerings

burned before it, and he gave it the name Nehushtan.

18:5 He had faith in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that there

was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who were

before him.

18:6 For his heart was fixed on the Lord, not turning from his

ways, and he did his orders which the Lord gave to Moses.

18:7 And the Lord was with him; he did well in all his

undertakings: and he took up arms against the king of Assyria

and was his servant no longer.

18:8 He overcame the Philistines as far as Gaza and its limits,

from the tower of the watchman to the walled town.

18:9 Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the

seventh year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel,

Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria, shutting

it in with his armies.

18:10 And at the end of three years they took it; in the sixth

year of Hezekiah's rule, which was the ninth year of Hoshea,

king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

18:11 And the king of Assyria took Israel away as prisoners into

Assyria, placing them in Halah and in Habor on the river Gozan,

and in the towns of the Medes;

18:12 Because they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord

their God, but went against his agreement, even against

everything ordered by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and they

did not give ear to it or do it.

18:13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib,

king of Assyria, came up against all the walled towns of Judah

and took them.

18:14 And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to Lachish, to the king

of Assyria, saying, I have done wrong; give up attacking me,

and whatever you put on me I will undergo. And the payment he

was to make was fixed by the king of Assyria at three hundred

talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

18:15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the house of the

Lord, and in the king's store-house.

18:16 And at that time Hezekiah had the gold from the doors of

the Lord's house, and from the door-pillars plated by him, cut

off and gave it to the king of Assyria.

18:17 Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan and the Rab-saris

and the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah,

with a strong force. And they went up and came to Jerusalem,

and took up their position by the stream of the higher pool, by

the highway of the washerman's field.

18:18 And they sent for the king, and Eliakim, the son of

Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and

Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.

18:19 And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah,

These are the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: In

what are you placing your hope?

18:20 You say you have a design, and strength for war, but these

are only words. Now to whom are you looking for support, that

you have gone against my authority?

18:21 See, now, you are basing your hope on that broken rod of

Egypt, which will go through a man's hand if he makes use of it

for a support; for so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who put

their faith in him.

18:22 And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God: is

it not he, whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken

away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem that worship may only be

given before this altar in Jerusalem?

18:23 And now, take a chance with my master, the king of

Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are

able to put horsemen on them.

18:24 How then may you put to shame the least of my master's

servants? and you have put your hope in Egypt for war-carriages

and horsemen:

18:25 And have I now come up to send destruction on this place

without the Lord's authority? It was the Lord himself who said

to me, Go up against this land and make it waste.

18:26 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said

to the Rab-shakeh, Will you kindly make use of the Aramaean

language in talking to your servants, for we are used to it,

and do not make use of the Jews' language in the hearing of the

people on the wall.

18:27 But the Rab-shakeh said to them, Is it to your master or

to you that my master has sent me to say these words? has he

not sent me to the men seated on the wall? for they are the

people who will be short of food with you when the town is shut

in.

18:28 Then the Rab-shakeh got up and said with a loud voice in

the Jews' language, Give ear to the words of the great king,

the king of Assyria;

18:29 This is what the king says: Do not be tricked by Hezekiah,

for there is no salvation for you in him.

18:30 And do not let Hezekiah make you put your faith in the

Lord, saying, The Lord will certainly keep us safe, and this

town will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.

18:31 Do not give ear to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of

Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me; and

everyone will be free to take the fruit of his vine and of his

fig-tree, and the water of his spring;

18:32 Till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a land

of grain and wine, a land of bread and vine-gardens, a land of

oil-giving olives and of honey, so that life and not death may

be your fate. Give no attention to Hezekiah when he says to

you, The Lord will keep us safe.

18:33 Has any one of the gods of the nations kept his land from

falling into the hands of the king of Assyria?

18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are the

gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivvah? have they kept Samaria

out of my hands?

18:35 Who among all the gods of these countries have kept their

country from falling into my hands, to give cause for the

thought that the Lord will keep Jerusalem from falling into my

hands?

18:36 But the people kept quiet and gave him no answer: for the

king's order was, Give him no answer.

18:37 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house,

and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the

recorder, came to Hezekiah, with their clothing parted as a

sign of grief, and gave him an account of what the Rab-shakeh

had said.

19:1 And on hearing it, King Hezekiah took off his robe, and put

on haircloth, and went into the house of the Lord.

19:2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna the

scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah

the prophet, the son of Amoz.

19:3 And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of

trouble and punishment and shame; for the children are ready to

come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth to them.

19:4 It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the words

of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, sent

to say evil things against the living God, and will make his

words come to nothing: so then make your prayer for the rest of

the people.

19:5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

19:6 And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to

your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words which

the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me in

your hearing.

19:7 See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come

to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will

have him put to death by the sword.

19:8 So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the king

of Assyria was making war against Libnah, for it had come to

his ears that he had gone away from Lachish.

19:9 And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia,

had made an attack on him, he sent representatives to Hezekiah

again, saying,

19:10 This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah:

Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope,

saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king

of Assyria.

19:11 No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the kings

of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the curse;

and will you be kept safe?

19:12 Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my

fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the

children of Eden who were in Telassar?

19:13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and

the king of the town of Sepharvaim, of Hena and of Ivvah?

19:14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those who

had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the

house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord.

19:15 And Hezekiah made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord,

the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are

the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven

and earth.

19:16 Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord, and let your eyes be

open, O Lord, and see; take note of all the words of

Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living

God.

19:17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste the

nations and their lands,

19:18 And have given their gods to the fire; for they were no

gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have

given them to destruction.

19:19 But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hands,

so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that

you and only you, O Lord, are God.

19:20 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying,

The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer which you have

made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my

ears.

19:21 This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the

eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed

at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you.

19:22 Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? against

whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted up? even

against the Holy One of Israel.

19:23 You have sent your servants with evil words against the

Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up

to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon;

its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its

woods; I will come up into his highest places, into his thick

woods.

19:24 I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with

my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry.

19:25 Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before,

purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to my

design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into masses

of broken walls.

19:26 This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken

and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field and the

green plant, like grass on the house-tops.

19:27 But I have knowledge of your getting up and your resting,

of your going out and your coming in.

19:28 Because your wrath against me and your words of pride have

come up to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord

in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way you came.

19:29 And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food

this year from what comes up of itself; and in the second year

from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will

put in your seed and get in the grain and make vine-gardens and

take of their fruit.

19:30 And those of Judah who are still living will again take

root in the earth and give fruit.

19:31 For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go

out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion:

by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done.

19:32 For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria, He

will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it; he

will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork

against it;

19:33 By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get

into this town, says the Lord.

19:34 For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the

honour of my servant David.

19:35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and put to

death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five

thousand men; and when the people got up early in the morning,

there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies.

19:36 So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at

Nineveh.

19:37 And it came about, when he was worshipping in the house of

Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him

to death with the sword; and they went in flight into the land

of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son became king in his place.

20:1 In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death. And Isaiah

the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, The

Lord says, Put your house in order, for your death is near.

20:2 Then, turning his face to the wall, he made his prayer to

the Lord, saying,

20:3 O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all

my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah

gave way to bitter weeping.

20:4 Now before Isaiah had gone out of the middle of the town,

the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

20:5 Go back and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, The

Lord, the God of David your father, says, Your prayer has come

to my ears, and I have seen your weeping; see, I will make you

well: on the third day you will go up to the house of the Lord.

20:6 I will give you fifteen more years of life; and I will keep

you and this town safe from the hands of the king of Assyria; I

will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of

my servant David.

20:7 Then Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. So they took it and

put it on his wound, and he got better.

20:8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is to be the sign that

the Lord will make me well, and that I will go up to the house

of the Lord on the third day?

20:9 And Isaiah said, This is the sign the Lord will give you,

that he will do what he has said; will the shade go forward ten

degrees or back?

20:10 And Hezekiah said in answer, It is a simple thing for the

shade to go forward; but let it go back ten degrees.

20:11 Then Isaiah the prophet made prayer to the Lord, and he

made the shade go back ten degrees from its position on the

steps of Ahaz.

20:12 At that time, Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king

of Babylon, sent letters with an offering to Hezekiah, because

he had news that Hezekiah had been ill.

20:13 And Hezekiah was glad at their coming and let them see all

his store of wealth, the silver and the gold and the spices and

the oil of great price, and the house of his arms, and

everything there was in his stores; there was nothing in all

his house or his kingdom which Hezekiah did not let them see.

20:14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to

him, What did these men say and where did they come from? And

Hezekiah said, They came from a far country, even from Babylon.

20:15 And he said, What have they seen in your house? And

Hezekiah said in answer, They saw everything in my house: there

is nothing among my stores which I did not let them see.

20:16 And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Give ear to the word of the

Lord.

20:17 Truly, days are coming when everything in your house, and

whatever your fathers have put in store till this day, will be

taken away to Babylon: all will be gone, says the Lord.

20:18 And your sons, the offspring of your body, they will take

away to be unsexed servants in the house of the king of

Babylon.

20:19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord

which you have said. Then he said, ... if in my time there is

peace and righteousness?

20:20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his power, and

how he made the pool and the stream, to take water into the

town, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the

kings of Judah?

20:21 And Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers; and Manasseh

his son became king in his place.

21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king; for

fifty-five years he was ruling in Jerusalem; and his mother's

name was Hephzi-bah.

21:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the disgusting

ways of those nations whom the Lord had sent out before the

children of Israel.

21:3 He put up again the high places which had been pulled down

by Hezekiah his father; he made altars for Baal, and an

Asherah, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done; he was a worshipper

and servant of all the stars of heaven.

21:4 And he put up altars in the house of the Lord, of which the

Lord had said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.

21:5 And he put up altars for all the stars of heaven in the two

outer squares of the house of the Lord.

21:6 And he made his son go through the fire, and made use of

secret arts and signs for reading the future; he gave positions

to those who had control of spirits and to wonder-workers; he

did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath.

21:7 He put the image of Asherah which he had made in the house

of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, In

this house, and in Jerusalem, the town which I have made mine

out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever.

21:8 And never again will I send the feet of Israel wandering

from the land which I gave to their fathers; if only they will

take care to do all my orders, and keep all the law which my

servant Moses gave them.

21:9 But they did not give ear; and Manasseh made them do more

evil than those nations did, whom the Lord gave up to

destruction before the children of Israel.

21:10 And the Lord said, by his servants the prophets,

21:11 Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has done these disgusting

things, doing more evil than all the Amorites before him, and

making Judah do evil with his false gods,

21:12 For this cause, says the Lord, the God of Israel, I will

send such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of all to

whom the news comes will be burning.

21:13 And over Jerusalem will be stretched the line of Samaria

and the weight of Ahab; Jerusalem will be washed clean as a

plate is washed, and turned over on its face.

21:14 And I will put away from me the rest of my heritage, and

give them up into the hands of their haters, who will take

their property and their goods for themselves;

21:15 Because they have done evil in my eyes, moving me to

wrath, from the day when their fathers came out of Egypt till

this day.

21:16 More than this, Manasseh took the lives of upright men,

till Jerusalem from one end to the other was full of blood; in

addition to his sin in making Judah do evil in the eyes of the

Lord.

21:17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all he did, and

his sins, are they not recorded in the book of the history of

the kings of Judah?

21:18 So Manasseh went to rest with his fathers, and was put

into the earth in the garden of his house, in the garden of

Uzza; and Amon his son became king in his place.

21:19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, ruling

in Jerusalem for two years; his mother's name was Meshullemeth,

the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

21:20 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his

father had done.

21:21 He went in all the ways of his father, being a servant and

worshipper of the false gods to which his father had been a

servant;

21:22 Turning away from the Lord, the God of his fathers, and

not walking in his ways.

21:23 And the servants of Amon made a secret design against him,

and put the king to death in his house.

21:24 But the people of the land put to death all those who had

taken part in the design against the king, and made Josiah his

son king in his place.

21:25 Now the rest of the acts which Amon did, are they not

recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

21:26 He was put in his last resting-place in the garden of

Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in his place.

22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king; and he was

ruling in Jerusalem for thirty-one years; his mother's name was

Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

22:2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, walking in

the ways of David his father, without turning to the right hand

or to the left.

22:3 Now in the eighteenth year after he became king, Josiah

sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the

scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying to him,

22:4 Go up to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and let him give out

the money which is taken into the house of the Lord, which the

keepers of the door have got together from the people;

22:5 And let it be given to the overseers of the work of the

Lord's house, to give to the workmen who are making good what

was damaged in the house of the Lord;

22:6 To the woodworkers and the builders and the stone-cutters;

and for getting wood and cut stones for the building up of the

house.

22:7 They did not have to give any account of the money which

was handed to them, for they made use of it with good faith.

22:8 Then Hilkiah, the chief priest, said to Shaphan the scribe,

I have made discovery of the book of the law in the house of

the Lord. So Hilkiah gave it to Shaphan;

22:9 Then, after reading it, Shaphan the scribe went in to the

king and gave him an account of what had been done, saying,

Your servants have given out the money which was in the house,

and have given it to the overseers of the work of the house of

the Lord.

22:10 Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, Hilkiah the

priest has given me a book; and he was reading it before the

king.

22:11 And the king, hearing the words of the book of the law,

took his robe in his hands, violently parting it as a sign of

his grief;

22:12 And he gave orders to Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, the

son of Shaphan, and Achbor, the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the

scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

22:13 Go and get directions from the Lord for me and for the

people and for all Judah, about the words of this book which

has come to light; for great is the wrath of the Lord which is

burning against us, because our fathers have not given ear to

the words of this book, to do all the things which are recorded

in it.

22:14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan

and Asaiah, went to Huldah the woman prophet, the wife of

Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the

robes, (now she was living in Jerusalem, in the second part of

the town;) and they had talk with her.

22:15 And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, says,

Say to the man who sent you to me,

22:16 These are the words of the Lord: See, I will send evil on

this place and on its people, even everything which the king of

Judah has been reading in the book;

22:17 Because they have given me up, burning offerings to other

gods and moving me to wrath by all the work of their hands; so

my wrath will be on fire against this place, and will not be

put out.

22:18 But to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions

from the Lord, say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel,

has said: As to the words which have come to your ears,

22:19 Because your heart was soft, and you made yourself low

before me, when you had word of what I said against this place

and its people, that they would become a waste and a curse, and

you gave signs of grief, weeping before me: truly, I have given

ear to you, says the Lord.

22:20 For this cause I will let you go to your fathers and be

put in your last resting-place in peace, and your eyes will not

see all the evil which I will send on this place. So they took

this news back to the king.

23:1 Then the king sent and got together all the responsible men

of Judah and of Jerusalem.

23:2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the

men of Judah and all the people of Jerusalem, and the priests

and the prophets and all the people, small and great; and they

were present at his reading of the book of the law which had

come to light in the house of the Lord.

23:3 And the king took his place by the pillar, and made an

agreement before the Lord, to go in the way of the Lord, and

keep his orders and his decisions and his rules with all his

heart and all his soul, and to keep the words of the agreement

recorded in the book; and all the people gave their word to

keep the agreement.

23:4 Then the king gave orders to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and

to the priests of the second order, and to the keepers of the

door, to take out of the house of the Lord all the vessels made

for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the stars of heaven;

and he had them burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of

Kidron, and took the dust of them to Beth-el.

23:5 And he put an end to the false priests, who had been put in

their positions by the kings of Judah to see to the burning of

offerings in the high places in the towns of Judah and the

outskirts of Jerusalem, and all those who made offerings to

Baal and to the sun and the moon and the twelve signs and all

the stars of heaven.

23:6 And he took the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside

Jerusalem to the stream Kidron, burning it by the stream and

crushing it to dust, and he put the dust on the place where the

bodies of the common people were put to rest.

23:7 And he had the houses pulled down of those who were used

for sex purposes in the house of the Lord, where women were

making robes for the Asherah.

23:8 And he made all the priests from the towns of Judah come

into Jerusalem, and he made unclean the high places where the

priests had been burning offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba;

and he had the high places of the evil spirits pulled down

which were by the doorway of Joshua, the ruler of the town, on

the left side of the way into the town.

23:9 Still the priests of the high places never came up to the

altar of the Lord in Jerusalem; but they took their food of

unleavened bread among their brothers.

23:10 And Topheth, in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, he made

unclean, so that no man might make his son or his daughter go

through the fire to Molech.

23:11 And he took away the horses which the kings of Judah had

given to the sun, at the way into the house of the Lord, by the

room of Nathan-melech, the unsexed servant, which was in the

outer part of the building, and the carriages of the sun he put

on fire.

23:12 And the altars on the roof of the high room of Ahaz, which

the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had

made in the two outer squares of the house of the Lord, were

pulled down and crushed to bits, and the dust of them was put

into the stream Kidron.

23:13 And the high places before Jerusalem, on the south side of

the mountain of destruction, which Solomon, king of Israel, had

made for Ashtoreth, the disgusting god of the Zidonians, and

for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, and for Milcom, the

disgusting god of the children of Ammon, the king made unclean.

23:14 The stone pillars were broken to bits and the wood pillars

cut down, and the places where they had been were made full of

the bones of the dead.

23:15 And the altar at Beth-el, and the high place put up by

Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel do evil, that altar

and that high place were pulled down; and the high place was

burned and crushed to dust and the Asherah was burned.

23:16 Then Josiah, turning round, saw on the mountain the places

of the dead, and he sent and had the bones taken out of their

places and burned on the altar, so making it unclean, as the

Lord had said by the man of God when Jeroboam was in his place

by the altar on that feast-day. And he, turning his eyes to the

resting-place of the man of God who had given word of these

things, said:

23:17 What is that headstone I see over there? And the men of

the town said to him, It is the resting-place of the man of God

who came from Judah and gave word of all these things which you

have done to the altar of Beth-el.

23:18 So he said, Let him be; let not his bones be moved. So

they let his bones be with the bones of the prophet who came

from Samaria.

23:19 Then Josiah took away all the houses of the high places in

the towns of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had put up,

moving the Lord to wrath, and he did with them as he had done

in Beth-el.

23:20 And all the priests of the high places there he put to

death on the altars, burning the bones of the dead on them; and

then he went back to Jerusalem.

23:21 And the king gave orders to all the people, saying, Keep

the Passover to the Lord your God, as it says in this book of

the law.

23:22 Truly, such a Passover had not been kept in all the days

of the judges of Israel or of the kings of Israel or the kings

of Judah;

23:23 In the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this

Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.

23:24 And all those who had control of spirits, and the

wonder-workers, and the images, and the false gods, and all the

disgusting things which were seen in the land of Judah and in

Jerusalem, Josiah put away, so that he might give effect to the

words of the agreement recorded in the book which Hilkiah the

priest made discovery of in the house of the Lord.

23:25 Never before had there been a king like him, turning to

the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all

his power, as the law of Moses says; and after him there was no

king like him.

23:26 But still the heat of the Lord's wrath was not turned back

from Judah, because of all Manasseh had done in moving him to

wrath.

23:27 And the Lord said, I will send Judah away from before my

face, as I have sent Israel; I will have nothing more to do

with this town, which I had made mine, even Jerusalem, and the

holy house of which I said, My name will be there.

23:28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all he did, are

they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of

Judah?

23:29 In his days, Pharaoh-necoh, king of Egypt, sent his armies

against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and King

Josiah went out against him; and he put him to death at

Megiddo, when he had seen him.

23:30 And his servants took his body in a carriage from Megiddo

to Jerusalem, and put him into the earth there. And the people

of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and put the holy

oil on him and made him king in place of his father.

23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king,

ruling in Jerusalem for three months; his mother's name was

Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

23:32 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his fathers had

done.

23:33 And Pharaoh-necoh put him in chains at Riblah in the land

of Hamath, so that he might not be king in Jerusalem; and took

from the land a tax of a hundred talents of silver and a talent

of gold.

23:34 Then Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king

in place of Josiah his father, changing his name to Jehoiakim;

but Jehoahaz he took away to Egypt, where he was till his

death.

23:35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, taxing

the land by his orders to get the money; the people of the land

had to give silver and gold, everyone as he was taxed, to make

the payment to Pharaoh-necoh.

23:36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king;

he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years; his mother's name

was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

23:37 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord as his fathers had

done.

24:1 In his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up and

Jehoiakim was his servant for three years; then he took up arms

against him.

24:2 And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldaeans and

of the Edomites and of the Moabites and of the children of

Ammon; sending them against Judah for its destruction, as he

had said by his servants the prophets.

24:3 Only by the word of the Lord did this fate come on Judah,

to take them away from before his face; because of the sins of

Manasseh and all the evil he did;

24:4 And because of the death of those who had done no wrong,

for he made Jerusalem full of the blood of the upright; and the

Lord had no forgiveness for it.

24:5 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all he did, are

they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of

Judah?

24:6 So Jehoiakim went to rest with his fathers; and Jehoiachin

his son became king in his place.

24:7 And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land again,

for the king of Babylon had taken all his country, from the

stream of Egypt to the river Euphrates.

24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, he

was ruling in Jerusalem for three months, and his mother's name

was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

24:9 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had

done.

24:10 At that time the armies of Nebuchadnezzar came up to

Jerusalem and the town was shut in on every side.

24:11 And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came there, while his

servants were shutting in the town;

24:12 Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, went out to the king of

Babylon, with his mother and his servants and his chiefs and

his unsexed servants; and in the eighth year of his rule the

king of Babylon took him.

24:13 And he took away all the stored wealth of the Lord's

house, and the goods from the king's store-house, cutting up

all the gold vessels which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in

the house of the Lord, as the Lord had said.

24:14 And he took away all the people of Jerusalem and all the

chiefs and all the men of war, ten thousand prisoners; and all

the expert workmen and the metal-workers; only the poorest sort

of the people of the land were not taken away.

24:15 He took Jehoiachin a prisoner to Babylon, with his mother

and his wives and his unsexed servants and the great men of the

land; he took them all as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon.

24:16 And all the men of war, seven thousand of them, and a

thousand expert workmen and metal-workers, all of them strong

and able to take up arms, the king of Babylon took away as

prisoners into Babylon.

24:17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his father's

brother, king in place of Jehoiachin, changing his name to

Zedekiah.

24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and

he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years; his mother's name

was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

24:19 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Jehoiakim had

done.

24:20 And because of the wrath of the Lord, this came about in

Jerusalem and Judah, till he had sent them all away from before

him: and Zedekiah took up arms against the king of Babylon.

25:1 Now in the ninth year of his rule, on the tenth day of the

tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came against

Jerusalem with all his army and took up his position before it,

building earthworks all round the town.

25:2 And the town was shut in by their forces till the eleventh

year of King Zedekiah.

25:3 Now on the ninth day of the fourth month, the store of food

in the town was almost gone, so that there was no food for the

people of the land.

25:4 So an opening was made in the wall of the town, and all the

men of war went in flight by night through the doorway between

the two walls which was by the king's garden; (now the

Chaldaeans were stationed round the town:) and the king went by

the way of the Arabah.

25:5 But the Chaldaean army went after the king, and overtook

him in the lowlands of Jericho, and all his army went in flight

from him in every direction.

25:6 And they made the king a prisoner and took him up to the

king of Babylon at Riblah to be judged.

25:7 And they put the sons of Zedekiah to death before his eyes,

and then they put out his eyes, and chaining him with iron

bands, took him to Babylon.

25:8 Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, in

the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,

Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, a servant of the

king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem;

25:9 And he had the house of the Lord and the king's house and

all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned

with fire;

25:10 And the walls round Jerusalem were broken down by the

Chaldaean army which was with the captain.

25:11 And the rest of the people who were still in the town, and

all those who had given themselves up to the king of Babylon,

and all the rest of the workmen, Nebuzaradan, the captain of

the armed men, took away as prisoners;

25:12 But he let the poorest of the land go on living there, to

take care of the vines and the fields.

25:13 And the brass pillars in the house of the Lord, and the

wheeled bases, and the great brass water-vessel in the house of

the Lord, were broken up by the Chaldaeans, who took the brass

to Babylon.

25:14 And the pots and the spades and the scissors for the

lights and the spoons, and all the brass vessels used in the

Lord's house, they took away.

25:15 And the fire-trays and the basins; the gold of the gold

vessels and the silver of the silver vessels, were all taken

away by the captain of the armed men.

25:16 The two pillars, the great water-vessel and the wheeled

bases, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord: the

brass of all these vessels was without weight.

25:17 One of the pillars was eighteen cubits high, with a crown

of brass on it; the crown was three cubits high, circled with a

network and apples all of brass; and the second pillar had the

same.

25:18 And the captain of the armed men took Seraiah, the chief

priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three

door-keepers;

25:19 And from the town he took the unsexed servant who was over

the men of war, and five of the king's near friends who were in

the town, and the scribe of the captain of the army, who was

responsible for getting the people of the land together in

military order, and sixty men of the people of the land who

were in the town.

25:20 These Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took with

him to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

25:21 And the king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the

land of Hamath. So Judah was taken away prisoner from his land.

25:22 As for the people who were still living in the land of

Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take away,

he made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler

over them.

25:23 Now the captains of the armed forces, hearing that the

king of Babylon had made Gedaliah ruler, came with their men to

Gedaliah at Mizpah; Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan,

the son of Kareah, and Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth the

Netophathite, and Jaazaniah, the son of the Maacathite, came

with all their men.

25:24 Then Gedaliah gave his oath to them and their men, saying,

Have no fear because of the servants of the Chaldaeans; go on

living in the land under the rule of the king of Babylon, and

all will be well.

25:25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah,

the son of Elishama, of the king's seed, came with ten men and

made an attack on Gedaliah, causing his death and the death of

the Jews and the Chaldaeans who were with him at Mizpah.

25:26 Then all the people, small and great, and the captains of

the forces, got up and went away to Egypt, for fear of the

Chaldaeans.

25:27 And in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of

Judah, had been taken prisoner, in the twelfth month, on the

twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of

Babylon, in the first year of his rule, took Jehoiachin, king

of Judah, out of prison;

25:28 And said kind words to him, and put his seat higher than

the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

25:29 And his prison clothing was changed, and he was a guest at

the king's table every day for the rest of his life.

25:30 And for his food, the king gave him a regular amount every

day for the rest of his life.